经济学人关于疫情的英语作文（可复制+分析）

2022年病毒会消失么？最新一期经济学人做出了预测，咱们看看有哪些观点~

原文通读

The World Ahead 2022

Covid-19 is likely to fade away in 2022

But the taming of the coronavirus conceals failures in public health

Pandemics do not die—they fade away. And that is what covid-19 is likely to do in 2022. True, there will be local and seasonal flare-ups, especially in chronically undervaccinated countries. Epidemiologists will also need to watch out for new variants that might be capable of outflanking the immunity provided by vaccines. Even so, over the coming years, as covid settles into its fate as an endemic disease, like flu or the common cold, life in most of the world is likely to return to normal—at least, the post-pandemic normal.

Behind this prospect lie both a stunning success and a depressing failure. The success is that very large numbers of people have been vaccinated and that, at each stage of infection from mild symptoms to intensive care, new medicines can now greatly reduce the risk of death. It is easy to take for granted, but the rapid creation and licensing of so many vaccines and treatments for a new disease is a scientific triumph.

Think of the combination of vaccination and treatment as a series of walls, each of which blocks a proportion of viral attacks from becoming fatal. The erection of each new wall further reduces the lethality of covid.

However, alongside this success is that failure. One further reason why covid will do less harm in the future is that it has already done so much in the past. Very large numbers of people are protected from current variants of covid only because they have already been infected. And many more, particularly in the developing world, will remain unprotected by vaccines or medicines long into 2022.

The combination of infection and vaccination explains why in, say, Britain in the autumn, you could detect antibodies to covid in 93% of adults. People are liable to re-infection, as Britain shows, but with each exposure to the virus the immune system becomes better trained to repel it. Along with new treatments and the fact that more young people are being infected, that explains why the fatality rate in Britain is now only a tenth of what it was at the start of 2021. Other countries will also follow that trajectory on the road to endemicity.

All this could yet be upended by a dangerous new variant. The virus is constantly mutating and the more of it there is in circulation, the greater the chance that an infectious new strain will emerge. However, even if Omicron and Rho variants strike, they may be no more deadly than Delta is. In addition, existing treatments are likely to remain effective, and vaccines can rapidly be tweaked to take account of the virus’s mutations.

Increasingly, therefore, people will die from covid because they are elderly or infirm, or they are unvaccinated or cannot afford medicines. Sometimes people will remain vulnerable because they refuse to have a jab when offered one—a failure of health education. But vaccine doses are also being hoarded by rich countries, and getting needles into arms in poor and remote places is hard. Livelihoods will be ruined and lives lost all for lack of a safe injection that costs just a few dollars.

the end

第一遍下来你读懂了多少呢，下面一起进入精读环节吧：

The World Ahead 2022

Covid-19 is likely to fade away in 2022

But the taming of the coronavirus conceals failures in public health

2022年的世界

新冠病毒可能会慢慢消失

就算疫情能得到控制，在公共卫生方面的失败也不应该被埋没

tame动词表示驯服，延伸出来含义表示制服;控制;驾驭；If you tame someone or something that is dangerous, uncontrolled, or likely to cause trouble, you bring them under control. 看个例句：Two regiments of cavalry were called out to tame the crowds. 调集了两个装甲兵团去威慑、控制人群。再看个经济学人例句：It provides the most comprehensive analysis yet of where to find this damaging disruption to DNA and, by unpicking the genetics of what makes cancer tick, just how hard it will be to tame. 它为从何处寻找DNA受到的这种损害性扰乱提供了迄今为止最全面的分析，并且，通过揭示癌症发病的遗传学机制，告诉人们要攻克癌症困难重重。

Pandemics do not die—they fade away. And that is what covid-19 is likely to do in 2022. True, there will be local and seasonal flare-ups, especially in chronically undervaccinated countries. Epidemiologists will also need to watch out for new variants that might be capable of outflanking the immunity provided by vaccines. Even so, over the coming years, as covid settles into its fate as an endemic disease, like flu or the common cold, life in most of the world is likely to return to normal—at least, the post-pandemic normal.

参考译文：流行病不会灭绝——它们会逐渐消失。新冠病毒从明年开始也可能慢慢消失。的确，会有局部和季节性的疫情爆发，特别是在长期疫苗接种不足的国家。流行病学家还需要注意新的变异，它们可能能够打破疫苗提供的免疫力。即便如此，在未来几年，随着covid成为一种地方性疾病，就像流感或普通感冒一样，世界大部分地区的生活可能会恢复正常——至少是新冠之后的正常。

flare-up表示(暴乱或疾病的)突发，突然加剧，突然恶化；If there is a flare-up of violence or of an illness, it suddenly starts or gets worse. 这里的local and seasonal flare-ups指的就是时不时零星病例出现导致的疫情复发/加剧。直接看个相关外刊例句：To control and avoid flare-ups, the country’s COVID-19 prevention task force issued a warning last week about the risks of outbreaks during the holiday season. 为了控制和避免突发疫情，国家疫情防控组上周发布了关于节日期间爆发疫情风险的警告。

flank本表示侧翼，outflank动词表示侧翼包抄，但是这个动词还有个意思表示：占…的上风；If you outflank someone, you succeed in getting into a position where you can defeat them, for example in an argument. 比如：He had tried to outflank them.他曾试图占据上风，胜过他们。简单地说来，就表示“胜过”，一般来说out-前缀某些动词都会有“超过”这层意思，比如outperform, outwit等等。

讲到out-这个前缀，顺便提一下这段中还出现了两个前缀：under-；post-。前者表示“低于..”也就是短缺的意思，比如经费短缺underfunded，人手不足understaffed；后者post-也很常见，表示“在…之后”的，比如后工业社会的就是post-industrial society，现在最常见的就是post-pandemic，形容的就是疫情之后的。这样的前缀大家在阅读中多多注意，他们可以让行文更加流畅简短。

Behind this prospect lie both a stunning success and a depressing failure. The success is that very large numbers of people have been vaccinated and that, at each stage of infection from mild symptoms to intensive care, new medicines can now greatly reduce the risk of death. It is easy to take for granted, but the rapid creation and licensing of so many vaccines and treatments for a new disease is a scientific triumph.

参考译文：如此看来，既有成功的一面也有失败的一面，这让人又惊喜又失望。成功的是，多数人已经接种了疫苗，而且不管感染阶段是轻微症状还是重症监护，现在的死亡风险已经大大降低。这很容易被认为是理所当然的，但迅速研制出如此多的疫苗和治疗方法并获得许可是一种科学上的胜利。

我们从这段学一个好用的写作小词：lie。这个词除了我们熟知的“躺”，其实还可以表示“存在”的意思。躺平即存在！特别指某个问题，解决方案，责任等抽象的东西。看个例句：We must be clear about where the responsibility lies.我们必须清楚责任所在。再比如：The problem lies in deciding when to intervene. 问题在于决定何时介入。这样看来其实意思和The problem is xx无差，所以lie in可以在恰当时候替代be动词。以后想阐述事件的某个问题就可以直接使用句型：The problem lies in X (Ving). 问题在于X。

我们也可以将这段的句首积累下来作为段首句：Behind this prospect lie both a stunning success and a depressing failure. 表示又失败也有成功的地方，意味着下文要论述成功的点以及失败的点。注意prospect不光有“前景”的意思，也可以表示一种“可能性，希望”，在这里也就是全文探讨的“新冠渐渐消失”这种可能性。看个例句：There is a real prospect that the bill will be defeated in parliament.该议案很有可能会被议会否决。

Think of the combination of vaccination and treatment as a series of walls, each of which blocks a proportion of viral attacks from becoming fatal. The erection of each new wall further reduces the lethality of covid.

参考译文：可以把接种疫苗和治疗结合起来想象成一堵墙，每堵墙都能阻止一定比例的病毒攻击，使其不那么致命。每一堵新墙的建立进一步降低了新冠病毒的致命性。

block作为动词可以表示堵塞，堵住，所以引申含义为：阻挠；阻止；妨碍；If you block something that is being arranged, you prevent it from being done. 比如：For years the country has tried to block imports of various cheap foreign products.多年来，这个国家一直竭力阻挠各种廉价外国产品的进口。But flows are increasingly blocked by governments which seek to protect their country’s people, sovereignty and economy. 但是，寻求保护本国公民、主权和经济的政府正日益阻止这种流动。所以block from也就很像prevent from了。

lethality和fatality一样，都表示死亡。上一段说降低死亡的风险，用的是reduce the risk of death。在这段用到了fatal和lethality做同义替换。可见英文的多样性，形容词名词换着来。

参考译文：然而，与成功相伴的是失败。新冠在未来造成的伤害会更小，还有个原因是因为它已经在过去带来了巨大的伤害。大多数的人现在没有受到变异病毒的影响是因为之前已经被感染过了，产生了抗体。还有更多的人，尤其是发展中国家的人，就算步入2022年，也将长期得不到疫苗或药物的保护。

这段很简单，我们直接提取两个句型，和前面配套：1）However, alongside this success is that failure. 但是，成功也会带来失败的一面。2）One further reason is Y. 还有一个原因是Y。

The combination of infection and vaccination explains why in, say, Britain in the autumn, you could detect antibodies to covid in 93% of adults. People are liable to re-infection, as Britain shows, but with each exposure to the virus the immune system becomes better trained to repel it. Along with new treatments and the fact that more young people are being infected, that explains why the fatality rate in Britain is now only a tenth of what it was at the start of 2021. Other countries will also follow that trajectory on the road to endemicity.

参考译文：感染和接种疫苗的结合解释了为什么今年秋天，英国拥有抗体的成年人高达93%。正如英国所显示的那样，人们还是很容易再次感染病毒，但每次与病毒的接触都会加强免疫系统抵御力。随着新的治疗方法以及越来越多的年轻人被感染，这就解释了为什么英国现在的死亡率只有2021年初的十分之一。其他国家也会走相同的路，直到新冠慢慢变成地方性疾病。

一般来说be liable to do sth就相当于我们平常说的be likely to do sth，比如：We’re all liable to make mistakes when we’re tired. 人在疲劳时都可能出差错。这里的liable to是另外的意思，表示有…危险的；可能遭受…的；有…倾向的；If people or things are liable to something unpleasant, they are likely to experience it or do it. 比如：She will grow into a woman particularly liable to depression. 她长大成人后会特别容易患抑郁症。

repel表示击退;驱逐；When an army repels an attack, they successfully fight and drive back soldiers from another army who have attacked them. 请想像你的免疫系统和病毒打架的画面。比如：They have fifty thousand troops along the border ready to repel any attack.他们有5万人的部队驻扎在边境，随时准备击退任何进攻。再看个经济学人例句：The government is engineering mergers to create what it calls an “aircraft-carrier” investment bank to repel foreigners. 中国正在策划合并以创建所谓的“航母级”投行来击退外国竞争者。

repel还有使人讨厌的意思，《老友记》里的Ross就这儿评价过自己：

提一下trajectory这个词，它不仅仅有真的轨道，轨迹的意思，也可以表示(事业等的)发展轨迹，起落；The trajectory of something such as a person’s career is the course that it follows over time. 这个就比较形象了，我们可以用这个词来表示自己的职业发展。比如扶摇直上的事业轨迹：a relentlessly upward career trajectory. 再比如事业走下坡路就可以说：My career seemed to be on a downward trajectory.

All this could yet be upended by a dangerous new variant. The virus is constantly mutating and the more of it there is in circulation, the greater the chance that an infectious new strain will emerge. However, even if Omicron and Rho variants strike, they may be no more deadly than Delta is. In addition, existing treatments are likely to remain effective, and vaccines can rapidly be tweaked to take account of the virus’s mutations.

参考译文：这一切都可能再次被新变种病毒所颠覆。这种病毒在不断变异，在传播中的病毒越多，出现传染性新毒株的可能性就越大。然而，即使新的奥密克戎和Rho变种病毒产生，他们可能不会比德尔塔更致命。此外，现有的治疗方法可能仍然有效，而且疫苗可以根据病毒的突变迅速调整。

这段注意一个熟词僻义：strain；是variant的替换词，表示(病菌的)类型;(植物或其他有机物的)系，品系，品种；A strain of a germ, plant, or other organism is a particular type of it. 比如：Every year new strains of influenza develop. 每年都有新的流感病毒出现。

这里的variants strike其实和上一局的new strain will emerge是一个意思。strike动词表示(疾病、灾难等)侵袭，爆发；If something such as an illness or disaster strikes, it suddenly happens. 看个例句：Both of them were afflicted with a rare genetic disease, which struck in their thirties.他们两个都得了一种罕见的遗传病，这种病在他们30 多岁时发作。再看个TE例句：When natural disasters strike big companies usually get by, shifting production temporarily from afflicted areas to those that are not. 当自然灾害来袭时，大公司通常能应付过去，把生产暂时从灾区转移到安全地区。

Increasingly, therefore, people will die from covid because they are elderly or infirm, or they are unvaccinated or cannot afford medicines. Sometimes people will remain vulnerable because they refuse to have a jab when offered one—a failure of health education. But vaccine doses are also being hoarded by rich countries, and getting needles into arms in poor and remote places is hard. Livelihoods will be ruined and lives lost all for lack of a safe injection that costs just a few dollars.

参考译文：越来越多的人将死于新冠，因为他们年老体弱，或者他们没有接种疫苗或买不起药物。有时人们仍然容易被感染，因为他们拒绝接种疫苗——这是教育的失败。但是，富国也在囤积疫苗，而在贫穷和偏远地区，一针难求。生计得不到保障，生命也受到威胁，这都只是因为没法负担区区几美元的疫苗。

infirm形容词，表示体弱的，虚弱的。比如“年迈体弱者”就可以直接说the infirm，看个例句：We are here to protect and assist the weak and infirm.我们来这里保护、帮助年迈体弱者。

hoard表示“贮存，囤积”，是及物动词，比如：They’ve begun to hoard food and gasoline and save their money.他们已经存钱并开始贮藏食物和汽油。TE例句：Although the crisis has led to an increase in physical cash held by the public, its pace of circulation has fallen, suggesting people are hoarding rather than spending banknotes. 尽管新冠危机让民众持有的现金增加了，但它的流通速度却下降了，这表明人们都把现金收着，不花出去。

[写作观点] 最后我们可以总结一下本篇作者的一些观点：

[为什么对未来抱持乐观]：1）疫苗增加抵抗力 – Very large numbers of people have been vaccinated. 2）新的治疗方式：At each stage of infection from mild symptoms to intensive care, new medicines can now greatly reduce the risk of death. 3)得过新冠之后产生抗体：Antibodies；Very large numbers of people are protected from current variants of covid only because they have already been infected.

[消极的一面，目前存在的问题]：1）有些国家负担不起疫苗和药物：And many more, particularly in the developing world, will remain unprotected by vaccines or medicines long into 2022. 2）人们依然可能再次被感染：People are liable to re-infection. 3）病毒不断变异：The virus is constantly mutating and the more of it there is in circulation, the greater the chance that an infectious new strain will emerge. 4）有些人拒绝注射疫苗：Sometimes people will remain vulnerable because they refuse to have a jab when offered one—a failure of health education. 5）有些国家的行为：Vaccine doses are also being hoarded by rich countries, and getting needles into arms in poor and remote places is hard.