-------------------------------
通勤學英語VIP加值內容與線上課程
-------------------------------
通勤學英語VIP訂閱方案：https://open.firstory.me/join/15minstoday
VIP訂閱FAQ: https://15minsengcafe.pse.is/5cjptb
社會人核心英語有聲書課程連結：https://15minsengcafe.pse.is/554esm

-------------------------------
15Mins.Today 相關連結
-------------------------------
歡迎留言你對這集的想法：留言連結

官方網站：www.15mins.today
Clubhouse直播室：https://15minsengcafe.pse.is/46hm8k
訂閱YouTube頻道：https://15minsengcafe.pse.is/3rhuuy

商業合作/贊助來信：15minstoday@gmail.com
意見回覆 : ask15mins@gmail.com

-------------------------------
以下是此單集逐字稿 (播放器有不同字數限制，完整文稿可到官網)
-------------------------------

Topic: Restaurants Have Lavish Setups for Outdoor Winter Dining

A Latin fusion restaurant in Queens will serve crispy arepa cups and ropa vieja at an outdoor dining chalet with rustic wood beams and sparkling chandeliers.
紐約皇后區一間拉丁無國界料理餐廳，將在有鄉村風木梁和閃亮枝形吊燈的戶外用餐木屋裡，提供杯裝的酥脆玉米餅和燉手撕牛肉。

In the Bronx, an Italian place has winter-proofed its back patio with Plexiglas walls and electric heaters, along with festive vines with pink flowers.
在布朗克斯區，一間義大利餐廳在後院築起塑膠玻璃牆並放上電熱器防寒，同時飾以帶有節慶氣氛的粉紅花朵藤蔓。

And a Manhattan bistro is handing out silver space blankets to shivering diners.
曼哈坦區一家餐酒館還發放銀色太空毯，讓冷得發抖的客人保暖。

A pandemic that has upended much of life in New York is now ushering in something the city has never really tried: dining by snow and ice. Or, as some restaurants are telling customers, the new BYOB is bring your own blanket.
新冠肺炎疫情大大顛覆紐約人的生活，如今又把這座城市從未真正試過的東西引了進來，就是在冰天雪地中用餐，或者就像一些餐廳告訴客人的，「請自帶酒水」變成了「請自備毛毯」。

The explosion of outdoor dining has been a savior for more than 10,000 restaurants and bars that have taken over sidewalks, streets and public spaces to try to keep their businesses afloat. It has been so popular that Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council are making outdoor dining permanent.
戶外用餐激增，拯救了紐約逾萬家餐廳和酒吧，這些店家占用人行道、大街和公共空間以求生。戶外用餐大受歡迎，以致市長白思豪和市議會決定讓它合法化。

But year-round dining outside is untested in the city’s bone-chilling winters, and has created daunting challenges for an industry fighting to survive.
不過，戶外用餐還沒接受紐約寒冬的考驗，對奮力求存的餐飲業是可怕的挑戰。

“Are we going to have a mild winter or a harsh one?” said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, an industry group. “It’s a gamble. With so much uncertainty about the weather and diner behavior, it’s a risk.”
同業團體紐約市餐飲業聯合會主席里吉說：「今年冬天會溫和還是很冷？只能賭一賭。關於天氣和客人行為有這麼多不確定性，這是在冒險。」

While a financial imperative for restaurants, enclosing outdoor areas for winter has raised health concerns as coronavirus cases in New York have started to rise again. Protecting patrons from the elements has led some restaurants to create shelters that lack sufficient ventilation, raising the risk of transmission.
餐廳把戶外用餐區圍起來以免客人受寒，雖然對生意非常重要，卻在紐約新冠病例再度激增之際引發公共衛生疑慮。一些餐廳為保護客人不受惡劣天氣影響而圍出通風不良的區域，提高了疫情傳播的風險。

Outdoor heaters — including propane heaters that had been banned in the city but are now permitted as a way to help restaurants — could also pose fire hazards.
戶外暖爐，包括紐約原本禁用、為幫助餐廳經營而暫且開放使用的丙烷暖爐，還可能引起火災。

Still, with restaurants having few options to make money, New York and other cities are forging ahead with winter outdoor dining.Chicago held a design challenge that drew ideas like a Japanese-style heated table and a modular cabin inspired by ice-fishing huts that fits on a parking spot.
不過，由於餐廳賺錢方式非常有限，紐約等城市仍大力發展冬季戶外用餐。芝加哥辦了場戶外用餐設計比賽，吸引的點子包括：日式暖爐桌和模組小屋，以冰釣小屋為靈感，占地相當於一個停車位。

In New York, the multibillion-dollar restaurant industry, one of the city’s most important economic pillars, has been decimated by the pandemic. Indoor dining has resumed, but at only 25% capacity.
營業額數十億美元的餐館業是紐約經濟支柱，受到疫情重創，雖然已恢復內用，但只能開放25%的座位。
Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/359491/web/

Next Article

Topic: A Scary Energy Winter Is Coming. Don’t Blame the Greens.

Every so often the tectonic geopolitical plates that hold up the world economy suddenly shift in ways that can rattle and destabilize everything on the surface. That’s happening right now in the energy sphere.
有時候，承載世界經濟的地緣政治板塊會突然移動，把地表每樣東西搖得嘎嘎作響。這種事現在就在能源領域發生。

Several forces are coming together that could make Vladimir Putin the king of Europe, enable Iran to thumb its nose at America and build an atomic bomb, and disrupt European power markets enough that the upcoming United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, could suffer blackouts owing to too little clean energy.
有幾股勢力正在匯聚，能使俄國總統普亭成為歐洲之王，使伊朗有本錢不把美國放在眼裡，進而造出原子彈，並足以打亂歐洲能源市場，讓即將登場的英國蘇格蘭格拉斯哥聯合國氣候大會可能會因為潔淨能源太少而停電。

Yes, this is a big one.
沒錯，問題很大。

Natural gas and coal prices in Europe and Asia just hit their highest levels on record, oil prices in America hit a seven-year high and U.S. gasoline prices are up $1 a gallon from last year. If this winter is as bad as some experts predict — with some in the poor and middle classes unable to heat their homes — I fear we’ll see a populist backlash to the whole climate/green movement. You can already smell that coming in Britain.
歐亞兩洲的天然氣和煤價剛剛達到史上最高，美國原油價格創七年新高，而汽油價格每加侖比去年上漲1美元。如果今年冬天跟一些專家預測的一樣糟，一些貧窮和中產階級人家負擔不起取暖費用，我擔心會出現針對整個氣候和綠能運動的民粹反彈。在英國已經可以嗅到這個跡象。

How did we get here? In truth, it’s a good-news-bad-news story.
我們怎會走到這一步？其實，這是個好消息壞消息都有的故事。

The good news is that every major economy has signed onto reducing its carbon footprint by phasing out dirtier fuels like coal to heat homes and to power industries. The bad news is that most nations are doing it in totally uncoordinated ways, from the top down, and before the market has produced sufficient clean renewables like wind, solar and hydro.
好消息是，每個主要經濟體都已同意，透過逐步淘汰煤炭這類比較髒的燃料給家庭取暖和給產業供電，減少碳足跡。壞消息則是，多數國家這麼做的時候完全沒有互相協調，由上而下執行，而且市場還沒製造出足夠多的風力、太陽能和水力等清潔能源。

But how did the bad-news side of this story emerge so fast?
這個故事的壞消息面為何這麼快出現？

Blame COVID-19. First, the pandemic erupted and signaled to every major economy that we were headed for a deep recession. This sent prices of all kinds of commodities, including oil and gas, into downward spirals.
要怪新冠肺炎。首先，疫情爆發，對每個重要經濟體而言意味我們正走向深度衰退，使原油、天然氣等各類大宗商品價格走軟。

This, in turn, led banks to choke off investment in new natural gas capacity and crude wells after seven years of already declining investments in these hydrocarbons because of lousy returns.
這進而使銀行停止投資擴充天然氣產能和油井。銀行已減少投資這些碳氫化合物達七年，因為報酬率很差。

As Bill Gates points out in his smart book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” the only way to reach our climate targets is to shift production of all the big heavy industries, like steel, cement and automobiles, as well as how we heat our homes and power our cars, to electricity generated from clean energy. Safe and affordable nuclear power has to be part of our mix because, Gates argues, “it is the only carbon-free, scalable energy source that’s available 24 hours a day.”
就像微軟創辦人蓋茲在他那本睿智的書「如何避免氣候災難」指出的，達成氣候目標的唯一方法是，改變所有重工業如鋼鐵、水泥、汽車業等的生產方式，以及我們在家取暖和為愛車提供動力的方式，轉而用潔淨能源發電。蓋茲主張必須接納安全可負擔的核能，因為「這是唯一不產生二氧化碳又能擴增的能源來源，每天24小時供應」。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5820545

Next Article

Topic: About Winter - Alaska faces ’Icemageddon’ as temperatures swing wildly

Extreme weather in Alaska that has brought record high temperatures and torrential downpours has left authorities in the far northern US state warning of "Icemageddon".
阿拉斯加出現的極端天氣帶來破紀錄的高溫和豪雨，使這個美國遙遠北方州的政府警告「冰雪末日」。

Hours after thermometers on Kodiak Island in the south reached 19.4 degrees Celsius － the warmest December temperature ever recorded in Alaska － the interior of the state saw 25 millimeters of rain fall in just a few hours, a downpour unseen in decades.
在南部科迪亞克島的溫度計達到攝氏19.4度（阿拉斯加有記錄以來最溫暖的12月溫度）數小時后，該州內部在短短幾個小時內就下了25毫米的降雨，這是幾十年來從未見過的傾盆大雨。

Then when temperatures plummeted again, it all froze. The state’s transportation department has coined the neologism － a play on "Armageddon" － to describe the chilly impasse.
然後，當氣溫再次驟降時，一切都凍結了。該州的交通部門創造了這個新詞 - 一個關於"世界末日"的戲劇 - 來描述寒冷的僵局。

"We’re experiencing an unprecedented series of winter storms," the department tweeted.
"我們正在經歷一系列前所未有的冬季風暴，"該部門在推特上寫道。

Next Article

Topic: In Denmark, a snow storm means people overnight in an IKEA 在丹麥，一場暴風雪讓民眾在一間「宜家家居」過夜

In northern Denmark, an IKEA showroom turned into a vast bedroom. Six customers and about two dozen employees were stranded by a snowstorm and spent the night in the store, sleeping in the beds that are usually on show.
在丹麥北部，宜家的陳列室變成了一個巨大的臥室。六名顧客和大約二十多名員工被暴風雪困住，在商店裡過夜，睡在通常展示的床上。

Up to 30 centimeters of snow fell, trapping the customers and employees when the department store in Aalborg closed on Wednesday evening.
週三晚上，奧爾堡的百貨公司關閉時，高達30釐米的積雪困住了顧客和員工。

“We slept in the furniture exhibitions and our showroom on the first floor, where we have beds, mattresses and sofa beds,” store manager Peter Elmose told the Ekstra Bladet tabloid. People could “pick the exact bed they always have wanted to try.”
"我們睡在傢俱展和一樓的陳列室里，那裡有床，床墊和沙發床，"商店經理Peter Elmose告訴Ekstra Bladet小報。人們可以「選擇他們一直想嘗試的確切床」。

Elmose said they spent the evening watching television and eating, adding it went “super well. It’s been a good night. All fun.”
埃爾莫斯說，他們晚上看電視和吃飯，並補充說它「超級順利」。這是一個美好的夜晚。一切都很有趣。Source article: https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1497858 ; https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1488145

回顧星期天LBS - 冬季相關時事趣聞 All about winter

通勤學英語 15Mins Today