【名师精选】The right way to help places hurt by globalizati Left behind-- The right way to help

Left behind——The right way to help places hurt by globalization

[节选自The Economist October 21st 2017]

黄色为单词

绿色为词组

红色为有用的句子(在文末)

Economic theory suggests that regional inequalities should diminish as poorer (and cheaper) places attract investment and grow faster than richer ones. The 20th century bore that theory out: income gaps narrowed across American states and European regions. No longer. Affluent places are now pulling away from poorer ones. This geographical divergence has dramatic consequences. A child born in the bottom 20% in wealthy San Francisco has twice as much chance as a similar child in Detroit of ending up in the top 20% as an adult. Boys born in London’s Chelsea can expect to live nearly nine years longer than those born in Blackpool. Opportunities are limited for those stuck in the wrong place, and the wider economy suffers. If all its citizens had lived in places of high productivity over the past 50 years, America’s economy could have grown twice as fast as it did.

· diminish v.(使)减少，（使）变小

e.g. Although the authorities made efforts to eliminate corruption and to diminish political influence in the judiciary, some residual problems remained.

虽然当局努力消除腐败和减少政治影响对司法的影响，一些遗留的问题确实存在。

衍生词：minimize v.（使）最小

minimal adj.最低的，最小的

· bear out 证实，支持

e.g. But the researchers" findings didn"t bear out that prediction.

但是研究结果并没有证实这个预言。

· affluent adj.富裕的【同：wealthy】

e.g. These are not diseases that travel widely or threaten more affluent groups.

这些疾病不会广泛传播或威胁较富裕的人群。

衍生词：effluent adj.流出的

influx 涌入，流入

· pull away from 远离

e.g. Japanese nuclear accident is a signal to pull away from nuclear technology and scale back energy consumption to preserve the planet.

日本的核事故是一个信号，说明应该放弃核技术，通过缩减能源消耗保护地球。

· divergence 差异；分歧

e.g. A minimal error or deviation may result in wide divergence.

失之毫厘，谬以千里。

衍生词：divergent adj.

converge v.聚合

Divergence is the result of big forces. In the modern economy scale is increasingly important. The companies with the biggest hoards of data can train their machines most effectively; the social network that everyone else is on is most attractive to new users; the stock exchange with the deepest pool of investors is best for raising capital. These returns to scale create fewer, superstar firms clustered in fewer, superstar places. Everywhere else is left behind.

· increasingly adv.日益地

increasingly popular 日益流行的

increasingly significant 日益重要的

increasingly severe 日益严重的

· hoards of 大量的

hoard v.囤积

hoarder 囤积者，囤积狂

· cluster v.聚集 n.簇，群

e.g. The passengers clustered together in small groups

乘客们三五成群聚在一起。

Even as regional disparities widen, people are becoming less mobile. The percentage of Americans who move across state lines each year has fallen by half since the 1990s. The typical American is more footloose than the average European, yet lives less than 30 kilometres from his parents. Demographic shifts help explain this, including the rise in two-earner households and the need to care for ageing family members. But the bigger culprit is poor policies. Soaring housing costs in prosperous cities keep newcomers out. In Europe, a scarcity of social housing leads people to hang on to cheap flats. In America, the spread of state-specific occupational licensing and government benefits punishes those who move. The pension of a teacher who stays in the same state could be twice as big as that of a teacher who moves mid-career.

· disparity n.差异,不公正

e.g. One is the growing disparity of incomes not only between poor and rich but between those at the top and the aspiring middle class.

其一是所得差异持续扩大，不只是存在于穷人和富人之间，也存在于高端和上进的中产阶级之间。

衍生词：cultural disparity 文化差异

parity 公平

· demographic adj.人口统计学的

e.g. Demographic and social pressures are also contributing to this change.

人口压力及社会压力也在推动着这项改变。

衍生词：democratic 民主的

· culprit n.罪魁祸首

e.g. Agriculture is both culprit and victim when it comes to climate change.

在气候变化问题上，农业既是肇事者也是受害者。

· prosperous adj.繁荣的 [同：thriving]

e.g. And if we succeed, our future will be more prosperous and more peaceful than our past.

如果我们能取得成功，我们的未来将会比过去更加繁荣、更加和平。

· a scarcity of 缺乏

e.g. But increasing life expectancy and a scarcity of babies in Japan have fuelled concern about how the world"s oldest society will fund its pension requirements.

但日本预期寿命的不断延长和新生儿数量的不足引起了有关这个世界上老龄化最严重的国家将如何解决其养老金问题的担忧。

· hang on to 紧紧抓住，坚持

· pension 养老金

Perversely, policies to help the poor unintentionally exacerbate the plight of left-behind places. Unemployment and health benefits enable the least employable people to survive in struggling places when once they would have had no choice but to move. Welfare makes capitalism less brutal for individuals, but it perpetuates the problems where they live.

· perversely adv.反常地;相反地

e.g. Perversely, it has been Mr. Berlusconi who has benefited most from this political vacuum.

相反，贝卢斯科尼先生是这次政治真空期中最大的受益者。

· exacerbate v.恶化【同：aggravate】

e.g. Longstanding poverty has been exacerbated by racial divisions.

种族分化已经加剧了长期的贫困问题。

· plight 困境

e.g. He just wants to draw attention to the plight of the unemployed.

他仅仅是想引起人们对失业者困境的关注。

· brutal adj.残酷的

e.g. The 20th century brought brutal change to some countries.

20世纪一些国家发生了无情的变化。

· perpetuate v.使持续

e.g. The educational system can actually perpetuate and even increase inequality in third world nations.

(第三世界国家的)教育体制在事实上就保持甚至加剧了不平等。

衍生词：perpetual

What to do? One answer is to help people move. Thriving places could do more to build the housing and infrastructure to accommodate newcomers. Accelerating the reciprocal recognition of credentials across state or national borders would help people move to where they can be most productive. But greater mobility also has a perverse side-effect. By draining moribund places of talented workers, it exacerbates their troubles. The local tax-base erodes as productive workers leave, even as welfare and pension obligations mount.

· accommodate v.容纳,为…提供住宿

e.g. Students are accommodated in homes nearby.

学生被安置在附近的住家中。

衍生词：accommodation 住宿

· accelerate v.加速

e.g. The government is to accelerate its privatisation programme.

政府将加快其私有化计划的进程。

衍生词：decelerate v.减速

· reciprocal adj.相互的，互惠的

e.g. One benefit of being grateful and expressing your appreciation to others is the reciprocal nature of such things.

对事物充满感激之情，对他人表达欣赏之意，必然会得到相应的回报。

· credential n.凭证，文凭 [同：certificate]

qualification 资格，资历

diploma 毕业证

· drain …of 流失，枯竭

e.g. The company has been drained of its cleverest men.

该公司的最优秀人才都流失了。

· moribund adj.垂死的

e.g. The region’s heavy industry is still inefficient and moribund.

该地区的重工业依然效率低下，没有活力

· erode v.腐蚀；逐渐损害

e.g. Our personal freedom is being gradually eroded away.

我们的个人自由正逐渐受到限制。

衍生词：corrode v.腐蚀

To avoid these outcomes, politicians have long tried to bolster left-behind places with subsidies. But such “regional policies” have a patchy record, at best. South Carolina lured BMW to the state in 1992 and from it built a thriving automotive cluster. But the EU’s structural funds raise output and reduce unemployment only so long as funding continues. California has 42 enterprise zones. None has raised employment. Better for politicians to focus on speeding up the diffusion of technology and business practices from high-performing places. A beefed-up competition policy could reduce industrial concentration, which saps the economy of dynamism while focusing the gains from growth in fewer firms and places. Fostering clusters by encouraging the creation of private investment funds targeted on particular regions might help.

· bolster v.支持

e.g. The Chinese want those relationships to bolster their own movie industry.

中国人则想用这些关系来支撑自己的电影产业。

· subsidy 补助

subsidize v.提供补助

· the diffusion of technology 技术的扩散

diffuse v.扩散

· beefed-up 增强的

· dynamism 活力

e.g. Migration has been a powerful force for dynamism and growth in human history.

在人类历史上，迁移一直是社会保持活力和发展的一大因素。

衍生词：dynamic adj.有活力的

· foster 培养，促进 [同：promote]

Perhaps most of all, politicians need a different mindset. For progressives, alleviating poverty has demanded welfare; for libertarians, freeing up the economy. Both have focused on people. But the complex interaction of demography, welfare and globalisation means that is insufficient. Assuaging the anger of the left-behind means realising that places matter, too.

· alleviate poverty 扶贫

alleviate v.缓解，减轻

e.g. Although surgery is not always a cure, it is often the best way to stop the spread of disease and alleviate pain and discomfort.

尽管手术不一定能够保证治愈疾病，但是手术经常是减轻病人的疼痛和不适，以及阻止疾病蔓延的最好方法。

· assuage the anger 平息愤怒

assuage v.平息，缓和 [同：appease]

e.g. The Chinese government says it has been working to assuage regional concerns triggered by its growing power.

中国政府表示，自己一直在努力化解亚洲邻国对于中国实力增强的关切。

句子精选

Opportunities are limited for those stuck in the wrong place, and the wider economy suffers.

Unemployment and health benefits enable the least employable people to survive in struggling places when once they would have had no choice but to move.

Thriving places could do more to build the housing and infrastructure to accommodate newcomers.

王少娟

上海新航道雅思主讲，上海外国语大学教育技术学硕士。对综合英语的阅读教学有深入的研究，教授了数百名学生均取得了优异的英语成绩。讲解细致、逻辑清晰、课堂活跃，丰富的教学经验能帮助学生在学习中和练习中能够更有效的提高英语能力。