50篇外刊阅读第8周｜ 逐句讲解《经济学人》：新加坡的「地摊经济」｜CATTI一

Background:

为整顿秩序和环境问题，新加坡政府在1972年建立了第一个小贩中心，让小贩有固定的经营场所，逐步加强对小贩生意的管理。

idioms:

1. out with the old, in with the new 辞旧迎新
2. cheaper than chips 非常便宜
3. for good (and all) 永远地 sg, This time she's leaving for good.
4. pocket n 口袋，钱财

• Our pockets were quite tight. 经济拮据
• He is said to have a deep pocket. 富有
• he has to pay for the repairs out of his own pocket. 自己出钱

street food：

1. hawker n = peddler ≈ mobile vendors 流动摊贩
2. open-air food court (美食广场）
3. stall 摊位
4. scoop n 一勺
5. indigenous = native = local
6. eat/ drink one's fill 开怀大吃/畅饮
7. tuck in 痛快的吃 tuck into sth

Vocabulary:

1. monument: n 纪念碑，丰碑 monument to sb/sth eg. A monument to him was erected in St Paul's Cathedral.
2. conjure up 使想到 eg, The song conjures up my childhood.
3. median adj 中间值 median age 年龄中位数
4. aspiring adj 有抱负的， aspire to sth, aspire to do sth 有志于做什么
5. vast majority 绝大多数
6. toil v 长时间的的辛苦劳作，不要整天说work hard
7. manpower n 劳动力，人手
8. live hand-to-mouth 勉强糊口
9. operating cost 运营成本
10. thin margins 利润少
11. central provident fund 公积金
12. welfare state 福利制度
13. safety net = social security 社会保障
14. pass those costs on to their customers 将成本转嫁到消费者身上。
15. a flood of offers of investment
16. weather v 平安地度过 weather the storm 度过难关
17. lease v 出租、租界 n 租约

• We lease the land from a farmer. 从谁手上租得
• She leased the site to a factory. 租给

Nice sentence:

1. Dishes such as roti prata and Singarpore laksa conjure up the Indian and Chinese migrants, whose own cusines, slowly over centureis, mingled with that of the indigenous Malays.
2. Singpore is proud of its food that it hopes UNESCO will include it in its ctatlogue of humanity's most precious arts(可以理解为人类非物质文化遗产名录）.
3. There were too few apsiring hawkers to be able to sustain the hawker trade in the long run. When old masters die, many their recipes(秘诀，诀窍） with them.
4. Young Singaporeans citizens have little appetite for (没有意愿，不要整天说don't want to）toiling in piping-hot（滚烫的） stalls for long hours and little pay. It's near impossible to get manpower for this trade. The few young Singapores willing to put up with such condition often live hand-to-mouth.
5. The authorities have long regarded hawker centers, with their "almost third-world prices' as one of our safety-nets. 政府认为小贩中心是社会保障制度之一。
6. He decides to increase the price of his $ fishball soup by 50 cents because his margins were so thin. Sales fell by half.

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