A game changer
2020/12/22 04:12:56 網誌分類: 生活
The word "eerie" has many meanings but used this way it means strange and unnatural. The word "shutter" means to close your doors or windows, or to shut down a business. It is eerie to see bars and restaurants in Lan Kwai Fong shuttered on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. A ghost town is a town where very few people or no people live anymore. But a ghost town can also mean a place that was busy in the past but is no longer busy because activities that kept people there have stopped. For example, Ocean Park and Disney are like ghost towns because the government has asked them to close until the fourth wave of the coronavirus eases.
Countries all over the world are hoping new vaccines will be a game changer for the global economy. In sports, the expression "game changer" means something that affects the result of a game very much. But a game changer can also mean something that affects a situation very much. A vaccine can be a game changer because normal life can re-start. There will be no more lockdowns and people can start going on holidays again. But experts say this won't happen until at least next summer and only if enough people get vaccinated.
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還有幾天便是聖誕節了。每逢平安夜與除夕夜，若我在香港的話，也會去一去蘭桂坊，它有着熱鬧（boisterous）和喜慶（festive）的氣氛。但這一年，蘭桂坊將會有種怪異（eerie）的感覺。除非政府重開酒吧，解除食肆晚上六時起禁止經營（shutter）堂食的限制，否則香港最著名的夜生活地帶將會變得猶如鬼城（ghost town）。
然而，隨着第四波新冠肺炎疫情仍未受控，實在很難可以見到政府會解除社交距離的限制。Boisterous是指喧鬧、熱鬧、狂歡的；festive則是用來形容製造出愉快、喜慶的節日氣氛。聖誕就有一個festive的感覺，因為它令人感到愉悅、高興。
Eerie一字有許多意思，但在這裏則指怪異、不尋常的。Shutter是指緊閉窗戶，或是停止營業。見到蘭桂坊的酒吧和食肆，在平安夜和除夕夜停止營業（shuttered），實在非常怪異（eerie）。A ghost town就是荒涼的鬼城，很少人甚至無人居住；但a ghost town也可解作一個曾經繁忙的地方不再熱鬧，因為那兒的活動停歇，令人們不再到訪。譬如，因為政府要求海洋公園和廸士尼停業，直至第四波的疫情放緩，令這兩個主題樂園現在如鬼城般冷清（ghost towns）。
世界各地的國家也希望，新疫苗會成為全球經濟的一個game changer。在體育世界裏，習語“game changer”是指很大程度上改變賽果的人或事；但a game changer也可以指某事物能很大幅度地改變形勢。疫苗會是個game changer，因為正常生活得以重啟，不再有封城，人們可重新度假。
然而專家說，至少要到下個夏天，以及在有足夠的人接種疫苗之後，這些期望才會發生。中譯：七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧
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