近期，关于亚马逊森林大火的报道烧遍全网。近日，大火产生的烟雾已“兵临城下”，我们来看看《经济学人》最新评论，并学习如何快速识别出文中观点。

　　字数：223 words （近似 GRE medium passage 的长度）

　　考场上建议阅读时间：<3 min

　　Source: Darkness on the edge of town：Forest fires in the Amazon blacken the sun in S?oPaulo. The Economist. (Aug 24th 2019)

　　注：

　　1. 秉承批判性原则，本文立场与原文立场无关。

　　2. 今日选段较长，分成三段解析。

　　原文选摘

　　原文选摘1

　　During the Amazon’s dry season, it is common for farmers to set fires illegally to clear land. Brazil’s populist president, Jair Bolsonaro, has encouraged them by weakening the agencies that enforce environmental regulations. He holds the view that protecting the forest hinders economic development. When asked about the fires, he ludicrously responded by accusing environmental NGOs of setting the firest hemselves so as to make his government look bad, in retaliation for his cuts in their funding.

　　参考译文1

　　在亚马逊地区的旱季，农民通常会非法烧林开荒。巴西民粹主义总统贾尔·布尔索纳罗（Jair Bolsonaro）通过削弱负责执行环境法规的政府机关来鼓励这些农民。他认为保护森林妨碍经济发展。当被问及火灾时，他可笑地指责非政府环保组织自己纵火，来使他的政府看起来很糟糕，报复他对这些机构削减资助。

　　重点词汇1

　　populist 民粹主义= claiming to represent the common people

　　enforce 实施；加强

　　hold 认为 = believe, assert, maintain

　　hinder 阻碍= hamper, impede, inhibit, check, trammel

　　ludicrously 荒唐可笑地

　　accusesb. of sth. 指责/指控某人做某事

　　so as to = in order to 为了，目的是

　　retaliation 报复 = revenge, reprisal, vengeance

　　原文选摘2

　　Mr Bolsonaro argues that he is fighting an “information war” over the Amazon; he says he wants foreign governments and NGOs to stop meddling in Brazil. After INPE released data showing increasing deforestation in July, the president claimed the numbers were fake. He then sacked the head of the agency, Ricardo Magnus Osório Galv?o, a well-respected physicist.

　　参考译文2

　　布尔索纳罗表示，他正与关于亚马逊地区的“信息战”作斗争；他说，他希望外国政府和非政府组织停止干涉巴西事务。在INPE公布7月份森林砍伐量增加的数据后，巴西总统声称这些数据是伪造的。随后，他解雇了该机构的负责人——里卡多·马格纳斯·奥斯里奥·加尔夫奥（Ricardo Magnus Osório Galv?o），一位受人尊敬的物理学家。

　　重点词汇2

　　meddle 干涉，管闲事（介词用in）【注：区分介词 meddle with 擅自摆弄】

　　sack 解雇，开除【注：sack也有“洗劫，掠夺”的意思】

　　原文选摘3

　　Such belligerence outrages scientists and environmentalists. “Firing the director is an act of revenge against those who expose the truth,” says Marcio Astrini of Greenpeace, a pressure group. But the destruction of the rainforest tends to be out of sight, out of mind for a lot of Brazilians, most of whom live in large cities near the coast. The darkness brought deforestation to their door steps. “We don’t have much time,” a columnist wrote in the daily newspaper Folha de S?o Paulo. “Night will fall on all of us.”

　　参考译文3

　　这种挑衅行为激怒了科学家和环保主义者。压力集团“绿色和平组织”（Greenpeace）的马西奥?阿斯特里尼（Marcio Astrini）表示：“将负责人解雇是对揭露真相者的报复行为。”然而，众多巴西人对于热带雨林的破坏往往是眼不见，心不烦，他们中的大多数人生活在沿海大城市里。暗黑的天空将森林砍伐带到他们的家门口。“我们没有太多时间了。”一位专栏作家在《圣保罗日报》（Folha de S?o Paulo）上写道，“黑夜将降临在我们所有人身上。”

　　重点词汇3

　　belligerent 挑衅的，好战的 = bellicose, aggressive, hostile

　　outrage 激怒 = enrage, infuriate

　　非GRE词汇：

　　pressure group 压力集团（通过施加政治压力以扩展自身利益的集团）

　　out of sight, out of mind 眼不见，心不烦

　　能力培养&考点解析

　　【知识点】如何快速找到观点？

　　超神速的方法：不用看意思，找标志符号即可。

　　标志1

　　表示发出观点的动作，意思是“认为”：文中出现了hold, argue, claim，常用的还有 believe, assert, maintain等。类似的还有“说”（say)、“写道”(write)。

　　原文实例：

　　1. He holds the view that protecting the forest hinders economic development.

　　2. Mr Bolsonaro argues that he is fighting an“information war”over the Amazon; he says he wants foreign governments and NGOs to stop meddling in Brazil. After INPE released data showing increasing deforestation in July, the president claimed the numbers were fake.

　　3.“Firing the director is an act of revenge against those who expose the truth,” says Marcio Astrini of Greenpeace, a pressure group.

　　4.“We don’t have much time,” a columnist wrote in the daily newspaper Folha de S?o Paulo. “Night will fall on all of us.”

　　注：把这类动作变成名词形式或被动形式，同样也表示“观点”，以后我们见到原文实例再详谈。

　　标志2

　　表示态度的词。

　　原文实例：

　　When asked about the fires, he（指巴西总统） ludicrously responded by accusing（“指责”，体现出巴西总统对环保NGO的强烈负态度）environmental NGOs of setting the fires themselves so as to make his government look bad, in retaliation for his cuts in their funding.

　　标志3

　　体现评价的词。

　　原文实例：

　　上一句话中，其实还暗含了原文作者的观点：

　　When asked about the fires, he ludicrously（“荒唐可笑地”，这不是什么好词儿，因此体现出原文作者对巴西总统的负态度）responded by accusing environmental NGOs of setting the fires themselves so as to make his government look bad, inretaliation for his cuts in their funding.

　　结语

　　选文中最后一句话，“Night will fall on all of us”，体现出人类共同的命运。不由得联想到《权力的游戏》的一句主题语：Winter is coming.

　　在《权游》中，人类面临的大灾难同样是起源于森林的砍伐。在凛冬来临之际，就算诸国联合起来，面对共同的命运，或许都难以抵御超越人类、跨越国界的力量。到那时，诸王之间权力的游戏又有何意义呢？

　　曾有公众号文章说，西方媒体对亚马逊森林火灾罕有报道。其实，经济学人早在8月3日就已刊长篇评论性文章（Deathwatch: Brazil has the power to save Earth’s greatestrain forest—or destroy it），风格相当GRE，感兴趣的话推荐阅读。

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