从超市到剧院,从村落到城市,从国家到国家,我们乘坐不同的公共交通工具穿越或远或近的距离。本期就搭上Rants and Raves的顺风车,阅览最实用的交通用语,轻松成为城市交通达人。
How Many Vehicles Have You Taken?
细数公共交通
汽车篇
tram和trolley bus都是电车,但两者有所不同——tram是有轨电车,而trolleybus则是无轨电车。
double-decker bus是双层巴士。-decker跟在double/single等形容词后表示“有……层”,比如:triple-decker sandwich三层三明治。但不要认为double-decker bus仅是指当年北京奥运会闭幕式上伦敦八分钟里耀眼的红色大巴,伦敦街道上还有其他颜色的double-decker bus。London Transport(LT,伦敦运输局)曾先后引进过三个厂家的双层巴士——红色的“路霸”(Routemaster)、绿色的“珍宝巴士”(Fleetline)和红白相间的泰坦B15(Titan B15)。
目前很多城市都出现了BRT(Bus Rapid Transit)快速公交系统,这大大提高了公交效率。在这里transit就是指“a facility consisting of the means and equipment necessary for the movement of passengers or goods”,相当于词组“transportation system”,即“公交系统”的意思。
行驶在城与城之间的汽车,或long-distance bus,自然就是coach(长途汽车)。coach除了有“长途客运汽车”的意思,还可以表示“(铁路)旅客车厢”。
地铁篇
在很多城市,地铁都是重要的公交工具,但在不同的地方,地铁有不同的英文名字。英国人喜欢叫他们的地铁为tube或者是metro。metro通常用于欧洲,特别是在巴黎。美国人则会称这种地下交通工具为subway。而有 “地上地铁”之称的磁悬浮列车则是maglev train。maglev是由magnetic和levitation两个词演变而来,现在成为一个固定的词,指“磁悬浮的”。levitation是“轻轻悬浮”的意思。
活学活用
A: Does Tianjin keep trams like those of old days?
B: No, you may find some in shooting scenes. But nowadays trolleybus is more common.
A: Have you heard that the Routemaster has been retired?
B: Oh, what a pity! I mean, it represented London and was one of the most popular public vehicles after all.
A: I heard that our city will have BRT. That"s really cool.
B: What?
A: BRT - Bus Rapid Transit. The buses will have their own exclusive lanes and relieve some of the pressure on traffic.
A: The volume of passengers transported during the Spring Festival period is terrific.
B: Yeah, I can"t even get a train ticket. So I decide to go back home by coach.
A: But it will take more time. The cheapness of coach travel is its only recommendation.
B: That"s all right. As long as I can get home for the reunion, it doesn"t matter if I travel at a snail"s pace.
A: I heard that Shanghai has built the first commercial maglev train in the world?
B: Yeah, I read the news and saw it appears like a subway on the ground. I am more concerned whether its magnets might affect people"s health.
火车篇
根据行驶速度,列车有普快、特快、动车之分。三者对应的英语表达就是regular train,express,D-train。目前,“动车组”较为统一的英语表达是CRH train。CRH是China Railway Highspeed的缩写。在上海火车站北站,“动车组候车室”被英译为CRH train waiting room。但在日常表达中D-train更方便记忆,为人们接受。每班车次开往哪里就用(be) bound for来表示,for后面跟你要去的目的地。比如:This is D37 bound for Jinan. 这是D37次列车,将要开往济南。
动车以平均每小时200公里的速度缩短了城于城之间的距离,比如人们可以乘坐动车在北京和天津之间往返。经常来往于两地之间的人就是commuter。它是从动词commute派生而来。commute是“通勤,乘公共汽车、火车、汽车等上下班往返,经常往返于两地”的意思。commute还有一个派生词commutation,在美语里指长期来往车/机票或是月/季票,而英式说法则是season tickets,倒是挺像我们中国的月票。
如果乘车里程很长,我们都希望可以买到卧铺。有包厢的卧铺就是berth,通常一个包厢里只有two berths。当然berth不仅指列车上的卧铺,也可以指油轮等上的卧铺。而没有包厢的卧铺就是bunk。上、中、下铺可以分别用upper/middle/lower bunk表示。
说到火车,就不得不提日本的新干线,日文名字就是shinkansen,英文名称则是The Bullet Train。
Tips:“春运”年年火
春运 (passenger) transport during the Spring Festival period
客运量 volume of passengers transported
客运列车 passenger train
客流高峰期 peak time for passenger transport
加开列车 operate / arrange extra trains