Born a crime Day 1

Words and expressions

1. Outnumber 比...多

At the time, black South Africans outnumbered white South Africans nearly five to one.

可以灵活运用到雅思小作文上的一个词，如果是我在描述XX的数量超过XX时，我常会写The number of sth is higher than sth…以后可以尝试用outnumber

2. Keep your head down 保持低姿态

He puts his head down and fights.

还可以说keep a low profile

3. Wage a war against sth 表示发动战争

The Xhosa waged a long war against the white man as well, but after experiencing the futility of battle against a better armed foe, many Xhosa chiefs took a more nimble approach.

这个表达在《新概念》第三册lesson54也出现过

4. Hold in check 控制，制止

For decades those feelings were held in check by a common enemy.

It means to keep sth under control so that it does notspread or get worse.

e.g. Donald Trump does not hold in checkthe tension between America and South Korea, but posting some ridiculous sentenceson Twitter.

5. The more… , the more

The more time we spent at church, she reckoned, the more blessings we accrued, like a Starbucks RewardsCards.

The more… , the more的句式很常用，表示“越...,越...”，在初级阅读群读的书目中遇到过多次了。

6. rearview 后视镜

My mom kept telling him off and he kept calling her names, yelling at her from the front seat, wagging his finger in the rearview mirror.

从这个可以拓展到其他汽车部件的英文表达，比如glove compartment是什么？

Thoughts

When I was little she always caught me, but as I got older I got faster, and when speed failed her she’d use her wits. If I was about to get away she’d yell, “Stop! Thief!” She’d do this to her own child.

After reading this paragraph, I was shocked. Because I cannot imagine that in what circumstances a mother could yell “Thief” at her child. Should parents be patient to their child? If parents want to discipline their child, they might yell at them, but not yell something that might put their child in danger. 'In danger' I mean if some strangers genuinely took Trevor as a thief, catching him or beating him, what would his mother do?  Maybe the his mother was so mad at him, and really wanted to catch him. For me, it is hard to understand her behavior, and it might because I do not have a child.

These were all viable options. I didn’t fully comprehend the danger we were in at the moment; I was so tired that I just wanted to sleep. Plus my mom stayed very calm. She didn’t panic, so I didn’t know to panic. She just kept trying to reason with him.

At first, I was a little mad at Trevor's mother because of her misbehavior. Then I read this, I think she is a great and brave mother. If I were her in that situation, I would panic and do not know what to do, maybe I would just scream. I think she was cool-headed and faced danger fearlessly, letting her children be unaware of the danger they faced. It reminds me of a saying that a woman is weak in nature, but she could be strong as a mother. A mother is willing to do anything for her child, and of course, keeps her baby out of danger.