在涉及“增加(长)”及“减少（小）”的翻译时，我们自然会想到increase和decrease这两个常用单词。我们知道，increase和decrease既是及物动词，又是不及物动词，还可作为名词使用，例如，在“This relationship provides a basis for relating data from scanned core profiles to information from down-hole density (gamma-gamma) logs, thus increasing the understanding of coal seams for site-specific resource studies”和“According to the gas law, higher temperatures should decrease gas holding capacity, although this not always observed in some low rank coals”中，increase和decrease是及物动词；在“The AIC value decreases with better model fit, but increases with complexity of the model”中，increase和decrease是不及物动词；而在“This explanation best accounts for both the increase in coal rank as well as the positive gravity anomaly”和“Above 10% ash yield content, there is an exponential decrease in measured gas; when ash yield is less than 10%, variations in gas content are not well explained”中，increase和decrease都是名词。
另外，在作为名词使用，且表示在什么方面（或何物）增加或减少时，紧跟increase和decrease的介词往往是in，如 “Overall, there is greater gas holding capacity with increase in rank and depth”，“As gas in the sample cell is adsorbed, there is a corresponding decrease in pressure that is proportional to the volume adsorbed”，而“increase for”, “increase of”,“decrease for”以及 “decrease of”是不正确的，望写作时留意。
下面是笔者在2015年上半年浏览英美期刊（媒体）过程中看到的有关increase和decrease用法的若干典型例子，供参考。
★As the intervals sampled become smaller, the overall cost of analysis per meter of coal also inherently increases.
★Moisture content decreases significantly with depth in some boreholes.
★Studies have shown that adsorption of gas decreases the elastic modulus and strength of coal.
★It has been suggested that presence of CO2 decreases the glass transition temperature of coal.
★The strength of the polymer decreased as the concentration of plasticizer rises.
★Moisture values are around 20% (adb) at about 250m and decrease to about 10% (adb) towards the bottom of the well (～600 m).
★Wypych (2004) reported that plasticizer also decrease the hardness (resistance to local deformation) and toughness (ability to deform without fracturing) of polymers.
★The crystallinity of the synthetic nontronite increased with increasing temperature up to 150°C, above which aegirine (NaFeSi2O6) formed rather nontronite.
★Jakobsson and Moore (1986) found that at 100°C palagonite formed a rim on basaltic glass at a rate of 2.8 um/y, and that this rate doubled with every 12°C increase in temperature. At temperatures＞120°C, nontronite formed a rim on olivine crystals at a rate of 0.3 um/y; this rate doubled with every 8°C increase, but nontronite growth was not observed at lower temperatures.
★For the range of net normal stresses and suction states investigated, the increase in residual shear strength with increasing suction was found to be virtually linear for SM soil, but significantly nonlinear for SC-SM soil.
★The internal reaction force is slightly increased up to 60kN, but more or less contact.
★After reaching at the maximum deformation of 1 m, the internal force of the device is turned to suddenly increase as amount of the applied force.
★On the other hand, the maximum reaction forces acting on upstream and foundation was increased to 10% to 20% whereas the reaction force of the lateral cable was independent with the configuration of the spacing.
★With continued burial and temperature increase, thermogenic gas will eventually be generated.
★It has generally been observed that coal rank increases towards the dome structure.
★The rate of down hole increase in Romax is highest in Well-A (0.034/100 m). Well-B has a lower rate of down hole increase (0.012/100 m) while in Well-C the rate is extremely low (0.008/100 m), although in the latter drill hole it is likely there is not enough data to determine an accurate rate.
★However, samples from Well-A have a clear relationship between depth and decreasing H/C and O/C atomic ratios.
★The average increase in gas content down hole in that well was 1.7m3/t/100 m.
★Permeability of coals increases as a result of gas desorption and pressure depletion during production.
★The regulations making it more difficult for courts to reject lawsuits took effect May 1, leading to an increase in cases nationwide last month of 29 percent compared with same period last year, to just over 1 million cases, according to the Supreme People's Court.
★Exports increased 6.1 percent to $2.34 trillion in 2014, while imports rose 0.4 percent to $1.96 trillion, the General Administration of Customs said on its website. That translated into a trade surplus of $382.46 billion, the highest ever and a 47.2 percent increase on 2013.
★According to the McKinsey Global Institute, property prices increased by 60 percent from 2008 to August 2014 in forty Chinese cities, with residential property prices in prime locations in Shanghai now only about 10 percent below levels in New York and Paris.
★But while financial aid offers grow increasingly generous, the cost of college is increasing as well, especially at elite universities.
★According to NBS’s official figures, only one of the 70 surveyed cities showed a year-on-year increase in home prices. Across the nation, prices last month fell 5.7% year-on-year.
★In the 70 cities monitored by the official National Bureau of Statistics, Shenzhen in May showed the largest month-on-month price increase, a stunning 6.6%.
★Studies show that each additional year a girl attends school can increase her earning power by 10 to 20 percent. And when more girls attend school, that can boost a country’s entire per capita income.
★The efforts seem to be paying off: In April as the cherry blossoms coincided with Easter and Asian holidays, a record 1.7 million foreign tourists visited. In May, tourists overall doubled to 1.6 million, with big increases from China, Hong Kong and South Korea.
★The President’s actions increase the chances that anyone attempting to cross the border illegally will be caught and sent back.
