3月10日，埃塞俄比亚航空ET302航班从亚的斯亚贝巴飞往内罗毕，起飞后6分钟飞机失踪，随后在亚的斯亚贝巴附近发现残骸。机上共有149名旅客8名机组，其中有8名旅客是中国人，根据官方消息此次空难无人生还。

此次失事航班ET302机型为波音737MAX8，于2018年11月15日交付埃塞俄比亚航空，截止失事为止机龄仅4个月，为波音最新中型窄体客机。值得一提的是，2018年10月29日狮航JT610航班起飞后约十分钟坠毁，机型也是波音737MAX8。短短四个多月，波音737MAX8连续发生两起重大空难，这到底发生了什么？

这篇文章选自经济学人2019年3月14日Leaders栏目，原文标题是“The Boeing accident：A shadow over flight’s golden age.” 我们一起看看作者从埃航飞机失事，发现了什么深层次的问题。

外刊原文

When a Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed near Addis Ababa after take-off on March 10th, 157 people lost their lives. It did not take long for the human tragedy to raise questions about what went wrong. That has fed a crisis of trust in Boeing and in the FAA, the American regulator which, even as its counterparts grounded the MAX 8, left it flying for three days before President Donald Trump stepped in, suspending all MAX planes.

Mr Trump noted that Boeing was “an incredible company”. In fact the crash is a warning. After a 20-year boom, one of the West’s most sophisticated(高级的；复杂的) industries faces a difficult future.

The MAX 8 is one of Boeing’s most advanced models. Until this week it has been a commercial triumph, with 370 in operation and 4,700 more on order. The 737 series makes up a third of Boeing’s profits and most of its order book. That performance caps an extraordinary two decades for the Boeing and Airbus duopoly(双头垄断), as a growing global middle class has taken to the air. Over 21,000 aircraft are in use; a new plane is delivered every five hours. Boeing has slimmed down its supply chain and Airbus has asserted its independence from European governments. That has led to a shareholder bonanza(鸿运). Their combined market value of $310bn is six times bigger than in 2000. And their overall safety record has been good, with one fatal accident per 2.5m flights last year.

This week’s crash foreshadows the end of that golden age. Another MAX 8 crashed in October in Indonesia in similar circumstances. Although investigators have yet to determine the cause of the Ethiopian Airlines accident, regulators suspect that the MAX 8 has a design flaw(缺陷).

精读讲解

Part 1

When a Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed near Addis Ababa after take-off on March 10th, 157 people lost their lives. It did not take long for the human tragedy toraise questions about what went wrong.

中译：3月10日，一架波音737 MAX 8型客机起飞后，在亚的斯亚贝巴附近坠毁，157人遇难。没过多久，这场人间悲剧就引发了人们对问题根源的思考。

crash  /kræʃ/  这个单词有多个含义，而且每个含义在外刊中出现的频率也都比较高，我们结合英语释义一起看一下：

（1）n. [可数] A crash is an accident in which a moving vehicle hits something and is damaged or destroyed. 撞车; 坠机

例句：His elder son was killed in a car crash a few years ago.

 他大儿子几年前死于一次车祸。

（2）n. [可数] A crash is a sudden, loud noise.  突然的巨响

例句：Two people recalled hearing a loud crash about 1:30 a.m.

 两人回忆说大约凌晨1：30时听到一声巨响。

（3）v. [及物/不及物] If a moving vehicle crashes or if the driver crashes it, it hits something and is damaged or destroyed. 使…撞毁; 撞毁

例句：①The plane crashed mysteriously near the island of Ustica.

 飞机在乌斯蒂卡岛附近神秘地坠毁了。

②Her car crashed into the rear of a van.

 她的汽车撞毁了一辆面包车的尾部。

（4）v. [不及物] If a business or financial system crashes, it fails suddenly, often with serious effects. (企业、金融机构) 突然垮台，崩溃

例句：When the market crashed, they assumed the deal would be cancelled.

 市场崩盘时，他们以为那笔交易会取消。

也可以作为名词“崩溃”；

例句： He predicted correctly that there was going to be a stock market crash.

 他正确地预测到将出现股市崩溃。

take-off   n. 起飞

tragedy  /'trædʒədi/  n. 悲剧；灾难；惨案

【写作积累】

It not take long for sb/sth to do sth  没过多久，某事就发生了

例句：① It did not take long for Bush to make his first flight by himself.

布什很快就独自完成了他的第一次飞行。

② It wouldn't take long for the tougher males to realize that they didn't have to do this.

用不了多久，强壮的雄性就会意识到他们不需要这么做。

go wrong 出毛病；弄错；发生故障

例句：If you listen to me, you can't go wrong. 你如果听我说，你就不会出错。

Part 2

That has fed a crisis of trust in Boeing and in the FAA, the American regulatorwhich, even as its counterparts grounded the MAX 8, left it flying for three days before President Donald Trump stepped in, suspending all MAX planes.

中译：这加剧了人们对波音和美国联邦航空局(FAA)的信任危机，联邦航空局是美国的监管机构，当各国都停飞MAX 8时，联邦航空局仍然让其正常飞了三天，直到总统唐纳德•特朗普介入，才停飞了所有的MAX型号飞机。

crisis/'kraɪsɪs/  n. 危机   短语：fisical crisis  财政危机

trust 作名词时，后面接的介词是in，例如短语：put trust in 对...信任

regulator /'rɛɡjuletɚ/  n. 监管人; 监管机构

counterpart  /'kaʊntɚpɑrt/  n. 职位（或作用）相当的人；对应的事物。可参考英语释义：Someone's or something's counterpart is another person or thing that has a similar function or position in a different place.

ground 通常作为名词使用，含义是“地面，在地上”，当作为动词使用时，有以下几个常见含义：

（1）使停飞。

例句：The civil aviation minister ordered all the planes to be grounded.

 民航部长命令所有飞机不得起飞。

（2）使搁浅; 搁浅。

例句：① Residents have been told to stay away from the region where the ship was grounded.

 居民们被告知要远离轮船搁浅的区域。

 ② The boat finally grounded on a soft, underwater bank.

 那条船最终在一个松软的水下浅滩搁浅了。

（3）此外，grounded还有“现实的”的意思，之前有一期讲到了老佛爷拉格斐有一句名言：I am very grounded, just not on this earth.这里的grounded就是“现实的”。

step in 干预

例句：If no agreement was reached, the army would step in.

 如果达不成协议，军队将会干预。

suspend  /sə'spɛnd/  vt. 暂停；使停职；悬挂

【长难句分析】

That has fed a crisis of trust in Boeing and in the FAA, the American regulator which, even as its counterparts grounded the MAX 8,  left it flying for three days before  President  Donald Trump stepped in,  suspending  all  MAX planes.

在英语写作中，同位语与插入语的使用，往往会增加表达的多样性，起到很好的修辞效果，比如这个句子中，用了很多逗号，语法成分既有同位语，又有插入语，我们一起看看：

这句话很长，句子的主干是：That has fed a crisis of trust in Boeing and in the FAA.这增加了人们对波音公司和FAA的信任危机。FAA是个什么东西呢，紧接着一个同位语对其进行了说明：the American regulator，美国的监管机构；为了进一步说明FAA在这起事件中的所作所为，作为同位语的名词短语后面又跟了一个由which引导的定语从句which left it flying for three days before President Donald Trump stepped in.美国监管机构让它继续飞了三天直到特朗普总统的介入。

所以，去掉枝叶后，这个句子可压缩为：

That has fed a crisis of trust in Boeing and in the FAA, the American regulator which left it flying for three days before President Donald Trump stepped in.

Which后面的短句子even as its counterparts grounded the MAX 8 作为插入语，将其他国家的监管机构已经停飞了MAX 8，与FAA作为对比。

suspending all MAX planes 现在分词短语作状语。

Part 3

Mr Trump noted that Boeing was “an incredible company”. In fact the crash is a warning. After a 20-yearboom, one of the West’s most sophisticated industries faces a difficult future.

中译：特朗普指出，波音是“一家不可思议的公司”。事实上，这次坠机是一个警告。在经历了20年的繁荣之后，西方最尖端的产业之一面临着艰难的未来。

incredible  /ɪn'krɛdəbl/  adj. 难以置信的，惊人的；极好的

boom /buːm/  n. 繁荣；增长，这个单词我们在《非洲在新一轮的争夺中的机遇》那一期中也讲过，原文是：From 2010 to 2016 more than 320 embassies were opened in Africa, probably the biggest embassy-building boom anywhere, ever.

sophisticated  /sə'fɪstɪketɪd/ 文中的意思是“〔机器、系统、方法等〕复杂的，精密的，尖端的”，朗文词典释义为：a sophisticated machine, system, method etc is very well designed and very advanced, and often works in a complicated way.

除此之外，sophisticated还可以用来形容人，意思是“老练的; 久经世故的”。

例句：These people are very sophisticated observers of the foreign policy scene.

 这些人是外交政策领域干练的观察家。

Part 4

The MAX 8 is one of Boeing’s most advanced models.Until this week it has been a commercial triumph, with 370 in operation and 4,700 more on order. The 737 series makes up a third of Boeing’s profits and most of its order book.

中译： MAX 8型的客机是波音公司最先进的机型之一。直到这周，它都是一个了不起的商业成就，有370架飞机在运行中，另外还有4700多架的订单。737系列贡献了波音公司三分之一的盈利和大部分的订单。

triumph /ˈtraɪəmf/  n. 胜利，凯旋；胜利的欢呼； vi. 获得胜利，成功

in operation 生效；运转着

例句：China currently has 13 nuclear power stations in operation, while another 27 plants are under construction. 中国目前有13座核电站在运行，另有27座正在建设中。

on order 在定购中；已经定购的

例句：This item is out of stock, but it is on order.

这项产品全部售空（已无存货），但已经订购了。

make up  组成；补足；化妆；编造

order book 订单簿

Part 5

That performancecaps an extraordinary two decades for the Boeing and Airbusduopoly, as a growing global middle class has taken to the air. Over 21,000 aircraftare in use; a new plane is delivered every five hours.

中译：随着全球越来越多的中产阶级搭乘航班，波音和空客这两家双头垄断企业达到了20年来辉煌业绩的顶峰。正在投入使用的飞机超过2.1万架;每五小时就有一架新飞机交付。

cap，“盖；帽子”、“给…戴帽子”，这里使用的是引申义：“成为…的结尾”，作者认为波音和空客在经历了20年的黄金期之后，达到了辉煌的顶点。

extraordinary/ɪkˈstrɔrdnˌɛrɪ/  adj. 非凡的，出色的；非同寻常的；特别的 (会议)

duopoly  /du'ɑpəli/  n. 两家卖主垄断市场（的局面）；双头垄断市场

duopoly 指的是前两名的企业在市场上的份额远超过其他企业，而前两名之间不相上下。monopoly则是独占垄断，指的是绝大部分的市场份额被一个企业占据。

aircraft /'ɛr'kræft/  n. 飞机，航空器

in use 在使用中

deliver  vt. 交付

Part 6

Boeing has slimmed down its supply chain and Airbus has asserted its independence from European governments. That has led to a shareholder bonanza. Their combined market value of $310bn is six times bigger than in 2000. And theiroverall safety record has been good, with one fatal accident per 2.5m flights last year.

中译：波音缩减了它的供应链，空客也宣称它独立于欧洲政府的地位。这给股东带来了滚滚财源。两家公司加起来的市值达到了3100亿美元，是2000年的6倍。总的来说，他们的安全纪录良好，去年每250万次航班中才有一次重大事故。

slim down 瘦身

supply chain  供应链

assert  /ə'sɝt/  vt. 维护，坚持；断言；主张；声称

lead to  导致；通向

bonanza /bə'nænzə/  n. 鸿运

overall /,ovə'rɔl/  adj. 总的  adv. 总体上

fatal /'fetl/  adj. 致命的；重大的；毁灭性的

Part 7

This week’s crash foreshadows the end of that golden age. Another MAX 8 crashed in October in Indonesia in similar circumstances. Although investigators have yet to determine the cause of the Ethiopian Airlines accident, regulators suspect that the MAX 8 has adesign flaw.

中译：本周的坠毁预示着黄金时代的终结。去年10月，MAX 8在印度尼西亚也发生了类似事故。尽管调查人员尚未确定埃塞俄比亚航空公司事故的原因，但监管机构怀疑MAX 8存在设计缺陷。

foreshadow  /fɔr'ʃædo/  vt. 预示

flaw  /flɔ/  n. 瑕疵，缺点