《纽约时报》终于公道了一次！

挥霍、申报表、事不关己

用英语怎么说？

《纽约时报》的“驰名双标”

大家一定有所耳闻。

而今天，普利策奖得主，

在北京生活了20年的撰稿人，

Ian Johnson（中文名张彦），

在该报发表了一篇文章题为

《中国辛苦给西方争取的时间，

都被西方挥霍殆尽了》。

小标题为：

“为什么几周前，

中国爆发疫情时，

这么多国家只是作壁上观，

好像完全事不关己。”

怒斥有些西方国家在中国疫情高峰时期

非但不引以为戒或出手相助，

反而袖手旁观、冷嘲热讽。

文章引起极度舒适，

终于有西方媒体公允地报道中国了！

但文章也引起极度担忧，

西方的疫情何时才能得到有效控制？

Why did so many countries watch the epidemic unfold（发展) for weeks as though it was none of their concern（事不关己）?

When I got off my flight from Beijing to London nearly two weeks ago, I knew what I had to do: go straight into self-quarantine （自我隔离）.

▲隔离可以说put sb. under quarantine，quarantine也可以直接作动词噢，比如quarantine oneself. 自我隔离 

I live in China, where a dramatic lockdown（封锁，这里指封城） since late January has made it clear（明确） that all residents, even those well beyond Wuhan, were in the middle of a global health crisis. 

▲announce a lockdown 宣布封锁；put sb./sth. under lockdown 封锁某地。

The boarding process（登机流程） in Beijing was the final reminder（提醒）: two mandatory（强制） temperature checks and an electronic health statement（电子健康申报表）.

But as the plane approached London, a sense of unreality（不真实) set in. The airline distributed a cheaply printed sheet（粗糙简陋的表格) that only advised us to call the usual National Health Service（NHS，英国国家医疗服务） hotline if we felt ill. 

On arrival, there was no temperature check and no health statement — meaning that British officials would have had no easy way to（没什么好办法）track（追踪） us if one of us came down with（染上了） Covid-19. Instead, we just walked off the plane, took off our face masks（口罩) and disappeared into the city（消失在城市的茫茫人海中）.

In the days since then, Europe and the United States have been convulsed（震动） by the coronavirus’s rapid spread in those regions. 

Italy is now under lockdown, and cases are rapidly multiplying（大幅增加） across the United States. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization formally announced what everyone already knew（众所周知的事）: This is a pandemic（全球大流行病）. 

Perhaps by the time you read this, airport health checks（健康检查） and declarations（申报） finally will be mandatory in places like London.

But that won’t change the fact that for weeks now, the attitude toward the coronavirus outbreak in the United States and much of Europe has been bizarrely reactive（消极的、不积极的）, if not outright passive（被动的） — or that the governments in those regions have let pass（让...白白溜走） their best chance to contain the virus’s spread（遏制病毒的蔓延). 

▲if not 这个插入语意思就是，“就算不至于是完全被动”。这句话的大意是，奇怪的是，美国和欧洲很多国家对待疫情的态度，就算不说是完全被动，也只是消极应对。

But while China had to contend with（对付) a nasty, sudden surprise, governments in the West have been on notice（知晓情况） for weeks.

It’s as if China’s experience hadn’t given Western countries a warning of the perils（危险) of inaction（不作为）. Instead, many governments seem to have imitated（模仿） some of the worst measures China put in place, while often turning a blind eye to （故意无视）the best of them, or its successes.

Outsiders seem to want to view China’s experiences as uniquely its own（中国独有的）. I imagine there are many reasons for this, including the comforting idea（自我安慰的想法） that China is far away and an epidemic over there surely couldn’t really spread so far and so fast over here. 

More than anything, though, I think that outsiders, especially in the West, fixate on（过度关注） China’s political system, and that makes them discount（不重视） the possible value and relevance（重要意义） of its decisions to them.

▲后半句的意思是，因此西方国家不重视中国决策对于他们的价值和参考意义，discount作为动词的用法很有意思哦，意思是低估、不重视某事。

One needn’t defend every one of its measures on medical grounds（从医学的角度）; those are matters that health care professionals might debate for years to come. But it’s worth acknowledging that not all of China’s failings（缺陷、弱点） are unique to its political system, and that some of its policies were motivated（由...驱动） by serious concern（关心） for the public good（公共利益）and executed（执行） by a highly competent（有能力的） civil service（公务员队伍）.

▲最后半句的意思是，中国的政策是出于对公共利益的忧心，并由能力很强的公务员队伍予以落实。

Contrast（对比) this with, say, the United States today: Despite having had a free flow of information for weeks and witnessed（目睹) thousands of deaths in China as evidence, parts of America’s political establishment（政治建制派） — including at the White House — have pushed a disinformation（虚假消息） campaign to downplay （降低）the risk.

▲downplay sth.的意思是对...不以为然，不予重视，很地道的一个词噢。

But too many countries have stood by（作壁上观）, watching for weeks what was unfolding（发生） in China, and then elsewhere in Asia, as though it was none of their concern（和他们无关）. 

Some governments have dithered（犹豫不决） for lack of political will（缺少政治意愿）. Some seem to fall prey（受到...的损害）, still, to a perception （想法）of China as the eternal “other,”（这里指是属于另一个世界的） whose experience couldn’t possibly be relevant to us, much less provide any lessons — other than in what not to do（除了做反面教材）.

来源：the New York Times

图片来源于网络

pandemic  全球流行病

fall prey to 受...之害

relevant 有价值的

stand by 作壁上观

unfold 发生

disinformation 虚假消息

failing 缺点

inaction 不作为

peril 危险

mandatory 强制的

独到英语

精彩回顾

感染新冠后，汤姆·汉克斯刚刚发了这段话