CNN news 2010-01-12 加文本

1.Job losses really slowed down in 2009. The beginning of the year was horrific, all the way through the summer.

slow down慢下来,减速,减慢…的速度

例句：The train slowed down to half its speed.
      火车速度减慢了一半。

2. Four thousand jobs is not a lot in the context of an economy with so many workers, and six million people, frankly, have, you know, are discouraged or dropped out of the workforce, or even millions more are working part time because they cannot get a full- time job.

drop out of退出,辍学,脱离

例句：She dropped out of school to become a waitress.
      她退学去当女侍应生。

      He will officially drop out of race for mayor today.
      今天，他会正式退出市长的竞选。

3.We know that some companies like to test the waters and hire temporary workers first.

test the waters试探

例句：Best to send advance envoys to test the waters.
      最好是先派遣特使去试探

4.And that people who came up with the idea to run companies that offer...

come up with提出,想出

例句：If we all put on our thinking caps, we are bound to come up with something suitable.
      如果仔细考虑一下，我们一定会想出一些合适的东西。