William: Hello and welcome to Authentic Real English. My name is William Kremer. 大家好，歡迎來到地道英語節目。我是威廉·克萊默。

Feifei: 50p... £2.50... £2.80... £3.20. 50便士……2.50英鎊……2.8英鎊……3.2英鎊。

William: Er, Feifei? 呃，菲菲你在做什么？

Feifei: Not now! £4.20... £4.50... £6.50. 現在不是和你說話的時候！4.20英鎊……4.5英鎊……6.5英鎊。

William: What do you mean "not now"? It's time for the programme, Feifei. Our listeners are waiting... 什么是現在不是時候？菲菲，現在是做節目的時候了。聽眾在等著我們呢……

Feifei: £6... £6 什么？多少來著？哎呀，我數到哪兒了，又忘了！聽眾朋友，大家好，我是馮菲菲。剛剛我在數我還有多少錢呢。

William: Yes, everyone in the UK is worried about money at the moment. They're worried about the possibility of a double-dip recession. 是的，現在在英國每個人都在擔心錢。他們擔心二次衰退。

Feifei: A double-dip recession. 這個表達是什么意思呢？

William: Well, you know what a recession is... 恩，你知道衰退吧……

Feifei: A recession 經濟衰退。

William: Double means twice. And dip means to go down. So double-dip recession describes a situation in which the economy goes into recession, then comes out of recession then goes back into recession again.

Feifei: A double-dip recession的意思就是當一個國家的經濟從衰退走出來后再次進入一個新的衰退期、蕭條期，這時我們說a double-dip recession 二次衰退。William 輸我直言，我覺得這個話題實在是挺無聊的。我一聽關于經濟方面的事情就犯困。咱們能不能說個有趣兒的短語呢？

William: Well, I'm not really that interested in economics either. But this is a phrase that is very common at the moment because the UK was in recession last year and then we had a little bit of growth and now people are starting to worry about the possibility of a double-dip recession. So here are a couple of examples I heard on the radio recently: 是的，事實上我也不喜歡經濟的話題。但是這是個近來經常用到的短語，因為英國去年經濟衰退了，然后稍稍漲了，所以現在人們開始擔心二次衰退。下面這些例子是我最近在廣播上聽到的：

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And even the Mirror leads with the economy. It says on its front page David Cameron and George Osborne's bragging over savage cuts has led us to the brink of a double-dip recession, the blundering Tory duo... 甚至Mirror也在引領經濟。在書的第一頁，大衛·卡梅隆和喬治·奧斯本鼓吹大幅消減已經讓我們接近二次衰退的邊緣，錯誤的保守主義的二重奏……

So are worried consumers spending less in the shops? Well, the managing director of John Lewis, Andy Street, says he doesn't foresee a double-dip recession and indeed he says sales are holding up in his stores, for the moment anyway. 所以這也使得人們不敢隨意花錢購物了？嗯，約翰·劉易斯的總經理，安迪·斯特里特說他不會預知二次衰退并且他說不管怎么樣，現在他的店面銷售不暢是個不爭的事實。

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feifei: 其實大多數和經濟有關的表達或者短語很少能像今天我們學的這個短語一樣廣為使用，那么這個double-dip recession 為什么如此流行呢？

William: Well, I think it's very popular with journalists who want to soften hard economic news. The phrase sounds really quite friendly, doesn't it? Double dip... it reminds me a bit of a sherbet dip, which is an old-fashioned kind of sweet that I used to buy as a young boy! 嗯，我想對于記者來說，他們樂于緩和經濟形勢。這個詞組聽起來的確很緩和，不是嗎？二次衰退……它讓我想起了喝冰凍果子露，那是我小時候常買的過去很流行的甜品。

Feifei: 啊，原來這樣呀。用一個較通俗的表達來描述一個比較難懂的經濟術語。

William: Yes, and I've heard the phrase quite a lot with the adjective dreaded. 是啊，我過去常聽到這個詞組，用令人畏懼來修飾。

Feifei: Dreaded 可怕的，令人畏懼的。

William: And again, I think that's because of the way it sounds: dreaded double dip. The words have a rhythm and they sound quite nice, a bit like children's poetry: dreaded double dip. 還想再說下，可能是由于它聽起來就是這樣，可怕的二次衰退。這組詞很有韻律，聽起來悅耳，有點像孩子的詩歌，可怕的二次衰退。

Feifei: Hmm. 短語聽起來不錯，不過不是一個什么好的經濟兆頭。說到這兒，我想起來了我還有一個重要的工作要做。50p... £2.50... £2.80... £3.20. 50便士……2.50英鎊……2.8英鎊……3.2英鎊。