2020考研英语：《经济学人》中英读译Day46

英语阅读能力依靠什么？必然是词汇的积累，但，仅仅是词汇的积累是不够了，更应该了解英语句式，不同句型所表达意义。如何培养自己的阅读语感呢？那么就跟着聚创考研信息网小编每天学一点英语，一起为考研筑起坚实的地基。阅读是需要积累的，就像我们需要经常和人沟通才会促进我们的表达能力一样~小伙伴跟着小编一起，每天坚持打卡，培养英语阅读能力及语感，了解文章一些经典词汇的用法。

经济学人:腾讯试图安抚政府 正扩大年龄认证计划

 

Leaders：Video games

社论：电子游戏

 

The price of free

免费的代价

 

The second is the realisation that players will happily pay real money for virtual goods.These can be upgrades, costumes or weapons for their in-game characters,or (more cynically) a lottery-style “loot box” whose contents are unknown in advance, but might prove valuable enough to resell to other players.

译文

第二，玩家将更愿意为虚拟商品支付真实资金。虚拟商品可能是游戏内角色的升级、皮肤或武器，或者（更讽刺的是）彩票式的“战利品箱”，其内容事先未知，但可能证明其价值足以转售给其他玩家。

 

Since the marginal cost of creating virtual items is zero, they are very profitable for developers.That has given rise to a “freemium” business model, of which Tencent was a pioneer, whereby games are given away cheaply or free but players are constantly nagged to spend money on in-game items.All this has been supercharged by smartphones, which mean people can keep playing—and paying—at all hours of the day.The result is an unhealthy loop.

译文

由于创建虚拟项目的边际成本为零，因此对开发人员来说是非常有利可图的。这其中催生了一种“免费增值”的商业模式，腾讯就是先驱，游戏本身非常便宜甚至免费，但是玩家却经常受营销蛊惑把钱花在游戏内的虚拟物品上。这一切都由于智能手机的出现再次强化，意味着人们可以一直玩游戏，一天24小时都可以玩游戏。结果就是病态循环。

 

Firms strive to keep players hooked, because the more time they spend in a game, the more money they will spend on baubles within it.Whizzy data analytics let developers tweak their products to do just that, using psychological tricks and nudges familiar from social-networking sites and the gambling industry.All this can be extremely lucrative.

译文

游戏公司努力让玩家上钩，因为玩家在游戏上花的时间越多，在游戏里的小玩意儿上花的钱就越多。开发者通过高技术数据分析，使用心理学技巧、社交网站常见的推广以及博彩业，稍加改进游戏产品。所有这些都有利可图。

 

Sensor Tower, an analysis firm, reckons that “Candy Crush Saga”, a popular game in the West, made $930m last year.The keenest gamers, known as “whales” (a term coined by casinos to describe high-rolling customers), can spend thousands of dollars a year.

译文

移动应用市场研究公司“感应塔”，预估西方流行游戏“糖果粉碎传奇”（类似中国的消消乐）去年盈利9.3亿美元。最狂热的玩家“鲸鱼玩家”(赌场用来描述高收入顾客的术语)，一年可在游戏上花费数千美元。

 

Tencent is trying to placate the Chinese government.It is expanding its age-verification scheme and limiting screen time for children.Its counterparts in other countries should take note.This newspaper does not generally believe governments should tell adults how to spend their money.But the industry could do more to protect children and addicts from its increasingly sophisticated products.It is in its own long-term interests to do so.

译文

腾讯试图安抚政府。所以正扩大其年龄认证计划，限制未成年人登录游戏时间。其他国家的游戏巨头也应学习这一点。本刊一般认为政府不应控制成年人消费方式。但游戏产品日益多样化，游戏行业应在保护儿童和游戏成瘾者不失控方面有所作为。这种做法也是考虑到游戏公司的长远利益。

 

Video games now rival the film industry for clout.Gaming is thought to be worth around $140bn annually worldwide, and is growing at 13% a year.But society’s attitude towards technology is hardening.In a world of fake news and hyper-targeted advertising, voters and politicians have awoken to the danger that devices and data may be manipulating people in harmful ways.A little voluntary forbearance now could save a lot of regulatory pain later.

译文

如今，电子游戏与电影行业平分秋色。每年，世界范围内游戏价值约1400亿美元，并以每年13%的速度增长。但社会对待科技的态度却越来越严苛。在充满虚假信息和超精准推送的世界，设备和数据可能会以有害的方式操控人，选民和政客已清醒意识到这种危险。现在一点自主克制可省去之后许多监管痛苦。

 

注释

1.marginal cost 边际成本（经济学专有名词）

边际成本是指厂商每增加一单位产量所增加的成本。因为固定成本几乎沉没，理论上边际成本可以使企业无损失的继续运转。

 

2.strive to 努力

He strives hard to keep himself very fit.

他努力使自己保持非常的健康。

 

3.tweak something 稍稍改进(如系统或设计

He expects the system to get even better as the engineers tweak its performance.

他期望在工程师对该系统的性能稍加改进后，它会运行得更为良好。

 

4.placate someone 安抚

He smiled, and made a gesture intended to placate me.

他微笑了一下，做了一个意在安抚我的手势。

 

5.in the interests of 为了…的利益

a call for all businessmen to work together in the interests of national stability.

为了国家稳定而向所有商人发出的共同合作的号召。

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