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#魯曼PAPAGO
#三峽鳶山彩壁
https://youtu.be/RN9nKI35ygY
重要字詞：
kite n. 風箏； 鳶
slippery adj. 滑的
pavilion n. 涼亭
blossom n. (樹的）花
delicate adj. 精緻的
plank n. 薄板
financial adj. 財經上的
benefit n. 好處；利益
fussy adj. 吹毛求疵的
- Luyện đọc tìm từ vựng nhé.
Bài đọc hôm nay là: THE GROWTH OF BIKE-SHARING SCHEMES AROUND THE WORLD
How Dutch engineer Luud Schimmelpennink helped to devise urban bike-sharing schemes
A. The original idea for an urban bike-sharing scheme dates back to a summer's day in Amsterdam in 1965. Provo, the organisation that came up with the idea, was a group of Dutch activists who wanted to change society. They believed the scheme, which was known as the Witte Fietsenplan, was an answer to the perceived threats of air pollution and consumerism. In the centre of Amsterdam, they painted a small number of used bikes white. They also distributed leaflets describing the dangers of cars and inviting people to use the white bikes. The bikes were then left unlocked at various locations around the city, to be used by anyone in need of transport.
B. Luud Schimmelpennink, a Dutch industrial engineer who still lives and cycles in Amsterdam, was heavily involved in the original scheme. He recalls how the scheme succeeded in attracting a great deal of attention - particularly when it came to publicising Provo's aims - but struggled to get off the ground. The police were opposed to Provo's initiatives and almost as soon as the white bikes were distributed around the city, they removed them. However, for Schimmelpennink and for bike-sharing schemes in general, this was just the beginning. 'The first Witte Fietsenplan was just a symbolic thing,' he says. 'We painted a few bikes white, that was all. Things got more serious when I became a member of the Amsterdam city council two years later.'
C. Schimmelpennink seized this opportunity to present a more elaborate Witte Fietsenplan to the city council. 'My idea was that the municipality of Amsterdam would distribute 10,000 white bikes over the city, for everyone to use,' he explains. 'I made serious calculations. It turned out that a white bicycle - per person, per kilometre - would cost the municipality only 10% of what it contributed to public transport per person per kilometre.' Nevertheless, the council unanimously rejected the plan. 'They said that the bicycle belongs to the past. They saw a glorious future for the car,' says Schimmelpennink. But he was not in the least discouraged.
D. Schimmelpennink never stopped believing in bike-sharing, and in the mid-90s, two Danes asked for his help to set up a system in Copenhagen. The result was the world's first large-scale bike-share programme. It worked on a deposit: 'You dropped a coin in the bike and when you returned it, you got your money back.' After setting up the Danish system, Schimmelpennink decided to try his luck again in the Netherlands - and this time he succeeded in arousing the interest of the Dutch Ministry of Transport. 'Times had changed,' he recalls. 'People had become more environmentally conscious, and the Danish experiment had proved that bike-sharing was a real possibility.' A new Witte Fietsenplan was launched in 1999 in Amsterdam. However, riding a white bike was no longer free; it cost one guilder per trip and payment was made with a chip card developed by the Dutch bank Postbank. Schimmelpennink designed conspicuous, sturdy white bikes locked in special racks which could be opened with the chip card- the plan started with 250 bikes, distributed over five stations.
E. Theo Molenaar, who was a system designer for the project, worked alongside Schimmelpennink. 'I remember when we were testing the bike racks, he announced that he had already designed better ones. But of course, we had to go through with the ones we had.' The system, however, was prone to vandalism and theft. 'After every weekend there would always be a couple of bikes missing,' Molenaar says. 'I really have no idea what people did with them, because they could instantly be recognised as white bikes.' But the biggest blow came when Postbank decided to abolish the chip card, because it wasn't profitable. 'That chip card was pivotal to the system,' Molenaar says. 'To continue the project we would have needed to set up another system, but the business partner had lost interest.'
F. Schimmelpennink was disappointed, but- characteristically- not for long. In 2002 he got a call from the French advertising corporation JC Decaux, who wanted to set up his bike-sharing scheme in Vienna. 'That went really well. After Vienna, they set up a system in Lyon. Then in 2007, Paris followed. That was a decisive moment in the history of bike-sharing.' The huge and unexpected success of the Parisian bike-sharing programme, which now boasts more than 20,000 bicycles, inspired cities all over the world to set up their own schemes, all modelled on Schimmelpennink's. 'It's wonderful that this happened,' he says. 'But financially I didn't really benefit from it, because I never filed for a patent.'
G. In Amsterdam today, 38% of all trips are made by bike and, along with Copenhagen, it is regarded as one of the two most cycle-friendly capitals in the world - but the city never got another Witte Fietsenplan. Molenaar believes this may be because everybody in Amsterdam already has a bike. Schimmelpennink, however, cannot see that this changes Amsterdam's need for a bike-sharing scheme. 'People who travel on the underground don't carry their bikes around. But often they need additional transport to reach their final destination.' Although he thinks it is strange that a city like Amsterdam does not have a successful bike sharing scheme, he is optimistic about the future. 'In the '60s we didn't stand a chance because people were prepared to give their lives to keep cars in the city. But that mentality has totally changed. Today everybody longs for cities that are not dominated by cars.'
original (adj): đầu tiên
scheme (n): kế hoạch
activist (n): nhà hoạt động xã hội
perceived (adj): nhận biết; threat (n): mối đe dọa
consumerism (n): sự bảo vệ quyền lợi người tiêu dùng
struggle (v): đấu tranh
opposed (adj): phản đối
initiative (n): sáng kiến
symbolic (adj): tượng trưng
seize (v): nắm bắt
elaborate (adj): phức tạp
municipality (n): thành phố tự trị
unanimously (adv): đồng lòng, nhất trí
glorious (adj): huy hoàng
deposit (n): tiền đặt cọc
arouse (v): đánh thức
conscious (adj): nhận thức
conspicuous (adj): đáng chú ý
vandalism (n): hành động cố ý phá hoại
theft (n): hành vi trộm cắp
abolish (v): hủy bỏ
profitable (adj): có lợi
pivotal (adj): chủ chốt, then chốt
characteristically (adv): một cách đặc trưng
decisive (adj): kiên quyết
unexpected (adj): bấtt ngờ
boast (v): khoe khoang
optimistic (adj): lạc quan
mentality (n): tâm tính
Các bạn cùng lưu về tham khảo nha.
[時事英文] 美國和中國準備「離婚」了
Do you foresee an amicable divorce or an ________ one?
想知道答案的同學請留言「Divorce is never easy.」。
amicable (adj.) 心平氣和的；不傷和氣的
★★★★★★★★★★★★
《紐約時報》報導:
Love it or hate it, the U.S.-China partnership that was forged between 1979 and 2019 delivered a lot of prosperity to a lot of people and a lot of relative peace to the world — and, baby, we will miss it when it’s gone.
1. be forged 被（尤指努力地）建立，製造，生産
2. deliver 實現；產生；兌現（諾言）*
3. prosperity 繁榮
4. relative peace 相對和平
愛也罷，恨也罷，美中自1979年至2019年建立的夥伴關係為很多人帶來了巨大的繁榮，也為世界帶來了相對的和平——寶貝，當它消失之後，我們會懷念的。
*deliver: https://bit.ly/2BGlyOT
★★★★★★★★★★★★
“Both sides are saying, ‘We’ve had enough of you,” remarked Jim McGregor, chairman of APCO Worldwide for Greater China. And as Trump himself put it in a tweet last week, the U.S. has the option “of a complete decoupling from China.”
5. both sides 雙方
6. We have had enough. 我們受夠了
7. as…put it 正如…所說，表述*
8. a complete decoupling 徹底脫鉤
「雙方都在說，『我們受夠你們了』，」安可顧問公司(APCO Worldwide)大中華區主席麥健陸(Jim McGregor)說。正如川普本週發推所說的那樣，美國可以選擇「與中國徹底脫鉤」。
*put it: https://bit.ly/2ZaSC9C
★★★★★★★★★★★★
These four decades of unconscious coupling hurt some workers, benefited many others and especially benefited consumers; it also took the edge off the natural rivalry between the world’s most powerful country and the most important rising power and enabled them to collaborate on global problems, like climate change and the post-2008 economic crisis.
9. unconscious coupling 無意中的婚姻，結合*
10. benefit consumers 使消費者受益
11. take the edge off 緩和了; 減弱，削弱（不良事物的影響）
12. natural rivalry 天然競爭
13. rising power 新興政權
14. collaborate on… 在…合作，協作
15. climate change 氣候變化
16. economic crisis 經濟危機
40年無意中的婚姻傷害了一些工人，但也使很多人受益，特別是消費者；這段關係還緩和了世界上最強大的國家與最重要的新興大國之間的天然競爭，使它們能在全球問題上合作，比如應對氣候變化和2008年後的經濟危機。
*couple (v.): https://bit.ly/31jakdT
★★★★★★★★★★★★
But the unconscious coupling is over. Henceforth, it will be more hedged, opportunities will be more restricted and the relationship will be full of a lot more conscious suspicion and fear that a rupture could happen at any time.
17. henceforth 從現在開始，從此以後
18. be hedged 受到更多束縛，嚴格限制
19. conscious suspicion 有意識的懷疑
20. a rupture 破裂
但是這段無意中的婚姻已經結束。今後，它將受到更多束縛，機會將受到更多限制，這段關係將充斥有意識的懷疑，以及對其隨時可能破裂的擔憂。
★★★★★★★★★★★★
Summing up the relationship today, McGregor, of APCO Worldwide, noted: “I don’t know if the Chinese are taking America seriously anymore. They are happy to just let us keep damaging ourselves. We have to wake up and grow up” — and get our own act and allies together. China respects one thing only: leverage. Today, we have too little and China has too much.
21. sum (sth/sb) up 總結，概述，概括*
22. take… seriously 把…當回事; 嚴肅地看待…
23. wake up 醒悟
24. get your act together (informal) 振作自己；有條理地行事；合理安排
25. leverage 影響力
總結當今的關係，安可顧問公司的麥健陸指出：「我不知道中國人是否還會把美國當回事。他們樂意看到我們繼續傷害自己。我們必須醒悟過來、成長起來」——並且還要團結一致，與盟友並肩。中國尊重的只有一個東西：影響力。今天，我們擁有的影響力太少，而中國則擁有太多。
* sum (sth/sb) up https://bit.ly/2Nwv21H
《紐約時報》完整報導：https://nyti.ms/2NyvNHu
圖片出處: https://bit.ly/3eE8UOW
★★★★★★★★★★★★
發音網站:
https://youglish.com/pronounce/eclipse/english/uk?
https://www.howtopronounce.com/
五大線上英文字典: http://bit.ly/2WcDZTH
★★★★★★★★★★★★
時事英文講義：https://bit.ly/2XmRYXc
時事英文大全：http://bit.ly/2WtAqop
＃國際時事英文
★★★★★★★★★★★★
來拿我們的【新聞英文-Marketing & Influencers 補充包】
https://bit.ly/2YJPZvb
benefit is both a noun and a verb, beneficial is an adjective:His insurance plan provides medical benefits. The new rules don't benefit me. Certain foods are ... ... <看更多>
Benefit definition, something that is advantageous or good; an advantage: He explained the benefits of public ownership of the postal system. See more. ... <看更多>
benefit adj 在 What is the adjective for benefit? - WordHippo 的相關結果
What is the adjective for benefit? ; Beneficent. · beneficent · benevolent ; present participle of benefit · aiding · assisting ... ... <看更多>