本期精读选自The Economist关于日本旅游业的文章：A crash in tourism leaves Japanese deer ravenous for treats

奈良旅游的一大热门项目就是前往奈良公园喂鹿，但疫情导致日本边境关闭，外国游客数量也急剧下降。因为缺少游客喂养，奈良公园的不少鹿只能游荡到市区搜寻食物，一些鹿还改变了饮食习惯。作者借此也分析了旅游业对日本经济的重要性。

主标题中treat是熟词生义，它的意思是“美味食物”（a special food that tastes good），主标题含义是：（日本）旅游业的急剧衰退导致日本的鹿饥饿不已，渴求美味食物。

向公众号回复：奈良，可以获得本文的英文原文、翻译版以及音频。

首段介绍了大多数游客在奈良参观的行程，最后引入本文的主题：奈良的鹿。

The more than 13m tourists who visit Nara, an ancient capital of Japan, each year tend to follow a well-worn path.

每年到日本古都奈良参观的1300多万游客往往会沿着一条老路走。

well-worn可以用来形容物品被使用很久（worn or used a lot or for a long time），比如“一件旧夹克”可以说：a well-worn jacket

要表达“被很多人走过的路”，除了文中的说法外，还可以说：a well-travelled path/road

On their way into a park at the edge of the city they pass the towering wooden pagoda of Kofuku-ji, a temple complex founded in 710.

在通往市郊公园的路上，他们会经过一座高耸的木塔寺庙——建于公元710年的古福寺。

Complex在这里是熟词生义，它的意思是“建筑大楼或建筑群”，比如有时候描述“购物和休闲中心”会说：a shopping and leisure complex

They continue to nearby Todai-ji, gazing in awe at Japan’s largest Buddha, a bronze behemoth weighing 400 tons and standing 15 metres tall.

他们继续前往附近的东大寺，沿路充满敬畏地注视着日本最大的佛像。这尊巨大的青铜雕像重达400吨，高15米。

Somebody does something in awe意即“某人充满敬畏地做某事”，也可以说somebody stands in awe (of something)，比如新概念英语3第54课就有这样的句子：

Who has not stood in awe at the sight of a spider pouncing on a fly, or a column of ants triumphantly bearing home an enormous dead beetle? 

当看到蜘蛛扑向一只苍蝇时，一队蚂蚁抬着一只巨大的死甲虫凯旋归时，谁能不感到敬畏呢？

And finally they feed shika senbei, a special kind of rice cracker, to the sacred deer, some 1,300 of which live in the park.

最后，游客会给奈良的神鹿喂食一种称为鹿仙贝饼的特殊饼干。这些鹿里面大约有1300只住在公园里面。

Some在这里用来对数值进行估计，相当于“大约”的意思，比如：She gained some 25 pounds in weight during pregnancy. 她在怀孕期间体重差不多增加了 25 磅。

第二段介绍了游客减少对鹿群造成的影响。

The deer, though wild, have come to love the crackers. With tourism reduced to a trickle because of the pandemic, they are hungry. Many have begun wandering far from home in search of food.

这些鹿虽然有野性，但它们已经开始喜欢上饼干了。由于疫情原因游客数量不断减少，它们也因为没有东西吃而感到饥饿。很多鹿开始远离居住地以寻找食物。

Come to do something意思是“开始做某事”，比如：I have come to like her over the months. 经过这几个月的时间，我开始喜欢上她了。

With tourism reduced to a trickle…这一说法很形象，something is reduced to a trickle一般是指小溪越流越窄，最后变成涓涓细流，这里用来形容游客数量减少很贴切。

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 have shot up.

最近，奈良鹿保护基金会和北海道大学的达泽志郎的一项研究表明，在公园里生活的鹿减少了20%；进城的鹿造成的破坏事件也急剧增加。

The less enterprising ones, apparently accustomed to eating only crackers, have become emaciated.

那些不太进取的鹿显然习惯于只吃饼干，它们变得很憔悴。

第三段介绍了日本旅游业受疫情影响的情况。

The deer are not the only ones going hungry. So are businesses in places like Nara, which have come to rely ever more heavily on tourism in recent years.

挨饿的不只是鹿群，在奈良以及其他类似地方的商家也是如此。近年来，这些商家对旅游业的依赖程度越来越高。

Fewer than 7m foreign tourists visited Japan in 2009; last year some 32m did. Revenue from tourism hit a record 4.8trn yen ($46bn).

2009年到日本旅游的外国游客不到700万，而去年约有3200万。旅游业的收入达到了创纪录的4.8万亿日元（460亿美元）。

With the Olympics scheduled for this past summer, Japan had hoped to welcome 40m foreigners this year. Instead, after a near-total closure of its borders because of the pandemic, arrivals have dropped by 99.4%.

奥运会本来定于今年夏天举行，日本之前也希望今年能够迎来4000万外国游客。与之相反的是，由于疫情导致日本边境几乎全面关闭，到日本的游客数量下降了99.4%。

第一句后半句用的是过去完成时：Japan had hoped to welcome… 这是因为日本希望迎来4000万游客这件事发生在今年夏天之前，属于过去的过去，因此要用过去完成时。

第四段介绍了日本政府应对旅游业衰退采取的措施。

The government has tried to cushion the blow by encouraging its own citizens to get out more.

政府试图通过鼓励本国公民更多外出来缓解疫情造成的打击。

cushion the blow是一个固定搭配，意思是“减缓打击”，比如：He has lost his job, but the redundancy money will cushion the blow.

The Diet earmarked ¥1.35trn ($12.9bn) for “Go To Travel” subsidies, which provide discounts of up to 35% at domestic hotels and inns; a concurrent programme called “Go To Eat” applies to restaurants.

国会专门拨出1.35万亿日元（129亿美元）用于“去旅行”计划的补贴，这一计划为国内酒店和旅馆提供高达35%的折扣；一个名为“去吃饭”的并行补贴计划则适用于餐馆。

The Diet这里指的是The National Diet，即日本的国会。

The ministry of tourism says nearly 40m nights have been booked under the programme since it was launched in July. That is a pyrrhic victory: the campaign is thought to have contributed to a recent uptick in covid-19. Daily cases reached a record of 2,680 on November 28th.

旅游部表示，该计划自7月份推出以来，已经促成了近4000万晚的酒店和旅馆房间预定。但这一胜利得不偿失：人们认为该计划导致了最近新冠感染人数的上升。日本的每日感染案例在11月28日达到了破纪录的2680例。

pyrrhic victory来源于古希腊罗马典故。公元前279年，古希腊伊庇鲁斯国（Epirus）的皮洛士王（King Pyrrhus）在战争中打败了罗马军队，但这次胜利也让他损失了绝大部分精锐部队，他也因此说了这样一句话：If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined. 后面人们常用pyrrhic victory来表示因代价沉重而得不偿失的胜利。

Suga Yoshihide, Japan’s prime minister, recently announced that the subsidies would be suspended in areas with high caseloads. In addition, older Japanese have been asked not to make use of them.

日本首相菅义伟近日宣布，将在疫情严重地区暂停补贴。此外，日本老年人也被建议不要使用这些补贴。

第五段强调了旅游业对日本的重要性。

Japan is loth to give up on tourism, or to let the infrastructure that supports it wither. (Mr Suga himself championed tourism as chief cabinet secretary to his predecessor, Abe Shinzo.)

日本不愿意放弃旅游业，也不愿意让支撑旅游业的相关基础设施陷入荒废（作为其前任安倍晋三的内阁官房长官，菅义伟本人也是旅游业的倡导者)。

Officials see spending by foreign visitors as a means to compensate for Japan’s own shrinking population. Tourism may also help make Japan more open to foreign migrants in the future, says Saito Jun of the Japan Centre for Economic Research, a think-tank in Tokyo.

官员们认为，外国游客的消费是弥补日本自身人口减少的一种手段。日本经济研究中心（这是位于东京的一家智库）的斋藤俊表示，旅游业还可能让日本在未来对外国移民更加开放。

结尾段介绍了奈良一些鹿为了适应新形势而采取的变化。

Meanwhile, the more resourceful deer in Nara have reverted to a healthier diet of plants and nuts, which has been good for their insides.

与此同时，奈良一些比较机智的鹿重新吃起了植物和坚果，这是一种健康的饮食方式，对它们的内脏有好处。

Revert to something/doing something意思是“恢复，回到（以前的状态）”，比如我们可以说：It is all too easy for ex-smokers to revert to their old habit.

Their droppings, made pale and runny by the crackers, have become firmer and darker again. If only belt-tightening were as good for the economy.

它们之前因为吃饼干，粪便变得苍白和流质化，现在又重新变得黑而结实了。如果勒紧腰带对经济的帮助也有这么大就好了。

If only…在这里用来表达说话者的愿望，类似于虚拟语气的用法，意思相当于“如果……就好了”，作者在这里由鹿群节食的行为转向对经济大环境的讨论，隐含的意思相当于：Belt-tightening is bad for the economy.