經濟學人點讀

（配圖源於網路）

1

And perhaps women in couples spend less time bread-winning, leaving more time for bread-baking. from The Economist《Why people in couples do more housework than singletons》

經濟學人的這篇文章探討了一個有趣的現象：告別單身的人比單身狗做的家務要多，女性尤甚。摘抄的這句話給出了一種可能的解釋：找到伴侶的女性會將一部分賺錢謀生的時間轉移到家務上面去。巧妙運用bread-baking（指代做家務）避免了housework這個詞的反覆出現，又和前面的bread-winning（養家糊口）工整對賬，使整句話具有了音律美感。關於謀生可能我們更為熟悉的表達是make a living 或者是 earn one s bread,這裡的bread-winning其實也是「謀生」，名詞形式breadwinner更為常見，表示「養家糊口的主力」。

既然提到bread就不得不提一個更常見的關於「謀生」的習語，bread and butter常常表示「謀生的手段」，比如Teaching math is her bread and butter，教數學是她的主要收入來源。

關於bread，還有很多有趣的表達：

one cannotliveby bread alone 生活不止眼前的苟且，還有詩和遠方

take the bread out of (or from) people s mouths 走別人的路，讓別人無路可走。搶別人的麵包，讓別人沒有麵包可吃。

want one s bread buttered on both sides（口語）麵包的兩面都要塗黃油，形容不切實際的想法和願望

例子：He wants his bread buttered on both sides - a decent salary without too much workload

2

NoraVolkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, says that pharma companies are not the only ones to blame for the opioid crisis.Shepoints to wellmeaning efforts to implement procedures to make sure that pain was not undertreated in hospitals. Direct-to-consumer advertising of opioids may also have encouraged overuse. Only America andNewZealand allow pharma firms toadvertisedrugs directly to patients.from The Economist《Makers and distributors of opioid painkillers are under scrutiny》

這篇文章探討美國阿片類藥物的濫用（opioid）現象，詳析其背後原因，作者認為不僅製藥廠商難辭其咎，醫院的一些處理病人疼痛的理念和措施也無意中促進了阿片類藥物的使用，另一方面，阿片類藥物的廣告營銷方式也推波助瀾。多種因素共同導致了這場危機，美國人吃掉了全球五分之四的阿片類藥物。

這句提供了一個良好的寫作典範，如何在argument裡面表達多因一果。假如B,C,D三個原因都有可能導致A這個結果出現（尤其是不好的結果,：crisis / abuse / shortage / debacle / collapse / plummet / disaster / catastrophe / cataclysm / epidemic etc），我們可以總結出以下寫作模板：

Someone says that B is not the only one to blame for A.

he orshealso points to C.

D may also have encouraged / accounted for /contributed to /resulted in A.

舉個例子，某個地方玉米供應短缺，農民，補貼政策以及不良氣候都是可能的原因，就可以這麼寫：

The official says that farmers are not the only ones to blame for the corn shortage. He points to the recent subsidy cuts by the government which significantly affected the production.Climate fluctuations may also have contributed to the decreased yield.

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