perfect storm, simultaneously, ethanol

Ethanol, Just Recently a Savior, Is Struggling

Falling oil prices and the financial crisis have created a perfect storm against ethanol production.

These problems arose because the Bush administration badly underestimated the number of ground troops needed to simultaneously wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has had to rely far too heavily on the National Guard and the Reserves to make up the differences.

BBC(2007年12月05日 格林尼治標準時間08:50北京時間 16:50發表)

《獨立報》在頭版說，銀行停止借貸，消費者不再消費，投資者也不投資，商業公司不再雇人，房屋賣不出去，英國的經濟是否正朝向“完美的風暴”(the perfect storm)？

這 “完美的風暴”(the perfect storm)翻譯，令人噴飯。事實上，它大略是指”禍不單行 一連串的大風暴一齊來”。 "A critical or disastrous situation created by a powerful concurrence of factors."

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perfect storm
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.

例子：

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."


Published: July 16, 2007 12:00 am

'Perfect storm' makes it way into dictionary

By Nate Rice , Correspondent
Gloucester Daily Times

Definition

simultaneous Show phonetics
adjective
happening or being done at exactly the same time:
There were several simultaneous explosions in different cities.

simultaneously Show phonetics
adverb
Two children answered the teacher's question simultaneously.