通勤學英語 15Mins Today

每日跟讀#517: Taiwan’s traditional medicine stores on life support

 

Traditional medicine store owner Gu Cheng-pu knows her dispensary can only stay open as long as her ailing father-in-law lives, their careers hostage to a quirk in Taiwanese law that is killing off the industry. At the back of her shop in New Taipei City, Gu tips a plate of freshly cut Chinese liquorice roots into a wok of boiling honey, the first step in preparing one of her many traditional remedies.

 

中藥房老闆娘古承蒲明白，只要她那體衰的公公還活著，她的藥房就能夠繼續經營下去。他們的生計受制於台灣弔詭的法規，這法規正使中藥房這行業逐漸消失。古承蒲在她位於新北市的店鋪後頭，將一盤剛切好的甘草根浸入一鍋煮沸的蜂蜜。這是製備多種傳統療法藥材的第一個步驟。

 

Shops like hers are dying out, however — with some 200 closing their doors every year — even though traditional medicine remains wildly popular in Taiwan.

 

然而，像她這樣的店鋪正逐漸消失──每年約有兩百家關門──即便傳統醫藥在台灣仍廣受歡迎。

 

Authorities have not issued any new licenses since 1998, to better regulate the largely artisanal industry and bring traditional remedies into the purview of the professional medical community. Those licenses that exist cannot be passed down to younger generations.

 

自一九九八年以來，政府就沒有再頒發任何新的許可執照，來把這極度仰賴手工的行業做更妥善規範、將傳統療法納入專業醫療的範圍。而且以前所發給的執照，並不能傳給年輕一代。

 

Things did not turn out as planned. The lower pay and profits struggled to attract young doctors and pharmacists while patients kept going to the mom-and-pop dispensaries they trusted.

 

政府的計畫趕不上實際的變化。中藥房的低工資和低利潤，很難吸引年輕一代的醫生和藥劑師；而患者求醫，還是習慣去自己信任的、父母輩去的中藥房抓藥。

 

Gu’s father-in-law is the license owner but he recently suffered a stroke and she now fears the worst. The average age of a traditional medicine store license holder is now 61 while the number of remaining stores has halved in the last 20 years to just 7,900.

 

古承蒲的公公是許可執照持有者，但他最近中風了，古承蒲現在擔心最壞的情況發生。

目前中藥房許可證持照者的平均年齡是六十一歲，中藥房的數量在過去二十年中減少了一半，僅剩七千九百家。

 

According to the Compendium of Materia Medica, the sixteenth-century text that is the lodestar for traditional practitioners, there are more than 1,500 different kinds of herbs used in Chinese medicine. The average store might stock between 200 and 500 herbs, roots, animal parts and minerals — 355 of which are classified as medicine in Taiwan.

 

十六世紀的文獻《本草綱目》，是中藥行業的指南。據《本草綱目》記載，中醫使用的草藥種類超過一千五百種。一般中藥房所販售的，大約有兩百至五百種藥草、植物的根、動物部位及礦物──其中的三百五十五種，在台灣是被歸類為藥物。

 

Lee Chia-ling, 42, has worked alongside her father in their family shop for more than 10 years, learning remedies from him.

 

四十二歲的李佳玲跟隨父親李進長學習傳統療法，已在家族經營的中藥房工作了十多年。

 

“It was very hard work in the beginning,” she said. “You need to get your hands dirty. Sorting, washing, chopping and slicing, lots of work goes into processing raw herbs and roots ready for use,” she said.

 

「一開始這工作就非常辛苦」，李佳玲說。「你都得親自動手，去分揀、洗滌、剁碎和切片，藥材的加工和製備很費工。」她說。

 

Her father Lee Ching-chang, 69, said it takes three to five years to learn to distinguish the basic ingredients and how they react with each other.

 

她六十九歲的父親李進長說，要學會區分藥材的基本成分、其相互作用，需要花費三到五年的時間。

 

“This is very much a profession where experience counts,” said the older Lee, who entered the trade when he was 15 years old. “If the government will not issue any new licenses then the second generation cannot carry on with the shop,” he lamented. “If this situation continues,” Gu warned, “there won’t be any Chinese herbal stores left in Taiwan.”

 

「這是非常重視經驗的行業」，年長的李先生說，他十五歲時進入這一行。「如果政府不發新執照，那麼第二代就無法再繼續開店」，他感嘆道。「如果這情況再繼續下去」，古承蒲警告說，「台灣就不會再有中藥房了。」

 

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2019/01/23/2003708428

 

更多每日跟讀單元，就在www.15mins.today

每日跟讀#517: Taiwan’s traditional medicine stores on life support

 

Traditional medicine store owner Gu Cheng-pu knows her dispensary can only stay open as long as her ailing father-in-law lives, their careers hostage to a quirk in Taiwanese law that is killing off the industry. At the back of her shop in New Taipei City, Gu tips a plate of freshly cut Chinese liquorice roots into a wok of boiling honey, the first step in preparing one of her many traditional remedies.

 

中藥房老闆娘古承蒲明白，只要她那體衰的公公還活著，她的藥房就能夠繼續經營下去。他們的生計受制於台灣弔詭的法規，這法規正使中藥房這行業逐漸消失。古承蒲在她位於新北市的店鋪後頭，將一盤剛切好的甘草根浸入一鍋煮沸的蜂蜜。這是製備多種傳統療法藥材的第一個步驟。

 

Shops like hers are dying out, however — with some 200 closing their doors every year — even though traditional medicine remains wildly popular in Taiwan.

 

然而，像她這樣的店鋪正逐漸消失──每年約有兩百家關門──即便傳統醫藥在台灣仍廣受歡迎。

 

Authorities have not issued any new licenses since 1998, to better regulate the largely artisanal industry and bring traditional remedies into the purview of the professional medical community. Those licenses that exist cannot be passed down to younger generations.

 

自一九九八年以來，政府就沒有再頒發任何新的許可執照，來把這極度仰賴手工的行業做更妥善規範、將傳統療法納入專業醫療的範圍。而且以前所發給的執照，並不能傳給年輕一代。

 

Things did not turn out as planned. The lower pay and profits struggled to attract young doctors and pharmacists while patients kept going to the mom-and-pop dispensaries they trusted.

 

政府的計畫趕不上實際的變化。中藥房的低工資和低利潤，很難吸引年輕一代的醫生和藥劑師；而患者求醫，還是習慣去自己信任的、父母輩去的中藥房抓藥。

 

Gu’s father-in-law is the license owner but he recently suffered a stroke and she now fears the worst. The average age of a traditional medicine store license holder is now 61 while the number of remaining stores has halved in the last 20 years to just 7,900.

 

古承蒲的公公是許可執照持有者，但他最近中風了，古承蒲現在擔心最壞的情況發生。

目前中藥房許可證持照者的平均年齡是六十一歲，中藥房的數量在過去二十年中減少了一半，僅剩七千九百家。

 

According to the Compendium of Materia Medica, the sixteenth-century text that is the lodestar for traditional practitioners, there are more than 1,500 different kinds of herbs used in Chinese medicine. The average store might stock between 200 and 500 herbs, roots, animal parts and minerals — 355 of which are classified as medicine in Taiwan.

 

十六世紀的文獻《本草綱目》，是中藥行業的指南。據《本草綱目》記載，中醫使用的草藥種類超過一千五百種。一般中藥房所販售的，大約有兩百至五百種藥草、植物的根、動物部位及礦物──其中的三百五十五種，在台灣是被歸類為藥物。

 

Lee Chia-ling, 42, has worked alongside her father in their family shop for more than 10 years, learning remedies from him.

 

四十二歲的李佳玲跟隨父親李進長學習傳統療法，已在家族經營的中藥房工作了十多年。

 

“It was very hard work in the beginning,” she said. “You need to get your hands dirty. Sorting, washing, chopping and slicing, lots of work goes into processing raw herbs and roots ready for use,” she said.

 

「一開始這工作就非常辛苦」，李佳玲說。「你都得親自動手，去分揀、洗滌、剁碎和切片，藥材的加工和製備很費工。」她說。

 

Her father Lee Ching-chang, 69, said it takes three to five years to learn to distinguish the basic ingredients and how they react with each other.

 

她六十九歲的父親李進長說，要學會區分藥材的基本成分、其相互作用，需要花費三到五年的時間。

 

“This is very much a profession where experience counts,” said the older Lee, who entered the trade when he was 15 years old. “If the government will not issue any new licenses then the second generation cannot carry on with the shop,” he lamented. “If this situation continues,” Gu warned, “there won’t be any Chinese herbal stores left in Taiwan.”

 

「這是非常重視經驗的行業」，年長的李先生說，他十五歲時進入這一行。「如果政府不發新執照，那麼第二代就無法再繼續開店」，他感嘆道。「如果這情況再繼續下去」，古承蒲警告說，「台灣就不會再有中藥房了。」

 

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2019/01/23/2003708428

 

更多每日跟讀單元，就在www.15mins.today

每日跟讀#516: The Old Pop Music Is Over. Introducing a Playbook for Pop 2.0.

 

What pop means changes depending on what angle you’re looking from. It can be a descriptor of audience size, indicating something that’s popular, or it can be a genre tag, specifying a sound. But for much of the past three decades, these two definitions have effectively been one and the same.

 

「流行音樂」一詞的定義取決於從什麼角度去看它。它可以是界定受眾多寡的符號，顯示某樣東西是否熱門，也可以是一張類型標籤，用來指特定的音樂類型。然而卅年來在頗長的時間裡，這兩個定義幾乎合為一體。

 

You know the sort: Katy Perry’s confetti cheer, Justin Timberlake’s feather-light chirps, Lady Gaga’s exorbitant theater, Taylor Swift’s guileless guile. Music that strives for gloss, pep, ecstasy, spectacle. Often an expression of whiteness, too. A one-size-fits-all solution.

 

你絕對熟悉那種音樂，凱蒂佩芮五彩碎紙般的奔放歡呼，賈斯汀輕如羽毛的滑音尖唱，女神卡卡隆重奢華的戲劇效果，和泰勒絲看似無邪的使壞。那種試圖營造光鮮亮麗、活力充沛、極度狂喜，和壯觀場面的樂曲。這種音樂往往也以白人為主要受眾。一體適用的解決之道。

 

For a time, in the 1980s, this kind of pop music — think of Michael Jackson and Madonna — was effectively monoculture, which is why the two meanings of pop have been so tightly tethered and so difficult to disentangle.

 

一九八○年代有段時間，這一種流行樂——想想麥可傑克森和瑪丹娜就好——基本上完全同質。這也是流行樂兩種意義緊密相連、難捨難分的原因。

 

But in the past couple of years, this framework has been almost completely dismantled, owing in large part to the widespread adoption of streaming. What were once regarded merely as pop subgenres — K-pop, Latin trap, melodic hip-hop and more — have become the center of the conversation.

 

然而在過去這幾年裡，這個框架幾乎完全被打破，這與串流音樂廣為普及大有關係。過往僅被視為次類型的南韓流行歌、拉丁曲風、旋律嘻哈等樂種，儼然成了舞台上的主角。

 

This is not an arbitrary agglomeration of styles. This is Pop 2.0 — music that comes from several different scenes but works with its own distinct set of rules. It is the first time in decades that the playbook for pop success has been updated, and it has profoundly reshaped the sound of America.

 

這可不是武斷的類別區分。這是全新一代的流行樂。音樂來自不同文化背景，卻自有一套清楚的運作規矩。這是數十年來流行音樂的致勝攻略首度更新，而這也大大重塑了美國樂壇。

 

Previously, when artists from hip-hop, country or hard rock were said to be going pop, that implied they were sacrificing something essential about themselves in exchange for something plastic and transitory. Pop was a softening. A compromise.

 

在過去，外界若說某一嘻哈、鄉村，或硬式搖滾樂手轉向流行樂風，往往暗指他們犧牲了自己的核心特質，換取更人工化而短暫的東西。流行樂過去是軟化、妥協的同義詞。

 

Now, thanks to the largely frictionless internet, and the evolution in how Billboard calculates its charts — accounting for streaming data in addition to sales and radio play — these styles top the charts in unfiltered fashion. Hip-hop almost completely dominates streaming. Latin trap and reggaeton thrive on YouTube.

 

K-pop, the dominant sound of young South Korea, has become a live-concert blockbuster and outrageously popular online worldwide.

 

而現在，由於網路幾乎暢行無阻，告示牌也改變了排行榜的計算方式——除唱片銷售和電台點播數字外，也計入串流量。上述的幾種音樂直截了當地名列前茅。嘻哈樂幾乎獨霸串流樂。拉美和雷鬼音樂在Youtube上隨處可見。南韓流行樂——來自南韓新生代的主流聲音，不僅橫掃全球演唱會票房，在網路上更是紅到不行。

 

All of that has made for Billboard charts that look vastly different than they did a decade ago and sets the template for how all of pop music will sound moving forward.

 

凡此種種，都使現在的告示牌排行榜和十年前看來大不相同，也替整體流行樂的前行之路定好了調。

 

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/335845/web/#2L-14007387L

 

更多跟讀練習單元，就在http://www.15mins.today/15mins-today

每日跟讀#516: The Old Pop Music Is Over. Introducing a Playbook for Pop 2.0.

 

What pop means changes depending on what angle you’re looking from. It can be a descriptor of audience size, indicating something that’s popular, or it can be a genre tag, specifying a sound. But for much of the past three decades, these two definitions have effectively been one and the same.

 

「流行音樂」一詞的定義取決於從什麼角度去看它。它可以是界定受眾多寡的符號，顯示某樣東西是否熱門，也可以是一張類型標籤，用來指特定的音樂類型。然而卅年來在頗長的時間裡，這兩個定義幾乎合為一體。

 

You know the sort: Katy Perry’s confetti cheer, Justin Timberlake’s feather-light chirps, Lady Gaga’s exorbitant theater, Taylor Swift’s guileless guile. Music that strives for gloss, pep, ecstasy, spectacle. Often an expression of whiteness, too. A one-size-fits-all solution.

 

你絕對熟悉那種音樂，凱蒂佩芮五彩碎紙般的奔放歡呼，賈斯汀輕如羽毛的滑音尖唱，女神卡卡隆重奢華的戲劇效果，和泰勒絲看似無邪的使壞。那種試圖營造光鮮亮麗、活力充沛、極度狂喜，和壯觀場面的樂曲。這種音樂往往也以白人為主要受眾。一體適用的解決之道。

 

For a time, in the 1980s, this kind of pop music — think of Michael Jackson and Madonna — was effectively monoculture, which is why the two meanings of pop have been so tightly tethered and so difficult to disentangle.

 

一九八○年代有段時間，這一種流行樂——想想麥可傑克森和瑪丹娜就好——基本上完全同質。這也是流行樂兩種意義緊密相連、難捨難分的原因。

 

But in the past couple of years, this framework has been almost completely dismantled, owing in large part to the widespread adoption of streaming. What were once regarded merely as pop subgenres — K-pop, Latin trap, melodic hip-hop and more — have become the center of the conversation.

 

然而在過去這幾年裡，這個框架幾乎完全被打破，這與串流音樂廣為普及大有關係。過往僅被視為次類型的南韓流行歌、拉丁曲風、旋律嘻哈等樂種，儼然成了舞台上的主角。

 

This is not an arbitrary agglomeration of styles. This is Pop 2.0 — music that comes from several different scenes but works with its own distinct set of rules. It is the first time in decades that the playbook for pop success has been updated, and it has profoundly reshaped the sound of America.

 

這可不是武斷的類別區分。這是全新一代的流行樂。音樂來自不同文化背景，卻自有一套清楚的運作規矩。這是數十年來流行音樂的致勝攻略首度更新，而這也大大重塑了美國樂壇。

 

Previously, when artists from hip-hop, country or hard rock were said to be going pop, that implied they were sacrificing something essential about themselves in exchange for something plastic and transitory. Pop was a softening. A compromise.

 

在過去，外界若說某一嘻哈、鄉村，或硬式搖滾樂手轉向流行樂風，往往暗指他們犧牲了自己的核心特質，換取更人工化而短暫的東西。流行樂過去是軟化、妥協的同義詞。

 

Now, thanks to the largely frictionless internet, and the evolution in how Billboard calculates its charts — accounting for streaming data in addition to sales and radio play — these styles top the charts in unfiltered fashion. Hip-hop almost completely dominates streaming. Latin trap and reggaeton thrive on YouTube.

 

K-pop, the dominant sound of young South Korea, has become a live-concert blockbuster and outrageously popular online worldwide.

 

而現在，由於網路幾乎暢行無阻，告示牌也改變了排行榜的計算方式——除唱片銷售和電台點播數字外，也計入串流量。上述的幾種音樂直截了當地名列前茅。嘻哈樂幾乎獨霸串流樂。拉美和雷鬼音樂在Youtube上隨處可見。南韓流行樂——來自南韓新生代的主流聲音，不僅橫掃全球演唱會票房，在網路上更是紅到不行。

 

All of that has made for Billboard charts that look vastly different than they did a decade ago and sets the template for how all of pop music will sound moving forward.

 

凡此種種，都使現在的告示牌排行榜和十年前看來大不相同，也替整體流行樂的前行之路定好了調。

 

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/335845/web/#2L-14007387L

 

更多跟讀練習單元，就在http://www.15mins.today/15mins-today

每日跟讀#515: A Glimpse of Our Shopping Future

 

What will the store of the future look like? Will we be served by fleets of gleaming robots, using built-in facial recognition technology to adjust each sales pitch to a person’s current mood or past spending preferences? Will there be voice-activated personal assistants, downloading the availability, color and fit of any and every garment to your smartphone? Three-D printing stations? No checkout counters when you leave? Could there even be floating, holographic product displays on the shop floor that change when a customer walks by?

 

Perhaps shoppers will make all their purchases from their own home, using virtual fitting rooms via virtual reality headsets. Drones will then drop deliveries in the backyard or on the front steps.

 

未來的商店看起來會像什麼樣子？我們會接受成排閃閃發光的機器人服務，讓這些機器人藉由內建的臉部辨識科技，把推銷商品的用語調整成適合客人當下的心情或過往的消費喜好嗎？會有聲控個人助理，把每件服裝的供貨情況、顏色和版型下載到你的智慧手機裡嗎？可會有3D列印站？離店時不會再有結帳櫃檯了嗎？當顧客走過店家地板時，半空中會展示產品全像投影嗎？

 

也許消費者會在自家戴上虛擬實境眼鏡，用虛擬試衣間完成所有的購物行為，接著無人機會把商品投送到後院或前門台階上。

 

As fanciful as these innovations may sound, none are hypothetical. All exist, are being tested and could be rolled out in as little as a decade. But is this the sort of shopping experience that customers really want?

 

Scores of leading retailers and fashion brands increasingly say no. And in an ever-more-volatile and unpredictable shopping environment, where long-term survival is dictated by anticipating and catering to consumers’ desires (often before they themselves even know what they want), the race to find out how and where people will do their spending has started to heat up.

 

這些新事物聽來不真實，卻都不是空想，全部都已存在，正在試驗階段，最快可能在10年內問世。不過，這種購物經驗真的是消費者要的嗎？

 

許多居領導地位的零售商和時尚品牌日益發現，不是的。在變動越來越快且無法預測的購物大環境中，能否預見並迎合顧客的欲望（通常甚至是在顧客自己知道想要什麼之前），決定了誰能長存，找出人們如何、在哪裡花錢的競賽開始變得激烈了。

 

Last month, for example, Farfetch — the global online marketplace for independent luxury boutiques — held a daylong event at the Design Museum in London. There, in front of 200 fashion industry insiders and partners, Jose Neves, the founder of Farfetch, unveiled “The Store of the Future,” a suite of new technologies developed by his company to help brands and boutiques bridge the worlds of online and offline.

 

Nevertheless, in a telephone call the week before the event, Neves said: “I am a huge believer in physical stores. They are not going to vanish and will stay at the center of the seismic retail revolution that is only just getting started.”

 

且舉一例，就在上個月，獨立奢華精品店的全球線上購物平台Farfetch在倫敦「設計博物館」辦了一整天的活動。在活動中，Farfetch創辦人內維斯在200位時尚產業圈內人和合作夥伴面前發表了「未來的商店」，這是Farfetch研發的一套新科技，協助品牌和精品店結合線上與線下世界。

 

不過，在活動舉辦之前那一周，內維斯在電話中說：「我是實體商店徹頭徹尾的信徒。實體商店不會消失，會在這場才剛開始的零售業劇烈變革中，保持在中心位置。」

 

A corresponding report newly released by Bain & Co. suggests that he might be right; although 70 percent of high-end purchases are influenced by online interactions, the consultancy maintains that stores will continue to play a critical role, with 75 percent of sales still occurring in a physical location by 2025.

 

What may change, however, is a store’s primary purpose. Forget e-commerce, or bricks and mortar, or even omnichannel sales; according to Neves, the new retail era is one anchored in “augmented retail,” a blend of the digital and physical allowing a shopper to shift seamlessly between the two realms.

 

貝恩諮詢公司最近發布一份與此呼應的報告，顯示內維斯可能是對的：雖然70%的高檔消費受網路互動影響，但貝恩斷言，實體商店仍將扮演重要角色，到2025年，75%的銷售額仍將發生在實體通路。

 

不過，可能改變的是實體商店的主要目的。忘掉電子商務、實體商店、甚至是全通路銷售吧，內維斯說，新的零售時代緊緊植根於「擴增零售」，這種零售融合數位與實體，讓消費者在兩種領域之間來去自如。

 

Source: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/312703/web/

 

更多跟讀練習單元，就在http://www.15mins.today/15mins-today

每日跟讀#515: A Glimpse of Our Shopping Future

 

What will the store of the future look like? Will we be served by fleets of gleaming robots, using built-in facial recognition technology to adjust each sales pitch to a person’s current mood or past spending preferences? Will there be voice-activated personal assistants, downloading the availability, color and fit of any and every garment to your smartphone? Three-D printing stations? No checkout counters when you leave? Could there even be floating, holographic product displays on the shop floor that change when a customer walks by?

 

Perhaps shoppers will make all their purchases from their own home, using virtual fitting rooms via virtual reality headsets. Drones will then drop deliveries in the backyard or on the front steps.

 

未來的商店看起來會像什麼樣子？我們會接受成排閃閃發光的機器人服務，讓這些機器人藉由內建的臉部辨識科技，把推銷商品的用語調整成適合客人當下的心情或過往的消費喜好嗎？會有聲控個人助理，把每件服裝的供貨情況、顏色和版型下載到你的智慧手機裡嗎？可會有3D列印站？離店時不會再有結帳櫃檯了嗎？當顧客走過店家地板時，半空中會展示產品全像投影嗎？

 

也許消費者會在自家戴上虛擬實境眼鏡，用虛擬試衣間完成所有的購物行為，接著無人機會把商品投送到後院或前門台階上。

 

As fanciful as these innovations may sound, none are hypothetical. All exist, are being tested and could be rolled out in as little as a decade. But is this the sort of shopping experience that customers really want?

 

Scores of leading retailers and fashion brands increasingly say no. And in an ever-more-volatile and unpredictable shopping environment, where long-term survival is dictated by anticipating and catering to consumers’ desires (often before they themselves even know what they want), the race to find out how and where people will do their spending has started to heat up.

 

這些新事物聽來不真實，卻都不是空想，全部都已存在，正在試驗階段，最快可能在10年內問世。不過，這種購物經驗真的是消費者要的嗎？

 

許多居領導地位的零售商和時尚品牌日益發現，不是的。在變動越來越快且無法預測的購物大環境中，能否預見並迎合顧客的欲望（通常甚至是在顧客自己知道想要什麼之前），決定了誰能長存，找出人們如何、在哪裡花錢的競賽開始變得激烈了。

 

Last month, for example, Farfetch — the global online marketplace for independent luxury boutiques — held a daylong event at the Design Museum in London. There, in front of 200 fashion industry insiders and partners, Jose Neves, the founder of Farfetch, unveiled “The Store of the Future,” a suite of new technologies developed by his company to help brands and boutiques bridge the worlds of online and offline.

 

Nevertheless, in a telephone call the week before the event, Neves said: “I am a huge believer in physical stores. They are not going to vanish and will stay at the center of the seismic retail revolution that is only just getting started.”

 

且舉一例，就在上個月，獨立奢華精品店的全球線上購物平台Farfetch在倫敦「設計博物館」辦了一整天的活動。在活動中，Farfetch創辦人內維斯在200位時尚產業圈內人和合作夥伴面前發表了「未來的商店」，這是Farfetch研發的一套新科技，協助品牌和精品店結合線上與線下世界。

 

不過，在活動舉辦之前那一周，內維斯在電話中說：「我是實體商店徹頭徹尾的信徒。實體商店不會消失，會在這場才剛開始的零售業劇烈變革中，保持在中心位置。」

 

A corresponding report newly released by Bain & Co. suggests that he might be right; although 70 percent of high-end purchases are influenced by online interactions, the consultancy maintains that stores will continue to play a critical role, with 75 percent of sales still occurring in a physical location by 2025.

 

What may change, however, is a store’s primary purpose. Forget e-commerce, or bricks and mortar, or even omnichannel sales; according to Neves, the new retail era is one anchored in “augmented retail,” a blend of the digital and physical allowing a shopper to shift seamlessly between the two realms.

 

貝恩諮詢公司最近發布一份與此呼應的報告，顯示內維斯可能是對的：雖然70%的高檔消費受網路互動影響，但貝恩斷言，實體商店仍將扮演重要角色，到2025年，75%的銷售額仍將發生在實體通路。

 

不過，可能改變的是實體商店的主要目的。忘掉電子商務、實體商店、甚至是全通路銷售吧，內維斯說，新的零售時代緊緊植根於「擴增零售」，這種零售融合數位與實體，讓消費者在兩種領域之間來去自如。

 

Source: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/312703/web/

 

更多跟讀練習單元，就在http://www.15mins.today/15mins-today

每日跟讀#514: Apple’s Eye-Catching New Home Disrupts Silicon Valley

 

Things change when a spaceship comes to town.

 

Tourists stroll by, whipping out their iPhones to get a photo. New businesses move in. And real estate prices go up even more.

 

當太空船來到城裡，許多事情都變了。

 

遊客在這裡流連，迅速拿出iPhone拍照。新商家進駐。房地產價格漲得更高。

 

Apple’s new home in Cupertino — the centerpiece being a $5 billion, four-story, 2.8 million-square-foot ring that can be seen from space and that locals call the spaceship — is still getting some final touches, and employees have just started to trickle in. The full squadron, about 12,000 people, will arrive in several months.

 

But the development of the headquarters, a 175-acre area officially called Apple Park, has already helped transform the surrounding area.

 

蘋果公司在加州古柏迪諾市的新家——核心是耗資50億美元（合台幣約1500億元），面積280萬平方英尺（約7萬9000坪）的4層樓環狀建物，能從太空中看到，當地人稱為太空船——仍處在最後裝修階段，員工才剛開始陸續遷入。總計1萬2000人將在數月內入駐。

 

不過，蘋果新總部修建已推動周邊地區的變化。新總部占地175英畝（約21萬坪），正式名稱是蘋果園區。

 

In Sunnyvale, a town just across the street, 95 development projects are in the planning stages. The city manager, Deanna J. Santana, said she had never seen such action before. In Cupertino, a Main Street Cupertino living and dining complex opened in early 2016. This downtown enclave includes the Lofts, a 120-unit apartment community opening this fall; small shops; and numerous restaurants and cafes.

 

Other local businesses are also gearing up in anticipation. A Residence Inn at Main Street Cupertino, expected to open in September, has been slightly customized to meet the needs of Apple employees. Guests will have access to Macs and high-speed internet connections, said Mark Lynn, a partner with Sand Hill Hotel Management, which operates the hotel and consulted with Apple about what its employees need at a hotel.

 

在蘋果園區對街的桑尼維爾市，有95個開發案正規劃中。市經理迪安娜．桑塔納說，她未曾見過這樣的發展。在古柏迪諾，居住和餐飲綜合建築「古柏迪諾大街」在2016年初開幕。這個商業區包括有120戶公寓的社區Lofts，將於今秋推出；還有小商店、大量的餐廳和咖啡館。

 

其他本地企業也滿懷期待在做準備。古柏迪諾大街一間長住型飯店預計9月開幕，飯店稍微調整過，以滿足蘋果員工的需求。經營飯店的沙丘飯店管理公司向蘋果諮詢過其員工對飯店有什麼需求，公司合夥人林恩說，飯店客人有麥金塔電腦和高速網路可用。

 

“All the things we have, lined up with what they needed,” Lynn said. “They will represent a large part of our business.”

 

Tech companies are nothing new for Cupertino. Apple has called the city home for decades, and Hewlett-Packard had a campus in Apple’s new spot, employing 9,000 people. The surrounding towns have been remade as well in the last decade, as giant tech companies have transformed Silicon Valley’s real estate into some of the most expensive in the country.

 

林恩說：「我們所有事物都配合蘋果員工的需求，他們會在我們業務中占很大比重。」

 

對古柏迪諾而言，科技公司並不新鮮。蘋果把這個城市當成家已有數十年，而蘋果新總部所在地曾是惠普一個雇用9000人的園區。過去10年，古柏迪諾周遭城鎮的風貌也翻新了，因為科技巨頭已使矽谷轉變為全美房地產最貴的地方之一。

 

But city officials and residents say this project is like nothing they’ve seen before. It is even bringing tourists.

 

Onlookers snap pictures of the spaceship from the streets. TV helicopters circle above. Amateur photographers ask residents if they can stand on driveways to operate their drones, hoping to get a closer look at Apple Park.

 

“I just say, ‘Hey, go ahead,'” said Ron Nielsen, who lives in Birdland, a Sunnyvale neighborhood across the street from the spaceship. “Why not?”

 

但城市官員和居民說，蘋果園區跟他們看過的其他開發案不一樣。園區甚至帶來了遊客。

 

遊客在街頭拍攝太空船的照片。電視台的直升機在它上方盤旋。業餘攝影師問居民可否站在他們的私家車道上操作無人機，以便更近一點看看蘋果園區。

 

尼爾森住在桑尼維爾市伯德蘭德地區，就在太空船對街，他說：「我就說，『好啊，行』，為什麼不可以呢？」

 

Source: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/315730/web/

 

更多跟讀練習單元，就在http://www.15mins.today/15mins-today

每日跟讀#514: Apple’s Eye-Catching New Home Disrupts Silicon Valley

 

Things change when a spaceship comes to town.

 

Tourists stroll by, whipping out their iPhones to get a photo. New businesses move in. And real estate prices go up even more.

 

當太空船來到城裡，許多事情都變了。

 

遊客在這裡流連，迅速拿出iPhone拍照。新商家進駐。房地產價格漲得更高。

 

Apple’s new home in Cupertino — the centerpiece being a $5 billion, four-story, 2.8 million-square-foot ring that can be seen from space and that locals call the spaceship — is still getting some final touches, and employees have just started to trickle in. The full squadron, about 12,000 people, will arrive in several months.

 

But the development of the headquarters, a 175-acre area officially called Apple Park, has already helped transform the surrounding area.

 

蘋果公司在加州古柏迪諾市的新家——核心是耗資50億美元（合台幣約1500億元），面積280萬平方英尺（約7萬9000坪）的4層樓環狀建物，能從太空中看到，當地人稱為太空船——仍處在最後裝修階段，員工才剛開始陸續遷入。總計1萬2000人將在數月內入駐。

 

不過，蘋果新總部修建已推動周邊地區的變化。新總部占地175英畝（約21萬坪），正式名稱是蘋果園區。

 

In Sunnyvale, a town just across the street, 95 development projects are in the planning stages. The city manager, Deanna J. Santana, said she had never seen such action before. In Cupertino, a Main Street Cupertino living and dining complex opened in early 2016. This downtown enclave includes the Lofts, a 120-unit apartment community opening this fall; small shops; and numerous restaurants and cafes.

 

Other local businesses are also gearing up in anticipation. A Residence Inn at Main Street Cupertino, expected to open in September, has been slightly customized to meet the needs of Apple employees. Guests will have access to Macs and high-speed internet connections, said Mark Lynn, a partner with Sand Hill Hotel Management, which operates the hotel and consulted with Apple about what its employees need at a hotel.

 

在蘋果園區對街的桑尼維爾市，有95個開發案正規劃中。市經理迪安娜．桑塔納說，她未曾見過這樣的發展。在古柏迪諾，居住和餐飲綜合建築「古柏迪諾大街」在2016年初開幕。這個商業區包括有120戶公寓的社區Lofts，將於今秋推出；還有小商店、大量的餐廳和咖啡館。

 

其他本地企業也滿懷期待在做準備。古柏迪諾大街一間長住型飯店預計9月開幕，飯店稍微調整過，以滿足蘋果員工的需求。經營飯店的沙丘飯店管理公司向蘋果諮詢過其員工對飯店有什麼需求，公司合夥人林恩說，飯店客人有麥金塔電腦和高速網路可用。

 

“All the things we have, lined up with what they needed,” Lynn said. “They will represent a large part of our business.”

 

Tech companies are nothing new for Cupertino. Apple has called the city home for decades, and Hewlett-Packard had a campus in Apple’s new spot, employing 9,000 people. The surrounding towns have been remade as well in the last decade, as giant tech companies have transformed Silicon Valley’s real estate into some of the most expensive in the country.

 

林恩說：「我們所有事物都配合蘋果員工的需求，他們會在我們業務中占很大比重。」

 

對古柏迪諾而言，科技公司並不新鮮。蘋果把這個城市當成家已有數十年，而蘋果新總部所在地曾是惠普一個雇用9000人的園區。過去10年，古柏迪諾周遭城鎮的風貌也翻新了，因為科技巨頭已使矽谷轉變為全美房地產最貴的地方之一。

 

But city officials and residents say this project is like nothing they’ve seen before. It is even bringing tourists.

 

Onlookers snap pictures of the spaceship from the streets. TV helicopters circle above. Amateur photographers ask residents if they can stand on driveways to operate their drones, hoping to get a closer look at Apple Park.

 

“I just say, ‘Hey, go ahead,'” said Ron Nielsen, who lives in Birdland, a Sunnyvale neighborhood across the street from the spaceship. “Why not?”

 

但城市官員和居民說，蘋果園區跟他們看過的其他開發案不一樣。園區甚至帶來了遊客。

 

遊客在街頭拍攝太空船的照片。電視台的直升機在它上方盤旋。業餘攝影師問居民可否站在他們的私家車道上操作無人機，以便更近一點看看蘋果園區。

 

尼爾森住在桑尼維爾市伯德蘭德地區，就在太空船對街，他說：「我就說，『好啊，行』，為什麼不可以呢？」

 

Source: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/315730/web/

 

更多跟讀練習單元，就在http://www.15mins.today/15mins-today

每日跟讀#513: What makes a good sniffer dog: loves to eat, playful and curious

 

As the whole country gears up to prevent the African swine fever virus from entering Taiwan, sniffer dogs are playing a very important part. To make a good sniffer dog, in addition to having a powerful sense of smell, dogs that love to eat and are playful, curious and unaggressive are the top choice for dog handlers.

 

為防止非洲豬瘟病毒入侵，在全面提升國境防疫層級之際，檢疫犬扮演的角色吃重。要成為好的檢疫犬的條件，除了嗅覺靈敏、活動力強外，嗜吃、好玩、常保好奇心、無攻擊性，更是領犬員心目中的首選。

 

With their keen sense of smell, sniffer dogs can detect up to a dozen kinds of animal products and more than 80 kinds of plant products, with an average accuracy rate of over 80 percent, making them the most helpful assistants for border inspection personnel.

 

檢疫犬藉由靈敏的嗅覺，可以偵測標的物可達十多種動物產品及八十多種植物產品，平均偵測正確率為八成以上，是國境防檢人員最有力的助手。

 

An inspector says that when a sniffer dog finds hidden meat, fruit or seeds on the baggage carousel, it stops by the baggage and waits for the inspectors to open it for inspection.

 

防檢人員表示，檢疫犬若在行李轉盤發現暗藏肉品、水果、種子時，會停在行李原地，等待防檢人員進一步開箱查驗。

 

Hsiao Shu-chiung, a technical specialist with the Council of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, says that Taoyuan International Airport is in effect the country’s front door, so its sniffer dogs bear a heavier responsibility than those of other border control units. Sniffer dogs’ training is aimed at identifying fresh fruit, vegetables, seeds, meat and live animals, in order to effectively intercept potential epidemics such as bird flu, foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever.

 

農委會動植物防疫檢疫局技正蕭淑瓊說，桃園機場屬於國家大門，檢疫犬每天執勤的責任比其他國境單位來得吃重，而檢疫犬平日訓練，則針對如何辨識鮮果、蔬菜、種子、肉類與動物活體，以有效攔截禽流感、口蹄疫、非洲豬瘟等不同疫情。

 

There are currently 47 sniffer dogs in Taiwan, including 29 beagles, 10 Labradors and eight mixed-breed dogs, which carry out their duties at airports, sea ports and international parcel centers all over the country. Taoyuan International Airport has the most sniffer dogs — 25 in all. Even the Shuitou Pier in Kinmen County, a port for the “small three links” with China, has three sniffer dogs.

 

台灣現有四十七隻檢疫犬，犬種包含二十九隻米格魯、十隻拉布拉多、八隻米克斯混種，分工在全國機場、港口、國際郵包中心執勤，數量最多的是桃園機場，分派二十五隻執勤，就連金門縣小三通的水頭碼頭也有三隻。

 

A sniffer dog’s training is carried out in tandem with that of the dog handler. They are trained separately for the first one or two months. The dog must learn to sniff and obey commands, while the dog handler learns to guide the dog to do its duties in the form of a game, as well as how to take care of the dog’s health. In the following 10 to 12 weeks, the dog and its handler are trained together and learn on the spot. In most cases, a sniffer dog starts working at two years old and serves for four to seven years.

 

檢疫犬的培訓是與領犬員同步進行，剛開始的一到二個月分別受訓，狗狗要學會聞、聽從命令等；領犬員要會引領狗狗樂於在遊戲中執勤、照顧其健康起居；再十到十二週一起受訓，並現場學習。檢疫犬通常是自兩歲起，服務四到七年。

 

Most of the sniffer dogs are beagles. The beagles are bred by the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, while the Labradors are bred by the Customs Administration. Mixed-breed dogs in shelters may also be chosen, as well as dogs donated by the public.

 

檢疫犬的犬種以米格魯較多，米格魯由屏東科技大學、拉布拉多由海關育種，也會從收容中心尋找米克斯，或由民眾捐贈。

 

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2019/01/02/2003707168

 

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每日跟讀#513: What makes a good sniffer dog: loves to eat, playful and curious

 

As the whole country gears up to prevent the African swine fever virus from entering Taiwan, sniffer dogs are playing a very important part. To make a good sniffer dog, in addition to having a powerful sense of smell, dogs that love to eat and are playful, curious and unaggressive are the top choice for dog handlers.

 

為防止非洲豬瘟病毒入侵，在全面提升國境防疫層級之際，檢疫犬扮演的角色吃重。要成為好的檢疫犬的條件，除了嗅覺靈敏、活動力強外，嗜吃、好玩、常保好奇心、無攻擊性，更是領犬員心目中的首選。

 

With their keen sense of smell, sniffer dogs can detect up to a dozen kinds of animal products and more than 80 kinds of plant products, with an average accuracy rate of over 80 percent, making them the most helpful assistants for border inspection personnel.

 

檢疫犬藉由靈敏的嗅覺，可以偵測標的物可達十多種動物產品及八十多種植物產品，平均偵測正確率為八成以上，是國境防檢人員最有力的助手。

 

An inspector says that when a sniffer dog finds hidden meat, fruit or seeds on the baggage carousel, it stops by the baggage and waits for the inspectors to open it for inspection.

 

防檢人員表示，檢疫犬若在行李轉盤發現暗藏肉品、水果、種子時，會停在行李原地，等待防檢人員進一步開箱查驗。

 

Hsiao Shu-chiung, a technical specialist with the Council of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, says that Taoyuan International Airport is in effect the country’s front door, so its sniffer dogs bear a heavier responsibility than those of other border control units. Sniffer dogs’ training is aimed at identifying fresh fruit, vegetables, seeds, meat and live animals, in order to effectively intercept potential epidemics such as bird flu, foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever.

 

農委會動植物防疫檢疫局技正蕭淑瓊說，桃園機場屬於國家大門，檢疫犬每天執勤的責任比其他國境單位來得吃重，而檢疫犬平日訓練，則針對如何辨識鮮果、蔬菜、種子、肉類與動物活體，以有效攔截禽流感、口蹄疫、非洲豬瘟等不同疫情。

 

There are currently 47 sniffer dogs in Taiwan, including 29 beagles, 10 Labradors and eight mixed-breed dogs, which carry out their duties at airports, sea ports and international parcel centers all over the country. Taoyuan International Airport has the most sniffer dogs — 25 in all. Even the Shuitou Pier in Kinmen County, a port for the “small three links” with China, has three sniffer dogs.

 

台灣現有四十七隻檢疫犬，犬種包含二十九隻米格魯、十隻拉布拉多、八隻米克斯混種，分工在全國機場、港口、國際郵包中心執勤，數量最多的是桃園機場，分派二十五隻執勤，就連金門縣小三通的水頭碼頭也有三隻。

 

A sniffer dog’s training is carried out in tandem with that of the dog handler. They are trained separately for the first one or two months. The dog must learn to sniff and obey commands, while the dog handler learns to guide the dog to do its duties in the form of a game, as well as how to take care of the dog’s health. In the following 10 to 12 weeks, the dog and its handler are trained together and learn on the spot. In most cases, a sniffer dog starts working at two years old and serves for four to seven years.

 

檢疫犬的培訓是與領犬員同步進行，剛開始的一到二個月分別受訓，狗狗要學會聞、聽從命令等；領犬員要會引領狗狗樂於在遊戲中執勤、照顧其健康起居；再十到十二週一起受訓，並現場學習。檢疫犬通常是自兩歲起，服務四到七年。

 

Most of the sniffer dogs are beagles. The beagles are bred by the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, while the Labradors are bred by the Customs Administration. Mixed-breed dogs in shelters may also be chosen, as well as dogs donated by the public.

 

檢疫犬的犬種以米格魯較多，米格魯由屏東科技大學、拉布拉多由海關育種，也會從收容中心尋找米克斯，或由民眾捐贈。

 

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2019/01/02/2003707168

 

更多跟讀練習單元，就在http://www.15mins.today/15mins-today/