经济学人精读笔记17：无现金时代，电子支付大势所趋

标签（空格分隔）：经济学人

Part 1

The dash off cash

Rich countries must start planning for a cashless future

For the past 3,000 years, when people thought of money they thought of cash. From buying food to settling bar tabs, day-to-day dealings involved creased paper or clinking bits of metal. Over the past decade, however, digital payments have taken off—tapping your plastic on a terminal or swiping a smartphone has become normal.

挥金如土
发达国家必须开始为无现金的未来做计划
在过去的3000年里，每当提起钱，人们总会想到现金。从购买食物到酒吧吧台结算消费，日常交易用到的都是皱巴巴的纸币或叮当作响的硬币。然而，过去十年间，数字支付已经兴起——在终端上刷卡或刷手机已经变得平常。

dash off 匆忙完成，迅速完成。The dash off cash 指把钱快速完成，意为挥金如土。

dash [ dash ]单独使用表示“使破灭”

dash / shatter (sb's) hopes 使（某人的）希望破灭

A failure would shatter the hopes of many people... 一次失败会使很多人希望破灭。

【记忆方法】ash（灰烬）都d（ie）了，希望就更没了。

from …to…
这是一个常见的举例子的表达，在外刊中的出现频率很高，结构为n. from A to B，A和B就是n.的两个例子

在《金融时报》一篇讲在线支付的文章有这么一句话：Mobile payments are widely used for everything from high-street shopping to ride hailing.从商业街购物到叫车服务，移动支付得到广泛使用。

When people thought of sth they thought of sth当人们想到某事时，他们想到了什么。

我们在写作中将两个事物联系起来时就可以用到这个句型，如when we thought of childhood we thought of friends当我们想到童年的时候，我们想到了朋友。【写作推荐】

settle bar tabs 结清酒吧账单

settle v. 付钱 These insurance companies take forever to settle a claim.这些保险公司要拖很久才支付索赔款项。【熟词僻义】

tab n.账款；账目 The tab for the campaign was nearly $500 million. 活动的费用将近5亿美元。

day-to-day dealings 日常交易

【类似表达】daily trading/ daily transaction/ daily dealing

注意纸币/硬币这两个表达“creased paper和clinking bits of metal”

creased paper 皱巴巴的纸张也就是纸币

clinking bits of metal 其中clink指叮当作响， bits of指些许的；小片的，bits of metal指金属片，clinking bits of metal指金属片的叮当声。clinking coins指响叮当的硬币

take off (突然）成功 In 1944, he met Edith Piaf, and his career took off.1944年，他遇到伊迪丝•琵雅芙，从此他的事业飞黄腾达。

此外take off还有“(飞机) 起飞离开/脱去/休假”的意思,要注意根据具体的语境进行区分。

tap plastic on a terminal 终端机划卡

plastic本义“塑料的”比如：plastic bag塑料袋，文中作名词指“银行卡”, plastic surgery整容手术

terminal n.(计算机) 终端

还记得2016年闹得沸沸扬扬的“韩国萨德部署”事件吗？萨德全称为末段高空区域防御系统，英语：Terminal High Altitude Area Defense，缩写：THAAD故称萨德，其中末端的就是terminal这个词。

terminal常见作名词“火车/汽车的终点站”比如2004年梦工厂出品的著名电影《幸福终点站》的英文名就是The Terminal

terminal还可以做形容词①晚期的，不治的；致命的He has terminal lung cancer.他患有晚期肺癌。a terminal patient晚期病人

②末端的；末梢的

terminal examinations (= at the end of a course, etc.)期末考试

swipe [swaɪp] 作为动词有“刷（卡）”的含义（to pull a plastic card through a machine that can read the electronic information on it）

Swipe your card to open the door.刷卡开门。现在也逐渐引申为“滑动（屏幕）”的意思。

Part 2

Now this revolution is about to turn cash into an endangered species in some rich economies. That will make the economy more efficient—but it also poses new problems that could hold the transition hostage.

如今，这场革命即将要把一些发达国家的现金变为“濒危物种”。数字支付能够让经济更高效，但同时也带来了一些可能会阻碍经济转型的新的问题。

endangered species 濒危物种
pose义为“构成；引起”(to create a threat, problem, etc. that has to be dealt with)，尤指构成或引起各种困难,经常搭配threat，danger，risk，problem等词

比如气候变化是全球发展的一个长期威胁：Climate change poses a long-term threat to global development.

再比如失业率上升正在给政府造成严重的问题：Rising unemployment is posing serious problems for the administration.

transition n. 过渡; 转变; 变迁
hostage n. 人质

Part 3

Countries are eliminating cash at varying speeds. But the direction of travel is clear, and in some cases the journey is nearly complete. In Sweden the number of retail cash transactions per person has fallen by 80% in the past ten years. Cash accounts for just 6% of purchases by value in Norway. Britain is probably four or six years behind the Nordic countries. America is perhaps a decade behind. Outside the rich world, cash is still king. But even there its dominance is being eroded. In China digital payments rose from 4% of all payments in 2012 to 34% in 2017.

全球各国淘汰现金的速度虽然不同，但至少方向是明确的，某些国家甚至已经几乎完全消除了现金。在过去十年间，瑞典人均零售现金交易次数下降了80%。换算至价值来说，现金仅占挪威购买金额的6%。英国可能比北欧国家落后四至六年。美国可能已经落后了十年。除开发达国家外，现金仍是王道。但即便是在这些不发达国家，现金的主导地位也正在遭受撼动。在中国，数字支付占总支付之比已经从2012年的4%上升至2017年的34%了。

eliminating 淘汰
at varying speeds 以不同的速度

【原文理解】the direction of travel 直译“旅行的方向”，在文中的指这次电子支付前进的方向，与后文的journey旅程相呼应。

cash transactions 现金交易
account for sth to be a particular amount or part of sth（数量上、比例上）占

这个短语在外刊中出现的频率很高，我们来看三个来自经济学人的例句：

[经济学人. Environmental economics in China] First, despite the common assumption that industries such as steel or coal are vast, they in fact account for a small, shrinking share of the Chinese economy. 首先，尽管人们普遍认为钢铁或煤炭等行业规模庞大，但实际上占中国经济的份额很小，而且还在不断萎缩。

[经济学人. Environmental economics in China] China accounts for about two-fifths of global production of electric cars. 中国的电动汽车产量约占全球的五分之二。

purchases vt. 购买；赢得
Nordic countries 北欧国家
dominance n. 优势;支配地位
eroded vt. & vi. 侵蚀, 腐蚀

Part 4

Cash is dying out because of two forces. One is demand—younger consumers want payment systems that plug seamlessly into their digital lives. But equally important is that suppliers such as banks and tech firms (in developed markets) and telecoms companies (in emerging ones) are developing fast, easy-to-use payment technologies from which they can pull data and pocket fees.

在两股力量的作用下，现金正在走向灭亡。其一是需求——年轻的消费者希望支付系统能无缝接入他们的数字生活。其二，同样重要的是，（发达国家市场的）银行和科技公司以及（新兴市场的）电信公司等供应商正在开发快捷、便利的支付技术，它们可以从中获得数据并收取小额费用。

die out 灭绝，消失

die away逐渐消失，逐渐模糊 die down（灯光）逐渐暗淡 die of/from sth死于…

old habits, die hard旧习难改

force n. If you refer to someone or something as a force in a particular type of activity, you mean that they have a strong influence on it.力量，影响力；

For years the army was the most powerful political force in the country.多年来，军队一直是这个国家最强大的政治力量。

enter / come into force指法律、规则等“开始生效；开始实施”(to start being used)，比如 Parking restrictions in the town centre came into force last month. 市中心限制停车的法规于上月开始实施。

demand vt. 要求
plug into 接通，把…接入，插进
seamlessly 无缝的 Plug seamlessly into 无缝插入

【写作推荐】当我们需要阐述发生某件事情的两个原因，且第二个原因比第一个原因更重要时，我们可以用one is…，but equally important is that… 。如Reading is popular because of two forces, one is that it can help us acquire knowledge, but equally important is that it can help us broaden our horizon and grow our mind.阅读盛行的原因有两个，一个是它可以帮助我们获取知识，但更重要的是它可以帮助我们开阔视界，获得心灵的成长。

其中 equally important is that…是倒装句，可以避免头重脚轻的问题。正确的语序是that… is equally important.

easy-to-use 便捷的，简单好用的

user-friendly adj.方便非专业用户的；便于使用的；易于掌握的

Part 5

There is a high cost to running the infrastructure behind the cash economy—ATMs, vans carrying notes, tellers who accept coins. Most financial firms are keen to abandon it, or deter old-fashioned customers with hefty fees.

现金经济背后运营的基础设施成本高昂——自动取款机、运钞车、收取硬币的收纳员。大多数金融公司都乐于抛弃现金交易，或者以高昂的手续费将传统客户拒之门外。

ATM =Automatic Teller Machine 自动取款（出纳）机
vans n. 厢式货车
be keen to do sth渴望做某事

《经济学人》中一篇关于杭州正在建设西湖大学的文章提到：Keen to host a top-class university, it offered Mr Shi tempting terms.由于急切渴望拥有一所顶尖大学，杭州给施一公（现西湖大学校长）开出了诱人的条件。

【类似表达】关于“渴望做某事”的多样表达，这里列出一些短语可替换我们常用的want to do sth very much

be eager to do sth/be eager for sth比如《福布斯》杂志中有一篇文章论述福特和通用两家汽车公司所开发的无线技术的不同，其中说到：Ford is eager to bring mobile features into its cars as soon as possible. 福特迫切希望尽快给旗下汽车配置无线技术。
yearn to do sth/yearn for sth比如《卫报》中一篇关于美国犹太人宗教信仰的文章中提到：By contrast, some older Trump supporters, who fear a homogenizing globalism, admire Israel for preserving Jewish identity while yearning to preserve America’s Christian identity in ways that exclude Jews.相比之下，一些较年长的担心全球主义同质化的特朗普支持者却钦佩以色列人，因为他们在保留自己犹太人身份的同时又渴望以排斥犹太人的方式保留美国的基督教徒身份。
long to do sth/ long for sth
比如《经济学人》中有一篇书评引用了一位读者写给作者的信：Reading your book, I began to long for the days when people wrote letters to each other. 读您的书让我渴望回到人们仍相互写信的日子。
be hungry for sth/ be thirsty for sth这两个词组的用法类似，都很形象。比如《经济学人》一篇关于金星的报道提到：MsJin describes herself as having been “a little Chinese boy thirsting for the West”.金女士将当时的自己描述为一个渴望西方的中国小男孩。
be dying to do sth / be dying for sth表示“极度渴望…”

比如《福布斯》杂志中有一篇关于投资理财的文章提到：The landscape is riddled with pretenders who are clever and dying to get their hands on your assets.投资界满是狡猾老道的觊觎者，迫不及待地想占有你的财产。

abandon v.放弃，舍弃

【相关表达】abandon sth. in favor of sth. 为获得…（更好或更需要的事物）放弃…. He abandoned teaching in favour of a career as a musician.他弃教从事音乐。【写作推荐】

abandon sb to his fate让某人自生自灭,听任...

The government had abandoned the refugees to their fate .政府抛弃了难民，让他们听天由命。

deter [dɪˈtɜːr]v.to stop someone from doing something, by making them realize it will be difficult or have bad results 威慑；使不敢 I told him I wasn't interested, but he wasn't deterred. 我已告诉他我不感兴趣，可他却不罢休。

undeterred adj.if you are undeterred by sth, you do not allow it to stop you doing what you want未被吓住的；不灰心丧气的 Undeterred by his early failures, he decided to keep writing.他没有被一开始的失败吓倒，决定坚持写作。

undaunted [ʌnˈdɔːntɪd]也可以表示“无畏的”、“勇敢的” (not afraid of continuing to try to do something in spite of difficulties or danger)，在外刊中出现频率较高，与undeterred用法一样，比如： Undaunted by the enormity of the task, they began rebuilding the village.他们不畏任务艰巨，开始重建村庄。

hefty词根是heft n. the weight of sb/sth 重量 She was surprised by the sheer heft of the package. 就那包裹沉甸甸的分量够她吃惊的了。

hefty [ˈhefti] adj. [usually before noun] 1. big and heavy高大健壮的; 笨重的 a tall, hefty man一个高大健壮的男人hefty camera equipment笨重的照相器材

a hefty amount of something, especially money, is very large〔尤指金钱〕大量的，巨额的 a hefty fine巨额罚款
(BrE) a hefty blow, kick etc is done using a lot of force有力的，重重的 He aimed a hefty kick at the door.他对着门猛踢了一脚。a hefty shove一记猛推