分词短语同位语

韩健带你读外刊——the German traffic light for smartphone zombies

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To be more visible to people looking down at their mobilephones, Haunstetterstraße station in Augbsurg, Germany has installed traffic lights at ground level. Photograph: Thomas Hosemann

【导读】走路看手机的危害多次被强调，可效果甚微。现在来看看政府是如何采取措施迎合这些手机痴迷症患者的吧~~ 在地上安置交通信号灯、设置专门的人行通道……这是鼓励还是禁止呢……

The word “smombie” is one of the most recent additions to the German language. Last November, the term – a mashup of “smartphone” and “zombie”, referring to oblivious smartphone users staggering around cities like the undead – was voted Youth Word of the Year in Germany.

【注1】首段介绍了德国年度词汇smombie的构成。第二句主干是the term + was voted + Youth Word of the Year in Germany，破折号中间是插入语，解释说明term，其中referring to oblivious smartphone users是现在分词短语后置，修饰the term，相当于which refers to…；staggering…undead也是现在分词短语后置，修饰users，相当于users who stagger around …。

The disease is virulent. A recent study of 14,000 pedestrians in Amsterdam,Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Rome and Stockholm found that 17% of people used their smartphone while walking. The heaviest users were 25 to 35-year-olds: almost a quarter of them exhibited smombie-esque behaviour.

【注2】第二段说明这个新词产生背景。第二句主干是A recent study found that宾语从句，在这个宾语从句中含有一个while引导的时间状语从句，即…while (they were) walking。

Now Augsburg, a municipality outside Munich, has braced itself for this new public peril. After several smombies caused accidents by carelessly crossing tram tracks, city officials decided to install new traffic lights – at ground level.

And a theme park in the Chinese city of Chongqing has also experimented with a special “phone lane” for pedestrians, itself based on an earlier experiment in Washington, DC.

【注3】第三、四段介绍了不同城市对此采取的措施：德国奥格斯堡市安装了地面交通信号灯，而中国重庆的一家主题公园则采用了美国华盛顿之前的实验模式，专设手机用户人行通道。第三段第一句a municipality outside Munich是Augsburg的同位语；第四段中itself是a special phone lane的同位语，而based on是过去分词短语后置，修饰itself，相当于itself which is based on…。

(http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/29/always-practise-safe-text-the-german-traffic-light-for-smartphone-zombies)

词汇巩固：

1.text n. 手机短信v. 发短信

2.zombie n. 僵尸；麻木的人

3.visible adj. 可见的，明显的

4.install v. 安装

5.oblivious adj. 不在意的

6.stagger v. 蹒跚，摇晃

7.the undead 僵尸

8.virulent adj. 剧毒的，致命的

9.pedestrian n. 行人

10.–esque adj. 如……式的

11.municipality n. 自治市；市政府

12.brace oneself for 为……做好准备

13.peril n. 危险

14.tram n. 有轨电车

HJ原创译文：

去年11月，德语中的新词smombie（手机僵尸症患者）被选为德国年度词汇，它由smartphone（智能手机）和zombie（僵尸）两个词构成，专指那些犹如行走僵尸的走路低头看手机的家伙。

这种情况是致命的。一项对阿姆斯特丹、柏林、布鲁塞尔、巴黎和斯德哥尔摩14000名行人进行的研究显示，17%的人在走路时使用手机，其中25-35岁人群占最多数，几乎四分之一的人具有手机僵尸症的行为特征。

现在，慕尼黑旁边的奥格斯堡市已经对这种公共危害做出了应对措施。在手机僵尸症患者穿越轨道造成多起交通事故之后，政府决定安装新型地面交通信号灯。

同时，中国重庆的一家主题公园也试运行了专门的手机用户人行道，早些时候华盛顿有过类似的做法。