【经济学人 | 赏析】The Chinese are comin

Paragraph 3

①And both are expanding overseas. ②By one account a third of Alipay’s users are abroad. ③In the summer of 2018 it processed 2.6 times as many foreign transactions as in the same period a year earlier. ④Like WeChat Pay, it set off abroad in pursuit of the growing numbers of Chinese tourists. ⑤Outlets in more than 40 countries accept it. ⑥Besides expanding under its own name, Alipay is buying stakes in local payments companies across Asia—including Paytm in India, ePaisa in Pakistan and Dana in Indonesia. ⑦WeChat Pay is also expanding into South-East Asia.

段落解析：

本段讲的是支付宝和微信支付的海外扩张。他们是跟随着中国人海外旅游的热潮而展开的，超过49个国家的奥特莱斯购物中心都可以使用。支付宝更是入股了很多亚洲国家当地的支付公司，微信支付也扩张到了东南亚国家。

词句精读：

stake，意思是“股份，股本”，“if you have a stake in a business, you have invested money in it”，常用搭配是“hold / have a stake in sth”。比如说我们要表达，他在这家公司拥有 51% 的股份，就可以说：He holds a 51% stake in the firm. 另外，stake还有“风险”的意思，常用搭配是“at stake”,表示有风险，成败难料，if something that you value very much is at stake, you will lose it if a plan or action is not successful.

背景补充：

outlet，本意是“出口，出路，通风口，排泄口”。Oulet首创于美国，已有上百年历史，是欧美发展最为强劲的零售业态，并逐渐风靡盛行欧美、东南亚等诸多国家。最初Oulet为工厂直销店，后慢慢形成类似shopping mall的Oulet购物中心，继而发展成独立的零售业态。

Outlet

Paragraph 4

①The payment systems they are introducing are so ubiquitous in China that even beggars use them. ②They are based on Quick Response (QR) codes, the square, black-and-white dot matrices first introduced in Japan’s car industry in the 1990s. ③These will take market share at the expense of other payment systems for two main reasons. ④One is the size of the Chinese market and the continued growth of the Chinese economy. ⑤The other is that they are easy to use—and cheap, requiring only a smartphone.

段落解析：

本段讲的是这两种支付系统在中国太普遍了。他们都是基于二维码，这个最初是由日本引入到了汽车行业。之所以盛行的原因，一个是中国市场的体量和中国经济的增长；另一个是使用的便捷性和低廉性，有智能手机就可以了。

词句精读：

ubiquitous，意思是“无处不在的”，“seeming to be everywhere - sometimes used humorously”，近义词为“common”。 比如，我们想表达，如今好像到处都是咖啡馆，就可以说：Coffee shops are ubiquitous these days.

at the expense of，意思是“以…为代价；由…支付费用；在损害……情况下”，可以替换为“at the cost of”。我们想表达，不要因次要问题而冲淡了中心任务，就可以说：Don't stress minor issues at the expense of the central task.

Paragraph 5

①To see how they might take hold, consider Finland. A Finnish payments firm, ePassi, grew out of a software company under pressure from its staff in 2007 to give them tax-free benefits in kind, such as gym memberships and massages (Finland is a nice place). ②Balking, out of digital amour proper, at doing this with paper vouchers, it devised a virtual substitute—first in the form of text messages and then as a smartphone app, where users would select the payee from a list or map.

段落解析：

本段是用芬兰举例，讲移动支付如何占据主导地位。通过举epassi的例子，说明虚拟替代纸质带来的便利。

词句精读：

take hold，表示“完全控制/影响某人或某物”，“If something takes hold, it gains complete control or influence over a person or thing.” 可以用“take charge”和“take control”来同义替换。我们想表达，她感到一种奇怪的兴奋感控制住了自己，就可以说：She felt a strange excitement taking hold of her.

in kind，在这里的意思是“以货物（服务）代款”，“a way of paying for something with goods or services instead of money”，可以说是payment in kind， 以实物支付；an allowance in kind，实物津贴。另外，in kind 还有“ <回报等> 以同种的事物,同样地”，比如，我们想表达，我以侮辱回报他的侮辱，就可以说：I repaid his insult in kind.（有点以牙还牙的感觉，可是切记：冤冤相报何时了~）

balk at，意思是“阻止，反对”，“If you balk at something, you definitely do not want to do it or to let it happen. ”我们想表达，即使是生物专业的大学生都可能会反对动物实验，就可以说：Even biology undergraduates may balk at animal experiments.

背景补充：

ePassi， ePassi is the leading electronic payment system for personnel benefits in Finland. ePassi是员工福利方面的电子支付系统，在ePassi的官网上可以看到，服务范围涵盖了购物、娱乐、交通、饮食、健身等各方面，重点是：这些都是给员工的福利！（要不连《经济学人》的编辑都赞叹芬兰是个好地方啊~）

ePassi