「经济学人」评“头腾大战”——抖音和微信的较量
Trill-seeker
A Chinese music-video app is making WeChat sweat
Tik Tok has become the world’s most downloaded iPhone app, barring games
○trill 可作动词也可作名词，表示“发出抖动的声音(如字母 r 的音)”，或者“颤音”，也可以指鸟叫声“啼啭，唧唧啾啾”。而“seeker”表示“寻找者；追求者；探求者”，如“求职者 job seeker”，这里的trill-seeker想表达的是热衷于「抖音」这个应用的人们。
○make someone sweat: sweat 汗水、流汗，这里引申为“让某人焦急、烦恼”。举个🌰 It seemed that the authorities had delayed the news just to make us sweat. 当局推迟发布新闻似乎就是要让我们着急。
○barring 表示“除非，除了…以外”，unless something happens，举个🌰 Barring a miracle, he won't walk again. 除非出现奇迹，他是不可能再行走了。
○Tik Tok是抖音国际版的英文名，如今在iPhone应用商店里已经是除了游戏之外，下载量最高的一款应用了。
○music-video app 音乐视频App
○short-video app 短视频App
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A PUBLIC spat between two warring and wildly popular Chinese apps has had the feel of a teenage dance-off.
○spat在文中作为名词，表示“口角，小争吵；争执”
○warring意思是“交战的，敌对的”，举个🌰 交战的各方 warring factions/parties
○dance-off的英文解释为：A competition, or a round in a competition, in which a number of dancers compete against each other until a winner is declared. 可以理解为“斗舞”或者“尬舞”，想要表达的意思应该是微信和抖音两大巨头之间的“交战”让人感觉像是小孩子间在玩闹“斗舞”一样。
“Sorry, Douyin Fans”, ran an article from the short-video app on its WeChat account, in which it accused the mobile-messaging service of disabling links to Douyin's most popular videos.
○相关背景
5月18日，抖音发布的一个H5活动“第一届文物戏精大赛”在微信朋友圈被广泛刷屏，不久后便无法打开。抖音方面发布声明（关于博物馆H5两次被微信封杀的情况说明）称遭微信封杀。微信方面称，因其“存在诱导分享行为”，故平台对其进行了相应处理。随后，抖音再次发布声明：抖音的朋友们，对不起。
○run [熟词僻义] 在文中“run an article”的意思是“发表；刊登；播放”，举个🌰 The company is running a series of advertisements in national newspapers. 公司正在全国性报纸上刊登一系列广告。
○disable links 封杀/封禁链接
“All hail Douyin the drama queen,” retorted Tencent, WeChat's parent, which said it had acted because the content was “inappropriate”.
○戏精怎么说？经济学人告诉你“drama queen”：表示的是a person who tends to react to every situation in an overdramatic or exaggerated manner 作秀行家；小题大做的人，反应激烈夸张的人，举个🌰 You're such a drama queen! It's no big deal. 你太小题大做了！这不是什么大不了的事情。
○Wechat's parent 这里的parent很明了，就是“创始的 (组织); 母 (公司)”，那么Douyin's parent是谁呢？下一段告诉你，Bytedance 字节跳动(公司)。
这里插一句，很多人可能搞不清「今日头条」、「抖音」、「字节跳动」的关系，实际上「今日头条」和「抖音」都是「字节跳动公司」旗下的产品。
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On June 1st Tencent sued Douyin's parent company, Bytedance, for 1 yuan (15 cents) and demanded it apologise for its accusations—on its own platforms (and presumably without the snark). Tencent also alleged unfair competition. Within hours Douyin counter-sued for 90m yuan.
○相关背景：腾讯起诉今日头条系，索赔1元并要求道歉；随后，今日头条起诉腾讯：索赔9000万元。
○snark：critical comments that are made in order to hurt someone's feelings; a comment of this type 刻意中伤的批评
Bytedance and Tencent later swapped accusations of tolerating smear campaigns against the other on their apps, and filed police reports about defamatory posts.
○counter-sue：提出反诉；反控诉
○smear campaign: a deliberate plan to tell untrue stories about an important person in order to make people lose respect for them – used especially in newspapers 抹黑行动〔指蓄意诽谤重要人物以损害其名声的行为，尤用于报纸上〕,也可以用“smear tactic”或者直接是“smear”。
维基百科解释为：抹黑策略/抹黑运动/抹黑攻击，是一种政治或选举学术语，指以未经证实的言词攻击对手，包括造谣中伤、扭曲其说法、将部分事实加油添醋、以谎言人身攻击，而使对手声誉及可信性受质疑。
○defamatory 形容词，表示“诽谤的”(Speech or writing that is defamatory is likely to damage someone's good reputation by saying something bad and untrue about them.) 举个🌰 The article was highly defamatory. 这篇文章充满诽谤。
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Rarely has an upstart so piqued Tencent, a Chinese gaming and social-media titan which in November became Asia's first company worth over half-a-trillion dollars.
○upstart: 指的是“目中无人的新人[年轻人]；自命不凡的家伙”someone who behaves as if they were more important than they really are and who shows a lack of respect towards people who are more experienced or older，举个🌰 a cheeky young upstart 一个无礼的后生小子
○Rarely has an upstart so piqued Tencent, ... 这里是rarely否定副词放句首引导的倒装句，正常语序应该是An upstart has rarely so piqued Tencent, ...
其中pique是“使生气；使愤恨；使恼怒”的意思。此外，pique还可以表示“激起（某人）的好奇心／兴趣（等等）”pique sb's curiosity, interest, etc. 举个🌰 The noise continued, piquing her curiosity. 那种声音没有停，激起了她的好奇心。
○titan 意思是“巨人，大力士；泰斗，大师”(If you describe someone as a titan of a particular field, you mean that they are very important and powerful or successful in that field)
对比前两天在(泰国被困洞穴少年们后来怎么样了？)学过的另一个词 luminary，也是有类似含义“方家; 大师; 泰斗”(If you refer to someone as a luminary, you mean that they are an expert in a particular subject or activity.)
At first blush WeChat and Douyin (which translates as “trill”) appear to inhabit distinct worlds.
○at first blush “乍一看”的意思。微信和抖音两个Apps好像完全不搭嘎？一个是提供即时通讯的应用，一个是提供短视频娱乐应用。
The former is a super-app in which more than 1bn users not only chat but also order food, give to charity and pay utility bills.
○微信这个超级应用(super-app)能用来干嘛？
订餐 order food
捐款(慈善) give to charity
付水电费 pay utility bills ...
Douyin is a bottomless, eclectic feed of looped 15-second videos, a cross between Snapchat, Vine (now defunct) and Musical.ly, which Bytedance bought in November. The clips, shot by users, range from a dexterous noodle-maker in Chongqing to a shimmying peacock in a bamboo grove, all set to music.
○bottomless 表示“无穷无尽的；取之不尽的事物; 无底洞”
○eclectic: 近义词是“diverse”，意思是“兼收并蓄的；博采众长的”(including a mixture of many different things or people, especially so that you can use the best of all of them)，举个🌰 galleries with an eclectic range of styles and artists 收藏各个流派和艺术家作品的美术馆
○feed一词，或者你可能听过“feed流”这样的说法，熟悉互联网行业的人可能会比较了解，实际上就是持续向用户提供内容更新的信息流，比如朋友圈，微博，以及这里说的抖音这种形式，你可以以时间线或者兴趣度一条一条地往下刷或者说阅读。可以看下Web feed或者News feed的英文解释：a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content.
○dexterous /'dekst(ə)rəs/ 意思是“〔手法〕灵活的，灵巧的”
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○Different though the services are, ... 这里是though引导的让步状语从句，形容词different前置的倒装，强调了两个Apps尽管所提供的服务不同，但是...。同时，这里提到了我们上一段所说的，今日头条的newsfeed机制。
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○excluding“除...之外”，替换了引言中所用的“barring”一词
○feat: something that is an impressive achievement, because it needs a lot of skill, strength etc to do 业绩，功绩，壮举
○outfit: You can refer to an organization as an outfit. 这里表示“机构”，举个🌰 He works for a private security outfit. 他在一家私人保安公司工作。
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○相关背景：
自2017年4月腾讯宣布关闭当时的“微视”应用后，2018年4月2日，腾讯宣布微视重新上线4.0版本，对该产品启动更新。
○resuscitate: 意思是“使复兴，复活”If you resuscitate something, you cause it to become active or successful again. 举个🌰 He has submitted a bid to resuscitate the weekly magazine. 他已经竞标以使那个周刊起死回生。
○angst: 这里是“焦虑不安，烦恼”的意思，英文解释为：strong feelings of anxiety and unhappiness because you are worried about your life, your future, or what you should do in a particular situation.
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○oomph /ʊmf; uːmf/ 作为名词，表示“精力，活力”(a quality that makes something attractive and exciting and that shows energy)，举个🌰 It's not a bad song, but it needs more oomph. 这首歌还不错，但还需要更多的活力。
○hardly lost its oomph 几乎没有失去活力，微信还“活”得好好的！后面给出证据了：单单一个微信就占了去年全国34%的移动数据流量。
早在2014年经济学人一篇讲述美国经济的文章就用过“lose oomph”已经失去活力来形容美国经济。
○ire 就是“愤怒”anger 的意思
○private message / private-messaging function 站内消息/ 私信
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○相关背景：5月5日，一篇题为《腾讯没有梦想》的文章在朋友圈广为传播，节选如下。
○lose its innovative edge 失去创新优势/能力
○register在这里的意思是“受到注意；注意到，记住”实际上就是realize或者notice的意思，举个🌰 She had told me her name before, but I guess it didn't register. 她以前告诉过我她的名字，不过我好像没在意。
○window [熟词僻义] 在文中不是“窗户”的意思，而是表示“转瞬即逝的机会，短暂的时机”a short period of time that is available for a particular activity (window of opportunity)，举个🌰 Delay might open a window of opportunity for their rivals. 延期也许会给他们的对手带来可乘之机。
○window for a counter-attack 反攻，反击的机会
○naysayer: 表示“爱唱反调的人；反对者；否定者”，someone who says something is not possible, is not good, or will fail
○treatise: 它的意思是a serious book or article about a particular subject 专著，专题论文，这里指的就是《腾讯没有梦想》这篇“文章”，阅读量高过了百万。
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