大学英语四六级晨读经典 365
Bottled Water and Tap Water
Which Is Healthier
Reaching new peaks of popularity in North America is Iceberg Water, which is harvested from icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
Arthur von Wiesenberger, who carries the title Wa·ter Master, is one of the few water critics in North America. As a boy, he spent time in the larger cities of Italy, France and Switzerland, where bottled water is consumed daily. Even then, he kept a water journal, noting the brands he liked best. “My dog could tell the difference between bottled and tap water,”he says.
But is plain tap water all that bad· Not at all. In fact, New York's municipal water for more than a century was called the champagne of tap water and until recently con·sidered among the best in the world in terms of both taste and purity. Similarly, a magazine in England found that tap water from the Thames River tasted better than sev·eral leading brands of bottled water that were 400 times more expensive.
Nevertheless, soft-drink companies view bottled water as the next battle-ground for market share despite the fact that over 25 percent of bottled water comes from tap water: PepsiCo's Aquafina and Coca-Cola's Dasani are both purified tap water rather than spring water.
As diners thirst for leading brands, bottlers and res-taurateurs salivate over the profits. A restaurant's typical mark-up on wine is 100 to 150 percent, whereas on bottled water it's often 300 to 500 percent. But since water is much cheaper than wine, and many of the fancier brands aren't available in stores, most diners don’t notice or care.
As a result, some restaurants are turning up the pressure to sell bottled water. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, some of the more shameless tactics, include placing attractive bottles on the table for a visual sell, listing brands on the menu without prices, and pouring bottled water without even asking the diners if they want it.
Regardless of how it's sold, the popularity of bottled water taps into our desire for better health, our wishes to appear cultivated, and even a longing for lost purity.
唯美译文:
如今在北美最受欢的是冰山水,它是从加拿大纽芬兰海域冰山中获取的。
被尊为“水大师”的阿瑟·范·威森伯格是北美为数不多的水质鉴定家之一,他在意大利,法国和瑞士等国家的一些大城市度过自己的童年时期,在那些地月人们每天都要饮用大量的瓶装水。那时,他就开始写关于水的日志,记下他最喜欢的牌子。他说:“我的狗都能辨别瓶装水与自来水的区别。”
但是普通的自来水都那么差吗?当然不是。事实上,一个多世纪以来,纽约市的水一直被誉为“自来水中的香槟”,前不久还因可口纯净而被认为是世界上最优质的水。同样,英国的一本杂志上说取自泰晤士河的自来水比一些畅销品牌的瓶装水喝起来口感更好,而且那些瓶装水的价格比自来水贵400多倍。
另外,饮料公司把瓶装水看成是占较市场份额的下一个战场——尽管实际上有25%以上的瓶装水就是取自于自来水。 百亊可乐和可口可乐都使用净化的自来水,而不用泉水。
由于消费者对品牌矿泉水的巨大需求,使得瓶子制造商及饭店老板对它所能带来的丰厚利润垂涎三尺,一般餐馆在酒饮上获得的利润在100%到150%之间,而在瓶装水上的获利却可以高达300%到500%。但是因为瓶装水比酒要便宜得多,许多优质品牌水在商店都难以买到,所以消费者们根本不会去注意或在乎这一点。
因此,一些餐馆将注意力转向瓶装水的销售上。据华尔街杂志报道,一些商家还在用很多无耻的伎俩进行促销,如把包装精美的瓶装水放在餐桌上以吸引顾客的眼球,在菜单上列瓶装水的品牌却不标明价格,在没有询问客人是否想要的情况下就给他们倒瓶装水。
不管它是如何被销售的,瓶装水的盛行都激发了我们对更好的健康状况的希求,对良好的教养,甚至还有对己逝去的纯净的渴求。
(编辑:织言)