《中英對照讀新聞》China piano smugglers face the music 中國的鋼琴走私犯受罰
◎張沛元
A Shanghai piano smuggling ring is suspected of dodging taxes to the tune of 10 million yuan ($1.29 million) in the sale of thousands of instruments.
上海的一個鋼琴走私集團涉嫌販售成千上萬台鋼琴獲利,逃漏稅金達人民幣1000萬元(129萬美元)。
Shanghai customs seized eight smuggled pianos and traced them to 11 companies and 12 individuals, the China Daily said.
中國日報報導,上海海關查扣8架走私鋼琴,並循線追蹤到11家公司與12人。
In a followup raid, police discovered a cache of nearly 5,000 unsold pianos. The smugglers allegedly made tens of millions of yuan selling the contraband.
警方隨後在一場突襲中,查獲一個藏有近5,000架尚未出售之鋼琴的倉庫。這些走私犯涉嫌販賣這些走私品,獲利上千萬人民幣。
"Customs officials said the smugglers had probably managed to dodge some 10 million yuan worth of taxes and seriously disrupted the piano market in Shanghai," the paper said.
「海關人員指出,這些走私犯可能逃漏了約1,000萬人民幣的稅金,而且嚴重擾亂上海的鋼琴市場,」該報說。
Shanghai piano dealers had noticed that second-hand pianos from abroad with low marked prices had been dominating the market "leading customs to suspect that the whole industry was in collusion with smugglers," the paper said.
上海鋼琴交易商近來發現,來自海外的二手鋼琴以低標價稱霸市場,「導致海關懷疑整個鋼琴產業與走私犯勾結,」該報說。
新聞辭典
face the music:遭受批評或懲罰。由於本文論及鋼琴走私,故此片語有一語雙關之妙。例句:When the missing money was noticed, he chose to disappear rather than face the music.(當有人注意到這筆錢不見了時,他選擇消失逃避而非面對懲罰。)
to the tune of:總計達…/到…的程度。tune,名詞,曲調,旋律。作者應是為配合本文的主題而刻意使用此語,而未使用意思相同的to the sum of 或 to the extent of。例句:Merck loses Vioxx retrial to the tune of $47.5 million.(默克藥廠在止痛消炎藥「偉克適」的重審官司中敗訴,判賠4750萬美元)。
yuan:名詞,貨幣單位「元」之音譯,由於案例發生於中國,故特別加上「人民幣」以示區別。各種貨幣之英文各有不同,如人民幣為RMB (即Renminbi),日圓是yen(符號¥),歐元是euro(符號€),英鎊是pound(符號£);$符號基本上專指美元。