赏析《经济学人》之 自杀减少原因及继续降低自杀率（6-7）

Paragraph 6
①Social stability is also a factor. ②In the turbulence that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, many middle-aged people saw their sources of income and status collapse. ③Unemployed people kill themselves at around two-and-a-half times the rate of those in work. ④The financial crash of 2007-08 and the resulting recessions are reckoned to have caused an extra 10,000 or so suicides in America and western Europe. ⑤As crises recede and employment rises, so suicide tends to ebb. ⑥And falling poverty rates among the old, which have declined faster than among other groups globally, are reckoned to have contributed to the drop in the number of elderly suicides.

段落分析：
①是用“also”来承上启下，并且直接点出了这段话的中心思想：自杀率高低跟社会稳不稳定有关系。②③从政治层面举例：随着苏联解体，那些失业的自杀率是在职的的2.5倍。④则从经济层面来说明：在欧美的07-08的金融危机，自杀数攀升。⑤则跟②③④反面即社会环境稳定下说明：后来在危机减弱加上就业率的攀升的情况，自杀也消退。⑥则从老年人这个群体来说明：随着贫困率的降低下，老年人的自杀情况也急剧好转。

词句精读：
④The financial crash of 2007-08 and the resulting recessions are reckoned to have caused an extra 10,000 or so suicides in America and western Europe.

reckon
在这句话里，“reckon”表示“认为…；把…当作”。
举个例子：销售陷入停滞，因为大家认为价格太高了，我们可以这么说：
The sale has been held up because the price is reckoned to be too high.

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⑤As crises recede and employment rises, so suicide tends to ebb.
**recede **
在这里，recede表示“问题或疾病等逐渐减弱，好转”。
比如说：正当人们开始觉得他永远都好不了了的时候，他的病开始好转了，可以说：
Just as people started to think that he was never going to get well, his illness began to recede.
我的病开始好转了。

ebb
ebb的英文释义是: fig. To take a backward or downward course; to decay, decline; to fade or waste away。它的原义是“退潮”，引申为“减弱；减退”。
2018年原油价格涨到其至高点，开始担心它的需求在减少，《经济学人》在The World in 2019里是这么说的：
In 2018 the price of crude oil soared to its highest since the lofty days of 2014, only to drop on fears of ebbing demand.

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⑥ And falling poverty rates among the old, which have declined faster than among other groups globally, are reckoned to have contributed to the drop in the number of elderly suicides.

⑥的主句是"And falling poverty rates among the old are reckoned to have contributed to the drop in the number of elderly suicides." ，由“which have declined faster than among other groups globally”而修饰“poverty rates among the old”。同时我们要学习“下降”的几个表达以及contribute。
contribute
在这句话里，它表示“对……起作用”的意思。贫困率的下降对老年人自杀数的减少有影响。
在The World in 2019里，说美国总统的各种表现对美国社会态度很有影响，《经济人》是这么说的：
The president’s habitual lying, his attacks on the press and his wilful stoking of grievance among his supporters have all contributed to a mood in American society that is more divided, febrile and angry than at any point since at least the late 1960s.

再比如：家庭的强力作业监督是对小孩当前的成绩有帮助，但对小孩不一定有用。我们可以这么说：
Parental supervision over her/his children's homework by force has contributed to increase their scores, but is of dubious value to them.

fall decline drop
这句话里用了三个表示“减少，下降”的词，前二个是用动词形式，最后一个则用了名词。这三者在程度上有何区别呢？
drop: 指物体从一定高度落下。
fall: 与drop同义，指突然或猛烈地降落，但fall也可指任何下落，同高度或形式无关。
decline：表示数量减少时，与fall同义。
Oil prices continue to decline. [=decrease, fall]

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Paragraph 7
①But the decline is not just the consequence of big social trends. ②Policy plays a role, too. ③When Mikhail Gorbachev restricted the production and distribution of booze in the mid-1980s, both drinking and suicide fell sharply. ④The collapse of the Soviet Union swept those regulations aside, and both drinking and suicide shot up again. ⑤Restrictions introduced by Vladimir Putin in 2005 are reckoned to have contributed to the recent decline.

段落分析：
第①句用not just引出自杀下降的另一原因。第②句直接了断地阐明了它：政策。这个短句就用得很好，非常突出。③④⑤句用俄国（前苏联）对酒的管控及其相应自杀变化的关系来说明。③④这两句都是前面policy后面suicide的变化，同样的句式有助于加强对比效果。第⑤句则用单句串起了policy跟suicide，让句式有了变化。

词句精读：
①But the decline is not just the consequence of big social trends.②Policy plays a role, too.

其实这两句可以改成：But the decline is not just the consequence of big social trends，but also the result of policy plays。比较起来，原文更强调政策的作用。同时，我们说个表达： role。
role
在这句话里，role的英文释义：a part that someone or something has in a particular activity or situation，中文我们可以理解为“地位”，引申为“作用”。它经常后面接in，表示“在……事情起作用”。
比如想表达“在人们怎么看待政治问题上，报纸起了关键作用”，可以说：
Newspapers play a major role in determining how people think about politics.
role常用的动词搭配有：have, occupy, perform, play, serve

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④The collapse of the Soviet Union swept those regulations aside, and both drinking and suicide shot up again.

sweep (something) aside
这是个固定表达，它的英文释义：to treat (something) as not important : to ignore (something)。 它的本义是“把……扫到一边”，引申出“对……置之不理；无视”。
比如，她把我的话当耳边风，可以这么说：
She sweeps aside every suggestion I make.

shoot up
它表示“陡增；飙升”。
《经济学人》的有关老师短缺的文章里，在接下来的十年里，小学生人数会猛增，它就用到了shoot up。
Worse, the Department for Education’s forecasts suggest that the number of pupils will shoot up over the next decade.

杭州房价自2016年快速飙升，我们可以这样表达：
Housing price in Hangzhou has shot up to 300% since 2016.