高温干旱给商业带来的最大影响是...parch/swelter/torrid/suffocating·每日一词合辑

在距墨西哥与美国得克萨斯州交界处以南三小时车程的蒙特雷（Monterrey），笔者最爱的打发炎热午后的方式之一是用一瓶当地酿造的冰镇波西米亚（Bohemia）啤酒配一盘烤羊羔肉。作为一名商业撰稿人，这一餐可以顺理成章地计入公费报销。像波西米亚这样的啤酒品牌帮助蒙特雷成长为墨西哥的工业中心。库奥特莫克啤酒厂（Cuauhtémoc，如今属全球啤酒巨头喜力旗下）由墨西哥的加尔萨（Garza）和萨达（Sada）家族成员于1890年创办，他们后来成为墨西哥的顶级工业大亨。位处墨西哥北方的贫瘠之地，缺乏供应商的他们自己制造瓶子、瓶盖和包装，从而发展成企业集团，推动了墨西哥的现代化进程。今天，墨西哥是全球最大的啤酒出口国。

ONE OF YOUR columnist’s favourite ways of passing a hot afternoon in Monterrey, three hours south of Mexico’s border with Texas, is with a cold bottle of locally brewed Bohemia beer alongside a plate of cabrito (roast kid). For a business writer, it is a justifiable use of the expense account. Beers like Bohemia helped make Monterrey the industrial hub that it is. The Cuauhtémoc brewery, now owned by Heineken, a global giant, was started in 1890 by members of the Garza and Sada families, who went on to become Mexico’s biggest industrialists. Lacking suppliers in the arid north, they made their own bottles, caps and packaging, giving rise to conglomerates that fuelled the country’s modernisation. Today Mexico is the largest exporter of beer in the world.

蒙特雷如今依然到处是啤酒。但它也被干旱袭扰，几百万依赖老旧渗漏的公共输水管的居民极度缺水，而他们受雇的行业却凭借状况更好的私有水管大量用水。酿酒商称自己只消耗了不到1%的本地水资源，而大部分水被毫无节水动力的农民用掉了。但这不妨碍会抓住任何时机来抨击富人的墨西哥总统洛佩斯把问题归咎于工业家。他叫啤酒公司搬到河流水量丰沛的南方去。

Monterrey is still awash with beer. But it is also stricken by drought. This has left millions of residents reliant on leaky public pipes desperately short of water, even as the industries that employ them guzzle the stuff, thanks to higher-quality private infrastructure. The brewers say they consume less than 1% of the local water, most of which is used by farmers who have no incentive to conserve it. That has not stopped President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, never one to waste an opportunity to bash the rich, from blaming the industrialists. He has told the beer firms to up sticks and move south, where rivers still run in torrents.

啤酒行业目前低调做人，只当它是民粹主义者的一种话术，而不是真要自己把全部家当都搬到国土的另一端去。但这种尴尬处境也很能说明问题。它显示了水资源短缺加上声誉损害和监管过度可能会影响许多依赖水的行业，包括食品生产、采矿、发电、服装和电子产品等。非政府组织世界资源研究所（World Resources Institute，以下简称WRI）的科林·斯特朗（Colin Strong）指出，尽管私营部门在努力提高用水效率，但气候变化、人口膨胀、经济繁荣导致的用水量增加都将使缺水问题进一步恶化。他引用环保界一句精辟的名言概括道：“如果气候变化是鲨鱼，水就是它的利齿。” 

The industry is keeping its head down, treating this as populist rhetoric rather than a genuine demand to transplant breweries lock, stock and barrel to the other end of the country. Yet the imbroglio is illustrative, too. It shows how water shortages, combined with reputational damage and regulatory overreach, could affect many hydro-dependent industries, from food production, mining and power generation to apparel and electronics. Colin Strong of the World Resources Institute (WRI), an NGO, says that though the private sector is trying to use water more efficiently, scarcity will be exacerbated by climate change, population growth and the greater water use that comes with growing prosperity. He quotes a pithy refrain common in environmental circles. “If climate change is the shark, water is its teeth.”... ... ...

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经济学人例句

Officials in Beijing claim that in the parched capital, seeding can boost rainfall by 15%.
北京官员声称，在干燥的首都，人工降雨可以使降雨量增加 15%。

On this stretch, in north-eastern Thailand, the bank is so parched the earth has cracked, and once-leafy bushes are bone dry.
在泰国东北部的这一带，河道如此干涸以至于土地都裂开了，曾经枝繁叶茂的灌木丛完全干枯了。

释义

[verb] Make or become dry through intense heat
[动词] 通过高温（使）变干

解读

Parch一词源自于晚期中古英语，意为（使）干透、干燥，尤其用于指炎热的天气，常见搭配如~ed by the sun（被太阳炙烤）。在烹饪上它也可指稍微地烘烤（玉米、豌豆、稻谷）。如果你说I'm ~ed，那就是渴得嗓子要冒烟啦。

近义词

scorch, sear

经济学人例句

An early analysis has found that this sweltering European summer would have been less than half as likely were it not for human-induced global warming.

早前一项分析发现，若非人为因素导致全球变暖，今年欧洲闷热的夏季本来多半不会出现。

The sweltering temperatures in recent months may help settle debates over a supposed “pause” in global warming that occurred between 1998 and 2013.

最近数月的高温可能有助于平息一个争议——1998 年至 2013 年间全球变暖看似 “暂停”。

释义

[verb] Be uncomfortably hot

[动词] 热得难受

解读

Swelter一词源自于中古英语swelt（死去，中暑死去），它可以做名词表示“令人难受的高温”，如the ~ of an August day；或可做动词，表示“人感到酷热难耐”，也常用分词形式sweltering来表示“热得要命的”。

经济学人例句

The pound, after a few torrid days of trading immediately after the vote, has stabilised.

在经历了紧接着公投后的几个难熬的交易日后，英镑终于稳定下来了。

American banks have had a torrid few months; their revenues are flat or falling, interest margins are being squeezed and their investment-banking divisions are in a funk.

美国银行业这几个月可不好过；它们收入持平甚至下降，利差收到挤压，投行部门也十分畏缩消沉。

释义

[adjective] Full of difficulty or tribulation

[形容词] 充满了困难或痛苦

解读

Torrid一词源自于拉丁语torrēre（烧、炙烤），和“toast”（烤）一词是近亲。它最直接的意思就是“灼热的、炎热的”，可以用来形容气候。这个词的一个引申义是“激情的、狂热的”，常用来形容恋情和某些相关场面。然而它还有其他的引申义，表示“艰难困苦”、“紧锣密鼓”（尤美）等。看来让人感到“炽热”的情况还真不少呢。

经济学人例句

Worse still, the decline in new business formation may be partly caused by the suffocating impact of zombies.

更糟糕的是，新成立企业的减少在一定程度上可能是受到了僵尸企业的遏制。
Most originators, in contrast, are not regulated as banks, and are not subject to the same expensive capital requirements or suffocating red tape.
相反，大多数贷款承揽人不受银行业监管，也不需要满足同样昂贵的资本要求，不被繁文缛节所束缚。

释义

[adjective] Making one feel trapped and oppressed
[形容词] 让人感到受困和压抑的

解读

Suffocating一词对应的动词是suffocate（使窒息，使感到闷热，扼杀），所以suffocating可以表示天气过于闷热“令人呼吸困难”，也可指“让人感到束缚的、压制性的”，如~ traditions（令人感到压抑的传统）。

近义词

overwhelming, stifling

经济学人例句

Spring showers and outdoor dining are a clammy combination.
春雨加上户外用餐是一个湿冷的搭配。

Someone who is afraid of heights will find that their heartbeat quickens and palms get clammy even if the precipitous drop they can see is clearly a computer graphic in a VR headset.
恐高的人会发现自己心跳加快、手掌出汗，哪怕他们看到的急坠明显是 VR 头盔中的计算机图形。

释义

[adjective] Unpleasantly damp and sticky or slimy to touch
[形容词] 让人不舒服的潮湿或摸起来黏滑的

解读

Clammy一词源自于中古英语clammen（抹、粘），可用来形容一种湿漉漉、黏糊糊的感觉，比如出汗后的皮肤或衣服、闷热或湿冷的空气等。

近义词

moist, damp, sweaty

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