Holding on to the ankles of two of his opponents, Alex, a 33-year-old member of a Moscow soccer hooligan group, felt the blows on his head but wouldn’t let go. The third man on top of him was battering his skull with both fists, but still Alex held on, hoping to buy his teammates, battling around him, breathing space. At last, the man rammed his elbow down into Alex’s face, shattering his eye socket. He let go.

And that last fight, nearly a year ago, had been a good one, Alex said in a recent interview. His side had won.

What had unnerved him was a new feeling: He realized it was getting harder to keep up.

33歲的艾力克斯是莫斯科一個足球流氓團體的成員，他緊抓住兩個對手的腳踝，儘管感到有人在打他的頭，但仍不放手。壓在他上面的第三個對手用雙拳猛搥他的腦殼，艾力克斯卻仍硬撐著，好讓在他身邊奮戰的隊友能喘一口氣。最後，對方往他臉上狠狠給了一拐子，擊碎了他的眼窩。他放手了。

艾力克斯最近受訪表示，前面提到的是將近一年前的上一場架，打得不錯。他們這邊贏了。

一種新的感覺讓他不安：他明白要繼續下去愈來愈困難了。

When it first appeared in the 1990s, hooliganism in Russian soccer modeled itself heavily on the English version, adopting its clothes and terminology, including the term for its groups: firms. The Russians also embraced the English’s passion for blackout drinking and drunken brawling.

In fact, Russia’s hooligan scene has undergone a transformation. The new generation bears little resemblance to the beery bravado and off-balance punch-ups associated with traditional European hooliganism, or even the sometimes militialike violence of South American ultras.

俄國足球流氓活動在1990年代首度出現時，幾乎都是以英國的足球流氓為師，採用英國的服飾和術語，包括對足球流氓團體的稱呼：公司。俄國人也承襲英國人樂此不疲的喝到掛和酒醉鬧事。

事實上，俄國的足球流氓鬧事已經轉型了。傳統歐洲足球流氓灌啤酒鬧事和歪歪倒倒打架，甚至南美洲超狂熱球迷時而半軍事化的暴力行為，在新的一代身上已難看到。

Instead, the fans who have emerged in Russia over the past decade are obsessed with physical fitness, elite martial arts training and — at least while fighting — militant sobriety. Christened Okolofutbola, or “around football,” Russia’s hooligan scene has developed into perhaps Europe’s toughest, and just over a year before their country hosts soccer’s World Cup, the most hard-core Russian fans may be in the best fighting shape of their lives.

But while their prowess is not in doubt, fan monitors, soccer officials and even the hooligans themselves say there is virtually no chance the disorder that the Russian fans brought to last year’s European Championship in France will be repeated on home soil.

相反的，過去10年在俄國出現的球迷沉迷於健身、精英武術訓練，以及─至少在打架時─保持戰鬥清醒。俄國的足球流氓鬧事被稱為「足球場邊」，已發展成堪稱歐洲最強悍者，而再過一年多一點他們的國家就要主辦世界杯足球賽了，最死忠的俄國球迷此際也許正處於畢生最佳戰鬥狀態。

不過，儘管他們的英勇無庸置疑，球迷的監管人員、足球主管官員，甚至流氓本身都說，俄國球迷去年在法國的歐洲杯所造成的混亂，幾乎不可能在本國重演。

Instead, Russia’s hooligan groups are enduring an unprecedented crackdown by the authorities, who are determined that the World Cup will go smoothly.

“Believe me,” said Andrei Malosolov, a soccer journalist who helped found Russia’s national supporters club, “the years before the 2018 World Cup will be the quietest in the history of Russian soccer.”

相反的，俄國的足球流氓團體正遭到決心讓世界杯順利舉行的當局空前的打壓。

協助創辦俄國國家後援會的足球記者安德烈．馬洛索洛夫說：「相信我，在2018年世界杯之前的這些年，將是俄國足球史上最平靜的時期。」

The move makes Infosys the latest Asian technology company to portray itself as a jobs creator as President Donald Trump threatens to take action against companies he sees as hurting U.S. workers.

面對企業客戶新的需求，以及川普團隊欲縮減移工簽證所產生的政治壓力，印度主要科技外包公司之一「印孚瑟斯」（Infosys）周二（2日）宣布，最多將雇用一萬名美國人以服務美國在地客戶。

在美國總統川普揚言要對付他認為傷害美國工人的企業之際，此舉讓印孚瑟斯成為把自己描繪成工作機會創造者的最新一家亞洲企業。

Last month, Trump signed an executive order directing government agencies to review employment immigration laws to promote “Hire American” policies. That included offering suggestions for how to reform the H-1B visa program, which operates as a lottery to bring skilled foreign laborers to the United States each year — usually tech workers.

But Infosys is also making its move to hire American driven by other forces. Its home base of India has become a less appealing place to do the grunt work of programming as wages rise there and skilled labor has become more difficult to find. A study of 36,000 engineering students at 500 Indian colleges released last month found that only 5 percent could write software code correctly.

上個月，川普簽署一道行政命令，責成政府機構審視就業移民法，以推廣「雇用美國人」政策。這包括就如何改革美國「H-1B」簽證方案提出建議，該簽證以抽籤方式運作，每年允許一些外國技術勞工赴美工作─通常是科技業員工。

印孚瑟斯決定雇用美國人還有其他原因，該公司總部所在的印度工資上漲且技術員工更難尋覓，對程式設計這種單調乏味行業的吸引力已降低。上月公布的一項研究訪查印度500所大專院校共3萬6千名工程學生發現，僅5%能正確撰寫軟體程式。

“Building talent pools that define the future of America is what we want to do,” said Ravi Kumar S., Infosys’s president, in a phone interview from Indiana.

Indiana, the home state of Vice President Mike Pence, will be the first beneficiary of Infosys’ hire-American efforts. The company intends to open a new technology and innovation office in or near Indianapolis in August, recruiting 100 new workers this year and several hundred more next year, with a goal of adding a total of 2,000 employees by 2021.

印孚瑟斯總裁庫馬爾在印第安納州接受電訪時說：「建立決定美國未來的人才庫，是我們想要做的事。」

美國印第安納州是美國副總統潘斯的家鄉，將成為第一個從印孚瑟斯雇用美國人行動受惠的地方。印孚瑟斯希望8月在（印州首府）印第安納波利斯市或其附近設立一個新科技與創新辦公室，今年內招募100名新員工，明年再招數百人，目標是2021年前達到2000人。

Infosys said it would seek out three other sites for U.S. expansion, looking for places that are close to clients and universities and where state and local governments are willing to offer significant economic incentives. The company already has an innovation hub in Silicon Valley.

The majority of Infosys’ business is in the United States, and it typically receives several thousand H-1B visas every year to bring in mostly entry-level Indian programmers who move from project to project at companies in industries like banking, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and energy.

Infosys has hired more American college graduates in the last couple of years, Kumar said. And now clients in the United States want the company to have even more people on site locally. So it must expand its U.S. workforce significantly, he said.

印孚瑟斯表示會在美國另外再找三個地點以進行在美國的擴張計畫，尋找靠近客戶、大學，地方政府又願提供重大經濟獎勵的地方。該公司已經在矽谷設了一個創新中心。

印孚瑟斯絕大多數業務在美國，通常每年取得數千張「H-1B」簽證，將印度程式設計師引入美國，大多屬初階程式師。這些人在金融、製藥、製造與能源產業的公司計畫間移動。

庫馬爾說，印孚瑟斯過去這兩三年已經雇用更多美國大專院校畢業生。如今美國的顧客希望該公司能有更多在當地的員工。他說，有鑑於此，公司必須大幅擴增在美國的人力。

說文解字看新聞

文／陳韻涵

本文討論外包（outsourcing，或譯「委外」），outsource本意為「向國外採購零配件」，之後衍伸為專業分工的外包。所謂外包是指企業為了維持組織的核心競爭能力或人力不足，將組織的非核心業務委派給外部的專業公司，藉此降低營運成本、提高品質、集中人力資源並且提高顧客滿意度。如果委外的公司在海外（offshore）或其他國家，則稱為離岸外包（offshore outsourcing）。

例句：The management guaranteed that outsourcing wouldn't mean job losses.（管理部門保證外包不代表工作機會流失。）A small business that outsources bookkeeping to an accounting firm.（小企業將記帳業務外包給會計師事務所。）

第4段第2句的片語「grunt work」是美國口語，指單調乏味的苦差事。「grunt」原意包括豬的呼嚕聲、咕噥、發哼聲，口語指普通工作人員，以及俚語中的美軍步兵。