我这几天看了一些与奥运会相关的外刊，经济学人上有好多篇相关报道。今天在公众号“高斋外刊双语精读”上分享一些表达，写作和翻译中都可以使用。译文是大意，仅供参考，毕竟不是翻译讲解。

“打破纪录”

“创下新纪录”

“比原世界纪录快了29秒”

我们先看一篇经济学人的副标题：Olympic records are being broken at a record pace.

很明显，这里使用了我们最常见的“break/smash records”表示打破纪录，还可以用better/improve a record，比如经济学人中这句：

The oldest Olympic record is Bob Beamon’s mighty long jump of 8.90 metres in Mexico City in 1968. That world record was bettered/improved only in 1991, when Mike Powell leapt just five centimetres farther than Mr Beamon. 奥运会跳远纪录保持时间最久的是墨西哥1968年夏季奥林匹克运动会上鲍勃·比蒙（Bob Beamon）以8.90米创造的跳远世界纪录。此世界纪录直到1991年才被打破，当时迈克·鲍威尔（Mike Powell）仅超过纪录5厘米。

常见的还有“创下世界新纪录”，这个的英语是set a new world record，还可以说set a new world best，其实best可以表示最高纪录，相当于record，在哪个项目中用介词in或for。如经济学人中这句：

In the previous five years new world bests have been set in 13 of the 17 women’s Olympic swimming events. Men have also been swimming faster: in the same period new world records have been set in five events. 过去五年，17个奥运会女子游泳项目中，有13项创下了新世界记录。男子游泳速度也不断提高：同时期，五个项目创下了新世界记录。

还比如chinadaily上这些：

“打破纪录”还可用records take a beating，其中take a beating表示惨败，如经济学人中这句：Records in long-distance running have taken a beating in the past few years. 在过去的几年里，长跑记录已被打破。

sb beat records也可以表示“某人打破纪录”， 如经济学人中这句：In early July they helped Karsten Warholm, a Norwegian hurdler, beat the 29-year-old world record for men over 400 metres, by just eight milliseconds. 7月初，该跑鞋助力挪威跨栏运动员卡斯滕·沃尔霍姆（Karsten Warholm）以超出近8毫秒的成绩打破了保持29年的男子400米世界纪录。

我们看看下面这段经济学人，提到了“创下世界新纪录”，好几处还提到了“打破纪录”：

AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES in Tokyo on July 25th, a quartet of Australian swimmers set a new world record in the women’s 4 x 100 metres freestyle event. They swam the distance in three minutes, 29.69 seconds—an average speed of 1.9 metres a second—skimming 36 milliseconds off the old record set three years ago by a team containing three of the Tokyo four. A team of Chinese swimmers broke the world record for the 4 x 200 metres freestyle on July 29th. And a further seven Olympic records have been broken at the games so far.

在7月25日东京奥运会上，四名澳大利亚游泳运动员在女子4x100米自由泳项目中创下新世界纪录。他们以3分29秒69游完全程，平均速度为每秒1.9米，比三年前东京队三人所创的纪录快了36毫秒。7月29日，中国游泳队打破了4x200米自由泳世界纪录。到目前为止，又有七项奥运会记录被打破。

其他的都比较简单，这里主要说下They swam the distance in three minutes, 29.69 seconds—an average speed of 1.9 metres a second—skimming 36 milliseconds off the old record set three years ago by a team containing three of the Tokyo four这句。

A. 这句主干是They swam the distance in three minutes, 29.69 seconds，其实破折号中间内容是three minutes, 29.69 seconds的补充说明成分，skimming 36 milliseconds off the old record set three years ago by a team containing three of the Tokyo four整体是主干的结果状语, set three years ago by a team containing three of the Tokyo four是后置定语修饰record。by a team containing three of the Tokyo four是set的施动者，containing three of the Tokyo four又是team的后置定语。

B. 这里重点说下skim 36 milliseconds off the old record的用法，skim有很多意思，我们常见的是略读、浏览，如柯林斯词典这句：He skimmed the pages quickly, then read them again more carefully. 他先快速地浏览页面，然后再细细阅读。

还可以表示skim along/over sth，表示掠过、擦过、滑过……，如牛津词典中这句：We watched the birds skimming over the lake. 我们看着鸟儿贴着湖面飞过。

常见短语是skim off sth，表示私吞……或招揽到自己旗下，如柯林斯词典中这句：If I read this right, he skimmed off about thirty million. 如果我没有理解错的话，他私吞了大约3,000万。

但是今天这里是skim 36 milliseconds off the old record，不是skim off sth的用法，而是skim sth off sth else的用法，此时skim字面意思是撇去，如“他撇去了咖啡上的泡沫”就可以说“He skimmed the foam off his coffee”。skim 36 milliseconds off the old record的字面意思可以是从原来的纪录上面去掉了36毫秒，意思自然就是“比……原记录快了36毫秒”。

其实我们可以把这个当个固定表达记下来，常见的同义表达有knock/shave/cut +缩短时间+ off/from the old record (of加原纪录时间），还可以说beat ...world record (of加原纪录时间） by+缩短时间。如外研社英语同义词辨析中句子：

He has knocked 10 seconds off the world record. 他将世界纪录缩短了10秒。

She's already shaved four seconds off the national record for the mile. 她已经将一英里赛跑的国家纪录缩短了4秒。

The winner cut two seconds off the world record. 获胜者比世界纪录快了两秒。

还比如yahoo上这句：The 24-year-old Kenyan knocked 29 seconds from the previous record of 58:01 set by Geoffrey Kamworor in 2019. 这位24岁的肯尼亚小伙打破了杰弗里·卡姆沃罗2019年创下的58分01秒的纪录，比原世界纪录快了29秒。

In early July they helped Karsten Warholm, a Norwegian hurdler, beat the 29-year-old world record for men over 400 metres, by just eight milliseconds. 7月初，该跑鞋助力挪威跨栏运动员卡斯滕·沃尔霍姆（Karsten Warholm）以超出近8毫秒的成绩打破了保持29年的男子400米世界纪录。

“创下多少秒的纪录”具体怎么说

可以说clocking+时间，此时clock是动词，表示计时，还可以说in a world record time of+时间，表示在……的时间内完成的。还可以直接说set a world record of+时间，下面是yahoo、路透社和cnn上的例句：

Kibiwott Kandie smashed the world record in the half marathon on Sunday (December 6), clocking 57:32 at the Valencia Half Marathon. 周日（12月6日），基比沃特·坎迪在瓦伦西亚半程马拉松比赛中以57分32秒的成绩打破了世界纪录。

Karsten Warholm of Norway won the Olympic men’s 400 metres gold medal on Tuesday in a world record time of 45.94 seconds. 周二，挪威选手卡斯滕·沃尔霍姆（Karsten Warholm）以45.94秒的成绩打破世界纪录，夺得奥运会男子400米金牌。

Norway's Karsten Warholm took gold, setting a world record of 45.94 and breaking the 46-second mark for the first time. 挪威选手卡斯滕·沃尔霍姆夺得金牌，创下45.94秒的世界纪录，打破了46秒的旧纪录。

世界纪录保持时间

这个一般就说a record is xxx years old，如果放在名词record前，就用连字符xxx-year-old record，如果表示保持时间最久，就用oldest，如前面的The oldest Olympic record。我们再看看经济学人中的这几句：

The average world record in these 16 events is more than 23 years old. 这16项运动的世界纪录保持时间已经超过23年了。

Both the men’s and women’s world records in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres events are less than a year old. 男子和女子5000米和10000米项目的世界纪录都保持不到一年。

In early July they helped Karsten Warholm, a Norwegian hurdler, beat the 29-year-old world record for men over 400 metres, by just eight milliseconds. 7月初，该跑鞋助力挪威跨栏运动员卡斯滕·沃尔霍姆（Karsten Warholm）以超出近8毫秒的成绩打破了保持29年的男子400米世界纪录。

奥运会纪录刷新与科技创新

又破纪录了！奥运纪录刷新速度创纪录，科技创新功不可没。我们看看经济学人是怎么说的：

Swimmers have mostly benefited from steady progress in the construction of their swimsuits, even after full-body suits were banned in 2009. Improvements to clothing and equipment have helped break records in other sports, too. For example, the majority of world records in Olympic canoeing and rowing have been set in the past decade—aided by improvements in materials and boat design. And in archery, South Korean competitors have already set three new Olympic records in Tokyo, thanks to advances in bow and arrow construction supported by Hyundai, a carmaker.

2009年禁止游泳运动员穿连体泳衣，但泳衣制造技术的不断进步使游泳运动员受益良多。服装和装备的改进对打破其他运动项目纪录也起到积极作用。例如，绝大多数奥运会赛艇世界纪录是在过去十年中创下的，这得益于材料和船只设计的改进。在射箭项目中，韩国选手已经在东京奥运会创下了三项新世界记录，因为在汽车制造商现代（Hyundai）的支持下，弓箭制造方面取得了巨大进步。

这段中大家可以学到引出原因的英语写作句型：sb benefit from sth. ...have helped...in other..., too. For example, the majority of...have been ... in the past decade—aided by .... And in ...,  have already ..., thanks to advances in ...比如写互联网赋能，就可以这样组句：

Tourism operators have benefited from the rise of the Internet of Things. Technological advances have helped make breakthroughs in many other areas, too. For example, telemedicine has flourished in the past year—aided by telecommunications technology. And in e-commerce, the growing ranks of livestreamers have shifted goods on e-shops and online shoppers can get almost anything delivered thanks to the sprawling logistics industry underpinning Chinese e-commerce.

我们再看下一段经济学人：

Even track-and-field athletics, seen as the last bastion of pure human achievement, has been affected by technological progress. Records in long-distance running have taken a beating in the past few years—Nike’s Vaporfly trainers, and other similar footwear, boost racers’ running efficiency by about 4%. New shoes designed for sprint events—“super spikes”—give a similar edge. In early July they helped Karsten Warholm, a Norwegian hurdler, beat the 29-year-old world record for men over 400 metres, by just eight milliseconds.

技术进步甚至影响到了田径运动—最后堡垒，成就完全由人类所创。在过去几年里，长跑创下新记录，耐克的Vaporfly运动鞋和其他类似的运动鞋将运动员的跑步速度提高了约4%。专为短跑项目设计的新鞋——“超级钉鞋”——也有类似的作用。7月初，该跑鞋助力挪威跨栏运动员卡斯滕·沃尔霍姆（Karsten Warholm）以超出近8毫秒的成绩打破了保持29年的男子400米世界纪录。

Bastion ['bæstʃ(ə)n]名词，表示“堡垒；捍卫者；防御工事”。trainer：这里指运动鞋，不是训练员。Hurdler ['hɜ:dlə(r)]，名词表示“跨栏运动员；参加跨栏赛的马”。sth give a similar edge表示sth给予……竞争优势，edge这里作名词指“优势”，常见的还有sb have an edge，表示某人具有某种优势，例如金融时报中的这句：

He said Korean exporters had a technical edge over many competitors and benefited from diversified markets. 他表示，韩国出口商较许多竞争对手拥有技术上的优势，并受益于多元化的市场。