2016考研英语阅读：纽约最大的苹果

　　In recent decades, like so many 20th-century American icons, the glittering fa?ade hasconcealed a sense of rot. For while tourists have visited the store in droves, they have notbeen spending money on the scale that FAO Schwarz’s owner — Toys R Us — needs. Thesedays families tend to buy toys at budget downmarket shops (think Walmart) or upscaleboutique outfits (such as American Girl). The middle has been squeezed — making it hard tojustify Fifth Avenue rents.

　　最近几十年，就像那么多20世纪美国的标志性物品一样，那座光芒闪耀的店铺流露出一种衰败的味道。这是因为，尽管游客成群结队地走进这家商店，但他们在这里花的钱却一直无法达到FAO Schwarz的所有者——玩具反斗城(Toys R Us)——需要的水平。如今，家长往往要不就在经济型低端商店(比如沃尔玛(Walmart))，要不就在高端精品店(比如美国女孩(American Girl))里购买玩具。中端商店受到挤压——使得其很难支付得起第五大道的租金。

　　But at Apple’s glass cube consumers are not just thronging to look but to spend money too.Never mind the fact that the shopping experience itself is often horrid. (When I descendedthere myself recently, to get a new iPhone, the basement was so jam-packed and salesassistants so scarce that it felt like the retail equivalent of the seventh circle of hell.)

　　但是在苹果的玻璃方屋下，消费者不仅是成群结队地来，同时也会大笔花钱——尽管购物体验本身通常很糟糕。(最近我自己前往那家店购买一部新的iPhone手机，发现店内如此拥挤，店员也如此短缺，感觉就像到了商店版第七层地狱。)

　　Indeed, sales are so high that Mort Zuckerman, the current owner of the GM building, isquoted in The Liar’s Ball as saying that “whenever I want to cheer myself up I just take a walkaround the Apple Store”.

　　事实上，这家店的销售额极高，以至于通用汽车大楼目前的所有者莫特?祖克曼(Mort Zuckerman)(援引于《骗子的皮球》一书)曾表示，“每当我想让自己开心起来时，我就会在苹果店周围逛逛。”

　　At the beginning of this decade the store was making “$665m a year for 10,000 square feet”of space “in a windowless basement”. Undoubtedly it is dramatically more today; in fact, somewell-placed insiders suspect that if anyone could get comparable public data on sales persquare foot from retailers around the world (which is all but impossible), Apple’s glass cubewould be the most profitable retail outlet in the world.

　　在2010年代初，这家“位于地下、连个窗户都没有的”苹果店“1万平方英尺面积每年能创造6.65亿美元的销售额”。毫无疑问，如今这个数字肯定高得多;事实上，一些知情人士认为，如果有人能得到全球各地零售店每平方英尺销售额的可比公开数据，可能会发现苹果的玻璃方屋是全世界最赚钱的零售店。

　　Perhaps this is just another passing fad, like the FAO Schwarz floor piano. As the history of theGM building proves, business fortunes swing faster than anyone can imagine. In anothercouple of decades we may find it utterly bizarre to think that anyone ever wanted to go into awindowless basement with hundreds of others to buy an iPhone. Least of all treat it as atourist attraction.

　　也许这只是另一次短暂的热潮，就像FAO Schwarz的地面钢琴一样。正如通用汽车大楼的历史所证明的那样，企业命运跌宕起伏，速度之快超出所有人的想象。再过几十年，我们也许会感到难以置信：居然有人想要去一间连窗户都没有的地下室，和数百名其他顾客挤在一起，只为购买一部iPhone。更别提还把它当作一个游览胜地。

　　Right now, I will be watching curiously to see what Angela Ahrendts, the ultra-stylish designqueen at Apple, does with that cube. Like it or not, it has now become a powerful symbol ofour modern age, a time where kids (and adults) still love to buy “toys” — just not quite thetype of toys our parents flocked to in the past.

　　现如今，我将会饶有兴趣地期待苹果超级时尚的设计女王安杰拉?阿伦茨(Angela Ahrendts)对那个玻璃方屋的改造。无论你喜欢与否，这个玻璃方屋已经成了我们当今时代的有力符号。在这个时代，孩子(和大人)仍然喜爱买“玩具”——只不过跟过去我们的父母爱买的玩具类型不太一样罢了。

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