阿里巴巴周五发布截至2019年9月30日的季度业绩。财报显示，阿里巴巴2020财年第二财季营收同比增长40%至1190.2亿元人民币，去年同期为851.5亿元。请看本报昨日的报道：

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. reported a better-than-expected 40 percent rise in second-quarter revenue Friday, powered by strong growth in its e-commerce and cloud computing businesses.

The results come as the company gears up for its annual Single’s Day shopping bonanza this November, and competes increasingly with e-commerce site Pinduoduo Inc. for sales in China’s smaller cities.

报道中的gear up就是“准备好”，这个词本来指开车时“提速换挡”，引申为“为...做好准备”。例如：

I had geared myself up for a fight, so I was very surprised when the board immediately accepted my proposal.

我本来准备好要据理力争，没想到董事会爽快地接受了我的提案。