【按】本文选自11月25日《经济学人》的Business版块，介绍了在很多中国城市已经烂大街却还没盈利的共享单车。此处为文章前两段的精读解析。

精读说明：

• 每段文字前标有段号，紧接单词解释，建议多看英文释义（这样才能理解得更全面、准确同时能锻炼阅读能力）；
• 接下来是此段的中文翻译，你可以对照看看是否有理解错误的地方；
• 之后是对本段内容及句型、段落结构的解析，偶尔附带一些小评论；
• 最后可能附有本段出现的语法点或写作知识的拓展。

如果在阅读过程中有任何问题欢迎留言讨论，祝读得开心~

Escape velocipede

China’s bicycle-sharing giants are still trying to make money

One answer would be for Ofo and Mobike to merge

Velocipede (/vəˈlɒsəpiːd/; 拉丁语意思是 "fast foot") is a human-powered land vehicle with one or more wheels. The most common type of velocipede today is the bicycle.
merge: to combine or make two or more things combine to form a single thing (使)合并，结合，并入

解析
Escape velocipede即逃离脚踏车，看看下面这张图你就知道什么意思了。文章标题告诉我们：中国的共享单车巨头（Ofo和摩拜）还没有赚到钱，并指出一条出路：两家合并。

共享单车大战

Nov 23rd 2017 | BEIJING

1. STEVE JOBS liked to describe computers as “bicycles for the mind”—tools that let humans do things faster and more efficiently than their bodies would allow. The internet-connected bikes flooding the streets of urban China could be called “computers for the road”. Networked, trackable and data-generating, they are ones and zeros in aluminium form.

flood: to become or make sth become available in a place in large numbers (使)充斥，充满
e.g. Cheap imported goods are flooding the market.廉价进口商品充斥着市场。
e.g. A man who planned to flood Britain with cocaine was jailed for 15 years. 一个企图在英国大量销售可卡因的男人被判刑 15 年。

1. 乔布斯喜欢把计算机描述为“大脑的自行车”——让人类能突破身体所限更快速、更高效地做事的工具。在中国城市的街道上充斥着能连接互联网的自行车，它们可以被称为“道路的计算机”。互联网化, 可追踪并且能生成数据, 它们是铝形式的零和一。

解析
本段用乔布斯的著名的比喻“大脑的自行车”开篇，仿造了另一个比喻——“道路的计算机”，巧妙地引出共享单车的话题。同时指出共享单车的三个特征：互联网化, 可追踪并且能生成数据。它们虽然是铝做的车，但更重要的，它们是互联网大数据来源，ones and zeros（零和一）是计算机的基本数据形态（二进制）。
flood the streets可以翻译为“烂大街”，连发音都很像：）

语法小课堂：形容词性从句的简化
The internet-connected bikes flooding the streets of urban China could be called “computers for the road”. 这句可以理解为 The internet-connected bikes which flood the streets of urban China could be called “computers for the road”. 即flooding the streets of urban China是现在分词做后置定语（定语从句的简化）的情况。
Networked, trackable and data-generating, they are ones and zeros in aluminium form. 这句中Networked, trackable and data-generating也可以看做定语从句的简化，即：They, which are networked, trackable and data-generating, are ones and zeros in aluminium form.

2. The cycles belong to Ofo and Mobike, two startups that, taken together, have raised $2.2bn of capital and are valued at more than 4bn. Each has between 7m and 10m bikes in China, averages 30m-35m rides a day and, having entered more than 100 Chinese cities, is expanding abroad. At the start of 2016 neither firm had a single bike on a public road. Ofo’s canary-yellow cycles and Mobike’s silver-and-orange ones can now be found in cities from Adelaide to London and Singapore to Seattle.

take: to consider or view in a particular relation
e.g. taken together, the details were significant
average: to be equal to a particular amount as an average 平均为：
e.g. Economic growth is expected to average 2% next year. 明年经济增长预计平均可达 2%。
e.g. Drivers in London can expect to average about 12 miles per hour (= to have that as their average speed). 估计伦敦的驾车者平均时速为 12 英里。

2. 这些自行车属于两个初创企业Ofo和摩拜, 它们加在一起募集了22亿美元的资本, 估值超过40亿。它们各自在中国都有700万到1000万辆自行车, 每天平均达到30到35分钟的骑乘时间, 并且已经进入了超过100个中国城市，正在向海外扩张。在2016年初, 两家公司在公共道路上都没有一辆自行车。而如今Ofo的浅黄色自行车和摩拜的银橙相间的自行车已出现在从阿德莱德到伦敦、从新加坡到西雅图这些（海外）城市里。

解析
本段介绍中国最有名的两家共享单车公司，指出其估值、规模、每日平均使用时间及覆盖范围。最后一句非常有画面感，既有颜色又有世界各地的具体城市名，比起数字，读者能够更直观感受到这两家中国共享单车公司的扩张速度之快。

第一句有几处省略，原句可理解为：The cycles belong to Ofo and Mobike, which are two startups that, when/if they are taken together, have raised $2.2bn of capital and are valued at more than 4bn.
taken together当做插入语，前后两个逗号和主句隔开，理解主句的时候可以先忽略它。
第二句是个平行结构，主语Each后三个谓语动词平行：has, average, is expanding。注意average此处做动词，主语是第三人称单数所以加-s。
三个谓语动词中前两个动词是一般时，表示目前的状况，最后一个动词expand是现在进行时，表示正在扩张。
having entered more than 100 Chinese cities作插入语，因enter（中国城市）这个动作在expand（到海外）这个动作之前已完成，所以用的是完成时。
现在分词做状语（非谓语动词）这个语法点在《光棍中国》那篇介绍过，以下补充一些完成时的例句：

语法小课堂
-ing（现在分词）短语作状语用，含有时间、原因、让步、方式或伴随、结果等意义，但比较含蓄，只能根据上下文仔细琢磨。比如：
The metal was cooled in the air, having been heated to a definite temperature in the furnace. 这种金属在炉子里加热到一定温度以后，就放在空气中冷却。（时间状语）
Not having done it, we tried again. 由于没有做成，我们就又试了。（原因状语。not 不能位于 having 后面。否定非谓语动词时，not 均应位于非谓语动词前面。）
He knew how to run the machine, having been a worker ten years. 他当了十年工人，才知道如何开动这台机器。（原因状语。现在分词短语的完成式虽在句末，其动作仍在谓语动词之前。）
The doctor, having felt your pulse, pronounced you better. 医生按了脉搏以后，断定你病已好转。（时间状语）

---

原文出处：经济学人

翻译：七呵夫

本译文仅供个人研习、欣赏语言之用，谢绝任何转载及用于任何商业用途。本译文不代表本人立场。本人同意简书平台在接获有关著作权人的通知后，删除文章。