​A Trip Around the World 环游世界之旅

A Trip Around the World

环游世界之旅

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　　By John Russell

　　01 February 2024

　　Pack your bags, make sure your travel documents are in order.

　　Today we are taking a trip around the world — if only in our imagination.

　　For this Everyday Grammar lesson, we will leave behind our grammar books. We will instead look at messages from friends who are in Pakistan, Spain, Belgium, and Japan.

　　Our goal: to learn more about the populations of different countries. We will learn about English along the way.

　　Let's begin our journey...

　　Background

　　In a recent lesson about the noun "population," we asked our listeners the following questions:

　　What is the population like in your country or city? Is the population increasing or decreasing?

　　Here are some of the answers we received:

　　Pakistan

　　Saeed wrote to us from Lahore, Pakistan. Saeed noted:

　　City Lahore – Pakistan

　　Increasing

　　In 2023 was 13,979,000, a 3.23% increase from 2022.

　　Saeed presented some exact numbers about the city of Lahore.

　　Our suggestion is to use complete sentences. In other words, Saeed could update the statement to something like this:

　　The population of Lahore, Pakistan, is increasing.

　　In 2023, the population was 13,979,000, a 3.23% increase from 2022.

　　Spain

　　Now that we have learned some information about a big city in Pakistan, we can learn about a major European city. Rafael writes to us from Barcelona, Spain.

　　Here is part of the message:

　　...The populacion in my city is decreasing due to low birth rate, although the total count is maintained thanks to inmigration....The arrival of people from very different cultures creates some integration problems, but it helps to solve other important ones derived from the general aging....

　　Rafael wrote an excellent message. Our main suggestion is to double check the spelling of a few words: population and immigration.

　　In terms of grammar, one idea is to include an article such as "the" before "birth rate." Definite and indefinite articles help show the difference between a specific and a general noun.

　　So, we could update Rafael's statement to something like this: "The population in my city is decreasing due to the low birth rate..."

　　Belgium

　　Now let's look at part of a message from Jean Claude, in Belgium.

　　...The population of Belgium was 11.67 million inhabitants on January 2023. The Belgian population increased by 0.98% compared to the previous year...

　　Jean Claude's message was clear and to the point. There is one suggestion we have. It is in the first sentence. We have the phrase "on January 2023" but instead we should use the short word "in," like this:

　　The population of Belgium was 11.67 million inhabitants in January 2023.

　　We usually use the short word "on" for an exact date, such as "on January 4th" or "on January 27th"

　　Next, we are in for a long trip to the other side of the world. A friend from Japan would like to tell us about the population of the island country.

　　Japan

　　Here is part of a message from an unnamed reader:

　　According to the national statics, Japan's population has been decreasing almost 600,000 people per a year. There are more than 120,000,000 people in Japan now. However, I heard the population will be under 100,000,000 in 30 years.

　　We suggest the following changes to the first sentence. The term "statics" should be changed to "statistics." In addition, we often use the short word "by" after decreasing. We can then remove "a" from its position before "year." So, we might update the sentence to something like this:

　　According to national statistics, Japan's population has been decreasing by almost 600,000 people per year.

　　Lessons

　　That brings us to the end of our imaginative trip around the world.

　　We received many wonderful pieces of writing – those that were included in today's lesson and many others that were not.

　　Overall, the general recommendations are to pay careful attention to spelling and to double check short words – prepositions, articles, and so on.

　　We hope that you have learned a little more about the world, as well as some ideas to use when you write in English.

　　I'm John Russell.

　　John Russell wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.

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　　作者：约翰·罗素

　　2024年2月1日

　　打包你的行李，确保你的旅行证件齐全。

　　今天我们将进行一次环游世界的旅行——即使只是在我们的想象中。

　　在这节日常语法课中，我们将把我们的语法书留在后面。我们将会看看来自在巴基斯坦、西班牙、比利时和日本的朋友们的消息。

　　我们的目标：了解更多关于不同国家的人口信息。我们将在这个过程中学习英语。

　　让我们开始我们的旅程...

　　背景

　　在最近关于名词"人口"的课程中，我们向我们的听众提出了以下问题：

　　你的国家或城市的人口情况如何？人口是在增加还是在减少？

　　以下是我们收到的一些答案：

　　巴基斯坦

　　Saeed从巴基斯坦的拉合尔给我们写信。Saeed指出：

　　城市拉合尔 - 巴基斯坦

　　人口增加

　　2023年为13,979,000，比2022年增加了3.23%。

　　Saeed提供了关于拉合尔市的一些确切数字。

　　我们的建议是使用完整的句子。换句话说，Saeed可以将声明更新为类似这样的内容：

　　巴基斯坦拉合尔的人口正在增加。

　　2023年，人口为13,979,000，比2022年增加了3.23%。

　　西班牙

　　现在我们已经了解了关于巴基斯坦一个大城市的一些信息，我们可以了解一个主要的欧洲城市。Rafael从西班牙巴塞罗那给我们写信。

　　以下是部分信息：

　　...我的城市的人口正在减少，原因是出生率低，尽管由于移民的原因，总数得以维持....来自非常不同文化的人的到来产生了一些融合问题，但它帮助解决了其他一些由于普遍老龄化而产生的重要问题....

　　Rafael写了一封优秀的信。我们的主要建议是仔细检查几个单词的拼写：人口（population）和移民（immigration）。

　　在语法方面，一个想法是在"出生率"（birth rate）之前加上一个冠词，如"the"。定冠词和不定冠词有助于显示特定名词和一般名词之间的区别。

　　所以，我们可以将Rafael的陈述更新为类似这样的内容："由于出生率低，我城市的人口正在减少..."

　　比利时

　　现在让我们看看来自比利时的Jean Claude的部分信息。

　　...2023年1月，比利时的人口为1167万。与前一年相比，比利时人口增加了0.98%...

　　Jean Claude的信息清晰明了。我们有一个建议。在第一句中。我们有短语"on January 2023"，但我们应该使用短词"in"，像这样：

　　2023年1月，比利时的人口为1167万。

　　我们通常在确切的日期上使用短词"on"，例如"on January 4th"或"on January 27th"

　　接下来，我们将进行一次长途旅行，到世界的另一边。一个来自日本的朋友想告诉我们关于这个岛国的人口。

　　日本

　　以下是一位未署名读者的部分信息：

　　根据国家统计，日本的人口每年减少近60万人。现在日本有超过1亿2000万人。然而，我听说30年后人口将会少于1亿。

　　我们建议对第一句进行以下修改。"statics"应改为"statistics"。此外，我们通常在"decreasing"后面使用短词"by"。然后我们可以从"year"前面去掉"a"。所以，我们可能会将句子更新为类似这样的内容：

　　根据国家统计，日本的人口每年减少近60万人。

　　教训

　　这带我们来到了我们想象中的环游世界之旅的结束。

　　我们收到了许多精彩的写作作品 - 包括今天课程中包含的那些和许多其他没有包含的。

　　总的来说，一般的建议是要仔细注意拼写，并仔细检查短词 - 介词、冠词等。

　　我们希望你对世界有了更多的了解，以及在你用英语写作时可以使用的一些想法。

　　我是约翰·罗素。

　　约翰·罗素为VOA学习英语写了这篇课文。

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　　这个故事中的词汇

　　check –v. 检查，通过再次查看或阅读以确保某事物的正确性

　　spelling –n. 拼写，单词中字母正确书写或拼写的方式

　　phrase – n. 短语，两个或更多单词的组合，表达一个单一的概念，但通常不构成完整的句子

　　inhabitant – n. 居民，生活在特定地方的人

　　statistic – n. （通常为复数）统计数字，代表某一信息的数字