The Economist：Stay alive - Falling Suicide（4～5）

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①One is young women in China and India. ②In most of the world, older people kill themselves more often than the young, and men more than women. ③But in China and India, young women have been unusually prone to suicide. ④That is decreasingly the case. ⑤Another group is middle-aged men in Russia. ⑥After the collapse of the Soviet Union, alcoholism and suicide rocketed among them. ⑦Both have now receded. ⑧A third category is old people all around the world. ⑨The suicide rate among the elderly remains, on average, higher than among the rest of the population, but has also fallen faster since 2000 than among other groups.

段落赏析

该段承接上文，讲述了自杀率呈明显下降的三类人群：印度和中国的年轻女性、俄罗斯的中年男性以及全球老龄人口。
①-④几乎全球都是老龄人口的自杀比率比年轻人更高、男性自杀率大于女性，而在中国和印度的年轻女性自杀倾向更显著，但这种情况正在逐渐减少。
⑤-⑦苏联解体后，俄罗斯中年男性酗酒及自杀情况激增，现在则都有所减缓。
⑧⑨平均而言，老龄人口的自杀率仍高于其他人群，但从2000年以来，其自杀率的下降速度高于其他人群。

词句精读

• collapse：If something, for example a system or institution, collapses, it fails or comes to an end completely and suddenly.
  CET4级词汇。除了坍塌，collapse还可以如本文用作系统或制度等的崩溃、瓦解。既可作名词，也可作动词。
  e.g [n.]：Their economy is teetering on the brink of collapse.
  他们的经济岌岌可危，正处在崩溃的边缘。
  e.g [v.]：The rural people have been impoverished by a collapsing economy.
  经济崩溃使农村地区的人们一贫如洗。

• rocket：If things such as prices or social problems rocket, they increase very quickly and suddenly.
  CET4级词汇。rocket本意是火箭，延伸成动词飞速、疾驰。本文用意自杀和酗酒这类社会问题急剧增多，也可形容价格飙升，是一个非常形象的单词。
  e.g：The nation has experienced four years of rocketing crime.
  4年来，这个国家的犯罪率急剧上升。
  

• recede：When something such as a quality, problem, or illness recedes, it becomes weaker, smaller, or less intense.
  CET6级词汇。recede作为一个动词，后退，远离以及本文所用的减弱，好转都是其常用用法。然而很多人并不知道，它还有前额的头发脱落的意思。已经开始担心发量问题的90后们可以get起来啦。
  e.g：...a youngish man with dark hair just beginning to recede...
  前额黑发刚开始脱落的年轻人

• prone to sth.：These words all describe people or things that are likely to do sth or be affected by sth.
  倾向于…；易于做…；容易被…影响
  e.g：Working without a break makes you more prone to error.
  不间断的工作让人更容易犯错。
  

• That is decreasingly the case. & Both have now receded.
  作文趋势替换用句，建议背诵。

• The suicide rate among the elderly remains, on average, higher than among the rest of the population, but has also fallen faster since 2000 than among other groups.
  提炼句型：X, on average, higher than XX, but has also fallen faster than XX.
  描述统计类写作时可以套用。平均而言，X仍高于XX，但其下降速度高于XX。
  
  

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①Why are these people now less likely to take their own lives? ②Urbanisation and greater freedom have helped. ③Accounts of those who attempt suicide, and of the relatives of those who succeed, suggest that many young Asian women were driven to despair by violent husbands and overbearing in-laws. ④As people move to cities and the grip of tradition loosens, women have more choice about whom they marry or live with, making life more bearable. ⑤Leaving the village helps in another way, too. ⑥Because farming involves killing things, rural folk are likelier to have the means to kill themselves—guns, pesticides—to hand.

段落赏析

该段讲述了自杀率下降的原因：城市化和更高的自由度，从两方面说明城市化对自杀率降低提供了帮助。
①-②即段落主旨，城市化和更高的自由度对减少自杀行为很有帮助。
③据试图自杀和成功自杀者的亲属描述，亚洲女性自杀主因是家庭暴力和婆媳关系。
④随着移居城镇和传统力量的减弱，女性对于自己的结婚对象和居住地点有了更多的自主权，使得生活不再让人难以忍受。
⑤⑥从另一方面来说，搬离农村也让枪、杀虫剂这类致死物不再容易获得。

词句精读

• account：An account is a written or spoken report of something that has happened.
  CET4级词汇。account常用账户，解释、说明，本文则是“书面或口头的记述，描述，陈述，报告”。
  e.g：He gave a detailed account of what happened on the fateful night.
  他详细描述了那个灾难性夜晚所发生的事。
  

• drive：The desire or feeling that drives a person to do something, especially something extreme, is the desire or feeling that causes them to do it.
  CET4级词汇。drive在本文中作动词，驱使，迫使(某人做出极端的事情)。
  e.g：More than once, depression drove him to attempt suicide.
  抑郁症使他不止一次地企图自杀。

• overbearing：An overbearing person tries to make other people do what he or she wants in an unpleasant and forceful way.
  傲慢的；专横的；盛气凌人的；飞扬跋扈的。
  

• in-law：Someone who you are related to by marriage, especially the father or mother of your husband or wife.
  姻亲，尤其是结婚对象的父母。
  

• rural：Rural places are far away from large towns or cities.
  乡村的，农村的，田园的
  

• take one's own life：Kill oneself, commit suicide.
  自杀的同义替换。take life还有一个很有趣的句子跟大家分享下：

Take ten lives, you're a serial killer. Take thousands, you're a war hero.

夺走十条生命，你就是个连环杀手。但如果是上千，你倒能成战争英雄了。

• the grip of tradition loosens：表示人们并不再拘泥于传统，传统的束缚也放松了。
  与grip有关的还有一个词组：in the grip of（If a person, group, or place is in the grip of something, they are being severely affected by it.），即受制于；受…的深刻影响。
  e.g：Britain is still in the grip of recession.
  英国依然没有摆脱经济衰退。