boost
英英释义：to increase or improve something and make it more successful
例句：That Jeju Island waived the visa for Chinese citizens in 2008 considerably boosted its tourism.
2. 为什么选这个词？
“boost”可以作名词也可以作动词，意思是“增强、促进、刺激”，我们今天学习它作动词的用法。boost 在外媒中出现频率极高，尤其是经济和商业相关的文章中很难不碰到它。根据不同的语境，它可以替换 increase, improve, strengthen 等词，后面接的常见名词有 economy, sales, confidence, morale, productivity 等。我们来看几个例句。
新的港口建成后无疑可以促进当地经济的发展，我们就可以说：
The new port will undoubtedly boost local economy.
2008 年济州岛开始对中国公民面签后极大地刺激了当地的旅游业，就可以说：
That Jeju Island waived the visa for Chinese citizens in 2008 considerably boosted its tourism.
利物浦在连续输掉 3 场比赛后终于在主场赢得了比赛，极大地鼓舞了球队的士气，就可以说：
After losing three matches in a row, Liverpool finally won a game at home, greatly boosting the team's morale/confidence.
最近《经济学人》在一则商业新闻中就用到了 boost, 后面接的是 sales：
Derided by some the company said the publicity had boosted sales of its other “iconic sausage rolls” and food.
《经济学人》在另一篇关于中国出国游的文章中再一次用到了 boost：
Take Egypt, which China sees as a regional hub of its Belt and Road Initiative—an effort to boost its influence through massive spending on infrastructure.
这一次，boost 后面接的是 influence, 而《牛津英语搭配词典》中并没有列出 boost influence 这组搭配。可见很多地道、灵活的搭配我们必须通过大量阅读和刻意积累来获得。
3. 练习
1）翻译
对很难专注的用户来说，这款强大的应用可以极大地提高工作效率。
This powerful app will greatly boost productivity of those who find themselves hard to concentrate.
Those who find themselves hard to focus will find their productivity greatly boosted by this powerful app.
2）造句练习
场景：房地产市场
造句：
When analysts were asked what was most likely to reverse this trend and boost demand for housing, a majority, 15 of 25, chose no further Fed rate hikes from a list of options.
We will get a near-term boost in sales because of the recent decline in mortage rates, but I think the longer-term trend is towards stability in the U.S. housing market given the slowing economy.
