基础篇： meaning： amount to: be regarded or classified as; be equivalent of 

进阶篇：amount 除了名词外，还可以作动词，amount to 这个动词词组，表示“相当于”。

用法： A amounts to B. 即A 相当于B。

当我们描述陌生现象或抽象概念时，经常会用大家熟悉的现象作类比或者举例子。这时候就可以用到amount to.在描述一些听起来比较枯燥的话题时，也可以使用amount to 作类比，让它变得更生动有趣。

在生活中，经常会有人说"稍后再约"或者“下次吧”，有时诗现在真的没空，但很多时候这样说就是委婉拒绝。因此我们可以说：

His "let's have dinner some other time" amounts to polite refusal.

我们常说浪费别人的时间等于谋财害命，浪费自己的时间等于慢性自杀。

Wasting other's time amounts to homicide; wasting your own time amounts to suicide. 

解释就是掩饰。

Explanation always amounts to hiding truth.

《经济学人》一篇关于英国移民的文章的摘要是这么写的。

Annual net migration amounts to about three times the attendance at a Manchester United football match. (这里amount to 很好地体现了英国移民数量之低。)

最近《经济学人》在一篇关于美国对华为制裁的文章中也用到了amount to:

More significant was the announcement by the Commerce Department, on the same day, that it was adding Huawei to a list of firms with which American companies cannot do business without official permission. This amounts to a prohibition on exports of American technology to Huawei. 

前不久, 《经济学人》在 special report 写到了中美关系，其中一句也出现了

Arguably, it already amounts to an undeclared cyber-war.

应用篇：

1） 翻译：学而不思就相当于没有学习。

Learning without thinking amounts to not learning at all. 

2)  造句：沉默就等于接受了。

Silence amounts to acceptance.