W5D1

Business: Chinese internet firms Clubbingtogether

地道表达

Business: Chinese internet firms Clubbing together

[ Clubbing] 募集；联合（club的ing形式）

Eg. They do not look like they are go clubbing any time soon.

The merger of Meituan and Dianping could herald a bigger consolidation.

[ herald] vi. 预示

Eg. The speech heralded a change in policy.

GROUP buying—in which discounts are offered on goods and services once a certain number of consumers have signed up—may be falling out of fashion in many countries, with even America’s pioneer, Groupon, slashingover 1,000 jobs last month,

[ slashing]削减

Eg. Price slashed.

Even more striking is news this week of a merger between the two biggest Chinese firms in the business, which may herald a broader consolidation in China’s internet sector.

[ striking]削减adj. 显著的, 突出的;引人注目的; 容貌出众的

Eg. striking contrast 显著对比，鲜明的对比

Groupon has flopped in China, just as many other Western internet firms have done. This has left the field clear for local businesses.

[ flopped] vi. (指书、戏剧等)彻底失败, 不成功

Eg. It was a surprise to us when his play flopped.

It will quash competition on one front of a costly proxy war now being fought by China’s big three internet firms—Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent.

[ quash] vt. 拒绝接受, 废除, 撤销;镇压;平息;压服;压倒

Eg. The army quashed the rebellion.

The deal marks an escalation in what seems to be an effort by Alibaba and Tencent to squeeze out Baidu and turn the Chinese internet’s big three into a big two.

[ escalation] n. 扩大,增加

Eg. a serious escalation in the fighting

Otherwise there will surely be more mergers like this one, as the industry’s giants seek to create monopolies.

[ monopolies] n. 垄断；垄断者；专卖权

Eg. the state monopoly on broadcasting 对广播的国家垄断

专业知识

Groupon

Groupon is an American worldwide e-commerce marketplace connecting millions of subscribers with local merchants by offering activities, travel, goods and services in more than 28 countries. Based inChicago, Groupon was launched in November 2008, and the first market for Groupon was Chicago, followed soon thereafter by Boston, New York City and Toronto. By October 2010 Groupon was available in 150 cities in North America and 100 cities in Europe, Asia and South America, and had 35 million registered users.[3][4][5][6] By the end of March 2015, Groupon served more than 500 cities worldwide, nearly 48.1 million active customers and featured more than 425,000 active deals globally.[7]

来源：https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupon

Proxy war

A proxy war is a conflict between two states or non-state actors where neither entity directly engages the other. While this can encompass a breadth of armed confrontation, its core definition hinges on two separate powers utilizing external strife to somehow attack the interests or territorial holdings of the other. This frequently involves both countries fighting their opponent’s allies, or assisting their allies in fighting their opponent.

Proxy wars have been especially common since the close of World War II and the rise of the Cold War, and were a defining aspect of global conflict during the latter half of the 20th century. Much of this was motivated by fears that direct conflict between the United States and Soviet Union would result in nuclear holocaust, rendering proxy wars a safer way of exercising hostilities. There were also more immediate reasons for the emergence of proxy war on the global stage. During its later years, the USSR often found it less expensive to arm or otherwise prop up NATO-antagonistic parties in lieu of direct engagement. In addition, the proliferation of televised media and its impact on public perception made the U.S. public especially susceptible to war-weariness and skeptical of risking American life abroad. This led to the practice of arming insurgent forces, such as the funneling of supplies to the Mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan War.