今天帶大家精讀的幾段外刊選自經濟學人20200321一期中China板塊的Worries about imported infections一文，講的是最近的熱點新聞：境外輸入病例。文章難度中等，強烈推薦閱讀。
In early March Alina Wang, a Chinese citizen studying in Sydney, decided it would be best to go back to her native country. She felt that China was doing a good job curtailing the spread of covid-19. In Australia she had worries, including that few people wore masks when out and about. Now Ms Wang is in a hotel near her family’s home in a north-eastern Chinese province. She is serving out the last few days of a two-week quarantine that local officials said new arrivals must undergo. Fortunately her room has good Wi-Fi. She is keeping busy with coursework.
分解
①In early March Alina Wang, a Chinese citizen studying in Sydney, decided it would be best to go back to her native country. ②She felt that China was doing a good job curtailing the spread of covid-19. ③In Australia she had worries, including that few people wore masks when out and about. ④Now Ms Wang is in a hotel near her family’s home in a north-eastern Chinese province. ⑤She is serving out(=completing) the last few days of a two-week quarantine that local officials said new arrivals must undergo. ⑥Fortunately her room has good Wi-Fi. ⑦She is keeping busy with coursework.
段落分析：這一段站在回國人員的角度，以一位留學生為例，描述了疫情期間回國的情況。②③兩句是回國的兩個主要原因：1.國內控制的很好 2.國外不重視。後面幾句講的是回國之後的隔離情況。
詞彙講解
curtail表示減少，限制。在寫作當中可以用來替代較為常用的reduce/limit。比如減少孩子們玩手機的時間：curtail children’s screen time。還有一個常見詞也可以表示減少/限制：cut。同樣可以用來替代reduce，比如減少碳排放：cut carbon emissions(=reduce carbon emissions)。
covid-19就是此次新冠肺炎病毒的專業名稱。全稱為Coronavirus Disease 2019。Coronavirus就是新冠(corona-)病毒。
worry在這裡表示擔心的具體事情，是個可數名詞。再比如One major worry for women is walking home at night. 如果是表示擔憂這種feeling，則是一個抽象的不可數名詞。下一段當中的infection也是這樣，作為可數名詞時，表示具體感染的人或病例；作為不可數名詞時，則表示感染這一抽象的行為。
out and about自由活動/到處跑(going to different places)。表示冒著風險出門，可以用venture out。原文也可以改為few people wore masks/the mask when venturing out。更加形象貼切。
two-week quarantine就是我們這些天我們所說的隔離兩週。需要注意的是，由two weeks(名詞成分)變成的two-week(形容詞修飾詞合成詞)必須是單數形式，不能寫成two-weeks。表示兩週還有一個常見詞：fortnight，在一些考試當中會經常遇到這個同義替換。表示(疾病)隔離還可以用isolate/isolation，不過在外刊中的使用頻率沒有quarantine高。自我隔離就是self-isolate/self-quarantine。
new arrival在這裡表示新入境的人。其中arrival表示到達的人/車等，放在具體的語境中表示具體的人或物。arrival與前面講的arrival和infection類似，是個具體的可數名詞；如果是不可數名詞，則表示到達這一行為。new arrivals在文中就相當於newly-arrived people/nationals(國民)。
keep busy with比較偏口語化。在寫作當中表示忙於...還可以用be occupied with/be engaged in。如Many seniors(大四學生) have been fully occupied with the graduation thesis recently.
句子分析
③In Australia she had worries, including that few people wore masks when out and about.
A including後面引導的是一句話，因此前面需要加上一個that。同時，由於including後面的成分是對前面worries的舉例，即其中一個具體的worry。因此可以將這個that名詞從句理解為worry的同位語，對其進行解釋說明，即including one worry that...
B 在when out and about這個狀語從句中，省略了主語+be動詞。即Few people wore masks when they were out and about.
其實這句話也可以改為使用worry的動詞形式，使用among other things短語作為插入語，放在例子之前：
In Australia she worried, among other things, that few people wore masks when out and about.
參考譯文
3月初，在悉尼留學的中國公民王麗娜認為，最好還是回到自己的祖國。她覺得中國在遏制covid-19的擴散方面做得很好。待在澳大利亞，她有各種擔憂，包括很少有人外出時戴口罩。現在，王女士中國東北部的一個省份附近的一家酒店裡進行隔離，也就在她家附近。她正在完成為期兩週隔離的最後幾天，當地官員說，新來的人必須接受隔離。還好，她的房間無線網很好。她一直忙於功課。
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