又中又英 | The Magnificent Seven | 褚简宁
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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有许多电影是关于 good guys、bad guys与little guys的。Good guys和bad guys就是好人和坏人。Little guys则是那些无权无势的小人物，常常成为坏人（bad guys）手下的受害者。我最近在网上重温一套1960年关于好人（good guys）、坏人（bad guys）与小人物（little guys）的美国西部电影，名为《七侠荡寇志》。那些坏蛋（bad guys）强行操控西部一个住着普通老百姓（little guys）的小镇。那群老百姓（little guys）就雇用了七个神枪手好人（good guys）。他们最终打败了坏人（bad guys），将小镇的控制权交还予镇上的老百姓（little guys）。
我最近又看了2016年翻拍的电影，是由丹素华盛顿出演的《绝地7骑士》。这两套电影也是建基于1954年的日本电影《七侠四义》。你可知道，The Magnificent Seven也可以有着跟电影毫不相关的意思？它是指美国七个顶级高科技公司，对全球股市有outsized impact－－an outsized impact是指对于某事物如股市有着特大的影响。「美股七巨头」高科技公司就是：拥有Google和YouTube的字母控股、亚马逊、苹果、拥有脸书与WhatsApp的Meta、微软、辉达以及特斯拉。
我就听到一位股市分析师，用上习语「put the pedal to the metal」去形容美股七巨头如何将标准普尔500和纳斯达克指数推至纪录新高。To「put the pedal to the metal」是指驾驶得飞快，全速前进。Pedal是汽车的油门，metal在这里则是指汽车的底板。将油门踩到底就会令汽车全速前进。
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Michael Chugani褚简宁
中译：七刻
