本文节选自《经济学人》2019.01.26期，Business版块中的一篇关于共享单车的报道。
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Lessons from the fall of China’s bike-sharing pioneer
the fall of：……的衰落
bike-sharing：共享单车
中国共享单车先驱的衰落带来的启示。
1
When every colour had been claimed by rival bike-sharing firms, Qicai Bike (or “seven colours”)went for the whole rainbow. Onto these flashy frames it fixed glow-in-the-dark wheels, hoping perhaps for a night-time edge over competitors. Launched in June 2017, Qicai’s dockless bicycles joined those of over 70 other bike-share startups in Chinese cities, unlocked and paid for with aQR code through smart-phone apps.
claimed by：被认领，合法拥有【写作推荐】词汇
rival：名词竞争对手，形容词：相互竞争的
went for：go for，有三个意思，1：适用于……，what I said about her go for you, too 我说的关于她的话也适用于你。2：去取回某人某物，she’s gone for some milk. 她买牛奶去了。3：喜欢，被吸引，she goes for tall slim man 她喜欢又高又瘦的男人。这里应该是第二个意思，指取用整个彩虹的色彩【写作推荐】词汇
frames：框架、骨架，自行车的车架
glow-in-the-dark：发夜光的，夜光设计的
edge over：edge，微弱的优势，edge on/over 略胜一筹【写作推荐】词汇，have a slight advantage over sth/sb
dockless：“无桩”refers to the fact that the bikes are not locked to dedicated physical stands指的是这些自行车不被锁在专用的地点
startups：创业公司
QR code：二维码（Quick Response）
当每一个颜色都被相互竞争的单车共享公司认领，七彩单车则认领了整个彩虹。七彩单车将夜光车轮安置在华丽的车架上，希望或许一晚上，就能胜过它的竞争者。2017年6月，七彩“无桩”共享单车与超过70家的共享单车公司一样，进入了中国城市，通过智能手机二维码解锁和支付
2
Yet it seemed clear by then that it was a two-bike race—a configuration typical of China’s feverish entrepreneurial battles. That same summer, Ofo, started by students at the elite Peking University in 2014, wheeled its dockless, buttercup-yellow bikes onto the Tibetan plateau, making Lhasa its 100th city. Its main competitor, Mobike, raised over $600m, the largest single dollop of funding in bike-sharing anywhere, in a round led by Tencent, a social-media giant. Each startup was valued at a fizzy $3bn or so.
the elite Peking University：北京大学。elite是精英的意思，如the elite school名校，elite group精英小组
wheeled：用有轮之物推动，这里形象地描述将Ofo单车打入市场
buttercup-yellow：奶油黄
Tibetan plateau：青藏高原
Lhasa：拉萨
然而，那时我们很清楚这是一场两家公司的竞赛——中国狂热企业战的典型配置。那个相同的夏天，在2014年由来自北京大学的学生们创立的Ofo，推动小黄车进入青藏高原，使拉萨成为拥有小黄车的第100个城市。它的主要竞争对手摩拜，募集超过6亿美元（单车共享最大的单笔资金投入），参加了一场由腾讯这一社交媒体巨头引导的竞赛。每个公司估价约为30亿美元。
3
Now Ofo is languishing. Lawsuits over bills it has failed to pay have multiplied, from bike manufacturers, locksmiths and logistics firms. Last month a court placed its 27-year-old founder, Dai Wei, on a credit blacklist, prohibiting him from staying in fancy hotels or flying first-class. He and his firm owe suppliers at least 194m yuan ($28.6m). Recently 12m-odd app users waited for deposit refunds in a virtual queue. In a letter to staff, Mr Dai wrote that he had considered bankruptcy. This month Ofo dissolved its international unit
languishing：to become weaker or fail to make progress，衰弱或停止进步
have multiplied：sth have multiplied 某物成倍增加，可以说：Homework waiting to be completed have multiplied.待完成的作业在成倍增加【写作推荐】词汇
logistics firms：物流公司
place sb on a credit blacklist：将某人列入信用黑名单
fancy hotels：豪华酒店
flying first-class：乘坐飞机头等舱【地道描述】
deposit refunds：退保押金。Deposit 押金，refund偿还
virtual queue：虚拟队列，即网上排队等待
international unit：国际子公司
如今Ofo正在衰退，关于其欠款的诉讼成倍增加，这些诉讼来自于自行车生产商，锁匠和物流公司。上个月，法院将27岁的创始人戴威列入信用黑名单，禁止其入住豪华酒店或者乘坐飞机头等舱。他和他的公司欠供应商至少1.94亿人民币（2860万美元）。最近，1200万app用户正在等待退换押金。在一封给工作人员的信中，戴维说道他考虑过破产。本月，Ofo解散其国际子公司。
4
Theft and vandalism hurt all firms. Another startup, 3vbike, shut after almost all its 1,000 bikes were stolen. Cities grew tired of pile-ups clogging streets. Twelve barred new bikes, including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, in August 2017, and began to ban ads on them.
vandalism：毁坏破坏公物
grew tired of：对……越来越厌倦【写作推荐】词汇。I grew tired of pretending to be happy
pile-ups：堆积物，这里指闲置的共享单车
偷窃和故意毁坏会损害所有的公司。另一个创业公司—3Vbike，在几乎所有的1000辆自行车被偷后倒闭了。城市对闲置的共享单车堵塞街头越来越厌倦。2017年9月，12座城市禁止新的共享单车入城，包括北京，上海和深圳，并且禁止与其相关的广告。
5
Against such headwinds it has been a surprise to see a new challenger ascend to third place behind Ofo and Mobike. Hello-Bike recently raised 4bn yuan, some of it from Alibaba’s Ant Financial, but is showing signs of being more disciplined. In late 2017 it merged with a peer, and claims to have bikes in 300 Chinese cities. A co-founder says it was wrong to compare shared-bike services to food-delivery and ride-hailing. The former require far larger sums to be invested to win turf wars, which can lead to oversupply and waste.
headwinds：顶头风，against such headwinds，意指迎着这样的逆境
ascend to：上升，攀登 ascend to third place behind，指的是，继前两者之后继续攀登共享单车这项事业。
showing signs of：表现出……的迹象
The former：前者，反义词，the latter 后者
turf wars：地盘战
面对这样的困境，这实在是令人惊奇，继Ofo和Mobike之后还有新的挑战者。哈啰出行最近筹集了40亿元，其中包括了阿里巴巴的蚂蚁金服，不过哈罗出行表现的更规范些。2017年末，它和一个同类公司合并，并声称其单车分布在中国的300个城市。一个共同创立者说：“把共享单车服务和送外卖以及打车服务相提并论是不正确的。前者需要更大的资金投入以赢得地盘之争，而者可能会导致过度供应和浪费”
6
HelloBike’s late entry let it become known in big cities with only about a third as many bikes as Ofo and Mobike deployed at their peak. It claims it will be profitable this year, mostly from 1-yuan rides. Two-fifths of these are in lower-tier cities with little competition, which has allowed it to avoid subsidy wars. But the firm has swagger, suggesting it might still get ahead of itself: “If an acquisition happens,” says Mr Li,“we will be the ones devouring others.”
deployed：部署
at their peak：在某人的巅峰时刻，鼎盛时期
be profitable：有利可图，创造良好的业绩；make a profit
lower-tier：低端的，较低层次的 ~ cities 指的是三、四线城市
allowed it to：使其能够做某事【写作推荐】词汇= enable sb to do sth
由于哈啰出行上市较晚，在大城市中，与Ofo和摩拜单车在其巅峰时期部署的单车数相比，其数量仅是他们的1/3。哈啰出行声称今年将会盈利，主要来源为1元骑行，其盈利地点2/5来源于三、四线城市，那里竞争较少，且能避免补贴战。不过，这家公司有些过于自信，暗示自己可能会超越预期，李先生说：“如果发生了一次收购，我们将会是那个吞掉其他公司的一方。”
总结
claimed by：被认领，合法拥有【写作推荐】词汇
went for：go for，有三个意思，1：适用于……，what I said about her go for you, too 我说的关于她的话也适用于你。2：去取回某人某物，she’s gone for some milk. 她买牛奶去了。3：喜欢，被吸引，she goes for tall slim man 她喜欢又高又瘦的男人。这里应该是第二个意思，指取用整个彩虹的色彩【写作推荐】词汇
edge over：edge，微弱的优势，edge on/over 略胜一筹【写作推荐】词汇，have a slight advantage over sth/sb
have multiplied：sth have multiplied 某物成倍增加，可以说：Homework waiting to be completed have multiplied.待完成的作业在成倍增加【写作推荐】词汇
flying first-class：乘坐飞机头等舱【地道描述】
grew tired of：对……越来越厌倦【写作推荐】词汇。I grew tired of pretending to be happy
allowed it to：使其能够做某事【写作推荐】词汇= enable sb to do sth
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