經濟學人精讀|4.7頭條文章-Solving Murder

Violent death is set to soar in some cities of the developing world. 在發展中國家的一些城市，暴力死亡人數將激增。is set to 表示「將要」的意思

THE planet has rarely been so peaceful. Even with terrible fighting in such places as Congo, Syria and Yemen, wars between and within countries are becoming less common and less deadly. But a dark menace looms. Some of the developing worlds cities threaten to be engulfed by murder.

1. menace n. 威脅；危險人物 e.g：In my view you are a menace to the public. 在我看來，你對公眾是個禍害。

vt. 威脅 e.g.：The European states retained a latent capability to menace Britains own security. 歐洲國家仍具有威脅英國自身安全的潛在能力。

2. looms 赫然聳現；迫在眉睫

e.g.：A dark shape loomed up ahead of us. 一個黑糊糊的影子隱隱出現在我們前面。

習語：loom large 令人憂慮，令人驚恐

e.g.：The prospect of war loomed large. 戰爭的陰影在逼近，令人憂慮。

3. engulf 吞沒；吞噬

e.g.：He was engulfed by a crowd of reporters. 他被一群記者團團圍住。

段落大意：地球很少如此和平。即使在剛果、敘利亞和葉門等地發生了可怕的戰鬥，國與國之間和國家內部的戰爭也變得不那麼常見，也不那麼致命。但是一個黑暗的威脅正在逼近。一些發展中國家的城市可能會被謀殺所吞噬。

Of the 560,000 violent deaths around the world in 2016, 68% were murders; wars caused just 18%. Murder has been falling in rich countries (though London is suffering an outbreak), but it has long plagued Latin America and is starting to climb in parts of southern Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The world often goes to great lengths to stop wars. Just imagine if it put as much effort into stopping murders.

1. outbreak 爆發

2. plague 使痛苦；困擾著

習語：avoid sb/sth like the plague 像避瘟疫似地躲著某人(或某事物)盡量避開某人（或某事物）

3. go to great length 竭盡全力

e.g.：Jane goes to great lengths to explain that this is not the whole story. 簡竭力地解釋說那不是事情的全貌。

段落大意：在2016年全球56萬起暴力死亡事件中，68%是謀殺；戰爭只造成了18%的死亡。在富裕國家，謀殺案一直在減少（儘管倫敦正在爆發），但它長期困擾著拉丁美洲，並開始在南部非洲、中東和亞洲的部分地區攀升。世界常常竭盡全力制止戰爭。想像一下，如果政府花同樣多的精力去阻止謀殺。

Latin America shows what is at stake. It has 8% of the worlds people but 38% of its recorded murders (see Briefing). Counting the costs of police, hospitals, victims』 lost incomes and so on, the bill for violent crime comes to 3.5% of GDP. The greater toll is human: mothers and fathers burying children, children brought up without a parent and societies deprived of tens of thousands of citizens in the prime of their lives. There is no excuse for this suffering. Many of the emerging worlds problems are intractable. Murder is not one of them.

1.at stake 處在緊要關頭

e.g. At stake is the success or failure of world trade talks 世界貿易談判正處於成敗的重要關頭。

2.toss （道路、橋樑的）通行費

motorway tolls 高速公路通行費

a toll road/bridge 收費道路 / 橋樑

習語：

take a heavy toll (on sb/sth)

take its toll (on sb/sth)

產生惡果；造成重大損失（或傷亡、災難等）

3.emerging world 新興世界

4.intractable 棘手的

段落大意：拉丁美洲的情況表明了這一點。它佔世界人口的8%，但其記錄的謀殺案卻佔38%（見簡報）。算上警察、醫院、受害者的收入損失等等，暴力犯罪的費用達到了國內生產總值的3.5%。更大的代價是人類：父母埋葬兒童，沒有父母撫養長大的兒童，以及在壯年時期被剝奪了數萬名公民的社會。這種痛苦是沒有任何借口的。新興世界的許多問題都很棘手。謀殺不是其中之一。

Dusty death

High murder rates have lots of causes: fragile government; guns and fighters left over from wars; families broken up and forced into the city by rural violence and poverty; drugs and organised crime that police cannot or will not confront; and large numbers of unemployed young men.

雅思寫作中可以借鑒冒號的使用和細節化舉例：High youth delinquency have losts of reasons: families broken up，impoverished living condition and large numbers of unemploymented young men. 上面段落非常適合雅思寫作仿寫

段落大意：高謀殺率有很多原因：脆弱的政府；戰爭遺留下來的槍支和戰士；因農村暴力和貧困而分裂並被迫進入城市的家庭；警察不能或不願面對的毒品和有組織犯罪；以及大量失業的年輕人。

The mix of causes in each country is unique but in every case rapid, chaotic urbanisation makes the problem worse. Urbanisation itself is welcome, because it boosts incomes and growth. It need not lead to violence—look at India and China, which have relatively low crime rates But it can feed a vicious cycle, as the proliferation of murder destroys trust between the police and the people they are meant to protect. Residents keep off the streets. They no longer support the authorities. Impunity grows and the level of violence climbs further.

1.vicious cycle 惡性循環

2.impunity (做壞事卻)不受到懲罰；免予懲罰

3.feed a vicious cycle 助長惡性循環

4.destroy trust between A and B 破了了A和B之間的信任

段落大意：每個國家的原因都是獨特的，但在每一次快速、混亂的城市化進程中，這個問題都變得更加嚴重。城市化本身是受歡迎的，因為它提高了收入和增長。不一定導致暴力——看看印度和中國，它們的犯罪率相對較低但這可能助長惡性循環，因為謀殺的擴散破壞了警察與他們本應保護的人之間的信任。居民不得靠近街道。他們不再支持當局。有罪不罰現象增加，暴力程度進一步上升。

That is what faces some of the worlds poor cities. Many already have the ingredients of a murder culture. Over the next decades these cities are set to grow rapidly. As much as 90% of urban growth will take place in the poor world. By 2030, according to HSBC, a bank, 42 of the 50 most-populous cities will be in emerging markets. Dhaka, Karachi and Lagos, each crammed with roughly 25m people, will join the ten largest.

段落大意：這就是世界上一些貧窮城市所面臨的問題。許多人已經具備了謀殺文化的成分。在接下來的幾十年里，這些城市將迅速發展。城市增長的90%將發生在貧窮的世界。滙豐銀行的數據顯示，到2030年，50個人口最多的城市中，有42個將在新興市場。達卡、卡拉奇和拉各斯，每個約有2500萬人口，將加入其中的10大人口城市中。

To understand where this can lead, consider Latin America, where seven countries account for a quarter of the worlds murders. Killings often started rising in its cities because of drugs and gangs. Since Latin America urbanised a generation before other developing countries, it has had time to find out which policies help stop the killing—and which fuel it.

fuel 本意是燃料，還有：火上澆油；使加劇的意思；上一段中的短語：feed a vicious cycle ，其中的feed 也有助長的意思。

段落大意：要理解這會導致什麼後果，不妨考慮一下拉丁美洲，那裡七個國家佔了世界謀殺案的四分之一。由於毒品和幫派的存在，城市裡的殺人事件往往開始上升。自從拉美比其他發展中國家早一代人城市化以來，它就有時間來找出哪些政策有助於阻止殺戮——以及是哪些政策助長了殺戮。

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http://weixin.qq.com/r/oylNVVTEMwlMrRA293yx (二維碼自動識別)