英语学习日记一（By Becca Wen）

学习任何语言，一定都包含“输入”和“输出”两部分，这是一个语言学习的完整过程。

“输入”包括听力、阅读，当然在这过程中，词汇和语法是基础，也是输入的一部分；“输出”则包括说、写、译。

很遗憾，我们大多数人，包括我自己，很多时候，学习英文，仅仅停留在了“输入”阶段，而忽略了去“输出”。结果，语言学习，实则并未完成，学到的英文，也都是“死”的。

英语的重要性毋庸置疑，我自己对英文学习非常感兴趣，加上兼职当老师之故，为了能让学生进步，自己就得不断学习。

为了督促自己工作之余能持续学习英语，决定在公众号里撰写自己每日英文学习笔记，并分享一些学习心得。

愿与大家共同进步。

我的英文学习材料，基本来自ＢＢＣ新闻、经济学人、ＵＮ网站。为学习口译，同时扩大知识面，今年起，将按照“专题”形式，从“经济、政治、环境、、医学、社会热点”等领域，以２—３个月为学习单位，一个时间段，从听、说、读、写、译入手，集中攻克一个领域。

或许你也可以尝试这一学习计划。

前面说过，学习英文，最好包含“输入”和“输出”两个完整的过程，所以，我每天都会选定一篇文章，先阅读，再积累词汇，这是“输入”过程；而后，再将文章翻译，并试着用自己的语言，用英文简单复述原文，这可算作“写”。

当然，如果是早上，也可以采取“说”的方式，复述原文。这两步是“输出”。

今天，工作比较多，时间少，只学习了一则５００字的ＢＢＣ新闻，讨论的是巴西监狱暴乱的原因。

下面，我将从阅读、词汇、翻译、写作四步进行学习，并附上自己的感悟，希望那些不愿自己找资料的朋友，可以一步步参照来学习。

下面，开始学习。

First: Reading

请认真读完哦，至少读三遍。

Brazil prison riots: What's the cause?

A spate of violence in Brazil's prisons has cast a spotlight on a system which appears to be near a state of collapse.

Almost 100 inmates lost their lives in the first week of January alone - brutally murdered, the guards apparently unable to stop the bloodshed.

But how has it come to this?

Problem one: Overcrowding

A crackdown on violent and drug-related offences in recent years has seen Brazil's prison population soar since the turn of the century.

The prison in Roraima state where 33 inmates were killed on 6 January held 1,400 inmates when a deadly riot started. That is double its capacity.

Overcrowding makes it hard for prison authorities to keep rival factions separate. It also raises tensions inside the cells, with inmates competing for limited resources such as mattresses and food.

In the relatively wealthy state of Sao Paulo, a single guard oversees 300 to 400 prisoners in some prisons, Camila Dias, a sociologist at the Federal University of ABC in Sao Paulo and expert on Brazil's prison system, told Reuters.

That means it is relatively easy for prisoners - and gangs - to take control of the facilities. As a result, "when the prisoners want to have an uprising, they have an uprising," Ms Dias said.

Problem two: Gang warfare

Killings are already common within the walls of Brazil's prisons - 372 inmates lost their lives in this way in 2016, according to Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper - but this recent surge has been linked to the breakdown in a two-decade truce of sorts between the country's two most powerful gangs.

Up until recently, the Sao Paulo-based First Capital Command (PCC) drug gang and Rio de Janeiro's Red Command had a working relationship, supposedly to ensure the flow of marijuana, cocaine and guns over Brazil's porous borders and into its cities.

But recently they have fallen out - although the exact reasons why remain unclear.

And following the government crackdown on criminal gangs, there are thousands of members of both gangs locked up inside Brazilian prisons.

Rafael Alcadipani, a public security expert at the Getulio Vargas Foundation think tank in Sao Paulo, told Reuters it means any feud between the two sides on the streets will almost certainly spill over into the largely "self-regulated" jails.

"We see that as soon as we have a gang war, these killings are inevitably going to happen because the state has no control over the prisons," he said.

Problem three: Lack of resources

Following the deadly riots in Amazonas, state governor Jose Melo asked the federal government for equipment such as scanners, electronic tags and devices which block mobile phone signals inside prisons.

His request illustrates the lack of basic equipment in prisons which house large numbers of prisoners.

He also said that the state police force was struggling to cope and requested that federal forces be sent.

Poorly-trained and badly-paid prison guards often face inmates who not only outnumber them but who also feel they have little to lose as they face long sentences already.

Following the 1 January riot, which left 56 inmates dead in a prison in Manaus, the Brazilian government announced a plan to modernise the prison system.

But with Brazil going through its worst recession in two decades and a 20-year cap on public spending in place, it is hard to see how the government plans to fund it.

Second: vocabulary—learning

请在21天内，反复记忆！

cast a spotlight on: 使……受到关注

fall out：（关系）破裂；闹翻

block mobile phone signals：屏蔽手机信号

raises tension:引起关系紧张

inmate：犯人，囚犯

riot/ uprising：暴乱，起义

faction：帮派

这些单词，实则对我而言，都不是生词，但是要想真正掌握一个单词，“形音义”一定要打通，每个词都要达到“Ｂoy”、“Ｇirl”这样的熟练度，形成了条件反射，才算过关。所以，还是写出来，决定再进行反复操练。

Third：translating

请用心去翻译哦，哪怕翻译一段也好！

巴西监狱暴力骚乱：根源何在？

巴西监狱暴乱频发，引发人们对巴西似已濒临崩溃的监狱系统的关注。

仅在一月第一周，就有将近100名犯人丧生——他们残遭杀害，对这些流血事件，监狱看守显然无能为力、束手无策。

但情况究竟何以致此？

问题一：超员严重、人满为患

近几年，巴西政府加大了打击暴力及贩毒的力度，世纪之交以来，巴西监狱人数急剧增长。

1月6日，罗赖马州一所监狱发生严重暴乱，33名犯人死亡，当时，该监狱关押着1400名囚犯，超过其实际容纳能力的两倍。

人满为患致使巴西当局无法将敌对帮派分开关押；同时，拥挤严重也加剧了室内人员的关系紧张，因为犯人很容易就会为争夺诸如床垫、食物等有限的资源，而发生争执。

位于圣保罗的巴西ABC联邦大学社会学家、巴西监狱系统研究专家卡米拉.迪亚斯告诉路透社记者，即使在经济相对发达的圣保罗州，一些监狱，一名看守通常就得监管三到四百名囚犯。

这也就意味着，囚犯们或帮派团伙控制监狱相对容易。结果，“犯人们想发动暴乱，就能发动暴乱，”迪亚斯先生说。

问题二：帮派战争

其实，巴西监狱杀戮业已十分普遍，据《圣保罗报》报道，仅2016年，巴西监狱就有372人死于这种方式。但最近频发的暴乱却与巴西势力最强的两大黑帮关系的破裂有关。20年来，两大黑帮一直勉强维系着所谓的“休战协议”。

直到前不久，以圣保罗为基地的黑帮“首都第一司令部”及活动在里约热内卢的“红色司令部”还保持着合作关系，据称，双方之所以如此，是为了确保能将大麻、可卡因及枪支从巴西破碎的国境运到各大城市去。

但最近，两大帮派闹翻了，尽管个中确切的原因还不得而知。

随着巴西政府打压犯罪团伙的力度加大，数千名隶属两大帮派的犯罪分子被捕入狱。

圣保罗瓦格斯基金会(Getulio Vargas Foundation)智囊团公共安全专家拉斐尔·阿尔卡迪帕尼（Rafael Alcadipani）告诉路透社记者，这种情况意味着，监狱外，帮派间的任何矛盾争执随即肯定就会延伸到基本“犯人自治”的监狱内部去。

“我们看到，只要帮派一旦发生战争，监狱内的互相杀戮就不可难免，因为当局完全控制不了监狱，”他说。

问题三：资源缺乏

亚马逊州监狱发生血腥暴乱后，州长乔斯.梅勒向联邦政府发出了请求，请求增援诸如金属探测仪、电子追踪器、手机信号屏蔽器等安保监控设备。

他的请求正暴露出关押着大量囚犯的巴西监狱设备却严重不足的问题。

亚马逊州长还说，州内警力正艰难应对监狱暴乱，并请求联邦增援。

缺乏训练且报酬极低的监狱看守通常不得不去对抗不仅数量远超自己，而且还“天不怕地不怕”的囚犯，因为反正他们刑期漫长，已经一无所有。

1月1日，玛瑙斯监狱发生56名犯人死亡的暴乱后，巴西政府宣布，将计划改善现有的监狱系统。

但目前，巴西正经历着二十年来“最严重”的经济衰退，且准备实施一项长达20年的控制公共开资计划，因此改善现有监狱系统所需的资金，从何而来，真是令人堪忧！

翻译分享：关于汉英主语

英美人则较强调客观，注重客观事物对人的影响和作用，因此无生命、抽象的名词作主语远比汉语中多。

英语这类非人称主语句采用“无灵主语” (inanimate subject)，表示抽象概念、心理感觉、事物名称或时间地点等，但谓语却常常使用“有灵动词” (animate verb)，表示人或社会团体的动作和行为，如see，find，witness,bring，give，escape，surround，kill，deprive，seize，send，know，tell，permit，invite，take，drive，prevent. . .  from等。

例如原文：A crackdown on violent and drug-related offences in recent years has seen Brazil's prison population soar since the turn of the century.

我自己就非常喜欢这个用“时间”作主语，用see，find,witness等作谓语造句。

如：二十年来，中国发生了翻天覆地的变化。

我会译为：The past 20 years has witnessed fundamental changes happening to China.

Fourth: writing

动手去写哦，即使只写50字。

试着用自己的语言，复述文章，或者写点读后感，最好能够将学到的单词、句型用上，这样，我们记忆的单词，才“活”了。

Becca今天时间有限，就打算用英文写几句话，但写几句话，也是好的哦。语言，是细水长流的过程，不贪求一步登天，日积月累就好。

“The moment I read the news this morning that the first week of January has witness several deadly riots in Brazil’s prison resulting in a death toll of more than 100 inmates, I felt so upset and sorrowful.

You know, I just couldn’t imagine such brutalities should happen in our modern world that many of the dead inmates were decapitated and threw into the dustbin by their cell roommates!

But having finished reading this piece of news, I realized this actually is not uncommon in Brazil where criminal gangs engaging in trafficking drugs and guns are rampant while the authorities can do nothing to do about that. The author analyzed in the article that three reasons can be attributed to the killings in the prison, which are overcrowding, lack of resources, and gang warfare.

To be fair, we guys are really lucky to be able to live in a stable society. We really are!”

这样，我就完成一篇英文文章的学习了。

学习路上，如果你觉得孤单，别忘了有我陪你。

望我们一起坚持下去。

请问，今天，你学英文了吗？