“德國鐵路晚點”圍巾拍賣：專門記錄德國鐵路晚點情況（雙語）
A scarf knitted by a German woman to document her frustrations with frequent train delays has sold for €7,550 on eBay, as the country’s biggest railway company announces plans for a punctuality tsar.
德國一位女士把火車頻繁晚點的情況全部織到了一條圍巾上面，以表達她的不滿。日前，這條圍巾在eBay網站上拍出了7550歐元(約合5.81萬元人民幣)的高價。同時，德國最大的鐵路公司宣布將任命一位“準點專員”。
punctuality [,p??ktj?'æl?t?]：n.嚴守時間
“德國鐵路晚點”圍巾
現在就來為這個經典設計開一個產品說明會吧：純手工制作、精心打磨、每天只打兩行!
The “rail delay scarf” came to prominence when Sara Weber, a journalist, posted a photo of it on Twitter earlier this month. Her mother, a commuter in the Munich area, knitted two lines a day in 2018 to represent how long she was delayed for, she explained.
這位德國阿姨的女兒薩拉·韋伯是一名記者，韋伯本月初將“火車晚點圍巾”的圖片發(fā)在推特上，得到了極大反響。她解釋說，母親生活在慕尼黑地區(qū)，乘坐火車上下班，2018年，她每天都會織上兩行，來代表當天火車晚點的情況。
The scarf is color-coded: grey wool meant her delay had been less than five minutes, pink signified delays of between five and 30 minutes, while red meant she was delayed for more than 30 minutes or had been delayed both ways.
圍巾用不同顏色代表晚點情況：當火車晚點少于5分鐘時，她會用灰色線織;當火車晚點5到30分鐘之間時，用粉色線織;當火車晚點超過30分鐘、或者上下班都遭遇火車晚點時，用紅色線織。
“In the spring, everything was OK. Lots of grey and pink,” Weber wrote. “Then for a while it was all red: rail replacement traffic throughout the summer.”
“春天的時候，火車晚點情況看起來還可以，圍巾大部分都是灰色和粉色，”莎拉寫道，“但是后來它開始變成了大片的紅色：那是由于整個夏天都在更換鐵軌。”
每月要花超過175歐元的月票，卻得到了這樣的服務，難怪阿姨花了6卷毛線織出了自己的囧途。
The scarf, approximately 1.5 meters long, represented many Germans’ frustrations with train delays, despite their country’s reputation abroad for efficiency and punctuality.
這條圍巾有大約1.5米長，代表著很多德國人對火車晚點的不滿，盡管德國在海外以高效和準時著稱。
After it went viral on social media, Weber and her mother decided to auction the scarf off for charity; as of Monday morning, bidding for the scarf had reached more than €3,600, before more than doubling in its final hours on the site.
這條圍巾在社交媒體走紅后，韋伯和母親決定把它放在網上拍賣，并將拍賣所得捐給慈善機構。截至周一早上，競標價格已經漲至3600歐元，而在拍賣結束前的最后幾個小時里，價格又翻了一倍多。
在德國，乘坐軌道交通(區(qū)域列車或者市郊快速列車)上班的人不在少數。一份調查結果顯示，2016年德國遠距離上下班往返的人群比例就已達到上班總人數的60%，其中很多人需要乘德鐵運營的軌道交通，而這一數據隨著大中型城市市區(qū)房價上漲會越來越多。
The continuing delays have led the German railway company Deutsche Bahn to appoint Ronald Pofalla, DB’s head of infrastructure, as crisis manager to improve its punctuality record.
德國火車頻繁晚點使得德國聯(lián)邦鐵路公司任命基礎設施主管羅納德·珀法拉為危機經理，提高準點率。
Roughly one-quarter of all trains and one-third of long-distance trains were late in 2018 — a far cry from the days when 95% of German trains ran on time. For 2019, Deutsche Bahn has set an on-time goal of 80% of all trains and 76.5% of long-distance trains.
2018年，德國大約有四分之一的火車和三分之一的長途火車晚點，這與德國曾經高達95%的火車準點率相去甚遠。2019年，德國聯(lián)邦鐵路公司制定了一個目標，希望全部火車的準點率達到80%，長途火車準點率達到76.5%。
far cry：差別懸殊
Proceeds from the scarf will go to Bahnhofsmission, a charity helping vulnerable passengers or those facing travel emergencies.
圍巾拍賣所得將被捐給幫助弱勢乘客或者在旅途中遇到緊急狀況乘客的慈善機構“車站使命團”。
vulnerable [?v?ln?r?bl]：adj. 易受攻擊的，易受傷害的
這條圍巾的照片發(fā)布僅僅一天，就收到過萬點贊，網友稱贊阿姨這種方式比起在德鐵官網投訴、在網上發(fā)幾句牢騷，更直觀奪目。紅色也用得恰到好處，因為它正是德鐵標志的顏色。
“We truly did not expect this,” Weber wrote on the eBay page. “My mother and I are overwhelmed by the positive feedback.”
“我們之前完全沒想到，”薩拉在eBay網頁上寫道，“我和媽媽幾乎要被網友們的熱情反饋淹沒了。”
