Porters1 in Chongqing
Bang bang, I hit the ground2
单词解析：
1、porters: a person employed to carry luggage and supplies n.心理搬运工；门房；守门人；服务员；
2、hit the ground: 接触地面
The decline of a great urban institution
Apr 16th 2016 | CHONGQING | From the print edition
YU XIAOYAN waits for work in the rain, sitting on a bamboo pole near the centre of Chongqing, a large city in the south-west. A wiry1 60-year-old with pepper-and-salt hair, a wispy beard2 and an air of resignation3, he muses4: “I’ve been here 20 years, and it’s never been so tough.” He is what locals call a bangbang man.
单词解释：
1.wiry: adj. 瘦长结实的，金属丝的,金属线制的,铁丝似的,,(嗓音)尖细的
比较级: wirier, wiriest 副 词: wirily 名 词: wiriness
近义词：[adj.] thin, lean, wire, hairy, haired, hirsute
反义词：[n.] fat, hairless
Someone who is wiry is rather thin but is also strong.
He had a wiry build.
2.beard: n. 胡须；颌毛 vt. 公然反对；抓…的胡须
vi. [美俚]充当掩护；充当男随员
the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face
3.an air of resignation :
“an air of” means surrondings or environment
Resignation: n. 辞职,辞职书,顺从, 听从
1.Resignation is the acceptance of an unpleasant situation or fact because you realize that you cannot change it.
There was no grief in his expression, only deep resignation...
He sighed with profound resignation.
2.[uncountable] when someone calmly accepts a situation that cannot be changed, even though it is bad:
She gave a sigh of resignation.
He accepted her decision with resignation.
4.muse:
n. 沉思；冥想 vt. 沉思；沉思地说 vi. 沉思；凝望
近义词：
[n.] Greek deity, source, seed, germ
[v.] think, cogitate, cerebrate
1. [transitive] to say something in a way that shows you are thinking about it carefully:
‘Somewhere,’ he mused, ‘I’ve heard your name before.’
2. [intransitive] to think about something for a long time
SYN ponder
muse on/over/about/upon
He mused on how different his life would have been, had he not met Louisa.
—musing noun [uncountable and countable]:
her gloomy musings
—musingly adverb
Bang means stick. Mr Yu is one of the porters who for generations have hauled1 the worldly goods of Chongqing from the Yangzi and Jialing rivers on which the city sits, and up its precipitous2 slopes3, using only bamboo and string. Everything from wide-screen televisions and blocks of ice to bricks and car tyres4 is tied to a short pole and hoisted5 onto willing shoulders. The bangbang brigade is unique to Chongqing and an emblem6 of the city (also once distinguished for the rarity of bicycles; as China gets richer, they are becoming rarer everywhere). In 2014 when Li Keqiang, the prime minister, paid a visit, he called the bangbang men “a symbol of the Chinese people’s hard-working spirit”.
1.haul: vt. 拖运；拖拉 the act of drawing or hauling something
近义词：
[n.] pull, pulling, indefinite quantity
[v.] pull, draw, force, transport, carry
Trains haul freight.
2.precipitous adj. 险峻的, 陡峭的
副 词: precipitously 名 词: precipitousness
3.slope : n. 倾斜；斜率；斜坡；扛枪姿势 名 词: sloper
vi. 倾斜；逃走
vt. 扛；倾斜；使倾斜
副 词: slopingly
近义词：
[n.] geological formation, formation, position, spatial relation
[v.] lean, tilt, tip, slant, angle
4.tyre : vt. 装轮胎于 n. 轮胎；轮箍
近义词：
[n.] city, metropolis, urban center, port, hoop, ring
A tyre is a thick piece of rubber which is fitted onto the wheels of vehicles such as cars, buses, and bicycles.
5.hoist : vt. 把…吊起, 升起 n. 吊起; 举起; 提升 起重器械 hoister n.
近义词：
[n.] lifting device
[v.] raise, lift, elevate, get up, bring up
move from one place to another by lifting
They hoisted the patient onto the operating table
6.emblem : n. 象征；符号；徽章 vt. 象征；用符号表示；用纹章装饰
近义词：
[n.] design, pattern, figure, symbol, symbolization, symbolisation, symbolic representation
national emblem 国徽
But the trade is dying. “When I first came,” says Mr Yu, “there were thousands of bangbang men and plenty of work, but not any more.” According to a documentary made in 2015 for state television, the city had over 300,000 stick men in the late 1990s. Now there are only 3,000. “No one with any education would become a bangbang man,” says Mr Yu. “It’s all old people.”
He is right. A study in 2015 of 400 porters by Chen Hong, Liu Dapei and Du Zhongbo of Chongqing Normal University found that two-thirds of them were over 50. “The decline in the profession symbolises the ageing of Chinese society,” says Zhou Xuexin, dean1 of the Chongqing Economic and Social Development Institute.
1.dean : an administrator in charge of a division of a university or college
近义词：
[n.] academic administrator, actor, histrion, player, thespian, role player, elder
A dean is an important official at a university or college.
She is currently Dean of the faculty of International Studies at Sophia University.
It also reflects improvements in urban1 infrastructure. When roads were unpaved2 and buildings lacked lifts, brawn3 was the only way to move goods up and down the steep hills and into tower blocks. But with better roads and more modern buildings, that is no longer true. Delivery companies with young men on motorcycles have taken over, and the remaining bangbang men are coming to terms with modern technology. They have set up an instant-messaging4 group to parcel5 out the available jobs.
1.urban : adj. 城市的；住在都市的
近义词：
[adj.] city, metropolis, urban center, citified, cityfied, city-bred, city-born
反义词：
[n.] rural
2.unpaved : adj. 未铺砌的；没有铺柏油的；没有铺石砖的
(of a road) not covered with a hard, smooth surface; not paved
3.brawn : n. 发达的肌肉；膂力；腌制好的野猪肉
physical strength, especially when compared with intelligence:
4. instant-messaging：is a form of written communication that allows you to send messages from one computer to another. The message appears immediately on the screen of the computer you send it to, provided the computer is using the service. The abbreviation IM is also used.
a system on the Internet that allows people to exchange written messages with each other very quickly
5.parcel: n. 包裹,一块地; vt. 给…打成包裹 分成若干部分
近义词：
[n.] container, allotment, apportionment, apportioning, allocation, parceling, parcelling
[v.] divide, split, split up, separate, dissever, carve up, cover
Parcel out : 分配，把…分成几份 divide into parts
For Mr Yu, it is too late. “Most people are going back to their villages,” he says. He turns to write his name, using a finger to draw characters on the wet marble where he sits; the rain soon washes them away.
好句子：
1.A wiry 60-year- old with pepper-and-salt hair,a wispy beard and an air of resignation.
It can be used to describe someone who is old but healthy
2. Everything from (wide-screen televisions and blocks of ice) to
(bricks and car tyres) is tied to a short pole and hoisted onto willing shoulders.
Everything from …to
