豆知识 2011-11-20&11-26 美国政府破产的故事 (1/3)
时间：2018-12-03 作者：英语课 分类：英语解说豆知识2011年
These last few years, I’ve had to get a lot more careful about how I spend my paycheck. Everyone has. Like I’m eating out less often, holding back on expenses I don’t really need, and saving for my kid’s college. I’m getting more responsible, taking control of how I spend. But one thing I can’t control is that every month a big chunk 1 of my paycheck goes off to our government. It’s not the most fun part of my budget, but I believe in paying taxes. Not just because it’s the law, but because it’s how I invest in a better future that I can’t afford to build on my own. You know, that future that we all want, and nearly every candidate promises us: great schools, a healthy environment, clean energy, good jobs. But a funny thing happens to our money on its way to that better future. It seems to disappear. And by the time we get around to investing in that future, all I hear is, “sorry, not this year, we’re broke.” In fact, we’re so broke, they say, that we have no choice but to side backwards 2, cutting things that made this country great, like schools and the EPA, maybe even social security and Medicare.
Wait a minute. Broke? I’m sending in my fair share of hard-earned cash every month and so are you. If everyone did, we’d have plenty of money. Now, what we’ve got to work with shrinks a lot thanks to corporate 3 tax loopholes and unprecedented 4 tax breaks for the richest 1%. But even after those, we’ve still got over a trillion dollars. So if we’re broke, what’s happening to all that money?
I decided 5 to look into it, and it turns out this whole broke story hides a much bigger story. A story of some really dumb choices being made for us, choices actually work against us. The good news is these are choices, and we can make different ones.
- They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
- The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。
- He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
- All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。
- This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
- His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。
- The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
- A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。