外刊双语 | ofo：资本狂欢后的遍地狼藉

本篇笔记素材选自FT中文网，由知新共学外刊群笔记大大Zoe整理。侵删~

Ofo’s blowout offers lesson to investors

ofo给投资者的教训

太快地筹集到太多资金迫使创业者仓促扩张。突飞猛进的扩张掩盖了，ofo从未弄清其最初的想法在商业上是否可行。

People who have survived road accidents often say time seems to slow down in the moment. But the car crash that is Chinese bike-sharing start-up ofo has been anything but slow-motion. The company has gone from a standing start to one of the world’s fastest-growing start-ups and back again in a hyper-accelerated three years.

那些在交通事故中幸存下来的人常说，时间似乎在那一刻变慢了。但中国共享单车初创企业ofo的“翻车”却一点都不慢。该公司从静止姿态起步，一度成为全球发展最快的初创企业，在超速发展三年后又回到原点。

anything but: used to mean the opposite of the stated quality决不，比如：

She’s meant to be really nice but she was anything but nice when I met her.她应该是个很和善的人，但是我跟她见面的时候，她是一点都不和气。

本段中的from…to…and back….是个很长的介词短语，翻译的时候，按照先后顺序来，名词词组动词化：“从…起步，一度成为…….后又回到原点”；

Wednesday’s admission by ofo founder Dai Wei that it is under “immense cash flow pressure” and skirting bankruptcy was surprising only for its upfront honesty. 

周三，ofo创始人戴威承认该公司面临“巨大的现金流压力”并处于破产边缘——他承认的事情并不令人惊讶，令人惊讶的只是他毫无保留的坦率。

Skirt这里用作动词：V-T Something that skirts an area is situated around the edge of it. 位于…的边缘; 围绕；

英文真的特别擅长用名词词组去堆砌句子，这段的主语就一个不算短的Wednesday’s admission by ofo founder Dai Wei，翻译的时候一定毫不犹豫的给它拆开，变成通顺的中国话；

In the rear-view mirror, ofo’s blowout may seem inevitable, as cities across China, Europe and the US have witnessed its distinctive yellow bikes vandalised, stolen — or, just as bad for the company, simply underused.

回过头来看，ofo的溃败似乎不可避免，因为中国、欧洲及美国的城市均目睹了其显眼的黄色单车遭到破坏、盗窃、或闲置——这对ofo来说同样糟糕。

In the rear-view mirror 字面意思“在后视镜里”，也就是回头看，依据文章意境，也可以是“回首往事”等；

Vandalise: to damage or destroy things deliberately, especially public property故意破坏〔财物，尤指公物〕，（注意该词的使用范围~）；

But ofo’s imminent demise should provide a timely sanity check for investors now ploughing hundreds of millions of dollars into the latest transportation fad: electric scooter sharing companies. 

但ofo即将倒闭应该令当下一些投资者及时、冷静地审视一下他们的投资：将数亿美元投资于最新潮的共享出行方式——共享电动滑板车企业。

Imminent：an event that is imminent, especially an unpleasant one, will happen very soon〔尤指令人不快的事〕即将发生的，逼近的，注意它的使用范围，所以常看到的搭配都是不好的事情，比如：

imminent danger/threat/death/disaster etc

demise：formal the end of something that used to exist〔曾经存在的事物的〕终止，结束，消亡，比如报纸的消亡：the demise of newspaper;

plough: to use money that you have earned from a business to make the business bigger and more successful把〔赚来的钱〕再投资

可替代词：invest; fund; inject/pour money into…

Fad：something that people like or do for a short time, or that is fashionable for a short time一时的狂热；时尚，风尚， 比如结合上面的“投资”：investment fad 投资风潮;

This breakneck expansion masked the fact that ofo never figured out whether its original idea was commercially viable. “A lot of the mistakes occurred because they had so much capital,” says Horace Dediu, a technology industry analyst studying so-called “micro mobility”. “The money was buying growth. It was a land grab. As a result they didn’t stop to learn.” 

这种突飞猛进的扩张掩盖了这样一个事实，即ofo从未弄清其最初的想法在商业上是否可行。“许多错误的发生就是因为他们有那么多的资本。”一名研究所谓“微观移动性”的科技行业分析师霍勒斯•德迪乌(Horace Dediu)表示，“这些钱是用来购买增长的。即攻城略地。因此，他们没有停下来学习。”

Breakneck是个形容词：ADJ If you say that something happens or travels at breakneck speed, you mean that it happens or travels very fast. 极快的，所以这个词一般形容（事物发展的）速度，比如Breakneck speed;

Ofo’s deeper flaw is embedded in Silicon Valley’s start-up model. Raising too much money too quickly railroads entrepreneurs into expansion that they do not discover they cannot afford until it is too late. Many so-called unicorns have the same flaws buried in their business models — but with many of their backers impatient for them to go public next year, it is now too late to apply the brakes.

ofo更深层的缺陷隐藏在硅谷的创业模式中。过于迅速地筹集到太多资金迫使创业者仓促开始扩张，直到为时已晚，才发现自己负担不起。许多所谓的“独角兽”在其商业模式中也存在同样缺陷——但他们的众多投资者迫不及待地盼望着他们明年上市，现在踩刹车已经来不及了。 

“更深层的缺陷存在于/隐藏于…”本段用了2种表达：

Ofo’s deeper flaw is embedded in…

Many so-called unicorns have the same flaws buried in…

Railroad【熟词僻义】：to force or persuade someone to do something without giving them enough time to think about it迫使[劝服]〔某人〕仓促行事，搭配是：

Railroad sb. Into sth./ doing sth. ，比如工人被迫仓促地签下协议：

The workers were railroaded into signing the agreement.

Unicorn独角兽公司，指的是：独角兽公司一般指投资界对于10亿美元以上估值，并且创办时间相对较短的公司的称谓。

 “踩刹车“动词除了这里的apply，可以直接用brake的动词形式，或替换为：

Put on the brakes/slam the brakes/jam on the brake/press on the brake;