scourge
中国は来年度のGDP成長率を6.5%に引き下げました。ゾンビ企業を淘汰して財政の健全化を図るようです。GDP減少という痛みを伴う政策ですが，競争力の亡くなった企業を存続させるようり，長期的には望ましいと思います。
記事の中で気になった単語は"scourge" /skˈɚːdʒ/です。『Wisdom英和辞典第三版』(三省堂)には「多大な災難 [苦難](を引き起こすもの [事件, 人]), 天罰, たたり」などという意味がありました。Oxford Dictionaries.comには"A person or thing that causes great trouble or suffering"と定義されております。もともとはラテン語で「革のひも」を意味していた単語ですが，いかにしてこのような意味に転化したのかはわかりません。
中国のGDP成長率は26年間ものあいだ一貫して成長しておりましたが，今年は目標を引き下げたようです。(Ume)
China cuts growth target to 6.5% this year - Premier Li Keqiang
The Great Hall of the People always looks the part. The red flags flying. The goose-stepping soldiers. The building itself framed by a crisp blue sky (as ordered, perhaps?)
Inside though, I sometimes think I detect a certain restlessness amongst the delegates, as if they themselves are acutely aware of how minor a role they play. Those down the front certainly follow Li Keqiang's speech page by page.
But further back, it has to be said, attention is not quite a rapt as you might expect. It was telling that the biggest round of applause came not for Mr Li's pledges to combat industrial over-capacity, fight the scourge of pollution or oppose Taiwanese independence. It came instead for a line of policy detail that just might save every one of the 3,000 or so people in the hall a bit of money off their phone bills.
The scrapping of China's national mobile telephone roaming charges was as close as the speech got to raising a cheer.
