Escalate乍看很难？看到Scala瞬间会意！
Escalate是恶化的意思。它有以下的用法和含义：
1）（坏的事情，情况）恶化，加剧。
例：If a bad situation escalates or if someone or something escalates it, it becomes greater in size, seriousness, or intensity.
例：Both unions and management fear the dispute could escalate.
2）逐步提高，逐步增加，使升级。
例：So as you can see, as we escalate the problem difficulty, the difference between the good method and the not quite as good method gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
例：The escalating(逐步增加的) cost of health care has escalated（加剧） the tension between patient and medical institutions.
例：It may make Obama more inclined to escalate conflict than defuse it, to confront rather than engage. (冲突升级)
Escalate 大部分用来和贬义的词汇搭配，很少用在正面的事物上。
这个词从构词来讲比较容易记忆：
“Scala”是攀爬，阶梯的意思，源自拉丁语（与我们上一期介绍的SCADA仅一字之差，可联系记忆）现代意大利语里scala也是阶梯的意思，如西西里名胜Scala Dei Turchi（土耳其阶梯）
图-Scala Dei Turchi词基scala前面加e，后面加ate构成了动词，表达“使上升”的动词意思。我们比较熟悉的此种构词法构成的词还有：
Evaluate：e-value-ate
价值——估价，估值，评估v.
Evacuate：e-vacu-ate
空——疏散，排空v.
Elaborate：e-labor-ate 劳动，劳动力——花力气制作V.
等等……
Escalate的其他常用同根词如下：
手扶式电梯Escalator
例：The kids go to the mall only to ride that escalator, which is the first escalator ever installed in Zambia.
增加，扩大，升级Escalation
例：There would have been much less "tariff escalation"（关税升级） -a nasty practice, by which higher tariffs are levied on successive stages of production.