又中又英 | The Magnificent Seven | 褚簡寧
There are many movies about good guys, bad guys, and little guys. Good guys and bad guys mean good and bad people. The little guys are powerless ordinary people who often become victims of the bad guys. I recently rewatched a 1960 American Western movie on the internet about good guys, bad guys, and little guys called The Magnificent Seven. The bad guys forcibly took control of a small Western town of little guys. The little guys hired seven good guys who were very fast with guns. They eventually defeated the bad guys and gave back control of the town to the little guys.
I recently also watched a 2016 re-make of The Magnificent Seven starring Denzel Washington. Both movies were based on the 1954 Japanese movie Seven Samurai. Did you know The Magnificent Seven also means something not related to movies? It refers to the top seven US high-tech companies that have an outsized impact on global stock markets. An outsized impact means having a huge influence on something, such as stock markets. The Magnificent Seven high-tech companies are Alphabet (owns Google and YouTube), Amazon, Apple, Meta (owns Facebook and WhatsApp), Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla.
I heard one stock market analyst use the expression "put the pedal to the metal" to describe how The Magnificent Seven companies are pushing the S&P and Nasdaq stock markets to record levels. To “put the pedal to the metal” means to drive very fast. The pedal is the accelerator or gas pedal of a vehicle. The metal in this case means the vehicle’s floor. Pushing the accelerator to the car’s floor will make the car go very fast.
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有許多電影是關於 good guys、bad guys與little guys的。Good guys和bad guys就是好人和壞人。Little guys則是那些無權無勢的小人物，常常成為壞人（bad guys）手下的受害者。我最近在網上重溫一套1960年關於好人（good guys）、壞人（bad guys）與小人物（little guys）的美國西部電影，名為《七俠蕩寇誌》。那些壞蛋（bad guys）強行操控西部一個住着普通老百姓（little guys）的小鎮。那群老百姓（little guys）就僱用了七個神槍手好人（good guys）。他們最終打敗了壞人（bad guys），將小鎮的控制權交還予鎮上的老百姓（little guys）。
我最近又看了2016年翻拍的電影，是由丹素華盛頓出演的《絕地7騎士》。這兩套電影也是建基於1954年的日本電影《七俠四義》。你可知道，The Magnificent Seven也可以有着跟電影毫不相關的意思？它是指美國七個頂級高科技公司，對全球股市有outsized impact－－an outsized impact是指對於某事物如股市有着特大的影響。「美股七巨頭」高科技公司就是：擁有Google和YouTube的字母控股、亞馬遜、蘋果、擁有臉書與WhatsApp的Meta、微軟、輝達以及特斯拉。
我就聽到一位股市分析師，用上習語「put the pedal to the metal」去形容美股七巨頭如何將標準普爾500和納斯達克指數推至紀錄新高。To「put the pedal to the metal」是指駕駛得飛快，全速前進。Pedal是汽車的油門，metal在這裏則是指汽車的底板。將油門踩到底就會令汽車全速前進。
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Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻
