Desperate

印度每年近萬名農民因經濟壓力而自殺。去年遭受嚴重旱災，政府卻沒有任何措施幫助農民。乾旱失收又背負巨額債務，農民絕望（desperate）得只好啃食老鼠充飢，甚至飲尿、吃糞抗議。

形容詞desperate帶負面意思，而且語氣重。Desperate指程度「極嚴重的」，情況糟糕得無法處理，令人感到無助和絕望。例句︰India suffered from a serious drought last year and the farmers are in desperate shortage of food.（印度去年遭受嚴重乾災，農民的糧食嚴重不足。）You have no idea how many people are living in desperate poverty in the world.（你難以想像世界上有多少人生活在赤貧之中。）

Desperate也可以解「極渴望的」，常用to be desperate for something或者to be desperate to do something。例句︰It shows that he is desperate for his parents' attention.（這表示他極渴望得到父母的注意。）She was so desperate to lose weight that she started eating only two very small meals of vegetables a day.（她非常渴望減肥，開始每天只吃兩小份的蔬菜。）

（本欄逢周一、三、五刊登）