Industrial clusters
Bleak times in bra town
1. cluster n.（同类物聚集的）串，丛，束，群
e.g:Have a look at the cluster of galaxies in this photograph.
* in a/the cluster 在丛中；在（一堆物体）中间:
e.g: The church stood in a small cluster of farmers’ cottages.
2. bleak adj.（境况）惨淡的，无希望的 . （天气或地方）寒冷的；荒凉的；
e.g:The economic outlook is bleak.经济前景暗淡。
One-product towns fuelled China’s export boom. Many are now in trouble
Apr 16th 2016 | GURAO | From the print edition
A PYRAMID of bras stands beside each worker at the Honji Underwear factory in Gurao, a town in the southern province of Guangdong. The workshop resounds with the clack-clack of sewing machines as employees repeat their single, assigned task before passing the garment on to the next person on the production line. Most of the 22,000 thickly padded bras made here each day are destined for shops in China. In this “Town of Underwear”, as the local government likes to call it, there are thousands of similar factories. Gurao produces 350m bras and 430m vests and pairs of knickers a year for sale at home and abroad. Undies account for 80% of its industrial output.
3.resound v. 鸣响，回响，回荡；（地方）回荡着声音
4.clack n. （硬物相互撞击发出的）啪哒声
5.garment n. （一件）衣服（尤用于谈及服装的制作和销售时）
辨析：Note that there is no singular form of clothes, so you cannot talk about 'a clothe'. In formal English, you can talk about a garment.
Clothing is a more formal word that is used to refer to a person's clothes. He took off his wet clothing. ...prison clothing.
Cloth is material made from something such as cotton, wool, or nylon.
A cloth is a piece of cloth that is used, for example, for cleaning or wiping things.
Cloths is used only for this second sense.
6. padded adj. 有填充物的，有衬垫的
7. knickers n. 女士内裤
（美国英语用panties）
* get your knickers in a twist 迷惑；着慌；恼火
Across Gurao, billboards show big-breasted—usually foreign—women sporting the lingerie that underwires the town’s prosperity (see picture). But many people in Gurao and other underwear-factory clusters around Shantou, a coastal city, worry about the future. Costs are rising, but customers are unwilling to pay more, says June Liu of Pengsheng Underwear, which makes lingerie and swimwear. Last year several factory-owners fled from Gurao, leaving debts and unpaid wages. Some also shut up shop in Chendian, another underwear town nearby.
8. lingerie n. women's underwear
9. flee v. （尤指因危险或恐惧而）逃跑
e.g: She fled (from) the room in tears.
e.g: In order to escape capture, he fled to the mountains.
10. shut up (使)住口;(使)闭嘴 关闭（工厂）妥藏起来
During the past three decades of rapid economic growth, one-industry towns like Gurao and Chendian sprang up along China’s eastern seaboard, often in what were once paddyfields. With investment from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and a huge influx of migrant labour from China’s interior, they fuelled the country’s export boom. There are now more than 500 such towns, making products such as buttons, ties, plastic shoes, car tyres, toys, Christmas decorations and toilets (see map).
11. spring up 突然出现，涌现；（人）迅速成长
e.g: Girls spring up faster than boys before 18.
12. paddyfields n. 稻田
13. influx涌进；汇集
e.g: Turkey is expecting an influx of several thousand refugees over the next few days.
14. China’s interior 中国内陆地区
Knickerbocker glories
Gurao is one of several underwear hubs that have made China the world’s largest lingerie producer. The country made 2.9 billion bras in 2014, 60% of the world’s total, according to Frost & Sullivan, a consultancy. In several industries, the clustering of similar firms in the same place creates a critical mass of good suppliers and workers with relevant skills. Niche towns in China produce 63% of the world’s shoes, 70% of its spectacles and 90% of its energy-saving lamps.
15. hub n. 中心；枢纽
e.g: The City of London is the hub of Britain's financial world.
16. consultancy n. 咨询公司；顾问服务公司 咨询服务；顾问工作
e.g: a management/financial/recruitment consultancy
17. niche n. (有自己特定的需求、目标顾客和产品的)小众市场，缝隙市场，利基市场;商机
e.g: I think we have found a niche in the toy market
（尤指本人合意的）适合的工作（或职位）；称心的工作
e.g: Lloyd has carved/made a niche for himself as a professional tennis player.
18. spectacles n. 眼镜
All this growth has had an environmental cost. In 2010 Greenpeace, an NGO, reported that fabric-dyeing plants in Gurao had severely polluted the water, making it unfit to drink. But the bra-makers of Gurao are far more worried about foreign competition than foreign eco-warriors.
19. dye v. 给…染色
20. eco-warrior 环保斗士；生态战士
China’s consumer goods grabbed a huge share of global markets thanks to their low prices. That advantage is fading. Since 2001 wages have risen by 12% a year. Thailand and Vietnam, where labour is cheaper and taxes lower, now make lingerie for global brands such as Victoria’s Secret and La Senza. China’s biggest underwear firm, Regina Miracle, will open two factories in Vietnam this year, its first outside China. It plans another two there by 2018. Cambodia and Myanmar are joining the fray. Wacoal, a Japanese underwear-maker, opened factories in both countries in 2013 and another in Myanmar last year.
21. grab v. 攫取；抓住；抓取
e.g: A mugger grabbed her handbag as she was walking across the park.
e.g: If you don't grab this opportunity, you might not get another one.
*grab at sth/sb试图抓住，试图夺取
22.the fray （常指乱糟糟的）干劲十足的努力，充满活力的活动；激战；激烈争吵
e.g: With a third country about to enter (= take part in) the fray, the fighting looks set to continue.
Gurao still has advantages, such as excellent supply chains. Several factories there make components for undergarments: dyed textiles, lace and the tough foam used to upholster push-up bras. Every form of elastic waistband used for boxer shorts is produced locally. The town also appears to enjoy loose regulation of trademarks. Some of the waistbands use misspellings such as “Calven Klain” and “Oalvin Klein” in an attempt to cash in on famous brand names.
23. dye v. 给…染色
24. textile n. 纺织物；织物
25. upholster v. 给（坐椅）装上垫子（或套子）
26. waistband n. 腰带,束腰带
27. cash in on乘机利用；靠……赚钱
e.g: But others can and do attempt to cash in on the loot.
Officials in Gurao insist that the town can overcome its difficulties by upgrading its technology and using machines instead of people. But attracting the capital and skill to transform Gurao may be more difficult than the daring step taken by a local entrepreneur in 1982 when he opened its first bra factory, at a time when private enterprise was still frowned on in China.
28. daring adj. 有勇气的，大胆的；勇于冒险的
e.g: a daring escape大胆的逃亡
29. frown on/upon sth 不赞成；不许
e.g: Smoking is frowned upon in many restaurants.
Even China’s largest underwear manufacturers have always found it hard to get long-term commitments from buyers. That has made them reluctant to spend on research or technology. Some factories in Gurao are upgrading, for example by making seamless laser-cut underwear and using new, more comfortable, materials to underwire bras. But most remain low-tech and labour-intensive.
30. reluctant adj. 勉强的；不情愿的
e.g: I was having such a good time I was reluctant to leave.我玩得很开心，都不愿意离开了。
31. seamless adj. 无缝的;无停顿的;衔接完美的
e.g: It was a seamless procession of wonderful electronic music.
32. labour-intensive 劳动密集型
Because they are dominated by private enterprises, towns such as Gurao may be nimbler at adapting to changing market conditions than China’s steel and coal cities, where 1.8m layoffs are planned in the next few years. In 2013 migrant workers made up nearly half of Gurao’s 161,000 people. Many are low-skilled, moving from one job to another, sewing the same part of the bra as they did in the previous factory. Most did not complete high school and are ill-equipped to retrain for jobs in service industries, which the Chinese government hopes will replace manufacturing ones. But luckily most of them have houses and farmland to go back to in their villages if they lose their jobs.
33. nimbler adj.（行动）灵活的，敏捷的；（头脑）机敏的，敏锐的
*nimble fingers/feet灵巧的手指／双脚
Some of the one-product boomtowns could fade away, leaving little behind but the concrete shells of empty factories and polluted soil. Gurao and other such places have generated extraordinary wealth in once dirt-poor parts of the country. But to thrive in the future, they will need to look beyond the bare necessities.
34. fade away逐渐消失；变得无足轻重；变弱
e.g: The voices became louder and closer and then faded away again.
35. dirt-poor非常贫穷的;赤贫的
36. thrive v. 茁壮成长；兴旺，繁荣 ; (尤指在别人觉得困难的时候)以…为乐，可以出色应对
e.g: His business thrived in the years before the war.战前那些年，他的生意很兴隆。
37. bare necessities生活必需品
From the print edition: China
文章结构分析
1-2 介绍谷饶的作为“内衣之都”的现状及问题
3-4 阐述谷饶在内衣制作方面的地位
5-7 分别描述了谷饶目前的问题和优势：环境污染、劳动力价格上涨导致产业转移，以及产业集群优势。
8- 11 作者对谷饶发展的评述：产业升级难、技术水平提升不够、工人素质不高，谷饶需要将未来发展眼光跳出日用品制造业。
语言亮点分析
1. One-product towns fuelled China’s export boom.
以town 作为主语，活用fuel表示“做出贡献”，比make contribution to 的用法更为地道。
export boom 出口贸易的繁荣
2. The workshop resounds with the clack-clack of sewing machines as employees repeat their single, assigned task before passing the garment on to the next person on the production line.
resound, clack-clack, repeat, passing 等词的使用，让场景显得非常鲜活，显出机械枯燥的感觉。
3. Across Gurao, billboards show big-breasted—usually foreign—women sporting the lingerie that underwires the town’s prosperity.
underwires the town’s prosperity 表示“撑起了小镇的荣耀”， underwire作为名词表示胸罩的钢圈，活用为“支撑”。
4. Some of the one-product boomtowns could fade away, leaving little behind but the concrete shells of empty factories and polluted soil.
Leave little behind but 只留下……
concrete shells 混凝土空壳
长难句分析
1、But attracting the capital and skill to transform Gurao may be more difficult than the daring step taken by a local entrepreneur in 1982 when he opened its first bra factory, at a time when private enterprise was still frowned on in China.
attracting the capital and skill to transform Gurao作为主语，when he opened its first bra factory和when private enterprise was still frowned on in China 作为两个状语从句修饰1982。
网友评论