读外刊学表达：chip away at sth损害或削弱某物，使其不那么有效
快乐妈咪小C2019-09-21 14:32
今天分享外刊中的一个表达：
chip away at sth.，表示“to gradually make something less effective or destroy it〔逐步〕削弱；〔不断〕损害”
chip作动词时可以表示“切下，削下，凿下”，chip away at sth.本意指“削去、击碎”等，例如：He was chipping away at the stone. 他不停地凿那块石头。
在愚公移山的故事中，“为了不受大山阻隔，他终年率子孙凿山移石”，就可以翻译为 To get rid of this inconvenience, he led his sons and grandsons in chipping away at the mountains year after year.
用chip away at sth.来表达“〔逐步〕削弱；〔不断〕损害”也就很形象了， 例如：
They chipped away atthe power of the government. 他们不断削弱政府的权力。
Fears about the future chipped away at her sense of well-being. 对未来的担忧慢慢地淡化了她的幸福感。
以下都是这个表达在外刊中的使用：
例句1：The comparative immunity from legal liability of digital platforms—for the posting of inflammatory content on Facebook, say, or the vetting of drivers on Uber—is being chipped away. 相对而言，数字平台之前享有更多的法律责任豁免一一比如在Facebook上发布煽动性内容或优步司机的审核，但这种豁免如今也在逐渐削弱。
inflammatory ：使人激愤的，煽动性的例句2：Taxing the rich in order to fund spending on the poor is a straightforward solution to inequality. But the well-heeled are adept at squeezing through tax loopholes, and at marshalling the political clout needed to chip away at high tax rates. 解决不平等问题的一个简单直接的办法是向富人征税，以资助穷人。但是，富人擅长钻税收漏洞，也擅于集结政治影响力来削减高税率。
well-heeled富有的adept (at) 内行的，熟练的squeeze through挤过，钻过去marshal 调集，集结：marshal the political clout集结政治影响力例句3：The government pays lip service to this, and indeed some reforms point in the right direction: it is deregulating interest rates; the exchange rate, though still managed, is more flexible; defaults are chipping away at the notion that the state will guarantee every investment, no matter how foolish. 政府对此信誓旦旦，也确实朝着正确的方向推出了一些改革——逐步放开利率管制；汇率虽然仍受管制，但比以前更灵活；连串违约事件正逐渐改变人们的观念，不再认为不论什么投资，哪怕是极其愚蠢的投资都会有政府做担保。
pay lip service to sb/sth：to say that you support or agree with something without doing anything to prove it对某人/某事空口答应，口惠而实不至；deregulate：撤销政府对…的管制
以上。
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