名人教你讲英文：世界秩序的基础

名人教英文：世界秩序的基础 

geopolitical weekly评论员george friedman认为，远航技术出现，是欧洲发展的转折点。航海技术不但促进欧洲的内河贸易，加快经济和科技发展，而且让欧洲人得以征服世界上其他地方，夺取更多资源。下文谈到此后欧洲国家的发展情况：

"at home, europe's growing economic development was exceeded only by the growing ferocity of its conflicts. abroad, europe had achieved the ability to apply military force to achieve economic aims - and vice versa. the brutal exploitation of wealth from some places (south america in particular) and the thorough subjugation and imposed trading systems in others (east and south asia in particular) created the foundation of the modern order. such alternations of traditional systems increased the wealth of europe dramatically."

上文首两句分别以"at home" 和"abroad" 开头，工整地带出欧洲境内和境外的发展状况。作者说 "europe's growing economic development was exceeded only by the growing ferocity of its conflicts"，意指当时欧洲的经济增长极快，但内部冲突的凶狠程度（ferocity）增长得更快。简而言之，"a is exceeded only by b" 有“a相当厉害，但b比a更甚”之意。