2016考研英语阅读：纽约最大的苹果

　　Over the next few months a striking piece of symbolism will take place around the mightyGeneral Motors building on Fifth Avenue in New York. Apple, the tech group, plans to move outof the basement where it has operated a flagship store-cum-tourist attraction for the pastdecade, underneath a now-iconic glass cube.

　　在接下来数月内，极具象征意味的事情将发生在纽约第五大道(Fifth Avenue)上那座宏伟的通用汽车(GeneralMotors)大楼周围。科技巨擘苹果(Apple)计划将过去10年来游客经常造访的那家旗舰店，从如今已成为地标的玻璃方屋下方的地下室中搬出。

　　The tech group will not be disappearing altogether from this prime site, tucked on thesoutheast corner of Central Park. Instead, it is renovating the basement to cope with soaringnumbers of visitors, and, later this year, it plans to move “temporarily” into a space on theground floor of the General Motors building next door.

　　这家科技集团并不会从这个紧邻中央公园(Central Park)西南角的黄金地点彻底消失。相反，苹果正在对这座地下室进行翻修，以应对日益增加的游客。今年晚些时候，苹果计划“暂时”搬进旁边通用汽车大楼的一层。

　　In a neat twist of timing, FAO Schwarz, the equally iconic American toy store, has decided tovacate its flagship location in the GM building on July 15 “to realise meaningful rent savings” inthe face of “the continuing rising costs of operating a retail location on Fifth Avenue”. The storehas not yet revealed where its new home will be.

　　刚巧就在这个时候，同样标志性的美国玩具店FAO Schwarz决定于7月15日将其位于通用汽车大楼内的旗舰店搬走。面对“在第五大道开设零售店成本持续上涨”，此举是为了“实现重大租金节约”。该玩具店尚未公布新店地址。

　　So when tourists flock to Central Park this summer, they will no longer see stuffed animals,dolls, Lego and train sets — or the gigantic “floor piano” keyboard that Tom Hanks and RobertLoggia danced on in the 1988 movie Big (a film that helped to immortalise FAO Schwarz).Instead, the site will host piles of gleaming electronic gadgets — and the inevitable throng ofvisitors who pay pilgrimage around the clock. (Apparently, the store under the cube is notjust the busiest in the world but also the only Apple store that operates 24 hours a day, sevendays a week.)

　　因此，今年夏天当游客蜂拥至中央公园时，他们将不会再看见毛绒动物玩具、玩偶、乐高积木(Lego)以及火车模型，也不会再看见地板上的巨型“钢琴”琴键——在1988年的电影《飞向未来》(Big)中，汤姆?汉克斯(TomHanks)和罗伯特?洛贾(Robert Loggia)就是在这个地面琴键上跳舞(这部电影让FAO Schwarz在人们心中留下了难以磨灭的印象)。取而代之的是，那里将会摆满成堆闪闪发光的电子小玩意——游客也必然会成群结对，不分昼夜地前来“朝圣”。(显然，玻璃方屋下面的苹果旗舰店不仅是世界上生意最忙碌的，还是唯一的每周7天无休、24小时全天候营业的苹果店。)

　　Now, in one sense this rental dance is nothing new. As the journalist Vicky Ward recounts inher book, The Liar’s Ball (which tells the history of the GM building and which is about to bemade into a Hollywood film), this site has already seen endless commercial flux. Businessempires have risen and fallen there at startling speed. Indeed, one of the great (and little-known) ironies about that famous glass cube is that the man who first dreamt up the idea,Harry Macklowe, the real estate titan who owned the GM building, actually went bankrupt(before later rebounding).

　　眼下，从某种意义而言，这种租户更迭没什么新鲜的。正如记者薇姬?沃德(Vicky Ward)在她的书《骗子的皮球》(The Liar’s Ball)中叙述的那样，这个地点已经见证了数不尽的商业变迁。(该书讲述了通用汽车大楼的历史，即将被拍摄成为好莱坞电影。)在这座大楼中，商业帝国以惊人的速度崛起和没落。事实上，关于那座着名玻璃方屋极具讽刺意味(且鲜为人知)的一点是，最初设计出这个想法的人——房地产大亨、通用汽车大楼曾经的所有者——哈里?麦克洛(Harry Macklowe)实际上破产了(后来东山再起)。

　　To my mind, this switch of retail outlets speaks to far more than just the vagaries of NY realestate. After all, FAO Schwarz is not just any old toy store: in recent decades it epitomised a20th-century style of kiddie consumer dream, which, of course, is why families have long flockedthere to stare at the goodies — and that famous piano.

　　在我看来，零售店的转变所体现的远不止是纽约房地产市场的变幻莫测。毕竟，FAO Schwarz并不是普通的老牌玩具店：最近数十年，它象征的是20世纪儿童消费者的梦想，当然，这也是长久以来很多家庭蜂拥至此，凝视那些玩具和那台着名钢琴的原因。

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