Military spending around the world is booming
原文链接：https://www.economist.com/international/2019/04/28/military-spending-around-the-world-is-booming
America and China are committing vast sums to their armed forces.
这里有两个值得注意的地方：
1）commit time/money to sth，即“花（钱或时间）”，如：The council has committed large amounts of money to housing projects. 市政会在住宅项目上投入了大量资金。
2）sums其实是sum做可数名词“金额；款项”的复数，表示“很多钱；很多资金”。
The world is arming itself to the teeth. That is the conclusion of a new report published on April 29th by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a think-tank. Global military spending last year rose to $1.8trn, says SIPRI—the highest level in real terms since reliable records began in 1988, during the cold war, and 76% higher than in 1998, when the world was enjoying its “peace dividend”. Military spending as a share of global GDP has fallen in recent years, but that offers little reassurance in a world of rising geopolitical tension.
arm to the teeth,即“全副武装；做好充分准备”，通常用于军事方面。
其他与teeth/tooth相关的短语：
1)in the teeth of sth：不管，不顾，尽管遇到（困难、反对等），类似于despite problems/difficulties。
2)cut your teeth on sth：从…中获得初步经验；初次涉足
The spending boom is driven, above all, by the contest between America and China for primacy in Asia. Start with America. In 2018 it raised its already-gargantuan defence budget for the first time in seven years, ending an era of belt-tightening imposed by Congress. The boost reflected the Trump administration’s embrace of what it calls “great power competition” with Russia and China—requiring fancier, pricier weapons—in place of the inconclusive guerilla wars it had fought since 2001.
即“消费高涨”，这里指“军费开支居高不下”。
即“巨大的；庞大的”，与“enormous”相近。
即“强制性节约；紧缩开支”。
即“没有结果的；不确定的”。
America’s military heft has no equal. Its outlay of $649bn (in 2017 dollars) was almost as large as the next eight countries combined, by SIPRI’s reckoning. Even that did not satiate the Pentagon’s appetite. It got $716bn this year (in current dollars, as counted by the Department of Defence) and hopes for a staggering $750bn in 2020—an annual increase larger than the defence budgets of almost all of its NATO allies. That includes nearly $10bn for cyber operations, a 10% year-on-year boost; over $14bn for space, a 15% jump; and the biggest budget request for shipbuilding in two decades.
即“经费；支出；费用”。
即“饱足的；厌腻的”，强调得到了很多很多但还是不满足。
即“五角大楼”，一般也指美国国防部。
即“与上年同期数字相比的，年同比”，类似的表达还有：month-on-month/quarter-on-quarter。
China is far behind. It spends somewhere between a quarter and two-fifths of what America does (the precise amount is unclear, say experts, because Chinese spending is so opaque). Nor is its military expenditure growing at a 10% clip, as it did on average in the years between 2000 and 2016. But it has risen relentlessly for a quarter-century, completely changing the balance of power in Asia.
即“不透明的；难懂；模糊；隐晦；不清楚”，与impenetrable相近，与transparent相反。
即“以10%的增速”。
America’s defence spending fell by 17% in real terms whereas China’s grew by 83%—accelerating under President Xi Jinping and outpacing every other big power. “No one has ever presided over anywhere close to this level of Chinese military development in Chinese history before Xi,” notes Andrew Erickson, a professor at the US Naval War College. Its navy has been a particular beneficiary. Between 2014 and 2018, China launched naval vessels with a total tonnage exceeding that of the entire Indian or French navies, notes IISS, another think-tank. Even so, the country’s defence spending is still smaller as a proportion of GDP than that of any other top-five country: 1.9% to America's 3.2%. That means it has room to grow, should the geopolitical mood darken.
Military reforms that Mr Xi introduced in 2015, including a slimming down of the army and reorganisation of the command structure along American lines, are also likely to have given China more bang for its yuan.
化用了“(get) a bigger/better etc bang for your buck”，原指“从自己投入的努力或金钱中〕得到好处”，这里则指中国从自己投入的军费开支中获得益处。
In response, China’s regional rivals have opened their purses, too. India now outspends every European country. South Korea’s annual increase in 2018 was the highest since 2005. And Japanese spending is set to surge in the next five years, with new offensive weapons breaking old pacifist taboos. All in all, Asian military spending makes up 28% of the world’s total, up from 9% in 1988.
Meanwhile, Europeans, having hollowed out their armed forces after the cold war, are getting their act together. In 2018 NATO’s European allies raised military spending by 4.2% in real terms, according to IISS. Poland, which is particularly anxious about next-door Russia, boosted spending by 8.9%.
原意为“挖空（某物）；挖出（孔、洞）”，这里指“掏空（家底）；耗尽（资源）”。
即“隔壁的；邻居的”，next-door Russia,即“隔壁邻居俄罗斯”。
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