The United States and others have placed economic and other sanctions on the Mugabe government, whose land appropriation policies coincided with a massive decline in the economy.

VOA: standard.2009.11.08

In the city-states of Venice, which was a major trading city already on the decline, and in Florence, and in Milan, and in Turin, and in places like that you find something very comparable, but Italy is not united until the 1860s.

在威尼斯城邦,这个曾以贸易为主的城市已经走向衰落,而佛罗伦萨,米兰,都灵,类似的这些城市情况都是如此,除了十九世纪六十年代才统一的意大利

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

"Even though we have slowed the loss of jobs,and today's report on the continued decline in unemployment claims is a hopeful sign, the economic growth that we have seen has not led to the job growth that we desperately need,"

VOA: standard.2009.11.12