01.04【每日一词】cut-throat

cut-throat adj.

释义：a cut-throat activity or situation is one in which people behave in an unfair or immoral way in order to get an advantage over other people

“cut-throat”的字面意思是“切喉”，常常用来表示“冷酷无情的”，是个充满画面感的常见单词。当我们想描述竞争非常激烈时，除了用 fierce, tough, severe 之外，还可以用到 cut-throat，强调竞争的残酷无情，为达到目标而不择手段。

cut-throat 的使用比较简单，常和表示领域（比如 industry, business 和 world）、竞争和价格的词一起搭配使用。我们可以用 cut-throat 来描述某一行业领域的竞争激烈。

例① 最近关于锤子科技的报道不断，其中一个关键点是智能手机行业竞争激烈，日趋饱和。

The competition in the smartphone industry is cut-throat.

或者

The smartphone business is cut-throat and relentless.（这里的 relentless 和 cut-throat 是同义表达，放在一起起强调作用，这两个词可以一起记下来。）

例② 看看《经济学人》是怎么用 cut-throat 的：

1）Ride-hailing, like many online businesses, is a cut-throat, winner-takes-all market: Didi itself is the product of a 2015 merger of two local firms.

2）Once state support for AT&T's monopoly status was removed, the phone market became cut-throat.

3）Amazon's cut-throat pricing has lowered online inflation by about one percentage point.

1. 翻译：在这个竞争激烈的世界，只有适者才能生存。

In this cut-throat world, only the fittest can survive.

（参考翻译：In this cut-throat world, only the fittest will survive/prevail.）

2. 造句练习

场景: 在竞争激烈的电商领域，拼多多靠错位竞争取得成功。

造句: In the cut-throat ecommerce business, Pinduoduo successfully stands out by its 'stagger competition' stategy.