VOA慢速英语2021 以色列特拉维夫成全球生活成本最高城市

The Israeli city of Tel Aviv is the world’s costliest¹ place to live, the Economist² Intelligence Unit (EIU) research group says.

经济学人智库（EIU）研究机构称，以色列的特拉维夫成为全球生活成本最高的城市。

The EIU released the results of its yearly "Worldwide Cost of Living Index" on Wednesday.

经济学人智库周三发布了年度《全球生活成本指数》的结果。

The index is created by comparing prices in U.S. dollars for goods and services in 173 cities.

全球生活成本指数是通过比较173个城市的商品和服务的美元价格而创建的。

The EIU uses 400 individual prices across 200 products and services to decide the world's costliest and least costly³ places.

经济学人智库根据400人购买200种商品和服务的价格来决定全球生活成本最高和生活成本最低的城市。

It is the first time Tel Aviv has held the index's highest position.

特拉维夫首次在该指数排名中位列榜首。

Last year, it was in the sixth position.

去年，它排在第六位。

The Israeli city climbed the rankings partly because of the strength of its national money, the shekel, against the dollar.

这座以色列城市排名上升的部分原因是它的国家货币——谢克尔对美元汇率上涨。

Other reasons were increases in prices for transportation and food.

其他原因是交通和食品价格上涨。

Singapore and Paris came in tied for second, followed by the Swiss city of Zurich and Hong Kong.

新加坡和巴黎并列第二，紧随其后的是瑞士苏黎世和中国香港。

Another Swiss city, Geneva, came in seventh.

另一个瑞士城市日内瓦排在第七位。

The rest of the top 10 costliest cities were Copenhagen, Denmark; Los Angeles, California; and Osaka, Japan.

十大“最贵”城市中的其他城市有丹麦的哥本哈根、加利福尼亚州的洛杉矶和日本的大阪。

Last year, the EIU index named Paris, Zurich, and Hong Kong in a tie for first place.

去年，经济学人智库《全球生活成本指数》显示，巴黎、苏黎世和香港并列第一。

This year's data was collected in August and September as prices for goods rose.

今年的数据是在8月和9月收集的，当时商品价格上涨。

The EIU found that, on average, prices rose 3.5 percent in local currency terms.

经济学人智库发现，以当地货币计算的平均价格上涨了3.5%。

That is the fastest inflation rate recorded over the past five years.

这是过去五年中记录的增长最快的通胀率。

Social restrictions⁴ due to the COVID-19 pandemic "have disrupted the supply of goods, leading to shortages and higher prices," said Upasana Dutt.

犹帕萨纳·杜特说，由于新冠肺炎疫情引发的社会限制措施“扰乱了商品供应，导致商品短缺和价格上涨。”

She is head of worldwide cost of living at the EIU.

她是经济学人智库全球生活成本项目的负责人。

"We can clearly see the impact in this year's index,” Dutt added.

杜特还说：“我们可以清楚地看到这些因素对今年指数造成的影响。”

The average inflation number does not include four cities with exceptionally high rates.

平均通胀数据不包括四个通胀率异常高的城市。

Those cities are Caracas, Venezuela; Damascus, Syria; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Tehran, Iran.

这些城市是委内瑞拉的加拉加斯、叙利亚的大马士革、阿根廷的布宜诺斯艾利斯和伊朗的德黑兰。

Damascus was ranked the world's least costly city to live in.

大马士革被列为全球生活成本最低的城市。

Tehran, Iran's capital, rose from 79th to 29th in the rankings this year.

伊朗首都德黑兰的排名从第79位升至今年的第29位。

The sharp rise--the biggest of any city--is due to financial punishments by the United States.

它是所有城市中排名上升幅度最大的一个城市，其原因是美国的经济制裁。

Those sanctions have led to higher prices and caused shortages.

这些制裁推高了价格并导致商品短缺。

Rome, Italy saw the biggest drop in the rankings.

意大利罗马的排名下降幅度最大。

It fell from 32nd place last year to 48th place this year.

从去年的第32位跌至今年的第48位。

1 costliest   

adj.昂贵的( costly的最高级 )；代价高的；引起困难的；造成损失的

参考例句：

• At 81 billion dollars, Katrina is the costliest natural disaster in American history. “卡特里娜”飓风造成了近810亿美圆的损失，是美国历史上最严重的自然灾难之一。 来自互联网
• Senator John Kerry has proposed a tax on the costliest health plans sold by insurance companies. 参议员约翰？克里(JohnKerry)已经提议对保险公司销售的高价值的保险计划征税。 来自互联网

2 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

3 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

4 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制