2018考博英语阅读经济学人文章每日精析:旅行安全

2017-08-15 18:03:52来源:网络

2018考博英语阅读经济学人文章每日精析:旅行安全

  考博英语阅读大部分博士研究生招生院校都使用《经济学人》杂志文章作为题源,新东方在线考博频道为考博生们将其中的文章进行深度分析,希望能提高大家的考博英语阅读水平,读懂长难句。

  Travel security旅行安全Risky business高风险生意International SOS is the biggest player in a fast-growing industry国际SOS救援中心是旅游安全——这个快速增长的行业的最大参与者

  AT THE centre of a large office in west London sits a raised circular platform with several seats. Screens in front carry international news superimposed on a huge atlas. From here rescue missions are co-ordinated by International SOS (ISOS), the world’s largest travel-security firm, which counts nearly two-thirds of the Fortune Global 500 companies as clients. It operates 26 other centres across the world. The firm says they have never been busier.在伦敦西部一个大型的写字楼的中间,摆放着一张大圆桌,几把椅子。前方的屏幕滚动的国际新闻叠加在一个巨型地图册上,世界上最大的旅行安全保障公司国际SOS救援中心(ISOS)就是从这里策划营救活动的,全球财富500强公司里接近2/3都是它的客户。它经营者横跨全球的其他26处中心,该公司表示它从来没有这么忙碌过。

  ISOS has responded to emergencies large and small. They range from giving timely advice to the parents of a child in Nigeria who had swallowed a coin to evacuating corporate and NGO clients from Burundi during last year’s coup attempt. Torn between a medical airlift and potentially risky surgery in a local hospital, the child’s parents were counselled by ISOS doctors to let nature take its course, which it duly did. The Burundi operation was trickier.国际SOS救援中心对大大小小的紧急情况做出了回应。从他们给尼日尼亚的一位吞了一枚硬币的小孩的父母提供了及时的建议,到去年布隆迪政变期间组织撤离企业和非政府组织成员。期待您的翻译,您可以将翻译留言到文章底部,第二天会有答案解析哦。

  “When the president [Pierre Nkurunziza] started talking about serving an unconstitutional third term,” explains Tim Willis, a former army officer who is the firm’s European security director, “we thought ‘look out’ and began sending alerts to our members. When the balloon went up in May, their families had got out and they were prepared.” A nurse was embedded with one client, a local security provider was told to stand by with vehicles and an ISOS manager flew to neighbouring Rwanda to co-ordinate the operation.前陆军军官蒂姆·威利斯,现任国际SOS救援中心欧洲安全主管说:“当布隆迪总统(皮埃尔·恩库伦齐扎)违反宪法,表示自己会在第三个任期的继续担任总统时,我们就开始留意并提醒其他成员警戒起来。等到5月份局势变糟的时候,本公司成员和其家庭成员都已经做好准备了。”政变发生期间,一个护士照顾一个客户,当地一个备有车辆的安全机构随时待命,还有一位国际救援中心经理还跑到邻国卢旺达去指挥调配救助工作。

  Next a handful of people were moved into a secure hotel. Then, once the road to the border was declared viable, they made their way out. A plane was being chartered in Nairobi meanwhile to collect another 73 employees of a client from the airport at Bujumbura, the capital, and fly them to Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. For Mr Willis it showed how managing efforts close to the action results in a “boring evacuation, which is what we want”. 随后一群人被转移到安全宾馆里。一旦边界道路宣布可以通行,就可以出去了。与此同时,国际SOS救援中心在内罗比租一架飞机,将布隆迪首都布琼布拉机场的另外73名客户接去了卢旺达首都基加利。对威利斯来说,这次行动表明指挥管理中所下的功夫的得到了回报。他说“撤离行动有惊无险,这正是我们想要的。”

  Viable:可行的,能行的

  Globalisation (ever-increasing business travel and tourism), political instability (spreading in an arc from the Gulf to sub-Saharan Africa) and fear of terrorism in places previously thought safe (such as Istanbul, Jakarta, Paris and Brussels) are all drivers of the business. So too is China’s expanding international footprint. This year China will overtake America as the biggest spender on business travel. Last year ISOS saw its “outbound” China business grow by 46%, thanks in part to Beijing’s commitment to building a “new silk road” from Central Asia to the Mediterranean.全球一体化(持续推动商务出行和观光旅游的发展),政治局势的不稳定性(从海湾一路延伸到撒哈拉以南非洲)和有些之前人们认为是安全的地区(如伊斯坦布尔、雅加达、巴黎和布鲁塞尔)现在却笼罩在恐怖阴影下还有中国对外贸易的扩展,这些因素都推进了旅游安全服务的增长。还有中国国际扩张的脚步加快也是另一个因素。今年中国将取代美国,商务出行的花费达到全球第一位。去年国际SOS救援中心“出口”到中国的贸易增长增长了46%,这在一定程度上归功于中国政府决心要建成从亚洲中部到地中海的“新丝绸之路”。

  Founded over 30 years ago to provide emergency medical care for Europeans working in South-East Asia, ISOS has become a global business. When the Arab Spring got going in 2011, it had the resources to carry out large-scale evacuations from Egypt (1,250 people) and then Libya (1,500).国际SOS救援中心成立于三十多年前,成立之初是给工作在东南亚的欧洲人提供紧急医疗护理。现在它的服务已经扩展到全球了。2011年阿拉伯之春运动开始之时,国际SOS救援中心斥资先后在埃及(1250人)和利比亚(1500人)开展了大规模的撤离行动进行了大规模的人员撤离行动。

  The Arab Spring: 所谓“阿拉伯之春”,就是自2010年最早发生在突尼斯的阿拉伯世界争取民主、平等的运动。对应的是:The Arab Winter。

  Since 2001 ISOS has grown from revenues of $250m a year and 2,500 employees to $1.5 billion and a staff of 11,000, which includes over 5,000 medical professionals and 200 security specialists. Operating from around 1,000 locations in 90 countries, it takes nearly 5m assistance calls every year. However, while it is large-scale evacuations at times of crisis that grab attention, the biggest risks that business travellers face are more prosaic. According to a survey of its European customers in 2015, 11% said they had experienced terrorism as a threat to their safety compared with 34% who cited petty crime and 33% traffic accidents.2001年国际SOS救援中心的年收益为二万五千美元,拥有员工两千五百人。如今其年收益已经达到一百五十亿美金,拥有员工一万一千人,其中包括五千多医学专业人员和两百个安全方面的专家。国际SOS救援中心平均每年收到近五百万个求助电话,来自全球九十个国家的一千个地方。尽管危机时刻大规模的人员撤离比较能吸引大家的注意,但是相比之下,商务出差人士所能面临的最大危险就显得平淡无奇了。2015年一份针对国际SOS救援中心欧洲客户的调查表明,只有11%的人表示自己的人身安全曾受到恐怖主义的威胁。相比之下受到轻微犯罪威胁的和遭受交通事故的人所占的比例分别高达34%和33%。

  Prosaic: 乏味的,平淡无奇的

  Whatever the emergency, knowing exactly where your people are when something bad happens is the first part of any plan to help them. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, ISOS introduced travel-tracking technology that provides real-time data about employee movements. Now, apps on phones using GPS can establish virtual secure areas—so called “geo-fencing”. A panic button on the phone sends SMS and e-mail alerts with location information if someone leaves or enters designated perimeters.无论是什么紧急情况,一旦发生,第一件事就是先弄清楚人在哪里。无论何种救援方案,这都是帮助他们的第一步。2001年9月11日恐怖袭击事件发生后,国际SOS救援中心就引进了一种旅游追踪技术。它可以提供员工的实时地理移动数据。现在,有些手机APP可以利用GPS定位系统,构建虚拟安全领域——这就是所谓的“地理围栏”。如果某人踏入或离开指定周界,手机上的紧急按钮可以发送带有位置信息的短信和邮件提醒。

  Geo-fencing:地理围栏是LBS的一种应用,就是用一个虚拟的栅栏围出一个虚拟地理边界,当手机进入、离开某个特定地理区域,或在该区域内活动时,手机可以接收自动通知和警告。Perimeter:周界

  Although support when an emergency strikes is what gives clients reassurance, ISOS and its smaller rivals, such as Annapolis-based iJet and Anvil Group, a British firm, emphasise that risk mitigation starts with understanding where and how threats arise and knowing how to avoid or deal with them. That matters not just for practical reasons but for legal ones too. Employers have a duty of care and so can be sued if staff have not been adequately prepared or properly informed about dangerous situations they might find themselves in. One more reason why ISOS and its ilk need not worry too much about falling demand.尽管一旦紧急事件发生,给客户提供帮助可以让他们放心,但是国际SOS救援中心和它较弱的竞争对手,比如美国安纳波利斯的iJet 和 英国的Anvil Group,都强调说只有了解了危险发生地点和原因,并且弄清楚如何避免或处理的时候,危险才能有所缓解。这不光指实际原因还包括法律方面的原因。雇主们有照管其雇员的责任。所以如果雇员面对所处的处境,没有得到雇主给予的充足或恰当的准备,又或是雇主没有告知雇员所处险境,雇员是可以起诉雇主的。这就又给雇员亲属们一个不用担心他们得不到必要的支持的理由。

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