当代爱迪生(无用)？来看看华盛顿邮报给了哪位中国人如此高的评价吧！
没错，就是大家称为"Useless Edison"的手工耿。他最近从国内红到国外，让我们一起来看看华盛顿邮报是如何报道他的吧！(下面为报道截取，完整版请看文尾链接)
Geng Shuai, a social media star for comic videos demonstrating his offbeat inventions, stands in his workshop in the village of Yang, in China.
译文：
耿帅，一个因为他另类的发明而走红的网红，站在在他乡村的工作室中。（照片介绍）
词汇：
offbeat adj. 另类的
“People say my inventions are useless, but I think there are two dimensions to usefulness: practicality and amusement,” said the 30-year-old former welder, who left his job last year to focus full time on making his questionable contraptions, such as a motorbike with its own toilet.
译文：
‘人们说我的发明没有用，但是我觉得这件事有两面性：实用性和有趣性。’这位30岁的前焊工说。他去年开始辞职专注于发明有争议的玩意，比如自带厕所的摩托车。
词汇：
practicality n. 实用性 (非常好的写作词汇)
welder n. 电焊工
contraption n. 玩意 (经常指没有用的)
Every country has its toolshed inventors. But China — which gave the world movable type printing, gunpowder and the compass — has spawned a population of tinkerers who display the kind of outsize ambition that has helped the country become a global economic giant.（这句话较为复杂，同学们可以自行分析一下意思）
译文：
每个国家都有自己的发明家。但是中国 - 一个给世界四大发明的国家 - 激增了一个相当可观的思维家，他们有着与超出时代的志向，而这些志向帮助中国称为了一个全球经济巨人。
词汇：
spawn v. 激增
outsize adj. 超过尺寸的
Geng may now be the best-known among a new kind of social media stars whose calling card are their quirkiness. (较原文稍微更改，便于理解)
译文：
手工耿是中国的新一批以怪异出名的网红。
词汇：
quirkiness n. 怪癖，俏皮。（日常常用词汇）
Geng is most proud of his hammer bag. It’s a hollow steel mallet with a compartment that slides out of the head (大家可以学一下这里怎么表达物体构造的). Perfect, he says, for storing your phone, keys and wallet. It has a strap so it can hang over the wearer’s shoulder.“It’s very fashionable,” he said, with apparent seriousness, modeling his creation. “And if someone tries to steal your bag, you can just throw it at them.”
译文：
手工耿对他的雷神之锤发明最为钟意。这是一个中空的铁锤，里面自带可以从两边抽出的小抽屉。他说‘这件发明可以完美的放你的手机，钥匙，和钱包’。这件发明还自带一个背带，所以你可以背在肩上。‘这很时尚’，他一本正经的说到，‘而且如果有人想偷你的钱包，你可以直接拿锤子抡他。’
词汇：
mallet n. 锤子
compartment n. 隔间（常用词：火车飞机卧铺，或者租房的小隔间都可以用）
He makes a living through inadvertently hilarious videos — filmed with the Chinese beauty filters that make everyone look like an airbrushed star — in which he shows how he makes his inventions and then hams it up for the camera as he demonstrates how to use them. (鉴于水平有限，这里的inadvertently / hams it up不好翻译成中文，同学们可以带入下面词汇解释自行体会)
译文：
他通过这些自然搞笑的视频赚钱，在美颜滤镜（可以让你变成照片的中明星一样）
下，他搞笑的像观众展示如何使用这些发明。
词汇：
inadvertently adv. 自然的 不经意的
beauty filter n. 美颜滤镜
airbrush n. 喷枪
ham it up 通过明显的错误表演来使人发笑
Geng tries to come up with a new invention every week and to make videos two or three times a week. He makes about $150 every time he does a live-streamed broadcast — decent money in a town where five people can have a lavish lunch for a total of $25. He makes enough to support his family — he and his wife have two children — and his brother, who shoots the videos.
译文：
手工耿尝试每周更新一次发明，并且上传3-4次视频。他每次直播可以赚取150美元（约合900人民币），这对于一个5个人吃一顿丰盛的午餐只需要花25美元的小镇来说是一个相当可观的收入。这些钱足够支撑他的家庭 - 他和他的妻子有两个小孩 - 还有他的哥哥，也就是帮他拍视频的人。
词汇：
decent adj. 体面的
lavish adj. 丰盛的
It’s a similar phenomenon to the “live eating” videos that started in South Korea and are now popular in China. Internet stars eat in front of the camera, often so viewers can eat with them and not feel alone.
译文：
这类直播和从韩国流行到中国的直播吃类似，网红们坐在镜头前直播吃饭，所以观看者可以一起吃饭，从而不是那么的寂寞。
His family didn’t quite share his passion. Geng’s wife, Ji Xiangying, was initially against his decision to throw in his steady job for a fickle life of Internet renown. “But I came to accept it after seeing how many people like his inventions,” she said, holding their baby, the younger of their two children, on her hip.
译文：
他的家庭一开始不支持他的想法，手工耿的老婆一开始极力反对他丢掉原本的稳定工作而追求不靠谱的网红生活。但是她后来当看到网上这么多人喜欢他的发明以后，开始慢慢的接受了这件事。
词汇：
fickle n. 变幻无常的 / 薄情的
renown n. 名声
And when Geng told his grandma that he had garnered more than 1 million fans online, she asked how he could possibly eat that much. The phrase in Chinese sounds a lot like “one million bowls of rice noodles.”
译文：
当手工耿告诉他的姥姥他有超过一百万个粉丝的时候，他的姥姥问到‘他怎么能吃那么多？’因为在中文里的‘一百万粉丝’和‘一百碗粉丝’同音。（好冷）
Now, his fans are encouraging him to push the boundaries. Some threaten to stop following him if he dares make anything that is actually practical. For Geng, the lack of sales is neither here nor there. It’s the online celebrity that is motivating him. After all, before it was only his family and friends who laughed at his inventions. Now he’s got almost 2 million people laughing at him.
译文：
现在他的粉丝要手工耿发明一些更有趣的东西，有些人威胁他说：如果你发明了任何有用的东西，我就取关。对于手工耿来说，他的发明卖不出去不重要，网上这么多人喜欢他才是他的动力。‘毕竟，过去只有我的家人朋友嘲笑我的发明，而现在有超过两百万人可以嘲笑我了。’
词汇：
neither here nor there n. 无所谓啦，不重要（美国俚语）
原文链接：
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinas-useless-edison-combines-inventing-and-the-internet-with-hilarious-results/2018/11/02/43fbcb8a-d6e0-11e8-8384-bcc5492fef49_story.html
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