每日英语：Bad News for Taiwan in Battle Against Baby Blues

Taiwan's nickname 'Ilha Formosa,' from the Portuguese for 'beautiful island,' conjures up images of a romantic paradise.

Baby Blues：产后忧郁症　　　nickname：绰号，昵称， 给……取绰号；叫错名字　　　

conjure up：想起，使在脑海中显现；用魔法召唤　　　　　paradise：天堂，乐园　

But the island's residents are loathe to embrace romance at least according to a new survey.

loathe：讨厌，厌恶　　　　

In a recent poll of salaried employees in Taiwan conducted by local job bank JCASE, 70% balked at the idea of marriage, citing insufficient finances and unstable jobs as the primary reasons. More than half of the singles in the survey said they were not even in a good position to start a relationship, let alone tie the knot.

balk：阻止；推诿；错过，犹豫，障碍；错误　　　　citing：引用，引证，举例　　tie the knot：结婚，永结同心　　

This is a pretty pickle for Taiwan's government, which has been doing everything short of lighting mood candles to buoy the island's perilously low birth rate. Taiwan's rate of 1.16 births per woman is among the world's lowest, and barely over half the rate required to maintain a stable population. The situation is so dire that Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou has called it 'an issue of national security.'

pickle：泡菜，腌制食品　　　　buoy：浮标；浮筒；救生圈；航标，支撑，鼓励　　　perilously：危机四伏地，充满危险地

dire：可怕的，悲惨的，极端的　　　　　　　

Low birth rates have become a common problem among Asian societies, which are adopting increasingly less traditional attitudes towards family and children as they grow wealthier and urbanize.

urbanize：都市化，使文雅

While potentially good news for the environment, low birth rates present countries with a number of problems, including drops in economic growth and quality of life as the number of retired people begins to outgrow the population of workers.

outgrow：出生，蜕变，过大而不适于；长大成熟而不再

Taiwan officials have been trying to coax citizens to do the good deed by playing matchmaker for state employees, providing free daycare, and offering cash subsidies for baby production. However, Taiwan's interior minister Lee Hong-yuan said earlier this year that subsidies alone won't be enough to banish widespread baby-aversion.

coax：哄骗，劝诱　　　　matchmaker：媒人，制造火柴的人　　　　subsidy：补贴，津贴，补助金　　

interior minister：内政部长　　　　　aversion：厌恶，反感　

Government efforts have bumped up the birth rate slightly from its nadir of 0.895 in 2010. Taiwan's outlook is still pretty frigid compared to the U.S. fertility rate of 2.06, or even neighboring China, which has a 1.55 rate despite its controversial one-child policy. (The most fertile country? It's Niger, with an average of 7.52 children per woman.)

bump up：提升，突然增加　　　　　nadir：最低点　　　frigid：寒冷的，严寒的，冷淡的　　　　fertility：多产，肥沃，生育

Interestingly, the world's four societies with lowest birth rates are all small, tropical, highly urbanized, Chinese-speaking islands: Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan. All four have seen soaring housing costs that make young workers feel financially unstable, while their highly educated young professionals show an increasing preference for personal fulfillment over settling down or settling for a ho-hum partner.

personal fulfillment：个人成就　　　　　ho-hum：沉闷乏味的

In Singapore, the low number of births has begotten a viral rap video, sponsored by Mentos, that plugs a government campaign to get residents to celebrate the city-state's independence by making love. 'It's National Night, let's make Singapore's birth rate spike,' goes one line.

begotten：产生，引起　　　　　viral：滤过性毒菌引起的；滤过性毒菌的　　　spike： 长钉，道钉；钉鞋；细高跟，阻止，刺突

Although Taiwan lacks a birth rate rap, it did unveil a birth rate slogan in 2010: 'Children our best heirloom' (no, it doesn't rhyme in Chinese either). The birth rate has ticked up a bit since then, but not enough to ease fears of a demographic crisis. A new projection by the Council for Economic Planning and Development suggests that if Taiwan stays on its current trajectory, its population of 23 million will drop by almost one-fifth over the next half century.

unveil： 使公诸于众，揭开；揭幕，显露　　　　　heirloom：传家宝，祖传遗物　　　　tick up：上升，上涨

demographic：人口统计学的，人口学的　　　　　trajectory：轨道，轨线　　　

As Taiwan's officials have discovered, it'll take more than song and dance or even cash to woo Taiwan's singles into matrimony.

woo：追求，招致，求爱，恳求　　　　　　matrimony：结婚，婚礼