首当其冲

    汽车制造商在中国未来或将无法继续“一言堂”制定销量目标，原因是现状下汽车经销商承压过重，业已出现反抗势头。请看本报周四的报道：

    Foreign automakers in China may struggle to dictate sales goals in the future after dealers complained to the government that inflexible targets set during a market boom obliged them to buy too much stock and bear the brunt of a drop in demand.

    Automakers largely stuck to targets throughout 2014, selling cars to dealers on schedule. But dealers slashed retail prices and booked losses as sales growth in the world’s biggest auto market halved from the previous year’s 14 percent.

    报道中的bear the brunt of就是“首当其冲、承受主要压力”。例如：

    The commodities market will bear the brunt of a China economic deceleration.

    大宗商品市场将在中国经济减速下首当其冲。