經濟學人精讀|奈良的鹿

本期導讀

本文節選自《經濟學人》20201205期。每年有超過1300萬的遊客來到日本古都奈良，奈良公園裡大約有1300隻鹿，人們用一種特殊的米餅來餵鹿；由於疫情旅遊業幾乎停滯，沒有人再來餵這些鹿，它們不得不去離家很遠的地方尋找食物，而這也造成了一些「破壞事件」。

Ungulates in Japan

Hungry for vistors

A crash in tourism means no one is feeding thesacreddeer of Nara

THE MORE than 13m tourists who visit Nara, an ancient capital of Japan, each year tend to follow awell-wornpath. On their way into a park at the edge of the city they pass the towering woodenpagodaof Kofuku-ji, a templecomplexfounded in 710. They continue to nearby Todai-ji, gazing inaweat Japan’s largest Buddha, abronze behemothweighing 400 tons and standing 15 metres tall. And finally they feedshika senbei, a special kind of ricecracker, to the sacred deer,some1,300 of which live in the park.

sacred意思是「神聖的」

well-worn表示「已使用很久的」

pagoda指「塔；佛塔」；注意和tower的區別，tower是現代化的建築，而像「六和塔」、「雷峰塔」這些都是pagoda

complex用作名詞，意思是「（類型相似的）建築群」，用作形容詞是意思是「複雜的；難懂的」，名詞是complexity

awe意思是「敬畏；驚嘆」，它有個短語是be/stand in awe of...意思是「對…敬畏；對…望而生畏」

bronze指「青銅色的」，名詞指「青銅」

behemoth意思是「龐然大物」，現在多用其引申義，表示「巨頭（指規模龐大、實力雄厚的公司或機構）」

cracker 指「薄脆餅乾」

some用在數詞前，意思是「大約，差不多」，相當於approximately

The deer, though wild, have come to love the crackers. With tourism reduced to atricklebecause of the pandemic, they are hungry. Many have begun wandering far from home in search of food. A recent study by the Nara Deer Preservation Foundation and Tatsuzawa Shirow of Hokkaido University shows that 20% fewer are spending their days in the park; incidents of damage caused by deer in town haveshot up. The lessenterprisingones, apparently accustomed to eating only crackers, have becomeemaciated.

trickle本意是「細流；涓流」，在這裡reduce to a trickle 就表示「所剩無幾」

shoot up是個動詞短語，意思是「猛增」

enterprising 意思是「有進取心的」

emaciated指「常指因疾病或缺少食物而）消瘦的，憔悴的，虛弱的」

如有不足，還望指正

謝謝！

- END -

英語語言

英語 | 翻譯 | 學習| 閱讀