英语

1、Smartphones in China
中国的智能手机市场Taking a bite out of Apple分苹果一杯羹
Xiaomi, often described as China’s answer to Apple,is actually quite different 有中国的苹果之称的小米实际上跟苹果很不一样。

IT FEELS more like a rock concert than a press conference as the casually dre ssed chiefexecutive takes to a darkened stage to unveil his firm’s sleek new s martphone to an adoringcrowd. Yet this was not the launch of the new iPhone by Apple on September 10th, but of theMi-3 handset by Xiaomi, a Chinese fir m, in Beijing on September 5th. With its emphasis onsnazzy design, glitzy lau nches and the cult-like fervour it inspires in its users, no wonder Xiaomiis ofte n compared to its giant American rival, both by admirers and by critics who c all it acopycat. Xiaomi’s boss, Lei Jun (pictured), even wears jeans and a blac k shirt, Steve Jobs-style.Is Xiaomi really China’s answer to Apple?
小米的发布会比起新闻发布会更像是一场摇滚音乐会。

打扮随意的首席执行官登上深色的舞台向粉丝们揭开其公司最新的时尚智能手机。

然而，这不是9月10日苹果的新iPhone发布会，而食中国公司小米9月5日在北京举行的小米3发布会。

凭借其时尚的设计，炫目的发布会和用户被激发出的疯狂的热情，小米难免经常被崇拜者和批评者同美国的竞争对手苹果作比较，批评家称其产品为山寨货。

小米的老板，雷军（如图），甚至穿着类似乔布斯风格的牛仔裤和黑色短袖。

小米真的是中国的苹果吗？
Xiaomi sold 7.2m handsets last year, in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, earnin g revenues of12.6 billion yuan ($2.1 billion). Apple sold 125m smartphones gl obally, earning about $80 billionof its $157 billion sales. But since it was foun ded in 2010, Xiaomi has grown fast. A recentfunding round valued it at $10 bi llion, more than Microsoft just paid for Nokia’s handset unit.That made Xiaomi one of the 15 most heavily venture-backed mobile start-ups ever, saysRajee v Chand of Rutberg, an investment bank. In the second quarter of 2013 Xiao mi’s marketshare in China was 5%, says Canalys, a research firm—more than Apple’s (4.8%) for the firsttime.
去年小米在中国大陆，香港和台湾一共售出了7200万台手机，收入达126亿人民币（约合21亿美元）。

苹果在全球卖出了1.25亿台手机，销售额为1570亿美元，收入达到800亿美元。

但是由于小米始建于2010年，小米的增长速度极快。

最近的一轮融资，小米估值达100亿美元，超过微软刚刚买下的诺基亚手机部门。

投资银行Rutberg的Rajeev Chand 表示这使得小米成为全球目前为止最值钱的15个手机公司之一。

Yet “we have never compared ourselves to Apple—we are more like Amazon,” says Lin Bin,Xiaomi’s co-founder, who once worked for the Chinese arms of Microsoft and Google. Applesells its iPhone 5 for around $860 in China and ha
s the industry’s highest margins. Xiaomioffers its handsets at or near cost: th e Mi-3, its new flagship, costs 2,000 yuan ($330). Xiaomisells direct to custo mers online, rather than via network operators or retail stores, which alsokee ps prices down. Crucially, its business depends on selling services to its users, just asAmazon provides its Kindle readers at low prices and makes its money on the sale of e-books.The idea is to make a profit from customers as they u se the handset, rather than from the saleof the hardware, says Mr Lin.
然而，曾在微软和谷歌工作过的小米联合创始人林斌表示，我们从没有跟苹果对比，我们更像是亚马逊。

苹果的iPhone5在中国的售价约为860美元，是行业中利润率最高的手机。

小米提供的手机接近成本，新旗舰米3售价为2000元（330美元）。

小米通过线上商店直接卖给消费者，而不是通过网络运营商或零售商店，这也压低了价格。

最重要的是，它的业务依赖于将服务卖给用户，就像亚马逊提供低价的kindle阅读器，通过卖电子书赚钱。

林先生表示，这个想法是通过用户对手机的使用赚取利润，而不是通过硬件销售。

Xiaomi’s services revenues were 20m yuan in August, up from 10m yuan in A pril. It is a classicinternet business model: build an audience then monetise it later, as Google and Facebook did,notes Mr Lin. Selling games, custom wallpa pers and virtual gifts may not sound very lucrative,but China’s internet giants have found a huge market for virtual goods: the biggest, Tencent,sold $5 billi on-worth of them last year.
小米8月份的服务收入为2000万，从四月的1000万增长至此。

林先生指出，这是一种典型的互联网商业模式：吸引听众然后套现，谷歌和facebook也是这么做的。

售卖游戏，自定义壁纸和虚拟礼品听起来没那么利润丰厚，但是中国的互联网巨头们找到了虚拟物品的巨大市场：最大的腾讯去年卖出了50亿美元的虚拟物品。

Another big difference is their openness to user feedback. Apple takes an alm ost Stalinistapproach to its handsets, limiting user customisation in favour of a “we know best” designphilosophy. Xiaomi is more guided by its users, relea sing a new version of its MIUI software(based on Google’s Android operating s ystem) every week in response to their suggestions. Insome cases Xiaomi ask s users to vote via weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, on whetherpartic ular features should be included or how they should work—a form of democra cy itsAmerican rival would never countenance.
另外一个很大的不同是他们对待消费者反馈的态度。

苹果对自己的手机采取的几乎是斯大林式的方法，限制用户定制，用一种我们知道什么是最好的设计哲学。

小米更以用户为导向，每周发行一个新版本的MIUI软件（基于谷歌的安卓操作系统）响应用户的建议。

有些时候，小米会通过微博投票征求用户的建议，这是其美国对手绝对不会赞同的民主工作形式。

Apple’s launch this week of the iPhone 5C, a colourful, slightly cheaper versio n of the iPhoneaimed at consumers in China and other developing countries,
marks a shift in its strategy as itfaces competition from Xiaomi and many oth er Chinese firms. Apple’s handsets have sold well indeveloped countries, but t hose markets are maturing. Global sales of smartphones are growingby 50% a year, notes Canalys, but by 108% a year in China, which now accounts for overone-third of global sales.
这周苹果发布了iPhone 5c，一款彩色版稍便宜的iPhone，这款设备旨在吸引中国和其他发展中国家的消费者，标志着在诸如小米和其他中国公司的竞争下战略的转变。

苹果的手机在发达国家非常畅销，但是这些市场相对成熟。

Canalys指出，全球智能手机销量每年增长50%，但是在中国增速为108%，占据全球三分之一的销量。

For the first time, Apple held an official launch event in Beijing this week, indi cating its growinginterest in this market. Yet there was widespread surprise at the high price of the 5C, which willcost $733 in China, limiting its appeal amo ng less wealthy buyers. A rumoured deal with ChinaMobile to distribute the iP hone 5C and subsidise its cost has so far failed to materialise.
(Applealso unveiled the iPhone 5S, its new high-end smartphone, which featu res a fingerprint readerfor improved security.)
本周苹果首次在北京举办了官方发布会，表明其在中国市场的兴趣与日俱增。

但是外界对
5c的价格普遍感到惊讶，在中国售价高达733美元，限制了其对不太富裕买家的吸引力。

传言与中国移动的交易销售iPhone 5c以及补贴方案至今都没有实现。

（苹果也发布了iPhone 5s，最新的高端机型，具备指纹识别器，提高了安全性。

）
Xiaomi the money
小米的资金
As Apple looks to tap the rapid growth of the Chinese market, Xiaomi is headi ng the other way.It recently hired Hugo Barra, a Google executive responsible for product development forAndroid, to develop new products for internation al markets.
随着苹果开始注意挖掘中国市场的快速增长，小米选择了另一条路。

最近小米聘请了谷歌安卓产品开发主管Hugo Barra为国际市场开发新产品。

Yet Xiaomi and other Chinese firms sell so many games, apps and add-ons in large partbecause the Chinese government requires handsets to run a neuter ed version of the Androidoperating system, without Google’s app store, mail s ervice, maps and other features. Thathelps Xiaomi sell its own replacement se rvices, an advantage it will lose once it steps outsideChina. How scared shoul d Apple be, really, of a rival that has yet to prove that its businessmodel will work at home, let alone abroad?
然而，小米和其他中国公司销售如此多的游戏，应用和插件很大程度上是因为中国政府要求手机运行一个阉割版的安卓操作系统，不包括谷歌的应用程序商店，邮件服务，地图和其他功能。

这有助于小米销售期自己的替代服务，而这在国际市场上会失去优势。

小米的商业模式在国内尚未称得上成功，更不用说在国外了，苹果应该为此感到害怕吗？
2、The burden on students学生的压力
Must not try harder不能更努力了
The education ministry tries to ban homework
教育部尝试禁止家庭作业。

Sep 7th 2013
| BEIJING |From the printeditionPURGES may be what political junkies aretalk ing about, but for Chinese families the big issuerecently has been homework. Children across thecountry have returned to their classrooms this weekjust as the education ministry has put forward plans to decrease the amount of hom eworkpupils must do each day.
清洗行动可能会用在政治犯身上，但是对中国家庭来说，最近的大事儿是家庭作业。

中国的孩子本周回到学校，同时教育部计划减少小学生每天必做作业的量。

The ministry’s proposed guidelines, issued on August 22nd, would ban written homework forany child up to the age of 12, and ban exams for children up to the age of nine. It also said thatprimary schools should organise more extra-curricular activities, such as visits to museums andplaces of cultural interest, and “cultivate pupils’ hands-on capabilities through handicrafts orfarm work”.教育部在8月22日发布了拟定规定，规定禁止向12岁以下的儿童布置任何书面作业，禁止9岁以下儿童参加考试。

同时规定中学应该组织更多的课外活动，比如参观博物馆，文化景点以及通过手工活动和农业活动培养小学生的动手能力。

Amid intense competition for university places and jobs, Chinese schoolchildre n spend hours onhomework each night. Pressure from an early age is the cau se of constant hand-wringing in thepress. Yet the very notion of lightening the burden has met opposition from the people whocomplain most: parents. Last spring Beijing attempted its own homework restrictions, butworkloads crept back up as insistent parents worried about their children falling behind.
在对大学名额和工作的激烈竞争中，中国学生每晚花费数小时完成家庭作业。

少年儿童的压力是各媒体持续劝说政府的原因。

然而，减负的观念遭到了对压力抱怨最多的家长的反对。

上个春天，北京尝试出台了自己的家庭作业规范，但是由于固执的家长担心自己的孩子会落后，使得作业又回到之前状态。

The new proposals have drawn tens of thousands of comments on Weibo, Chi na’s version ofTwitter, with older children saying they heard similar ideas of r eform when they were at schoolten years ago, but nothing changed. On his m
icroblog Wang Xiaodong, co-author of a bookcalled “Unhappy China”, suggest ed that the ministry stop micro-managing every element ofbasic education an d leave the work to teachers and students. But that idea might lead to moreh omework, if current patterns hold. The biggest contribution education officials could make,wrote Mr Wang, was “to give themselves a six-month holiday”.
新提议在微博上收到了数万条评论，年龄稍大的孩子们说十年前他们在学校的时候也听到过类似的改革，但是没什么变化。

《中国不高兴》的一个作者王小东在微博上建议教育部停止管理基础教育的细节，将这些工作让给老师和学生。

但是如果保持现在这种模式，作业可能会变得更多。

王说，教育部干部能做的最大贡献是先给自己放半年假。

The real problem is the underlying system. As one microblogger wrote:
“If the employmentenvironment remains the same, if the gaokao [entrance e xam] is not cancelled, if the topuniversities still enroll only the students with t he highest score, it is impossible to reduce pupils’burdens”. All those worries are compounded by corruption, inequity and disparity inteacher-training and c ompensation. Few believe such deep structural problems can becountered sim ply by a call for less homework.
真正的问题是深层制度。

一个微博用户写道：“如果就业环境还是维持现状，如果高考不取消，如果顶尖大学还是只招收成绩最好的学生，小学生减负是无稽之谈。

”这些担忧来自腐败，不公平，教师培训和补助的不均。

几乎没人相信这种深层结构问题会通过减少家庭作业得到解决。