China to expand property tax trial to check speculation
中国将扩大房地产税试点，遏制投机
Property tax：房产税
复习一下“房地产”的几种说法：real estate/estate/realty/property
The price of property in the city is prohibitive. 城市的房地产价格令人望而却步。
hire someone with experience and knows about real estate. 诚聘一位有经验并了解房地产的人。
Our realty agent says the sales contract is valid. 我们的房地产代理人称该销售合同是有效的。
Check speculation：遏制投机行为
check我们常见的用法是“检查”“核对”，但在这里用到的是不“遏制”。有名词和动词两种用法：
He held his anger in check.他遏制住怒火。
This is due to the SNB’s interventions over the past year having been primarily to check the strength of the franc against the euro.这是因为，过去一年来瑞士央行的干预行动，主要是为了遏制瑞郎对欧元的升势
China is set to expand pilot property tax reforms, state media reported, as the government battles real estate speculation in the world’s second-biggest economy.
随着中国政府打击本国房地产投机行为，这一世界第二大经济体将扩大房地产税改革试点。
Be set to: 准备做某事，可以用来替换“be prepared to”，如：
The banks are set to merge next year. 这几家银行准备明年合并。
注意有时候需要根据语境区分“被安排做某事“：
Visitors were set to work chopping wood. 参观者们被安排去砍木头。
Pilot：试行（计划或方案），除了名词形式之外也可以作为形容词或者动词使用
The plan is to launch a pilot program next summer.计划是在明年夏天实施一个试验性方案。
Teachers are piloting a literature-based reading program.老师们正在试开一门以文学为基础的阅读课程。
China’s housing market took off after key 1998 reforms sparked a building boom on the back of rapid urbanisation and wealth accumulation. But as prices soared, so did worries about wealth disparity and the resulting potential for social instability.
1998 年的重大改革开启了一场建筑热潮，而这背后是快速的城市化进程和财富积累。此后，中国房地产市场开始腾飞。但随着房价飙升，人们也越发担忧贫富悬殊以及由此可能导致的社会不稳定。
这里可以看一下，本句出现了很多用来表示“增长“相关含义的词汇，而且用词十分精准。
take off：（通常指市场）腾飞
After all, Chrome has yet to really take off and Firefox has a very large market share to play with.毕竟，Chrome还没有真正腾飞，而Firefox还有很大的市场份额。
boom：（贸易和经济活动的）激增，繁荣
Living standards improved rapidly during the post-war boom. 在战后那段繁荣昌盛的时期里，生活水平得到了迅速提高。
a chaotic period of boom and bust 经济繁荣与经济萧条交替出现的混乱时期
accumulation：指（财富孳息等）数额的累积
The steep accumulation may not be obvious to investors. 现金积累的急剧上升对投资者也许并不那么明显。
Soar：急增，猛增
soaring costs/prices 猛增的成本；飞涨的物价
A large part of the buying, especially in the oil markets, was fed by speculators who believed demand would only soar.大多数投资者选择做多，特别是原油市场，一度吸引了那些坚信需求仍将高涨的投机者。
China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, on Saturday approved the latest plan to promote “rational housing consumption”, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Under the five-year pilot scheme, Xinhua added, property tax will be levied on all types of real estate, excluding some rural homes.
据新华社报道，周六，中国最高立法机关全国人大常委会批准了促进“住房合理消费”的最新计划。新华社补充称，根据这项为期五年的试点计划，政府将对除一些农村住房之外的所有类型的房地产征收房产税。
Standing committee：常务委员会，standing的一个常用词义是 “常设的”
a standing army 常备军
a standing charge (= an amount of money that you pay in order to use a service, such as gas or water) 长期支付的开销
levy on：征税
也可以有以下替换词：tax sb or sth./impose a tariff on sth./collect tax
His declared aim was to tax the rich.他宣布他的目的是向富人征税。
A general tariff was imposed on foreign imports.国外进口货物当时按普通税率征税。
In 2011, authorities started trials in Shanghai and Chongqing targeting high-end private residential properties for taxation. There have been talks to expand such taxation, but localities have been reluctant, worried it will drag down property values and dampen demand for land, a key source of local government revenue, state-run Global Times said Saturday.
2011 年，政府在上海和重庆两市启动了针对高档私人住宅的税收试点。官媒《环球时报》周六称，此前已有关于扩大此类税收的讨论，但地方政府并不支持，担心这会拉低房价，抑制对土地的需求，毕竟土地是地方政府收入的重要来源。
High-end：高档
近义词有up-market/up-scale/top grade等
Dampen demand：抑制需求
Higher savings rates will dampen demand for credit, both directly and indirectly. 较高的储蓄率将直接或间接地抑制信贷需求。
替换词有restrain/curb/pent up/suppress等
China’s real estate sector is in troubled waters, with home sales slumping 16.9 percent on-year in September and deeply indebted property giant Evergrande battling a liquidity crisis.
中国房地产行业陷入困境，9 月份住房销售同比下滑 16.9%，债台高筑的房地产巨头恒大集团也正努力应对流动性危机。
Troubled waters：困境，可代替常用的dilemma/plight/predicament/straits等
此外，“陷入困境”有这些表达：
In the grip of/ Be mired in/ In hot water
The country is in the grip of a teenage crime wave.青少年犯罪的激增让该国陷入困境。
The country was mired in recession. 这个国家陷入了经济衰退的困境。
The company has already been in hot water over high prices this year. 该公司今年已陷入了高价的困境中。
Slump: （价格、价值、数量等）骤降，猛跌，锐减
Profits slumped by over 50%. 利润突降50%以上。
The slump on Wall Street set up a chain reaction in stock markets around the world. 华尔街股价暴跌在全球股票市场上引起了连锁反应。
替换词主要有drop/go down/decline/plummet/recession/downturn等，
Liquidity crisis/risk：流动性危机，其实就是指资金周转不开，其他的比较常见的表达说法主要有difficulty/tight/squeeze
Debt markets that once handed out cash to all comers are tight or closed altogether. 曾向各方发放现金的债务市场或周转困难，或彻底闭市。
The Fed’s new swap lines with other central banks are an important reassurance for countries that face a liquidity squeeze.美联储与其他国家的央行签订的新的互换协议为面临着周转困难的国家提供了保障。
via 自由翻译日记
