本期精读的文章来自The Economist关于威尼斯街头小偷的报道Volunteers are nabbing Venice’s pickpockets

作为著名旅游城市，威尼斯每年吸引了数以万计的游客前去参观，但威尼斯街头的小偷也盯上了游客。由于当地警力不足，一个名为Undistracted Citizens的志愿者组织也应运而生。他们帮助警方抓住了很多小偷，但他们的行动本身有一定的风险，有的志愿者被小偷袭击，还有的被指控性骚扰。光靠志愿者解决治安问题并不是长久之计。

这篇文章的小标题很有意思：Police cannot cope with petty thieves. Enter the “undistracted citizens” 

在剧本中说“（某人）上（场）”，英文是enter somebody 比如：Enter Othello. 奥赛罗上。因此小标题的意思是：警方无法应对小窃贼，有请“不分心市民”这一组织上场。

这篇文章同样是短文，其中有一些值得学习的语言知识点，下面是全文分析：

开头段介绍了威尼斯街头扒手众多的现象，交代了CND这一组织出现的背景。

With hordes of distracted tourists crowding its labyrinthine streets, Venice offers rich pickings for pickpockets, especially during the summer crush.

众多游客挤在威尼斯迷宫般的街道上，他们东张西望，注意力不集中，这为扒手提供了丰富的猎物，特别是在夏天游客高峰期。

pickings意思是“不义之财”（money which can be earned easily or dishonestly），例如：The street-sellers are lured to the town by the rich pickings that are to be had from foreign tourists. 因为可以从外国游客那里赚到大量的钱财，街边小贩被吸引到镇上来了。

crush在这里意思是“拥挤的人群”（a crowd of people forced to stand close together），单词还有一个更加常见的意思“迷恋”，比如A喜欢上了B，可以说：A has a crush on B

crowd在文中的用法也值得注意，我们比较熟悉的是它的名词用法，这里它是作为动词使用，意思是“挤满，塞满”，例如要表达“海滩上挤满了游客”，我们可以说：Tourists crowded the beaches.

The police cannot cope. So volunteers known as Cittadini non distratti(CND), or Undistracted Citizens, help them out.

威尼斯警察无法对应这些小偷，于是被称为Cittadini non distratti（不分心市民）的志愿者们出来帮警察分担工作。

help somebody out意思是“帮某人分担工作，帮某人一把”，比如：When I bought the house, my sister helped me out with a loan. 我买这所房子时，我姐姐借给了我一笔钱救急。短语的另一个替换说法是give somebody a hand

这一段介绍了志愿者组织在抓捕扒手方面的贡献。

Most of CND’s roughly 60 members just take pictures of suspects, using WhatsApp to pass along leads to cops.

“不分心市民”大约60名成员中，大多数只是拍摄嫌疑人的照片，然后用WhatsApp将线索传给警察。

lead在这里用得很准，它是熟词生义，意思是“线索”（a piece of information that may help you to solve a crime or mystery），相当于clue

cop在这里意思是“警察”，但注意这是一个非正式用法，考场写作不要用这个词。

Some only grab the thieves they spot in the shops and bars where they are employed. Even so, cnd is behind a third of pickpocket arrests in Venice, says Francesco Livieri, a deputy police commissioner.

一些人只抓他们工作的商店和酒吧里发现的小偷。副警察专员弗朗西斯科·利维里表示，即便如此，威尼斯被捕的小偷中仍有三分之一是“不分心市民”组织贡献的。

Collaboration between cnd and the cops is so tight, Mr Livieri jokes, that he spends more time with the volunteers than with his wife.

利维里先生开玩笑说，“不分心市民”与警察之间的合作是如此密切，以至于他与志愿者们相处的时间比他和妻子的还长。

这一段进一步介绍了志愿者团队的贡献。

Cops are thin on the ground but “we have eyes everywhere”, says Franco Dei Rossi, an affable 68-year-old street painter who founded the group nearly three decades ago.

弗兰科·德伊罗西是一位和蔼可亲的68岁街头画家，他在大约三十年前成立了这个团队。他说，警察寥寥无几，但“我们到处都有耳目”。

thin on the ground是一个英式短语，可以用来形容某事物很少见，不常有（to exist only in small numbers or amounts），比如我们可以说：

Fifteen years ago, smartphones were thin on the ground, but thanks to rapid technological advances, they are now ubiquitous.

Members must decline any rewards from victims (including, says Mr Dei Rossi, the occasional come-on).

志愿者成员必须拒绝受害者的任何奖励（德伊罗西先生说到，包括偶尔来自女性失主的挑逗）。

come-on是一个非正式说法，意思是“挑逗，勾引，卖弄风情”。

As he is speaking, two men who the group says have been picking pockets for weeks stroll past and, upon recognising Mr Dei Rossi, smile wryly. He shouts back: “Get a job!”

正当他在讲话的时候，两名男子晃悠悠走过。当他们认出了德伊罗西先生时，两个人露出了苦笑。志愿者团队说这两个人最近数周一直在扒窃。他朝他们大喊：“去找个工作！”

要表达“他离开学校后就加入了军队”，我们可能会想到：

He joined the army after he left school.

这里也可以参考句子中upon的用法“一……就……”，写成：

He joined the army upon leaving school.

这一段提到了威尼斯政府的不作为以及志愿者遇到的抵抗。

Some members accuse city officials of neglecting pickpockets and pursuing illegal picnickers instead, who are much easier to catch and fine. Slow, lenient courts fuel street crime, says Monica Poli, a cnd member.

一些志愿者成员指责城市官员对扒窃者视而不见，只关心抓捕非法野餐者，因为这些野餐者更容易抓住和罚款。一名“不分心市民”成员莫妮卡波莉说，迟缓、仁慈的法院助长了街头犯罪。

fuel一词在这里用得很形象，很容易让人联想起火上浇油的意象，它的意思是“使……更强烈”。举个例子，苹果最新的发布会缺乏新意，这加剧了投资者对苹果创新能力的担忧。我们可以说：

Apple's lackluster launch event fuels investors' worries about the company's ability to innovate.

A cleaner, she hunts pickpockets after work near Venice’s train station, where apprentice thieves learn their trade by relieving newly arrived tourists of their wallets.

作为一名清洁工，她下班后在威尼斯火车站附近抓小偷，那里很多刚入行小偷通过帮新来游客“减轻钱包负担”来学习偷窃这一行当的本事。

learn your trade是一个常用搭配，意思是“学习某个行业的手艺，本事”，这里trade是熟词生义，意思是“（尤指需要特殊技术和手工劳动的）职业，行当”，比如：After she left school, she went to college to learn a trade. 她中学毕业后去一家技术学院学一门手艺。

…relieving newly arrived tourists of their wallets 这里使用了讽刺的手法，将偷走游客钱包说成是帮助他们减轻钱包的负担。

“Here, I run things,” Ms Poli says. Perhaps, but Ms Poli was recently beaten twice by packs of female pickpockets. In Venice, they outnumber their male colleagues.

波莉女士说，“在这里，我是管事的”。事实可能是如此，但她最近被一群女性扒手打了两次。在威尼斯，她们的人数超过男性同行。

"I run things" 意思相当于于 "I am in charge of things"；在对两个事物进行比较时，可以使用out-这一词缀来使表达更加简洁。比如：

As a child, he was smarter than his peers.

我们可以用outsmart来简化句子：

As a child, he outsmarted his peers.

又比如：

In recent years the Austrian economy has performed better than most other industrial economies.

可以简化为：

In recent years the Austrian economy has outperformed most other industrial economies.

其他类似的单词还有outlast/outshine/outwit等，各位同学平时遇到这类用法可以多加积累。

最后一段介绍了目前志愿者组织遇到的问题。

The crusade is getting harder. Pickpockets circulate photos of CND volunteers, eroding their element of surprise.

打击小偷的运动变得越来越难。扒手们将志愿组织成员的照片放在网上流传，这使得他们出其不意抓人的方法失效。

crusade意思是“（长期坚定不移的）斗争，运动”（a long and determined attempt to achieve something which you believe in strongly），例如：They have long been involved in a crusade for racial equality. 他们长期以来一直致力于争取种族平等的运动。

element of surprise是一个固定搭配，意思是“出其不意（出人意料）的方法”（the use of methods which are intended to cause surprise），例如：An element of surprise is important to any attack. 出其不意在任何进攻中都很重要。

Also, it is no longer advisable for volunteers to restrain someone with a hand in a stranger’s purse. The courts now prefer that volunteers wait until the hand has emerged clutching valuables.

而且，现在也不建议志愿者去制止那些手刚伸到陌生人钱包的小偷。司法机构更愿意让志愿者等到扒手偷到贵重物品时才动手。

the courts是一个固定说法，它的意思是“司法机构”（the system of courts that decide legal cases）。Valuables是一个复数名词，意思是“贵重物品”，例如：Guests should leave their valuables in the hotel safe. 客人应把贵重物品存放在酒店保险柜中。

And female thieves have a dastardly tactic to thwart their pursuers. When caught, they routinely scream that they are being groped or raped.

而且女盗贼还采取了一个卑鄙的策略来阻挠她们的追捕者。被抓住时，她们经常尖声喊道自己正遭到猥亵或强暴。

He says he recently grabbed a thief who promptly ripped her own shirt and screamed that she was being attacked. Says Damiano Gizzi, a volunteer: “we risk a lynching.”

他说他最近抓住了一名小偷，这名小偷被抓后迅速将自己的衬衫撕开，并大声喊道自己正遭受袭击。一名叫达米亚诺吉兹的志愿者说到：“我们冒着被私处绞刑的风险（去抓小偷）”。

总结：

今天我们学习了以下几个重点句型和表达：

(1) thin on the ground

(2) upon doing something

(3) fuel

(4) outnumber/outperform/outsmart

感兴趣的同学可以使用这些句型造句以加深印象。