drive(provide power), basket case, on the ropes

drive (PROVIDE POWER)
verb [T] drove, driven
1 to provide the power to keep a machine working, or to make something happen:
The engine drives the wheels.
Water drives the turbines which produce electricity.

2 If you drive a ball, you hit it hard so that it travels a long way:
Slater drove the ball down the fairway.

-----新聞例：
Only 31% of Americans surveyed said they wanted a device with multiple capabilities, and that dropped to 27% in Japan. Demand was highest in Mexico, where 79% said they would like one converged device, with 72% in Malaysia and Brazil, 70% in India and 65% in the Philippines, although the mobile markets in these countries are driven by very cheap or free handsets.
…"The simple truth: convergence is a compromise driven by financial limitations, not aspiration. In the markets where multiple devices are affordable, the vast majority would prefer that to one device fits all," Mr Smith added.

'iPhone set to struggle'
Jemima Kiss
Friday June 29, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk


紐約時報社論

Editorial: Public Funding on the Ropes
總統候選人Obama 拒絕申請公款補助
私募款可無上限



Fiat to the rescue for European car industry?

It has been described in the past as an Italian “Basket case”, but now
Fiat is on the verge of becoming the world’s 2nd largest car
manufacturer.

The DW-WORLD Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=ew0tetI44va89pI1




basket case
(Informal) a person or thing regarded as useless or unable to cope.
Etymology: early 20th cent.: originally slang denoting a soldier who had lost all four limbs, thus unable to move independently.

Idioms: on the ropes

On the verge of defeat or collapse, helpless, as in They acknowledged that their campaign was on the ropes, and they could not possibly win the election.

This expression, alluding to a boxer forced back to the ropes of the ring and leaning against them for support, has been used figuratively since the mid-1900s.


******
driven adjective
describes someone who is so determined to achieve something or be successful that all their behaviour is directed towards this aim:
Like most of the lawyers that I know, Rachel is driven.

-driven
suffix
The new ships, propelled by gas turbines, require less maintenance than older, steam-driven ones.


The fact remains that there are some public services that cannot be entirely market-driven (= controlled by economic forces).
Market-driven 由市場供需決定的；市場是主導力（driving force）

Market-driven Quality --1990年代IBM的品質活動

電子計算機例：

menu-driven
adjective SPECIALIZED選項單驅動
A computer that is menu-driven is operated by making choices from different menus rather than by giving separate instructions on a keyboard.

(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
menu driven program /system 選單驅動程式/系統
----
data driven 資料驅動
data driven analysis/ attack/ machine /DSS 資料驅動 分析/攻擊/機/決策支援系統
data-driven process/processing 資料驅動處理/ 處理
---

message driven program/ processing 訊息驅動程式/處理
model-driven inference/method 模型驅動的推理/方法