Selling Air (a.k.a. the Idea They Thought of Next)

呼吸也成奢侈享受：进口新鲜空气100美元一罐

Would you pay $100 for a whiff of Welsh air?

你会付100美元，只为吸一口来自威尔士的空气吗？

In some of the world's most polluted cities, people apparently will: Sales of bottled air from fresh-smelling places are taking off.

在世界上一些污染最严重的城市，人们真的会这么做。

An Australian company is hawking[1] six-packs of air bottled in places like Bondi Beach in Sydney or the eucalyptus-covered[满山桉树的] Blue Mountains. A Canadian firm sells containers of Rocky Mountain breeze as an antidote[2] to smoggy skies ("a shot of nature," its marketing promises).

[1]hawk: to sell goods informally in public places 沿街兜售，叫卖 

On every street corner there were traders hawking their wares. 

每个街角都有商贩在兜售商品。

[2]antidote: Something that is an antidote to a difficult or unpleasant situation helps you to overcome the situation. 克服…的良方

Massage is a wonderful antidote to stress. 
按摩是一种极妙的对抗压力的良方。

Aethaer, a British company, is hoping to turn packaged air into a popular luxury item in fast-growing markets like China. The company sells glass jars holding 580 milliliters (a bit more than a pint) of air from Wales — witha "morning dew feel," according to its website — for 80 pounds, or $97.

英国公司Aethaer就准备将罐装空气作为一种奢侈品，在中国这样迅速成长起来的市场上推行。这家公司以97美元（约合人民币660元）的价格，销售每瓶580毫升的威尔士空气，为顾客带来“清晨露水般的感受”。

The company's 28-year-old founder, Leo De Watts, said he hoped buyers would come to regard his product as a collectible[3], like a "sculpture or a limited-edition print made by an artist." "Clean air is actually a very rare commodity," he said.

该公司28岁的创始人里奥·德瓦兹说，他希望顾客会认为他的商品具有收藏价值，就如同“一位艺术家的雕塑作品或者限量版绘画”。“洁净的空气实际上是非常珍贵的商品，”他说。

[3]collectible

1)[n] any object that people want to collect as a hobby 收藏品

2)[adj] A collectible object is one which is valued very highly by collectors because it is rare or beautiful. 有收藏价值的

Many of these cushions have survived and are very collectible. 
这些垫子中的许多保存了下来并极具收藏价值。

The market for all kinds of pollution-fighting tools is booming in many smog-choked cities[烟雾呛罩的城市] in China, India and Southeast Asia. Innovations abound, including air purifiers that are attached to bicycles and outdoor towers that are meant to suck up[吸收] smog.

Bottled air is one of the least practical but most talked-about ideas. It can hardly replace the local atmosphere — one person would require at least eight to 10 bottles a minute to breathe. But residents in smoggy places are snapping up[4] the stuff anyway.

罐装空气虽然缺乏实用性，但却是一直让人们热议的话题。这个概念并不能真正改变当地的空气环境——一个人每秒钟至少需要吸入8到10瓶空气。但在雾霾严重的地方，人们还是对罐装空气趋之若鹜[5]。

[4]snap up: If you snap something up, you buy it quickly because it is cheap or is just what you want. 争购

...a millionaire ready to snap them up at the premium price of $200 a gallon. 
...一个百万富翁准备以每加仑$200的高价抢购它们。

[5][“趋之若鹜”虽然也能表达中性意义，但一般多用于表达贬义，建议可以改为类似“人们依旧争相抢购这种罐装空气。”]

The Australian bottler, Green and Clean, plans to ship about 40,000 containers a month to China starting in December, and then expand to India, Malaysia, Chile and the Middle East.

澳大利亚的空气公司Green and Clean就计划从12月起，每月水运4万罐空气到中国，并在今后逐步发展至印度、马来西亚、智利和中东地区。

Some people purchase bottled air as a gag gift. Others buy it to inhale themselves, and say it reinvigorates them on days when the air is really bad. "It makes my lungs feel clean," said Pan Li, 37, who works at a technology start-up in Beijing and buys about six bottles a month. "It might just be my imagination, but I'm willing to try anything."

一些人将瓶装空气作为一种好玩的礼物。其他人则买来自己吸，他们认为这能在空气质量很糟糕的时候，让自己感到振奋。“它让我觉得肺部很干净清爽，”37岁的潘力（音）说。他在北京的一家科技初创企业工作，每个月要买六瓶左右的空气。“这种感觉可能只是我的想象，但我什么都愿意尝试。”

来源：纽约时报