我常覺得，許多人尚未打好基礎之前，就巴望著要能流利地說寫英文，老實說這是痴人作夢，天方夜談。要用寫出好文章，先要閱讀正確的文章，有入才能有出，入不敷出，在現實生活就是破產，在英語學習上就是說一口破英文或寫一手爛文章。1. Police reports indicate that violent crimes in Western industrialized countries have increased sharply (大幅度增加) during recent decades. However, wife abuse, defined in terms of physical violence by the husband, appears to have decreased by about 27 percent (減少百分之２７) between 1975 and 1985.
(英文補充說明)
增加 (或減少) 多少幅度的寫法是：increase (decrease) by…
2. More than 25 percent of (超過百分比二十五) all assaults and homicides that are reported to police involve members of the same family. And a large percentage of the rest (其他之中，有很高的百分比) involve friends or at least acquaintances. More than half of (一半以上) all rapes are committed by acquaintances, relatives, or dates. One-third of (三分之一) all female murder victims are killed by boyfriends or husbands.
3. It is more evident in the observation that more than 9 out of 10 parents (十個父母有九個以上) admit to using physical force to punish children. Indeed, violence among siblings seems to be common among young children, although it diminishes rapidly with increasing age (隨著年紀愈大，便快速減少). In a sample of 2,143 families, 74 percent of all 3- to 4-year-old children who had siblings occasionally resorted to some form of physical aggression in their interactions. Only 36 percent of those aged 15 to 17 behaved in similar fashion.
4. Why do some husbands beat their wives? Some of them might suffer from a psychological disorder. In one study involving 100 battered wives, 25 percent of the husbands had received psychiatric help in the past. And, according to the wives, many more were in need of such help. A great many of these husbands came to their marriages with a history of violence. Many had been abused and beaten as children.
5. The Ministry of Finance predicted yesterday that Taiwan’s trade surplus with the United States is expected to amount to (= reach/stand at/hit/be up to) US$8 billion this year, the highest over the decade (= the past ten years / the last ten years). Taiwan’s trade surplus stood at US$6.35 billion in the first ten months this year, and is generally expected (= believed / supposed) to increase by more than US$2 billion in the last two months. In August alone, the trade surplus reached US$ 879 million, the highest since September 1997.
6. The United States is Taiwan’s largest trade partner, with bilateral trade standing at US$ 53.25 billion (雙邊貿易達 532.5 億美元) in 1998.
7. Government officials said (=pointed out) that Taiwan’s misery index for 1998 is expected to fall (=drop) to 4.5 percent (1998 年的痛苦指數預計降到百分之4.5) , the lowest in ten years. The misery index is (=means/refers to) the unemployment rate plus the inflation rate. It is used (=designed) to measure (=gauge/appraise) the living conditions of local residents. The higher the index (is), the worse the living conditions. (指數越高，生活情況就越糟。)
8. Taiwan’s unemployment rate is likely to fall (=drop) within 3.1 percent this year while the domestic inflation rate is estimated at (= expected to be) 1.3 percent. Besides, the cost of living has increased by 6% (= six percentage points). Urban(City) life becomes tougher as a result of rising prices and unemployment. House prices are rising (=going up), while the cost of living rises by 6%. For these reasons, the misery index will be (=stand at/ reach) 4.5 percent this year, the highest in ten years. The misery index stood at 6.1 percent last year.
9. The U.S. dollar sank against the Japanese yen for the sixth consecutive trading day on the Tokyo Foreign Exchange Market Tuesday, closing at 163.65 yen, down 0.30 yen from Monday’s close of 163.95 yen. The dollar opened at 162.45 yen and ranged between 162.40 and 163.80 yen. One market source, speaking on condition of anonymity (不願具名), said that there was a “rush of dollar selling” Tuesday by speculators, spurred by Monday’s Finance Ministry announcement that Japan’s overall trade surplus in May reached a monthly record of 8.3 billion U.S. dollars.
(說明) 注意 the U.S. dollar 和 the Japanese yen 的冠詞 (the) 不可省略
10. Oil futures (期貨) failed to sustain a rally and again slipped lower Friday, with most gasoline and heating oil contracts down a cent or more a gallon.
11. Hotel occupancy (飯店住房率), which usually averages around 50% (平均 50%), has plummeted to single digits (大跌到個位數字). More than 200,000 hotel and restaurant staff have been laid off, and thos who have kept their jobs are working for significantly reduced wages.
12. Once packed with pale Australians on winter holidays and German package tour groups, the sands of Kuta Beach are deserted followoing the car bomb incident. The hawkers offering massages, manucures and marijuana outnumber visitors five to one (招攬按摩、修剪指甲與販賣大麻的小販人數是遊客人數的五倍).
13. Operation Containment is a response to recent intelligence reports that next year’s Afghan poppy harvest will be at least as big as this year’s newsmaking haul and may match the record 3.656-ton harvest of 2000 (與今年登上新聞的產量一樣多，甚至追平 2000 年 3656 公噸創紀錄的收成量 ). In 2000, Afghan growers, backed by the Taliban, cornered as much as 80% (壟斷高達 80% 的海洛因市場) of the world heroin market.
