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 Lindsey Sacher (L) and Mark Seifert of Cleveland-based non-profit East Side Organizing Project (ESOP) tour foreclosed homes in the city's Slavic Village on February 8, 2008, which has been ravaged by the housing crisis. |
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Cleveland has won the dubious distinction of being the most miserable city in the United States, according to a new poll. The Ohio city on the Cuyahoga River has high unemployment, dismal weather, hefty taxes, corruption and mediocre sports teams, all of which have propelled it to the No 1 position in the Forbes.com list. "Cleveland nabbed the top spot as a result of poor ratings across the board. It was the only city that fell in the bottom half of rankings in all nine categories," Forbes said on its website. "The city has been dubbed with a less than endearing nickname: the Mistake by the Lake," it added. The rankings are based on jobless rates, inflation, taxes, commuting times, crime rates, performance by the city's sports teams, weather, pollution and corruption by public officials. The economic downturn with high unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcies hit cities across the United States last year particularly in the Midwest section of the country. Crime and unemployment secured the No. 2 spot for Stockton, which held the top position in last year's ranking. Memphis captured third place thanks to its violent crime rate and the number of convicted officials, while the ailing auto industry drove the Michigan cities of Detroit and Flint into the top five. "It (the list) is dominated by Midwestern cities that formerly had large manufacturing bases," said Kurt Badenhausen, of Forbes. "A lot of the cities that showed up on our list are going through hard times right now, dealing with high unemployment, with declining manufacturing bases. Many have experienced strong net migrations out of the city over the last 20 and 30 years." Despite its enviable weather, Miami scored in the bottom 10 percent in commuting time, corruption and violent crime which sent it into sixth place. It also had the 10th worst foreclosure rate in the United States last year at 7.2 percent. "One of the biggest surprises is Miami. The good weather and no state income taxes blur some of the severe problems that Miami has related to crime and corruption, as well as long commutes," Badenhausen added. The Florida sunshine mecca was followed in the miserable ranking by St Louis, Buffalo, Canton, Ohio and Chicago, which has the country's highest sales tax at 10.25 percent. New York, the nation's biggest city, is rich in culture but it lengthy commuting times and high income taxes pushed it into 16th place. (Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a multimedia journalist at the China Daily Web site.) (Agencies) |
據(jù)一項(xiàng)最新民調(diào)顯示，克利夫蘭獲評(píng)美國(guó)最悲慘的城市。 這座位于凱霍加河畔的俄亥俄州城市失業(yè)率高、天氣陰沉、稅收繁重、腐敗且體育成績(jī)平平，所有這些因素將克利夫蘭推上了《福布斯》網(wǎng)站評(píng)選的最悲慘城市排行榜的首位。 《福布斯》在其網(wǎng)站上稱(chēng)：“由于克利夫蘭的各項(xiàng)指標(biāo)排名都不理想，因此名列整個(gè)排行榜之首。它是唯一一個(gè)在所有九項(xiàng)評(píng)比中排名都比較靠后的城市?！?/p> 《福布斯》網(wǎng)站稱(chēng)：“這個(gè)城市還有一個(gè)不太可愛(ài)的別名：湖水造就的錯(cuò)誤?！?/p> 該排行根據(jù)城市的失業(yè)率、通貨膨脹、稅收、通勤時(shí)間、犯罪率、體育成績(jī)、天氣、污染情況和官員腐敗情況等指標(biāo)評(píng)比編撰而成。 去年，伴隨著高失業(yè)率、喪失抵押贖回權(quán)和破產(chǎn)的經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退重襲美國(guó)各城市，尤其是中西部城市。 去年名列該榜首位的斯托克頓市今年因其高犯罪率和失業(yè)率成為第二大悲慘城市。孟菲斯市因高暴力犯罪率以及腐敗官員數(shù)量之多名列第三。此外，密歇根州的底特律和弗林特因汽車(chē)工業(yè)衰敗而進(jìn)入前五名。 《福布斯》的科爾特?巴登豪森說(shuō)：“榜單上的大部分城市都是曾經(jīng)擁有雄厚制造業(yè)基礎(chǔ)的中西部城市?！?/p> “很多出現(xiàn)在榜單上的城市現(xiàn)在都是艱難度日，面臨著高失業(yè)率和日趨衰敗的制造業(yè)基礎(chǔ)等問(wèn)題。很多城市在過(guò)去二三十年中經(jīng)歷了大規(guī)模的對(duì)外凈遷移?！?/p> 盡管有著令人羨慕的天氣，邁阿密因在通勤時(shí)間、腐敗和暴力犯罪等項(xiàng)中均排在后10%而名列第六大悲慘城市。去年，邁阿密的止贖率高達(dá)7.2%，為美國(guó)第十大止贖率最高的城市。 巴登豪森說(shuō)：“邁阿密是最令人意外的城市之一。因?yàn)樵摮菤夂蛞巳?，又不征收州所得稅，掩蓋了其在犯罪、腐敗和通勤時(shí)間長(zhǎng)等方面存在的一些嚴(yán)重問(wèn)題?！?/p> 排在佛羅里達(dá)州這座陽(yáng)光之城之后的悲慘城市包括圣路易斯、布法羅、俄亥俄州的坎頓和芝加哥。芝加哥的銷(xiāo)售稅居全美之首，達(dá)10.25%。 美國(guó)最大的城市紐約文化生活豐富，但由于通勤時(shí)間太長(zhǎng)，所得稅又很高，使其排在了悲慘城市榜第16名。 相關(guān)閱讀 英國(guó)獲評(píng)歐洲生活質(zhì)量最差國(guó)家 網(wǎng)上約會(huì)流行 紐約當(dāng)選最佳單身城市 （中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 陳丹妮 編輯蔡姍姍） |
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Vocabulary: hefty: (of an amount of money)large; larger than usual or expected（錢(qián)的數(shù)額）很大的；超出一般的 nab: to take or get something 獲得；拿取 across the board: involving everyone or everything in a company, an industry, etc. 全體；整體；全面 bottom half:下半部分 foreclosure: the act of foreclosing on money that has been borrowed; an example of this 抵押品贖回權(quán)的取消 mecca: a place that many people like to visit, especially for a particular reason 熱門(mén)地方 |
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