经济学人｜得克萨斯州寒潮暴露美国基建缺陷

经济学人｜得克萨斯州寒潮暴露美国基建缺陷
The freeze in Texas exposes America’s infrastructural failings
You ain’t foolin’ nobody with the lights out
United States
Feb 20th 2021 edition
得克萨斯州寒潮暴露美国基建缺陷
电都停了，你糊弄不了所有人
美国
2021年2月20日文本
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When it rains, it pours, and when it snows, the lights turn off. Or so it goes in Texas. After a winter storm pummelled the Lone Star State with record snowfall and the lowest temperatures in more than 30 years, millions were left without electricity and heat. At the worst moment on February 16th, 4.5m Texan households were cut off from power, as providers were overloaded with demand and tried to shuffle access to electricity so the entire grid did not collapse.
如若下雨，便是倾盆大雨；如若下雪，便会停电。

得克萨斯州（以下简称“得州”）大概就是这种情况。

孤星州（得州别名）遭遇暴风雪，降雪量创30多年来新纪录，低温也达到30多年来之最，数百万人被置于断电断暖的境地。

2月16日的情况最糟糕，得州停电家庭高达450万户，供电公司用电负荷超载，在努力改变用电顺序后，整个输电网络才未瘫痪。

Whole skylines , including Dallas’s, went dark to conserve power. Some Texans braved the snowy roads to check into the few hotels with remaining rooms, only for the hotels’ power to go off as they arrived. Others donned skiwear and remained
inside, hoping the lights and heat would come back on. Across the state, what were supposed to be “rolling” blackouts lasted for days.It is still too soon to quantify the devastation. More than 20 people have died in motor accidents, from fires lit for warmth and from carbon-monoxide poisoning after using cars to get warm. The storm has also halted deliveries of covid-19 vaccines and may prevent around 1m vaccinations from happening this week. Several retail electricity providers are likely to go bankrupt, after being hit with surging wholesale power prices.
为节约电能，达拉斯空中轮廓线，甚至整个得州空中轮廓线都变得一片漆黑。

一些得州人不畏冰雪路滑，前往尚有空房的酒店办理入住，可是这样的酒店实在太少了，所以哪怕刚到酒店就停电，他们也会入住。

其他得州人则穿着滑雪服待在室内，盼望着来电供暖。

这种“滚动式”停电已在得州持续数日。

现在就对停电造成的破坏进行量化描述还为时过早。

目前已有20多人死于车内事故，有的因车内燃火取暖而葬身火海；有的则因车内取暖死于一氧化碳中毒。

这场暴风雪也阻断了新冠疫苗的运输工作，致使100万剂左右的疫苗接种任务无法在本周落实。

此外，电力批发价的持续飙升已对几家电力零售商造成冲击，它们可能会因此而破产。

重点词汇及短语
1.freeze 冰冻期；严寒期
2.failing= a weakness or fault in sb /sth 弱点；缺点
3.pour （雨）倾盆而下；下大雨
4.pummel= keep hitting sb/sth hard, especially with your fists 连续猛击；反复拳打；捶打
5.record 创纪录的
6.shuffle 把…变换位置；打乱次序
7.skyline （在天空映衬下的）空中轮廓线
8.don 披上；穿上；戴上
9. blackout 断电；停电；新闻封锁；灯火管制期
10.quantify 以数量表述；量化
11.carbon-monoxide positioning 一氧化碳中毒
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编辑：Dennis
翻译：Dennis
校对：Dennis
声明
本文英文文本摘选自《The Economist》，译文为本人原创，仅供学习交流使用。