(After 2weeks delay, the third one is coming...)

Suggested Yuan, maybe I should add one part, discussing the motif of the materials, into this series, using the new words, phrases, and sentences learned, as a kind of practice and internalization. However, sometimes (most of the time) I am not familiar with the background, and I do not have an insight eyes on the issues,it is a lot unpractical to comment on every material. But I will still comment if I can.

A pandemic of power grabs

    Starting from the issues in Hong Kong, it discusses the behavior of autocrats around the world and among history: “Unscrupulous autocrats are exploiting the pandemic to do what they always do: grab power at the expense of the people they govern.” 

    “Right now it is healthy over liberty”, but is it right to snoop on everyone, is it right to ban the flow of information, like a newspaper?

1.     Rulers everywhere have realized that now is the perfect time to do outrageous things, safe in the knowledge that the rest of the world

will barely notice. Many are taking advantage of the pandemic to grab more power for themselves

safe in the knowledge that

sb. do sth. and feel safe.

2.   By and large, its people enjoy the benefits of free speech, free assembly and the rule of law

By and large = all in all

put it to the front of the sentence to conclude or right in the middle as a supplement.

3.   In some cases, these powers are necessary to fight the pandemic and will be relinquished when it is over. But in many cases, they are not, and won’t be.

In some cases, xxx. But in many cases, xxx.

4.     Yet many of the liberty-constricting actions taken by regimes like his are bad for public health. Censorship blocks the flow of information, frustrating an evidence-based response to the virus.

       here “public health” means not only the healthy conditions of the citizens but also the correct social atmosphere and the political ecology.

       frustrating xxx: make something worse. (wow!)

5.    Even as some leaders exploit the pandemic, their inability to deal with popular suffering will act against the myth that they and their regimes are impregnable.

       The tone is so tough by using“even as”.

       Even as xxx, sth. will act against xxx.背道而驰之意。

6.  For the time being, though, the traffic is in the other direction.

For the time being: now.

the traffic refers to the moving direction of the society.

An Earth Day in the life of a plague

7.  Both scourges bear this out.

    bear xxx out: prove sth. to be right.

8.   There is no single rethinking or rejection of the way humans live today that will solve both. Nor is the pandemic response to environmental degradation.

    There is no xxx. Nor is xxx.