Overview
The world this week | Politics & Business
Disney’s second century
Technology is turning the business of culture upside down
Much of what is written about marketing to today’s most prized consumers is a myth.
- Start with the idea that, glued to smartphones, Gen Z barely notices the physical worlds and slavishly follows the latest hype from Instagram or TikTok. It is true that the days of marketing chiefly through television, newspapers and magazines are long gone. Yet social media has not just changed the ways in which people discover brands; it has undermined the power of marketing as a whole.
- There is similar temptation to think that physical shops no longer matter. But what works best is the seamless combination of the digital (virtual) and physical worlds.
- Don’t assume that all young customers are DiAngelo reading social warriors. Most consider a brand’s sustainability and social impact before checkout.
- What really matters is avoiding hypocrisy. Avoid platitudes, commit only to causes you can tangibly support and be frank when you are putting profits first.
Consumers | Don’t try to dig what we all say
A myth-busting memo on how to sell to the young
The upheaval rocking the Walt Disney Company today has relevant far beyond its empire. Disney’s trial are not just a boardroom drama. Similar crises are unfolding at other leading culture factories, from Warner Bros to Netflix. The reason is a technological revolution that is shaking things up again. Online distribution has enticed tech firms that make the hardware and software used for streaming. At the same time, new technology is allowing those lower down the “long tail” a better chance of reaching the profitable top. The first beneficiaries have been non-American film studios. Perhaps the most dramatic way technology could disrupt the culture business is by creating new categories of entertainment. Some Silicon Valley rivals are snapping up gaming IP. Movies based on games are becoming as popular as games based on movies. The great creative factories of Hollywood will have to adapt if they want to survive.
Demography | Struggling to stay on top
For the first time since the 1960s, Chinas population
The news, released on January 17th, that the country’s population had fallen last year for the first time in decades swept Chinese social media. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China had 1.412bn people at the end of last year, 850,000 fewer than at the start. Despite an unnatural number of deaths caused by covid 19 virus, the reason for the decline is clear: a plummeting desire to reproduce. Now as China ageing rapidly, the government has tried desperately to remedy this, though far too late. The relaxation of one-child-per-couple policy — accompanied by a slew of incentives to have children, ranging from cash handouts to tax breaks and longer maternity leave — has had little impact. There are several reasons why baby-making is becoming less popular. The main one is the cost of rearing children. (Government handouts have done little to ease the burden on parents.) Another economic barrier to childbirth is the cost of looking after the elderly. The reluctant of some young Chinese to marry and reproduce is also a sign of how traditional values are changing.
Bartleby | Faulty reasoning
Why pointing fingers is unhelpful, and why bosses do it more than anyone
Casting blame is natural, but also corrosive. Pointing fingers saps team cohesion. And firms whose managers pointed to external factors to explain their failings underperformed companies that blamed themselves. Some industries have long recognized the drawbacks of fault-finding. The incentive to learn from errors are similarly strong in health care as well, where lives are at risk. There is an obvious worry about embracing blamelessness. Sometimes, after all, blame is deserved. The idea of “just culture”, a framework developed in the 1990s, narrows room for blame but does not remove it entirely. There are two bigger problems with trying to move away from the tendency to blame. The first is that it requires a lot of effort. The second problem is the boss. A recent paper found that people who are in positions of authority are more likely to blame others for failures. Power and punitiveness went together. Researchers found that blame also seems to be contagious…
The new Moon race | This time it’s private
Three rival firms each hope to land the first private-sector probe on the Moon in the next few weeks.
In recent years launching things into orbit has become the province of private enterprise. When it comes to sending things to the Moon, however, governments retain a monopoly of success. All success lunar landers, orbiters and rovers have been launched at taxpayers’ expense. That seems likely to change in the next few weeks, when an uncrewed landers becomes the first commercial vehicle to touch down on the Moon. But which lander — or which company — will claim that accolade remains unclear. There is, in other words, a new Moon race. HAKUTO-R Mission 1 was launched on December 11th on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The “low energy” designation of trajectory takes longer to arrive at the Moon, but uses less fuel, than a direct trajectory. But its slower voyage also means that it could be overtaken by two other landers intended to arrive on the lunar surface before the date of its planned touchdown. The first of these is Nova-C, which chose a direct trajectory to minimize the radiation risk to the craft. The third contender is the Peregrine lander built by Astrobotic Technology.
Economic history | Mother of invention
A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industrial Revolution
The industrial revolution was the biggest transformation in economic history. For centuries scholars have sought to understand why this process occurred in Britain around 1750. Researchers are now testing theories by studying why similar parts of Britain industrialized at different rates. New papers have yields evidence for a few key factors: slave-owners’ capital, entrepreneurs who stood to benefit from investing, and short-ages of lower-skilled workers.
- Industrialization requires investment, which requires capital.
- Investors still needs financial incentives to buy machines.
- Another factor that has gained support is labour shortages, which spurred the adoption of labour-saving machines in wartime.
Such important variables are hard to test statistically, but measuring even a few is a promising advance.
The world this week
Politics
- gaffe, devolution, insurgent
- intensify its missile attacks
- bomb the population into submission
- a residential block
- be killed in a helicopter crash
- in dense fog
- Mafia figure
- on the run
- under a false name
- include Jair Bolsonaro in an investigation into the storming of government buildings
- dismiss 40 soldiers who were stationed outside the presidential palace
- reverse course
- a shrinking labor force and ageing population
- be poised to
- real toll
- be shot dead
- dismantle women’s freedoms and protections
- shop mannequins
- chop their heads off
- step down as New Zealand’s prime minister
- be cleared of tax evasion by a court
- provoke the ire
- his conviction for tax fraud / be convicted by the regime of spying
- the deputy Iranian defence minister
- forage for food
- lodge a similar request
- criticize the Biden administration’s handling of migration
The arrest was hailed as the culmination of a three-decade-old strategy to weaken the grip of Cosa Nostra on Sicily.
The ruling sets Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, who himself faces charges of bribery and fraud, on a collision path with the court.
He said he had been tortured and forced to confess to crimes that he did not commit.
Thousands of people … and millions forced from their homes and fields since jihadists began crossing the border from Mali in 2015.
South Africa and Zambia in a bid to counter the economic and political influence of China, a big financier of infrastructure projects.
- A gaffe / ɡæf / is a stupid or careless mistake, for example when you say or do something that offends or upsets people. (愚蠢或粗心的)错误 [N-COUNT]
- Devolution is the transfer of some authority or power from a central organization or government to smaller organizations or government departments. (中央机构或政府权力的) 下放
- Insurgents are people who are fighting against the government or army of their own country. 起义者 [正式] [usu pl]
- If someone is on the run, they are trying to escape or hide from someone such as the police or an enemy. 在逃
- If someone is poised to do something, they are ready to take action at any moment. 随时准备行动的 [v-link ADJ]
- To dismantle an organization or system means to cause it to stop functioning by gradually reducing its power or purpose. 逐步废除
- A mannequin / ˈmænɪkɪn / is a life-sized model of a person which is used to display clothes, especially in shop windows. 时装模特
- If someone is cleared, they are proved to be not guilty of a crime or mistake. 宣判无罪
- Tax evasion is the crime of not paying the full amount of tax that you should pay. 逃税 [商业]
- If someone has a conviction, they have been found guilty of a crime in a court of law. 判罪
- When animals forage, they search for food. (动物) 觅食
- If you lodge a complaint, protest, accusation, or claim, you officially make it. 正式提出 (投诉、抗议、指控、要求)
- If a place that is being defended is stormed, a group of people attack it, usually in order to get inside it.
- When an employer dismisses an employee, the employer tells the employee that they are no longer needed to do the job that they have been doing.
- A toll is a total number of deaths, accidents, or disasters that occur in a particular period of time. [death toll]
- Ire is anger. 愤怒 [正式]
- A deputy is the second most important person in an organization such as a business or government department. Someone’s deputy often acts on their behalf when they are not there.
- Something, especially something important, that is the culmination of an activity, process, or series of events happens at the end of it. 终点, 高潮
- Jihadist is a Muslim who is involved in a jihad. 圣战分子
- A bid for something or a bid to do something is an attempt to obtain it or do it. 努力尝试 [journalism]
- If a person, event, or achievement is hailed as important or successful, they are praised publicly. [usu passive]
- Someone’s grip on something is the power and control they have over it.
- A ruling is an official decision made by a judge or court.
Business
- raise the cap on fluctuations
- be left exposed to debt from Americanas
- ride-hailing service
- fall foul of
- delist its stock
- hit a record
- take Tesla private
Markets were left dumbfounded by the Bank of Japan’s decision to stick with its policy of controlling the yield on Japanese long-term government bonds.
Goldman Sachs reported a slump in profit for the fourth quarter, caused in part by a slowdown in investment banking. The bank is shedding 6.5% of its staff, including investment bankers, as part of cost-cutting drive. Still, Goldman’s net profit for the whole of 2022 came in at $11.3bn. Other banks have reported similar tales.
The news of its potential collapse caused its stock to plunge by 77% in a day.
The resumption of normal service indicates that the government now sees tech companies as engines of growth again, rather than as potential political threats.
Last year brought more extensive lockdowns in China, disrupting factories and consumer spending. China’s exports in December fell by 9.9% year-on-year in dollar terms, the sharpest decline since the start of the pandemic.
The return of Chinese tourists was cited as a factor by the World Tourism Organization when it forecast that international holidaymaking could reach 80-95% of pre-pandemic levels.
German GDP grew by 1.9% in 2022, despite the energy crisis and knock-on effects of the war in Ukraine.
Microsoft decided to cut 10,000 jobs, around 5% of its workforce, the latest in a around of lay-offs by tech companies *grappling with* a post-pandemic slowdown in sales.
On the same day that it collapsed, the business committee in the House of Commons launched an inquiry into the viability of making batteries in Britain for electric cars, noting a “series of setbacks” in the industry.
Jury candidates displaying hostility towards Mr Musk, including one who described him as a “delusional narcissist“, were weeded out from the final selection.
- If you run foul of someone or fall foul of them, you do something which gets you into trouble with them. 惹恼
- If a company delists or if its shares are delisted, its shares are removed from the official list of shares that can be traded on the stock market.
- If you are dumbfounded, you are extremely surprised by something. 惊呆的; 目瞪口呆的 [usu v-link ADJ]
- Knock-on means resulting inevitably but indirectly from another event or circumstance 有 (必然且间接) 影响的
- If you grapple with a problem or difficulty, you try hard to solve it. 努力解决 (问题)
- Delusion is the state of believing things that are not true. 妄想
- Narcissism is the habit of always thinking about yourself and admiring yourself. 自我陶醉; 自恋 [正式]
- If you weed out things or people that are useless or unwanted in a group, you find them and get rid of them. 清除; 剔除; 淘汰
- If you resume an activity or if it resumes, it begins again. [正式]
Leaders
Disney’s second century
- sequel, franchise, nail, apocalyptic
- the upheaval rocking the company
- cause a rollercoaster ride in its share price
- face a rebellion
- turn into the face-off
- niche content
- mainstream hit-maker
- golden age
- shake things up
- an add-on to their main business [extra]
- sign language
- fall from the top tier of media into the perilous middle
- lower barriers to entry
- make rudimentary videos
- special effects [特效]
- highest-grossing films [最高票房]
- when covid ebbs in China
- international hits
- highest-earning mobile game
- devote more time to gaming
- snap up gaming IP
- a welcome twist
As it launches its centenary celebrations on January 27th, the Walt Disney Company has sustained its appeal to the young and young-at-heart.
Its intellectual property (IP) is turned into merchandise ranging from lunchboxes to lightsabers, and exploited in theme parks that are churning out healthy profits even as covid-19 lingers.
Similar crises are unfolding at other leading culture factories, from Warner Bros to Netflix.
The continuing pre-eminence of a centenarian like Disney has confounded many predictions.
But those at the very top of the business have thrived. When anyone can watch anything, people flock to the best.
Those who have fared best at a shrinking box office are the owners of IP that is already popular.
Disney’s century has been one of endless reinvention, in business terms as well as artistic ones, as the company has moved its output from projectors to cables to cassettes and now bytes.
- A book or movie which is a sequel to an earlier one continues the story of the earlier one. (书或电影的) 续篇; 续集
- Apocalyptic / əˌpɒkəˈlɪptɪk / means relating to the total destruction of something, especially of the world. (世界)末日的 [usu ADJ n]
- A face-off is an argument or conflict that is intended to settle a dispute. 争吵; 冲突 [美国英语]
- Niche marketing is the practice of dividing the market into specialized areas for which particular products are made. A niche market is one of these specialized areas. 专营市场的 [商业] [ADJ n]
- Something that is perilous is very dangerous. 险恶的 [文学性]
- When the tide or the sea ebbs, its level gradually falls. 退潮
- If you snap something up, you buy it quickly because it is cheap or is just what you want. 争购
- A twist in something is an unexpected and significant development. 意外进展
- A nail is a thin piece of metal with one pointed end and one flat end. You hit the flat end with a hammer in order to push the nail into something such as a wall.
- An upheaval is a big change which causes a lot of trouble, confusion, and worry.
- A golden age is a period of time during which a very high level of achievement is reached in a particular field of activity, especially in art or literature.
- A tier is a row or layer of something that has other layers above or below it.
- If you devote yourself, your time, or your energy to something, you spend all or most of your time or energy on it.
- The centenary of an event such as someone’s birth is the 100th anniversary of that event. 一百周年纪念
- To churn out something means to produce large quantities of it very quickly. 快速大量生产 [非正式]
- When something such as an idea, feeling, or illness lingers, it continues to exist for a long time, often much longer than expected. 继续留存; 逗留
- A centenarian / ˌsɛntɪˈnɛərɪən / is someone who is a hundred years old or older. 百岁老人
- If you say that someone or something fares well or badly, you are referring to the degree of success they achieve in a particular situation or activity. 表现
- A cassette / kæˈsɛt is a small, flat, rectangular plastic case containing magnetic tape which is used for recording and playing back sound or film. 磁带
- If you sustain something, you continue it or maintain it for a period of time.
- If people flock to a particular place or event, a very large number of them go there, usually because it is pleasant or interesting. 云集于
Consumers | Don’t try to dig what we all say
- myth-busting, memo, lumber, boycott, backlash
- be liable to
- undermine the power of sth
- dodgy marketing claims
- build brand loyalty
- accumulate wealth
- online-only influencer-backed beauty brand
- bricks and mortar
- social justice
- brand’s sustainability and social impact
The trouble is that coming up with rules to define a swathe of humanity is more art than science.
Start with the idea that, glued to smartphones, Gen Z barely notices the physical world and slavishly follows the latest hype from Instagram or TikTok.
Surveys suggest that young Americans are among the most price-sensitive food shoppers.
There is a similar temptation to think that physical shops no longer matter. Young consumers love their Amazon deliveries. It makes sense for our company to make sales via social media and ship directly to customers’ homes. But what works best is the seamless combination of the digital and physical worlds.
It is chiefly youngsters who buy cheap “fast-fashion” outfits to wear once and then send to landfill.
Avoid platitudes, commit only to causes you can tangibly support and be frank when you are putting profits first.
- If you bust something, you break it or damage it so badly that it cannot be used. 打碎 [非正式]
- To be lumbered with sth. means to burden with something unpleasant, tedious, etc 使烦恼; 烦扰 [英国英语] [非正式]
- If a country, group, or person boycotts a country, organization, or activity, they refuse to be involved with it in any way because they disapprove of it. 联合抵制
- A backlash against a tendency or recent development in society or politics is a sudden, strong reaction against it. (对政治或社会变化的) 强烈反应
- Dodgy means risky, difficult, or dangerous. 冒险的; 困难的; 危险的
- You can use bricks and mortar to refer to houses and other buildings, especially when they are considered as an investment. 实体的 [traditional bricks-and-mortar companies / stores]
- A memo is a short official note that is sent by one person to another within the same company or organization.
- When something is liable to happen, it is very likely to happen. 很有可能的
- If people or things are liable to something unpleasant, they are likely to experience it or do it. 易于…的 [v-link ADJ ‘to’ n]
- If you undermine something such as a feeling or a system, you make it less strong or less secure than it was before, often by a gradual process or by repeated efforts.
- You use slavish to describe things that copy or imitate something exactly, without any attempt to be original. 照搬的; 盲从的; 一味模仿的
- Hype is the use of a lot of publicity and advertising to make people interested in something such as a product. 大肆的宣传广告; 炒作 [表不满]
- You use seamless to describe something that has no breaks or gaps in it or which continues without stopping. 无缝的; 不停顿的
- A platitude is a statement that is considered meaningless and boring because it has been made many times before in similar situations. 陈词滥调 [表不满]
- A swathe of land is a long strip of land.
- If you say that someone is glued to something, you mean that they are giving it all their attention.
- If something is tangible, it is clear enough or definite enough to be easily seen, felt, or noticed.
China
Demography | Struggling to stay on top
- resonance, spit [spat], fatality, sober, quadruple, chive [韭菜], cynically
- sink in
- scrap its policy
- a plummeting desire to reproduce
- reach the turning-point
- the ballooning cohort of elderly people
- switch to a three-children-per-couple policy
- be more an aspiration than a restriction
- fertility rate [生育率]
- rear children
- advanced economy
- amount to
- put off getting married
- tie the knot [结婚]
- still-growing working-age cohort
- rival its power
As news, released on January 17th, that the county’s population had fallen last year for the first time in decades swept Chinese social media, some commenters used these doom-laden words.
The retort, captured on a mobile phone, quickly went viral.
It is yet another reminder that China no longer enjoys the demographic dividend of a huge supply of cheap labour to boost its growth.
This relaxation — accompanied by a slew of incentives to have children, ranging from cash handouts to tax breaks and longer maternity leave — has had little impact.
Unless the government massively steps up its spending on care, families will pick up much of the tab.
Women are pushing back against the gender inequality of wedlock.
The internet seethes with resentment of the idea that…
- A fatality is a death caused by an accident or by violence. (事故或暴力导致的) 死亡 [正式] [COUNT]
- A sober person is serious and thoughtful. 严肃的
- When a statement or fact sinks in, you finally understand or realize it fully. 被充分理解; 被领会
- If you rear children, you take care of them until they are old enough to take care of themselves. 抚养
- If something has a resonance / ˈrɛzənəns / for someone, it has a special meaning or is particularly important to them.
- If someone quadruples / ˈkwɒdrʊpəl, -ˈdruːpəl / an amount or if it quadruples, it becomes four times bigger.
- If you describe someone as cynical, you mean they believe that people always act selfishly.
- If you scrap something, you get rid of it or cancel it. [journalism]
- A person’s cohorts are their friends, supporters, or associates. [表不满]
- If you say that one thing amounts to something else, you consider the first thing to be the same as the second thing.
- If you put something off, you delay doing it.
- If you say that one thing rivals another, you mean that they are both of the same standard or quality.
- If you have a sense or feeling of doom, you feel that things are going very badly and are likely to get even worse. 悲观
- If someone or something is laden with a lot of heavy things, they are holding or carrying them. 装满的 [文学性]
- If you step up something, you increase it or increase its intensity.
- A tab is the total cost of goods or services that you have to pay, or the bill for those goods or services. 总价钱; 帐单 [美国英语]
- Wedlock is the state of being married. 已婚 [老式]
- When you are seething, you are very angry about something but do not express your feelings about it. 怒火中烧
Business
Bartleby | Faulty reasoning
- snafu, corrosive, aviation, litigation, deem, adversarial, stake, postmortem, malevolent, omission, contagious
- own up to mistakes
- assign / allocate blame or liability [(法律上的) 责任]
- avoid a repeat [避免重蹈覆辙]
- clinical negligence [临床疏忽]
- address the concern that
- be let off the hook
- be commensurate with
- be particularly prone to
- in positions of authority [在权威职位上]
- withhold payment
- pin one’s own failures on others
- shoulder the blame for one’s shortfall
Pointing fingers saps team cohesion.
The incentives to learn from errors are particularly strong in aviation and healthcare, where safety is paramount and lives are at risk.
That narrows room for blame but does not remove it entirely.
Power and punitiveness went together.
- If you describe a situation as a snafu / snæˈfuː /, you mean that it is disorderly or disorganized and that it is usually like this. 无秩序的; 混乱的 [美国英语] [非正式] [usu adj N]
- Litigation / ˌlɪtɪˈɡeɪʃən / is the process of fighting or defending a case in a civil court of law. 诉讼
- A postmortem is an examination of something that has recently happened, especially something that has failed or gone wrong. 事后调查 [原义为尸检]
- A feeling or attitude that is contagious / kənˈteɪdʒəs / spreads quickly among a group of people. 有感染力的
- If you own up to something wrong that you have done, you admit that you did it. 承认
- If you address a problem or task or if you address yourself to it, you try to understand it or deal with it. 处理; 设法了解并解决
- If someone gets off the hook or is let off the hook, they manage to get out of the awkward or unpleasant situation that they are in. 脱身 [非正式]
- If the level of one thing is commensurate with another, the first level is in proportion to the second. 成比例的; 相称的 [正式] [v-link ADJ ‘with/to’ n, ADJ n]
- If you withhold something that someone wants, you do not let them have it. 拒绝给 [正式]
- If someone tries to pin something on you or to pin the blame on you, they say, often unfairly, that you were responsible for something bad or illegal. 把…归罪于
- If you say that something has a corrosive effect, you mean that it gradually causes serious harm. [正式]
- Aviation is the operation and production of aircraft.
- If you describe something as adversarial / ˌædvɜːˈsɛərɪəl /, you mean that it involves two or more people or organizations who are opposing each other. [正式]
- A malevolent / məˈlɛvələnt / person deliberately tries to cause harm or evil. [正式]
- Omission is the act of not including a particular person or thing or of not doing something.
- If you shoulder the responsibility or the blame for something, you accept it.
- Something that is paramount or of paramount importance is more important than anything else.
- If something saps your strength or confidence, it gradually weakens or destroys it. 消耗; 削弱
- If there is cohesion within a society, organization, or group, the different members fit together well and form a united whole.
Science & technology
The new Moon race | This time it’s private
- accolade, apogee, trajectory, trailblazing, trio, flotilla
- robotic rover
- at taxpayers’ expense [由纳税人承担的]
- uncrewed lander [无人着陆器]
- touch down on the Moon
- enter lunar orbit
- a selection of [精选的]
- lay the groundwork for sth. [奠定基础]
- pave the way for sth. [铺平道路]
- herald a new Moon rush [gold rush]
HAKUTO-R’s frugality saves weight, allowing for a larger payload.
The contest was shut down in 2018 and the prize went unclaimed.
And it states that no claims of sovereignty can be made, on the Moon or elsewhere.
- If someone is given an accolade, something is done or said about them which shows how much people admire them. 荣誉 [正式]
- The apogee / ˈæpəˌdʒiː / of something such as a culture or a business is its highest or its greatest point. 鼎盛时期; (某种文化或商业的)最高点 [正式] [with supp]
- A trailblazing idea, event, or organization is new, exciting, and original. 开拓性的 [ADJ n]
- A flotilla / fləˈtɪlə / is a group of small ships, usually military ships. 小型舰队
- When an aircraft touches down, it lands. 着陆
- Something that heralds / ˈhɛrəld / a future event or situation is a sign that it is going to happen or appear. 预示…的来临 [正式]
- A rover is a small remote-controlled vehicle which roams over rough, esp extraterrestrial, terrain taking photographs, gathering rock and soil samples, etc.
- People who are frugal or who live frugal lives do not spend much money on themselves. 俭朴的
- If something is unclaimed, nobody has claimed it or said that it belongs to them. 无人认领的
- Sovereignty / ˈsɒvrəntɪ / is the power that a country has to govern itself or another country or state. 主权; 统治权
Graphic detail
Economic history | Mother of invention
- captive, atypical, dissolve, monastery, serviceman
- a flurry of
- run counter-factual [虚拟的] experiments
- yield evidence for sth.
- amass wealth from slavery
- tenant farmer [佃农]
- at the vanguard of industrialization
- create an entrepreneurial class and incentives for technological advances
- shrink the workforce
- manual labour
- non-labour-saving machine
- a promising advance [有希望的进步]
The strength of evidence for each of these causes implies that industrialization probably required a complex mix of conditions.
Shortages of workers in wartime spurred the adoption of labour-saving machines.
- A captive person or animal is being kept imprisoned or enclosed. 被囚禁的; 被圈养的 [文学性] [also N-COUNT]
- A captive market is a group of people who cannot choose whether or where to buy things. (市场) 被垄断的 [ADJ n]
- A monastery / ˈmɒnəstərɪ / is a building or collection of buildings in which monks live. 修道院
- A serviceman is a man who is in the army, navy, air force, or marines. 军人
- A flurry of something such as activity or excitement is a short intense period of it. 一段短暂的紧张期
- A tenant farmer is a person who farms land rented from another, the rent usually taking the form of part of the crops grown or livestock reared. 佃农
- If someone is in the vanguard of something such as a revolution or an area of research, they are involved in the most advanced part of it. You can also refer to the people themselves as the vanguard. 先锋
- When an organization or institution is dissolved, it is officially ended or broken up.
- Manual labour is labour done with the hands.
- If one thing spurs you to do another, it encourages you to do it. 鼓动; 激励