原文：
English-medium education
Babel is better
Young children should be taught in their mother tongue, not in English
Leaders Feb 23rd 2019
1. WHEN WINSTON CHURCHILL was at Harrow School, he was in the lowest stream. This did not, he wrote in "My Early Life", blight his academic career, for "I gained an immense advantage over the cleverer boys. They all went on to learn Latin and Greek and splendid things like that...We were considered such dunces that we could learn only English...Thus I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence—which is a noble thing."
2. Partly thanks to Churchill and the post-war Anglo-American ascendancy, English is these days prized, not despised. Over a billion people speak it as either their first or second language; more still as a third or fourth language.
3. English perfectly exemplifies the "network effects" of a global tongue: the more people use it, the more useful it is. English is the language of international business, law, science, medicine, entertainment and—since the second world war, to the fury of the French—diplomacy. Anybody who wants to make their way in the world must speak it. All of which has, of course, been of great benefit to this newspaper, which has floated on a rising linguistic tide.
1.tongue
🥕说话尖酸刻薄：sharp-tongued（adj.）
能说会道：silver-tongued（adj.）
话多：loose one's tongue
The wine had certainly loosened my tongue.
thaw（v. 融冰）酒后放开：
After a few glasses of wine, I began to thaw a little.
🥕tongue：language
mother / native tongue
2.stream
🥕stream of：一连串、一系列
A(n) steady / constant / endless stream of visitors came to the Great Wall.
🥕in the top stream 在最好的班里
in the low stream 在差等班里
Examinations are used to choose which pupils are to move into the top streams.
3.blight
🥕blight：枯萎病，不幸，问题
economic blight 经济问题
urban blight 城市问题
🥕blight：affect, damage, ruin
For bricks-and-mortar shops these are difficult times. In some parts of the world shopping malls are being blighted as their customers move online.
（bricks-and-mortar shops=physical shops vs.online shops)
One failure or more will not blight the prospect of your future success as long as you hold on to the sanguine attitude with which you grieve less and look further.
🥕plague
The national league has been plagued by corruption, match-fixing scandals and a middling standard of play.
5.gain an immense advantage over
He gained an advantage over his competitors.
gain（enjoy, hold, have, get）
immense（considerable, enormous, huge, overwhelming）
🥕gain a leg-up over
They pander to two common demands from well-off parents: to entertain children over the long summer holidays and to give them a leg-up over their peers.
6.go on
🥕go on doing sth：继续做
Unemployment is likely to go on rising this year.
🥕go on to do：做完某件事之后接着做另一件事
She went on to say that she had discussed it with the Canadian foreign minister.
7.Such...that...
He was in such a hurry that he almost pushed me over on the stairs.
他这么急匆匆的，差点把我推下楼梯。
such a pleasant surprise
such beautiful girls
8.get sth into my bones
I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence—which is a noble thing.
9.X is these days prized, not despised.
China’s tech companies, which were once despised, are now prized.
Tolerance is prized as a strength, not despised as a weakness.
10.ascendancy
升高，优势地位
The extremists are gaining ascendancy.
11.more still
still前（后）+形容词比较级=even+形容词比较级
better / harder / worse still = still better / harder / worse = even better, harder (than sth else)
I found biology difficult, and physics harder still.
12.exemplify
English perfectly exemplifies the "network effects" of a global tongue.
The building exemplifies the style of architecture which was popular at the time.
13.The more..., the more...
The more people use it, the more useful it is.
13.to the fury of...(to one’s fury)
to one's surprise 令某人惊讶的是
to one’s admiration 令某人羡慕的是
to one’s regret 令某人遗憾的是
to one’s+情感名词：令某人...的是
14.make one’s way：取得成功
Anybody who wants to make their way must persist.
15.be of benefit to...对...有利
🥕of+n.=adj.
be beneficial to...对...有利
🥕help, favor有利于
The warm climate favours many types of tropical plants.
It helps my concentration if I listen to music while I'm working.
16.A rising tide lifts all boats/All boats float on a rising tide
惠民政策会惠及大众
The rising tide will lift some boats, but others will run aground.
Run aground表示“搁浅”
They used to say a rising tide lifted all boats. Now the rising tide just seems to lift the yachts.
🥕X has floated on a rising Y tide.
China’s middle-class floated on a rising economic tide.
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