2016年1月18日 星期一

at someone's expense, perfect storm, subsistence, fiddle expenses, educating


"It seems to me that all of the evil in life comes from idleness, boredom, and psychic emptiness, but all of that is inevitable when you become accustomed to living at others’ expense."
--from "My Life" by Anton Chekhov

reading a book

Quote:
"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."Groucho Marx


文化社会 | 2009.04.24 德国书迷庆节日


Over the past quarter-century no country has gained more from globalisation than China. Hundreds of millions of its people have been dragged out of subsistence into the middle class.

Exaggerated claims Dec 4th 2008

From Economist.com
The most popular ways to fiddle expenses
EXAGGERATING expenses—thievery of a sort—may become more popular as recession worsens. A recent survey for GlobalExpense, an accounting firm, found that 22% of Britons who were polled admitted to bumping up claims at some point. Nearly a third said that fiddling expenses was acceptable, for example because of below-inflation pay rises and other miserliness by employers. Three-quarters of dodgy claims were inflated by £20 ($30) or less, perhaps explaining why unwary bosses only challenged 4% of claims. Those who bump up their expenses are most likely to do so when claiming mileage driven for work, or for living costs.
Alamy

MEXICO CITY: If you're seeing your grocery bill go up, you're not alone.
From subsistence farmers eating rice in Ecuador to gourmets feasting on escargot in France, consumers worldwide face rising food prices in what analysts call a perfect storm of conditions.

Traditional Healers Help Protect Forests in Africa

Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa. With over 90% of
the population living on subsistence agriculture, natural resources are
coming under increasing pressure.

The DW-WORLD Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evz0icI44va89pI1



The plan was that she should be brought up for educating others;
the very few hundred pounds which she inherited from her father
making independence impossible. To provide for her otherwise
was out of Colonel Campbell's power; for though his income, by pay
and appointments, was handsome, his fortune was moderate and must
be all his daughter's; but, by giving her an education, he hoped
to be supplying the means of respectable subsistence hereafter.
--Emma by Jane Austen




2006年

Mercedes-Benz USA spokeswoman Donna Boland called the Power survey's
reliability findings "a wake-up call" to several problems. Among them:
too much cutting-edge technology and electronics in new cars and too
many new models, especially Mercedes' first and troublesome U.S.-made
SUV.


"This perfect storm caused us some problems," she acknowledged.
They're being solved, she said, adding: "We've been selling in the
U.S. since the `50s, and 74 percent of the cars we've sold in this
market are still on the road."


Definition

subsist Show phonetics
verb [I] FORMAL
to obtain enough food or money to stay alive:
The prisoners were subsisting on a diet of bread and water.

subsistence Show phonetics
noun [U] FORMAL
1 what a person needs in order to stay alive:最低生活费
The money is intended to provide a basic subsistence and should not be paid to someone who receives other income.

2 producing enough food or earning enough money to keep yourself alive:
subsistence farming
The family were living at subsistence level.

-----
perfect storm 諸事不順
The phrase perfect storm refers to the simultaneous occurrence of
events which, taken individually, would be far less powerful than the
result of their chance combination. Such occurrences are, by their
very nature, rare, and so even a slight change in any one event
contributing to a 'perfect storm' would be sufficient to lessen the
overall power of the final event.

The term is also applied to describe a hypothetical hurricane, which
happens to hit at a region's most vulnerable area, resulting in the
worst possible damage that hurricane could have produced.


expense Line breaks: ex|pense
Pronunciation: /ɪkˈspɛns/ 
 /ɛkˈspɛns/

Definition of expense in English:

noun

[MASS NOUN]
1The cost incurred in or required for something:conference rooms were equipped at great expensebook into the best hotel you can find and hang the expense
1.1(expenses) The costs incurred in the performance of one’s job or a specific task:his hotel and travel expenses
1.2[COUNT NOUN] A thing on which one is required to spend money:tolls are a daily expense

verb

[WITH OBJECT]Back to top  
1Offset (an item of expenditure) as an expense against taxable income:up to $17,500 in capital expenditures can be expensed in the year they were incurred
1.1informal Charge (something) to an expense account:I can expense the refreshments

Phrases

at someone's expense
1
Paid for by someone:the document was printed at the taxpayer’s expense
1.1With someone as the victim, especially of a joke:my friends all had a good laugh at my expense
at the expense of
2
So as to cause harm to or neglect of:the pursuit of profit at the expense of the environment

Origin

Late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French, alteration of Old French espense, from late Latinexpensa (pecunia) '(money) spent', from Latin expendere 'pay out' (see expend).
MORE
  • Expense goes back to Latin expendere ‘pay out’, and shares a root with Old English spend.

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