看英文外刊学托福(第六期)：经济学人

　　转眼间，迎来腾讯20岁，20周年后的腾讯，面临更大的挑战。与百度和阿里巴巴相比，腾讯已悄然成为BAT三家企业中最焦虑的那一家，未来腾讯的商业模式发展方向或许会随着其组织架构的改变，又一次迎来新的变革。腾讯正在面临什么样的调整又该如何决策?我们来一起看看《经济学人》给出的分析吧!

　　《经济学人》六期赏析内容：

　　文章来源：《经济学人》2018年11月10日期刊

　　Business 板块

　　Tencent at 20

　　WeFlat

　　November 10th 2018

　　SHANGHAI

　　A Chinese Internet titan shakes things up after a singularly bruising year

　　经历了形势极其严峻的一年后，中国互联网巨头展开大调整

　　原文：

　　“Who is killing Tencent?” was the headline of an article on a Chinese business news site this autumn. Those sharing the link on WeChat, a social-media and payments service that is the crown jewel of the Chinese technology giant, see something else: “This title contains exaggerated and misleading information”. The swap is ostensibly the result of a move by Tencent in April to sanitize content, after a crackdown on popular online platforms by government regulation, but is also self-serving. Scoffing WeChat users circulated the article just to highlight the switch.

　　参考译文：

　　《谁在杀死腾讯?》—今年秋天，中国某家商业新闻网站发表的一篇文章用了这样的标题。当人们在腾讯的核心业务微信应用(这家中国科技巨头的社交媒体和支付服务应用)上分享这篇文章时，看到标题旁多了一条提示：“标题夸大误导”。这个标记看起来是腾讯为了应对自4月起中国“净网2018”专项行动的举措，但同时更出于自利目的。微信用户纷纷转发，调侃这种变化。

　　原文：

　　It would be no surprise if Tencent were feeling touchy as it approaches its 20th anniversary on November 11th. Its shares, traded in Hong Kong since 2004, have fallen by 28% in 2018(see chart).

　　参考译文：

　　腾讯若有些敏感也并不奇怪。这家于11月11日迎来20岁生日的公司于2004年在香港上市，今年以来股价已下跌28%(见图表)。

　　原文：

　　For skittish investors, all this has concentrated minds on whether the giant can maintain its momentum as it enters its third decade. Most agree that gaming will remain an important part of the company, but not its chief driver of revenue growth.

　　参考译文：

　　对于紧张兮兮的投资者来说，这一切都将他们的关注转向这家巨头公司在迈入第三个十年之际能否保持发展势头。大多数人都认为网络游戏仍将是腾讯的重要组成部分，但不会是收入增长的主要来源。

　　原文：

　　Two concerns are particularly acute. Because its games have done so well, Tencent has been lackadaisical in monetizing other parts of its business. It has rightly been nervous about expanding advertising within WeChat, though the service sees unrivaled Chinese mobile traffic of over 1 billion monthly active users. Last year Tencent took about one-tenth of total third-party spending on digital ads in China. But Baidu, China’s leading search engine, took 19% and Alibaba, a giant in e-commerce, drew in almost a third.

　　参考译文：

　　有两个问题尤其突出。因为腾讯的游戏业务业绩一直不错，所以它对于从其他业务上赚钱一直漫不经心。尽管微信在中国拥有超过10亿月活跃用户，移动访问流量无与伦比，但腾讯对于微信平台的广告推广业务一直有所顾虑，这点很对。去年，腾讯在中国第三方数字广告支出总额中占比十分之一。但中国最大的搜索引擎百度占比19%，电子商务巨头阿里巴巴占比约三分之一。

　　原文：

　　A second worry is that crimped profits will make it harder for the firm to keep investing heavily in areas outside its core business. Tencent has been backing promising startups in a race with Alibaba to find new users and sources of growth, battling indirectly in areas as varied as food delivery and online education. In some, such as cloud computing, the pair compete directly. Although Tencent’s investors are supportive of this approach, Jerry Liu of UBS, a bank says the wider tech sell-off stems from a recognition that China’s maturing internet sector is becoming “a zero-sum game”: dominant platforms are having to invest more to stay ahead and so their margins are shrinking.

　　参考译文：

　　第二个担忧是，利润下降将使腾讯更难继续在核心业务以外的领域上加大投资。腾讯与阿里巴巴在发掘新用户和增长源上展开角逐，为此一直在支持有发展前景的创业公司。它们在餐饮外卖和在线教育等各种各样的领域间接较量，而在另一些领域如云计算，两者直接竞争。尽管腾讯的投资方支持这个举措，但瑞银的分析师刘杰表示，科技股份近期普遍下跌，是因为投资方们认识到中国日渐成熟的互联网行业正在变成一场“零和游戏”：主导平台为保持领先地位不得不投入更多资金，利润因此有所下降。

　　原文：

　　Tencent’s outsize influence in China’s outline world is ballast that should steady it as it targets business customers. For sheer scale, WeChat seems likely to hold its own. It has given Tencent a powerful distribution channel for its own games, and has allowed it to stymie new rival products, including Douyin, by blocking them from its platform. But the giant is under pressure, and seems to know it. “We have to stay awake,” urged its president, Martin Lau, last month. Such introspection is necessary. Mr Chow says it was thought until this year that “Tencent could win every battle”. With more formidable competitors on the scene, the company will need to pick its fights more carefully.

　　参考译文：

　　腾讯在中国网络世界中的巨大影响力犹如压舱石，应该会让它在转向商业客户时保持稳定。微信以其规模之大似乎就足以站稳脚跟。它为腾讯自家的游戏提供了强大的发行渠道，还可以在自家平台上封杀新的竞争产品，包括抖音，从而打压它们。但巨头公司同时也正在承受压力，而且它自己似乎也意识到这一点。“我们需要时刻保持清醒”。上个月腾讯总裁刘炽平督促道。这种自省是很有必要的。周秀成说，直到今年以前，这家公司还认为“腾讯可以百战百胜”。随着更多强大的竞争对手粉墨登场，腾讯需要更谨慎地选择自己的发力点。

　　下面为大家整理出在托福写作中可以使用的语言表达和素材论据，快来积累下吧。

　　素材赏析：

　　一：好词

　　1：exaggerate

　　1)词性：v.

　　2)释义：夸大

　　to enlarge beyond bounds or the truth

　　来源：Merrian-Webster dictionary

　　3)同义词拓展

　　overstate

　　4)例句

　　The book exaggerates the difficulties he faced in starting his career.

　　释义：这本书夸大了他在开始事业时所面临的困难。

　　来源：Merrian-Webster dictionary

　　2：misleading

　　1)词性：adj.

　　2)释义：误导的

　　giving the wrong idea or impression

　　来源：Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus

　　3)句式拓展

　　It would be misleading to say that …

　　说…会使人产生误解

　　4)例句：

　　Your article contains a number of misleading statements.

　　译文：你的文章包含了一些误导性的陈述。

　　来源：Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus

　　4：maintain

　　1)词性：v.

　　2)释义：维持

　　to keep in an existing state

　　来源：Merrian-Webster dictionary

　　3)词组拓展

　　maintain good relations

　　保持友好关系

　　4)例句：

　　Despite being officially divorced since 1996, Andrew and Sarah have maintained a remarkably close bond.

　　译文：尽管安德鲁和萨拉自1996年以来正式离婚, 但他们一直保持着非常密切的关系。

　　来源：Maggie Maloney, Town & Country, "A Complete Timeline of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson's Relationship," 8 Oct. 2018

　　5：remain

　　1)词性：v.

　　2)释义：保持不变

　　to continue unchanged

　　来源：Merrian-Webster dictionary

　　3)例句：

　　The location of the treasure remains a secret to this day

　　那批财宝的存放地点直到今天仍是个秘密。

　　来源：Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus

　　二：好短语(地道搭配)

　　1：sharing the link 分享文章链接

　　2：WeChat, a social-media and payments service 微信，一个社交媒体和支付服务应用

　　3：the crown jewel

　　本义：“皇冠上的珠宝”，引申意义：“最好的、最有价值的东西、核心业务”

　　4：technology giant 科技巨头

　　5：online platforms 在线平台

　　6：government regulation 政府管理

　　7：circulate the article 转推文章

　　8：digital ads 数字广告

　　9：Baidu, China’s leading search engine 百度，中国最大的搜索引擎

　　10：Alibaba, a giant in e-commerce 阿里巴巴，电子商务巨头

　　11：make it harder for sb. to do sth. 使某人做某事更难

　　12：invest heavily in 在···方面加大投资

　　13：core business 核心业务

　　14：promising startups 有发展前景的创业公司

　　15：food delivery 餐饮外卖

　　16：online education 在线教育

　　17：cloud computing 云计算

　　18：be supportive of 支持

　　19：be under pressure 承受压力

　　20：stay awake 保持清醒

　　三：好句

　　1：同位语

　　Those sharing the link on WeChat, a social-media and payments service that is the crown jewel of the Chinese technology giant, see something else: “This title contains exaggerated and misleading information”.

　　2：非谓语

　　Tencent has been backing promising startups in a race with Alibaba to find new users and sources of growth, battling indirectly in areas as varied as food delivery and online education.

　　3：插入语

　　It has given Tencent a powerful distribution channel for its own games, and has allowed it to stymie new rival products, including Douyin, by blocking them from its platform.

　　With more formidable competitors on the scene, the company will need to pick its fights more carefully.

　　四：好素材(作文论据)

　　领导者或管理者是否应该多花些时间思考，谨慎做出决定或决策，这类话题经常在托福作文考题中出现，其实，决策过程中多花些时间，的确可以在某种程度上规避风险，做出一个更明智的决定。以下素材，小伙伴儿们可以纳入例子素材库灵活运用在自己的作文里哦!

　　托福作文素材：

　　Tencent’s outsize influence in China’s outline world is ballast that should steady it as it targets business customers. For sheer scale, WeChat seems likely to hold its own. It has given Tencent a powerful distribution channel for its own games, and has allowed it to stymie new rival products, including Douyin, by blocking them from its platform. But the giant is under pressure, and seems to know it. “We have to stay awake,” urged its president, Martin Lau, last month. Such introspection is necessary. Mr Chow says it was thought until this year that “Tencent could win every battle”. With more formidable competitors on the scene, the company will need to pick its fights more carefully.

　　托福写作相关题目：

　　In order to be successful, people should take risks rather than be cautious and careful.2018年10月14日