Background:

為整頓秩序和環(huán)境問題，新加坡政府在1972年建立了第一個小販中心，讓小販有固定的經(jīng)營場所，逐步加強(qiáng)對小販生意的管理。

idioms:

1. out with the old, in with the new 辭舊迎新
2. cheaper than chips 非常便宜
3. for good (and all) 永遠(yuǎn)地 sg, This time she's leaving for good.
4. pocket n 口袋，錢財

• Our pockets were quite tight. 經(jīng)濟(jì)拮據(jù)
• He is said to have a deep pocket. 富有
• he has to pay for the repairs out of his own pocket. 自己出錢

street food：

1. hawker n = peddler ≈ mobile vendors 流動攤販
2. open-air food court (美食廣場）
3. stall 攤位
4. scoop n 一勺
5. indigenous = native = local
6. eat/ drink one's fill 開懷大吃/暢飲
7. tuck in 痛快的吃 tuck into sth

Vocabulary:

1. monument: n 紀(jì)念碑，豐碑 monument to sb/sth eg. A monument to him was erected in St Paul's Cathedral.
2. conjure up 使想到 eg, The song conjures up my childhood.
3. median adj 中間值 median age 年齡中位數(shù)
4. aspiring adj 有抱負(fù)的， aspire to sth, aspire to do sth 有志于做什么
5. vast majority 絕大多數(shù)
6. toil v 長時間的的辛苦勞作，不要整天說work hard
7. manpower n 勞動力，人手
8. live hand-to-mouth 勉強(qiáng)糊口
9. operating cost 運(yùn)營成本
10. thin margins 利潤少
11. central provident fund 公積金
12. welfare state 福利制度
13. safety net = social security 社會保障
14. pass those costs on to their customers 將成本轉(zhuǎn)嫁到消費(fèi)者身上。
15. a flood of offers of investment
16. weather v 平安地度過 weather the storm 度過難關(guān)
17. lease v 出租、租界 n 租約

• We lease the land from a farmer. 從誰手上租得
• She leased the site to a factory. 租給

Nice sentence:

1. Dishes such as roti prata and Singarpore laksa conjure up the Indian and Chinese migrants, whose own cusines, slowly over centureis, mingled with that of the indigenous Malays.
2. Singpore is proud of its food that it hopes UNESCO will include it in its ctatlogue of humanity's most precious arts(可以理解為人類非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)名錄）.
3. There were too few apsiring hawkers to be able to sustain the hawker trade in the long run. When old masters die, many their recipes(秘訣，訣竅） with them.
4. Young Singaporeans citizens have little appetite for (沒有意愿，不要整天說don't want to）toiling in piping-hot（滾燙的） stalls for long hours and little pay. It's near impossible to get manpower for this trade. The few young Singapores willing to put up with such condition often live hand-to-mouth.
5. The authorities have long regarded hawker centers, with their "almost third-world prices' as one of our safety-nets. 政府認(rèn)為小販中心是社會保障制度之一。
6. He decides to increase the price of his $ fishball soup by 50 cents because his margins were so thin. Sales fell by half.

文章結(jié)構(gòu)