抠: to dig out, to pick out (with one's fingers), to carve, to cut, to study meticulously, to lift one's clothes, stingy, miserly...
表态: to declare one's position, to say where one stands...
下功夫: work hard...
刻舟求剑: a notch on the side of a boat to locate a sword dropped overboard (idiom); an action made pointless by changed circumstances...
通往: to lead to...
短缺: shortage...
夜里: during the night, at night, nighttime...
