Situation: Joe and Lin Zhi are strolling through a market, looking for ingredients for a meal.
情景：乔和林芝正在逛菜市场，打算买点东西回去做饭。
Joe: OK, we need ground beef, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms, and peppers. We should be able to get all of that here, right, Lin Zhi?
乔：嗯，我们要买牛肉泥、土豆、西红柿、胡萝卜、洋葱、蘑菇和辣椒。林芝，所有这些东西在这都能买到吗？
Lin Zhi: Yeah, it shouldn't be a problem at all. The vendors here sell just about anything you can think of. I'd be very surprised if we couldn't find everything here somewhere.
林芝：能啊，应该没有问题。你能想到的这应该都有的卖。要是在这买不全我才觉得奇怪咧。
Joe: Okay, great. So why don't we get the meat first, then the vegetables?
乔：太好了。那我们先买肉吧，然后再买蔬菜。
Lin Zhi: Good plan!
林芝：好主意！
Eventually, the pair finishes their shopping. As they walk out, Joe is counting his money.
两人最终买完了东西。当他们往外走的时候，乔在数自己的钱。
Joe: You know, I think we spent far too much money today. Do you think the vendors cheated us because I'm foreign?
乔：嗨，我觉得我们今天钱花得太多了。你觉得那些小贩们会不会因为我是老外就要高价？
Lin Zhi: Of course not! It's just that prices for food in China are rising far too quickly for people to cope with.
林芝：当然不会啊！只不过中国现今食品价格上涨太快，老百姓还应付不及啊。
Joe: Really? What's causing the rise in prices?
乔：是吗？是什么导致物价上涨啊？
Lin Zhi: There's a whole bunch of reasons. Probably the biggest is the snow storms we had this winter. A lot of China's rural areas were hit by the snow, and this made a lot of food scarce – particularly in big cities like Beijing.
林芝：有很多原因啊。最大的原因可能是去年冬天的暴风雪。很多农村地区遭到暴雪袭击，这就导致了大量的食物短缺，尤其像北京这样的大城市。
Joe: I hadn't thought of that. I guess I just figured it would be the current economic problems in places like the US.
乔：我没想到那个。我想大概是因为如今各地的经济问题，比如美国。
Lin Zhi: They don't help, but the majority of the problem is right here at home. We had such bad weather last year – droughts in the north, floods in the south – that our agricultural production was much lower than anticipated.
林芝：那个影响不太大，主要还是国内的问题。去年真是天公不作美，北旱南涝，农产品产量比预计的要低很多。
Joe: So China has to import more product than it normally would?
乔：那中国就不得不比正常年份进口更多的农产品了？
Lin Zhi: Exactly. And imports are expensive, so this pushes the prices up even further. You think the beef was expensive? Pork prices rose over 70% last year.
林芝：是这样的。进口产品都很贵，因此这就更进一步推动了物价上涨。你觉得牛肉贵吗？猪肉的价格比去年上涨了70%。
Joe: Wow! That's an insane price hike. Is there any reason why the costs rose so much?
乔：天呐！涨疯了。为什么会涨这么多？
Lin Zhi: Well, for a start, people in China are eating a lot more meat than we used to – it's a product of our country getting wealthier. There's a massive rise in demand, but at the same time our pig population is suffering from diseases and a lack of breeding programs.
林芝：嗯，简言之，中国人现在吃肉比以前要多得多，这是国家越来越富裕的结果。对猪肉的需求迅速上涨，与此同时，生猪却因为瘟疫病害和饲养量不足难以满足如此大的需求量。
Joe: What else has been hit?
乔：还有什么涨了？
Lin Zhi: Cooking oil.
林芝：食用油。
Joe: (Laughing) Cooking oil?!
乔：（笑了笑）食用油？！
Lin Zhi: Seriously! In some places, oil has tripled in price. Because of the grain shortages and so forth. Heck, in one supermarket, three people were crushed to death in a rush to buy discounted oil!
林芝：这是真的！有些地方食用油价格是以前的三倍。由于谷物短缺因此也涨了。见鬼，有个超市人们为了抢购打折的食用油，三个人被踩踏身亡。
Joe: That's crazy!
乔：太疯狂了！
Lin Zhi: I know! But when you have an economy where the inflation rate is rising faster than people's pay raises can keep up with, you're going to have problems like this. It's not too bad yet – China's not in danger of starving or anything, and after the next harvest things should be better – but we're just going to have to tighten our belts for a while, eat less meat and more vegetables, that kind of thing.
林芝：我知道！但是当通胀率上涨速度加快，而老百姓收入却裹足不前，你就会面临这样的问题。中国的情况还不算太坏，还没有到饿肚子或其它什么危险境地，在今年夏收之后情况应该会有所改善。但是我们要暂时勒紧裤带，少吃肉多吃蔬菜之类的。
Joe: (looks at shopping) Well, I guess I'm going to have to make this last, then!
乔：（看了看买的东西），好的，我想这是我们最后一次吃得这么好吧！
They laugh, and continue walking home.
他们相视而笑，继续往家走。
Links
1. CPI
CPI即消费者物价指数(Consumer Price Index)的英文缩写，是反映与居民生活有关的产品及劳务价格统计出来的物价变动指标，通常作为观察通货膨胀水平的重要指标。它往往是市场经济活动与政府货币政策的一个重要参考指标。CPI稳定、就业充分及GDP增长往往是最重要的社会经济目标。
2. inflation rate
指“通货膨胀率”，是货币超发部分与实际需要的货币量之比，用以反映通货膨胀、货币贬值的程度；通货膨胀与物价上涨是不同的经济范畴，但两者又有一定的联系，通货膨胀最为直接的结果就是物价上涨。经济学上，通货膨胀率是指物价平均水平的上升幅度（以通货膨胀为准）。
Notes
1. ground beef
指被绞得很细的牛肉泥，制作汉堡时，通常要将牛肉绞碎，制成泥状的肉糜。
例句：
Ground beef is a necessary ingredient for making hamburgers.
牛肉泥是制作汉堡包的必需材料。
2. cope with
意为“应对、对付”。
例句：
When faced with financial difficulties, our manager doesn't know if he can cope with them or not.
面临如此的财政困难，经理也不确定他是否能应付得来。
3. keep up with
意为“跟得上某人”，与此相近的短语还有“keep pace with… 跟上某人的步伐”、“catch up with … 赶得上”。
例句：
No matter how hard we work and save as much money as possible, we still can not keep up with the hike in housing prices.
不管我们如何努力工作，如何尽可能多地攒钱，我们还是跟不上飞涨的房价。