口译练习打卡 Day 8：Bicycle Sharing

Bicycle Sharing: The Return of Pedal Power

High-tech Rental Schemes Are Trying to Make Cycling Cool Again

A man pedals a brand-new, orange and silver bicycle to his office door. He dismounts in the middle of the pavement, flicks down the kickstand and disappears inside. A woman approaches and waves her smartphone over a QR code near the rear mudguard. The lock snaps open and off she rides. These days, China’s once bicycle-clogged streets are choked with cars. But some urbanites are getting back on two (motorless) wheels, lured by the ease of using shared “dockless” bikes controlled by high-tech gadgetry.

For years, bike-sharing schemes have been common in big cities around the world, including in China. Examples include Paris’s Vélib and London’s Santander Cycles (“Boris bikes”). But these require customers to return the bicycles to docking stations. In China, a more user-friendly approach is spreading rapidly. It involves bikes that can be paid for using a smartphone and left anywhere. GPS tracking enables them to be located with a mobile app. A ride typically costs only one yuan ($0.15) on a sleek-framed bike in an eye-catching colour.

The first such service was launched in June 2015 by a startup called Ofo. The company now has around 2.5m yellow-framed bikes in more than 50 cities in China. Its main rival, Mobike, which started up only a year ago, says it has “several million” of its orange-wheeled bikes spread across a similar area. Bluegogo has half a million bikes in six Chinese cities. It plans to add a new city every two weeks.

Several other companies are piling in, as are investors who believe the firms have global potential. Bluegogo was the first to launch overseas, in San Francisco in February. Ofo has recently started services in Singapore and San Diego, California. It was due to launch another one in Cambridge, England, as The Economist went to press. Mobike, too, is operating in Singapore and is eyeing other markets.

The dockless system is prone to abuse. Some riders hide the bikes in or near their homes to prevent others from using them. Another trick involves photographing a bike’s QR code and then scratching it off to stop others from scanning it. With the stored image, the rider can then monopolise the machine. But customers caught misbehaving can have points deducted from their accounts, making it more expensive for them to rent the bikes.

A bigger problem for the new firms is persuading people to use bikes instead of cars. Thirty years ago, 63% of Beijingers pedalled to work. Now, only 12% do. Many people think that cycling is only for the poor. A dating-show contestant famously quipped in 2010 that she would “rather cry in a BMW than smile on a bike.”

Cycling is also dangerous. About 40% of road accidents involve bicycles, according to a report in 2013. (Many bike lanes have been eliminated to make room for cars.) Some city authorities accuse the bike-sharing firms of causing congestion. This month, the southern city of Shenzhen ordered limits on the number of shared bikes. Other cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, are considering similar measures.

But Chinese leaders like the services – they represent the kind of green innovation that China says it wants. In January, the prime minister, Li Keqiang, told Mobike’s co-founder that her business model was “a revolution”. Not, presumably, the kind that Mao led, but one that would have made the chairman feel at home with its profusion of two-wheelers.

打卡任务清单：

必做的标配打卡任务，可提高英语听力、提高翻译能力；

可选的高配打卡任务，可练习口译笔记、提高口译能力。

标配打卡任务清单：

1 集中注意力仔细听一遍英文音频，有意识地抓句子主干、概括大意；

2 看视频/听音频进行跟读影子练习；

3 再听一遍音频，边听边做口译笔记；

4 对照文本记下文中没听懂和没看懂的术语（通过在线搜索，积累专业术语储备）。

5 选一段你认为代表整个文本核心内容的句子进行笔译练习，以双语对照的形式贴在评论区。

高配打卡任务清单：

1 集中注意力仔细听一遍英文音频，基础好的可以直接边听边练习记笔记；

2 看视频/听音频进行跟读影子练习；

3 再听一遍做口译笔记或补充之前的笔记，可根据具体情况适当停顿，希望比第一遍多抓住信息点；

4 打开音频或视频，对照文本进行实时视译，之后记下文中没听懂和没看懂的术语，通过在线搜索，积累专业术语储备。

5 选一段你认为代表整个文本核心内容的句子进行笔译练习，以双语对照的形式贴在评论区。想练习交传和同传的小伙伴可以自己录音，自己听后评估或找partner反馈。

如果完成打卡任务，请在评论区，朋友圈评论区或文字发布区写下完成清单数字并附上一段话的双语对照译文。

延伸阅读：

口译练习打卡系列回顾，可以随时开启你的打卡练习之旅~

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