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深圳翻译公司

本文转载自:田间小站

一、外刊例句

  • Developing financially viable therapies for such tiny markets will be extremely difficult.要为这种微不足道的市场开发出财务上可行的疗法将极其困难。——《经济学人》

  • Japan hopes to make the extraction technology commercially viable in about five years.日本希望在大约五年后使开采技术在商业上可行。——《纽约时报》

二、基本释义

[adjective] capable of working successfully; feasible[形容词] 能够成功工作的;可行的

三、深入解读

Viable 一眼看过去会误以为是介词 via (经过、经由)的衍生词,其实不然,该词源自于拉丁语 vita (生命),1828年经法语 viable (能活的、能成活的、能生存的)进入英语,其基本含义也是指胎儿脱离母体后无须特殊护理就“能养活的”,这个概念在生物学上表示卵、种子等“可生长发育的、能发芽生长的”,比如:

  • 人的胎儿通常在第七个月末产下后可以自然存活。然后婴儿大多在一岁时断奶。The human fetus usually becomes viable by the end of the seventh month. And most babies are weaned by the time they are one.

既然是脱离母体后能够自然存活的,那么用在经济、机构、国家等上时,则表示“能独立发展的、能独立生存的”,比如:

  • 仅靠现金不能使东欧的银行维持下去。在一些情况下,本来拥有偿付能力的银行也面临崩溃。Cash alone will not make Eastern Europe's banks viable. In some cases, banks that were otherwise solvent faced collapse.

  • 很遗憾,为使行将倒闭的公司继续运转下去,将不得不裁员。In order to make the moribund company viable, it will unfortunately be necessary to reduce staffing levels.

这个概念进一步泛化用在人、办法、计划等上时,便是指“有望成功的、可实施的、切实可行的”,比如:

  • 这位有希望当选的候选人的演说为零零落落的掌声所打断。The viable candidate's speech was interrupted by sporadic applause.

  • 恐怕你这站不住脚的计划在政治上行不通。I am afraid your feeble plan is not politically viable.

四、名人用例

What I have learned is that if we are to remain a free and viable society, we need to spend less time looking at screens and more time looking into each other's eyes.我学到的是,要想保持一个自由且可持续发展的社会,我们需要少花些时间盯着屏幕,多花些时间注视彼此的眼睛。

出自美国著名演员格伦·克洛斯(Glenn Close,1947年3月19日-)。格伦·克洛斯早年毕业于公立常春藤名校之一的威廉与玛丽学院(College of William & Mary),而上面的这句话就出自于其在2019年母校毕业典礼上的演讲。

五、同近义词

  • feasible: possible to do easily or conveniently

  • practicable: able to be done or put into practice successfully

  • workable: capable of producing the desired effect or result; practicable; feasible