本期精读选自The Economist一篇关于斯里兰卡的小短文 Faced with a ban on booze, Sri Lankans have been making moonshine（面对禁酒令，斯里兰卡人民已经开始了私自酿酒）

斯里兰卡人以热爱饮酒著称，但为了应对疫情，当地政府关闭了酒吧以及酒铺，这导致酒类供不应求，其价格也随着飙升。为了满足酒瘾，一些人开始在家私自酿酒，但这可能会导致酒精中毒问题。如何取缔私自酿酒也成了一个让当地政府感到头疼的问题。

文章小标题worth a shot取得非常巧妙，它是一语双关：shot可以理解为“（做某事的）尝试”（a chance or attempt to do or get something），也可以理解为“少量的（酒精）”，因此worth a shot既可以理解为“私自酿酒这种行为值得一试”，也可以理解为“酿造的酒值得喝一小口”。类似这样的双关标题在外刊中还有不少，平时遇到了可以多加积累。下面是对文章的详细分析：

首段通过杂货店主和顾客的交易引出了话题。

“Dates, jaggery?” asked the grocer, offering the main ingredients for brewing palm wine.

食品杂货店主问顾客：“是要椰枣，还是赤糖？”这是他向顾客提供的酿造棕榈酒的主要原料。

Date在这里属于熟词生义，它的意思是“椰枣”。文章以一句对话开头，这样更能引起读者的好奇，吸引他们读下去。

另一个值得注意的点是作者介绍杂货店主用的是the grocer，而不是a grocer，这里借鉴了文学作品中一种常见的开头手法。

在文学作品中，作者往往在开头使用the来将读者引入小说的情景，使读者有一种身临其境的感觉，来分享书中人物的世界。比如小说After You的开头：

The big man at the end of the bar is sweating. He holds his head low over his double scotch and every few minutes he glances up and out behind him toward the door, and a fine sheen of perspiration glistens under the strip lights.

文章开头用the grocer效果会更好，因为它能够让读者快速进入场景，让人彷佛看到杂货店主就在眼前同顾客交谈。

His customer bought both, tucking them away with his onions and lentils before disappearing down a narrow lane in a suburb of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital.

他的顾客将这两种原料都买下，并将它们藏在洋葱和小扁豆之间，然后转身消失在科伦坡郊区的一条狭窄小巷中。科伦坡是斯里兰卡的首都。

Tuck something away是一个固定搭配，意思是“将……藏起来，将……放到安全的地方”，新概念3课文里面也有一个关于该短语的例句：Few things could be more impressive than the peace that descends on deserted city streets at weekends when the thousands that travel to work every day are tucked away in their homes in the country.

第二段介绍了政府针对疫情的措施以及人们对此的反应。

On March 21st the government closed all bars and liquor shops as part of a series of restrictions to curb the spread of covid-19.

政府于3月21日关闭了所有酒吧和酒铺，这也是为限制新冠病毒传播而采取的措施中的一部分。

The intention, it said, was to prevent “drink parties” at which the virus might spread and to reduce unnecessary shopping trips.

政府说，此举的目的是防止人们参加“饮酒聚会”，因为病毒可能会在聚会人群中传播。另一个目的是减少不必要的购物出行。

Trip除了可以表示长途旅行之外，还可以表示短途出行甚至是在室内几步路的路程，比如：After studying the sketch plans of the hotel, he had made three trips himself to the hotel to verify details. 他研究过了旅馆的示意图之后，还亲自到旅馆去了三趟去查明细节。

Small wonder: when the government first began introducing countrywide measures to slow the spread of the disease, “wine shops”—ubiquitous small stores selling mainly beer and liquor—were mobbed (social distancing be damned) by customers frantically stocking up.

难怪当政府刚开始在全国范围内采取措施减缓这种疾病的传播时，“酒铺”就被疯狂囤货的顾客挤爆了（保持社交距离这一点被他们抛在脑后）。这些“酒铺”遍布各地，主要售卖啤酒和白酒。

Small wonder/little wonder是一个固定搭配，意思是“难怪，怪不得”，也可以说It’s small wonder that… 比如：Her car's been broken for the past two months, so it's small wonder that she hasn't come to visit you recently. 她的车坏了两个月，所以她最近没来看你并不奇怪。

Something be damned是一个比较口语化的说法，意思大概相当于“让……见鬼去吧”，可以用来表示某人对某事毫不在意（used to say in a forceful way that you do not care about something），用在这里可以让文章语气更加活泼。

第三段介绍了政府禁令之后酒类供不应求，价格上涨的现象。

Since then, booze has been hard to obtain. Supermarkets offer deliveries, but few have a licence to sell alcohol. For a time, enterprising distributors arranged deliveries of liquor, too, until the authorities made it clear that these were banned.

从那以后，酒饮就很难获得。超市提供送货服务，但很少有超市有销售酒精的许可证。有胆识的分销商也曾有一段时间安排了酒的配送，但后来当局明确禁止了这类操作。

For a time是一个固定搭配，相当于for a short period，比如：We were quite happy for a time, until his brother moved in.

A black market has sprung up, but sellers are hard to find and prices are prohibitive. A bottle of “gal”, which is distilled from coconut-palm sap, goes for almost three times its normal price of about 1,850 rupees ($9.75).

一个黑市已经冒了出来，但卖家很难找到，而且价格也让人望而却步。一瓶由椰子树的树汁蒸馏而来的“加仑酒”，其价格几乎是平时的三倍。它平时的价格约为1850卢比（9.75美元）。

Spring up可以用来形容新事物大量涌现，比如：Fast-food restaurants are springing up all over town. 突然之间，镇上到处都是一家一家的快餐店。

Go for这一短语有多个含义，在这里是指“以……的价格出售”（to be sold for a particular amount of money），比如要表达“我们希望这间房子以两百万人民币的价格出售”，可以说：We expect the house to go for 2 million yuan.

第四段介绍了斯里兰卡人民应对酒类短缺的方法：自己酿酒。

The obvious, albeit illegal, solution is home-brewing. Sri Lankans desperate for a tipple are mixing everything from beets to pineapple with sugar, water and yeast, and leaving the cocktail to ferment.

一个比较直接的解决方案是自家酿酒（虽然这是非法的）。渴求酒饮的斯里兰卡人正在将甜菜、菠萝等物品和糖、水和酵母混合，然后让这些混合物发酵。

The result can be cloudy, fizzy and sickly sweet, but is at least mildly alcoholic. The more ambitious are trying to distil these brews into something stronger.

混合物发酵后可能会变得浑浊、起气泡，同时带有令人恶心的甜味，但它至少有淡淡的酒精味。一些更为大胆的人正尝试将这些混合物提炼为浓度更高的东西。

One home-distiller describes fending off inquiries from the man who delivers cooking-gas canisters, who wants to know why his consumption has shot up.

一名在家酿酒的人描述了他如何避开问询：送燃气罐的人想要知道为何他家最近的燃气使用飙升。

Fend off这一短语的意思是“避开，回避（问题等）”，比如：He looked relaxed and determined as he fended off questions from the world's Press. 他回避各国媒体的提问时显得轻松而果决。

The next wave of hospital admissions, a common joke runs, won’t be victims of the virus, but of alcohol poisoning.

一个广为流传的笑话讲到，下一波住院的不是病毒感染者，而是那些酒精中毒的人。

结尾段介绍了政府对非法酿酒行为的处理方式。

The police say they have uncovered 18,000 instances of illicit alcohol production. On April 13th, for instance, officials arrested two men making liquor in 36 barrels in a swamp.

警方说，他们已经发现了18000起非法酿酒案件。例如，官员在4月13日逮捕了两名男子，因为他们在沼泽地中酿制了36桶酒。

Home-brewers are harder to catch. The government, which is losing some 500m Sri Lankan rupees ($2.6m) a day in forgone tax, has asked the telecoms regulator to find some way to stem the sharing of recipes on social media.

在家酿酒的人更难被抓住。斯里兰卡政府正每天损失约5亿斯里兰卡卢比（合260万美元）的税收收入，它已要求电信监管机构寻找某种方法来阻止人们在社交媒体上共享酿酒配方。

“They are using Grade Six science knowledge to manufacture alcohol at home,” complains Kapila Kumarasinghe of the excise department. All the same, he admits, “We can’t very well go house to house, raiding kitchens.”

法律执行部门的卡皮拉·库玛拉辛格抱怨说：“他们正在使用六年级的科学知识在家酿酒”。尽管如此，他也承认：“我们不能一家家排查，对他们厨房进行突袭”。

All the same是一个固定搭配，意思相当于“尽管如此”（despite what has been mentioned），can’t very well do something也是一个固定说法，意为“没有充足的理由做某事，不能做某事”。