The rise and fall of the automat（双语字幕）

The Rise and Fall of the Automat

自动贩卖餐厅的兴衰史

It all sounds so futuristic: a restaurant without waiters, without workers behind the counter, without any visible employees whatsoever, where you simply feed your money into a glass-enclosed kiosk, remove a steaming plate of freshly made food, and carry it to your table. Welcome to Horn & Hardart, circa 1950, a restaurant chain that once boasted 40 locations in New York City and dozens more across the U.S., at a now-distant time when automats served hundreds of thousands of urban customers every day.

这听起来非常未来话：餐厅没有服务员、前台没有接待员、不管怎么，到处都看不到工作人员，你只需要简单的将钱放进一个玻璃包裹的自助机里，然后取出一叠热气腾腾，新鲜出炉的美食并拿到自己的桌上。欢迎来到霍恩哈达特餐厅，大约在1950年，一家连锁餐厅以在纽约开业了40家店洋洋得意，而后又在全美各地开了数十家，在一个现在看来很遥远的时代，这家自动贩卖餐厅每天服务着成千上万的城市客户。

重点词句：

futuristic adj. 未来派的；未来主义的

例句：

The theatre is a futuristic steel and glass structure.

该剧院是一座颇具未来派的钢筋玻璃结构建筑。

glass-enclosed kiosk 玻璃幕墙环绕的小亭子

enclosed adj. （用墙等）围住的，封闭的；随函附上的；附上的；与外界隔绝的

iron-enclosed 钢铁环绕

semi-enclosed 半封闭

freshly made 现做的，新鲜出炉的

a freshly made cake 新鲜出炉的蛋糕

a freshly made tea 刚冲好的茶

boast ：

vt. 夸口说，自吹自擂说；以有…而自豪

n. 自夸；值得夸耀的事物，引以为荣的事物

vi. 自吹自擂

All three Internet agencies boast they've won major accounts.

所有的三家网络代理都夸口说他们已赢得了大客户。

a now-distant time 一个距今已久的时间；很久以前.

例句：In a now-distant time there was a mountain，A temple was located on the mountain。

从前有座山，山里有座庙。

The Origin of the Automat自动贩卖餐厅的起源

The automat is often considered to be an exclusively American phenomenon, but in fact, the world's first restaurant of this kind opened in Berlin, Germany in 1895. Named Quisisana—after a company that also manufactured food-vending machinery—this high-tech eatery established itself in other northern European cities, and Quisisana soon licensed its technology to Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart, who opened the first American automat in Philadelphia in 1902.

自动贩卖餐厅常常被认为是美国的独创，事实上，世界上第一家类似的餐厅在1895年的德国柏林就出现了，叫做奎西桑纳—一家同样生产食品—贩卖机器的公司。这家高科技餐厅在欧洲北部的其他城市开业，不久奎西桑纳就将技术授权给了约瑟夫·霍恩和富兰克·哈达特，1902年这两人在美国费城开业了全美第一家自动贩卖餐厅。

重点词句：

exclusively phenomenon 独特现象

例句：This is a phenomenon exclusively occurred in the history of Han culture in China.

这是中国的汉代文化史上的独特现象。

vending machinery 贩卖机械

automatic vending machinery自动贩卖机

machinery 和 machine 区别

1、machine是指一部机器，machinery是指一套机械系统。

举例：The machinery in this factory consists of several different kinds of machines.

这个工厂里的机械包括多种不同的机器。

2、machine是可数名词；machinery是不可数名词。

举例：How many machines are there in this factory?工厂里有多少台机器？

eatery n. 饭馆；饮食店；小吃店

例句：

I went into an eatery

我走进了一个饮食店。

An Appealing Formula

一个引人注目的流程

As with so many other societal trends, it was in turn-of-the-century New York that automats really took off. The first New York Horn & Hardart opened in 1912, and soon the chain had hit on an appealing formula: customers exchanged dollar bills for handfuls of nickels (from attractive women behind glass booths, wearing rubber tips on their fingers), then fed their change into vending machines, turned the knobs, and extracted plates of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and cherry pie, among hundreds of other menu items. Dining was communal and cafeteria-style, to the extent that Horn & Hardart automats were considered a valuable corrective to the snobbery of so many New York City restaurants.

随着新的社会潮流的出现，自动贩卖餐厅的业务，在世纪之交的纽约真正开始腾飞。1912年霍恩哈达特餐厅在纽约开了第一家店，很快出现一个引人注目的流程现象：顾客将手上的纸币交换成五分镍币（从玻璃亭里手指带着橡胶指套的美女那里换得），然后将币放入自助贩卖机，然后摇动把手获得一碟碟美食比如烤肉、土豆泥和樱桃派等等数百种菜品。公共式的餐厅和自助式的用餐.一定程度上来说，霍恩哈达特餐厅的火爆，给纽约的餐馆们势利的待客之道上了重要的一课。

重点词句：

societal trends 社会趋势，social trends书面语言

turn-of-the-century世纪之交

例句：

The 911 attack is the most notorious terrorist attack in turn-of-the-century America.

911事件是在世纪之交的美国发生的最臭名昭著的恐怖袭击事件。

to the extent 到……程度

例句：The shortage do not exist to the extent that you reported.

短缺并未严重到你报道的那种程度。

a valuable corrective 一个有价值的纠正

例句：Mr Lee provides a valuable corrective to the misundertanding of the case.

李先生针对这个案件上的误解做出了一个有价值的纠正。

Fresh-Brewed Coffee for a Nickel a Cup

五美分一杯新鲜出炉的咖啡

It's not widely known today, but Horn & Hardart was also the first New York restaurant chain to offer its customers fresh-brewed coffee, for a nickel a cup. Employees were instructed to discard any pots that had been sitting for more than twenty minutes, a level of quality control that inspired Irving Berlin to compose the song "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee" (which quickly became Horn & Hardart's official jingle). There wasn't much (if any) choice, but in terms of reliability, Horn & Hardart could be considered the 1950's equivalent of Starbucks.

现在的我们很少有人知道，霍恩哈达特是纽约第一家连锁餐厅为客户提供五美分一杯的现煮咖啡，员工被指示到，任何超过20分钟没有被售出的咖啡将会被废弃掉。这样的品控水平给了厄文·博林歌曲创作的灵感“让我们再来一杯咖啡”（很快成为霍恩哈达特餐厅的官方宣传曲）。尽管咖啡的品种选择不多，但在可靠性问题上，霍恩哈达特可以被认为是1950年代的星巴克。

重点词句：

in terms of 就……而言

举例：

What's it going to cost us, not just in terms of money, but in terms of lives?

它将让我们付出什么代价，不仅是金钱，还有生命？

equivalent of 同等于

举例：Zip disks could be used to store the equivalent of three music CDs.

压缩盘能用以存储相当于3张音乐CD容量的内容。

Behind the Scenes

幕后

Given all the high-tech accouterments and lack of visible personnel, Horn & Hardart customers could be forgiven for thinking that their food had been prepared and handled by robots. Of course, that wasn't the case, and an argument can be made that automats succeeded at the expense of their hard-working employees. The managers of these restaurants still had to hire human beings to cook, convey food to the vending machines, and wash the silverware and dishes--but since all this activity went on behind the scenes, they got away with paying below-par wages and forcing employees to work overtime. In August of 1937, the AFL-CIO picketed Horn & Hardarts across the city, protesting the chain's unfair labor practices.

霍恩哈达特的顾客们认为自己的食物是由机器来准备和交付的，这种想法在高科技的装饰和无人的工作环境下，也并不奇怪。当然，事实上并不是这样。有一种争论认为，自动贩卖餐厅的兴隆源自于对辛劳工作的员工进行压榨。这些餐厅的经理仍需要雇人做食品、将食品送到贩卖机和清洗银器和餐碟——由于这一切都在幕后进行，他们通过支付低于平均水平的报酬和强迫员工加班的操作方式，侥幸运营。1937年秋季，美国劳工联合会以全城的霍恩哈达特餐厅为目标，抗议这些餐厅不公道的用工行为。

重点词句：

at the expense of 以……为代价

例句：plantation owners made a huge amount of fortune at the expense of slave laborers.

植物园主以剥削奴隶劳工为代价获得了大量的财富。

below-par 低于标准；低于平均水平

His exam score is well below par.

他的考试成绩远低于平均标准。

Fading in Popularity by the 1970s1970年代由盛转衰

By the 1970s, automats like Horn & Hardart were fading in popularity, and the culprits were easy to identify. First, fast-food chains like McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken offered much more limited menus, but a more identifiable "taste," and they also enjoyed the benefits of lower labor and food costs. Second, urban workers were less inclined to punctuate their days with leisurely lunches, complete with appetizer, main course, and dessert, and preferred to grab lighter meals on the fly; one imagines that the fiscal crisis in 1970's New York also encouraged more people to bring their meals to the office from home.

到了1970年代，类似霍恩哈达特这样的连锁餐厅不再受追捧，导致这一现象的原因很明显。首先，诸如麦当劳和肯德基这类的快餐店虽然菜品单一但口味独特，它们在用工和食品材料方面上的开支尽占优势。其次，城里的工薪阶层不再倾向于通过休闲午餐来点缀自己的生活，这其中包括开胃菜、主菜和餐后点心；或者在忙碌的工作中选择快餐。可以想象一下在1970年代纽约财政危机时期中，越来越多的人开始从家中自带午餐上班。

重点词句：

punctuate

vt. 不时打断；强调；加标点于；点缀

vi. 加标点

举例：He made gestures to punctuate his speech.

他打手势来强调他的发言。

on the fly 在飞行中；忙忙碌碌;立刻

举例：You've got to be able to make decisions on the fly as deadlines loom.

最后期限将至，你必须立刻做出决定。

Finally Went out of Business in 19911991年退出历史舞台

By the end of the decade, Horn & Hardart gave in to the inevitable and converted most of its New York City locations into Burger King franchises; the last Horn & Hardart, on Third Avenue and 42nd Street, finally went out of business in 1991. Today, the only place you can see what Horn & Hardart looked like is in the Smithsonian Institution, which harbors a 35-foot-long chunk of the original 1902 restaurant, and this chain's surviving vending machines are said to languish in a warehouse in upstate New York.

八十年代末，霍恩哈达特餐厅的倒闭无法避免，其纽约的连锁店成为了汉堡王的分店；最后一家霍恩哈达特餐厅，位于第三大道第42街区，最终在1991年关闭。今天唯一一个还可以看到霍恩哈达特餐厅长什么样的地方是史密森学会，那里收藏了一个长达35英尺的1902年餐馆原型，据说，这些连锁店现存的贩卖机被存放在上纽约州的一间仓库里暗自凋零。

重点词句：

out of business 退市；破产；停业

举例：

the coronavirus pandemic is going to put thousands of firms out of business.

新冠病毒的流行将使数千企业歇业。