出租车“起步价”怎么说？

请看《中国日报》在2006年上海上调出租车起步费时的相关报道：Taxi passengers in Shanghai started to feel the pinch of soaring fuel prices as the city began to roll out its first taxi fare hike since 1998.

The flag-fall price in downtown, which covers the first 3 kilometres of a trip, has risen to 11 yuan from 10 yuan during the daytime. And the price after 11 pm will climb to 14 yuan from 13 yuan .

估计您也猜出来了，flag-fall price就是“起步价”的相应英文表达。Flag-fall（比赛开始）本是体育术语，尤其在田径比赛时，很形象地描述出了“裁判手中的小红旗朝下一挥，比赛立马开始”的情景。随着计程车的使用，flag-fall（比赛开始）逐渐由体育术语延伸为与人们生活密切相关的“起步（价）”。

另外，既然提到了flag，忍不住想起了Dido那首对爱执着、为爱不言放弃的《White flag》，摘几句歌词：

Well I will go down with this ship/And I won't put my hands up and surrender

There will be no white flag above my door/I'm in love and always will be

“我将乘船一直走下去，永远不会投降；在我的门上也永远不会挂有白旗，我爱你，直到永远。”这里的white flag直译为“白旗”，实质上表达的可是与surrender（投降）相同的意思哦。例如：

A white flag is used as a token of surrender.（白旗被用来作为投降的信号。）

He had to show the white flag at the end of the debate.（辩论到最后他只好认输。）