跟着「经济学人」一起聊聊月饼
一年一度的中秋佳节到了，LR在这里祝大家中秋快乐，阖家团圆！大家应该都吃了月饼吧？今天就和大家一起学习经济学人是怎么聊月饼的~
MOONCAKES are among the most divisive treats. For some the chewy pastries are delicacies on which to gorge for the Mid-Autumn Festival, a Chinese holiday that falls this year on September 24th. For others they are dry, dense and full of calories. But for economists they are something else entirely: an indicator of important trends in consumption, innovation, corruption and grey-market trading.
treat
treat一词在前几天网红"故宫黄酒雪糕" 你心动了吗？提到过，不过没有明显标注出来，今天再来回顾一次：表示“〔尤指不经常吃的〕美味食物”，英文解释为：a special food that tastes good, especially one that you do not eat very often.
举个🌰：
The cafe serves an assortment of gourmet treats.
这家小餐馆供应各种美味佳肴。
这里用divisive（造成不和的；引起纷争的）一词来形容月饼很贴切，因为下文紧接着提到争论的双方（For some...For others...）
月饼
the chewy pastry 耐嚼的油酥糕点
gorge on
表示“狼吞虎咽”，英文解释为：If you gorge on something or gorge yourself on it, you eat lots of it in a very greedy way.
举个🌰：
I could spend each day gorging on chocolate.
我可以将每一天都花在狂吃巧克力上。
中秋节
文中写到the Mid-Autumn Festival后，还补充了一句 a Chinese holiday that falls this year on September 24th.
grey-market
字面意思就是“灰市” ，指经非正式渠道购卖商品再以低于市价的价格售出，英文解释为：Grey-market goods are bought unofficially and then sold to customers at lower prices than usual.
举个🌰：
Grey-market perfumes and toiletries are now commonly sold by mail.
灰市的香水和化妆品现在常以邮购方式售出。
写作
经济学人是很好的学习英文写作的素材，比如这里的经典开头。首句提出论点... are among the most divisive ...，然后用For some...For others...结构引出双方论据，最后再用一个But引出新的观点——经济学家的观点，也就是文章主旨。
Mooncakes play this role because of their status as gifts. Ahead of the mid-autumn holiday, companies give them to employees; business contacts exchange them. Consumption of mooncakes is thus less a reflection of whether people enjoy the pastries, likened by some to edible hockey pucks, and more a measure of the health of the economy.
edible hockey pucks
hockey pucks指“冰球”，这里是说因为月饼和冰球很像，人们把它比作“可食用的冰球”。
OF ALL the dread-provoking Christmas gifts—all the reindeer sweaters and buzzing children’s toys—perhaps none is as feared as the fruitcake: a football-sized dessert, wrapped in lurid red foil. It will often lurk reprovingly on sideboards and in refrigerators for months before being finally, furtively, chucked out.
dread-provoking
合成词，dread表示“畏惧，害怕”，provoke表示“激怒，惹起，煽动”，所以dread-provoking表示“令人害怕的”。从这个词可以看出来作者对fruitcake作为“圣诞礼物“的态度是消极的，而破折后的”as feared as“进一步体现了这种态度。
lurid
表示“艳丽的”，英文解释为“If you describe something as lurid, you do not like it because it is very brightly coloured. ”
举个🌰：
She took care to paint her toe nails a lurid red or orange.
她小心翼翼地把脚趾甲涂成艳丽的红色或桔色。
fruitcake
fruitcake意思是“水果[果脯，果子]蛋糕，掺有干果的糕饼”，它还有另一个意思表示“疯子，怪人”，文中对前者的解释：a football-sized dessert, wrapped in lurid red foil
图片来源维基百科
It will often lurk reprovingly on sideboards and in refrigerators for months before being finally, furtively, chucked out.
这个句子用了大量的介词，而且是采用it这种无灵主语，将fruitcake拟人化，所以直译的话个人觉得怪怪的，试着采用了意译（欢迎指正哦）：
人们经常刻意把水果蛋糕放在餐具柜上或冰箱里不显眼的地方，数月之后又偷偷扔掉。
reprovingly 挑剔地
lurk on 潜伏
sideboard 餐具柜
furtively 偷偷地
chuck out 扔掉
For the Chinese and Vietnamese, the equivalent is the mooncake: a dense, round pastry that—based on your correspondent’s highly informal survey—people seem much fonder of giving than eating. The cakes are stuffed with a variety of high-calorie fillings, often based on lotus seeds, nuts or sweet bean-paste. As with much of Chinese cuisine, mooncakes vary by region: in Shanghai and eastern China the filling often includes pork and tends to be savoury; Henan mooncakes are crisp and almost biscuit; Teochew mooncakes are often yam.
stuff
表示“把...装满”，常与with搭配，英文解释为“If you stuff a container or space with something, you fill it with something or with a quantity of things until it is full. ”
举个🌰：
He grabbed my purse, opened it and stuffed it full, then gave it back to me.
他抢走我的钱包，打开并把它装得满满的，然后还给了我。
月饼
上文出现的：the chewy pastry 耐嚼的油酥糕点
此处用了：a dense, round pastry
The cakes are stuffed with a variety of high-calorie fillings 馅, often based on lotus seeds, nuts or sweet bean-paste 豆沙
In Shanghai and eastern China the filling often includes pork and tends to be savoury 咸的; Henan mooncakes are crisp 脆的 and almost biscuit 淡褐色的; Teochew mooncakes are often yam 山药 or 红薯？馅.
来来来，上海、河南、潮汕以及
五湖四海的朋友们，
说说自己家乡月饼的味道