979.经济学人-Terminal velocity-1

It was called the tweetstorm that saved Christmas.

In October 2021 scores of freighters idled at anchor off the west coast of America unable to deliver imports to docks already choc-a-bloc with containers.

To find out what was wrong Ryan Petersen, founder of Flexport, a logistics firm, took a boat tour of America’s biggest port complex.

He concluded that the adjacent ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were at a standstill largely because of a shortage of space, which meant empty containers could not be removed from the dock.

“OVERWHELM THE BOTTLENECK!” he tweeted. The thread went viral. Politicians were stung into action.

Long Beach relaxed restrictions on how high containers could be stacked. Goods moved again. Santa Claus heaved a sigh of relief.

这是《经济学人》2022年12月刊的一篇文章“Terminal velocity”第1段，共6句。

0

'Terminal velocity'是文章的标题，译作：终端速度

1

这是一条被称作拯救圣诞节的推特风暴。

2

idled：空转，闲着

anchor：锚

choc-a-bloc：拥挤，堆满

2021年十月，大量的货船搁浅在美国西海岸，没有办法交付进口的已经堆成山的集装箱货物。

3

物流公司Flexport的创始人Ryan Petersen为了找到问题的原因，他乘船浏览了美国最大的港口。

4

adjacent：毗连的

他认为，洛杉矶和长滩市相邻港口大规模停摆的原因是空间不足，这意味着空的集装箱没有办法从码头移走。

5

go viral：很红

他在推特上发文“克服瓶颈！”。这条信息爆了。政客们被迫开始了行动。

6

sigh of relief：松了一口气；如释负重

长滩市放宽了集装箱堆放高度的限制。商品又动起来了。圣诞老人松了一口气。

-总结-

词汇

idled：空转，闲着

anchor：锚

choc-a-bloc：拥挤，堆满

adjacent：毗连的

go viral：很红

sigh of relief：松了一口气；如释负重