This will be remembered as a moment when everything changed
Warren Harding built a campaign for the presidential election in 1920 around his new word 「normalcy」. It was an appeal to Americans』 supposed urge to forget the horrors of the first world war and the Spanish flu and turn back to the certainties of the Golden Age. And yet, instead of embracing Harding’s normalcy, the Roaring Twenties became a ferment of forward-looking, risk-taking social, industrial and artistic novelty.
Warren Harding: 哈定，美國第29任總統(1921-1923)
normalcy: 常態。哈定在競選時提出「恢復常態」的口號。
Roaring Twenties: 咆哮的二十年代。是指北美地區（含美國和加拿大）20世紀20年代這一時期。和下文的Jazz Age指的是同一時期。
ferment: a state of confusion, change, and lack of order or fighting 紛擾；騷動
The whole country has been in a state of political ferment for some months.
幾個月來，整個國家一直處於政治動蕩狀態。
novelty: the quality of being new, different and interesting 新奇；新穎
There's a certain novelty value in this approach.
這種方法有一定的新意。
War had something to do with the Jazz Age’s lack of inhibition. So did the flu pandemic, which killed six times as many Americans and left survivors with an appetite to live the 1920s at speed. That spirit will also animate the 2020s. The sheer scale of the suffering from covid-19, the injustices and dangers the pandemic has revealed, and the promise of innovation mean that it will be remembered as the year when everything changed.
Jazz Age: 爵士時代，一般指一戰以後，經濟大蕭條以前的這段時間。第一次世界大戰結束了(1918)，經濟大蕭條(1929)還沒有到來，傳統的清教徒道德已經土崩瓦解，享樂主義開始大行其道。這十一年被稱為Jazz age或是Roaring twenties。
inhibition: a shy or nervous feeling that stops you from expressing your real thoughts or feelings 拘謹；拘束感
She soon loses her inhibitions when she's had a few glasses of wine.
幾杯酒下肚，她很快就不再拘束了。
animate: to make sth more lively or full of energy 使具活力；使生氣勃勃
A smile suddenly animated her face.
她嫣然一笑，立顯容光煥發。
the sheer scale: 規模之大
The pandemic has been a once-in-a-century event (see Graphic detail). Sars-Cov-2 has been found in over 70m people and possibly infected another 500m or more who were never diagnosed. It has caused 1.6m recorded deaths; many hundreds of thousands have gone unrecorded. Millions of survivors are living with the exhaustion and infirmities of 「long covid」. World economic output is at least 7% lower than it would otherwise have been, the biggest slump since the second world war. Out of the ashes of all that suffering will emerge the sense that life is not to be hoarded, but lived.
exhaustion: 筋疲力盡；疲憊不堪
Her face was grey with exhaustion.
她疲憊得臉色發白。
infirmity: bad health or a particular illness 體弱；疾病
We all fear disability or infirmity.
我們都害怕傷殘或體弱。
output: 產量
Economic output is down by 10% this year.
經濟產值今年下降了 10%。
slump: （銷售量、價格、價值等的）驟降；猛跌
a slump in car sales
汽車銷售量的驟降
ashes: a situation in which sth is completely destroyed 廢墟，灰燼(指完全被毀的局面)
The organization has risen from the ashes to become very successful.
該機構浴火重生，現在已經非常成功。
life is not to be hoarded, but lived: 這裡意思是說（疫情過後的）人們會開始花錢（活在當下），而不是存錢
Another reason to expect change — or, at least, to wish for it — is that covid-19 has served as a warning. The 80bn animals slaughtered for food and fur each year are Petri dishes for the viruses and bacteria that evolve into a lethal human pathogen every decade or so. This year the bill came due and it was astronomical. The clear blue skies that appeared as the economy went into lockdown were a powerful symbol of how covid-19 is a fast-moving crisis within a slow-moving one that it in some ways resembles. Like the pandemic, climate change is impervious to populist denials, global in the disruption it causes and will be far more costly to deal with in the future if it is neglected now.
Petri dish: a shallow covered dish used for growing bacteria, etc. in 皮氏培養皿（培養細菌等用的有蓋玻璃碟）
lethal: causing death, or able to cause death 致命的
/ˈliːθl/
She had been given a lethal dose of poison.
已給她服下致死劑量的毒藥。
pathogen: 病原體
/ˈpæθədʒən/
astronomical: 極為巨大的；天文數字的
an astronomical rent/bill/price/fee
巨額租金／天文數字般的帳單／天價／極高的收費
slow-moving one: 指「氣候變化」。這裡是說疫情和氣候變化有相似之處，具體內容在下句話提到
impervious to: not affected or influenced by sth 不受影響的；不易改變的
/imˈpɜːviəs/
She was impervious to his charms.
對他的魅力她無動於衷。
populist denials: 受到平民主義者的否認，即川普類的平民主義者不承認有氣候變化，但這句話的意思是說就算平民主義者否認氣候變化，它也是真實存在的
And a third reason to expect change is that the pandemic has highlighted injustice. Children have fallen behind in their lessons — and too often gone hungry. School leavers and graduates have once again seen their prospects recede. People of all ages have endured loneliness or violence at home. Migrant workers have been cast adrift, or sent back to their villages, taking the disease with them. The suffering has been skewed by race. A 40-year-old Hispanic-American is 12 times more likely to die from covid-19 than a white American of the same age. In São Paulo black Brazilians under 20 are twice as likely to die as whites.
cast adrift: 漂泊無依
skew: changed or affected to some extent by a new or unusual factor, and so is not correct or normal 影響…的準確性；歪曲
/skjuː/
The arithmetic of nuclear running costs has been skewed by the fall in the cost of other fuels.
核運營成本的計算由於其他燃料的降價而出現了偏差。
As the world has adapted some of these iniquities have got worse. Studies suggest that about 60% of jobs in America paying over $100,000 can be done from home, compared with 10% of jobs paying under $40,000. As unemployment has soared this year, the MSCI index of world stockmarkets has risen by 11%. In the worst case, the UN reckons, the pandemic could force over 200m people into extreme poverty. Their plight will be exacerbated by authoritarians and would-be tyrants who have exploited the virus to tighten their stranglehold on power.
MSCI: Morgan Stanley Capital International, 摩根史坦利資本國際公司，是美國指數編制公司
plight: a very bad situation that someone is in 困境
The African elephant is in a desperate plight.
非洲象正面臨絕境。
exacerbate: to make a bad situation worse 使惡化
I don’t want to exacerbate the situation.
我不想使情況變得更糟。
would-be tyrants: 未來的暴JUN
stranglehold on: complete control over a situation, organization etc (對局勢、組織等的)完全控制
Just a few firms have a stranglehold on the market for this software.
只有少數幾家公司完全控制著這種軟體的市場。
Perhaps that is why pandemics have led to social upheaval in the past. The IMF looked at 133 countries in 2001-18 and found that unrest surged about 14 months after the onset of disease, peaking after 24 months. The more unequal a society, the more upheaval. Indeed, the fund warns of a vicious circle in which protest further increases hardship which, in turn, feeds protest.
upheaval: very big change that causes a lot of problems 劇變; 動亂
Yesterday's coup brought further upheaval to a country already struggling with famine.
昨天的軍事政變使這個正在饑荒中掙扎的國家更加動蕩不安。
Fortunately, covid-19 has not just brought about the need for change, it also points a way forward. That is partly because it has served as an engine of innovation. Under lockdown, e-commerce as a share of American retail sales increased as much in eight weeks as it had in the previous five years. As people worked from home, travel on the New York subway fell by over 90%. Almost overnight, businesses like this newspaper began to be run from spare rooms and kitchen tables — an experiment that would otherwise have taken years to unfold, if ever.
unfold: happen (一系列的事件)發生
He had watched the drama unfold from a nearby ship.
他從附近的一艘船上目睹了這一戲劇性事件的發生。
This disruption is in its infancy. The pandemic is proof that change is possible even in conservative industries like health care. Fuelled by cheap capital and new technology, including artificial intelligence and, possibly, quantum computing (see article), innovation will burn through industry after industry. For example, costs at American colleges and universities have increased almost five times faster than consumer prices in the past 40 years, even as teaching has barely changed, making it tempting to disrupters. Further technological progress in renewable sources of energy, smart grids and battery storage are all vital steps on the path to replacing fossil fuels.
infancy: the early development of sth 初期；初創期
The system is still in its infancy.
這個體系尚處於初期發展階段。
quantum computing: 量子計算
fossil fuel: 化石燃料
The coronavirus has also revealed something profound about the way societies should treat knowledge. Consider how Chinese scientists sequenced the genome of Sars-Cov-2 within weeks and shared it with the world. The new vaccines that resulted are just one stop in the light-speed progress that has elucidated where the virus came from, whom it affects, how it kills, and what might treat it.
sequence: 測定（整套基因或分子成分的）序列
The human genome has now been sequenced.
人體基因組的序列現已測定。
genome: 基因組
/ˈdʒiːnəʊm/
elucidate: to explain sth or make sth clear 闡明；解釋
/iˈluːsideit/
I don't understand. You'll have to elucidate.
我不懂，你得解釋一下。
It is a remarkable demonstration of what science can achieve. At a time when conspiracies run wild, this research stands as a rebuke to the know-nothings and zealots in dictatorships and democracies who behave as if the evidence for a claim is as nothing next to the identity of the person asserting it.
run wild: 恣意妄為；任其發展
Those boys have been allowed to run wild.
那些男孩子無人管教肆無忌憚。
rebuke: the act of speaking severely to sb because they have done sth wrong 指責；批評
/riˈbjuːk/
know-nothings: 一無所知的人
zealot: a person who is extremely enthusiastic about something, especially religion or politics（尤指宗教或政治的）狂熱分子，狂熱者
/ˈzelət/
the evidence for a claim is as nothing next to the identity of the person asserting it: 不相信別人給出的證據（因為這些know-nothings、zealots帶有偏見）
And the pandemic has led to a burst of innovative government. Those which can afford it — and some, like Brazil’s, that cannot (see article) — have suppressed inequality by spending over $10trn on covid-19, three times more in real terms than in the financial crisis. That will dramatically reset citizens』 expectations about what governments can do for them.
Many people under lockdown have asked themselves what matters most in life. Governments should take that as their inspiration, focusing on policies that promote individual dignity, self-reliance and civic pride. They should recast welfare and education and take on concentrations of entrenched power so as to open up new thresholds for their citizens. Something good can come from the misery of the plague year. It should include a new social contract fit for the 21st century.
individual dignity: 個人尊嚴
self-reliance: 自力更生
civic pride: 公民自豪感
recast: to change sth by organizing or presenting it in a different way 改動；重組
The shake-up aims to recast IBM as a federation of flexible and competing subsidiaries.
改組的目標是把IBM重組為一個靈活的、相互競爭的子公司聯盟。
entrenched: trongly established and not likely to change 根深蒂固的；牢固的
a deeply entrenched belief in male superiority
根深蒂固的大男子主義觀念
social contract: 社會契約