最昂貴的城市
【英文原文】
Hong Kong Ousts Tokyo as Most Expensive City
Hong Kong has taken over from Tokyo as the world's most expensive city, according to a lifestyle survey which also reveals the gap between the costliest and cheapest cities is narrowing. Moscow muscles in at second place in the survey, released by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, with Tokyo third. At the other end of the scale, Johannesburg replaced Blantyre, Malawi as the cheapest city on the planet. Mercer said the gulf between those at the top and bottom of the pile had narrowed by nearly 15 percent in the 12 months to March 2002. The research took New York as the base city with a nominal score of 100 points. Hong Kong scored 124.2; the South African metropolis just 34.4. It measured the comparative cost of over 200 items such as housing, food, clothing and household goods as well as transport and entertainment in 144 cities worldwide. St. Petersburg in Russia and London were the two most expensive cities in Europe, while in the United States, New York was far and away the costliest city, followed by Los Angeles, Chicago and San Fra
ncisco. Elsewhere, Buenos Aires had the most dramatic fall, plunging from 23rd to 133rd following Argentina's economic crisis and devaluation of the peso. New Zealand and Australian cities continued to show they are probably the best bet for cheap but high quality living, with scores consistently around 50 or below while at the same time ranking in the top 30 for quality of life in another Mercer survey released in March 2002.
【中文譯文】
最昂貴的城市
根據一項生活方式調查，香港已經取代東京坐上了世界上最昂貴城市的交椅，該調查同時顯示生活成本最昂貴城市與最低廉城市之間的差距正在縮小。根據默瑟人力資源諮詢公司公佈的調查，莫斯科擠到了第二位，東京則位居第三。在標尺的另一端，約翰內斯堡取代馬拉維的布蘭太爾而成了地球上最低廉的城市。默瑟公司稱，到迄2002年3月爲止的12個月當中，排行榜頂端和底端之間的差距縮小了將近15%。此次調查以紐約爲基準城市，基準分爲100分。香港得分爲124.2，而南非首都只有34.4。調查計算了全球144個城市超過200種項目的比較成本，包括住房、食品、服裝、日用品、交通及娛樂等等。歐洲最昂貴的城市是俄羅斯的聖彼得堡和倫敦，美國最昂貴的城市當然是紐約，其次是洛杉磯、芝加哥和舊金山。在其他地方，布宜諾斯艾利斯的排名發生了最爲戲劇性的下跌：在阿根廷經濟危機及比索貶值之後，它從第23位猛跌到了第133位。新西蘭和澳大利亞各城市的表現依舊良好，這表明它們可能是追求高質量低成本生活的人們的最佳選擇：它們的得分仍舊在50左右或更低，與此同時，在默瑟於2002年3月公佈的另一項調查中，它們又居於生活質量最高的30個城市之列。
Remarks：現代生活的真正昂貴之處在於：高度物質化的外部環境留給我們心靈的空間越來越小， “生活”越來越讓位於“生存”。
