澳大利亚的汽车制造业 | 外刊精读

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本期精读文章来自The Economist对于澳大利亚汽车业的报道Holden, a (sort-of) Australian icon, succumbs to globalisation


霍顿汽车(Holden)在上世纪中期曾是很多澳大利亚人引以为傲的本土汽车品牌,但它后来盛极而衰,逐渐走向没落。当最近通用汽车宣布要淘汰这一品牌时,很多人表达了愤怒和怀旧之情。文章对霍顿汽车的历史以及衰落原因进行了分析。



标题之所以用a (sort-of) Australian icon是因为霍顿汽车的生产商其实为通用汽车所有,只不过保留了该品牌,所以它并不完全是一个澳大利亚品牌。


文章中出现了不少典型的外刊修辞手法,我在下面做了分析:




首段介绍了澳洲本土汽车品牌“霍顿”的百年兴衰史。



“She’s a beauty!” grinned the prime minister of the day, Ben Chifley, as the first car built entirely in Australia rolled off the assembly line in 1948.


当澳大利亚第一辆完全在本国生产的汽车于1948年驶下生产线时,时任总理本·奇弗利笑着赞叹道“她是个美人”。


开篇前两句非常有画面感,作者引用了前总理的话来说明澳洲人民对第一辆国产汽车的骄傲之情。使用引言也是外刊常见的开头方式,它可以激发读者好奇心,吸引读者继续往下读以一探究竟。



The Holden fx, as it was known, was greeted as a totem of a young nation joining the ranks of industrialised economies. Better yet, it had an Australian pedigree, even if General Motors owned the factory.


当时为人熟知的“霍顿FX汽车”被视为一个年轻国家加入工业化阵营的一个象征。更令人欢欣鼓舞的一点是,它还有澳大利亚血统,虽然生产它的工厂为通用汽车所有。


Join the ranks of…是一个固定表达,意思是“加入了……的行列,加入了……的阵营”,比如要表达“他在最近的经济萧条期间失去了工作”,可以说:


He joined the ranks of the unemployed during the recent recession.



Holden had been a saddle-making firm in Adelaide that began to manufacture car bodies to go with imported engines and chassis in 1919. GM bought it in 1931, but retained the brand.


霍顿之前是一家位于阿德莱德地区的马鞍生产公司,它于1919年开始制造与进口发动机和底盘配套的车身。通用汽车在1931年将其收购,但保留了该品牌。


上一句提到“霍顿汽车有澳大利亚血统”(it had an Australian pedigree),这一句紧接着进行解释:霍顿汽车的前身是阿德莱德地区的一家马鞍生产公司。


Go with这一用法值得注意,它的意思是“与……相匹配”,在形容衣服穿搭时也可以用该短语,例如:The skirt she's wearing doesn't really go with her blouse.



For a long time its advertising slogan was “People Trust Holden”. So when GM announced this week that it was eliminating the brand, indignation and nostalgia abounded.


在很长一段时间内,它的广告标语都是“人们相信霍顿”。因此,当通用汽车本周宣布要淘汰该品牌时,不少人表达了愤怒和怀旧之情。


indignation and nostalgia abounded这一写法很巧妙,它直接以抽象概念作为主语,可以代替”many people felt indignant and nostalgic”,使得表达更加简洁。




第二段介绍了澳大利亚总理和工会对通用汽车淘汰霍顿汽车品牌的反应。



Scott Morrison, the prime minister, scolded gm for allowing Holden to “wither away” even though “Australian taxpayers put millions into this multinational company.” Unions blamed his government for slashing the subsidies which might have kept Holden sputtering on.


总理斯科特•莫里森指责通用汽车公司让霍顿汽车“消亡”,即使“澳大利亚纳税人向这家跨国公司投入了数百万美元。” 工会则指责他的政府削减了补贴,这些补贴本来可以让霍顿汽车苟延残喘一段时间。



The government is so devoutly free-market that it will “not lift a finger” to protect Australian jobs, grumbled Sally McManus of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.


澳大利亚工会委员会的萨利•麦克马努斯抱怨道,政府是如此倾向于自由市场以至于它“不愿付出一丁点努力”来保护澳大利亚的工作机会。


Lift a finger是一个短语,意思是“尽举手之劳,帮一点忙”(to make an effort to do something),它通常使用否定形式 somebody doesn’t lift a finger to do something,例如:I have so many chores to do, and my sister won't lift a finger to help me.





第三段介绍了通用汽车公司对此的回应以及霍顿汽车的现状。



GM says it cannot justify further investment in a long-unprofitable business.


通用汽车说它无法继续对一个长期不盈利的业务进行投资,因为它没有办法证明这是值得的。


Justify这一单词非常好用,它的常见搭配是justify something/doing something,意思是“证明……是合理的”,比如:The fact that we are at war does not justify treating innocent people as criminals.



Although Holden made almost half of all new cars sold in Australia in the late 1950s, locals nowadays prefer nippier runarounds or sleek suvs to the chunky sedans it is known for, even if, as an ad jingle put it, the essence of Australia is “football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars”.


尽管在1950年代后期澳大利亚售出的所有新车中几乎有一半为霍顿生产,但如今当地人还是喜欢轻便小汽车或外形流畅雅致的SUV,而不是霍顿为人熟知的笨重大轿车,即使正如一则广告歌曲所唱的那样,澳大利亚的精华是“足球、肉派、袋鼠和霍顿汽车”。



The jingle was an adaptation of an ad about Chevrolet being an all-American brand.


该广告歌曲改编自一则广告,在该广告中,雪佛兰成为了全美知名品牌。




第四段进一步介绍了霍顿汽车的现状以及澳大利亚造车业遇到的困境。



Holden had already closed its last factory in Australia in 2017; its vehicles are now imported, from Thailand among other places. Ford and Toyota closed Australian assembly lines at the same time, leaving Australia with no carmakers.


霍顿已于2017年关闭了其在澳大利亚的最后一家工厂; 它的车辆目前从泰国等地进口。福特和丰田汽车同时关闭了在澳大利亚的装配线,这使得澳大利亚没有汽车制造商。



It didn’t help that “the nearest significant market was 10,000km away,” notes John Daley of the Grattan Institute, a think-tank.


智囊机构格拉顿研究所的约翰·戴利指出,“离澳大利亚最近的重要(汽车)市场在10000公里之外”,这一点同样无济于事。


It didn’t help that “the nearest significant market was 10,000km away” 相当于 that “the nearest significant market was 10,000km away” didn’t help… 这里help的意思是“使……改善,使……好转”。



What is more, KPMG, an accounting firm and consultancy, calculated that in 2012 Australia was the second most expensive place to make car components, after Japan.


此外,根据会计师事务所及咨询公司毕马威的计算,澳大利亚在2012年是制造汽车零部件成本第二昂贵的国家,仅次于日本。




第五段解释了对汽车行业补贴的不合理之处。



The industry survived so long only because successive governmentsrefuelled it with subsidies. GM guzzled about A$2bn ($1.3bn) before the handouts were cut by Mr Morrison’s party in 2013.


该行业能够坚持这么长时间仅仅是因为历届政府都通过补贴为其“加油”。莫里森政党在2013年削减了拨款,在此之前,通用汽车花掉了大约20亿澳元(合13亿美元)补贴。


句子里面refuel以及guzzle about用得很贴切:refuel除了表示“加油”之外,还可以表示“使……更强烈”;guzzle about通常指汽车大量消耗汽油,这里引申为“大量消耗金钱”。这两个表达的使用贴合文章主题,这种用词方式在外刊中也大量出现,平时遇到可以多注意积累。



Rightly so, according to a report released the following year by the Productivity Commission. It found no evidence that they had helped the wider economy, concluding that the “costs of such assistance outweigh the benefits”.


根据生产力委员会在次年发布的一份报告,削减补贴是合理的。它没有发现任何证据表明这些补贴拉动了总体经济,认为“这种援助的成本大于收益”。


Rightly so是一个比较口语化的表达,一般用于对前面提到的话进行肯定,意思相当于“……是合情合理的”。上一句提到莫里森政党在2013年削减了补贴,这一句开头作者用Rightly so对这一措施进行了肯定,并解释了原因:补贴对于总体经济并没有帮助。




结尾段对澳大利亚制造业整体情况进行了说明。



Manufacturing’s share of Australia’s economy peaked in the 1960s, in Holden’s heyday. It now accounts for just under 6% of GDP, well below the level of most other rich countries.


霍顿汽车在上世纪60年代处于鼎盛时期,当时制造业在澳大利亚经济中所占比重达到顶峰。现在,它占GDP的比重还不到6%,远低于其他大多数富裕国家的水平。



But that has not stopped the Australian economy—and local wages—from growing faster than their peers.


但这并未影响澳大利亚经济以及当地工资——它们比其他国家的增长得还要快。

发布于 2020-11-19 15:27:04
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