【英语时差8,16】Debt 债务

Alex McDermot works for a charity called Citizens Advice Bureau and is an expert on helping¹ people with financial problems. I asked Alex how do people get into financial problems in the first place? And he says there are many different reasons. Sometimes it might be because they’ve fallen ill, and they’re not able to work as much as they used to. They might have lost their job, or their partner might have left them, so they might have had a reduced income that way. But it’s also true to say that some people have borrowed a lot of money that they just simply can’t pay back. So for Alex, it’s important that he educates people and helps them to plan their finances. We’re trying to work with people to sort of work out how they can manage their budget, live within their means, save for the future, and where possible make sure that if they do need to take out credit, then they can afford to pay it back in the long run. So it’s very much about educating people more about how to deal with their finances. But sometimes we have to get credit, for example getting a mortgage or getting a credit card for emergencies. The important thing to remember here is that if we do need to take out credit, we need to make sure we can afford to pay it back in the long run. Being in debt is very very demoralising and a lot of people’s mentality² and attitude will be to try and ignore the problem or try and borrow their way out of it. But really, they do need to take a positive attitude to this, get the help, and to set up affordable³ repayments⁴ and not have to borrow any more money.

 

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 mentality   

n.心理，思想，脑力

参考例句：

• He has many years'experience of the criminal mentality.他研究犯罪心理有多年经验。
• Running a business requires a very different mentality from being a salaried employee.经营企业所要求具备的心态和上班族的心态截然不同。

3 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

4 repayments   

偿还，报答，偿付的钱物( repayment的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The repayments of the loan are spread over 10 years. 贷款可在十年内分期偿还。
• The repayments of the loan are spread over 25 years. 这笔贷款分摊二十五年偿还。