Day 1-2 Deep Trouble
📌标题一语双关：一方面deep表示问题的严重和程度之深；另一方面the deep就是海洋的意思。Deep trouble，用来表示于海洋相关的问题，真是再合适不过了。
The ocean provides 3bn people with almost a fifth of their protein (making fish a bigger source of the stuff than beef). Fishing and aquaculture assure the livelihoods of one in ten of the world’s people. Climate and weather systems depend on the temperature patterns of the ocean and its interactions with the atmosphere. If anything ought to be too big to fail, it is the ocean.
provide
If you provide something that someone needs or wants, or if you provide them with it, you give it to them or make it available to them.
[V n]I'll be glad to provide a copy of this...
[V n]They would not provide any details...
[V n with n]The government was not in a position to provide them with food.
assure
To assure someone of something means to make certain that they will get it.
[V n of n]Last night's resounding victory over Birmingham City has virtually assured them of promotion...
[V n n]Ways must be found to assure our children a decent start in life.
depend on
If you depend on someone or something, you need them in order to be able to survive physically, financially, or emotionally.
[V on/upon n/-ing]They may hate what he does but their survival depends on him…
📌这一段中三个动词provide，assure，depend on的使用非常值得学习，程度一个比一个深，逐步体现the ocean对人类的重要性。最后一句 “If anything ought to be too big to fail, it is the ocean” 巧妙化用经济学表达：too fail to fail。
Depths plumbed
plumb
1.verb If you plumb something mysterious or difficult to understand, you succeed in understanding it.
LITERARY
(=fathom)
She never abandoned her attempts to plumb my innermost emotions...V n
2.verb When someone plumbs a building, they put in all the pipes for carrying water.
She learned to wire and plumb the house herself.V n
3.If someone plumbs the depths of an unpleasant emotion or quality, they experience it or show it to an extreme degree. ♦to plumb the depths
phrase V inflects, oft PHR of n
They frequently plumb the depths of loneliness, humiliation and despair...
4.If you say that something plumbs new depths, you mean that it is worse than all the things of its kind that have existed before, even though some of them have been very bad. ♦to plumb new depths
phraseV inflects, oft PHR of n
Relations between the two countries have plumbed new depths…
The damage being done to its health is visible in a few liminal places—the Great Barrier Reef, say, or the oyster farms of Washington state. But for the most part, the sea is out of sight and out of mind. It is telling that there is only a single fleeting reference to the ocean in the Paris agreement on climate change.
fleeting [fli:tɪŋ]
[ADJ-GRADED: usu ADJ n] Fleeting is used to describe something which lasts only for a very short time.
The girls caught only a fleeting glimpse of the driver...
She wondered for a fleeting moment if he would put his arm around her.
A second problem is governance. The ocean is subject to a patchwork of laws and agreements. Enforcement is hard and incentives are often misaligned. Waters outside national jurisdictions—the high seas—are a global commons. Without defined property rights or a community invested in their upkeep, the interests of individual actors in exploiting such areas win out over the collective interest in husbanding them. Fish are particularly tricky because they move. Why observe quotas if you think your neighbor can haul in catches with impunity?
governance [gʌvə(r)nəns]
1.[N-UNCOUNT] The governance of a country is the way in which it is governed.[FORMAL]
They believe that a fundamental change in the governance of Britain is the key to all other necessary changes.
2.[N-UNCOUNT] The governance of a company or organization is the way in which it is managed.[FORMAL]
//...a dramatic move away from the traditional view of governance in American education.
patchwork [pætʃwɜ:(r)k]
1.[ADJ: ADJ n] A patchwork quilt, cushion, or piece of clothing is made by sewing together small pieces of material of different colours or patterns.
//...beds covered in patchwork quilts.
[N-UNCOUNT]Patchwork is also a noun.
For centuries, quilting and patchwork have been popular needlecrafts.
2.[N-SING: oft N of n] If you refer to something as a patchwork, you mean that it is made up of many different parts, pieces or colours.
The low mountains were a patchwork of green and brown.
//...this complex republic, a patchwork of cultures, religions and nationalities.
incentive [ɪnsentɪv]
incentives
[N-VAR: oft N to-inf] If something is an incentive to do something, it encourages you to do it.
There is little or no incentive to adopt such measures...
Many companies in Britain are keen on the idea of tax incentives for R&D.
misaligned
/ˌmɪsəˈlaɪnd/ adj.
not in the correct position in relation to sth else 方向偏离的；未对准的
a misaligned vertebra 错位的脊椎骨
misalignment
/ˌmɪsəˈlaɪnmənt/ noun [U]
The tests revealed a slight misalignment of the eyes. 经检测发现有轻度斜视。
upkeep [ʌpki:p]
1.[N-UNCOUNT: usu with poss] The upkeep of a building or place is the work of keeping it in good condition.
The money will be used for the estate's upkeep...
The maintenance department is responsible for the general upkeep of the park.
Syn:maintenance
2.[N-UNCOUNT: usu with poss] The upkeep of a group of people or services is the process of providing them with the things that they need.
He offered to pay ₤100 a month towards his son's upkeep.
//...subsidies for the upkeep of kindergartens and orphanages.
husband [hʌzbənd] 熟词生意
husbands, husbanding, husbanded
1.[N-COUNT: oft poss N] A woman's husband is the man she is married to.
Eva married her husband Jack in 1957...
Are they husband and wife?
2.[VERB] If you husband something valuable, you use it carefully and do not waste it.[LITERARY]
[V n]Husbanding precious resources was part of rural life.
impunity [ɪmpju:nɪti]
[PHRASE: PHR after v (disapproval)] If you say that someone does something with impunity, you disapprove of the fact that they are not punished for doing something bad.
Mr Cook said future aggressors would be able to act with impunity if the objectives of the UN weren't met...
These gangs operate with apparent impunity.
Transparency can also mitigate the second difficulty, of ocean governance. More scientific data ought to improve the oversight of nascent industries. As sea-floor soundings proliferate, the supervision of deep-sea mining, which is overseen by the International Seabed Authority in areas beyond national jurisdiction, should get better.
mitigate [mɪtɪgeɪt]
mitigates, mitigating, mitigated
[VERB] To mitigate something means to make it less unpleasant, serious, or painful.[FORMAL]
[V n]//...ways of mitigating the effects of an explosion...
[V n]The cost of getting there is mitigated by Sydney's offer of a subsidy.
nascent [næs(ə)nt]
[ADJ: ADJ n] Nascent things or processes are just beginning, and are expected to become stronger or to grow bigger.[FORMAL]
Kenya's nascent democracy was threatened by conflict yesterday.
//...the still nascent science of psychology.
背景知识补充：
📌Too big to fail 大而不倒
The "too big to fail" theory asserts that certain corporations, particularly financial institutions, are so large and so interconnected that their failure would be disastrous to the greater economic system, and that they therefore must be supported by government when they face potential failure. The colloquial term "too big to fail" was popularized by U.S. Congressman Stewart McKinney in a 1984 Congressional hearing, discussing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's intervention with Continental Illinois. The term had previously been used occasionally in the press.
Proponents of this theory believe that some institutions are so important that they should become recipients of beneficial financial and economic policies from governments or central banks. Some economists such as Paul Krugman hold that economies of scale in banks and in other businesses are worth preserving, so long as they are well regulated in proportion to their economic clout, and therefore that "too big to fail" status can be acceptable. The global economic system must also deal with sovereign states being too big to fail.
📌Tragedy of the commons
Cows on Selsley Common. The "tragedy of the commons" is one way of accounting for over-exploitation.
The tragedy of the commons is an economic theory of a situation within a shared-resource system where individual users acting independently according to their own self-interest behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting or spoiling that resource through their collective action. The concept and name originate in an essay written in 1833 by the Victorian economist William Forster Lloyd, who used a hypothetical example of the effects of unregulated grazing on common land (then colloquially called "the commons") in the British Isles. The concept became widely known over a century later due to an article written by the ecologist Garrett Hardin in 1968. In this context, commons is taken to mean any shared and unregulated resource such as atmosphere, oceans, rivers, fish stocks, or even an office refrigerator.
It has been argued that the very term 'tragedy of the commons' is a misnomer per se, since 'the commons' originally referred to a resource owned by a community, and no individual outside the community had any access to the resource. However, the term is presently used when describing a problem where all individuals have equal and open access to a resource. Hence, 'tragedy of open access regimes' or simply 'the open access problem' are more apt terms.
The tragedy of the commons is often cited in connection with sustainable development, meshing economic growth and environmental protection, as well as in the debate over global warming. It has also been used in analyzing behavior in the fields of economics, evolutionary psychology, anthropology, game theory, politics, taxation and sociology.
Although commons have been known to collapse due to overuse (such as in over-fishing), abundant examples exist where communities cooperate or regulate to exploit common resources prudently without collapse. According to the political economist Elinor Ostrom, although it is often claimed that only private ownership or government regulation can prevent the "tragedy of the commons", prudent users of a commons have a natural incentive to voluntarily cooperate in self-regulation, and history exhibits many examples of complex social schemes to sustain common resources efficiently.
公地悲剧
1968年英国哈丁教授 (Garrett Hardin)在《The tragedy of the commons》一文中首先提出“公地悲剧”理论模型。他说，作为理性人，每个牧羊者都希望自己的收益最大化。在公共草地上，每增加一只羊会有两种结果：一是获得增加一只羊的收入；二是加重草地的负担，并有可能使草地过度放牧。经过思考，牧羊者决定不顾草地的承受能力而增加羊群数量。于是他便会因羊只的增加而收益增多。看到有利可图。许多牧羊者也纷纷加入这一行列。由于羊群的进入不受限制，所以牧场被过度使用，草地状况迅速恶化，悲剧就这样发生了。
Day 3-4 Terror and the internet
《经济学人》封面文章的行文逻辑：
👉介绍问题
👉分析问题
👉提出方案
Three jihadist attacks in Britain in as many months have led to a flood of suggestions about how to fight terrorism, from more police and harsher jail sentences to new legal powers. But one idea has gained momentum in both Europe and America—that internet firms are doing the jihadists’ work for them. Technology giants, such as Google and Facebook, are accused of turning a blind eye to violent online propaganda and other platforms of allowing terrorists to communicate with each other out of reach of the intelligence services.
📌从大到小：suggestions ➡️ from more police and harsher jail sentences to new legal powers ➡️ one idea ➡️ that internet firms are doing the jihadists’ work for them ➡️ technology giants ➡️ Google and Facebook
📌led to 表“因➡️果”关系，cause someting to happen，类似的还有：bring about，result in，cause， create，make，produce， generate，enable 等等。
表示“果➡️因”关系：because of，be due to，be caused by，thanks to，...is the result of...
📌gaints表示巨头，与之相对的是 fledgling companies
technology giants = tech behemoths
fledgling
(BrE also fledge∙ling) /ˈfledʒlɪŋ/ noun
1.a young bird that has just learnt to fly （刚会飞的）幼鸟
2. (usually before another noun 通常置于另一名词前) a person, an organization or a system that is new and without experience 初出茅庐的人；无经验的组织；新体系
fledgling democracies 新兴的民主国家
It is only the latest such charge. The technology firms have also been condemned for allowing the spread of fake news and harbouring bullies, bigots and trolls in the pursuit of profit. In the past they were accused of enabling people to evade copyright and of hosting child pornography.
📌be condemned for 和 be accused of是同义词，在阅读时积累和总结这些同义词是一大乐趣。
📌体会“host”用在这里的用意。host我们一般用作名词，但是这里我们用作了动词，host当做动词的时候具体含义是：The person whohosts a radio or television show introduces it and talks to the people who appear in it.也就是说有主人、也有客人，主人提供场地供客人聚在一起交流、娱乐。但是这里网络平台作为主人提供给客人（网民）的是什么呢——儿童色情（child pornography）。
bigot
THESAURUS
■ people who are prejudiced
▪ racist： someone who treats people of other races unfairly or badly:
▪ bigot： someone who has strong unreasonable opinions, especially about race or religion:
▪ sexist： someone, especially a man, who believes that their sex is better, more intelligent, more important etc than the other.
troll
/trɒl; trəʊl; NAmE troʊl/ noun
1.(in Scandinavian stories) a creature that looks like an ugly person. Some trolls are very large and evil, others are small and friendly but like to trick people. （斯堪的纳维亚传说中的）山精，巨怪，友善顽皮的侏儒
2.(informal) a message to a discussion group on the Internet that sb deliberately sends to make other people angry; a person who sends a message like this "投饵"，恶意挑衅的帖子（在互联网讨论组张贴的）；"投饵"人；发挑衅帖子的人
troll /trɒl; trəʊl; NAmE troʊl/ verb
1. [V] ~ (for sth) (especially NAmE) to catch fish by pulling a line with BAIT on it through the water behind a boat 曳绳钓（鱼）；拖钓
2. [V, VN] ~ (sth) for sth (informal) to search for or try to get sth 搜查；搜索；设法得到
He trolled the Internet for advice on the disease. 他搜索互联网寻求治疗这种病的建议。
Both candidates have been trolling for votes. 两个候选人一直都在拉票。
Shooting the messenger app?
📌Shooting the messenger
"Shooting the messenger" is a metaphoric phrase used to describe the act of blaming the bearer of bad news.
Until the advent of modern telecommunication, messages were usually delivered by human envoys. For example, in war, amessenger would be sent from one camp to another. If the message was unfitting, the receiver might blame the messenger for such bad news and take their anger out on them.
"Shooting the messenger" is a subdivision of the ad hominem logical fallacy.
For as long as there have been data networks, people have exploited them to cause harm. The French mechanical telegraph system was subverted in 1834 in a bond-trading scam that went undetected for two years. Cold-callers run cons by telephone. The internet, with billions of users and unlimited processing power, is the most powerful network of all. It was bound to become the focus of wrongdoers.
📌第一句话中的重点要放在have been，因为这句话强调的不是data networks，而是说从。。。以来，强调时间长。并且这句话是一个很典型的抽象化表达，读完以后，你会发现每一个词你都认识，但是你还是不明白它在说什么。比如，data networks，你不知道是什么data networks，cause harm，你也不知道到底产生了什么harm。通常这样的表达之后都会跟着具体化的表达。
从抽象到具体：
data networks ➡️ the French mechanical telegraph system，Cold-callers，the internet
cause harm ➡️ subverted，run cons，wrongdoers
从古到今：
1843 ➡️ telephone ➡️ internet
这也就是为什么第一句话的中心是have been了。
📌这段话中有一个特别精妙的表达就是：RUN
在读这段的时候很多时候我们的注意力都只会放在subvert这个词上，对于run这样的表达估计只是一扫而过而已。如果我们给这两个词都分别归类的话，那么subvert这个词就属于“你不认识的单词”，而run就属于“你以为你认识，但其实你不认识”的词。
但其实像subvert这样的词查一下词典，知道解释就可以学会了，以后看到就知道什么意思，记住了就可以用了。但至于这里为什么con的动词要用run你却解释不出来。而这样的词往往用得都特别精妙，反而是更加需要学习和积累的。
subvert
/səbˈvɜ:t;NAmE-ˈvɜ:rt/verb(formal)
1.[VN,V]to try to destroy the authority of apolitical, religious, etc. system by attacking it secretly or indirectly颠覆；暗中破坏SYNUNDERMINE
2.[VN]to try to destroy a person's belief in sth orsb使背叛；使变节；策反SYNUNDERMINE
subversion
/səbˈvɜ:ʃn;NAmE-ˈvɜ:rʒn/noun[U]
That does not mean it should be wrapped in red tape. Openness online is especially valuable because it allows “permissionless” innovation. Anyone can publish an article, upload a video or distribute a piece of software to a global audience. Freedom from the responsibilities that burden other media companies has served as a boost for a nascent industry.
Red tape
Red tape is an idiom that refers to excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules that is considered redundant or bureaucratic and hinders or prevents action or decision-making. It is usually applied to governments, corporations, and other large organizations.
One definition is the "collection or sequence of forms and procedures required to gain bureaucratic approval for something, especially when oppressively complex and time-consuming". Another definition is the "bureaucratic practice of hair splitting or foot dragging, blamed by its practitioners on the system that forces them to follow prescribed procedures to the letter".
Things often described as "red tape” include filling out paperwork, obtaining licenses, having multiple people or committees approve a decision and various low-level rules that make conducting one's affairs slower, more difficult, or both. Red tape can also include"filing and certification requirements, reporting, investigation,inspection and enforcement practices, and procedures".
Red tape reduction
The "cutting of red tape" - meaning a reduction of bureaucratic obstacles to action.
Business representatives often claim red tape is a barrier to business, particularly small business. In Canada, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business has done extensive research into the impact of red tape on small businesses.
The European Commission has a competition that offers an award for the "Best Idea for Red Tape Reduction". The competition is "aimed at identifying innovative suggestions for reducing unnecessary bureaucracy stemming from European law". In 2008, the European Commission held aconference entitled 'Cutting Red Tape for Europe'. The goal of the conference was "reducing red tape and overbearing bureaucracy," in order to help "business people and entrepreneurs improve competitiveness”.
Technology firms complain that this combination of novelty and commercial success makes them a convenient target for politicians, some of whom seem to regard regulating the internet as a shortcut to solving complex social problems such as hate speech. Eager to protect their special status, technology firms have emphasised that online recruitment is only part of the terrorist threat. Besides, they say, they are platforms, not publishers, and that they cannot possibly monitor everything.
📌"Technology firms complain that this combination of novelty and commercial success makes them a convenient target for politicians, some of whom seem to regard regulating the internet as a shortcut to solving complex social problems such as hate speech.”这句话虽然比较长，但是读来一气呵成，写得非常漂亮，而且逻辑清晰，是我们现在就可以模仿学习的对象。
Mark Twain described how a good writer treats sentences: “At times he may indulge himself with a long one, but he will make sure there are no folds in it, no vaguenesses, no parenthetical interruptions of its view as a whole; when he has done with it, it won’t be a sea-serpent with half of its arches under the water; it will be a torch-light procession.”
读书就是寻求和作者的对话，我们在起点，作者在终点等我们。作者的每一个词就是一块砖，每一句话就是一条路。a torch-light procession就是一条由火炬指引的道路，引导你一步步走向作者所在的彼岸。
📌cannot VS can not
cannot [ˈkænɑːt] be not able to do something 没有能力做某事
can not [kæˈnɑːt] be able not to do something 关乎选择，选择不做某事
As with car accidents or cyber-attacks, perfect security is unattainable. But an approach based on “defence in depth”, combining technology, policy, education and human oversight, can minimise risk and harm.
Defense in depth 纵深防御
Defense in depth (also known as Castle Approach) is an information assurance (IA) concept in which multiple layers of security controls (defense) are placed throughout an information technology (IT) system. Its intent is to provide redundancy in the event a security control fails or a vulnerability is exploited that can cover aspects of personnel, procedural, technical and physical security for the duration of the system's life cycle.
Background
The idea behind the defense in depth approach is to defend a system against any particular attack using several independent methods. It is a layering tactic, conceived by the National Security Agency (NSA) as a comprehensive approach to information and electronic security.
Defense in depth is originally a military strategy that seeks to delay rather than prevent the advance of an attacker by yielding space to buy time. The placement of protection mechanisms, procedures and policies is intended to increase the dependability of an IT system, where multiple layers of defense prevent espionage and direct attacks against critical systems. Interms of computer network defense, defense in depth measures should not only prevent security breaches but also buy an organization time to detect and respond to an attack and so reduce and mitigate the consequences of a breach.
Although fake news is popular and engaging, and provides opportunities to fill advertising slots, it is bad for the technology giants’ reputations. Accordingly, Google and Facebook are doing more to cut off fake-news sites from their advertising networks, build new tools to flag dubious stories and warn readers of them, and establish links with fact-checking organisations.
dubious
/ˈdju:biəs; NAmE ˈdu:-/ adj.
1. [not usually before noun] ~ (about sth)/ (about doing sth) (of a person 人) not certain and slightly suspicious about sth; not knowing whether sth is good or bad 怀疑；无把握；拿不准 SYNDOUBTFUL
I was rather dubious about the whole idea. 我对这整个想法持怀疑态度。
2.(disapproving) probably not honest 可疑的；不可信的；靠不住的；不诚实的 SYNSUSPICIOUS
They indulged in some highly dubious business practices to obtain their current position in the market. 他们采取了一些极为可疑的商业手段才取得目前在市场上的地位。
3.that you cannot be sure about; that is probably not good 不确定的；不一定好的
They consider the plan to be of dubious benefit to most families. 他们认为这项计划对大多数家庭不一定有好处。
(ironic) She had the dubious honour of being the last woman to be hanged in England (= it was not an honour at all). 她成为英国最后一个受绞刑的女子，这或许也算得上是荣幸之至吧。
dubiously adv.
establish links=forge links
📌阅读这一段会出现一个问题就是很有可能读完以后发现内容大概都能明白，也没有什么难的词汇，但是却感觉读得不是特别透彻。是为什么呢？关键就在于信息。因为背后的信息掌握得不够，所以导致文章内容理解得不透彻。
那么，对于这一段我们需要掌握哪些信息呢？
据统计像Google，Facebook这样的technology giants，他们的广告收入可以占到总收入的近九成，所以广告收入对于他们来说绝对不是蝇头小利，而是很重要的一部分。这也是为什么文章会反复拿广告收入来说事儿。
Google的广告平台⬇️
📌“Under a voluntary agreement with European regulators, the big firms have set a target of reviewing (and, when appropriate, removing) within a day at least 50% of content flagged by users as hateful or xenophobic.”
The Guardian对这件事的报道 ⬇️
可能不去了解这些背景信息，我们依然能够读懂这篇文章，但是掌握和了解这些补充信息绝对能让我们读得更有底气。不同的媒体对同一件事的报道会有不同的角度，而当我们了解更多的角度和信息以后，我们对这件事的内容本身就加深了了解，而当我们了解了内容了，我们对语言也加深了了解。
The strongest measure is new laws. In 2002, for example, Britain made internet service providers (or ISPs) liable for child pornography if they did not take it down “expeditiously”. The ISPs used a charity to compile a list of blocked URLs that it updated twice daily. The charity works closely with law-enforcement agencies in Britain and abroad. Similarly, American lawmakers have clamped down on copyright infringement.
expeditiously
/ˌɛkspɪˈdɪʃəslɪ; ˌeksp%ˈdɪʃəsli/ ADV formal
in a quick and effective way 【正式】迅速而有效地；
同efficiently :
All issues presented to the court are considered as fairly and expeditiously as possible. 向法庭提交的所有问题都得到了尽可能公正和迅速有效的审议。
— expeditious ADJ:
an expeditious system for examining claims for refugee status 快捷高效的难民身份申请审查制度
clamp down
Phrasal Verbs
clamp down | clamp down on somebody | clamp down on something
to take strict action in order to prevent something, especially crime
a campaign by police to clamp down on street crime
The US government is clamping down on drugs.
crack down
[PHRASAL VERB]If people in authority crack down on a group of people, they become stricter in making the group obey rules or laws.
See also:crackdown
[V P on n]The government has cracked down hard on those campaigning for greater democracy...
[V P]There has been a lot of drinking. We are cracking down now. Anyone who gets caught is fired.
Syn: clamp down
Miller was speaking after a summit with some of the world's largest internet service providers (ISPs), which were summoned by the culture secretary because of concerns in government that they are failing to take adequate steps to crack down on images of child abuse.
——The Guardian
infringement
infringements
1.[N-VAR: usu N of/on n]An infringement is an action or situation that interferes with your rights and the freedom you are entitled to.
//...infringement of privacy...
They see it as an infringement on their own freedom of action.
2.[N-VAR: usu N of n]An infringement of a law or rule is the act of breaking it or disobeying it.
There might have been an infringement of the rules...
Infringement of the regulation is punishable by a fine.
📌“Britain made internet service providers (or ISPs) liable for child pornography if they did not take it down ‘expeditiously’.”
The Guardian对这件事的报道 ⬇️
网友评论