本期精读文章选自The Economist对于日本海外旅行的报道Fewer and fewer Japanese want to see the world

日本护照享受的免签国数量在全球排名靠前，但对出国旅行感兴趣的人却并不多——只有24%的日本人有护照。文章分析了导致这一现象的原因，包括假期少、安全担忧以及沟通问题等等。

这篇文章对用词多样化的处理很出色，很多同义表达替换的手法非常值得我们学习。我在下文做了分析：

首段介绍了日本的护照免签国数量与日本海外旅游人数之间的反差。

No fewer than 191 countries admit Japanese visitors without a visa. That is twice as many as wave through Kuwaitis, for example, and five times the number that let in Nepalese without hesitation.

至少有191个国家无需签证即可对日本游客放行。举个例子，对日本人免签的国家的数量是对科威特人免签国家数量的两倍，以及对尼泊尔人的五倍。

No fewer than意思相当于at least，用于强调数目之大，比如：No fewer than thirteen foreign ministers attended the session. 至少有 13 国外长出席了这届会议。

That is twice as many as wave through Kuwaitis… 句子中省略了成分，相当于That is twice as many as (the number of countries that) wave through Kuwaitis… 其中that指代上一句提到的191 countries，wave through是一个固定搭配，它字面含义是“挥手示意让……通过”，句子中引申为“对……免签”。

从这一句中我们也可以注意到作者表达的多样性，比如对于“免签”，作者就用了三个说法：admit XX without a visa, wave through, let in XX without hesitation，类似这样的例子在下文还有一些。

By that measure, Japan’s chrysanthemum-decorated passport is the most welcomed in the world. Yet only 24% of Japanese possess one—about half the proportion of Americans who have a passport.

以这一标准来衡量，封面装饰有菊花图案的日本护照是全世界最受欢迎的护照。然而，只有24％的日本人拥有护照，这一数目大约只有美国人的一半。

Why do so few Japanese take advantage of their freedom to wander the globe?

为什么只有这么少的日本人能够利用好他们在全球自由旅行的权利？

take advantage of something是一个常见表达，意思是“利用好某事物”，此时它是一个中性表达，比如：I took advantage of the good weather to paint the shed. 我趁天气好给棚屋刷上油漆。

但如果是take advantage of somebody 则意思是“占某人便宜”，此时它是一个贬义表达，比如：Don't lend them the car – they're taking advantage of you! 不要把车借给他们 — 他们在利用你！

第二段解释了日本人不愿意出国旅行的原因。

On paper, Japanese are venturing abroad more often. They went on roughly 20m overseas trips in 2019, up from 19m in 2018. But that figure is inflated by people travelling for work and by frequent flyers.

表面上来看，日本人似乎更加频繁地出国旅行。他们的海外旅行总次数从2018年的1900万次上升到2019年的大约2000万次。然而，由于公务旅行和常旅客的存在，这一数字被夸大了。

On paper意思是“表面上来看，理论上”，通常用来强调事物的本质不如它们表面上看起来那么好，例如：It's a nice idea on paper, but you'll never get it to work. 理论上这是个好主意，但你永远无法付诸实践。

Morishita Masami, who chaired a government committee to promote outbound travel, estimates that at least two-thirds of Japanese are lukewarm about the idea of leaving the country.

森田正美主持过一个促进海外旅行的政府委员会。他估计，至少三分之二的日本人对出国旅游态度冷淡。

chair在这里是一词多义，意思是“主持，担任……的主席”，例如：He was about to chair a meeting in Venice of EU foreign ministers. 他将主持在威尼斯召开的欧盟外长会议。

Several factors deter them: miserly annual leave, concerns about safety, the inferiority of foreign food and, most of all, a crippling fear of the embarrassment of not being understood.

有几个因素阻碍他们出国旅游：少得可怜的年假、对安全的担忧、外国食物的低品质，以及最重要的一点，人们非常害怕在国外因无法被理解而带来的尴尬。

Crippling意思是“会造成严重危害的”（causing severe damage or problems），a crippling fear在这里是夸张的说法，以此来强调日本人的内向和敏感。

第三段对比了日本之前的海外旅行情况。

In the 1980s and 1990s Japanese were keen to explore the world.

在20世纪八九十年代，日本人热衷于出国探索世界。

对于“出国旅行”，本文提供了很多种说法，除了explore the world之外，前文中出现的还有see the world, wander the globe, venture abroad, go on overseas trips, leave the country 这种表达方式非常值得我们在写作中借鉴。

Students backpacked for weeks with their copies of How to walk the Earth (“How to walk the Earth”), a popular travel guide.

学生们带着当时流行的旅游指南Chikyu no arukikata（“如何走遍全球”）在海外背包旅行数周。

A strong yen made foreign jaunts affordable. But interest has been dwindling since the late 1990s. They are “just one of many” leisure options, Ms Morishita explains.

强势的日元使得海外旅行变得可以负担。但自从20世纪90年代后期以来，人们对旅游的兴趣一直在减少。森下女士解释说，它们“只是众多休闲选项中的一种”。

结尾段介绍了日本学生海外留学的情况。

The number of Japanese studying abroad has also fallen, from 82,945 at its peak in 2004 to 55,969 in 2016. The shrinking population of young people is partly to blame.

日本出国留学的人数也有所减少，从2004年高峰时的82945人下降到2016年的55969人。导致这一现象的部分原因是年轻人数量减少。

XX is to blame (for something)是一个写作中常见的原因/结果类表达，意思是“XX是导致某事的原因”，例如：Officials believe that more than one person may be to blame for the fire. 政府官员认为，这场火灾可能不止一个人负有责任。注意短语不能写成 XX is to be blamed

Also, “It costs about ¥4m ($36,000) a year to study abroad,” notes Nakamura Tetsu of Tamagawa University, a prohibitive sum for most.

此外，多摩川大学的中村哲指出，“每年出国留学的费用约为400万日元（36000美元），”这对大多数人来说是一笔难以承担的费用。

Prohibitive通常用来形容价格高得让人望而却步（If the cost of something is prohibitive, it is too expensive for most people），比如：Hotel prices in the major cities are high but not prohibitive. 大城市里的旅馆费用昂贵，但还能负担得起。

Meanwhile, Japan’s labour crunch makes foreign study less useful. “You don’t need an education abroad to get a good job,” says Suematsu Kazuko of Tohoku University.

同时，日本的劳动力短缺使得国外留学的用处不大。东北大学的松和子说，“你没有海外留学经历也能找到一份好工作。”

Crunch在这里意思是“不足，紧缺”（a situation in which there is suddenly not enough of sth, especially money），比如：Cost cutting had enabled the organization to survive a previous cash crunch. 削减成本使得该机构渡过了早前资金短缺的难关。

A survey in 2019 found that 53% of Japanese students are not interested in studying abroad, the highest ratio among the seven countries covered.

2019年的一项调查发现，有53％的日本学生对出国留学不感兴趣，这一比例在所有开展调查的7个国家中是最高的。