每日一词 132 | inertia

1. 这是个什么词？

词：inertia

英英释义：when no one wants to do anything to change a situation

例句：He stayed where he was, not because he got unlucky, but out of inertia.

2. 为什么选这个词？

“inertia”是不可数名词，意思是“惰性、不作为”。这个词多用来指某个政府、机构、部门，因此前面经常用 bureaucratic 和 political 来做修饰。它一般可以和 inactivity (in + activity) 作同义替换。我们在口语和写作中都可以使用这个词，下面通过几个例句来掌握它。

比如一个人过了几年还是不上不下，不是因为他运气不好，而是因为他原地踏步，就可以说：

He stayed where he was, not because he got unlucky, but out of inertia.

很多大公司开会时大家会提出各种各样的想法，但真正能落地的却很有限，原因就是不作为，我们就可以说：

Many projects in big companies are frequently abandoned through sheer inertia.

这里的 sheer 修饰 inertia，意思是“纯粹、完全、十足”，强调了不作为的程度。可以将 through sheer inertia 作为一个固定搭配记下来。

由于《经济学人》会用相当篇幅来讨论政治和社会话题，所以我们时不时就会碰到 inertia 这个词。 比如在一篇写泰国政治的文章中有这么一句：

All this is intended to ensure that Mr Prayuth remains prime minister, despite his inertia and ineptitude.

在一篇报道美国阿片类药物的滥用的文章中也出现了 inertia：

America is not Switzerland. Taxpayer-sponsored heroin therapy is unlikely any time soon. But even less controversial harm-reduction policies are being stymied by governmental inertia and a misunderstanding of the evidence.

注意这句中修饰 inertia 的词是 governmental, 也可以用 bureaucratic 来替换。

另一篇将非洲国家用英语作为授课语言的文章中也出现了 inertia：

In sub-Saharan Africa, only Tanzania, Ethiopia and Eritrea do not use a colonial language at all during primary education. Others use either English or French. That is partly because of inertia.

最后一句我们还可以改为：That is partly because of inactivity.

3. 怎样学会使用这个词？

1）翻译下面的句子：

这座城市的旅游资源没有好好开发利用，主要原因是政府的不作为。

（参考翻译：The city's tourism resources are underused largely because of its governmental inertia. 或 The city's tourism resources are underused largely out of its governmental inertia. 或 Had it not been for the bureaucratic inertia, this city's tourism resources would be better exploited.）

2）造句：

Due to the inertia of the school leaders, this school was once lacking full-time English teachers.