供参考

commodity 是指东西，任何东西都可称为 commodity。在 county"s bothrooms are till necessary commodities 里，commodities 指 bothrooms. 百分之百。

But Black isn't convinced that all the county's bathrooms are still necessary {commodities}, given that any manner of public and private developments sprung up around them in the past decades.

我还不太明白，{}在这里是标出有疑问的部分对嘛，还是文章中原本就有个这样的符号？

我理解Black的意思可能是：他觉得本县已不再需要保留所有的付费公共浴室了。

不过可能还需要提供更多上下文以便理解。

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Note added at 24 mins (2008-10-21 01:54:06 GMT)
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pulic facilities是免费的公共设施；但commodity感觉应该是付费的公共设施。商品房不是commodity housing嘛。

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Note added at 25 mins (2008-10-21 01:55:16 GMT)
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given that any manner of public and private developments sprung up around them in the past decades.
这句话有问题。given that后面应该加完整句子，但它这里后面是个名字性词组。

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Note added at 35 mins (2008-10-21 02:05:23 GMT)
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感觉还应该是厕所，公共厕所。