寄托家园留学论坛

标题: 1006G[REBORN FROM THE ASHES组]备考日记 by 正常点——任何的失败都有太多的必然 [打印本页]

作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-1 13:22:46     标题: 1006G[REBORN FROM THE ASHES组]备考日记 by 正常点——任何的失败都有太多的必然

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-3 08:40 编辑

喜欢这样一句话:
任何的成功,都有太多的偶然,任何的失败都有太多的必然。
这次是偶的二G之战了,希望能从以前的教训中获得些宝贵的东西。
目标:AW 4+
        Verbal 600+  Quantity 800
PS:本帖主要以个人提炼和思考为主,会尽量少的大段重复斑竹大人提供的资料原文,尽请谅解~~
       我的日志我做主,耶!
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-1 13:24:56

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2010-2-15 09:57 编辑

留给路过的看官大人及斑竹大人

习作汇总:

Issue 13https://bbs.gter.net/viewthread.php?tid=1039371&page=1&extra=#pid1773416991

Argument143:https://bbs.gter.net/viewthread.php?tid=1040378&pid=1773426510&page=1&extra=

Issue 221https://bbs.gter.net/viewthread.php?tid=1060294&page=1&extra=

Argument :https://bbs.gter.net/thread-1060512-1-3.html


有拍必回哦!:lol :victory:




活动汇总:
抛砖引玉:https://bbs.gter.net/viewthread.php?tid=1058627&extra=page%3D1%26amp%3Bfilter%3Dtype%26amp%3Btypeid%3D280

每日五词:https://bbs.gter.net/viewthread.php?tid=1058247&extra=page%3D1%26amp%3Bfilter%3Dtype%26amp%3Btypeid%3D280

修改铺:https://bbs.gter.net/viewthread.php?tid=1058420&extra=page%3D1%26amp%3Bfilter%3Dtype%26amp%3Btypeid%3D280

噼里啪啦:
              第一期:https://bbs.gter.net/viewthread.php?tid=1050549&highlight=
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-1 13:58:16

今天就算是重新开始的第一天吧。
第一次作业的前5个,基本上式心理上的准备,真正开始切入主题的要从Fundamental (6)才开始呢...
关于Thesis,学到以下几点:
1.Thesis的位置一定要在第一段结尾
2.文中提出了可以运用对比、因果、直接否定等关系表达Thesis。这点是对我的breakthrough,以前一直害怕Thesis写得具体,会限制文章的发展,所以决定今后还是实践一下。
3.文章思路的发展,可以根据系列问题进行构思,主要是从因果关系,对比关系和发展的角度,剖析问题
•        Can I compare? How is X like or unlike Y?  
•        What if?  Can I predict?  
•        How could we solve/improve/design/deal with?
•        Is there a better solution to?
•        What are the problems related to?
•        What were the motives behind?  
•        Why are the opponents protesting?  
•        What is my personal response to?
•        Where will the next move(s) occur?  
•        How is this debate likely to affect?
•        What is the value or, what is/are the potential benefit(s) of?
•        What are three/four/five reasons for us to believe?
4. A good strategy for creating a strong thesis is to show that the topic is controversial.
5. Hint: a great many clear and engaging thesis statements contain words like “because,” “since,” “so,” “although,” “unless,” and “however.”
今日疑问:
1.老李说Thesis一定要用简单笼统且没有连接词的简单句表达清楚,和Thesis的作者说的不同,目前感觉有点晕菜:mad:
2.Thesis要求写得具体,不知道会不会限制后文的发展,有点担忧啊:L
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-2 23:50:02

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-3 08:34 编辑

Day2:
这几天时间都比较近,决定试试第二次作业。首先作了一下reading:C A D E
今天晚上看了一下issues13斑竹的讲解,觉得思路比自己开阔多了。
ME:(辩证的看待这个问题)
One hand:
It is the convenience to communicate that leads to the situation of endangered languages.

The other hand:
This is a  issue concerning the reservation of an old culture, as well as the history to pass on an ancient people.

My point:
It is a duty to preserve the extincting languages. But who should take the action ? And how?

New ideas from the passage:
The best way to preserve an ancient language is to  endow it with new substance and spirits in the renaissance.

The inevitable trend of globlization is the murder of the endangered languanges.

To protect the intangible cultural heritage is to maintain the diversity of our life.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-3 09:29:06

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-9 09:48 编辑

Day3:
According to the 20 classic questions:

1.To think about the reason why the language is abandoned:
a. the pronuncination and the phrase to combine words are too difficult and trivial, not practical
b.the globalization including the urge to communicate with the whole world both economically and culturally as well as the inevitable remotion from their native country
c.the desire to follow the popular trend

2.the consequence of language extinction:
a.the loss of history about an ancient people and the fracture in their culture
b.the misunderstanding or ignorance concerning the remains such as the old books and the words on the sculptures

3.globalization:
a. the meaning in MW:the act or process of globalizeing: the state of being globalized,especially: the devlopent of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets
b.over globalization
c.the anarchism
d.全球化导致的“趋同”是浅薄的,全球化导致的“逐异”却是深刻的。追逐不同是全球化时代最深刻的特征。
e.全球化带来了更强大的民族主义,带来了护照和海关,带来了人员交往的阻隔.

4.The standpoint on which the supporters of liguistic diversity hold is the desire to abtain equality, ironically, they find the extinction is the healthy result in maintaining the equality in the end.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-8 12:38:42

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-9 12:32 编辑

Day 4:
1.Tips from 北美范文:
cultural identity, cultural heritage, the way culture define itself,distinct cultural groups, resist language assimilation, a relationship with self-worth and dignity
2.Tips from GT:
They abandon their languages and cultures in hopes of overcoming discrimination, to secure a livelihood, and enhance social mobility, or to assimilate to the global marketplace.

3.Q1:how to define the endangered languages?
   Q2:语言到底是不是文化?

4. 资料收集:

我作为语言学家的部分确实觉得这么多的语言死亡是让人伤心的事情。而且语言死亡的速度越来越快。据说再过100年,现在使用的6000种语言的90%都要消亡。
每个灭绝都意味着把话语组织起来的迷人方式不再存在。比如,在还没有死亡的爱斯基摩(Inuktitut Eskimo)语中,“我要尽力避免成为醉鬼”就是一个字Iminngernaveersaartunngortussaavunga。
但是,对于多数语言来说,消亡是无法抗拒的命运。试图给人们讲授他们从前使用的语言几乎从来不能奏效。几年前,我花费了几个星期给土著美国人讲授他们祖先的语言。从这个活动让他们感到和祖先的联系这个意识来看,时间花得确实值得。
但是很明显他们除了学几个词或者短语外根本没有办法再学更多的东西。成年人学习语言是非常困难的,尤其是像英语和美国土著居民的语言这么差距很大的语言。在Pomo语中,动词是在句子的最后的。有些发音,非本族语者是很难发出来的。对于工作和家庭负担非常繁忙的成年人来说,他们能够学习像“眼睛”一词是“uyqh abe”的语言到底能达到什么水平呢?
是的,还有希伯莱语。但那是因为不同寻常的结合:宗教和新国家,和定居在巴勒斯坦坚持对犹太人只说希伯莱语,包括他刚刚出生的儿子这样超人的本耶胡达(Eliezer Ben-Yehuda)忠诚。但是这个情况让他的妻子泪流满面,他注意到给婴儿唱催眠曲的时候用的是俄语。显然,本耶胡达是一生都难以见到一个的例外。
让人奇怪的是,语言复兴主义者渴望多元化。可是他们不知道语言消亡是多元化的健康结果。
如果人们真的来到一起,他们就说一个共同的语言。我们可以考虑“沙拉碗”(salad bowl)理想,在这样的情形下人们回家后相互使用自己喜爱的“多元”语言。但是实际上,多元语言的存在肯定意味着人们在某种程度上是分割开来的,而这肯定是由于不平等的权力关系造成的,也就是,“多元化”鼓吹者认为是祸害的东西。
比如,在意第绪(shtetls)村落的犹太人在家里说意第绪语(Yiddish),在其他地方说俄语,因为他们生活在种族隔离的制度下,不是因为他们喜欢成为双语者。阿米什人(Amish)仍然说德语只是因为他们的生活与现代世界脱离。我们很少人会考虑本土群体努力追求的理想。

已消失的语言和受到威胁的语言


欧洲仅最近的300年间就有达尔马-罗曼语、克玟的哥特语、坡拉语、古普鲁士语和雅特威语相继消亡。还有2种克耳特语、哥尼克语在8世纪就已消亡,而马奴瓦语则在20世纪消亡。还有别的语言也正在消亡,首当其冲的是爱尔兰语。


19世纪岛上尚有一半的居民使用,今天只剩2%的居民了。至于布列塔尼语,自从16世纪布列塔尼与法国平等地合并以来,没有做任何努力以让它生存下去。1789年后所有的努力都是为了让它尽快消亡。


在非洲、在亚洲、在大洋洲、在美洲还有成千上百的语言自暴自弃,听凭它们可悲的命运安排。像前面陈列的语言一样,尚未被人知就已消亡。实际上很多今天尚且活跃的语言都逃脱不了消失的命运。


因为除了二十来个大的文明语言之外,今天在不到200个独立的国家里,只有六十来个民族语言被定为官方语言和教学语言。除了少数“正在出现”的语言,虽然不是一种全新的语言(例如克里奥尔语),正试图在阳光下获得自己的一席之地。在它们的“长兄”旁边,这些语言有可能起到“官方”的作用。


涌现的语言


20世纪布尔人的子孙阿非利卡人致力于发展阿非利卡语,宕若拈人和他们周围的居民则是斯瓦利语,印度尼西亚人和马来人为印地-马来语、在欧洲,卡特兰语、巴斯克语和威尔士语像于凯伊安语、白俄的语言、斯罗瓦克语、马色都伊安语或费鲁伊安语一样又获得“公民权”。罗曼语在1996年也恢复了它的权利。在美洲,卡拉里努拉(格陵兰岛)阿伊努人的语言和他们的土地一样得到了承认。在加勒比海,海地的克里奥尔语、巴比曼图语有了突破。在南美,歧楚阿语从理论上已经得到了秘鲁、巴拉圭的承认。在印度洋,马达加斯加和塞舌尔的克里奥尔语获得了自主权。柏柏尔语不只是在摩洛哥、阿尔及利亚得到了承认,伊拉克也承认了古尔德人,允许他们在山上生活。


然而,除了祖先留下的简单的口语外,出现的每一种语言都不是一个礼物,也不是一个恩赐,而是一场缓慢、持久的斗争。要保持已经取得的地位,继续使用语言就必须具备现代化的设备,使之规范化、文学化、编词汇和教科书,要有教师、教学设施,要有法律保护,要出版书籍、报纸等等。


印欧语系和亲属关系的发现


根据语言学家的研究,语言从属于不同的语族,覆盖全世界的各大洲,这种说法是最近才提出来的。古时候,人们承认罗曼语(romanes)。日耳曼语(germaniques)、斯拉夫语(slaves)等语言的存在及他们之间的相似性。但是在18世纪,第一批欧洲语文学家游历印度时发现了两种语言——梵文(sanskrit)和波斯语(persan)。这些语言在词汇和句法关系上与希腊语(grec)、拉丁语(latin)、哥特语(gothique)、斯拉夫语(slavon)更具有亲缘性,显然它们有共同的起源。从那时起,人们预感到了印欧语系(L'indo-européen)的存在,并进行了深入的研究。而且在发现了雅利安人之后,考古学、语法学家、哲学家、人类学家、历史学家、开拓者、外交人员和冒险家接触了千年的历史、草原和史诗。


印欧语系是一个语言和文明强大的事实,它持续了4000年。由此才产生了某种集体精神或说互助性?我么可以如此猜想。印欧语系的词汇和语法成为研究的对象,然而属印欧语系的人们能感觉到彼此的关联吗?对他们而言,这是生活中的一部分吗?显然,事实不是这样。这点无需讨论,语言学家已作了大量的阐述。语言之间的亲缘关系并不一定会使民族之间产生亲近的感情,共同的遗传之因显然是错误的说法。语族内部的语言表征的观察已否定了上面的假定。历史形成的这些种族-语言由于周边的冲突,使民族间的感情变得隔膜。


如果语言学家证实了语族的存在,对爱好科学的人也许是一种刺激,可是这却丝毫引不起平常人们的激动。


遗传相似和联姻:语言的接触


讲法语国家共同体(l'organisation de la francophonie)还分别建立了葡萄牙语(lusophonie)、荷兰语(néerlandophonie)、土耳其语学校。人民对睦邻关系、文明社团要比语言间及词形的相似性更为敏感。


因而,印度所有人都意识到他们属于同一个民族,有一样的文化。语言大多分属于四个不同的语族——达罗毗语族(dravidienne)(当地的)、印欧族系(indo-européenne)、藏缅语系(tibéo-birmane)或东南亚语系(sud-Est asiotique),或根据他们的肤色、体型还可以把他们划分到世界上其他地区的人群中。


二战之间,布拉格学派(Cercle de Prague)集聚了整个多瑙河沿岸国家及其他欧洲国家的语言学家,弄清并阐述了语族之间接触的重要性:地理上临近而血缘不相关的两个民族可以建立语言的联盟。自此,有关声波传播(trasmission par ondes〔wellentheorie〕)的理论得到修正,语言系谱(l'arbre généalogique〔stammbaumtheorie〕)也得到了修正。


语言不断变化


语言的一个基本事实是,它永远不是静止的。内在的活力、外在的影响使它不断地在演变。口语的变化迅速,书写最后也随之发生改变。这是语言“生成”的一个侧面。一代又一代,一个世纪又一个世纪,每种语言都遵循着自己的道路发展。语言学家根据观察到的音位系统、词形的变化确立可能的规则,但真实的变化却是每个社会、每个民族、每个历史时期所特有的。


语言的平均寿命约为6个世纪,这足以使语言变得面目全非。所有法国儿童在阅读《罗兰之歌》(Chanson de Roland)或中世纪的韵文故事时遇到的困难足以说明问题。1989年,巴黎的乔治-蓬皮杜文化中心(Centre Georges-Pompidou)作了一次尝试,再现路易十四、维龙、圣女贞德当年的话语,让人们了解今日语言与祖先语言的差别与变化:说的虽是法语但感觉却是在听外语。尽管学院派持保留态度,但是最终也不能阻止其变化。新的表达方式、旧的规则,在个人之间的交流中、在公众场合的演说里,甚至在学术论文里都一直处在竞争状态。伟大的学者是那些可以预见克里奥尔语(Créoles)、洋泾滨(pidgins)、非洲的法语或巴黎郊区的语言发展趋势的人。


捍卫语言的多样性


人类面临语种减少的危险,这一事实可能与生物物种的减少一样的严重。为此1992年在里约热内卢举行了最高首脑会议,会议向全世界发出警告,并建立了保护机构。这两种现象不仅相同,而且有联系。正如很多自然资源,动物和植物的物种都频临灭绝的危险那样,这些资源只存在于所谓的原始民族的语言里和他们的日常生活里。他们的语言和知识像这些资源一样正在遭受消亡的危险,所有关于饮食、医药或其他的财富将被工业社会的无知、“强大”文化的愚昧冲毁。


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-10 00:38:49

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-12 17:50 编辑

Day 5:
终于写完了Issue13,这篇回归之作真是写了好久啊~~

欢迎各位拍砖哈,有拍必回哦:lol

https://bbs.gter.net/viewthre ... xtra=#pid1773416991
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-10 22:12:40

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-12 10:17 编辑

Day6:
今天要努力争取补上argument143咯!
Step 1:
Three thesis by the author:
1. Far more jobs have been created than have been eliminated.
2. Many of those who lost jobs have found new employment.
3. Most of the newly created jobs have been paid above-average wages and almost all of them are full-time job.

Step 2:
Logic chain:
        reason 1--|

        reason 2--|-->conclusion

        reason 3--|

Step 3:
Find out flaws:
Retorting reason 1: Could the rate of job-increase in proportion to the rate of population growth? Does the number of jobs indeed meet the need of the American? The author merely referred to an abstract phrase "far more" instead of precise rate. In addition, the so-called far more jobs would not be only provided for someone who lost jobs; workers who master a special skill and the undergraduates could also share the same opportunity as the unemployed.
Retorting reason 2: The author failed to provide the average time spent of the unemployed in finding another job. He/She also overlooked the living standard of the unemployed citizens during their hunting job period.

Retorting reason 3: It would be an open question that whether the rest one-third residents should be intentionally neglected. The author undeserved slipped the treatment level and working condition of them. Besides, the ratio of part-time job deserves to take into consideration.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-12 11:12:50

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-12 16:02 编辑

Day 7:
Step 4:
Futher speculation:
From first to last, the author only focused on the word "job" itself to express his position. However, the content of the article also mentioned the action of downsizing. Since the author failed to consider this issue, we could confidently conclude that he/she acquiesced in the rationality of downsizing. The red-color sentence should be regarded as a hidden hypothesis of the argument. If, for instance, we primarily argued this hidden hypothesis, could we be able to give the author a "Critical Strike"?

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

关于蹬蹬蹬提供的Argument链接——Argument就应该这样写,https://bbs.gter.net/viewthre ... type%26typeid%3D100
https://bbs.gter.net/thread-416323-1-1.html
以前在修锐的博客看过,觉得还不错,http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4eb87b4601009i2y.html
但是看完之后,发觉更加不会写了,连庸俗的也写不出了:mad:

不过这次再看,有了些新的心得:
1.逻辑错误应该从大到小,而不是简单的先到先排


2.关于Argument51的讨论中,但是请分清楚这些都是谁的论据,他们都是用来证明“This hypothesis has now been proved by preliminary results of a study of two groups of patients.”的
那换言之,就是前提的论据。
简单说来,就是作者的话可以这样复述“因为[前提]的存在,所以我的[结论]是。。。那为什么说这个[前提]是正确的呢?因为。。。[论据]”

前提和结论 可以说是一个因果关系 (至少作者想体现出一种因果关系)
论据和前提 也可以说是一个因果关系,因为这里的论据是用来证明前提的
但是,究竟哪个逻辑关系是主关系呢?
显然应该是前提和结论的因果关系
如果你承认这点,那么就应该在你的第一攻击点,首先考虑攻击这个关系
反过来说,如果你第一段攻击了,那2个病人的实验,那你就是主次没分清楚

前提:Doctors have long suspected that secondary infections may keep some patients from healing quickly after severe muscle strain
结论:Therefore, all patients who are diagnosed with muscle strain would be well advised to take antibiotics as part of their treatment

最明显一些关键词,我已经给标出来了。剩下的也有值得关注的 比如 结论里面的 part。
是否发现,单单这2句话,比那一段实验还要有多话说?
secondary infections may ——> 一个仅仅是may 的事情,居然推广到都会发生,显然错了
some——>all 一些病人 推广到 所有病人 显然也错了
severe muscle strain 和一般的 muscle strain 病人能同等对待么?只有严重肌肉损伤的人中才有某些人可能发生再次感染,没有说任何关于整个肌肉损伤病人的信息。

由此,一下就至少3个攻击点
怎么攻击,不用我说了,这个你们很熟悉
但是在这里,我必须要再次强调为什么要先攻击这个地方
这个是西方的习惯,先攻击最重要的逻辑问题
为什么这个比2个病患组的例子更重要?
病患组的例子你再怎么攻击,最多也就是能说“这些证据,并不能表明[前提]是一定存在的”,那也就等于说,[前提]还是有可能存在的。你最后的攻击无非就是“一个不一定确实存在的[前提],不能推导到那样的结论”而我攻击前提和结论这个逻辑层面,我就能说,即便[前提]是完全正确的,我也不能得到那样的结论
所以,要先攻击这个逻辑关系
这个地方说的有点绕,希望大家仔细想下

那这3个点攻击完了,这个主逻辑层次攻击完了
怎么着至少攻击了2段了吧?如果你愿意此刻攻击了3段了
接着是什么?接着才是那2个病患组的攻击,也就是攻击他的前提了
想怎么攻击怎么攻击
但是不知道你们发现了没有,不管你怎么攻击这个证据,顶多也就是个information too vague,没有能重伤这个文章让别人怀疑的能力。

而我们最开始的攻击,相对于前者,可以说就是招招致命,让人足够怀疑了。


3.大家要分清楚,攻击是有主次的,攻击不同的逻辑层次产生的效力也是完全不一样的。不要觉得什么地方好写,就多写。什么错误先出现就先写。
很有可能最后出现的错误就是最致命的错误。
同时也请大家注意读题目,先要把题目句子间的逻辑顺序搞清了,前提和结论都好好的仔细读。总会有收获的。


4。关于Argument就应该这样写(二)以前看过了:TC做了个决定,选EZ而不选ABC,就是因为EZ价格高[隐含前提1]。但是TC错了,我们应该选EZ。为什么说他们错呢?因为EZ收费价格高是合理的[隐含前提2]。证据1,2,3。

那应该怎么说?想来说到这里,问题找到了,大家也应该比较会攻击了。
首先,作者的结论基于一个没有被证实的前提1——TC仅仅因为EZ价格高而不选他。完全有可能有别的更重要的原因。比如EZ就是个传统的依靠填埋进行垃圾处理的公司,对环境的污染很大。而ABC是新的垃圾处理公司,经过他们处理的垃圾很多能分离出很多循环再利用,能为我们整个社会节省很多的资源,并且垃圾发酵出来CH4还能给城市提供能源。

其次,作者的结论基于另一个没有被证实的前提2——EZ的高价是有道理的。没有任何证据表明,当EZ收费在2000快的前几年,他就不能提供这样的服务。或者说,即便他需要改进的服务,也不一定确实需要我们每个月多支出给他500块,也许200元是个更合理的价钱呢?

最后,支持EZ高价是reasonable的证据是有瑕疵的。然后简单说下那3个证据的问题,就可以了。


5.所谓的高分arguement就是因为他们展开的特别好,对某几点说的特别透彻,我也得说这也只是个描述“形式方面”的话,在个文章里面你即便把这个文章里面的survey说的再透彻,你也逃不过低分的命运!!!
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-12 15:59:59

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-12 23:31 编辑

Argument  143

Your recent article on corporate downsizing* in the United States is misleading. The article gives the mistaken impression that many competent workers who lost jobs as a result of downsizing face serious economic hardship, often for years, before finding other suitable employment. But this impression is contradicted by a recent report on the United States economy, which found that since 1992 far more jobs have been created than have been eliminated. The report also demonstrates that many of those who lost their jobs have found new employment. Two-thirds of the newly created jobs have been in industries that tend to pay above-average wages, and the vast majority of these jobs are full-time.

*Downsizing is the process in which corporations deliberately reduce the number of their employees.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
总结一下我对Argument题目构成的看法:                                          
a.前提+小前提+论据(证明小前提用的)+结论——>Argument51         
b.隐含前提1+隐含前提2+结论+论据(证明结论的)——>Argument17   
c.前提+结论+论据——>Argument143

文章最重要的是:
先说即使前提满足,结论也不能实现;再批判前提的不可实现性!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


前提:Your recent article on corporate downsizing in the United States is misleading.
结论:The article gives the mistaken impression that many competent workers who lost jobs as a result of downsizing face serious economic hardship, often for years, before finding other suitable employment.

论据:But this impression is contradicted by a recent report on the United States economy
         a.since 1992 far more jobs have been created that have been eliminated
         b.many of those who lost their jobs have found new employment
         c.two-thirds of the newly created jobs have been in industries that tend to pay above-average wages
         d.the vast majority of these jobs are full-time

首先质问为什么能故意解雇有能力的工人,然后质问解雇之后,凭什么从一份牵强的报告得出结论说人家生活得没有那么糟糕
1.对于前提结论因果关系不成立的攻击:
  the author acquiesces the rationality of downsizing:
   a.many competent workers lose jobs;
   b.the unemployed ones often could hardly find suitable jobs in years of time because of the adverse record, which leads to their serious economic hardship

2.针对论据攻击小Flaws:

a.针对job,number,population即工作岗位是否能够符合人口(失业和新人):
   Retorting reason 1: Could the rate of job-increase in proportion to the rate of population growth? Does the number of jobs indeed meet the need of the American? The author merely referred to an abstract phrase "far more" instead of precise rate. In addition, the so-called far more jobs would not be only provided for someone who lost jobs; workers who master a special skill and the undergraduates could also share the same opportunity as the unemployed.

b.针对fulltime work,working time, life standard(被归到了对前提结论因果关系的攻击中)
   Retorting reason 2: The author failed to provide the average time spent of the unemployed in finding another job. He/She also overlooked the living standard of the unemployed citizens during their hunting job period.

c.针对below 1/3 average wage, life or work treatment
   Retorting reason 3: It would be an open question that whether the rest one-third residents should be intentionally neglected. The author undeserved slipped the treatment level and working condition of them. Besides, the ratio of part-time job deserves to take into consideration.


终于完成了Argument143,虽然最后又两段文字是直接贴的“蹬蹬蹬”的,不过写作思路有点回忆起来了,可惜感觉还不如Issue呢
https://bbs.gter.net/viewthread.php?tid=1040378&page=1&extra=
这次还是有拍必回哦!!
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-12 23:00:49

GRE general test分析性写作部分介绍
分析性写作部分概要
分析性写作是从2002年十月新引入GRE general test当中的新的部分,它主要考察你的批判性思维能力和分析性写作能力。它考察你以下几方面的能力:清楚地说明和支持一个复杂的观点;分析一个论断;可以集中,清晰地支撑一个论题。它并不考察你特定的知识。
分析性写作部分包括两个单独计时的分析性写作任务:
l
一个45分钟的针对一个论题陈述自己观点的任务;
l
一个30分钟分析一个论断的任务。
你将可以再两个给出的Issue题目当中选择一个。每一个题目陈述了针对一个论题的观点,这个论题涉及范围很广。它要求你从任何你愿意的角度讨论这一论题,只要你提供相关的原因和论据来解释和支持你的观点。
Argument的写作中,你没有选择。Argument给你带来一个区别于Issue的挑战。它需要你通过讨论是否合理来评论一个给出的论断。你需要考虑的是论断中的逻辑的完整性而不是同意或不同意论断中所呈现出的观点。
这两个任务是互补的,Issue要求你选取一个观点并提供证据来支持你的观点,从而建立一个自己的论断;而Argument要求你通过评价别人的观点和他所提供的证据来评论一个别人的论断。
为分析性写作做准备
每个人,即使是非常有经验和自信的写作者都应当在考试前花时间为分析性写作做准备。复习一下考察的技能,这一部分如何评分,评分指南,评分水平的描述,题目示例,打过分的文章示例和判卷者的评语是非常重要的。
AW中的题目涉及的学科范围十分广泛,从艺术人文学科到社会、自然科学,但是没有题目需要专业的知识,事实上,每一个题目都已经被检验过拥有以下几个重要的特点:
l
GRE的考生无论学的什么专业都可以理解题目并较易地讨论它。
l
题目所引出的复杂的思考以及说服性的写作将是大学教授认为对在研究生阶段获得成功的非常重要的因素。
l
针对题目所给出的回答无论是内容还是作者表明自己观点的方式都应是多样化的。
为了帮助你准备GRE general test分析性写作部分,GRE项目已经将全部的题库公布出来,在考试中你的题目将从中选择。你会发现题库对你会很有帮助。你可以在www.gre.org/pracmat.html中看到,或者写信给GRE项目获得题库。
AW应试策略
计划好你的时间是非常重要的。在Issue所给的45分钟内,你需要充足时间来选择一个题目并认真思考,构架并完成你的文章。在Argument所给的30分钟内,你需要充足的时间去分析一个论断,构架你的评论/批评并完成你的文章。虽然GRE的阅卷者对你写作的时间限制表示理解并且将你的文章看做是第一遍草稿,但你还是希望你的文章成为在考试环境中所写的最好的文章。
在每个部分时间快到时,节省出几分钟来检查明显的错误。虽然一些偶然的笔误或语法上的错误不会影响你的分数,但严重和多次出现的错误将降低你写作整体的有效性从而降低你的得分。
AW之后你将有10分钟休息。在其他部分考试中将有1分钟休息。你可以在休息中重新准备好你的草稿纸。
AW如何评分
每份答卷都将根据GRE发布的评分指南给出一个6分制的整体得分。整体判分意味着每个答卷将作为一个整体来评判。阅卷者不会将答卷分为几个部分并对每个部分(例如观点,文章的组织结构,句子结构或是语言)给分。而是根据答卷的整体质量,从整体上考虑文章的各方面特点而给出一个分数。例如:好的组织或是差的组织都将是阅卷者对于答卷的整体印象的一部分,因此将会对分数有影响。但是文章的组织不会有专门评分权重。
一般来说,GRE判卷者是有经验的大学教员,他们所教课程中写作和批判性思维都很重要。所有GRE判卷者都经过仔细的培训并通过严格的GRE评分测试,并保证他们在评分中能够保持评分的准确性。
为了保证评分的公正性和客观性
l
答卷将随机的分配给判卷者
l
所有答卷者的身份信息将对判卷者保密
l
每份答卷由两名判卷者评分
l
判卷者并不知道一份答卷已经得到了什么分数
评分过程需要每份答卷获得两个判卷者相同或相近的分数,若不相同或不相近,将由第三个判卷者来裁决。
ArgumentIssue将分别打分,最终平均成绩作为最终成绩。对于分数的描述在后面会讲到,它为如何解读AW部分得分提供信息。评分中最需要强调的是批判性思维和分析性写作的能力。
你的AW部分答卷在评分过程中还会被ETS文章相似性探查软件和有经验的判卷者检查。因为独立的思考能力在美国的研究生院和大学中是非常重要的。ETS将保留取消能充分证据证明有以下情况考生的考试成绩的权利:
l
文章与一个或多个其他考生考卷大量相似
l
引用或改写已发表或未发表文章中的语言或观点,而没有写明出处
l
没有向工作的合作者致谢或没有写明引用他人的贡献
l
当文章被考生提交,而文章观点和用词事实上是从别处或由他人准备出来的
当上述情况发生一次或多次,根据ETS专业的评判,你的文章将不能反映出考试所要考察的独立分析写作能力。因此,ETS将取消你的成绩并且不能提供GRE general test的成绩(因为写作部分的成绩是必需的)。
被取消成绩的考生考试费用将被没收,并且今后仍需再次付GRE考试的所有费用。但取消成绩,以及取消原因将不会记录在今后的送给大学的成绩单中。

在Issue任务中表达你的观点

理解Issue任务

“在Issue任务中表达你的观点”任务评估你批判性思考一个一般兴趣题目的能力和在文章中清晰表达自己想法的能力。在引号中给出的每一个题目都对一个论题发表了看法,应试者可以从不同的角度进行讨论,还可以应用到许多不同的形式和条件下。你的任务是为你对论题的观点提出一个有说服力的案例。一定要认真阅读提供的看法,从不同的角度考虑它,思考与那些观点相关的思维复杂性。然后记下你想表达的观点,列出可以用来支持你的观点的主要原因和例子。

Issue任务允许你对提供的看法提出大范围的回应。虽然必须围绕中心论题是很重要的,但是你可以很自由地用想用的方法论述。例如,你可以:
1.        完全同意,完全不同意或部分同意题目的看法,或其他;
2.        质疑观点中可能提出的假设;
3.        评判任何措辞,特别是你定义或应用一个措辞的方法对你在issue中发表你的观点很重要;
4.        指出为什么文中的观点在一些形势下是对的,而在其他形势下未必;
5.        评价与你自己的观点相反的观点;
6.        用理由来发表你的立场。这些理由是由一些相关的例子或简单的补充例子。

给你的答卷评分的GRE阅卷人不是寻找一个“正确”的答案-实际上,并没有正确的立场。相反的,阅卷人评判的是你在issue中写作和发展辩论以支持立场的能力。

理解写作的内容:目的和观众

Issue任务是一个关于批判性思维和说服性写作的练习。它的目的是确定你对一个论题能多好地发展有道理的辩论来支持你自己的观点,以及你能多有效地在写作中想学术观众表达出辩论。你的观众包括学院和大学的老师,他们都是受过训练的GRE阅卷人,能够应用评分标准(见第27页)来进行评分。

为了能够更清晰地了解GRE阅卷人是如何应用Issue评分标准来给实际的答卷打分的,你应该回顾下范文和阅卷人的评论。范文,尤其是那些5分6分的范文,可以告诉你各种组织、发展以及表达一个有说服力的辩论的成功策略。阅卷人的评论讨论了分析和写作的各个方面,比如例子的使用、表达和支持、组织、语言流畅性、以及词汇的选择。对每一篇答卷,评论都指出了特别有说服力的方面以及从文章整体效果扣分的方面。

Issue任务的准备

因为Issue任务是为了评估你在学习阶段培养的说服力写作能力,所以它被设计为既不要求你需要什么专门的课程学习,也不要求你受过特殊的训练。

许多大学课本在作文学习中都提供了关于说服力写作的建议,你会发现很有用。但是就算是这些建议相对于你在Issue任务中的需要也可能过于技术性和专业性了。你不需要知道特殊的批判性思维或写作用语或策略;相反的,你应该能够使用理由、证据以及例子在支持你对论题的立场。假设一篇Issue题目要求你考虑政府为艺术博物馆提供财政支持是否重要。如果你的立场是政府应该提供,你就应该通过讨论艺术很重要,解释博物馆是人们接触艺术的公共场所来支持你的立场。另一方面,如果你的立场是政府不应该资助博物馆,你就应该指出政府有限的资金不值得支持博物馆,而应该提供给其他机构。或者,如果你倾向于政府的资金只有在某些情况下提供给博物馆,你就可以集中在艺术标准、文化关注点或者政治形势上来决定考虑如何或是否由政府想艺术博物馆提供资金。你的立场并不重要,而你在表达立场时表现出的批判性思维能力很重要。

一个准备Issue任务的好的方法是在一些公共话题上练习写作。最好的方法并不存在:有些人在刚开始练习时喜欢不考虑45分钟的时间限制;而有些人就喜欢一开始就有时间限制。不管你在练习Issue任务时选择什么方法,你都应该回顾任务指南,然后:
1.        仔细阅读题目中提出的观点,确定你理解了论题;如果不清楚,可以同老师或朋友讨论;
2.        将论题和你的个人想法和经历、你读到的或看到的事情、你认识的人物一起考虑;这是一中知识,从中你可以在你的辩论中表达有说服力的理由和例子,从而在一定程度上加强、削弱、或确认你的观点;
3.        决定在论题中你想支持和反驳的立场-记住你可以任意地同意或完全不同意或部分同意一些观点;
4.        决定有什么有说服力的证据(理由和例子)你可以使用来支持你的立场。

记住这是一个考查批判性思维和说服力写作的任务。所以,你会发现通过自问以下问题对挖掘其中一个题目中的观点的复杂性有帮助:
1.        准确的中心论题是什么?
2.        我是完全同意还是部分同意题目中的观点呢?为什么?为什么不呢?
3.        题目的观点中提出了什么假设没?如果提出了,他们有道理没?
4.        题目中的观点只在某些情形下才成立吗?如果是,他们是什么情形?
5.        我需要解释题目中使用的词汇和概念不?
6.        如果我赞成论题中提出的某个立场,有什么理由可以支持我的立场?
7.        我能使用什么真实的或虚构的例子来说明那些原因,进而阐述我的观点?哪些例子是最有说服力的?

一旦你已经确定了辩护的观点,考虑一下其他也许不同意你的点的人的看法。自问询问?
1.        其他人可能用什么理由来反驳或诋毁我的立场?
2.        我怎么样才能在我的文章中确认或欢聚这些观点?

为了计划你的回答,你可能想总结你的立场,简单记下你将会怎样支持你的立场。当你完成这些之后,检查一下你的笔记,决定怎样组织你的回答。然后在任务中写下表达你的立场的回答。就算你没有完成一篇完整的回答,你都会发现做一些题目练习和简单写出你的可能的回答是非常有用的。当你完成一些题目的练习之后,尝试在45分钟内写一些题目,这样你就可以知道在实际的考试中怎么使用你的时间。

可能从一个教批判性思维或写作的老师那得到关于你的回答的反馈,或者同其他同学交换或联系评分指南讨论相同题目的答卷都很有帮助。试着确定每一份答卷达到或忽略了指南中对每个评分点的标准。将你自己的答案与评分指南对比可以帮助你发现哪里需要改进,怎么改进。

决定选择哪道题目

记住General Test包含了从发行的题库中选出的两道题目;你必须从中选择一道。因为在你看到两道题目时45分钟就开始计时了,所以你不能花太多的时间做决定。相反的,试着较快地选出你觉得相对比较好讨论的题目。

在你做出选择之前,仔细阅读每个题目。然后决定哪道题目你可以发表比较有效和理由充分的辩论。在作决定的时候,你可以问自己以下几个问题:
1.        哪个题目自己觉得更有趣或更吸引人?
2.        哪道题目更贴近于自己的专业学习或其他经历?
3.        对于哪道题目自己可以更清晰地解释和辩护自己的观点?
4.        对于哪道题目自己可以更能准备充分地想到支持自己立场的有力的理由和例子?
你对这些问题的回答可以帮助你作出选择。

你的答案的形式

你可以自由地用你认为能有效地表达你对论题的思想的任意的方法组织和发展你的答案。你的回答可以,但不是必须,参考你在大学英语作文或密集型写作课上学到的个别写作策略。GRE阅卷人不会寻找个别的发展策略或写作模式;实际上,当GRE阅卷人在受训是,他们评审了数百篇Issue答卷。这些答卷表现了相似的批判性思维和说服力写作水平,尽管在内容上和形式上大相径庭。比如,阅卷人会看到一些6分Issue答卷开始时就简单概括了作者的立场,然后展开申明要辩论的要点。他们也会看到其它答卷通过作一个预测,提出一连串的问题描述一个现象,或者在引用中定义一个批判性的术语来引出作者的立场。阅卷人知道作者可以通过提出许多或一个展开的例子来得到高分。参阅范文,特别是5分6分水平的范文,来看看其他作者是怎样成功地发展和组织他们的辩论的。

你应该使用你认为对你的辩论合适的或多或少的段落-比如,你可能在转向新的思想的时候需要另起新的一段。重要的不是例子的多少,段落的数量,或者你辩论的形式,而是对论题的思想的力量和你向阅卷人表达那些思想所运用的清晰性和能力。


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-12 23:02:30

Sample Issue Topic
“In our time, specialists of all kinds are highly overrated. We need more generalists—people who can provide broad perspectives."

对这个题目的策略

这个观点提出了一些相关的问题:通才和专才的定义,以及他们对社会的价值?社会真的需要更多的通才么?以及专才真的“被高估了”?

你对这个论题采取几个基本的立场:是的,社会需要更多的通才,也对专才赋予了过高的认可。不,相反的意见才是对的。或者,要看各种情况。或者,在今天的文明中两者都重要;没有被高估的。你的分析可以从一个特定的社会或国家,从社会的一个或几个方面,或从各种不同的情形上来举例子。你可以将通才和专才的角色同通信、交通、政治、信息或者技术方面联系起来。这些方法都可以,只要你运用这些相关的理由和例子来支持你的立场。

在你表明立场之前,花一点时间重新阅读下题目。为了分析,考虑以下几个问题:
1.        专才和通才的主要区别是什么?各自的强项是什么?
2.        这些区别在不同的领域和情形下经常存在吗?比如,存不存在一些专才也需要很宽的知识范围和基本能力来更好地完成工作?
3.        在你的专业里通才和专才表现怎么样?
4.        你认为社会对于专才和通才的价值观是什么?在一些情况下专才被高估了吗?而在其他情况下没有?
5.        社会真的需要更多的通才?如果是,他们能做什么呢?

现在你可以将你的想法分成两组:
1.        支持题目观点的理由和例子;
2.        支持相反观点的理由和例子。

如果你发现一组比另一组更容易表述,考虑一下从那个角度在展开辩论。在你写作时,记住其他观你可以反驳的观点。

如果两组都可以很好表述,那就考虑发展一个能够支持更有限或更复杂的观点,而不是一个不变的观点。

范文和阅卷人评论

6分范文(略)

阅卷人对6分范文的评价

这是一篇对论题出色的分析-有深度、理由充分、对语言高效的运用。第一段声明了作者的立场,提供了作者要发展该立场的内容:“In this era of rapid social and technological change leading to increasing life complexity and psychological displacement . . . .”

这篇辩论有两个部分。第一部分提出了一个在医药领域的专才的复杂案例。第二段基于一下三个主要原因提出了一个同样有说服力、组织好的反对过高评价专才的案例:
1.        逻辑上(专才通常难于了解全局);
2.        道德上(通才常常理解“大好”需要什么);
3.        个人的(分科太早可能带来精神问题)。

辩论中详细的论证被专家鉴定(著名医药研究人员的引语)和生动的隐喻(只看一个人的指甲就会忽视整个身体)的灵巧运用加强。

在这篇答卷中出彩的不仅是论证。语言简洁而且修辞丰富("bogged down in a Sargasso sea of information overload," "a pile of useless discoveries," and "specialists drive us forward in a series of thrusts, while generalists make sure we are still on the jousting field").过渡词汇和思想帮助组织思维和推动辩论前进。阅卷人被牢牢牵引在辩论中。这是一篇对这个题目出色的答卷。

5分范文(略)

阅卷人对5分范文的评价

这个作者通过讨论对专才和通才的需要展示了一篇对论题复杂性的发展很好的分析。

这篇辩论扎根于两个很好的例子。第一个(第二段)开始于一个对医药全科医师和专科医师的需求的讨论,进而进入一个例子中的例子(呼吸问题和哮喘专科医师的需要)。这个从全科的到专科的延伸也描述了在第二段中的例子。同样在第二段中,讨论集中在了小学教育的基本算数到高中教育的微积分。

通过使用合适的过渡词"but," "usually," and "for instance,"使得表达很顺畅。文章最后重申了作者的主题。

虽然作者对语言和句法把握得很好,但是如果能避免一些清晰上的瑕疵,这篇答卷就是6分水平了。存在的问题从缺乏指代对象("When a sickness progresses or becomes diagnosed, . . . he may be referred to a specialist")到并列结构的错误("how it begins, progresses and specified treatments")和松散的句法以及错误的句子("Generalized teachers are required to begin molding students at a very early age so they can get ready for the future ahead of them in gaining more facts about the basic subjects.")

4分范文(略)

阅卷人对4分范文的评价

这是一篇对论题充分的分析。在第一段中令人有些困惑地定义了“专才”之后,作者提出了一个切题的例子(特殊教育老师)来举例说明专才的重要性。这个例子主导了答卷,对4分的得分起到了作用。

第二个关于委员会工作的例子不怎么具有说服力。但是,它的确好像帮助清晰表达了作者将“通才”定义为伞状术语,意思为专才对话题所了解的全部集合。

虽然作者对“通才”和“专才”的关系的观点与众不同,但是它们在文章的结论处的确很清楚。但是,这些思想没有得到深层次的发展或足够的逻辑掌控。所以不能得到比4分更高的分数。

写作大致上无误。在句子结构、语法以及用法上有些问题,虽然有时措辞上有点错误和口头话。总的来说,这篇答卷显示了对英语写作要素的足够的把握。

3分范文(略)

阅卷人对3分范文的评价

作者的立场很明确:专才很重要也很需要。但是,这个立场没有得到理由和逻辑例子的做够支持。

第一段提出了脑外科医生对全科医师的例子。但是,第二段中越来越狭窄的大学教育的例子只有两句话,严重缺乏发展。这对作者的立场几乎没有支持。

第三段又提出了另一个很完善的例子。不幸的是,这个例子逻辑上不够清晰。作者试图辩论说“专才”国家(一个产桔子较好的国家)强于“通才”国家(一个桔子和其他产品都生产得很好的国家)。作者告诉我们,这个通才国家次于其他国家。这个结论没有从作者的辩论中逻辑地体现出来,而且似乎同日常生活不符。

虽然文章中语言的使用不是很精确,但是作者的意思没有被掩盖。得到3分的主要原因是缺乏足够的论述和例子的不正确使用。

2分范文(略)

阅卷人对2分范文的评价

这是一篇对论题有严重瑕疵的分析。这篇回答倾向于专才,但是理由和例子都不具有说服力。没有带“一个生病的孩子去看专长于婚姻问题的医生”的例子过分简单,而且因为是不同专家的区别而不是通才和专才的区别,所以偏题了。

句子的形式和语言很不好,以至于辩论有时很难读下去。尽管这样,这也比1分好:作者在文中表明了立场,使用了一些很差的分析来展开立场,比较清晰地表达了思想。

1分范文(略)

阅卷人对1分范文的评价

这篇答卷对论题没有展示足够的讨论。

第一句话声明了作者对支持专才的立场,但是随后没有相应的辩论。有些思想似乎矛盾(e.g., "generalists can pinpoint a problem")而且例子令人迷惑。如果文章解释说第一个(不成功的)医生是一个通才而第二个(成功的)医生是一个专才,这个例子就会是成功的。但是,在文中,这个例子不够清晰甚至有误导性。总结性陈述仅仅增添了迷惑性。

因为大多数句子都很短且突变,所以他们试图说明的思想也是突变的。作者需要提供过渡性的词汇和想法来为这份答卷带来逻辑收敛。而且,基本错误和语法错误很常见,但是使这篇文章得到1分主要源自辩论连贯性的缺乏。


分析一篇Argument任务

理解Argument任务

“分析一篇Argument”任务评估你理解、分析和评价观点性作文的能力,以及在写作中清晰表达你的分析的能力。这个任务包含一篇简要的文章,其中作者通过提出了一个声明和其后的理由和证据对行动的步骤或时间的解释列举了案例。你的任务是通过批判性地考查各条理由和证据的使用来讨论作者的案例的逻辑完整性。这个任务要求你仔细阅读辩论。你可能想多阅读几次以及对你想在你的答卷中发展的要点作简要的笔记。在阅读辩论时,你应该注意:
1.        提出了哪些证据、支持或证明;
2.        做出了什么声明、看法或推断;
3.        可能没有理由和证明地假设了什么;
4.        从声明中有必要提出的而又没有提的。

   而且,你应该考虑辩论的结构—这些要素连接在一起形成理由链的方法;也就是说,你应该认识区别和有时在思维过程中隐含的步骤,考虑从一步到下一步是否逻辑上完整。在追踪这条链的过程中,寻找表示作者试图做逻辑连接的词语和短语(例如., however, thus, therefore, evidently, hence, in conclusion)。
在Argument任务中表现出色的重要部分是记住没有要求你的东西。任务没有要求你讨论在辩论中提出的观点是真的还是假的;相反的,任务要求你判断观点中的结论与推论是否合理。任务没有要求你同意或不同意提出的立场;相反的,任务要求你评论提出的立场的思想。任务没有要求你表达你对讨论的主题的看法(就像在Issue任务中一样);相反的,任务要求你评价另一个作者的辩论的逻辑完整性;通过这些来表现你的批判性思维、感知性阅读以及分析写作能力,而这些能力是大学老师认为的在研究生学习中非常重要的成功要素。
“分析一篇辩论”主要是一个批判性写作任务,需要文章答卷。所以,在你的评论中表现的分析能力在决定你的得分中占了很大的比重。

理解写作的内容:目的和读者

这个任务的目的是看你在深入分析一篇别人写的辩论以及有效地向学术读者表达你的评价的能力。范文,特别是5分和6分水平的范文,能够向你展示组织写一篇有洞察力的评论的各种成功的策略。你也能看到语言的有效运用的例子。阅卷人的评论讨论了分析性写作的特定的方面,诸如思想的力量、表达和支持、组织、句式的多样性以及语言的灵巧性。这些评论会指出特别有效的和深入的方面以及从整体答卷中扣分的方面。

Argument任务的准备

因为Argument任务是为了评估你在你受教育过程中学到的分析性写作和信息推理能力,所以它不是设计为需要特殊的学习课程或者针对受过特殊训练的高级学生。许多关于修辞和作文的大学课本都有关于非形式逻辑和批判性思维的章节,这很可能有用。但就算是这些也可能比任务所要求的细化和技术化了。你并不需要知道分析的方法或技术词汇。比如,在一个题目中一个小学校长可能认为新的运动设施改善了学生的出勤率,因为自从安装新的设施后缺席率降低了。你不需要知道主题涉及到post hoc, ergo propter hoc谬论;你只需要知道对于改善的出勤率可能有其他的解释,只需要提供一些共识的例子,以及需要解释什么是证实结论所需要的。比如,缺席率的降低可能是因为天气变好了。为了保证校长的推理正确这个理由可能会被排除掉。

虽然你不需要知道专业的分析技术和术语,但是你应该熟悉Argument任务的指南和某些重要概念,其中包括:
1.        另外一种解释—与问题中导致事件发生的起因可能相矛盾的解释;削弱另一种解释或者因为原来的解释也可以导致明显事实而力挺它;
2.        分析—将某物(例如一篇辩论)分成几个组成部分来理解它们是怎样合作成整体的过程;或者也是一个通常为写作的,对产生这个结果的过程的陈述;
3.        辩论—一个由理由和证据支持的一个或几个声明;一个用来证明某物的真伪的一组理由;
4.        假设—一个通常没有得到声明和检验的信念是有些人在维系一个特殊的立场必须保留的;这是为了证明结论真实性而作的假设,所以必须是正确的;
5.        结论—经过一组理由得到的最终观点。如果理由充分则正确;对结果的主张;
6.        反例—在辩论中反驳声明的真实的或虚假的例子。


准备“分析一片Argument”任务的非常好的方法是对一些发行的Argument题目进行训练。对每个人而言都最适用的方法是没有的。有些人喜欢在开始练习时没有30分钟的限制。如果你使用这种方法,那就充分利用时间来分析辩题。不管你使用什么方法,你都应该:
1.        仔细阅读辩题—你也许希望不止一遍;
2.        尽可能多地鉴定它的声明、结论以及潜在的假设;
3.        尽可能多地思考另外的解释和反例;
4.        思考还有什么其他的证据可以削弱或支持声明;
5.        问自己辩题中什么变化可以使理由更有力。

简要记下每一条思想。当你已经尽可能地发展了你分析后,检查一下笔记,将它们好好排序以便讨论(也许需要编个号)。然后对每一点相继充分地表达你的批评。即便你不能够完整地完成你的答卷,你也应该练习一些辩题和为你的回答写提纲。这会很有帮助。当你速度更快更有信心的时候,你就应该在30分钟时间限制下练习写一些Argument回答,这样你就可以对如何将自己置身于真实考场有和较好的认识了。例如,你不想对一个要点讨论得太彻底或者不想因为提供太多的等价的例子导致没有时间来分析其他的要点。

也许你想从一位写作老师、一个哲学老师或者在课堂上研究批判性思维的人那里得到关于你的答卷的反馈。同样很有帮助的是和同学交换答卷并相互根据评分指南讨论。不要过分集中在得到“正确的分数”,而应该集中在分析这些答卷达到或忽略了每个评分点的要求标准,以及你从中需要改进的地方。

在Argument题目中如何理解数字、百分率以及统计

有些辩题包含一些数字、百分率或者统计作为支持辩题结论的证据。例如,一篇辩题可能因为在今年只有100人参加,而去年有150分,出席率下降了33%而认为某个社区活动在今年不如在去年那么流行。重要的是记住你不需要对数字、百分率或统计作数学计算。相反的,你应该将这些作为支持结论的证据来评价。在上面的例子里,结论是一个社区活动不如以前受欢迎了。你应该自问:在支持这个结论时100个人和150人有什么区别?在这个案例中请注意,可能有其他的解释:比如,今年的天气可能变坏了些,今年的活动在一个不方便的时间举行,今年活动的成本可能变高了,或者今年在同一时间可能有另外一个更流行的活动举行。这些理由都可以解释出席率不同的区别,于是削弱了结论所说的活动“不太流行”了。同理,百分率是支持还是削弱一个结论也取决于百分率真正代表的数字。思考一个看法说学校戏曲俱乐部应该得到更多的资金,因为它的会员增加了100%。如果以前有100个人而现在增加到200个,那么这个100%的增加可以很有意义。但是如果原来只有5个人而现在有10个,那么这个100%的增加就没什么意义了。记住在Argument题目中任何数字、百分率或统计只是被用来支持结论的证据,而你应该经常考虑是否它们真正支持了结论。

你的回答的形式

你可以自由地组织和发展你认为能有效表达你对辩题的分析的评论。你的回答可以,但不是必须,参考在大学英语作文或精细写作可生学到的写作策略。GRE阅卷人不会寻找某种特定的发展策略或写作模式。实际上,当老师接受GRE阅卷人训练时,他们阅读了几百篇Argument答卷。这些答卷虽然在内容和形式上大相径庭,但是都显示了批判性思维和分析性写作的相似的水平。例如阅卷人会发现一些6分作文在开始时简要地总结了辩题,随后明确地提出和发展评论的要点。阅卷人了解作者可以通过在评论中分析和发展一些要点或通过鉴别辩题中的中心缺点并充分发展评论来得到高分。你也许想参阅Argument答卷,特别是5分和6分的,来看看其他作者是如何成功地发展和组织他们的评论的。

你应该在你想用来支持和加强你的评价整体的有效性的形式和组织中做出选择。这就意味着使用你认为对你的评论合适的数量的段落—比如,当你的讨论转到一个新的分析点时就新起一段。你也许想围绕辩题本身来组织你的评论,从而一行一行地讨论辩题。或者你想在开始就指出一个中心缺点,然后转到讨论辩题的相似理由的缺点。同理,如果举例能帮助在你的评论里表达要点或推动讨论前进,你也可以使用举例(但是记住,根据你在Argument任务中有效表现出的能力,评估的是你的批判性思维和分析性写作,而不是你举例的能力)。关键的不是答卷采用的的形式,而是你分析辩题有多深入以及你能多清晰地在文章中向专业阅卷人表达你的分析。

作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-12 23:04:04

Sample Argument Topic
Hospital statistics regarding people who go to the emergency room after roller skating accidents indicate the need for more protective equipment. Within this group of people, 75 percent of those who had accidents in streets or parking lots were not wearing any protective clothing (helmets, knee pads, etc.) or any light-reflecting material (clip-on lights, glow-in-the-dark wrist pads, etc.). Clearly, these statistics indicate that by investing in high-quality protective gear and reflective equipment, roller skaters will greatly reduce their risk of being severely injured in an accident.

对这个题目的策略

这道辩题引用了一个医院数据统计来支持一个大概的声明:“购买高质量的保护器具和反射设备”可以降低轮滑事故中严重受伤的风险。

在发展你的分析时,你应该自问医院的统计是否真正支持了结论。你可能想问自己以下问题:
1.        在轮滑事故之后有多大比例的轮滑者去急诊室就医?
2.        轮滑事故之后去急诊室就医的人能代表大多数轮滑者吗?
3.        有在轮滑事故中受伤而不去急诊室就医的人吗?
4.        时不时去急诊室的轮滑者都是严重受伤的?
5.        穿戴了保护器具的轮滑者中的25%受伤严重性等同于没有穿戴的人的75%吗?
6.        对于轮滑者是不是街道和停车场本身就比其他地方更危险呢?
7.        在轮滑时中等质量的器具和设备是不是也和高质量的器具设备一样可以有效地降低严重受伤的风险呢?
8.        有没有器具设备之外的因素—比如天气情况、可见度、轮滑者的技术—可能与轮滑受伤的风险更有关系呢?
思考这些问题的可能答案可以帮助你在对辩题的评论中确定假设、另外的解释以及弱点。

范文和阅卷人评论

阅卷人对6分范文的评论

这篇出色的答卷展示了作者富有洞察力的分析能力。第一段提出采纳题目中荒谬的理由会". . . inspire people to over invest financially and psychologically in protective gear,"随后通过深入地考查辩题中每条根本错误。特别地,作者提出了一些颠覆辩题的要点:
1.        预防器具和保护器具是不相同的;
2.        穿戴器具的轮滑者也许不容易发生事故,因为他们天生就更有责任心和富有警惕性;
3.        统计数据没有区分受伤的程度;
4.        器具没有必要是高质量的才有效。

讨论很流畅,组织很有逻辑性,每个要点得到很彻底和中肯的发展。而且,写作很简洁、经济和没有错误。句式丰富和复杂,措辞精确而富有表现力。

总的说来,这篇答卷代表了在评分指南中6分作文的最高水平。假设作者没有这么有口才或者在反驳辩题时少举了一些理由,这篇文章仍然可以得到6分。

阅卷人对5分范文的评论

这篇有力的回答很好地评论了辩题。辩题中注意到"indicates a possible relationship"但它的结论"is premature"。它提出了三个中心问题,如果得到回答,那就可以颠覆辩题的完整性:
1.        所有轮滑者的特征是什么?
2.        在预防或减轻轮滑者受伤的痛苦中保护器具或反射器具起到了什么作用?
3.        有哪些类型的受伤以及原因?

作者通过考虑可能的答案来发展每个问题,从而加强或削弱辩题。文章没有像6分文章要求的那样深入地分析辩题或表达评论,但清晰的组织、对语言强有力的掌控以及实质程度上的发展还是使它不止得到4分。

阅卷人对4分范文的评论

这篇表达充分的回答以辩题不明确和非决定性的“统计”为目标。文章鉴定和评论了从辩题统计数据的误用而得到的逻辑理由:
1.        装备的停用可能“自动地”假设为受伤的原因;
2.        “事故”也许导致轻伤;
3.        受伤也许是来自其他原因—在晚上轮滑,训练不够或热身不充分,没有认识到自身的生理限制。
作者完全把握住了辩题的弱点。思想很清晰和连贯,但是回答缺少过渡词汇。表达发展也仅仅刚够。
对语言的掌控很好。同时达到了掌控和清晰以及巧妙地遵循英语写作的习惯。但是总而言之,这篇4分答卷缺少更多的彻底的发展,所以得不到5分。

阅卷人对3分范文的评论

总的来说这是一篇写得很好但是有限的文章,前半部分仅仅描述了辩题。第二部分鉴定了辩题的两个假设:
1.        购买保护器具的人就会使用他们;
2.        好质量的器具比其他器具更有用。

这些要点能构建一些分析从而得到3分。但是,这些要点都没有得到足够的发展,所以得不到4分。

阅卷人对2分范文的评论

这是一篇又缺陷的答卷,而不是对辩题的评论。它建议成年人和轮滑制造商保证儿童穿戴保护性装备。在本质上,作者没有严格地接受辩题的意见。

这份答卷在句子结构和语言运用上存在严重而频繁地问题。错误—词汇的选择、动词时态、主谓一致性,标点—有许多错误,有时还会影响意思。比如". . . it needs a cooperation among us to have a concious mind to beware and realize its dangerous."

这篇文章得到2分是因为它显示了严重的语言缺陷和基于逻辑分析的评论结构的失败。

阅卷人对1分范文的评论

这篇根本上不完整的答卷不严格地同意题目中的理由:"the protective equipment do help to reduce the risk of being severyly injuryed in an accident."但是没有证据说明作者能够理解或者分析辩题;而且,除了其他一些单词外,它仅仅复制了题目。这篇两句话的答卷逐句地重复了两遍。语言使用也有问题。加入的词语和题目中的词语没有相关性。总之,这篇文章按评分指南的要求应该得1分。

样题略

GRE评分指南:对一篇Issue表达你的观点

6分

一篇6分答卷展示了对论题的复杂性的有说服力的,表达良好的分析,并且巧妙地表达了意思。

这种典型的文章:
1.        对论题表明有洞察力的立场;
2.        用有说服力的理由和(或)例子发展立场;
3.        维持重点突出的。组织良好的分析,逻辑性强地连接各条思想;
4.        使用有效地词汇和丰富的句式流利而简洁地表达思想
5.        在小错误的条件下(比如语法、用法以及组合)熟练展示标准英语写作的习惯。

5分

一篇5分答卷展示对论题复杂性的有一般性思想而发展良好的分析,清晰地表达了意思。

这种典型的文章:
1.        对论题展示考虑成熟的立场;
2.        用逻辑性完整的理由和(或)精选的例子来发展立场;
3.        中心明确且一般来说组织良好,适当连接了各条思想;
4.        使用合适的词汇和丰富的句式清晰良好地表达思想;
5.        在小错误条件下熟练展示标准英语写作的习惯。

4分

一篇4分答卷展示了对论题完整的分析,并充分表达意思。

这种典型的文章:
1.        对论题表明清晰地立场;
2.        用相关的理由和(或例子)发展对论题的立场;
3.        思想集中和充分地组织;
4.        理由清晰地表达思想;
5.        大概展示对标准英语写作的习惯的掌控,但也存在一些小错误。

3分

一篇3分答卷展示了对论题的分析和表达意思的能力,但明显存在错误。

这种类型的文章具有以下特征中的一个或几个:
1.        在对论题的立场的展示或发展上很空洞或很有限;
2.        在使用相关理由或例子上很乏力;
3.        集中性和(或)组织性很差;
4.        在语言和句子结构上存在问题导致表达不清晰;
5.        在语法、用法或组合上包含偶然的主要错误或经常出现小错误,导致意思上的干扰。

2分

一篇2分答卷显示了在分析性写作上严重的不足。

这种类型的文章具有以下特征中的一个或几个:
1.        在对论题的立场的展示或发展上不够清晰或严重有限;
2.        没有提供或提供极少的相关理由或例子;
3.        没有思想上的集中和(或)没有组织;
4.        在语言的使用和句子结构上有严重的问题,导致意思上的干扰;
5.        在语法、用法或组合上存在严重的错误以致意思模糊。

1分

一篇1分答卷展示了在分析性写作能力上的基本的不足。

这种类型的文章具有以下特征中的一个或几个:
1.        几乎没有证据表明理解和分析论题的能力;
2.        几乎没有证据表明发展和组织回答的能力;
3.        在语言和句子结构上存在严重问题以致严重影响意思的表达;
4.        在语法、用法或者组合上存在普遍问题导致意思表达不相关。

0分

偏题、使用非英语、仅仅复制题目、是有一些敲击、或者难以辨认的、空白的或非语言的。

NS
   空白。

GRE评分指南:分析一篇Argument

6分

一篇6分答卷展示了对辩论有说服力的表达良好的评论,熟练地表达了意思。

这种典型的文章:
1.        清晰地鉴定并深入分析辩论的重要特征;
2.        有力地发展思想,有逻辑地组织思想,用清晰地过渡词连接思想;
3.        有效地支持评论中的主要观点;
4.        展示对语言的掌控,包括合适的词汇选择和丰富的句式;
5.        在小错误的条件下(比如语法、用法以及组合)熟练展示标准英语写作的习惯。

5分

一篇5分答卷展示了对辩论有一般性思考的,表达良好的评论,而且清晰地表达意思。

这种典型的文章:
1.        清晰地鉴定并一般敏锐性分析辩论中重要的特征;
2.        清晰地发展思想,有逻辑地组织思想,用合适的过渡词连接思想;
3.        常识性地支持评论中的主要观点;
4.        展示对语言的掌控,包括合适的词语选择和丰富的句式;
5. 在小错误的条件下熟练展示标准英语写作的习惯。

4分

一篇4分答卷展示了对辩论进行评论和充分表达意思的能力。

这种典型的文章:
1.        鉴定和分析辩论的重要特征;
2.        满意地发展和组织思想,但是可以容许没有使用过渡词连接它们;
3.        支持评论中的主要观点;
4.        展现对语言足够的把握从而有条理而清晰地表达思想;
5.        一般性地展示对标准英语写作习惯的掌控,但是可以有一些错误。

3分

一篇3分答卷展示了对辩论发表评论和表达思想的一些能力,但是有明显的错误。

这种类型的文章具有以下特征中的一个或几个:
1.        没有鉴定或分析辩论中大多数的特征,虽然展示了对辩论的一些分析;
2.        主要分析切向的或无关的东西,或者说理不力;
3.        在逻辑发展和思想组织上有限;
4.        为评论的观点提供了极少和无用的支持;
5.        在表达思想时缺乏清晰;
6.        在语法、用法或者组合上包含偶然的主要错误或经常的小错误,以致干扰了意思。

2分

一篇2分答卷显示了在分析性写作上严重的缺陷。

这种类型的文章具有以下特征中的一个或几个:
1.        没有提出基于逻辑分析的评论,但是可能提出了作者对这个问题的自己的看法;
2.        没有发展思想,或者没有组织思想,或者缺乏逻辑;
3.        没有提供或提供极少的相关的或有理的支持;
4.        在语言的使用和句子结构上有严重的问题,经常导致意思的干扰;
5.             在语法、用法或者组合上包含严重的错误,以致经常使得意思模糊。

1分

一篇1分答卷显示了在分析和写作上基本的缺陷。

这种类型的文章具有以下特征中的一个或几个:
1.        几乎没有证据表明理解和分析辩论的能力;
2.        几乎没有证据表明发展和组织回答的能力;
3.  在语言和句子结构上存在严重问题以致严重影响意思的表达;
4. 在语法、用法或者组合上存在普遍问题导致意思表达不相关。

0分
偏题、使用非英语、仅仅复制题目、是有一些敲击、或者难以辨认的、空白的或非语言的。

NS
   空白。

对分数水平的描述

虽然GRE分析性写作测试包括两个分散的分析性写作任务,但是只报告一个结合的分数。这是因为这比报告其中一个更可靠。报告的分数是两个任务所得分数的平均分,从0到6分不等,以0.5分递增。

下面的报告对每个分数水平描述了涵盖Issue和Argument的分析性写作的总体质量。因为这个测试评估的是“分析性写作”,批判性思维能力(推理、汇总证据来表明一个立场以及表达复杂思想的能力)占了很大的比重,而作者对语法或拼写组合的掌控则不是太重要。

5.5分和6分—维持对复杂思想的有洞察力的、深入的分析;用逻辑上有迫力的理由和(或)较有说服力的例子发展和支持主要观点;熟练地应用不同的句式和简洁的词汇来有效地表达意思;展示在句子结构和语言使用上过人的熟练性,但可以有不影响意思的小错误。

4.5分和5分—提供对复杂思想一般性的思考分析;用逻辑性完整的理由和(或)精选的例子来发展和支持主要观点;大致上目标明确和拥有良好的组织;使用不同的句式和词汇来清晰地表达意思;显示对句子结构和语言使用上良好的掌控,但可以容许不影响意思的小错误。

3.5分和4分—提供对复杂思维的完整的分析;使用相关的理由和(或)例子发展和支持主要观点;充分地组织;推理清楚地表达意思;显示对句子结构和语言使用的足够的掌控,但有一些影响清晰度的错误。

2.5分和3分—虽然在写作中至少出现了一个以下的问题,但还是显示在分析性写作上的能力:有限的分析或发站内;不好的组织;对句子结构和语言使用欠佳的掌控,还有经常导致意思的模糊或不够清晰的错误。

1.5分和2分—显示了在分析性写作上严重的缺陷。在写作中至少出现了一个以下的问题:严重缺乏分析和发展;缺乏组织;经常在句子结构或语言使用上出现严重的问题,还有是意思模糊的错误。

0.5分和1分—显示了在分析性写作上根本的缺陷。在写作中至少出现了一个以下根本的的问题:内容令人及其费解或与要求的任务无关;几乎没有发展;有导致不连贯的严重而普遍的错误。

0分—应试者的分析性写作能力无法被评估,因为答卷没有讨论要求的任务的任何一个部分,仅仅试图复制要求,使用了非英文,内容无法辨认。

NS—应试者没有写任何东西。
————————————————————The End————————————————————————
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-12 23:29:54

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-13 00:33 编辑

第四次作业:
1.限时Argument206https://bbs.gter.net/viewthread.php?tid=990958&highlight

   ME:前提:the disadvantages apparently outweigh any advantages        
          结论:we in Parkville should discontinue organized athletic competition for children under nine
          even if the disadvantages outweith any advantages, we should keep the athletic competion for its significance

          a.以偏概全:softball and soccer——>athletic competition
          b.80000 injuried players != competitors participated in the softball and soccer game below 9 years old
          c.survey in several major city and the contentions by the athlets are unconvincing
          d.take away academic time!= the study effect and the grades are not good, what matters is the effectiveness
          e.no evidence show that disadvantages outweigh advantages

   Author: a.以全概偏:country——> we in Parkville
                 b.survey in several major city and the differece between Parkville and other cities
                 c.academic time
                 d.sports are dangerous but necessary

2.限时Argument131https://bbs.gter.net/viewthread.php?tid=990800&highlight

  ME:
作者: AdelineShen    时间: 2009-12-12 23:32:46

顶顶~~
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-13 20:46:13

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-14 16:24 编辑

整体感觉这些习作的模板痕迹相当明显,但是自己的模板也挺突出,所以今后得想想办法来处理一下这个问题!!
        :dizzy:
              :L
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-13 20:46:30

占楼补作业
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-13 20:46:48

占楼
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-13 20:47:01


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-13 20:47:23


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-13 20:47:40


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-13 20:47:52


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-13 20:48:08


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-13 21:25:30

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-14 15:38 编辑

第八次作业咯:
               The first part:https://bbs.gter.net/viewthread.php?tid=910464&;
GRE  q/ x$ \" B7 l" ^

Extended debate concerning the exact point of origin of individual folktales told by Afro-American slaves has unfortunately taken precedence over analysis of the tales’ meaning and function. Cultural continuities with Africa were not dependent on importation and perpetuation of specific folktales in their pristine form. It is in the place that tales occupied in the lives of the slaves and in the meaning slaves derived from them that the clearest resemblances to African tradition can be found. Afro-American slaves did not borrow tales indiscriminately from the Whites among whom they lived. Black people were most influenced by those Euro-American tales whose functional meaning and aesthetic appeal had the greatest similarity to the tales with deep roots in their ancestral homeland. Regardless of where slave tales came from, the essential point is that, with respect to language, delivery, details of characterization, and plot, slaves quickly made them their own.

1.    The author claims that most studies of folktales told by Afro-American slaves are inadequate because the studies
' e7 L9 T" }7 `
(A) fail to recognize any possible Euro-American influence on the folktales# `& _/ R' l1 I' b3 c
(B) do not pay enough attention to the features of a folktale that best reveal an African influence
(C) overestimate the number of folktales brought from Africa by the slaves
(D) do not consider the fact that a folktale can be changed as it is retold many times
(E) oversimplify the diverse and complex traditions of the slaves ancestral homeland
' |: Q  W! i. n. e" ~5 T2 [

2.    The author’s main purpose is to
(A) create a new field of study
(B) discredit an existing field of study
(C) change the focus of a field of study
(D) transplant scholarly techniques from one field of study to another
(E) restrict the scope of a burgeoning new field of study
! G9 T9 d9 r5 t6 ^

3.    The passage suggests that the author would regard which of the following areas of inquiry as most likely to reveal the slaves’ cultural continuities with Africa?
(A) The means by which Blacks disseminated their folktales in nineteenth-century America
(B) Specific regional differences in the styles of delivery used by the slaves in telling folktales
$ d; z: w( e% \7 J2 x& j
(C) The functional meaning of Black folktales in the lives of White children raised by slave& H8 j7 X" r- Q& W
(D) The specific way the slaves used folktales to impart moral teaching to their children$ {) V6 ]- h# }0 k
(E) The complexities of plot that appear most frequently in the slaves’ tales  K( z" H- H0 P+ `" ^* r4 z

4.    Which of the following techniques is used by the author in developing the argument in the passage?
(A) Giving a cliché a new meaning
, ]# H& N, V% v6 F' G* f# F/ p
(B) Pointedly refusing to define key terms- F4 {" \9 l/ W0 g
(C) Alternately presenting generalities and concrete details- Q5 u( A+ O7 K. r- p$ Z
(D) Concluding the passage with a restatement of the first point made in the passage/ s1 V. B+ B4 a6 s0 W
(E) Juxtaposing statements of what is not the case and statements of what is the case7 T8 O" w. Y; V: U8 U3 t; ^
BCDE% [9 q0 h* b* |; n! @

My answer:  BCCC
The right answer:BCDE
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-13 22:40:07

The energy contained in rock within the earth’s crust represents a nearly unlimited energy source, but until recently commercial retrieval has been limited to underground hot water and/or steam recovery systems. These systems have been developed in areas of recent volcanic activity, where high rates of heat flow cause visible eruption of water in the form of (in the form of: ...的形式) geysers and hot springs. In other areas, however, hot rock also exists near the surface but there is insufficient water present to produce eruptive phenomena. Thus a potential hot dry rock (HDR) reservoir exists whenever the amount of spontaneously produced geothermal fluid has been judged inadequate for existing commercial systems.
As a result of recent energy crisis, new concepts for creating HDR recovery systems—which involve drilling holes and connecting them to artificial reservoirs placed deep within the crust—are being developed. In all attempts to retrieve energy from HDR’s, artificial stimulation will be required to create either sufficient permeability or bounded flow paths to facilitate the removal of heat by circulation of a fluid over the surface of the rock.

The HDR resource base is generally defined to included crustal rock that is hotter than 150, is at depths less than ten kilometers, and can be drilled with presently available equipment. Although wells deeper than ten kilometers are technically feasible, prevailing economic factors will obviously determine the commercial feasibility of wells at such depths. Rock temperatures as low as 100 may be useful for space heating (heating of spaces especially for human comfort by any means (as fuel, electricity, or solar radiation) with the heater either within the space or external to it); however, for producing electricity, temperatures greater than 200 are desirable.0 L1 T4 a  X/ T( T( c

The geothermal gradient, which specifically determines the depth of drilling required to reach a desired temperature, is a major factor in the recoverability of geothermal resources. Temperature gradient maps generated from oil and gas well temperature-depth records kept by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists suggest that tappable high-temperature gradients are distributed all across the United States. (There are many areas, however, for which no temperature gradient records exist.)
Indications are that the HDR resource base is very large. If an average geothermal temperature gradient of 22 per kilometer of depth is used, a staggering 13,000,000 quadrillion B.T.U.’s of total energy are calculated to be contained in crustal rock to a ten-kilometer depth in the United States. If we conservatively estimate that only about 0.2 percent is recoverable, we find a total of all the coal remaining in the United States. The remaining problem is to balance the economics of deeper, hotter, more costly wells and shallower, cooler, less expensive wells against the value of the final product, electricity and/or heat.


{9 {6 o( e6 k6 @# P
1.    The primary purpose of the passage is to; ^) P1 e6 e7 X9 F8 d- N% F
(A) alert readers to the existence of HDR’s as an available energy source
(B) document the challengers that have been surmounted in the effort to recover energy from HDR’s
(C) warn the users of coal and oil that HDR’s are not an economically feasible alternative
(D) encourage the use of new techniques for the recovery of energy from underground hot water and steam
(E) urge consumers to demand quicker development of HDR resources for the production of energy


2.    The passage would be most likely to appear in a
(A) petrological research report focused on the history of temperature-depth records in the United States
(B) congressional report urging the conservation of oil and natural gas reserves in the United States
(C) technical journal article concerned with the recoverability of newly identified energy sources
- S! z' n* N: ^+ \; Y2 t( I- c
(D) consumer report describing the extent and accessibility of remaining coal resources
(E) pamphlet designed to introduce homeowners to the advantages of HDR space-heating systems
, v! _( W8 Y8 O

3.    According the passage, an average geothermal gradient of 22 per kilometer of depth can be used to
(A) balance the economics of HDR energy retrieval against that of underground hot water or steam recovery systems
+ l' l7 s- ~6 `9 E- }* |
(B) determine the amount of energy that will used for space heating in the United States
(C) provide comparisons between hot water and HDR energy sources in United States
5 ]/ ?+ j4 J, G! R9 I3 t  G
(D) revise the estimates on the extent of remaining coal resources in the United States8 k$ @2 _+ e7 N2 [' P8 G3 N7 L* }9 z! D
(E) estimate the total HDR resource base in the United States

4.    It can be inferred from the passage that the availability of temperature-depth records for any specific area in the United States depends primarily on the
! Q/ e$ U. }! b6 e( \: }0 S$ [9 T/ I
(A) possibility that HDR’s may be found in that area+ U) I: [! q1 ?6 |  e6 ?. j
(B) existence of previous attempts to obtain oil or gas in that area  H& L" {! F+ n
(C) history of successful hot water or steam recovery efforts in that area
(D) failure of inhabitants to conserve oil gas reserves in that area
(E) use of coal as a substitute for oil or gas in that area


5.    According to the passage, in all HDR recovery systems fluid will be necessary in order to allow
; i7 Y: Q2 N: ^+ a1 X
(A) sufficient permeability
(B) artificial stimulation
(C) drilling of holes
9 Q3 p* T) R' y8 B
(D) construction of reservoirs' L7 R! X; o3 m0 s
(E) transfer of heat0 P6 ^. ^- x; b5 d1 n7 ]" z
6.    According to the passage, if the average geothermal gradient in an area is 22 per kilometer of depth, which of the following can be reliably predicted?
I.     The temperature at the base of a 10-kilometer well will be sufficient for the production of electricity.
II.    Drilling of wells deeper than 10 kilometers will be economically feasible.
III.  Insufficient water is present to produce eruptive phenomena.
(A) I only
(B) II only
(C) I and II only
(D) II and III only
(E) I, II, and III
% b& K1 }) Y# Y* G
7.     Which of the following would be the most appropriate title for the passage?3 ]: ]$ V6 n( x& g1 U( {
(A) Energy from Water Sources: The Feasibility of Commercial Systems! ~; n* v* l! _. [, D) r: v/ {
(B) Geothermal Energy Retrieval: Volcanic Activity and Hot Dry Rocks
(C) Energy Underground: Geothermal Sources Give Way to Fossil Fuels
) u( A; u9 F/ c3 P9 U5 x6 }
(D) Tappable Energy for America’s Future: Hot Dry Rocks2 B) h& k$ r" \6 n
(E) High Geothermal Gradients in the United States: Myth or Reality?) c6 l8 w9 o6 K4 }' @' m

My answer:BCEBAAD
The right answer:ACEBEAD

作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 14:58:47

LSAT

In explaining the foundations of the discipline known as historical sociology—the examination of history using the methods of sociology—historical sociologist Philip Abrams argues that, while people are made by society as much as society is made by people, sociologists’ approach to the subject is usually to focus on only one of these forms of influence to the exclusion of the other. Abrams insists on the necessity for sociologists to move beyond these one-sided approaches to understand society as an entity constructed by individuals who are at the same time constructed by their society. Abrams refers to this continuous process as “structuring”." ]. G/ T
; {; N& y
Abrams also sees history as the result of structuring. People, both individually and as members of collectives, make history. But our making of history is itself formed and informed not only by the historical conditions we inherit from the past, but also by the prior formation of our own identities and capacities, which are shaped by what Abrams calls “contingencies”—social phenomena over which we have varying degrees of control. Contingencies include such things as the social conditions under which we come of age, the condition of our household’s economy, the ideologies available to help us make sense of our situation, and accidental circumstances. The ways in which contingencies affect our individual or group identities create a structure of forces within which we are able to act, and that partially determines the sorts of actions we are able to perform.( W4 w4 ?: N3 D7 B
In Abrams analysis, historical structuring, like social structuring, is manifold and unremitting. To understand it, historical sociologists must extract from it certain significant episodes, or events, that their methodology can then analyze and interpret. According to Abrams, these events are points at which action and contingency meet, points that represent a cross section of the specific social and individual forces in play at a given time. At such moments, individuals stand forth as agents of history not simply because they possess a unique ability to act, but also because in them we see the force of the specific social conditions that allowed their actions to come forth. Individuals can “make their mark” on history, yet in individuals one also finds the convergence of wider social forces. In order to capture the various facets of this mutual interaction, Abrams recommends a fourfold structure to which he believes the investigations of historical sociologists should conform: first, description of the event itself; second, discussion of the social context that helped bring the event about and gave it significance; third, summary of the life history of the individual agent in the event; and fourth, analysis of the consequences of the event both for history and for the individual.


U  j8 K0 W
1.    Which one of the following most accurately states the central idea of the passage?$ ?

K(A) Abrams argues that historical sociology rejects the claims of sociologists who assert that the sociological concept of structuring cannot be applied to the interactions between individuals and history.
(B) Abrams argues that historical sociology assumes that, despite the views of sociologists to the contrary, history influences the social contingencies that affect individuals.
(C) Abrams argues that historical sociology demonstrates that, despite the views of sociologists to the contrary, social structures both influence and are influenced by the events of history.. E" h4 G; B& y8 j* ^
(D) Abrams describes historical sociology as a discipline that unites two approaches taken by sociologists to studying the formation of societies and applies the resulting combined approach to the study of history; H9 A/ M8 q4 ~$ X% f
(E) Abrams describes historical society as an attempt to compensate for the shortcoming of traditional historical methods by applying the methods established in sociology.


2.    Given the passage’s argument, which one of the following sentences most logically completes the last paragraph?
(A) Only if they adhere to this structure, Abrams believes, can historical sociologists conclude with any certainty that the events that constitute the historical record are influenced by the actions of individuals
(B) Only if they adhere to this structure, Abrams believes, will historical sociologists be able to counter the standard sociological assumption that there is very little connection between history and individual agency.; H+ J2 c; m0 h2 H
(C) Unless they can agree to adhere to this structure, Abrams believes, historical sociologists risk having their discipline treated as little more than an interesting but ultimately indefensible adjunct to history and sociology.
(D) By adhering to this structure, Abrams believes, historical sociologists can shed light on issues that traditional sociologists have chosen to ignore in their one-sided approaches to the formation of societies5 Q" |6 h. U, g( V5 \/ Q9 I/ O8 }
(E) By adhering to this structure, Abrams believes, historical sociologists will be able to better portray the complex connections between human agency and history.
3.    The passage states that a contingency could be each of the following EXCEPT:
(A) a social phenomenon
(B) a form of historical structuring
(C) an accidental circumstance6 R+ L# G# O% k
(D) a condition controllable to some extent by an individual& ^, a& {! X) d$ `6 x, w
(E) a partial determinant of an individual’s actions


4.    Which one of the following is most analogous to the ideal work of a historical sociologist as outlined by Abrams?
interaction

(A) In a report on the enactment of a bill into law, a journalist explains why the need for the bill arose, sketches the biography of the principal legislator who wrote the bill, and ponders the effect that the bill’s enactment will have both one society and on the legislator’s career.$ J7 S# {1 K$ ?- P
(B) In a consultation with a patient, a doctor reviews the patient’s medical history, suggests possible reasons for the patient’s current condition, and recommends steps that the patient should take in the future to ensure that the condition improves or at least does not get any worse.
(C) In an analysis of a historical novel, a critic provides information to support the claim that details of the work’s setting are accurate, explains why the subject of the novel was of particular interest to the author, and compares the novel with some of the author’s other books set in the same period./ p# c; i) K: `: _, Y6 _
(D) In a presentation to stockholders, a corporation’s chief executive officer describes the corporations’ most profitable activities during the past year, introduces the vice president largely responsible for those activities, and discusses new projects the vice president will initiate in the coming year
(E) In developing a film based on a historical event, a filmmaker conducts interviews with participants in the event, bases part of the film’s screenplay on the interviews, and concludes the screenplay with a sequence of scenes speculating on the outcome of the event had certain details been different.6 [# v/ g! c  ^- N. I4 v

5.    The primary function of the first paragraph of the passage is to: S! h4 G' }) |7 {
(A) outline the merits of Abram’s conception of historical sociology
(B) convey the details of Abrams’s conception of historical sociology0 }7 r( ~) N$ s  ]
(C) anticipate challenges to Abrams’s conception of historical sociology
[(D) examine the roles of key terms used in Abrams’s conception of historical sociology
(E) identify the basis of Abrams’s conception of historical sociology


6.    Based on the passage, which one of the following is the LEAST illustrative example of the effect of a contingency upon an individual?
(A) the effect of the fact that a person experienced political injustice on that person’s decision to work for political reform9 u. I' A8 P. k1 Q! d' b7 {
(B) the effect of the fact that a person was raised in an agricultural region on that person’s decision to pursue a career in agriculture; w7 k9 p  P' ]8 n  V* N
(C) the effect of the fact that a person lives in a particular community on that person’s decision to visit friends in another community
(D) the effect of the fact that a person’s parents practiced a particular religion on that person’s decision to practice that religion
(E) the effect of the fact that a person grew up in financial hardship on that person’s decision to help others in financial hardship1 A, y' F0 U/ H+ [0 ~4 O

My answer: ADBAEC
The right answer:DEBAEC
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 15:17:23

CET4- m$ r! c& K- V5 a- S) q3 C
Believe it or not, optical illusion (错觉)can cut highway crashes.

Japan is a case in point. It has reduced automobile crashes on some roads by nearly 75 percent using a simple optical illusion. Bent stripes, called chevrons (人字形
), painted on the roads make drivers think that they are driving faster than they really are, and thus drivers slow down.

Now the American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety in Washington D.C. is planning to repeat Japan’s success. Starting next year, the foundation will paint chevrons and other patterns of stripes on selected roads around the country to test how well the patterns reduce highway crashes.& g! ^) F" S8 |1 T

Excessive speed plays a major role in as much as one fifth of all fatal traffic accidents, according to the foundation. To help reduce those accidents, the foundation will conduct its tests in areas where speed-related hazards are the greatest—curves, exit slopes, traffic circles, and bridges.

Some studies suggest that straight, horizontal bars painted across roads can initially cut the average speed of drivers in half. However, traffic often returns to full speed within months as drivers become used to seeing the painted bars.

Chevrons, scientists say, not only give drivers the impression that they are driving faster than they really are but also make a lane appear to be narrower. The result is a longer lasting reduction in highway sped and the number of traffic accidents. $ C/ p+ g5 V  {9 \

1.The passage mainly discusses __________.

A) a new way of highway speed control
B) a new pattern for painting highways. w! S  B4 l. c6 k
C) a new approach to training drivers
D) a new type of optical illusion

2.On roads painted with chevrons, drivers tend to feel that __________.
A) they should avoid speed-related hazards; s3 C9 ^, B( j9 U, G& C
B) they are driving in the wrong lane
C) they should slow down their speed
D) they are approaching the speed limit

3.The advantage of chevrons over straight, horizontal bars is that the former ___________.$ z  h9 h: M) c! H4 {
  
A) can keep drivers awake- U' \) A- F- @% I- g7 G/ I  E
  
B) can cut road accidents in half1 m" v% J+ Z# j2 P: Z
  
C) will have a longer effect on drivers2 K- f  k6 ?) q" G' A! r* b
  
D) will look more attractive
4.The American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety plans to __________.$ x7 Q. y* o6 m6 h8 l3 b# i
  
A) try out the Japanese method in certain areas! n/ S2 a( m. w8 m
  
B) change the road signs across the country2 [! l* Q7 w- A
  
C) replace straight, horizontal bars with chevrons. G0 t- t3 `" N# ~( l* }
  
D) repeat the Japanese road patterns4 H% Z& Q" |: P0 G0 e
5.What does the author say about straight, horizontal bars painted across roads?+ P6 A0 C1 C9 |0 o7 l" k
  
A) They are falling out of use in the United States* f2 Z9 t9 u  O1 Q, G4 d7 ]
  
B) They tend to be ignored by drivers in a short period of time.
   
C) They are applicable only on broad roads.; n+ x& T4 d& Z: `
  D) They cannot be applied successfully to traffic circles.


My answer: ACCAD
The right answer: ACCAB


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 15:21:13

CET6+ c/ n5 H: Y* a4 y5 {
Too many vulnerable child-free adults are being ruthlessly(无情的)manipulated into parent-hood by their parents , who think that happiness among older people depends on having a grand-child to spoil. We need an organization to help beat down the persistent campaigns of grandchildless parents. It’s time to establish Planned Grandparenthood, which would have many global and local benefits.  

Part of its mission would be to promote the risks and realities associated with being a grandparent. The staff would include depressed grandparents who would explain how grandkids break lamps, bite, scream and kick. Others would detail how an hour of baby-sitting often turns into a crying marathon. More grandparents would testify that they had to pay for their grandchild’s expensive college education.  

Planned grandparenthood’s carefully written literature would detail all the joys of life grand-child-free a calm living room, extra money for luxuries during the golden years, etc. Potential grandparents would be reminded that, without grandchildren around, it’s possible to have a conversation with your kids, who----incidentally-----would have more time for their own parents .  0 p( t3 C- H4 ]'

M; q& b4 }
* L; ^9 Z6 J5 o
Meanwhile, most children are vulnerable to the enormous influence exerted by grandchildless parents aiming to persuade their kids to produce children . They will take a call from a persistent parent, even if they’re loaded with works. In addition, some parents make handsome money offers payable upon the grandchild’s birth. Sometimes these gifts not only cover expenses associated with the infant’s birth, but extras, too, like a vacation. In any case, cash gifts can weaken the resolve of even the noblest person.  


|7 W: p3 v9 x7 x6 \
At Planned Grandparenthood, children targeted by their parents to reproduce could obtain non-biased information about the insanity of having their own kids. The catastrophic psychological and economic costs of childbearing would be emphasized. The symptoms of morning sickness would be listed and horrors of childbirth pictured. A monthly newsletter would contain stories about overwhelmed parents and offer guidance on how childless adults can respond to the different lobbying tactics that would-be grandparents employ.  

When I think about all the problems of our overpopulated world and look at our boy grabbing at the lamp by the sofa, I wish I could have turned to Planned Grandparenthood when my parents were putting the grandchild squeeze on me.  / x/ ~2 s" T3 d. P7 I2 x3 B+ `
3 K* d" i" C  Q, A& g$ A
If I could have, I might not be in this parenthood predicament( 窘境
) . But here’s the crazy irony, I don’t want my child-free life back . Dylan’s too much fun.  1 b+ p  a& e- [& P# p0 |

1. What’s the purpose of the proposed organization Planned Grandparenthood? 4 {  N/ O8 P* L6 _, l0 Q7 ~' S
A) To encourage childless couples to have children.
B) To provide facilities and services for grandchildless parents. ' G/ T+ b% E. E$ e
C) To offer counseling to people on how to raise grandchildren. # L9 E4 n! _+ t1 R2 E% K3 \
D) To discourage people from insisting on having grandchildren. ( _+ t$ Z) E$ b! s2 @! ~8 l3 l
1 A# Q! a2 ^/ b, k# p. V  J. g  `

2. Planned Grandparenthood would include depressed grandparents on its staff in order to____. 3 ?) I) k7 s2 [$ l) V: o: M
A) show them the joys of life grandparents may have in raising grandchildren
B) draw attention to the troubles and difficulties grandchildren may cause
C) share their experience in raising grandchildren in a more scientific way $ b8 j, R8 Z8 F- y$ O" L# l: o& @
D) help raise funds to cover the high expense of education for grandchildren : F2 A7 o  x& v  w* }6 w
% x* e9 f0 H' L+ {& {! y# k

3. According to the passage, some couples may eventually choose to have children because_____.  
A) they find it hard to resist the carrot-and-stick approach of their parents % X: _+ H  y- }$ _. q
B) they have learn from other parents about the joys of having children
C) they feel more and more lonely ad they grow older 4 a: o; o" @' n0 u) I
D) they have found it irrational to remain childless - s8 Z6 `3 j8 Q7 X

4.By saying “… my parents were putting the grandchild squeeze on me” (Line 2-3,Para. 6), the author means that _________.
A) her parents kept pressuring her to have a child ! l0 V7 k' n* c- p" [+ ?9 ~  h
B) her parents liked to have a grandchild in their arms
C) her parents asked her to save for the expenses of raising a child
D) her parents kept blaming her for her child’s bad behavior 8 Y$ x6 t0 d1 H( l

5.What does the author really of the idea of having children?
A) It does more harm than good.
B) It contributes to overpopulation.
C) It is troublesome but rewarding. 1 A* l  i4 c( Q7 Q$ x
D) It is a psychological catastrophe 3 J' j/ B7 V' H2 u


My answer:DBAAC
The right answer:DBAAC

作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 15:38:10

SCIENCE4 z- y2 I" [# f+ i
9 J! ~' M: K; O) L* N
A woman who carries a mutated(减弱的,消音的) BRCA1 gene faces a daunting(令人沮丧的)
decision: She can opt(选择) for constant monitoring(监视) hoping to catch any cancer early, while its still curable, or she can elect to have her breasts or ovaries removed to prevent cancer from developing in the first place. Results described on page 1467 now suggest that one day there may be a third option: using drugs rather than surgery to prevent BRCA1-mediated breast cancers. BRCA1 is a so-called tumor suppressor, a gene that in its normal form protects against cancer. One way it does this is by helping cells repair DNA damage that might otherwise result in cancer-causing mutations. The new work, which comes from Eva Lee and her colleagues at the University of California, Irvine, points to  another cancer-preventing role for BRCA1. By aiding in the degradation of the receptor through which progesterone(黄体酮,孕激素) exerts its effects, the genes protein product apparently checks the hormones growth-promoting action on breast tissue. Lees team also showed that mifepristone, a drug that induces abortions(堕胎) by inhibiting the progesterone receptor, blocks the development of mammary tumors in mice that have had the rodent(啮齿类动物) version of BRCA1 inactivated in their mammary glands(腺). The paper has a mechanism [of BRCA1 activity] and has clinical implications. Its potentially important, says Eliot Rosen of Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., who is also studying the interaction between BRCA1 and progesterone.* z! G' V& _2 D
Previous work had raised suspicions that progesterone fosters breast cancer development. For example, women taking both estrogen and progesterone to treat menopausal(绝经期)
symptoms have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than women who take estrogen(雌激素) only. And working with human breast cancer cells in lab cultures, Rosens team found that normal BRCA1 inhibits the action of the progesterone receptor, although how has been unclear. 5 Y6 w% ?; G  b
In the current work, Lee and her colleagues created mice that lacked functioning copies of the rodent versions of both BRCA1 and p53, another tumor suppressor that is frequently mutated in breast cancers. Although the female mice had never been mated, their mammary tissue showed increased cell proliferationmuch as the breasts of pregnant woman do when high progesterone levels prepare the mammary glands for lactation. Whats more, all the …


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 15:42:25

Godfather

Amerigo Bonasera sat in New York Criminal Court Number 3 and waited for justice; vengeance on the men who had so cruelly hurt his daughter, who had tried to dishonor her.

The judge, a formidably heavy-featured man, rolled up the sleeves of his black robe as if to physically chastise the two young men standing before the bench. His face was cold with majestic contempt. But there was something false in all this that Amerigo Bonasera sensed but did not yet understand.

"You acted like the worst kind of degenerates," the judge said harshly. Yes, yes, thought Amerigo Bonasera. Animals. Animals. The two young men, glossy hair crew cut, scrubbed clean-cut faces composed into humble contrition, bowed their heads in submission.

The judge went on. "You acted like wild beasts in a jungle and you are fortunate you did not sexually molest that poor girl or I'd put you behind bars for twenty years." The judge paused, his eyes beneath impressively thick brows flickered slyly toward the sallow-faced Amerigo Bonasera, then lowered to a stack of probation reports before him. He frowned and shrugged as if convinced against his own natural desire. He spoke again.

"But because of your youth, your clean records, because of your fine families, and because the law in its majesty does not seek vengeance, I hereby sentence you to three years' confinement to the penitentiary. Sentence to be suspended."

Only forty years of professional mourning kept the overwhelming frustration and hatred from showing on Amerigo Bonasera's face. His beautiful young daughter was still in the hospital with her broken jaw wired together; and now these two animales went free? It had all been a farce. He watched the happy parents cluster around their darling sons. Oh, they were all happy now, they were smiling now.

The black bile, sourly bitter, rose in Bonasera's throat, overflowed through tightly clenched teeth. He used his white linen pocket handkerchief and held it against his lips. He was standing so when the two young men strode freely up the aisle, confident and cool-eyed, smiling, not giving him so much as a glance. He let them pass without saying a word, pressing the fresh linen against his mouth.

The parents of the animales were coming by now, two men and two women his age but more American in their dress. They glanced at him, shamefaced, yet in their eyes was an odd, triumphant defiance.

NOut of control, Bonasera leaned forward toward the aisle and shouted hoarsely, "You will weep as I have wept--- I will make you weep as your children make me weep"--- the linen at his eyes now. The defense attorneys bringing up the rear swept their clients forward in a tight little band, enveloping the two young men, who had started back down the aisle as if to protect their parents. A huge bailiff moved quickly to block the row in which Bonasera stood. But it was not necessary.

All his years in America, Amerigo Bonasera had trusted in law and order. And he had prospered thereby. Now, though his brain smoked with hatred, though wild visions of buying a gun and killing the two young men jangled the very bones of his skull, Bonasera turned to his still uncomprehending wife and explained to her, "They have made fools of us." He paused and then made his decision, no longer fearing the cost. "For justice we must go on our knees to Don Corleone."
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 15:49:01

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-14 15:50 编辑

Part II: 0910G阅读全方位锻炼--难度【LSAT】汇总贴
前言:从今天起,每天只要一小时时间(难度部分半小时,速度部分十分钟,越障部分二十分钟),你的阅读实力就可以在两个月里发生飞跃1 k1 f7 u, P)
          https://bbs.gter.net/thread-982016-1-1.html

正文:

本贴为“难度”训练的汇总贴
       规则很简单:
% M+ V! z5 q# w- s2 s+ V  m9 i' B* a8 A

每天我贴出一篇LSAT阅读文章,大家来做,做完后可以拿上来讨论或者写一些心得体会,大家共同切磋
`5 u$ o! L9 V
每天一篇LSAT,你就会渐渐发现GRE阅读真的好简单# H7 M( c0 d, k7 z2 e, N2 R
& A; r/ o# j7 C3 P
[注]请直接在电脑屏幕面前做,虽然GRE阅读是在纸上考,但是通过这个过程会遏制你做笔记,同时给你的阅读造成视觉障碍,也就是把难度训练和抗干扰训练同步结合,增加效率(初期会很累,但是既然大家想要成为高手,那么就别对自己太温柔)



         今天已经做了一篇了,剩下的后期补齐,太多了:L
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 15:53:12

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-14 16:10 编辑

Part III:1006G阅读全方位锻炼--速度【CET】汇总贴
             https://bbs.gter.net/thread-982018-1-1.html
正文:

本贴为“速度”训练的汇总贴
' |, h+ s0 Z8 t+ X5 n3 O

规则很简单:3 n1 ]* z$ T% B2 U- _: g8 S

每天我贴出五篇CET级别的阅读

大家来做,需要准备一个计时器
. B: ^0 ~! r* `; }- F2 A2 e
  s2 A7 w- |' n1 p+ L6 ]
) }( K( Z  W5 b9 b
如果上一篇没有读完,那么就要提醒自己在下一篇中加速,同时调整自己阅读的节奏感,找到最舒服的方式3 i  d, S7 Q% }2 V
& ^% _. T) M( |- q1 k/ d8 [5 D9 y
[注]
1、直接在电脑屏幕面前做,虽然GRE阅读是在纸上考,但是这个过程会遏制你做笔记,同时给你的阅读造成视觉障碍,也就是把难度训练和抗干扰训练同步结合,增加效率(初期会很累,但是既然大家想要成为高手,那么就别对自己太温柔); }4 P% U3 N% _( D9 Z
2、这些文章不用拿来讨论,我给出习题但是不用大家去做,学有余力的可以去做,不过做的时候不要回视文章了,通过瞬间阅读和不回视做题锻炼你大脑的存储量。


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 15:53:36

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-14 16:11 编辑

Part IV:1006G阅读全方位锻炼--越障【SCI】汇总贴
             https://bbs.gter.net/thread-982020-1-1.html
正文:
" ]& t- v% U5 m
本贴为“越障”训练的汇总贴; T9 q) a0 q/ u, _

规则很简单:6 q( f; b- t4 a# D- X, @( G1 F: r

我每天贴出1000字左右的一篇文字(从我平时看的书或者paper里摘的)) [' ^9 c; S. ~- u" s5 h
8 y; |0 y8 e1 A1 Q
没有别的要求,只要大家坚持读完就可以
# b
如果你能坚持一个月,你会发现自己的阅读进化了~+ f" ~8 y5 j2 D4 p% O% D

[注]
1、直接在电脑屏幕面前做,虽然GRE阅读是在纸上考,但是这个过程会遏制你做笔记,同时给你的阅读造成视觉障碍,也就是把难度训练和抗干扰训练同步结合,增加效率(初期会很累,但是既然大家想要成为高手,那么就别对自己太温柔)
2、不用苛求速度,看完即可

作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 15:54:08

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-14 16:15 编辑

关于精华帖:

1Issue备战攻略

    言归正传,开始第一篇作文Issue。大家都是经历过高考的,都写过作文,因此Issue也就是小case,只不过由于是用英语写作,有些人就被吓住拉,其实并不像想象中的那么艰巨。对于任何一个想拿5分以上的人来说,Issue绝对是重中之重,Issue是突破口,当然要是你目标就是4分,那就力保Argument吧。

    一开始接触Issue基本都是没头绪,很正常,千万别急躁,别灰心。这一时期少练多看,通过范文和优秀习作,熟悉文章结构和了解论证方法,另外就是尽量把题库过一遍。这一阶段控制在1周左右,习作可以21篇,完全不用理会时间问题,主要就是练练手,对于文章的质量也不要过多在意,你有充足的时间去提高。

    第二阶段就是全面进入Issue状态拉,拿到一个题目,3个左右的分论点必须信手拈来,适当扩大自己的阅读量来补充Issue事例。这一阶段也是1周左右,习作1-21篇即可,时间尽量控制在1小时以内,稍微多点也没事,文章的质量上一定要保证论点清晰,论证上差点没事,要让别人看到你的文章知道你的观点。简单点说在这个阶段你的文章要像那么一回事。

    第三阶段,依旧维持1周,细化论证方法与语言表达。第二阶段看过的例子要拿来用了,像历史类,科技类的例子很多,掌握的好的话,在Issue中用起来是很容易的。语言上句式要有变化,复合句和长句需要大量使用了,词汇表达也需要下功夫。这一阶段,时间一定要压到1小时以内,可以比45分钟超一点,不要太多就好,文章总体不仅要观点清晰,而且论证也要过得去,但并不要求精彩。简言之,在这阶段Issue要有头有脸,虽不求是帅哥美女,但也要拿得出手。

    最后一阶段,7-10天,最后冲刺。扣词汇,扣句子,让你的文章更加凝练出彩,深论证让你的文章更有说服力。这个阶段时间得控制在45-50分钟,不能再多拉,练习频率至少11篇,文章水平得达到自己的预期目标拉。最后临考前,按照自己的考试时间找节奏进行模考。比方说我是中午1230考试,我最后几天都是7点起床,学习到1030,然后睡1个多小时,吃完中饭差不多就是1230,然后在这个时间点进行模考。
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 15:54:49

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-14 16:16 编辑

2Issue实战分析

破题篇


    个人认为上上策是应用名言警句来起头,好处有二:一是有新意,让阅卷人对你的文章感兴趣;二是有深度,一般名言警句虽简洁但入木三分,绝非咱们的语言水平能达到的。试举如下2个例子具体分析。我最后考试的题是研究一个社会的英雄人物有助于理解这个社会。美国前总统John Kennedy有句话,“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.”用上这句话谁都知道你的观点了,英雄和普通百姓都是揭示一个社会一个国家的方法,比你说一堆废话效果好吧。再举个例子,研究人员应该从自己的兴趣出发,不用顾及社会利益。Karl Marx: “Science must not be a selfish pleasure. Those who have the good fortune to be able to devote themselves to scientific pursuits must be first to place their knowledge at the service of humanity.” 要是你的观点是科学研究要始终以社会利益为重的话,老马的这句话就是perfect beginning,要再来个让步说个人兴趣的重要性,可以加一句,“Love is the ever beginning of knowledge as fire is of light”!

    上策是词汇解释。针对题目中的关键词进行解释(字典的解释,不是你胡诌的),以此来展开你的观点。这样做的好处就是及其有说服力,谁敢驳斥字典的权威啊!对于涉及关系类的极其有效。比如有一个topictradition vs modernization的。Tradition: an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action or behavior; modernization: the state of involving characteristic like technologies, methods or ideas of the present or immediate past. 定义一给,两者关系一下就目标拉,现代化是当前或稍前的“传统”,因此有时传统促进现代化,有时现代化摒弃传统。再举个例子,成功地判别问题,到底是以个人目标还是社会评价为重呢?牛津高阶对success的解释是:achievement of a desired end, or of fame, wealth or social position看到这一解释,明白怎么提出自己的观点了吧,都重要啊,字典里就是这么说的,你要不服就跟牛津高阶PK下,看看谁NB

    中策是剖析题目,分解题目问题(注意不是speaker的观点!),然后提出自己的见解,当然也可以附带把speaker的进行赞同或反对。这一方法需慎用,就像北美范围里说的,很容易写成Argument拉。举个例子吧,说历史的作用,the study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily life. 这句话包含两层意思,一是说历史主要作用就是为生活服务,二是说只有研究与生活相关的历史才有价值,因此2个论题就是历史的作用和什么样的历史值得研究。因此一开头就可以说这篇Issue涉及两个questionspeaker的观点是什么,你的观点是什么。这样做的好处就是表明你对这篇issue有深入的剖析,不是就事论事。
   
    下策当然就是Whether…? Should ….?抑或直接提出自己的观点 it is indisputable…. 实在前面的策略都不行就用这个吧。没有任何特色,但也符合要求。优点没有,缺点似乎也不多,按农村评价女人的标准的话,这一策略就是能成娃的那种。
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 15:55:19

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-14 16:17 编辑

论证篇

    正文当然是核心拉,首先说展开方式。这个多数中国学生都不是问题,毕竟咱们逻辑性还是很强的。一边倒观点从不同的几个角度支持你的论点,比方说**要不要保护小语种的
topic,可以从文化、历史等角度分别阐述语言的重要性来支持你的观点(当然前提是你认为保护有必要拉);让步观点的看你重点是支持还是反对,重要论点重点对待。展开中需要注意的问题:千万不要几个段落从同一角度说一个观点,也不要一个段落说几个不相关的观点。


    重点的重点就是如何阐述自己的观点拉。首先任何一个主题段落一定要有top sentence,一般来说搁开头第一句,也可以在每段结尾再来一下小结。论证方式个人认为有例子一定优先使用例子,因为例证法最易用但效果却十分好,尤其是名人事迹,比你正说过来反说过去有效十倍,而且还能反映你的阅读量和综合素质。比方说领导者的道德水平要不要最高呢?看看Zhou EnlaiNelson Mandela就是道德的重要性了,看看Mao ZedongGeorge Smith Patton就明白有时候道德水平差点也能成为优秀的领导的。实在碰到抽象的论点不好找例子时,就体现你的积累了,把他人好的语句或观点经过自己的再加工搬上去就OK拉。比如法律的作用的题目,可以说说法律的定义,a rule of conduct or action prescribed or formally recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority;可以谈法律的强制性,国家利用强制力(coercive force)保证实施。

    总结来说,论证上技巧有限,主要靠实力。所以大家还是多花功夫收集有用的例子,对题库有限的几个问题进行针对性的突破,当然语言也是需要恨下功夫的。
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 15:55:48

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-14 16:17 编辑

结尾篇


    看完开头和主体,阅卷人对你的文章的评分基本都结束了,但结尾依旧很重要,虽然它可以不能给你加什么分,但却可能让你减分。

    结尾只需要干好一件事,那就是总结你的观点,千万不要再提什么你没在主体里阐述的观点。为了表现一下语言能力,结尾可以采用与开头完全不同的句型和词汇来重复你的观点。
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 15:57:14

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-14 16:18 编辑

3. Argument备战与分析


        A不是我的重点,所以你要是力保A的话,我的经验参考性不是很大。在我的时间安排中A所占比例估计也就在30%左右。

    第1周:弄清A到底写什么,怎么写,什么布局。通过看北美范文就足够实现这些目的拉。当然题库也要过一遍,最好能遇到题目,说出几个问题点,不一定要求要用英语表达,直到即可。7天写个3-4篇熟悉了A就够了,时间别超过1小时。

   第2周:开始列提纲,初步开始正规练习。这个阶段模仿为主,主要是通过模仿练习来真正了解A的套路。习作频率就是你的计划了,11篇完整习作绝对够啦,质量上要反映出你的思路,结构要清晰。

    第3周:全面进行练习,找到合适的套路与模板。A是需要固定模式的,否则30分钟对90%的人是不够用,当然你要是你是那10%可以无视模板。虽说是模板,但需要自己慢慢琢磨,要有自己的特色,尤其是有些用词上需要深扣。至少保证11篇的量,时间不要超过45分钟,质量上要拿得出手,就是达到你既定的考试水平的意思。

    最后1周:完善自己的套路与模板,保持感觉。在这个阶段,相信A对你来说已经很easy拉,但拿高分依旧不容易,完善一下自己已有的套路和模板,对攻击的结构和顺序可以再琢磨琢磨。

        A最常用的开题就是3句式,第一句提出论者论点,第二句提出论者论据,第三句说这些都是XX,问题很多。当然你要有精力有能力,就自己再创造下有个性的开头也未为不可。展开方式我基本都是采用问题在A中先后顺序来攻击,当然如果有明显的逻辑前后关系的话也可以适当进行打乱,我这么做的好处就是省时间,而且这么做一般不会影响你的分数。结尾首先一句就是再说论者XX拉,然后补充说if … then… 不多说,地球人都知道的。
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 15:58:00

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-14 16:32 编辑

PART I& s, z$ o4 q/ ?1 ?! l

  PART I(2)

PART II

PART III

PART III(2)

PART IV

PART V

5

相当熟悉轻松阅读

可预知文章思路,并且脑子里有更好逻辑

轻松读懂,和中文没什么区别

时间:30s<yours<45s

30s<yours<45s

生词什么的对阅读不形成任何障碍,读起来和前面的差不多

YY的境界

4

一般般

思路清晰

正常速度一遍读懂

45s<yours<60s

45s<yours<60s

不顺,但是能懂

看完后能回味一段时间

3

有阅读障碍
" o1 ]2 Z5 j2 M

思路很模糊,但是隐约有感觉

常速一遍+慢速一遍读懂

60s<yours<90s

60s<yours<90s

首字母提取

看懂了,能隐约感受里面的意境

2

很困难,用7 f; g, Z. b+ e
了很长时间才读懂* U; x* y  W4 o" }" u2 Q0 v9 A. _

糊涂呃 糊涂呃

读了3遍以上或一直用慢速读了两遍以上

90s<yours<150s

90s<yours<150s

恶心死了,但是磕磕绊绊还是看下来了

看懂文字但是不知所云

1

pass

pass

pass

over 150s

over 150s

pass

pass


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 15:58:53

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-14 16:40 编辑

阅读项目评分评语
PART I4一般般
PART I(2)2糊涂
PART II3常速一遍+慢速一遍读懂
PART III360s<yours<90s
PART III(2)360s<yours<90s
PART IV5生词什么的不形成障碍
PART V4看完以后能回味一段时间


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 17:32:20

补第一次作业的语法部分:
Grammar注意点

1.主谓一致注意点

*Ten thousand tons of coal __(was/were) produced last year.

*He as well as I __(want/wants) to go boating.

*Three weeks __(was/were)allowed for making the necessary preparations.

*__(is/are)there any police around?

*The majority of the students__(like/ likes) English.

*Many a person __(has/have) read the novel. 许多人都读过这本书。

*但当不可数名词前有表示数量的复数名词时,谓语动词用复数形式。
Ten thousand tons of coal were produced last year.


3谓语动词与前面的主语一致
当主语后面跟有with, together with, like, except, but, no less than, as well as 等词引起的短语时,谓语动词与前面的主语一致。
The teacher together with some students is visiting the factory.
He as well as I wants to go boating.


4 、谓语需用单数
1
代词each和由every, some, no, any等构成的复合代词作主语,或主语中含有each, every, 谓语需用单数。
Each of us has a tape-recorder.
There is something wrong with my watch.

2
当主语是一本书或一条格言时,谓语动词常用单数。
The Arabian Night is a book known to lovers of English.
<<
天方夜谭>>是英语爱好者熟悉的一本好书。
3
表示距离,金钱,时间,价格,重量、数量或度量衡的复合名词作主语
时,通常把这些名词看作一个整体,谓语一般用单数。(用复数也可,意思不变。)
Three weeks was allowed for making the necessary preparations.
Ten dollar is enough.


集合名词people, police, cattle, poultry等在任何情况下都用复数形式。
Are there any police around?


3)有些名词,如variety, number, population, proportion, majority 等有时看作单数,有时看作复数。
A number of +
名词复数+复数动词。
The number of +
名词复数+单数动词。
A number of books have lent out.
The majority of the students likes English.


在一些短语,如 many a more than one 所修饰的词作主语时,谓语动词多用单数形式。但由more than… of 作主语时,动词应与其后的名词或代词保持一致。
Many a person has read the novel. 许多人都读过这本书。
More than 60 percent of the students are from the city.百分之六十多的学生都来自这个城市。


特别提醒 this kind ofa piece ofa bag ofa box of等,这类短语作主语时谓语动词的单复数由这些短语中的名词决定,而与它们所修饰的名词无关。
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 17:32:54

Grammar

2.情态动词注意点

2——比较can 和be able to

2)只用be able to
a. 位于助动词后。
b. 情态动词后。
c. 表示过去某时刻动作时。
d. 用于句首表示条件。
e. 表示成功地做了某事时,只能用was/were able to, 不能用could。
He was able to flee Europe before the war broke out.
= He managed to flee Europe before the war broke out.

注意:could不表示时态
1)提出委婉的请求,(注意在回答中不可用could)。
--- Could I have the television on?
--- Yes, you can. / No, you can't.
2)在否定,疑问句中表示推测或怀疑。
He couldn't be a bad man.
他不大可能是坏人。

3—— 比较may和might

2) 成语:
may/might as well,后面接不带to 的不定式,意为"不妨"。
If that is the case, we may as well try.

4—— 比较have to和must

1)两词都是'必须'的意思,have to 表示客观的需要, must 表示说话人主观上的看法,既主观上的必要。
My brother was very ill, so I had to call the doctor in the middle of the night.我弟弟病得很厉害,我只得半夜里把医生请来。(客观上需要做这件事)
He said that they must work hard. 他说他们必须努力工作。(主观上要做这件事)
2)have to有人称、数、时态的变化,而must只有一种形式。但must 可用于间接引语中表示过去的必要或义务。
He had to look after his sister yesterday.

7—— 情态动词+ have +过去分词

3) ought to have done sth, should have done sth
本应该做某事,而事实上并没有做。否定句表示"不该做某事而做了"。
You ought to (should) have been more careful in this experiment.
He ought not to have thrown the old clothes away.(事实上已扔了。)
ought to 在语气上比should 要强。
4) needn't have done sth 本没必要做某事
5) would like to have done sth 本打算做某事
had better have done sth表示与事实相反的结果,意为"本来最好"。

10—— would rather表示"宁愿"
还有would sooner, had rather, had sooner都表示"宁愿"、"宁可"的意思。

12 ——情态动词的回答方式

问句肯定回答否定回答
Need you…?Yes, I must. /No, I needn't
Must you…? /don't have to.

带to 的情态动词有四个:ought to, have to, used to, be to, 如加上have got to ,(=must), be able to,为六个。

14 ——比较need和dare

need 作实义动词时后面的不定式必须带to,而dare作实义动词用时, 后面的to 时常可以被省略。
3) need 的被动含义:need, want, require, worth(形容词)后面接doing也可以表示被动:
need doing = need to be done


中国学生在亮观点时对“can”情有独钟,而英式的学风历来讲究严谨,像can 这样语气过于绝对的表达最好换成may/ will, 或者是语气更委婉的might/would probably等,同时还要搭配一定程度的副词,如:
indulgence in computer games can lead to social violence especially of teenagers.上句中can不如might用起来更加客观,因为几乎每个小孩都玩游戏,但绝不是每个人都会犯罪。
另外一个容易误用的词是should,多表示根据社会风俗习惯个人的责任,而在比较正式的议论文写作中,多数句子是以客观事物做主语的, 所以用should就有些不太恰当,如:
To tackle the problem of youth crimes related with computer games, advertisement enterprises should restrict the large-scale promotion.
一般我们会用另外一个更客观性的短语be to do来代替, 或者是shall,但是这里的shall不是用于第一人称后的将来时符号,而表示的是一种情态。
至于must, 因为语气实在强硬,所以一般在社会性的问题的论述上我们要慎用,建议多换成need/ shall/ be to do 或者是be expected to do形式。如:


*2. Jane _____ have come to the party, but she _____ not find the exact time.
A. could; could B. might; could C. should; could D. should; would

解析:选A.“ could have+过去分词表示过去本来应该(但没能)做某事

*7.The little girl’s eyes were red. She ______.
A. may cry B. must cry C. must be cried D. must have been crying

解析:选D. 意为:她刚才肯定一直在哭。对过去某事正发生的推测。

*11. The hotel is only a stone’s throw away, you ______ take a bus.
A. need not to B. not need to C. don't need D. need not

解析:选D. 说话人认为不必要乘车, need 为情态动词。
shall 用在疑问句中,常用于第一,三人称, 表示征求意见或请求指示。

*16. If you have something important to do, you ______ waste any time.
A. needn’t B. mustn’t C. may not D. won’t

解析:选B. 根据句意用mustn’t
对表否定的must进行反意疑问时,要用句子的实义动词

3. 冠词

take place发生/take the place(of)代替
by sea乘船/by the sea在海边
two of us我们当中的两人/the two of us我们两人(共计两人)
out of question毫无疑问/out of the question不可能的,办不到的
零冠词的用法
1.在专有名词和不可数名词前。例如,Class Two,Tian’an Men Square,water
2.可数名词前已有作定语的物主代词(my,your,his,her等)、指示代词(this/these,that/those)、不定代词(some,any等)及所有格限制时。例如my book(正);my the book(误)
3.复数名词表示一类人或事物时。例如,They are teachers.
4.在星期,月份,季节,节日前。例如:on Sunday,in March,in spring,on Women’s Day
(特例:如果月份,季节等被一个限定性定语修饰时,则要加定冠词:He joined the Army in the spring of 1982.)
5.在称呼语或表示头衔的名词前。例如:Tom,Mum
6.在学科名称,三餐饭和球类运动名称前。例如:I have lunch at school every day.
特例:当football,basketball指具体的某个球时,其前可以用冠词:I can see a football.我可以看到一只足球。Where’s the football?那只足球在哪儿?(指足球,并非“球类运动”)
7.在表特定的公园,街道,车站,桥,学校等之前。例如:No.25 Middle School
8.某些固定词组中不用冠词。
(1)与by连用的交通工具名称前:by bus\by car\ by bike\ by train\by air\by plane\ by sea\by ship,但take a bus,in a boat,on the bike前需用冠词
(2)名词词组:day and night日日夜夜;brother and sister兄弟姐妹;hour after hour时时刻刻;here and there到处
(3)介词词组:in surprise;on foot;on duty;at work;on time;in class;on show;in bed等
(4)go 短语:go home;go to bed;go to school ;go to work;go shopping/swimming/boating/fishing
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 17:33:23

grammar

数词

九.与数词相关的主谓一致原则
1)当名词词组中心词为表示时间、路程、金钱或重量等复数名词时,往往根据意义一致的原则,把这些复数名词看做一个整体,谓语采用单数形式。如:
Twenty dollars is not enough.
Two months has passed before we realized.
但是如果“数词”单用,表示人或物,谓语动词一般用复数。如:
Three were killed and ten were missing in that accident.
2)如果名词词组中心词是“分数或百分数+of-词组”,谓语动词的单、复数形式取决于of-词组中名词或代词的单、复数形式:如果of-词组中名词或代词是单数或不可数名词,谓语动词用单数形式;如果of-词组中名词或代词是复数,谓语动词也用复数形式。如:
Two thirds of the earth is covered with water.
Two thirds of the people present are against the plan.
3)如果主语是many a,more than one+单数名词构成,尽管从意义上看是复数,但谓语动词仍用单数形式。如:
Many a student in this class has hoped a long break.
4)a+单数名词+or two做主语,谓语动词用单数形式。one or two+复数名词,谓语动词用复数形式。如:
A word or two is missed in the sentence.
One or two words are missed in the sentence.
7. _______ old lady with white hair spoke _______  English well at _______ meeting.
A.An;an;a   B.The;/;an  C.The;/;a   D.The;/;the


11.They made him _______  king.
A.a      B.the      C.an     D./


7.D。第一个空填 the,是特指那个“白发老太太”;第二个空不填冠词,是因为在语言名称前面一般不加冠词。English 后面如有 language,就得说 the English language。“在会议上”应为 at the meeting。

11.D。表示某人的职位时可用"零冠词"。



3.Bill said they were going to have _____ holiday。
  A.a two-weeks’
  B.a two-week
  C.two weeks’
  D.two weeks



3.B。holiday是个可数名词,所以前面不能丢了冠词;形容词放在a holiday的中间,这个形容词由数词和名词复合而成,复合后名词不能加s,two-week——“两周的”。


虚拟语气

3、对将来事实的虚拟

基本形式:If + should do…, …would /could /should /might + do; 意思类似汉语中的“万一”

If + were+ 不定式…, …would+ do;


Should+ 动词原形
例句:If he should forget the date, I might teach him a good lesson.
(事实上:他不大可能忘记那个日期)
If it should snow this afternoon, we could make a snowman.
(事实上不大可能会下雪)

4、虚拟条件句的倒装
虚拟条件句的从句部分如果含有were, should, 或had, 可将if省略,再把were, should或had 移到从句句首,实行倒装。
例句:Were they here now, they could help us.=If they were here now, they could help us.
Had you come earlier, you would have met him.=If you had come earlier, you would have met him. 
Should it rain, the crops would be saved. =Were it to rain, the crops would be saved.

6、比较if only与only if:
only if表示"只有";if only则表示"如果……就好了"。If only也可用于陈述语气。
例句:I wake up only if the alarm clock rings. 只有闹钟响了,我才会醒。
   If only the alarm clock had rung.   当时闹钟响了,就好了。
   If only he comes early.       但愿他早点回来。

7、It is (high) time that
It is (high) time that 后面的从句谓语动词要用过去式或用should加动词原形,但should不可省略。
例句:It is time that the children went to bed.
   It is high time that the children should go to bed.
8、need "不必做"和"本不该做"
didn't need to do表示:
过去不必做某事, 事实上也没做。.
needn't have done表示:
过去不必做某事, 但事实上做了。
例句:John went to the station with the car to meet Mary, so she didn't need to walk back home. 约翰开车去车站接玛丽,所以她不必步行回家了。

John went to the station with the car to meet Mary, so she needn't have walked back home. 约翰开车去车站接玛丽,所以她本不必步行回家了。 (Mary步行回家,没有遇上John的车。)




9、as, 或者whether…or…谓语多用be的原形,引导让步虚拟从句,这种用法通常采用倒装结构。
例句:Church as we use the word refers to all religious institutions, be they Christian, Islamivc, Buddhist, Jewish, and so on.
The business of each day, be it selling goods or shipping them, went quite smoothly.
注意1:部分动词的宾语从句中需用虚拟语气,形式为should do, 其中should常被省略。

此类动词有:insist, demand, suggest, propose, order, require, decide, ask, request, command等表示命令、建议、要求等.
例句: We all insist that we (should) not rest until we finish the work..
The professor suggests that the students (should) collect enough materials before they work on this project.
上面的动词如果以名词形式出现(如以表语从句,同位语从句形式出现)时,后面的that从句仍然要采用虚拟语气

例句:He gives me the suggestion that I (should) eat breakfast every morning.

My idea is that we (should) get more people to attend the conference.
 
I make a proposal that we (should) hold a meeting next week.
注意2:在一些惯用语之后经常需要用虚拟,来表示与事实相反或者难以实现的事情

这类习语有:as if , as though, but for, otherwise, without, wish, if only, for fear that, unless, in case, lest等
例句: But for your help, I would not have arrived here in time.
(如果没有你的帮助,我就不能准时到达)
Without your help, I would not arrive here in time.
She put a blanket over the baby for fear that he should catch cold. 她在那个婴儿身上盖上了毯子以免他着凉。

The bad man was put in the soft-padded cell lest he injure himself.
注意3:在下列形容词引导的that从句中必须要用虚拟语气(should) do,但是由于 should经常被省略,所以实际上用的就是动词原形。

这类形容词有: It is important/ necessary/ proper/ imperative/ essential/ advisable等 + that
例句:It is necessary that he (should) realize his situation.
注意4:在虚拟语气的从句中,动词'be'的过去时态一律用"were",不用was,
即在从句中be用were代替。
例句:If I were you, I would go to look for him. (如果我是你,就会去找他。)
   If he were here, everything would be all right. (如果他在这儿,一切都会好的。)
* 注意5:如suggest, insist不表示"建议" 或"坚持要某人做某事时",即它们用于其本意"暗示、表明"、"坚持认为"时,宾语从句用陈述语气。
例句:The guard at gate insisted that everybody obey the rules.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 17:33:40

Grammar~

倒装

重点是否定倒装、从句倒装还有同虚拟语气结合起来的倒装

2、有些让步状语从句中又是也有倒装的情况,(主要把标语或部分谓语提前):
Clever though he was, he couldn’t conceal his eagerness for praise.
Try as I would, I couldn’t make her change her mind.
Talented as he is, he is not yet ready to turn professional.
Search as they would, they could find no one in the wood.

【某些副词或状语引导的倒装句】

1、有些有否定意义的副词,若放在句首,句子常用倒装。
Never would he know what she had suffered.
Never before has such a high standard been achieved.
Scarcely was she out of sight when he came
2, 有个别其他副词放在句首时,又是也会有这个现象:
Often would she(she would) weep when alone.
Bitterly did he repent that decision. 他深深地悔恨那个决定。
Gladly would I give my life to save the child.
3, 有些短语,(特别是介词短语)移到句首时也可能引导倒装语序:
On no account must we give up this attempt.
Under no circumstances could we agree to such a principle.
一般这类的都是一些否定含义的短语,类似的还有:In vain, not until, at no point
还有表示唯一的,如:only in this way
So…that结构: So bright was the moon that the flowers were bright as by day.


谓语前置

2、为了描绘更生动,有些与介词同行的副词可以移到句首,把主语放在谓语后面。
Up went the arrow into the air. 嗖的一声箭射上了天。
She rang the bell. In came a girl she had not seen before. 她按铃,进来一个她从未见过的姑娘。
Down flew the eagle to seize the chicken 老鹰飞下来抓小鸡。


【其他倒装句】

1,祝愿的句子:
Long live world peace! 世界和平万岁!
May you have a long and happy life. 祝你幸福长寿。

3, 有时修辞上的考虑,表语也可以提前:
Very grateful we are for your help.
A very reliable person he is, to be sure. 他是个很可靠的人,没问题。


从句

宾语从句
1. 宾语从句可位于及物动词、介词和某些形容词后。连词that常可省略。介词后一般接疑问词引导的宾语从句。in that(因为),except that(除了),but that(只是)已构成固定搭配,其他介词后一般不接that引导的宾语从句。
*I promised that I would change the situation.
*All this is different from what American young people would say about friendship.
*He is certain that watching so much television is not good for children.
*This article is well-written except that it is a bit too long.

3. 在think, believe, suppose, expect等动词后的宾语从句中,如果谓语是否定的,一般将否定词移至主句谓语上,宾语从句则变成肯定形式。
He didn't think that the money was well spent.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 17:34:02

本帖最后由 KiKi~淇水滺滺 于 2009-8-18 08:48 编辑

今天终于把I题库过得差不多啦~开心~ A也正在进行时~~开心~~

不过也由于光顾着看题~grammar和effective writing 没有看完~ eco最近看了几篇都没有贴上~恩~明天补上~

恩~kiki要加油~~

Grammar

名词~

2 其它名词复数的规则变化
1) 以y结尾的专有名词,或元音字母+y 结尾的名词变复数时,直接加s变复数:
 
如: two Marys
the Henrys
monkey---monkeys  holiday---holidays
 比较:
层楼:storey ---storeys  story---stories

2) 以o 结尾的名词,变复数时:
  a. 加s,如: photo---photos
                         piano---pianos
         radio---radios 
                zoo---zoos;
  b. 加es,如:potato--potatoes tomato--tomatoes
c. 均可,如:zero---zeros / zeroes

3) 以f或fe 结尾的名词变复数时:
  a. 加s,如: belief---beliefs roof---roofs
         safe---safes  gulf---gulfs;
  b. 去f,fe 加ves,如:half---halves  
                     knife---knives leaf---leaves wolf---wolves
                     wife---wives life---lives thief---thieves;
  c. 均可,如: handkerchief:
        handkerchiefs / handkerchieves

3 名词复数的不规则变化

3)集体名词,以单数形式出现,但实为复数。
 
如: people police cattle 等本身就是复数,不能说 a people,a police,a cattle,但可以说 a person,a policeman,a head of cattle, the English,the British,the French,the Chinese,the Japanese,the Swiss 等名词,表示国民总称时,作复数用。
   如: The Chinese are industries and brave. 中国人民是勤劳勇敢的。

5) 表示由两部分构成的东西,如:glasses (眼镜) trousers, clothes
 若表达具体数目,要借助数量词 pair(对,双); suit(套); a pair of glasses; two pairs of trousers

6)另外还有一些名词,其复数形式有时可表示特别意思,如:goods货物,waters水域,fishes(各种)鱼






4 不可数名词量的表示
1)物质名词
  a. 当物质名词转化为个体名词时。
   比较: Cake is a kind of food. 蛋糕是一种食物。 (不可数)
    These cakes are sweet. 这些蛋糕很好吃。 (可数)
  b. 当物质名词表示该物质的种类时,名词可数。
   This factory produces steel. (不可数)
   We need various steels. (可数)
  c. 当物质名词表示份数时,可数。
   Our country is famous for tea.
   我国因茶叶而闻名。
   Two teas, please.
   请来两杯茶。
2)抽象名词有时也可数。
  four freedoms 四大自由
      the four modernizations四个现代化
  物质名词和抽象名词可以借助单位词表一定的数量。
  如:
  a glass of water 一杯水 
  a piece of advice 一条建议
5 定语名词的复数
名词作定语一般用单数,但也有以下例外。
 1) 用复数作定语。
    如:sports meeting 运动会
    students reading-room 学生阅览室 
    talks table 谈判桌 
    the foreign languages department 外语系

  3) 有些原有s结尾的名词,作定语时,s保留。
    如:goods train (货车)
   arms produce 武器生产
   customs papers 海关文件
   clothes brush衣刷

  4)在表示店铺或教堂的名字或某人的家时,名词所有格的后面常常不出现它所修饰的名词,
    如:the barber's 理发店。
  
5)如果两个名词并列,并且分别有's,则表示"分别有";只有一个's,则表示'共有'。
   如:John's and Mary's room(两间)  John and Mary's room(一间)

6)复合名词或短语,'s 加在最后一个词的词尾。
 如:a month or two's absence
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 17:34:30

名词grammar 继续~~

1.容易误用为复数的不可数名词:(这些名词一般不能用作复数,谓语动词用单数)
  advice 建议,忠告 living 生活,生计
  equipment 装备,设备 progress 前进,发展
  furniture 家具,设备 scenery 风景,景色
  information 通知;信息 machinery 机器,机械
  knowledge 知识,学问 traffic 交通流量
  baggage / luggage 行李,皮箱 trouble 烦恼,麻烦
  cash 现金 thunder 雷声,轰隆声
  apparatus 仪器 weather 天气,处境
  clothing 衣服 work 工作,劳动
  paper 纸,钞票 luck 运气,幸运
  technology 工艺,技术 jewelry 珠宝
  2.
复数形式的名词用于单数概念,其谓语动词用单数。(这些名词一般为表示学科或疾病的名词)
  economics 经济学 measles 麻疹

  physics 物理学 mumps 腮腺炎
  mathematics 数学 rickets 软骨病,佝偻病
  dynamics 动力学 news 新闻
  The United States 美国 The New York Times 纽约时报

2.
就近原则:
由 either … or … ; neither … nor …; not only…but also…; …or …; there be …等引导的主语,
谓语动词的单复数取决于最靠近动词的名词的单复数。
  Not only the students but also their teacher is invited to attend the party.
  3.
就远原则:主语,+ as well as +另一个主语,谓语动词的单复数取决于第一个主语的名词的单复数。
  My mother, as well as my two brothers, has a key to the office.
  我母亲,还有我的两个哥哥都有一把办公室的钥匙。
  同例:with…; together with…; along with…; including…; in addition to…; besides …; except…; as much as…; accompanied by …; rather than…等等

  5. and连接两个名词表示一个概念做主语时,谓语用单数; 若表示的是多个不同的概念时,谓语动词用复数。
  War and peace is a constant theme in literature.
  战争与和平是文学中永恒的主题。(War and peace是一对概念,看作一个主题)
  同例: ham and eggs n.火腿蛋 steam and bread
  law and order
       bread and butter
  apple pie and ice cream
       folk and knife
  wheel and axle 轮轴
       needle and thread
    love and hate
      egg and rice 蛋炒饭
8.
由 every …and every …; each … and each…; no … and no…; many a …and many a …
等连接的并列主语,谓语动词用单数。
  Every man and every woman working here is getting along well with me.
  No difficulty and no hardship has discouraged him.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 17:34:45

Grammar

13. Tables are made of ______
A. wood
B. woods
C. wooden
D. some woods

19. You should do more _____. Don’t always sit at the desk busy doing your ____
A. exercise; exercises B, exercises; exercise C. exercises; exercises D. exercise; exercise

20. What____! Where did you get them?
A. big fish B. a big fish C a piece of big fish D. big a fish

21. Have you received ______ of his coming ?
A. a word
B. words
C, the word
D. word


13 B 19 A(exercise在含义为运动时不可数,含义为作业时可数) 20 A (fish是不可数名词)21 D(消息 不可数)

4. The teacher from American gave us ________ on how to learn English well.
A. an advice
B. some advices
C. some advice
D. a piece of advices


C
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 17:35:00

grammar~


代词
五、表示相互关系的代词叫相互代词,有each other 和one another两组,但在运用中,这两组词没什么区别。
如: They love each other.他们彼此相爱。

不定代词中,none和由some,any,no等构成的复合不定代词只能作主语、宾语或表语;every和no只能作定语。

3.2 人称代词之主、宾格的替换
1)
宾格代替主格
a.
在简短对话中,当人称代词单独使用或在not 后,多用宾语。
---- I like English.--我喜欢英语。
---- Me too.--我也喜欢。
---- Have more wine?--再来点酒喝吗?
---- Not me.--我可不要了。

注意:在动词be 或to be 后的人称代词视其前面的名词或代词而定。
I thought it was she. 我以为是她。(主格----主格)
I thought it to be her.(宾格----宾格)
I was taken to be she.我被当成了她。(主格----主格)
They took me to be her.他们把我当成了她。 (宾格----宾格)

3.3 代词的指代问题
3)指代车或国家,船舶的名词,含感情色彩时常用she。

3.4 并列人称代词的排列顺序
2) 复数人称代词作主语时,其顺序为:
第一人称 -> 第二人称 -> 第三人称
we->you ->They
注意: 在下列情况中,第一人称放在前面。
a. 在承认错误,承担责任时,
It was I and John that made her angry.
是我和约翰惹她生气了。
b. 在长辈对晚辈,长官对下属说话时,如长官为第一人称, 如:I and you try to finish it.
c. 并列主语只有第一人称和第三人称时,
d. 当其他人称代词或名词被定语从句修饰时。

3.7 反身代词

2)做宾语
a. 有些动词需有反身代词absent, bathe, amuse, blame, dry, cut, enjoy, hurt, introduce, behave
We enjoyed ourselves very much last night.我们昨晚玩得很开心。
Please help yourself to some fish.请你随便吃点鱼。
b. 用于及物动词+宾语+介词take pride in, be annoyed with, help oneself to sth.
I could not dress (myself) up at that time.那个时候我不能打扮我自己。
注:有些动词后不跟反身代词, get up, sit-down, stand up, wake up 等。
Please sit down.请坐。

3) 作表语; 同位语
be oneself: I am not myself today.我今天不舒服。
The thing itself is not important.事情本身并不重要。
4) 在不强调的情况下,but, except, for 等介词后宾语用反身代词或人称代词宾格均可。如:
No one but myself (me) is hurt.
注意:
a. 反身代词本身不能单独作主语。
(错) Myself drove the car.
(对) I myself drove the car.我自己开车。
b. 但在and, or, nor 连接的并列主语中,第二个主语可用反身代词,特别是myself 作主语。
Charles and myself saw it.

5)第二人称作宾语,要用反身代词。
You should be proud of yourself.你应为自己感到骄傲。

3.8 相互代词
1)相互代词只有each other和one another两个词组。他们表示句中动词所叙述的动作或感觉在涉及的各个对象之间是相互存在的,例如:
It is easy to see that the people of different cultures have always copied each other.
显而易见,不同文化的人总是相互借鉴的。

说明:传统语法认为,相互关系存在于两个人或物之间用each other, 存在于两个以上人和物之间用one another。现代英语中,两组词交替使用的实例也很多

3.9 指示代词
说明1:指示代词在作主语时可指物也可指人,但作其他句子成分时只能指物,不能指人,例如:
(对)That is my teacher.那是我的老师。( that作主语,指人)
(对)He is going to marry this girl.他要和这个姑娘结婚。(this作限定词)
(错)He is going to marry this.(this作宾语时不能指人)

说明2:
That和those可作定语从句的先行词,但this和 these不能,同时,在作先行词时,只有those可指人,试比较:
(对) He admired that which looked beautiful.他赞赏外表漂亮的东西。
(对) He admired those who looked beautiful. 他赞赏那些外表漂亮的人。(those指人)
(错) He admired that who danced well.(that作宾语时不能指人)

3.10 疑问代词
说明2:
Whom是who的宾格,在书面语中,它作动词宾语或介词宾语,在口语中作宾语时,可用who代替,但在介词后只能用whom, 例如:
Who(m) did you meet on the street?
你在街上遇到了谁?(作动词宾语)
Who(m) are you taking the book to?
你要把这书带给谁?(作介词宾语,置句首)
To whom did you speak on the campus?
你在校园里和谁讲话了?(作介词宾语,置介词 后,不能用who取代。)

3.11 关系代词

3) 关系代词which的先行词可以是一个句子,例如:
He said he saw me there, which was a lie.
他说在那儿看到了我,纯属谎言。
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 17:35:26

Grammar

3.12 every , no, all, both, neither, nor


b. all 都,指三者以上。
all 的主谓一致:all的单复数由它所修饰或指代的名词的单复数决定。
All goes well.一切进展得很好。
all 通常不与可数名词单数连用,如:不说 all the book,而说 the whole book。
但all可与表时间的可数名词单数连用,如 all day,all night, all the year; 但习惯上不说 all hour,all century。
all还可以与一些特殊的单数名词连用,如 all China,all the city,all my life, all the way
2) 当做"某一"解时,也可与单数名词连用。(some= a certain)
You will be sorry for this some day.
总有一天,你会后悔这件事的。
A certain (some) person has seen you break the rule.
某些人不同意你的看法。

3.17 anyone/any one;no one/none;every/each
1.anyone 和 any one
anyone仅指人,any one既可指人,也可指物。
2.no one 和none
a)none 后跟of短语,既可指人又可指物,而no one只单独使用,只指人。
b)none 作主语,谓语动词用单,复数均可,而no one作主语谓语动词只能是单数。

3.every 和each
1)every 强调全体的概念, each强调个体概念。

Every student in our school works hard.我们学校的学生都很用功。

Each student may have one book..每个学生都可有一本书。
2)every 指三个以上的人或物(含三个),each指两个以上的人或物 (含两个)。
3)every 只作形容词,不可单独使用。each可作代词或形容词。

Every student has to take one.

Each boy has to take one.

Each of the boys has to take one.

4)every不可以作状语,each可作状语。
5)every 有反复重复的意思,如 every two weeks等; each没有。
6)every 与not 连用,表示部分否定; each 和not连用表示全部否定。
Every man is not honest. 并非每个人都诚实。
Each man is not honest.这儿每个人都不诚实。



固定搭配:
only a few (=few)not a few (=many)quite a few (=many)
many a (=many)
Many books were sold.
Many a book was sold.
卖出了许多书。



动词的时态

4) wish, wonder, think, hope 等用过去时,作试探性的询问、请求、建议等。
I thought you might have some. 我以为你想要一些。
比较:
一般过去时表示的动作或状态都已成为过去,现已不复存在。
Christine was an invalid all her life.
(含义:她已不在人间。)
Christine has been an invalid all her life.
(含义:她现在还活着)
Mrs. Darby lived in Kentucky for seven years.
(含义:达比太太已不再住在肯塔基州。)
Mrs. Darby has lived in Kentucky for seven years.
( 含义:现在还住在肯塔基州,有可能指刚离去)
注意: 用过去时表示现在,表示委婉语气。
1)动词 want, hope, wonder, think, intend 等。
Did you want anything else?
I wondered if you could help me.
2)情态动词 could, would.
Could you lend me your bike?
3)句型:
It is time for sb. to do sth"到……时间了""该……了"
It is time sb. did sth. "时间已迟了""早该……了"
It is time for you to go to bed.你该睡觉了。
It is time you went to bed.你早该睡觉了。
would (had) rather sb. did sth.表示'宁愿某人做某事'
I'd rather you came tomorrow.


7 一般现在时表将来
1)下列动词:come, go, arrive, leave, start, begin, return的一般现在时表将来。这主要用来表示在时间上已确定或安排好的事情。
The train leaves at six tomorrow morning.
When does the bus start? It starts in ten minutes.

2)倒装句,表示动作正在进行,如:
Here comes the bus. = The bus is coming.
There goes the bell. = The bell is ringing.

3)在时间或条件句中。
When Bill comes (不是will come), ask him to wait for me.
I'll write to you as soon as I arrive there.

4)在动词hope, take care that, make sure that等后。
I hope they have a nice time next week.
Make sure that the windows are closed before you leave the room.
8 用现在进行时表示将来

意为:"意图"、"打算"、"安排"、常用于人。常用词为 come, go, start, arrive, leave, stay等。
I'm leaving tomorrow.
Are you staying here till next week?

过去时与现在完成时比较
句子中如有过去时的时间副词(如 yesterday, last, week, in 1960)时,不能使用现在完成时,要用过去时。
(错)Tom has written a letter to his parents last night.
(对)Tom wrote a letter to his parents last night.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 17:36:01

Grammar~~

11 用于现在完成时的句型

1)It is the first / second time…. that…结构中的从句部分,用现在完成时。
It is the first time that I have visited the city.
It was the third time that the boy had been late.

2)This is the… that…结构,that 从句要用现在完成时.
This is the best film that I've (ever) seen.
这是我看过的最好的电影。
This is the first time (that) I've heard him sing.这是我第一次听他唱歌。

(2) ---Have you ____ been to our town before?
---No, it's the first time I ___ here.
A. even, comeB. even, have comeC. ever, comeD. ever, have come
答案D. ever意为曾经或无论何时,反意词为never,此两词常用于完成时。 This is the largest fish I have ever seen. It is / was the first time +that-clause 的句型中,从句要用完成时。
注意:非延续性动词的否定形式可以与表示延续时间的状语连用。即动作不发生的状态是可以持续的。
(错)I have received his letter for a month.
(对)I haven't received his letter for almost a month.

15 过去完成时
2) 用法
a.在told, said, knew, heard, thought等动词后的宾语从句。
She said (that) she had never been to Paris.
b. 状语从句
在过去不同时间发生的两个动作中,发生在先,用过去完成时;发生在后,用一般过去时。
When the police arrived, the thieves had run away.
c. 表示意向的动词,如hope, wish, expect, think, intend, mean, suppose等,用过去完成时表示"原本…,未能…"
We had hoped that you would come, but you didn't.

3)过去完成时的时间状语before, by, until , when, after, once, as soon as。
He said that he had learned some English before.
By the time he was twelve, Edison had began to make a living by himself.
Tom was disappointed that most of the guests had left when he arrived at the party.

典型例题
The students ___ busily when Miss Brown went to get a book she ___ in the office.
A. had written, leftB,were writing, has leftC. had written, had leftD. were writing, had left
答案D. "把书忘在办公室"发生在"去取书"这一过去的动作之前,因此"忘了书"这一动作发生在过去的过去,用过去完成时。句中 when表示的是时间的一点,表示在"同学们正忙于……"这一背景下,when所引导的动作发生。因此
前一句应用过去进行时。
注意:had no … when还没等…… 就……
had no sooner… than刚…… 就……
He had no sooner bought the car than he sold it.
19 不用进行时的动词
1) 事实状态的动词
have, belong, possess, cost, owe, exist, include, contain, matter, weigh, measure, continue
I have two brothers.
This house belongs to my sister.

2) 心理状态的动词
Know, realize, think see, believe, suppose, imagine, agree, recognize, remember, want, need, forget, prefer, mean, understand, love, hate
I need your help.
He loves her very much.

3 ) 瞬间动词
accept, receive, complete, finish, give, allow, decide, refuse.
I accept your advice.

4) 系动词
seem, remain, lie, see, hear, smell, feel, taste, get, become, turn
You seem a little tired.

22 一般现在时代替将来时
时间状语从句,条件句中,从句用一般现在时代替将来时
When, while, before, after, till, once, as soon as, so long as, by the time, if, in case (that), unless, even if, whether, the moment, the minute, the day, the year, immediately


(2) 表示现在已安排好的未来事项,行程等活动。
The museum opens at ten tomorrow.博物馆明天10点开门。(实际上每天如此。)

23 一般现在时代替过去时
1 )"书上说","报纸上说"等。
The newspaper says that it's going to be cold tomorrow.
报纸上说明天会很冷的。
2) 叙述往事,使其生动。
Napoleon's army now advances and the great battle begins.
24 一般现在时代替完成时
1) 有些动词用一般现在时代替完成时:
hear, tell, learn, write , understand, forget, know, find , say, remember.
I hear (= have heard) he will go to London.
I forget (=have forgotten) how old he is.
2) 句型 " It is … since…"代替"It has been … since …"
3) It is (= has been) five years since we last met.
25 一般现在时代替进行时
1) 句型:Here comes… ; There goes…
Look, here comes Mr. Li.

26 现在进行时代替将来时
1) 表示即将发生的或预定中计划好的活动。
Are you staying with us this weekend? 这周和我们一起度周末吗?
We are leaving soon.我们马上就走。
2) 渐变动词,如:get, run, grow, become, begin及die。
He is dying.


连词

连词主要可分为两类:并列连词和从属连词。并列连词用来连接平行的词、词组和分句。如:and, but, or, nor, so, therefore, yet, however, for, hence(因此,所以), as well as, both…and, not only…but also, either…or, neither…nor, (and)then等等。

Make up your mind, and you'll get the chance.
= If you make up your mind, you'll get the chance.


注意: not only… but also 关联两个分句时,一个分句因有否定词not 而必须倒装。
Not only does he like reading stories, but also he can even write some.


2 比较and和or
1) 并列结构中,or通常用于否定句,and用于肯定句。

2) 但有时and 也可用于否定句。请注意其不同特点:

There is no air or water in the moon.
There is no air and no water on the moon.
在否定中并列结构用or 连接,但含有两个否定词的句子实际被看作是肯定结构,因此要用and。
典型例题
---I don't like chicken ___ fish.
---I don't like chicken, ___ I like fish very much.
A. and; and B. and; but C. or; but D. or;and
答案C。否定句中表并列用or, but 表转折。
判断改错:
(错) We will die without air and water.
(错) We can't live without air or water.
(对) We will die without air or water.
(对) We can't live without air and water.


5 表原因关系
注意:
a. 两个并列连词不能连用,但therefore, then, yet.可以和并列连词连用。
You can watch TV, and or you can go to bed.
He hurt his leg, and so / and therefore he couldn't play in the game.

b. although… yet…,但although不与 but连用。
(错)Although he was weak, but he tried his best to do the work..
(对)Although he was weak, yet he tried his best to do the work.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 17:36:40

grammar~

动词

英语中总共有三种非限定动词,分别是:动词不定式(Infinitive)、动名词(Gerund)、分词(Participle)

3) be + 动词不定式,可表示下列内容:
a. 表示最近、未来的计划或安排,例如:
He is to go to New York next week.他下周要去纽约。
We are to teach the fresh persons.我们要教新生。
说明: 这种用法也可以说成是一种将来时态表达法。
b. 表示命令,例如:
You are to explain this.对此你要做出解释。
He is to come to the office this afternoon.要他今天下午来办公室。
c.征求意见,例如:
How am I to answer him?我该怎样答复他?
Who is to go there?谁该去那儿呢?
d. 表示相约、商定,例如:
We are to meet at the school gate at seven tomorrow morning.我们明天早晨7点在校门口集合。



1)
若宾语补足语是不带to 的不定式,变为被动语态时,该不定式前要加"to"。此类动词为感官动词。
feel, hear, help, listen to, look at, make, observe, see, notice, watch

The teacher made me go out of the classroom.
--> I was made to go out of the classroom (by the teacher).
We saw him play football on the playground.
--> He was seen to play football on the playground.



3 表示"据说"或"相信" 的词组


believe, consider, declare, expect, feel , report, say, see, suppose, think, understand
It is said that… 据说
It is reported that… 据报道
It is believed that…大家相信
It is hoped that…大家希望
It is well known that… 众所周知
It is thought that…大家认为
It is suggested that…据建议
It is taken granted that… 被视为当然
It has been decided that… 大家决定
It must be remember that…务必记住的是
It is said that she will leave for Wuhan on Tuesday.

4 不用被动语态的情况


1) 不及物动词或动词短语无被动语态:
appear, die disappear, end (vi. 结束), fail, happen, last, lie, remain, sit, spread, stand
break out, come true, fall asleep, keep silence, lose heart, take place.
After the fire, very little remained of my house.
比较: rise, fall, happen是不及物动词;raise, seat是及物动词。
(错) The price has been risen.
(对) The price has risen.
(错) The accident was happened last week.
(对) The accident happened last week.
(错) The price has raised.
(对) The price has been raised.
(错) Please seat.
(对) Please be seated.
要想正确地使用被动语态,就须注意哪些动词是及物的,哪些是不及物的。特别是一词多义的动词往往有两种用法。解决这一问题唯有在学习过程中多留意积累。

2) 不能用于被动语态的及物动词或动词短语:
fit, have, hold, marry, own, wish, cost, notice, watch agree with, arrive at / in, shake hands with, succeed in, suffer from, happen to, take part in, walk into, belong to
This key just fits the lock.
Your story agrees with what had already been heard.

3) 系动词无被动语态:
appear, be become, fall, feel, get, grow, keep, look, remain, seem, smell, sound, stay, taste, turn
It sounds good.

4) 带同源宾语的及物动词,反身代词,相互代词,不能用于被动语态:
die, death, dream, live, life
She dreamed a bad dream last night.

5) 当宾语是不定式时,很少用于被动语态。
(对) She likes to swim.
(错) To swim is liked by her.



5 主动形式表示被动意义


1)wash, clean, cook, iron, look, cut, sell, read, wear, feel, draw, write, sell, drive…
The book sells well.这本书销路好。
This knife cuts easily. 这刀子很好用。

2)blame, let(出租), remain, keep, rent, build
I was to blame for the accident.
Much work remains.

3) 在need, require, want, worth (形容词), deserve后的动名词必须用主动形式。
The door needs repairing.= The door needs to be repaired.
This room needs cleaning. 这房间应该打扫一下。
This book is worth reading.这本书值得一读。

4) 特殊结构:make sb. heard / understood (使别人能听见/理解自己),have sth. done ( 要某人做某事)。
6 被动形式表示主动意义


be determined, be pleased, be graduated (from), be finished, be prepared (for), be occupied (in), get marries
He is graduated from a famous university.
他毕业于一所有名的大学。
注意: 表示同某人结婚,用marry sb. 或get married to sb. 都可。
He married a rich girl.
He got married to a rich girl.

7 need/want/require/worth

注意:当 need, want, require, worth(形容词)后面接doing也可以表示被动。
Your hair wants cutting.你的头发该理了。
The floor requires washing. 地板需要冲洗。
The book is worth reading.这本书值得一读。
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 17:37:01

grammar

英语中总共有三种非限定动词,分别是:动词不定式(Infinitive)、动名词(Gerund)、分词(Participle)

3) be + 动词不定式,可表示下列内容:
a. 表示最近、未来的计划或安排,例如:
He is to go to New York next week.他下周要去纽约。
We are to teach the fresh persons.我们要教新生。
说明: 这种用法也可以说成是一种将来时态表达法。
b. 表示命令,例如:
You are to explain this.对此你要做出解释。
He is to come to the office this afternoon.要他今天下午来办公室。
c.征求意见,例如:
How am I to answer him?我该怎样答复他?
Who is to go there?谁该去那儿呢?
d. 表示相约、商定,例如:
We are to meet at the school gate at seven tomorrow morning.我们明天早晨7点在校门口集合。



1)
若宾语补足语是不带to 的不定式,变为被动语态时,该不定式前要加"to"。此类动词为感官动词。
feel, hear, help, listen to, look at, make, observe, see, notice, watch

The teacher made me go out of the classroom.
--> I was made to go out of the classroom (by the teacher).
We saw him play football on the playground.
--> He was seen to play football on the playground.



3 表示"据说"或"相信" 的词组


believe, consider, declare, expect, feel , report, say, see, suppose, think, understand
It is said that… 据说
It is reported that… 据报道
It is believed that…大家相信
It is hoped that…大家希望
It is well known that… 众所周知
It is thought that…大家认为
It is suggested that…据建议
It is taken granted that… 被视为当然
It has been decided that… 大家决定
It must be remember that…务必记住的是
It is said that she will leave for Wuhan on Tuesday.

4 不用被动语态的情况


1) 不及物动词或动词短语无被动语态:
appear, die disappear, end (vi. 结束), fail, happen, last, lie, remain, sit, spread, stand
break out, come true, fall asleep, keep silence, lose heart, take place.
After the fire, very little remained of my house.
比较: rise, fall, happen是不及物动词;raise, seat是及物动词。
(错) The price has been risen.
(对) The price has risen.
(错) The accident was happened last week.
(对) The accident happened last week.
(错) The price has raised.
(对) The price has been raised.
(错) Please seat.
(对) Please be seated.
要想正确地使用被动语态,就须注意哪些动词是及物的,哪些是不及物的。特别是一词多义的动词往往有两种用法。解决这一问题唯有在学习过程中多留意积累。

2) 不能用于被动语态的及物动词或动词短语:
fit, have, hold, marry, own, wish, cost, notice, watch agree with, arrive at / in, shake hands with, succeed in, suffer from, happen to, take part in, walk into, belong to
This key just fits the lock.
Your story agrees with what had already been heard.

3) 系动词无被动语态:
appear, be become, fall, feel, get, grow, keep, look, remain, seem, smell, sound, stay, taste, turn
It sounds good.

4) 带同源宾语的及物动词,反身代词,相互代词,不能用于被动语态:
die, death, dream, live, life
She dreamed a bad dream last night.

5) 当宾语是不定式时,很少用于被动语态。
(对) She likes to swim.
(错) To swim is liked by her.



5 主动形式表示被动意义


1)wash, clean, cook, iron, look, cut, sell, read, wear, feel, draw, write, sell, drive…
The book sells well.这本书销路好。
This knife cuts easily. 这刀子很好用。

2)blame, let(出租), remain, keep, rent, build
I was to blame for the accident.
Much work remains.

3) 在need, require, want, worth (形容词), deserve后的动名词必须用主动形式。
The door needs repairing.= The door needs to be repaired.
This room needs cleaning. 这房间应该打扫一下。
This book is worth reading.这本书值得一读。

4) 特殊结构:make sb. heard / understood (使别人能听见/理解自己),have sth. done ( 要某人做某事)。
6 被动形式表示主动意义


be determined, be pleased, be graduated (from), be finished, be prepared (for), be occupied (in), get marries
He is graduated from a famous university.
他毕业于一所有名的大学。
注意: 表示同某人结婚,用marry sb. 或get married to sb. 都可。
He married a rich girl.
He got married to a rich girl.

7 need/want/require/worth

注意:当 need, want, require, worth(形容词)后面接doing也可以表示被动。
Your hair wants cutting.你的头发该理了。
The floor requires washing. 地板需要冲洗。
The book is worth reading.这本书值得一读。
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-14 17:40:37

耶!可以发checklist咯:lol:lol:lol
作者: KiKi~淇水滺滺    时间: 2009-12-15 15:11:27

Hi~过来踩踩~加油~
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-15 23:28:52

Costing catastropheDec 8th 2009
From Economist.com
Two economists consider how much people would pay to minimise the chance of a distaster.

HOW much will climate change end up costing the world? The estimates, not surprisingly, vary widely. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) estimates between $49 billion and $171 billion annually. A team of researchers at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London has published a report that says UNFCCC is underestimating by a factor of two or three. Between 1996 and 2005, they point out, the annual damages done by hurricanes, fires, and other extreme weather was already averaging more than $50 billion per year. Yet few governments are willing to spend even fractions of that on preventative maintenance. Look at widespread fiddling(摆弄,闲逛) over climate change; or the neglect of the dams surrounding New Orleans in the years before Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.

So would people be prepared pay to avoid future disasters? And if so, how much? That is the question tackled by Robert Pindyck of MIT's Sloan School of Management and Neng Wang of Columbia University, in a recent paper, "The Economic and Policy Consequences of Catastrophes." It is not easy to calculate accurately the likelihood of disasters. Some, such as rising sea levels or nuclear weapons gone rogue(游荡), have few historical precedents on which to base estimates. So Messrs Pindyck and Wang chose instead to model how likely people think it is that a catastrophe will occur, and how much money they would be prepared to spend to prevent it. In their model, the hypothetical household had to decide both the likelihood of a potential catastrophe and its magnitude, since a high-risk disaster with little consequence would affect spending behaviour differently to a rare but devastating(破坏性的) event.

The model has the disadvantage of being, like many economic models, theoretical. But it has the advantages of not requiring people to have perfect information about the future, and being applicable to any disaster—not just climate change, but flu epidemics or widespread warfare. (Mr Pindyck himself reports being particularly worried about nuclear terrorism.)

Sky-is-falling economic modelling, so to speak, is not new. Two decades ago a paper by Thomas Reitz, then of the University of Iowa, pointed out that equity owners, even while acting averse to risk, demand high rates of return in anticipation of an unlikely, but severe, crash. More recently Richard Posner, of the University of Chicago, has argued at length that governments should spend more to prevent disasters that will probably not happen, but would be awful if they did. Mr Posner's blogging partner, Gary Becker, an economist, estimated in May the worldwide willingness to pay to avoid another flu pandemic at about $200 billion, even assuming the probability of such a pandemic occurring at only 1% over the next 20 years.

Messrs Pindyck and Wang's study lends credence to previous work which maps(筹划,制定) not only the probability of a risk occurring, but also the expected damage should it occur. In their model, even when a hypothetical consumer estimates the risk of a disaster occurring is close to zero, he still estimates the scale of potential devastation to be between 26% and 32% of national capital stock, far greater than the effects of Hurricane Katrina or even the 2004 tsunami. To avoid such a disaster entirely, or reduce its impact, the households in the model would be willing to pay a permanent consumption tax of up to 15%, depending on the size of the reduction and the likelihood of catastrophe.

In theory, then, governments should be able to spend far less than 15% to minimise the danger of catastrophes without suffering (political) risk. Although not every potential disaster could be averted(避免), such studies provide rationale(理论) for spending money on the most pressing issues: stockpiling flu vaccines, shoring up rotting infrastructure(巩固正在腐烂的基础设施), and, yes, preparing for higher sea levels. Unfortunately, climate change is just one area where people fail to act as rationally as they do within economic models.
作者: aladdin.ivy    时间: 2009-12-16 20:53:01

正常点~~也加油哈!:)
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-17 23:58:47

Opportunity knocksDec 15th 2009
From Economist.com
Collectors hunt down the best European classics
ALL art booms are different. The previous one ended in 1989, when Japanese buyers withdrew from the Impressionist market(印象派市场). Interest rates rose in the slump(暴跌,不景气,陷落) that followed; there were plenty of sellers but no buyers. Today the reverse(挫折) is true. Interest rates are low, and buyers are looking to diversify(多样化) into alternative assets. The only problem is the sellers. There is plenty of money about, but little to buy.

Sothebys



It should follow, then, that buyers will snap up(抢购) anything. But that is not quite the case, as the Old Master sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in London on December 8th and 9th showed only too well.

Old Master works that combine quality, rarity(稀有,杰出), provenance and excellent condition come up less and less often at auction. When they do, dealers and collectors circle them as a lion would a baby kongoni on the African plain. In the recent sales the best pieces sold brilliantly, and the rest hardly at all.

The best included a top-quality Italian Baroque painting by Il Domenichino of St John, a late-period Rembrandt, a rare Raphael drawing, an elegant self-portrait by Sir Anthony van Dyck, and one or two other surprises.

Many of the leading dealers were present, including Konrad Bernheimer, who heads a four-generation Old Master firm; Philip Mould, founder of Historic Portraits and better known as the BBC’s “art detective”; Johnny van Haeften, the leading Dutch specialist in London; Alfred Bader, a rich American art-market broker and former chemist; and the heirs(继承人) to two important art-dealing businesses, William Noortman and Simon Green.

Mr Mould arrived early at Sotheby’s sale, accompanied by a television crew(全体人员,班组). Only when the auctioneer reached Lot 8, van Dyck’s elegant self-portrait (pictured above), did it become clear that Mr Mould had more in mind than just another a cameo appearance before the cameras. Van Dyck’s oval, painted in 1640, the year before he died, had been in the same family for almost 300 years. Mr Mould joined forces with Mr Bader to try and win the painting. Young Mr Noortman, the underbidder who was trying to buy the picture for stock, did not stand a chance(有希望,有可能). The winning bid was &pound;7.4m (&pound;8.3m, or $13.5m, including commission and taxes), nearly three times van Dyck’s previous record. Immediately afterwards, Mr Bader announced that the picture was once more for sale.

Christies Images Ltd



There was no doubt that the price for the van Dyck would be high. The only question was how high. Lot 18, which came up a few moments later, proved more of a surprise. Bearing an estimate of &pound;50,000-70,000, the 17th-century Dutch oil, found in a private collection Vienna, looked at first like just another slightly kitsch girl in a hat holding up a basket of plums (pictured left). However, research on the picture confirmed it as a hitherto unrecorded and unpublished work by one of Holland’s most important classical painters of the period, Cesar Boetius van Everdingen. At &pound;900,000, there were still three potential buyers in the ring(参加,在...范围之内); a telephone bidder had to pay &pound;1.2m, including commission and taxes, to secure the picture.

Other dealers(经销商) proved nearly as determined in their own specialities. Simon Dickinson, a London dealer with connections in the British (and especially Scottish) aristocracy, bought Sir Edwin Henry Landseer’s five-foot-long romantic Highland clan scene, with an &pound;800,000 bid (&pound;937,250 with commissions and taxes), the bottom of the estimate.

Luca Baroni, bidding with his daughter, paid &pound;385,250, four times the top estimate, for a beautiful little grisaille oil, an early work by Fran&ccedil;ois Boucher which came out of a private collection in Lausanne.

There were high prices seen at Christie’s too. A single telephone bid of &pound;18m, at the bottom of the estimate, saw off two ditherers in the room to secure Rembrandt’s late “Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo”. The picture had been consigned(委托,交付) by Barbara Piasecka Johnson, a respected American collector now living in Italy. But that provenance was not enough to instil universal confidence. The picture had been restored and relined before the second world war, giving it a flattish appearance. It also needed further cleaning. There were doubts about how it would fare(旅行) once the decayed varnish(清漆) was removed.
Sothebys


By contrast, Domenichino’s “Saint John the Evangelist” (pictured left), which had hung in the organ room at the Christie family’s operatic home at Glyndebourne, Sussex, for nearly 100 years and is said to be the most important Baroque painting to come up at auction for a generation, was in surprisingly good condition. But the religious subject matter may have put off some buyers, especially in the Middle East. After Mr Noortman nervously offered &pound;8.1m (again, like for the van Dyck, he was bidding for stock, he confirmed later), Christie’s Nicholas Raison secured the painting for a record &pound;9.2m with commission and taxes.

But it is the small pictures that cause the biggest surprises. The last lot in Christie’s sale was a black chalk drawing, less than a foot square, by Raphael, an early 16th-century Italian master. It is the study of a head for one of the muses in “Parnassus”, a fresco in the Vatican, and used to belong to King William II of Holland, whose collection, sold in 1850, was considered one of the finest in Europe.

Possessed of a radiant serenity(镇静), the drawing is in many ways more beautiful than the final fresco. The lines of the neck, robe and hairpiece are dotted(加点的) with tiny holes through which the artist would have pressed soot(烟尘) as a way of imprinting an outline of the drawing on the fresco wall. Its beauty, rarity and the sense that the study may well have been used by the artist himself when working on his fresco, drew collectors from far and wide. A number of potential buyers came to see it, including Bruno Eberli, a Swiss foreign-exchange dealer based on Park Avenue in New York. Mr Eberli is a known trophy hunter; four years ago he paid just over &pound;15.6m for a rare blue-and-white Ming jar, the highest price for an Asian work of art at auction.

Christies Images Ltd



Christie’s had estimated the study would fetch &pound;12m-16m. Bidding opened at &pound;8.5m, with three buyers on the telephone. At &pound;18m, Mr Baroni’s daughter joined in, her father beside her. (The Baronis are known for their courage, and their private client list; in July 2008, again at Christie’s, they paid a record &pound;12.6m for a little caprice by Jean-Antoine Watteau that had been found in an English country house.)
Jennifer Wright, Christie’s New York-based drawings specialist, made a final bid for the Raphael of &pound;26m—a world record for a work on paper—to a round of hearty applause. With commission and taxes, the final bill was &pound;29.1m.

The distribution of buyers gave an indication of how the market is changing. Buyers were of 14 different nationalities, with 43% of the sale, by lot, going to America and 46% to Europe (including Russia). The biggest surprise is that 11% was bought by collectors in Asia and the Middle East.

After the sale, Christie’s international co-head, Richard Knight, was quick to point out that, at &pound;68.4m, theirs had been the biggest Old Master sale ever. “This result shows what a very solid market this is,” he said. But that took no account of the failures, which were considerable. Fifteen of the 43 lots in Christie’s auction failed to sell at all, and at Sotheby’s the failure rate was 21 out of 50.
The Old Master market seems to be dividing in two. For top-quality works there is still plenty of money about. Much of the rest does not sell, however far prices fall.

The long history of Domenichino’s “Saint John” offers a salutary(有益的) lesson in the vagaries of the art market—and of taste. In the 18th century, this picture was one of the most expensive on record. In the midst of the Napoleonic wars it was taken to London, where it was sold to Richard Hart Davis, a member of Parliament.

In 1884 it was put up for sale by his grandson, and bought in at a bid of 700 guineas. In 1899 the next generation tried again to sell it, once more without success; on that occasion it was bought in at 100 guineas. Subsequently, it was sold to Colnaghi, a firm that now belongs to Mr Bernheimer. Colnaghi paid just 70 guineas for the work. In the century since, the price has risen 100,000 times. But it may never each that height again.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-18 22:56:53

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-19 00:10 编辑

REBORN FROM THE ASHES   第一次精选阶段作业(1)

A special report on climate change and the carbon economy

Getting warmer

Dec 3rd 2009 From The Economist print edition

So far the effort to tackle global warming has achieved little. Copenhagen(哥本哈根) offers the chance to do better, says Emma Duncan (interviewed here)
Illustration by M. Morgenstern

THE mountain bark beetle(树皮甲壳虫) is a familiar pest in the forests of British Columbia. Its population rises and falls unpredictably, destroying clumps of pinewood(松林) as it peaks(消瘦) which then regenerate as the bug recedes. But Scott Green, who studies forest ecology at the University of Northern British Columbia, says the current outbreak is “unprecedented in recorded history: a natural background-noise disturbance has become a major outbreak. We’re looking at the loss of 80% of our pine(松树) forest cover(森林覆盖率).”* Other parts of North America have also been affected, but the damage in British Columbia is particularly severe, and particularly troubling in a province whose economy is dominated by timber.

Three main explanations for this disastrous outbreak suggest themselves. 1.It could be chance. Populations do fluctuate dramatically and unexpectedly. 2.It could be the result of management practices. British Columbia’s woodland is less varied than it used to be, which helps a beetle(甲壳虫) that prefers pine. 3.Or it could be caused by the higher temperatures that now prevail in northern areas, allowing beetles to breed more often in summer and survive in greater numbers through the winter.

The Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which the United Nations adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, is now 17 years old. Its aim was “to achieve stabilisation of greenhouse-gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”. The Kyoto protocol, which set about realising those aims, was signed in 1997 and came into force in 2005. Its first commitment period runs out in 2012, and implementing a new one is expected to take at least three years, which is why the 15th conference of the parties to the UNFCCC that starts in Copenhagen on December 7th is such a big deal. Without a new global agreement, there is not much chance of averting serious climate change.

Since the UNFCCC was signed, much has changed, though more in the biosphere than the human sphere. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the body set up to establish a scientific consensus on what is happening, heat waves, droughts, floods and serious hurricanes have increased in frequency over the past few decades; it reckons(筹算,估计,推想) those trends are all likely or very likely to have been caused by human activity and will probably continue. Temperatures by the end of the century might be up by anything from 1.1&ordm;C to 6.4&ordm;C.

In most of the world the climate changes to date are barely perceptible(明显的) or hard to pin on(寄托) warming. In British Columbia and farther north the effects of climate change are clearer. Air temperatures in the Arctic are rising about twice as fast as in the rest of the world. The summer sea ice is thinning and shrinking. The past three years have seen the biggest losses since proper record-keeping started in 1979. Ten years ago scientists reckoned that summer sea-ice would be gone by the end of this century. Now they expect it to disappear within a decade or so.

Since sea-ice is already in the water, its melting has little effect on sea levels. Those are determined by temperature (warmer water takes up more room) and the size of the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps(冰层). The glaciers in south-eastern Greenland have picked up speed. Jakobshavn Isbrae, the largest of them, which drains 6% of Greenland’s ice, is now moving at 12km a year—twice as fast as it was when the UNFCCC was signed—and its “calving front”, where it breaks down into icebergs(冰山), has retreated by 20km in six years. That is part of the reason why the sea level is now rising at 3-3.5mm a year, twice the average annual rate in the 20th century.

As with the mountain bark beetle, it is not entirely clear why this is happening. The glaciers could be retreating because of one of the countless natural oscillations(振荡) in the climate that scientists do not properly understand. If so, the glacial retreat could well stop, as it did in the middle of the 20th century after a 100-year retreat. But the usual causes of natural variability do not seem to explain the current trend, so scientists incline to the view that it is man-made. It is therefore likely to persist unless mankind starts to behave differently—and there is not much sign of that happening.

Carbon-dioxide emissions are now 30% higher than they were when the UNFCCC was signed 17 years ago. Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 equivalent(等价物) (carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases) reached 430 parts per million last year, compared with 280ppm before the industrial revolution. At the current rate of increase they could more than treble(增加两倍) by the end of the century, which would mean a 50% risk of a global temperature increase of 5&ordm;C. To put that in context, the current average global temperature is only 5&ordm;C warmer than the last ice age. Such a rise would probably lead to fast-melting ice sheets, rising sea levels, drought, disease and collapsing agriculture in poor countries, and mass migration. But nobody really knows, and nobody wants to know.

Some scientists think that the planet is already on an irreversible(不可逆转) journey to dangerous warming. A few climate-change sceptics(怀疑论者) think the problem will right itself. Either may be correct. Predictions about a mechanism as complex as the climate cannot be made with any certainty. But the broad scientific consensus is that serious climate change is a danger, and this newspaper believes that, as an insurance policy against a catastrophe that may never happen, the world needs to adjust its behaviour to try to avert that threat.

The problem is not a technological one. The human race has almost all the tools it needs to continue leading much the sort of life it has been enjoying without causing a net increase in greenhouse-gas concentrations in the atmosphere. Industrial and agricultural processes can be changed. Electricity can be produced by wind, sunlight, biomass or nuclear reactors, and cars can be powered by biofuels and electricity. Biofuel engines for aircraft still need some work before they are suitable for long-haul flights, but should be available soon.

Nor is it a question of economics. Economists argue over the sums (see article), but broadly agree that greenhouse-gas emissions can be curbed without flattening the world economy.


A hard sell


It is all about politics. Climate change is the hardest political problem the world has ever had to deal with. It is a prisoner’s dilemma, a free-rider problem(搭便车问题) and the tragedy of the commons all rolled into one. At issue(值得争论的是) is the difficulty of allocating the cost of collective action and trusting other parties to bear their share of the burden. At a city, state and national level, institutions that can resolve such problems have been built up over the centuries. But climate change has been a worldwide worry for only a couple of decades. Mankind has no framework(框架) for it. The UN is a useful talking shop, but it does not get much done.

The closest parallel is the world trading system. This has many achievements to its name, but it is not an encouraging model. Not only is the latest round of negotiations mired(陷入) in difficulty, but the World Trade Organisation’s task is child’s play compared with climate change. The benefits of concluding trade deals are certain and accrue(产生) in the short term. The benefits of mitigating climate change are uncertain, since scientists are unsure of the scale and consequences of global warming, and will mostly accrue many years hence. The need for action, by contrast, is urgent.

The problem will be solved only if the world economy moves from carbon-intensive to low-carbon—and, in the long term, to zero-carbon—products and processes. That requires businesses to change their investment patterns. And they will do so only if governments give them clear, consistent signals. This special report will argue that so far this has not happened. The policies adopted to avoid dangerous climate change have been partly misconceived and largely inadequate. They have sent too many wrong signals and not enough of the right ones.

That is partly because of the way the Kyoto protocol was designed. By trying to include all the greenhouse gases in a single agreement, it has been less successful than the less ambitious Montreal protocol, which cut ozone-depleting gases fast and cheaply. By including too many countries in detailed negotiations, it has reduced the chances of agreement. And by dividing the world into developed and developing countries, it has deepened a rift(裂缝) that is proving hard to close. Ultimately, though, the international agreement has fallen victim to domestic politics(国内政策). Voters do not want to bear the cost of their elected leaders’ aspirations, and those leaders have not been brave enough to push them.

Copenhagen represents a second chance to make a difference. The aspirations are high, but so are the hurdles. The gap between the parties on the two crucial questions—emissions levels and money—remains large. America’s failure so far to pass climate-change legislation means that a legally binding agreement will not be reached at the conference. The talk is of one in Bonn, in six months’ time, or in Mexico City in a year.

To suggest that much has gone wrong is not to denigrate(污蔑) the efforts of the many people who have dedicated two decades to this problem. For mankind to get even to the threshold of a global agreement is a marvel. But any global climate deal will work only if the domestic policies through which it is implemented are both efficient and effective. If they are ineffective, nothing will change. If they are inefficient, they will waste money. And if taxpayers decide that green policies are packed with pork(挤满了猪肉), they will turn against them.


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-19 00:08:12

Attentioned Sentence:
1.Its population rises and falls unpredictably, destroying clumps of pinewood as it peaks which then regenerate as the bug recedes.
2.To suggest that much has gone wrong is not to denigrate the efforts of the many people who have dedicated two decades to this problem.
Comments:
Contrasting with the World Trade Organization, the author makes the explanation concerning the climate change conference. As known to all, it is not a scientific or economic issue, but a political one. No one in the world has a savage abhorrence of the free-rider problem unless he is just the one to pay for others. In other words, it is the globalization that causes the worldwide challenge. No wonder the developed countries are reluctant to reach in common understandings with the developing countries under the heavy pressure from their tax payers. At the same time, the government would crash into collapse if the climate rescue plan failed in the end. This complex interaction relationship determines that the whole world has to make a comprehensive preparation in consideration of ecology, economy, politics and legislation before mankind could reach an agreement at more mundane level.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-19 18:55:30

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-20 12:47 编辑

REBORN FROM THE ASHES 精选阶段作业(2)
A special report on the art market

Suspended animation

Nov 26th 2009 From The Economist print edition


The art market has suffered from the recession, but globalisation should help it recover, say Fiammetta Rocco (interviewed here) and Sarah Thornton

Sothebys

THE longest bull(公牛,废物) run in a century of art-market history ended on a dramatic note with a sale of 56 works by Damien Hirst, “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever”, at Sotheby’s in London on September 15th 2008 (see picture). All but two pieces sold, fetching more than £70m, a record for a sale by a single artist. It was a last hurrah(欢呼). As the auctioneer called out bids, in New York one of the oldest banks on Wall Street, Lehman Brothers, filed for(申请) bankruptcy.

The world art market had already been losing momentum for a while after rising vertiginously(眩晕) since 2003. At its peak in 2007 it was worth some $65 billion, reckons Clare McAndrew, founder of Arts Economics, a research firm—double the figure five years earlier. Since then it may have come down to $50 billion. But the market generates interest far beyond its size because it brings together great wealth, enormous egos, greed, passion and controversy in a way matched by few other industries.

In the weeks and months that followed Mr Hirst’s sale, spending of any sort became deeply unfashionable, especially in New York, where the (保释)bail-out of the banks(银行摆脱困境) coincided with the loss of thousands of jobs and the financial demise(消亡) of many art-buying investors. In the art world that meant collectors stayed away from galleries and salerooms. Sales of contemporary art fell by two-thirds, and in the most overheated sector(部门)—for Chinese contemporary art—they were down by nearly 90% in the year to November 2008. Within weeks the world’s two biggest auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, had to pay out nearly $200m in guarantees to clients who had placed works for sale with them(让他们代为销售物品).

The current downturn in the art market is the worst since the Japanese stopped buying Impressionists at the end of 1989, a move that started the most serious contraction in the market since the second world war. This time experts reckon that prices are about 40% down on their peak on average, though some have been far more volatile(易变的,挥发的). But Edward Dolman, Christie’s chief executive, says: “I’m pretty confident we’re at the bottom.”

What makes this slump different from the last, he says, is that there are still buyers in the market, whereas in the early 1990s, when interest rates were high, there was no demand even though many collectors wanted to sell. Christie’s revenues in the first half of 2009 were still higher than in the first half of 2006. Almost everyone who was interviewed for this special report said that the biggest problem at the moment is not a lack of demand but a lack of good work to sell. The three Ds—death, debt and divorce—still deliver works of art to the market. But anyone who does not have to sell is keeping away, waiting for confidence to return.

The best that can be said about the market at the moment is that it is holding its breath(屏住呼吸). But this special report will argue that it will bounce back, and that the key to its recovery lies in globalisation. The supply of the best works of art will always be limited, but in the longer run demand is bound to rise as wealth is spreading ever more widely across the globe.

The World Wealth Report, published by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, charts the spending(花费的,奢侈的) habits of the rich the world over. It includes art as one of a range of luxury items they like to buy. According to the report, in 2007 there were over 10m people with investible assets of $1m or more. Last year that number dropped to 8.6m and many rich people scaled back their “investments of passion”—yachts, jets(喷气机), cars, jewellery and so on. But the proportion of all luxury spending that went on art increased as investors looked for assets that would hold their value in the longer term.

The regional spread of buyers also changed significantly as some parts of the world became relatively richer. During the boom the number of wealthy people in Russia, India, China and the Middle East rose rapidly. In 2003 Sotheby’s biggest buyers—those who purchased lots costing at least $500,000—came from 36 countries. By 2007 they were spread over 58 countries and their total number had tripled.

That upward trend is still continuing, and many of the new buyers take a particular interest in the art of their own place and time. Last year China overtook France as the world’s third-biggest art market after America and Britain (see chart 1), and some 25% by value of the 100,000-plus works of art sold by Christie’s went to buyers from Russia, Asia and the Middle East.

Auction records remain dominated by Impressionist and modern works (see table 2), but the biggest expansion in recent years has been in contemporary art. Prices of older works keep going up as more people have money to spend, but few such works become available because both collectors and museums tend to hold on to what they have. Old Master paintings, for example, have stuck(停驻) at around 5% of both Sotheby’s and Christie’s sales for many years. By contrast, contemporary art, which in the early 1990s accounted for less than 10% of Sotheby’s revenues, grew to nearly 30% of greatly increased revenues by last year. Dealers and auction houses now sell more post-war and contemporary art than anything else. This report will concentrate on that part of the market, which accounts for about half the world’s art trade and most of the excitement.

Part of the extra demand has come from a large increase in the number of museums. Over the past 25 years more than 100 have been built, not only in America and Europe but also in the sheikhdoms(酋长国) of the Persian Gulf and the fast-growing cities in Asia; sometimes in partnership with Western institutions, such as the Guggenheim or the Louvre, sometimes on their own. Many of these institutions have made their mark by buying contemporary art.

Over the same period the number of wealthy private collectors has also increased many times over, and so has their diversity. The record price for one of Andy Warhol’s giant faces of Chairman Mao was $17.4m, paid by Joseph Lau, a Hong Kong property developer. It was the first major Warhol to go to the Far East. A month later the Qatar royal family bought a Hirst pill cabinet, entitled “Lullaby Spring”, for £9.7m, the first major Hirst bound for the Middle East. Everyone wants an iconic(偶像的) work, which helps explain the global demand for artists such as Warhol, Jeff Koons and Mr Hirst—and the eye-watering(泪水盈眶) prices such work can command.
Masters of the art universe

Straddling(跨越) all areas of the art market is a handful of individuals who have emerged as the key figures in the art world in recent years. Chief among them is François Pinault, a luxury-goods billionaire who is also a noted collector of contemporary art and the owner of Christie’s. Philippe Ségalot, his French-born adviser, was behind one of the biggest deals involving a single work of art, the private sale of Warhol’s 1963 painting, “Eight Elvises”, to an anonymous buyer for over $100m.

Mr Ségalot is also believed to be advising the royal family of Qatar, which in the past two years has spent large sums buying modern art at auction, including record-breaking works by Mark Rothko and Mr Hirst. Steven Cohen, an American hedge-fund billionaire, also owns works by Warhol, Mr Hirst and Mr Koons. Mr Cohen used to be a sizeable shareholder(股东) of Sotheby’s and is still an important provider of liquidity to art buyers.

The popularity of blockbuster(一鸣惊人) art exhibitions and the emergence of buyers with a different cultural history have helped change tastes. Artists such as Edvard Munch and Vasily Kandinsky rose sharply after solo shows in London and New York. Alexei von Jawlensky and Emil Nolde were regarded as specialist interests until Russian collectors began seeking them out. Zhao Wuji used to be just another Chinese painter-in-exile(流亡); now he is recognised as an Abstract Expressionist master influenced by Paul Klee and praised by both Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso.
How to sell it

One of the biggest changes since the market last peaked in 1989 has been the expansion of the auction houses and the change in the nature of the dealer business. Twenty years ago auction houses sold to dealers, and dealers sold to private customers. Today many collectors are advised by auctioneers, both at sales and privately.

Rising costs brought trouble to many old-fashioned fine-art dealer emporiums(商场). In London Christopher Gibbs has sold his stock and Partridge is in administration. In Paris Galerie Segoura has closed, as has Salvatore Romano in Florence. Many dealers now prefer to take art works on consignment, matching sellers to buyers for a commission rather than investing in stocks of art.

About half the market’s business, reckons Ms McAndrew of Arts Economics, is conducted at public auctions, with Christie’s and Sotheby’s taking the lion’s share(占很大的份额). Smaller houses include Drouot in Paris, Bonhams, which is based in London but has several offices abroad, and Doyle in New York. The other half is generated by private dealers and galleries that are notoriously secretive(守口如瓶). One of the biggest private deals in recent years came to light only because the details were disclosed in an American court following the Bernard Madoff scandal. Last July ten paintings by Rothko and two sculptures by Alberto Giacometti were sold by a New York financier to help repay Mr Madoff’s investors. A mystery buyer spent $310m on the works. Two dealers earned $37.5m in fees.

By comparison with that private world, Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction business looks like a model of transparency. Although buyers and sellers are rarely named, the auction price is public. Yet even here there are dark corners. The leading auctioneers offer inducements such as guaranteed prices to persuade sellers to part with their treasures, and generous(慷慨) terms of payment for buyers.

One thing that differentiates the two auction houses is their ownership structure. Sotheby’s is a quoted company whereas Christie’s, once listed, was taken private in 1999 by its current owner, Mr Pinault. Christie’s business has since expanded hugely, partly thanks to Mr Pinault’s pivotal(关键的) position in the international art world. Even though the company can pick and choose what information it wants to reveal, it has in fact become more open over the past ten years.

Sotheby’s, for its part, is still smarting from the public beating it received in America nearly a decade ago when its chairman, Alfred Taubman, and its chief executive, Diana Brooks, were found guilty of conspiring with Christie’s to fix commissions(固定佣金). Mr Taubman served ten months of a one-year prison sentence; Mrs Brooks was given six months’ house arrest, a $350,000 fine and 1,000 hours of community service. No one was charged at Christie’s, which had blown(吹) the whistle on the commission-fixing. Sotheby’s lives in fear of the regulators and discloses only as much financial information as it has to.

In the decade since the scandal both auction houses have concentrated on expansion. Sotheby’s was the first auctioneer to become interested in Russia and remains bigger there than its rival(对手). Christie’s, which has long been especially strong in the Far East, has put a lot of effort into China. Foreigners are not allowed to own auction houses there, but Christie’s has got around that by signing a licensing agreement with a leading Chinese auctioneer. Both houses have their eye on the Middle East. Christie’s holds regular auctions in Dubai, of which its art and jewellery sales are the most successful. Sotheby’s has opened an office in Qatar which is important for its relationship with the Qatar royal family, one of its biggest clients.

The response of both auction houses to the current slump(暴跌,不景气) has been broadly similar: staff cuts, unpaid leave, a squeeze on salaries, slashed marketing and travel budgets(旅游市场营销和削减预算), and an edict(法令) that the glossy(光辉的,有光泽的) auction catalogues(目录), which in the boom(繁荣) cost each of them £25m a year to produce, were no longer to be handed out(分发) like chocolate drops.

With a hugely expanded international client base, it was only a matter of time before both auctioneers started to muscle in(强行加入) on areas that had previously been the preserve of private dealers, matching buyers and sellers and selling new art rather than items that had already been in the market. Sotheby’s proved to be much the more ruthless(无情) of the two. All the lots in Mr Hirst’s September 2008 sale, for example, had been consigned to Sotheby’s directly from the artist’s workshop, which shocked dealers who had not previously thought of the auction houses as direct competitors.

In 2006 Sotheby’s paid $56.5m for Noortman Master Paintings, a leading dealer in Old Masters. Less than a year later Christie’s bought Haunch of Venison, another high-profile(外形,轮廓)(高调) dealer set up in 2002, whose founders included a former director of Christie’s contemporary-art department. Noortman gave Sotheby’s an entry into the Maastricht Art Fair(博览会), the pre-eminent dealers’ fest(卓越的经销商巨星), and Haunch of Venison helped make Christie’s Mr Pinault the biggest art trader in the market. Both galleries operate independently of the auction houses, but the relationships are close.

All things to all men(对什么人说什么话,八面玲珑)

Both auction houses have also put a lot of effort into advising buyers on how to improve their collections. As Jussi Pylkkanen, Christie’s European president, says, “We’re much more than an auction house now.” The recession has made many collectors nervous about offering their treasures at auction, so they are selling them privately(私人的,背地的). In 2007 Christie’s chalked up(记下) private sales of $542m and Sotheby’s of $730m, which means the two auction houses are now among the world’s biggest private dealers. Both often get calls like the one Sotheby’s recently took from a Moscow collector with $2m to spend on an “optimistic” Chagall oil, “not too feminine” and no more than a metre in height. “We put out the word and immediately received several offers from our offices in London, Geneva and New York,” says Mikhail Kamensky, the firm’s head of CIS business.

In 2007 private deals accounted for 8.7% of Christie’s business. Mr Pylkkanen expects that figure to go up to 20% of its revenue within three years. That should put the wind up(使…害怕) private dealers.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-20 12:32:46

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-22 18:17 编辑

Comments:

Well, we have come up with the issue concerning about the current arts market against the background of finial crisis. To the majority’s surprise, the real fact is that the amount of good work cannot satisfy the appetite of the current demand, which has to turn to the private arts market in the end. As the author says, what makes this slump different from the last
is that there are still buyers in the market, whereas in the early 1990s, when interest rates were high, there was no demand even though many collectors wanted to sell.

Maybe it is all about a game involving investors, collectors and auctioneers within in the rules of imbalance of supply and demand. Of course, the pivotal role of interest must take into consideration as well. In fact, the key to rescue the world arts market from its unprecedented plight lies in the globalization. It seems that solutions to every worldwide difficult problem roots in globalization deeply. Recently, the agreement of Copenhagen Climate Conference provides a typical example of global cooperation, in spite of its outstanding disputes. On the other hand, the consequence without statutory restriction implies that there are numerous challenges in terms of the free-rider problem and so on. However, wealth, arts, resources and science would break through the artificial barriers thanks to the globalization in the long run.

作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-20 13:48:41

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-22 17:03 编辑

A special report on the art market
Suspended animation(假死)
Nov 26th 2009 From The Economist print edition

The art market has suffered from the recession, but
globalisation should help it recover, say Fiammetta Rocco (interviewed here) and Sarah Thornton

Sothebys

THE longest
bull(公牛,废物) run in a century of art-market history ended on a dramatic note with a sale of 56 works by Damien Hirst, “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever”, at Sotheby’s in London on September 15th 2008 (see picture). All but two pieces sold, fetching more than &pound;70m, a record for a sale by a single artist. It was a last hurrah(欢呼). As the auctioneer called out bids, in New York one of the oldest banks on Wall Street, Lehman Brothers, filed for(申请) bankruptcy.

The world art market had already been losing momentum for a while after rising
vertiginously(眩晕) since 2003. At its peak in 2007 it was worth some $65 billion, reckons Clare McAndrew, founder of Arts Economics, a research firm—double the figure five years earlier. Since then it may have come down to $50 billion. But the market generates interest far beyond its size because it brings together great wealth, enormous egos, greed, passion and controversy in a way matched by few other industries.

In the weeks and months that followed Mr Hirst’s sale, spending of any sort became deeply unfashionable, especially in New York, where the
(保释)bail-out of the banks(银行摆脱困境) coincided with the loss of thousands of jobs and the financial demise(消亡) of many art-buying investors. In the art world that meant collectors stayed away from galleries and salerooms. Sales of contemporary art fell by two-thirds, and in the most overheated sector(部门)—for Chinese contemporary art—they were down by nearly 90% in the year to November 2008. Within weeks the world’s two biggest auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, had to pay out nearly $200m in guarantees to clients who had placed works for sale with them(让他们代为销售物品).

The current
downturn in the art market is the worst since the Japanese stopped buying Impressionists at the end of 1989, a move that started the most serious contraction in the market since the second world war. This time experts reckon that prices are about 40% down on their peak on average, though some have been far more volatile(易变的,挥发的). But Edward Dolman, Christie’s chief executive, says: “I’m pretty confident we’re at the bottom.”
What makes this slump different from the last, he says, is that there are still buyers in the market, whereas in the early 1990s, when interest rates were high, there was no demand even though many collectors wanted to sell. Christie’s revenues in the first half of 2009 were still higher than in the first half of 2006. Almost everyone who was interviewed for this special report said that the biggest problem at the moment is not a lack of demand but a lack of good work to sell. The three Ds—death, debt and divorce—still deliver works of art to the market. But anyone who does not have to sell is keeping away, waiting for confidence to return.

The best that can be said about the market at the moment is that it is
holding its breath(屏住呼吸). But this special report will argue that it will bounce back, and that the key to its recovery lies in globalisation. The supply of the best works of art will always be limited, but in the longer run demand is bound to rise as wealth is spreading ever more widely across the globe.

The World Wealth Report, published by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, charts the
spending(花费的,奢侈的) habits of the rich the world over. It includes art as one of a range of luxury items they like to buy. According to the report, in 2007 there were over 10m people with investible assets of $1m or more. Last year that number dropped to 8.6m and many rich people scaled back their “investments of passion”—yachts, jets(喷气机), cars, jewellery and so on. But the proportion of all luxury spending that went on art increased as investors looked for assets that would hold their value in the longer term.

The regional spread of buyers also changed significantly as some parts of the world became relatively richer. During the boom the number of wealthy people in Russia, India, China and the Middle East rose rapidly. In 2003 Sotheby’s biggest buyers—those who purchased lots costing at least $500,000—came from 36 countries. By 2007 they were spread over 58 countries and their total number had tripled.

That upward trend is still continuing, and many of the new buyers take a particular interest in the art of their own place and time. Last year China overtook France as the world’s third-biggest art market after America and Britain (see chart 1), and some 25% by value of the 100,000-plus works of art sold by Christie’s went to buyers from Russia, Asia and the Middle East.

Auction records remain dominated by Impressionist and modern works (see table 2), but the biggest expansion in recent years has been in contemporary art. Prices of older works keep going up as more people have money to spend, but few such works become available because both collectors and museums tend to hold on to what they have. Old Master paintings, for example, have
stuck(停驻) at around 5% of both Sotheby’s and Christie’s sales for many years. By contrast, contemporary art, which in the early 1990s accounted for less than 10% of Sotheby’s revenues, grew to nearly 30% of greatly increased revenues by last year. Dealers and auction houses now sell more post-war and contemporary art than anything else. This report will concentrate on that part of the market, which accounts for about half the world’s art trade and most of the excitement.

Part of the extra demand has come from a large increase in the number of museums. Over the past 25 years more than 100 have been built, not only in America and Europe but also in the
sheikhdoms(酋长国) of the Persian Gulf and the fast-growing cities in Asia; sometimes in partnership with Western institutions, such as the Guggenheim or the Louvre, sometimes on their own. Many of these institutions have made their mark by buying contemporary art.

Over the same period the number of wealthy private collectors has also increased many times over, and so has their diversity. The record price for one of Andy Warhol’s giant faces of Chairman Mao was $17.4m, paid by Joseph Lau, a Hong Kong property developer. It was the first major Warhol to go to the Far East. A month later the Qatar royal family bought a Hirst pill cabinet, entitled “Lullaby Spring”, for &pound;9.7m, the first major Hirst bound for the Middle East. Everyone wants an
iconic(偶像的)
work, which helps explain the global demand for artists such as Warhol, Jeff Koons and Mr Hirst—and the eye-watering(泪水盈眶)
prices such work can command.

Masters of the art universe

Straddling(跨越) all areas of the art market is a handful of individuals who have emerged as the key figures in the art world in recent years. Chief among them is Fran&ccedil;ois Pinault, a luxury-goods billionaire who is also a noted collector of contemporary art and the owner of Christie’s. Philippe Ségalot, his French-born adviser, was behind one of the biggest deals involving a single work of art, the private sale of Warhol’s 1963 painting, “Eight Elvises”, to an anonymous buyer for over $100m.

Mr Ségalot is also believed to be advising the royal family of Qatar, which in the past two years has spent large sums buying modern art at auction, including record-breaking works by Mark Rothko and Mr Hirst. Steven Cohen, an American hedge-fund billionaire, also owns works by Warhol, Mr Hirst and Mr Koons. Mr Cohen used to be a sizeable
shareholder(股东) of Sotheby’s and is still an important provider of liquidity to art buyers.

The popularity of
blockbuster(一鸣惊人) art exhibitions and the emergence of buyers with a different cultural history have helped change tastes. Artists such as Edvard Munch and Vasily Kandinsky rose sharply after solo shows in London and New York. Alexei von Jawlensky and Emil Nolde were regarded as specialist interests until Russian collectors began seeking them out. Zhao Wuji used to be just another Chinese painter-in-exile(流亡); now he is recognised as an Abstract Expressionist master influenced by Paul Klee and praised by both Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso.
How to sell it

One of the biggest changes since the market last peaked in 1989 has been the expansion of the auction houses and the change in the nature of the dealer business. Twenty years ago auction houses sold to dealers, and dealers sold to private customers. Today many collectors are advised by auctioneers, both at sales and privately.

Rising costs brought trouble to many old-fashioned fine-art dealer
emporiums(商场). In London Christopher Gibbs has sold his stock and Partridge is in administration. In Paris Galerie Segoura has closed, as has Salvatore Romano in Florence. Many dealers now prefer to take art works on consignment, matching sellers to buyers for a commission rather than investing in stocks of art.

About half the market’s business, reckons Ms McAndrew of Arts Economics, is conducted at public auctions, with Christie’s and Sotheby’s
taking the lion’s share(占很大的份额). Smaller houses include Drouot in Paris, Bonhams, which is based in London but has several offices abroad, and Doyle in New York. The other half is generated by private dealers and galleries that are notoriously secretive(守口如瓶). One of the biggest private deals in recent years came to light only because the details were disclosed in an American court following the Bernard Madoff scandal. Last July ten paintings by Rothko and two sculptures by Alberto Giacometti were sold by a New York financier to help repay Mr Madoff’s investors. A mystery buyer spent $310m on the works. Two dealers earned $37.5m in fees.

By comparison with that private world, Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction business looks like a model of transparency. Although buyers and sellers are rarely named, the auction price is public. Yet even here there are dark corners. The leading auctioneers offer inducements such as guaranteed prices to persuade sellers to part with their treasures, and
generous(慷慨) terms of payment for buyers.

One thing that differentiates the two auction houses is their ownership structure. Sotheby’s is a quoted company whereas Christie’s, once listed, was taken private in 1999 by its current owner, Mr Pinault. Christie’s business has since expanded hugely, partly thanks to Mr Pinault’s
pivotal(关键的)
position in the international art world. Even though the company can pick and choose what information it wants to reveal, it has in fact become more open over the past ten years.


Sotheby’s, for its part, is still smarting from the public beating it received in America nearly a decade ago when its chairman, Alfred Taubman, and its chief executive, Diana Brooks, were found guilty of conspiring with Christie’s to
fix commissions(固定佣金). Mr Taubman served ten months of a one-year prison sentence; Mrs Brooks was given six months’ house arrest, a $350,000 fine and 1,000 hours of community service. No one was charged at Christie’s, which had blown(吹)
the whistle on the commission-fixing. Sotheby’s lives in fear of the regulators and discloses only as much financial information as it has to.


In the decade since the scandal both auction houses have concentrated on expansion. Sotheby’s was the first auctioneer to become interested in Russia and remains bigger there than its
rival(对手). Christie’s, which has long been especially strong in the Far East, has put a lot of effort into China. Foreigners are not allowed to own auction houses there, but Christie’s has got around that by signing a licensing agreement with a leading Chinese auctioneer. Both houses have their eye on the Middle East. Christie’s holds regular auctions in Dubai, of which its art and jewellery sales are the most successful. Sotheby’s has opened an office in Qatar which is important for its relationship with the Qatar royal family, one of its biggest clients.

The response of both auction houses to the current
slump(暴跌,不景气)
has been broadly similar: staff cuts, unpaid leave, a squeeze on salaries, slashed marketing and travel budgets(旅游市场营销和削减预算), and an edict(法令) that the glossy(光辉的,有光泽的) auction catalogues(目录), which in the boom(繁荣) cost each of them &pound;25m a year to produce, were no longer to be handed out(分发) like chocolate drops.


With a hugely expanded international client base, it was only a matter of time before both auctioneers started to
muscle in(强行加入) on areas that had previously been the preserve of private dealers, matching buyers and sellers and selling new art rather than items that had already been in the market. Sotheby’s proved to be much the more ruthless(无情) of the two. All the lots in Mr Hirst’s September 2008 sale, for example, had been consigned to Sotheby’s directly from the artist’s workshop, which shocked dealers who had not previously thought of the auction houses as direct competitors.

In 2006 Sotheby’s paid $56.5m for Noortman Master Paintings, a leading dealer in Old Masters. Less than a year later Christie’s bought Haunch of Venison, another
high-profile(外形,轮廓)(高调) dealer set up in 2002, whose founders included a former director of Christie’s contemporary-art department. Noortman gave Sotheby’s an entry into the Maastricht Art Fair(博览会), the pre-eminent dealers’ fest(卓越的经销商巨星), and Haunch of Venison helped make Christie’s Mr Pinault the biggest art trader in the market. Both galleries operate independently of the auction houses, but the relationships are close.

All things to all men(对什么人说什么话,八面玲珑)

Both auction houses have also put a lot of effort into advising buyers on how to improve their collections. As Jussi Pylkkanen, Christie’s European president, says, “We’re much more than an auction house now.” The recession has made many collectors nervous about offering their treasures at auction, so they are selling them
privately(私人的,背地的). In 2007 Christie’s chalked up(记下) private sales of $542m and Sotheby’s of $730m, which means the two auction houses are now among the world’s biggest private dealers. Both often get calls like the one Sotheby’s recently took from a Moscow collector with $2m to spend on an “optimistic” Chagall oil, “not too feminine” and no more than a metre in height. “We put out the word and immediately received several offers from our offices in London, Geneva and New York,” says Mikhail Kamensky, the firm’s head of CIS business.

In 2007 private deals accounted for 8.7% of Christie’s business. Mr Pylkkanen expects that figure to go up to 20% of its revenue within three years. That should
put the wind up(使害怕) private dealers.



作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-20 22:45:50

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-22 17:05 编辑

A special report on China and America

A wary(小心,谨慎) respect

Oct 22nd 2009 From The Economist print edition


America and China need each other, but they are a long way from trusting each other, says James Miles.

“OUR future history will be more determined by our position on the Pacific facing China than by our position on the Atlantic facing Europe,” said the American president as he contemplated the extraordinary(非凡的) commercial opportunities that were opening up in Asia. More than a hundred years after Theodore Roosevelt made this prediction, American leaders are again looking across the Pacific to determine their own country’s future, and that of the rest of the world. Rather later than Roosevelt expected, China has become an inescapable part of it.

Back in 1905, America was the rising power. Britain, then ruler of the waves, was worrying about losing its supremacy to the upstart. Now it is America that looks uneasily on the rise of a potential challenger. A shared cultural and political heritage helped America to eclipse(蒙蔽) British power without bloodshed, but the rise of Germany and Japan precipitated(促成,加快) global wars. President Barack Obama faces a China that is growing richer and stronger while remaining tenaciously authoritarian(顽强的专制). Its rise will be far more nettlesome than that of his own country a century ago.

With America’s economy in tatters(碎片) and China’s still growing fast (albeit not as fast as before last year’s financial crisis), many politicians and intellectuals in both China and America feel that the balance of power is shifting more rapidly in China’s favor(对...有利). Few expect the turning point to be as imminent as it was for America in 1905. But recent talk of a “G2” hints at a remarkable shift in the two countries’ relative strengths: they are now seen as near-equals whose co-operation is vital to solving the world’s problems, from finance to climate change and nuclear proliferation(扩散)
Choose your weapons

Next month Mr Obama will make his first ever visit to China. He and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao (pictured above) stress the need for co-operation and avoid playing up their simmering(酝酿) trade disputes, fearful of what failure to co-operate could mean. On October 1st China offered a stunning(惊人的) display of the hard edge of its rising power as it paraded its fast-growing military arsenal through Beijing.

The financial crisis has sharpened(消尖,消减) fears of what Americans often see as another potential threat. China has become the world’s biggest lender(贷款人) to America through its purchase of American Treasury securities, which in theory would allow it to wreck(摧毁,破坏) the American economy. These fears ignore the value-destroying (and, for China’s leaders, politically hugely embarrassing) effect(价值破坏效应) that a sell-off(抛售) of American debt would have on China’s dollar reserves. This special report will explain why China will continue to lend to America, and why the yuan is unlikely to become a reserve currency(储备货币) soon.

When Lawrence Summers was president of Harvard University (he is now Mr Obama’s chief economic adviser), he once referred to a “balance of financial terror(恐怖,危机)” between America and its foreign creditors(债权人), principally China and Japan. That was in 2004, when Japan’s holdings were more than four times the size of China’s. By September 2008 China had taken the lead. China Daily, an official English-language newspaper, said in July that China’s massive holdings of US Treasuries meant it could break the dollar’s (储备)reserve-currency status any time. But it also noted that in effect(实际上) this was a “foreign-exchange version of the cold-war stalemate(僵局) based on ‘mutually assured destruction’”.

China is exploring the rubble(暴民) of the global economy in hopes of accelerating its own rise. Some Chines`e commentators point to the example of the Soviet Union, which exploited(利用,开发) Western economic disarray during the Depression to acquire industrial technology from desperate Western sellers. China has long chafed at(恼火) controls imposed by America on high-technology exports that could be used for military purposes. It sees America’s plight as a cue to push for the lifting of such barriers and for Chinese companies to look actively for buying opportunities among America’s high-technology industries.

The economic crisis briefly slowed the rapid growth, from a small base, of China’s outbound direct investment. Stephen Green of Standard Chartered predicts that this year it could reach about the same level as in 2008 (nearly $56 billion, which was more than twice as much as the year before). Some Americans worry about China’s FDI, just as they once mistakenly did about Japan’s buying sprees(狂热), but many will welcome the stability and employment that it provides.

China may have growing financial muscle, but it still lags far behind as a technological innovator and creator of global brands. This special report will argue that the United States may have to get used to a bigger Chinese presence on its own soil, including some of its most hallowed turf(草坪), such as the car industry. A Chinese man may even get to the moon before another American. But talk of a G2 is highly misleading. By any measure, China’s power is still dwarfed by America’s.

Authoritarian though China remains, the two countries’ economic philosophies are much closer than they used to be. As Yan Xuetong of Tsinghua University puts it, socialism with Chinese characteristics (as the Chinese call their brand of communism) is looking increasingly like capitalism(资本主义) with American characteristics. In Mr Yan’s view, China’s and America’s common interest in dealing with the financial crisis will draw them closer together strategically too. Global economic integration(一体化), he argues with a hint of resentment, has made China “more willing than before to accept America’s dominance”.

The China that many American business and political leaders see is one that appears to support the status quo and is keen to engage peacefully with the outside world. But there is another side to the country. Nationalism is a powerful, growing and potentially disruptive force. Many Chinese—even among those who were educated in America—are suspicious of American intentions and resentful of American power. They are easily persuaded that the West, led by the United States, wants to block China’s rise.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties between America and China, which proved a dramatic turning point in the cold war. Between the communist victory in 1949 and President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972 there had been as little contact between the two countries as there is between America and North Korea today. But the eventual disappearance of the two countries’ common enemy, the Soviet Union, raised new questions in both countries about why these two ideological rivals should be friends. Mutual economic benefit emerged as a winning answer. More recently, both sides have been trying to reinforce the relationship by stressing that they have a host of new common enemies, from global epidemics to terrorism.

But it is a relationship fraught with contradictions. A senior American official says that some of his country’s dealings with China are like those with the European Union; others resemble those with the old Soviet Union, “depending on what part of the bureaucracy you are dealing with”.

Cold-war parallels(对比) are most obvious in the military arena. China’s military build-up in the past decade has been as spectacular(壮观) as its economic growth, catalysed by the ever problematic issue of Taiwan, the biggest thorn in the Sino-American relationship. There are growing worries in Washington, DC, that China’s military power could challenge America’s wider military dominance in the region. China insists there is nothing to worry about. But even if its leadership has no plans to displace American power in Asia, this special report will say that America is right to fret that this could change.

Politically, China is heading for a particularly unsettled period as preparations gather pace for sweeping leadership changes in 2012 and 2013. Mr Hu and the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, will be among many senior politicians due to retire(退休). As America moves towards its own presidential elections in 2012, its domestic politics will complicate matters. Taiwan too will hold presidential polls in 2012 in which China-sceptic politicians will fight to regain power.
Triple hazard

This political uncertainty in all three countries simultaneously will be a big challenge for the relationship between China and America. All three will still be grappling(努力解决) with the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Urban Chinese may be feeling relaxed right now, but there could be trouble ahead. Yu Yongding, a former adviser to China’s central bank, says wasteful spending on things like unnecessary infrastructure projects (which is not uncommon in China) could eventually drain the country’s fiscal(财政) strength and leave it with “no more drivers for growth”. In recent weeks even Chinese leaders have begun to sound the occasional note of caution about the stability of China’s recovery.

This special report will argue that the next few years could be troubled ones for the bilateral(双边) relationship. China, far more than an economically challenged America, is roiled by social tensions. Protests are on the rise, corruption is rampant, crime is surging. The leadership is fearful of its own citizens. Mr Obama is dealing with a China that is at risk of overestimating its strength relative to America’s. Its frailties(弱点)—social, political and economic—could eventually imperil both its own stability and its dealings with the outside world.
作者: aladdin.ivy    时间: 2009-12-21 00:36:45

正常点别忘了自己抢的Argument翻译题哦
加油加油!
帮你贴上来
http://bbs.gter.ce.cn/bbs/thread-1042763-2-1.html
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-21 03:04:22

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-21 03:32 编辑

Comments:
Accordingto the author, China has got trapped in the mash of social, political and economicthreats, which would undermine its stability in the long run. First of all, noone can deny the fact that China still falls behind America in some aspects,such as the technology creation. At the same time, the increasingly seriousproblems-rising protest, rampant corruption and surging crime-get in the way ofChinese prosperity.



However,there is nothing wrong with totalitarian and patriotism in the Chinese land. Thehistory has taught us a lesson that a government with strong central power doesnot mean the ignorance of democracy and the deprivation of human rights. It isnot wise to allow everyone to make his choice with absolute freedom, for hemust take his own demand into consideration first. The same is true for thestate governments when making their own policy. On the contrary, the totalitarianpaves the way for the collective power aimed at making policy from an overall pointof view. Besides, the centralism could provide opportunities to gathering resourcesfrom the whole country as well as making use of the national power.


What’smore, the patriotism is seen as a traditional virtue in our ancient culture.Facing the numerous challenges, Chinese people have already learned the appropriateway to deal with them. To illustrate this point clearly, here’s a good example.April 19, a Chinese student made a solemn and exciting speech to demonstratehis support for Beijing Olympic 2008 and boycott against the unjust media. His philosophicaland logical reasoning, analytical formulation, authentic French, passionate,beautiful voice and sooth but bombarding like speed made the Chinese cheeredand the French shocked and ecstatic. This event implies that the Chinese areshaking off the yoke of irritation/hot temper and getting used to settling disputerationally.


In sum, though China and America differin numerous ways, the both sides are making their efforts to pursue themutually economic development in the frame of peace.


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-21 03:32:08

哦,今天,不,是昨天的作业终于补好了,乎~~:L

Argument的翻译作业:
142. The article entitled 'Eating Iron' in last month's issue of Eating for Health reported that a recent study found a correlation between high levels of iron in the diet and an increased risk of heart disease. Further, it is well established that there is a link between large amounts of red meat in the diet and heart disease, and red meat is high in iron. On the basis of the study and the well-established link between red meat and heart disease, we can conclude that the correlation between high iron levels and heart disease, then, is most probably a function of the correlation between red meat and heart disease.

上一期的《健康饮食》杂志上刊登的题为《食铁》的文章报导说最近一项研究发现饮食中铁的含量过高与心脏病发病风险增加有关联。而且,我们已经知道饮食中大量的牛羊肉和心脏病是有联系的,牛羊肉中铁的含量很高。基于以上研究和牛羊肉与心脏病之间的已知联系,我们可以得出结论,高的铁含量与心脏病之间的关联最有可能对牛羊肉与心脏病之间的关联起作用。

143. The following appeared as a letter to the editor of a national newspaper.

"Your recent article on corporate downsizing* in the United States is misleading. The article gives the mistaken impression that many competent workers who lost jobs as a result of downsizing face serious economic hardship, often for years,before finding other suitable employment. But this impression is contradicted by a recent report on the United States economy, which found that since 1992 far more jobs have been created than have been eliminated. The report also demonstrates that many of those who lost their jobs have found new employment. Two-thirds of the newly created jobs have been in industries that tend to pay above-average wages, and the vast majority of these jobs are full-time." Downsizing is the process in which corporations deliberately reduce the number of their employees.

你们最近关于美国集体裁员的文章是有误导性的。该文章给人们一种错误的印象,即许多因公司裁员而失业的有能力的人通常要经过几年的经济困难期才能找到另一个合适的工作。但这种感觉与最近一次关于美国经济的报告相矛盾,报告发现自1992年以来新增的就业机会数量远多于裁员岗位数量。该报告也指出很多失业人员已经找到了新工作。新增就业机会中有三分之二来源于提供平均水平以上薪酬的行业,而且绝大多数的这类工作是全职工作。裁员时一个公司故意减少雇员的过程。

144. According to a poll of 200 charitable organizations, donations of money to nonprofit groups increased by nearly 25 percent last year, though not all charities gained equally. Religious groups gained the most (30 percent), followed by environmental groups (23 percent), whereas educational institutions experienced only a very small increase in donations (3 percent). This poll indicates that more people are willing and able to give money to charities but that funding for education is not a priority for most people. These differences in donation rates must result from the perception that educational institutions are less in need of donations than are other kinds of institutions.

根据一项针对200个慈善组织的调查,去年对于非营利团体的捐款上升了将近25%,但并非所有组织都增幅相同。宗教团体增幅最大(30%),其次为环境组织(23%),而教育机构所获捐款仅有少量增长(3%)。这一调查说明有更多的人愿意而且有能力为慈善组织捐款,但资助教育并不是大多数人的首选。这些捐款数额上的差异一定是因为人们认为教育机构没有其他组织更需要资助。
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-22 01:17:18

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-22 11:08 编辑

A special report on the world economy

The long climb

Oct 1st 2009 From The Economist print edition

The world economy is recovering from financial disaster. But it will not return to normal as we know it, says Simon Cox (interviewed here)

NEWPORT BEACH, California, is not a bad place to contemplate the future of the world economy. Its information office(新闻办公室) promises nine miles of pristine sand(原始沙地), fine dining(餐厅) for devoted epicureans and an atmosphere of laid-back(松懈懒散) sophistication(诡辩). Yet students of economic turmoil(风暴) will find their subject matter conveniently close to hand. California’s unemployment rate has doubled to 12.2% since the start of 2008. Saddled with(背上,承受,拖累) the worst credit rating in the country, the “Golden State” is cutting spending on schools, prisons and health care for the elderly, as well as closing parks and laying off(休息) staff for three days a month. It will pay its workers a day late at the end of the fiscal year so that the expense will show up in next year’s budget. Financial shenanigans(恶作剧,欺骗,诡计) are not the sole province of the banking industry.

Newport Beach is also the home of Pimco, the biggest bond(债券) manager in the world, which handles $840 billion on behalf of pension funds(养老金,抚恤金), universities and other clients. In May the company held its annual “Secular Forum”, in which it tries to peer five years into the economic future. After two days of rumination(反刍,深思), Pimco’s laid-back sophisticates concluded that the financial markets may well “revert to mean(回归平均值)”, which is a statistician(统计员)’s way of saying that what comes down must go up. But the next five years will not resemble the five preceding the crisis. Not every change wrought(制成) by the financial breakdown will be reversed. The world economy is fitfully(不定的,断断续续的) getting back to normal, but it will be a “new normal”.


That phrase has caught on(理解), even if people disagree about what it means. In the new normal, as defined by Pimco’s CEO, Mohamed El-Erian, growth will be subdued and unemployment will remain high. “The banking system will be a shadow of its former self,” and the securitisation markets, which buy and sell marketable(适销对路) bundles of debt, will presumably be a shadow of a shadow. Finance will be costlier and investment weak, so the stock of physical capital(物质资本), on which prosperity depends, will erode.

The crisis invited a forceful government entry into several of capitalism’s inner sanctums(书房), such as banking, American carmaking and the commercial-paper(商业票据) market. Mr El-Erian worries that the state may overstay its welcome(逗留过久而使人生厌). In addition, national exchequers may start to feel some measure of the fiscal strain now hobbling(蹒跚,阻碍) California. America’s Treasury, in particular, must demonstrate that it is still a “responsible shepherd(牧羊人,领导) of other countries’ savings”.

The notion of a “new normal” is convincing, even if you do not agree with every particular. But some forecasters now harbour(心怀,包庇,躲藏,潜伏) higher expectations. They think the economy will bounce back to its old self, almost as if nothing had happened. They draw inspiration from the work of the late Milton Friedman, who showed that in America deep recessions are generally followed by strong recoveries. He likened the economy to a piece of string stretched taut(紧绷) on a board. The more forcefully the string is plucked(拉), the more sharply it snaps back(反弹,回应).

Friedman’s piece of string represents the demand side of the economy: the sum of spending by households, firms, foreigners and the government. The rigid board(硬板) symbolises the supply side. When spending is strong enough, the economy’s resources are fully employed, allowing it to realise its full potential. As the workforce grows, capital accumulates and technology advances, this limit expands over time.
String theory

In a recession demand falls short of supply, leaving a sorry trail of unemployed workers, shuttered factories and unexploited innovations. But when the recovery arrives, Friedman suggested, it is all the more forceful because these resources have been lying idle, waiting to be brought back into production. The economy can grow faster than normal for a period until it reaches the point where it would have been without the crisis, when it reaches its full potential again (see chart 1, scenario 1).

Friedman’s story is heartening, but it can come unstuck in two ways. If the shortfall in demand persists it can do lasting damage to supply, reducing the level of potential output (scenario 2) or even its rate of growth (scenario 3). If so, the economy will never recoup(补偿) its losses, even after spending picks up again.

Why should a swing in spending do such lasting harm? In a recession firms shed labour and mothball capital(后备资本,储备物资). If workers are left on the shelf too long, their skills will atrophy and their ties to the world of work will weaken. When spending revives, the recovery will leave them behind. Output per worker may get back to normal, but the rate of employment will not.

Something similar can happen to the economy’s assembly lines, computer terminals and office blocks. If demand remains weak, firms will stop adding to this stock of capital and may scrap some of it. Capital will shrink to fit a lower level of activity. Moreover, if the financial system remains in disrepair, savings will flow haltingly to companies and the cost of capital will rise. Firms will therefore use less of it per unit of output.

The result is a lower ceiling on production. In the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook, its researchers count the cost of 88 banking crises over the past four decades. They find that, on average, seven years after a bust an economy’s level of output was almost 10% below where it would have been without the crisis.

This is an alarming gap. If replicated in the years to come, it would blight the lives of the unemployed, diminish the fortunes of those in work and make the public debt harder to sustain. But even worse scenarios are possible. A financial breakdown could do lasting damage to the growth in potential output as well as to its level. Even when the economy begins to expand, it may not regain the same pace as before.

Financial crises can pose such a threat to national incomes because of the way they erode national wealth. From the start of 2008 to the spring of this year the crisis knocked $30 trillion off the value of global shares and $11 trillion off the value of homes, according to Goldman Sachs, an investment bank. At their worst, these losses amounted to about 75% of world GDP. But despite their enormous scale, it is not immediately obvious why these losses should cause a lasting decline in economic activity. Natural disasters also wipe out wealth by destroying buildings, possessions and infrastructure, but the economy rarely slows in their aftermath. On the contrary, output often picks up during a period of reconstruction. Why should a financial disaster be any different?

The answer lies on the other side of the balance-sheet. Before the crisis the overpriced assets held by banks and households were accompanied by vast debts. After the crisis their assets were shattered but their liabilities remained standing. As Irving Fisher, a scholar of the Depression, pointed out, “overinvestment and overspeculation…would have far less serious results were they not conducted with borrowed money.”

Japan found this out to its cost in the 1990s after the bursting of a spectacular bubble(泡影,幻想) in property and stock prices. For a “lost decade” from 1992 the economy stagnated(停滞), never recovering the growth rates posted in the 1980s. Richard Koo of the Nomura Research Institute in Tokyo calls Japan’s ordeal a “balance-sheet(资产负债表) recession”.

The typical post-war recession begins when the flow of spending in the economy puts a strain on(对...造成沉重压力) its resources, forcing prices upwards. Central banks raise interest rates to slow spending(经费) to a more sustainable pace. Once inflation has subsided, the authorities are free to turn the taps back on(重新打开水龙头).

But in a “balance-sheet recession”, what must be corrected is not a flow but a stock. After the bubble burst, Japan’s companies were left with liabilities that far exceeded their assets. Rather than file for bankruptcy, they set about paying down their stock of debt to a manageable level. This was a protracted slog(持久的苦干) which, by Mr Koo’s reckoning, did not finish until 2005. In the meantime Japan’s economy stagnated. By 2002 its output was almost 23% below its pre-crisis trajectory(轨道,航线).

Since Pimco’s forum concluded in May, the world economy has palpably(具体可见的) improved. In many ways the new normal is beginning to look a lot like the old, vindicating(维护,开脱,表白) Friedman’s plucking(抓住) model. China is outpacing expectations. Goldman Sachs is making hay(弄混乱). The premium(保险) banks(溢价银行) must pay to borrow overnight(通宵) from each other is now below 0.25%, the level Alan Greenspan, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, once described as “normal”. Companies in Europe and America are selling bonds(债券) at a furious(暴怒,疯狂) pace. A few months ago financial newspapers were debating the future of capitalism(资本主义). Now they are merely discussing the future of capital requirements. Shock has given way to(让步,让位) relief.
The persistence of debt

But the relief is likely to be short-lived. Just over a year ago, the day Lehman Brothers filed for(申请) bankruptcy, the world economy fell off a precipice(掉下悬崖). When you are falling, you do not look up. Only when you hit bottom can you stop and contemplate the cliff you must now climb.

This special report will argue that although a “new normal” for the world economy is now in sight, it will be different from the old normal in a number of ways. Demand in rich countries will remain weak and emerging economies(新兴经济体) will not be able to compensate. The report will explain why many governments will have to keep their stimulus packages(经济刺激方案) going for longer than expected, or face entrenched(顽固的) unemployment that will permanently lower their economic potential. Public debt will rise so that private debt can fall. The banks, the report will show, will remain cautious about lending again, which will slow up the recovery but also make companies more careful about their investment; and the securitisation markets that became so fashionable during the boom will recede, though not disappear altogether.

A persistent shortfall in demand will weigh on(拖累) supply. By the time this crisis is over, as many as 25m people may have lost their jobs in the 30 rich countries that belong to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The danger is that several million may never regain them. The mobilisation of capital will be fitful as the financial system copes with past mistakes and impending regulation. The travails(辛苦,劳作) of finance, in turn, may prevent the recovering economy from backing and exploiting innovations.

Like Japan’s bubble years, the years that led to the global financial crisis have left a heavy legacy of debt on the balance-sheets of banks and households, especially in Britain and America. It is this legacy that allows past losses to depress future gains. Fisher, again, put it best: “I fancy(认为,想象) that over-confidence seldom does any great harm except when, as, and if, it beguiles its victims into debt.” There is no better example of that than American consumers.


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-22 12:16:34

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-22 18:16 编辑

Comment:

This is another passage on the topic of financial crisis. What makes it different from others is its concern about the new normal as a result of the gradual recovery. Of course, this terrible event can be treated as a horrible disaster that makes the whole world fell off a precipice. Numerous tragedies are directed by its chronic and lasting adverse consequence. However, it is not easy to figure out the final outcome is a new normal which means the economy cannot return to its original track, let alone bounce up to its expected peak. Thanks to this incident mankind start to pay more attention to the inner structure and rationality of banking, car-making and commercial-paper markets, instead of merely concentrating on the profit from these business. The subtle relationship of demand and supply comes in view gradually. As the model--the so-called string theory--describes in this passage, the resource cannot fix and wait for the recovery when the demand declines sharply. A persistent shortfall in demand will weigh on supply. But what eludes me is the ending that over-confidence can do great harm when it beguiles its victims into debt. Though the author makes the example of American to illustrate this point of view, it is of great possibility that the whole thing is just nothing more than a coincidence. So as far as I am concerned, I cannot quiet agree with his conclusion.


作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-22 12:28:35

心得:
本来前3天的comments的字数是一百多,二百多,三百多,令人欣喜啊,可惜第四天有回去二百多了,有点难过的说~~不过,现在看看开始的comments,发现很多地方是属于论证不太充分的,所以今后要在这个方面自我加强咯~~:lol
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-22 16:52:55

America's health-care bill

Nearer and nearer


Dec 21st 2009 From Economist.com

A procedural vote(程序表决) in America's Senate brings Barack Obama's health-care reforms closer


IT NOW looks certain that Barack Obama will get what he wanted for Christmas—a health-care reform bill passed out of the Senate, probably just a few hours before Santa begins his rounds. Republicans, who have been fighting tooth-and-nail(猛烈的) to block passage of the bill seem to have given up the fight, and have given warning instead that this will be a wish(欲望) that he comes to regret.

Shortly after 1am on Monday December 21st, the health bill cleared the first, and the most difficult, of the procedural hurdles it has to leap in order to secure passage through the Senate. Technically only a motion to end debate on a “manager's amendment” put together by the Senate's majority leader, Harry Reid, what the vote really represented was a crucial exercise in nose-counting(人口普查). The result was a vote on precisely partisan lines, with all 40 Republicans opposed, and all 58 Democrats plus the two independents who are grouped with them voting in favour. Since 60 votes is the precise number needed to avoid a filibuster, there was no room for error whatsoever, the reason why the procedural motion had taken so long. But with all 60 members of the “Democratic caucus” now signed up, the final vote, on Christmas Eve, looks like a formality.

From the point of view of the Democrats, this victory has come at a high price. The health bill has been stripped(剥落) of something very dear to many of then: a “public option” of a government-backed(政府支持的) insurance scheme that would compete with private insurers(保险人) in order, supposedly, to keep costs down and guarantee access. The version(版本) of the bill already passed by the House of Representatives does contain just such a public option, one of several reasons why final passage of a reconciled(协调) bill is still a way off(路还远着呢). Some Democrats hope, however, that a public option can be added later on, after the initial bill has gone into effect.

Still, the Senate version does tick most Democratic boxes(在方框内标记); it obliges(迫使) everyone to have health-insurance, and sets out a generous system of subsides to help the uninsured obtain coverage, along with a system of government-regulated exchanges that should encourage competition among private insurers. It fines employers who do not offer health cover to their workers. And it makes it illegal for insurers to refuse people coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions, as well as putting strict limits on the way that premiums(保险费) are allowed to increase with age. The hope is that tens of million of Americans currently without coverage will now be able to get it, and many tens of millions more, who have insurance but fear losing it through redundancy or ill-health, will have those worries lifted from their shoulders.

Republicans, however, hate the bill, mostly on the ground of cost. The advertised price-tag of the Senate bill is a bit under $900 billion over the next ten years, but Republicans contend that the numbers will be much higher than that, as the cost of subsidies(津贴,补助) has been underestimated and predicted savings will not materialise. Even at the stated number, this is a large bill at a time when America is running huge deficits that it urgently needs to tackle. The Senate bill is "paid for", but only in the sense(意味着) that it provides for large charges on the most expensive private insurance policies, and because it factors in deep cuts to Medicare the health-insurance scheme for the elderly. Republicans say these will never be enacted. Past history provides them with evidence to back up(支持) that claim.

Less politically involved observers also note that it is unprecedented for such a substantive and expensive bill to have been forced through Congress on such a narrow vote. The bill passed the House on a margin(范围) of just five votes, and in the Senate it has no safety margin. With no bipartisan support at all, Democrats will be held solely responsible if the reform turns out to be a disappointment. Some studies have suggested that private insurance premiums could rise substantially in response to the new burdens being placed on insurers.

Completion of work on the bill is by no means a formality, though it does now look more or less certain that the Senate will vote the bill out before Christmas. The next difficulty will come in producing a single “reconciled” version from the very different bills that the Senate and House have produced; that reconciled bill then has to go back for final clearance by both chambers(议院). The public option is one big stumbling(跌跌撞撞,磕磕绊绊) block. It is clear that the Senate cannot pass any version of a bill that contains a public option, so the House will have to give ground(退却,让步), which is going to require a lot of presidential arm-twisting(强迫...做某事) in January. And the two bills are funded in very different ways, one with a tax on the rich, the other with an insurance-policy surcharge. As of today though, health-care reform, expensive and imperfect though it is, is looking a lot more likely.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-22 18:08:48

Comment:

Well, the passage describes two camps-the Republicans and the Democrats-debating on the passage of the health-care reform bill. Although the consequence of the procedural vote shows the obvious victory of the Democrats, it still needs to reconsider the practicability on the ground of cost in the shadows of unprecedented finial crisis. Once the bill passed, the government would have to guarantee the insurance of every citizen. But no one can ensure the taxpayers are willing to pay for others on the base of charity. Obviously, this measure bounds to reconcile itself with the public on the whole level. Equality has been a fundamental principle of the every president’s policy since the founders of America proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. However, this ideal contradicts with the nature of capitalism which emphasizes the dominance of the capitalist. In terms of this health-care reform bill, the passage means the richer have to pay more tax than before for the poor at the aim of prevailing the coverage of the uninsured citizens. So as far as I am concerned, the day of this bill to come true still be a way off unless the president Mr. Obama compel its procedure.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-25 02:05:55

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-25 21:02 编辑

Executive pay

This house believes that on the whole, senior executives are worth what they are paid



About this debate

Over the past few decades executive pay has risen dramatically. Bosses who were once paid ten times as much as shopfloor workers are now sometimes paid as much as 300 times as much. This trend was never popular, even during good times. But today it is becoming radioactive, as governments step in to rescue failing companies and ordinary people are forced to tighten their belts.

Is the anger justified? Some argue that executive pay is a long-standing disgrace. Pay is often not tethered(局限,约束) to performance. Huge rewards for the few demotivate the rest of the workforce. Others are more sanguine. Successful executives, such as Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, can add hugely to a firm's profitability, benefiting workers, managers and shareholders alike. The growing pay of executives has to be balanced against the growing difficulty of their jobs, particularly as turnover(营业额) in the boardroom(会议室) increases.

Opening statements

Defending the motion

Steven N. Kaplan Neubauer Family Prof. of Entrepreneurship & Finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

In the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, CEOs are routinely criticised for being overpaid.

Against the motion

Nell  Minow Editor and Co-founder, The Corporate Library

Excessive executive compensation of the past decade is both a symptom and a cause of the current economic mess.

The moderator's opening remarks

Oct 20th 2009 |   Adrian  Wooldridge

Oneof the few things that anti-globalisation campaigners and stockmarketinvestors agree upon is that executive pay is out of control.
Itis not hard to understand this shared outrage(愤怒,暴行): executive pay has exploded since the 1980s. For most of the postwar era executives earned a few multiples of the median pay. But thereafter, starting in America and slowly spreading to the rest of the world, the multiples increased exponentially. Today many American workers earn in a year what their boss takes home in an evening.
Isn't this a disgrace(耻辱,丢脸)? Critics of executive pay worry that even mediocre bosses are given outsized(特大号)rewards. Robert Nardelli received a $20m pay-off when he left HomeDepot even though the share price had fallen during his six-yeartenure. Carly Fiorina was $180m better off when she leftHewlett-Packard despite a lack lustre(光泽) tenure. Defenders of executive pay argue that great bosses such as Louis Gerstner, the former boss of IBM,and Jack Welch, the former boss of General Electric, are worth everypenny because they create huge amounts of wealth for both shareholder(股东) sand employees.
The debate about executive pay, though never cool,is particularly hot at the moment. Workers have been squeezed by the recession. Unemployment is approaching 10% in the United States andmuch higher numbers in many other countries. Numerous governments areplanning to deal with their rising deficits by freezing public-sectorpay. And yet many bosses and bankers continue to make out(看出,辨别) like bandits(匪徒)—or so lots of people think.
We are lucky to have two of the best people in the business to debate this subject. Steven Kaplan,who proposes the motion, teaches at the University of Chicago's BoothSchool of Business. Nell Minow, who opposes it, is a long-time shareholder activist and chairwoman of the Corporate Library, are search company. (For people who want to know more about her she is also the subject of a profile in a recent issue of the New Yorker.)
MrKaplan starts off by making two fundamental points. CEO pay has not gone up in recent years; indeed, it has been dropping since 2000,particularly in relation to other well-paid groups, such as hedge fundmanagers(套头交易基金经理), lawyers, consultants and professional athletes. Nor is CEO pay unrelated to performance. Boards are increasingly willing to fire CEOs for poor performance.
Ms Minow focuses heavily on the relationship between pay and the recent credit crunch(紧缩). She points out that executive pay helped to create the mess in the first place:Countrywide's CEO, Angelo Mozillo, made more than $550m during his time in office. She also points out that the fact that many companies that were bailed out(保释) by the government continue to pay their CEOs huge salaries and bonuses is damaging the credibility of the system.
Such bold opening statements raise questions galore(许多). Is Mr Kaplan justifiedin starting his account in 2000 rather than 1980, when executive payexploded. And is Ms Minow right to concentrate so heavily on thefinancial sector? These are only a couple of the questions that we needto thrash out in the coming days.


The proposer's opening remarks
Oct 20th 2009 |   Steven N. Kaplan

In the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, CEOs are routinelycriticised for being overpaid. Critics argue that boards do not respondto market forces, but, instead, are dominated by or are over-generousto their CEOs. Boards are criticised for not tying CEOs' pay toperformance. These criticisms have been exacerbated by the financialcrisis and the desire to find scapegoats(替罪羊).
I argue below that thecritics are wrong and that there are many misperceptions of CEO pay.While CEO pay practices are not perfect, they are driven by marketforces and performance. Contrary to public perception, CEO pay has notgone up in recent years. In fact, the average CEO pay (adjusted forinflation) has dropped since 2000, while the pay of other groups hasincreased substantially. Similarly, the view that CEOs are not paid forperformance is wrong. In fact, the opposite is true and boardsincreasingly fire them for poor performance. And, most recently,consistent with market forces driving pay, the US and UK governmentseach hired a new CEO (of AIG and the Royal Bank of Scotland) for payexceeding that of the median large company CEO.
It is useful tounderstand how CEO pay is measured. It includes three components:salary, bonus and stock-based pay. It is usually measured in two ways.The first is the sum of salary, bonus, restricted stock and theexpected value of stock options. I call this expected pay. Expected paymeasures what boards believe they awarded the CEO. This is the bestmeasure of what a CEO is paid each year. Note that the CEO does not actually walk away with this money. The second measure replaces expected stock option values with values actually realized and realised pay measures what CEOs walk away with.
The first graph shows average and median expected CEO pay forS&P 500 CEOs since 1994 (adjusted for inflation). It shows that median CEO pay has been stable since 2001; it has not increased. And average pay has declined substantially. In fact, average CEO pay in2008 is below the average in 1998.


While average CEO pay has declined, the pay of other highly paid groups hasincreased. The second graph shows S&P 500 CEO pay relative to theincome of the top 1% of US taxpayers. Relative to those other groups,CEOs are no better off in 2008 than in 1994. Strikingly, relative CEOpay is a half of what it was in 2001, a huge decline.


Whichare those groups that have earned increasingly high compensation? Hedgefund, private equity and venture capital investors have increased theirassets and fees substantially, translating into high pay. By oneestimate, the top three hedge fund managers earned more in 2007 thanall 500 S&P 500 CEOs combined. Professional athletes, investmentbankers, consultants and lawyers also have benefited greatly. Forexample, from 2004 to 2008, the inflation-adjusted pay of partners atthe top 20 law firms increased by 12% while that of S&P 500 CEOsdropped 12%. Those law firms had over 3,000 partners making an averageof $2.4m each.
One can look at the Obama administration for otherexamples. Larry Summers made $8m (more than the median S&P 500 CEO)giving speeches and working part-time for a hedge fund. Eric Holdermade $3.5m as a law partner.
So, while CEOs earn a lot, they arenot unique. The pay of people in the other groups has undoubtedly beendriven by market forces; all are compensated in arm's-length markets,not by cronies. Technology, globalisation and scale appear to haveincreased the market value of these groups. CEOs have not done betterand, by some measures, have done worse. Those who argue CEOs areoverpaid have to explain how CEOs can be overpaid and not subject tomarket forces, when the other groups are paid at least as well and aresubject to market forces.
Why is the pay of these other groupsrelevant for CEOs? Top executives regularly leave to work for private equity(私人股份) firms and hedge funds(对冲基金). Law partners and consultants leave to work for public companies as general counsels and executives. Relative pay matters and all these groups are paid according to market demand.Markets are the driving force for senior executives in all theseindustries and talented people jump across industries, based on marketperceptions of their worth.
Critics also argue that CEO pay isnot tied to stock performance. Again, that is not true. Looking at whatCEOs actually receive—realised pay—Josh Rauh and I found that firmswith CEOs in the top decile(十分位) of realised pay earned stock returns 90%above those of other firms in their industries over the previous fiveyears. Firms with CEOs in the bottom decile of realised payunderperformed by almost 40%. The typical CEO is paid for performance.
Thiswas reinforced in 2008, when average realised CEO pay declined by 25%(according to S&P's Execucomp). And Equilar, another provider ofCEO pay data, estimated that the typical CEO experienced a net worthdecline of over 40%.
The final myth to bust(神话破灭) is that CEOs control their boards and earn high pay through this control and notperformance. In fact, CEO tenure has declined, from ten years in the1970s to six years today, and boards(董事会) have got to ugher on their executives when they do not perform.
In sum, market forces governCEO compensation. CEOs are paid what they are worth. Talented individuals, who are perceived to be valuable, can move between industries to be compensated well. The clearest example of this is that even governments have to pay highly for talented executives. Recently,the Royal Bank of Scotland (under UK government control) hired a CEO with a package worth up to $16m; AIG (under US government control)hired a CEO with a package worth up to $10.5m. For these critical jobs,both of these executives received compensation exceeding the pay of the median S&P 500 CEO.


The opposition's opening remarks
Oct 20th 2009 | Nell  Minow

Excessiveexecutive compensation of the past decade is both a symptom and a causeof the current economic mess. And the post-meltdown awards are all but guaranteed to continue to create perverse incentives that will reward management and further damage the interests of shareholders and every other participant in the economy.
Incentive compensation(激励报酬) rewarded executives for the quantity of transactions rather than the quality of transactions. It inevitably led to failures like the subprime disaster and the dominoes it toppled as it took the economy down with it. Worstof all, the avalanche of post-bailout bonuses and departure packageslike the $53m Ken Lewis got from Bank of America have severely damagedthe credibility of Wall Street and the American financial markets as a whole. The billions of dollars of losses do not come close to the reputational(名誉上的) hit to American capitalism, which will increase the cost of capital for all US companies.
Panglossian observers will always be able to find some metric(度量) to justify any level of pay. But the results speak for themselves. The decisions that led to the meltdownwere made by executives who knew that they would be paid tens, evenhundreds of millions of dollars no matter how successful theconsequences of those decisions.
Let us look at ground zero ofthe subprime mess, Countrywide, where Angelo Mozilo made more than$550m during his time as CEO. When the compensation committee tried toobject to his pay levels, he hired another compensation consultant,paid for by the shareholders, to push them into giving him more. Healso pushed for, and was given, shareholder subsidies, not just for hiswife's travel on the corporate jet but for the taxes on the imputed income from that travel. Instead of telling Mr Mozilo that he had no business asking the shareholders to subsidise his taxes, the board meekly(温顺的) signed off(签收) on it, making it clear to everyone in the executives uite that the pay-performance link was not a priority.
By theend of 2007, when Countrywide finally revealed the losses it had previously obscured, shareholders lost more than 78% of their investment value. Meanwhile, in early 2007 Mr Mozilo sold over $127m in exercised stock options before July 24th 2007, when he announced a$388m write-down on profits. Before the bailout, Countrywide narrowlyavoided bankruptcy by taking out an emergency loan of $11 billion from a group of banks. Mr Mozilo continued to sell off shares, and by theend of 2007 he had sold an additional $30m in exercised stock options.There is the definition of outrageously excessive compensation.
Countrywide responded to a shareholder proposal that year asking for a non-binding advisory vote on its pay plan by urging shareholders to oppose it because "Countrywide has been an outstanding performer" and because"The Board's Compensation Committee(薪酬委员会) has access to the best informationon compensation practices(补偿的做法) and has a thorough process in place tod etermine appropriate executive pay." They could hardly have doneworse. And it is likely that some market feedback on the structure ofthe pay plan could have given compensation committee members Harley W.Snyder (chair), Robert J. Donato, Michael E. Dougherty and Oscar P.Robertson worthwhile guidance.
Michelle Leder of theindispensable Footnoted.org website discovered that Frank A. Keating,Charles T. Maxwell and Frederick B. Whittemore, the compensationcommittee at Chesapeake Energy, not only paid the CEO, AubreyMcClendon, $100m, a 500% increase as the stock dropped 60% and theprofits went down 50%, they spent $4.6m of the shareholders' money to sponsor(创办,担保) a basketball team of which Mr McClendon owns a 19% stake, they purchased catering(餐饮) services from a restaurant which he owns just undera half of, and they took his collection of antique maps off his hands for $12.1m of the shareholders' money, based on a valuation from the consultant who advised Mr McClendon on assembling(集合) the collection. The board justified this by referring to Mr McClendon's having to sell more than $1 billion worth of stock due to margin calls(保证金), his having concluded four important deals and the benefit to employee morale from having the maps on display in the office. A market-based response would be: (1) that was his risk and it is inappropriate to the point of misappropriation to force the other shareholders, already substantially out of pocket with their own losses due to his poor leadership of the organisation, make up for his losses (2) if the deals are good ones, hewill be adequately rewarded when the benefit of those deals isreflected in the stock price; and (3) you have got to be kidding. Ifthis is pay for performance, what exactly is the performance we arepaying for?
These may be anecdotes, but they are illuminatingones. The numbers and details may be at the extreme, but the underlyingapproaches are representative. Even as outliers(局外人), they still demonstratethe failure of the system to ensure a vigorous(精力充沛), arm's-length system fordetermining pay and the inability of the system to require an effectiveincentive programme with a genuine downside as well as an upside.
In my comments, I will discuss the seven deadliest sins of executive compensation, the two key elements that are essential for any plan that merits support from investors and the only metric that matters in looking at pay.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-25 22:06:14

Comment:

This is a quiet interesting topic among the ever provided passages. The executives, the focused group, are receiving more attention against the background of financial crisis. According to the author, there are two sides who are arguing about the issue that whether the executives’ payment is excessive or not. The group who propose the statement think the executives are worthy of their package, while the opposite group contend that they are not concerned about the consequence of their decisions. In my point of view, the pay-performance link is so obvious that it is unfair to ignore the data report which implies their wage decreased sharply due to the unprecedented economic mess. No one is capable of justifying the executives without referring to a thorough investigation. The best way to figure out the fact is probably to treat the executive as an ordinary profession like other occupations. Of course, their performance is not only determined by their own efforts, but also depends on the changing market. So if one really wants to evaluate the executives’ performance, he has to take the economic position into consideration as well. What’s more, the high risk is a central factor in measuring the cost effective. In sum, one needs to make a detailed investigation before he gets a fair and comprehensive outcome.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-26 01:04:36

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-27 20:48 编辑

Rebuttal statements

The moderator's rebuttal remarks

Oct 23rd 2009 | Adrian Wooldridge  

It seems that experts are just as passionate on the subject of executive pay as the general public.
Mr Kaplan argues that the most powerful criticism of executive pay-that bosses get upside and no downside-is simply false. He points out that three of the most maligned(诽谤的) bosses in the financial services sector, Vikram Pandit of Citigroup, John Mack of Morgan Stanley and Kenneth Lewis of Bank of America, all lost small fortunes in 2008. CEOs as a group lost roughly 40% of their wealth in 2008.
Ms Minow argues that her rebuttal is being written by the headlines. Financial service companies are once again paying huge bonuses despite the fact that their companies have been propped up(支撑,扶持) by public money. She points out that CEOs enjoy the unique privilege of being able to appoint the people who decide their pay. She also reiterates the point that there are plenty of devices such as golden parachutes(降落伞) that cannot possibly be justified by performance.
In his expert evidence Rakesh Khurana tries to focus on fundamental questions such as what the purpose of compensation is. He argues that the market for CEOs is a highly distorted one because CEOs themselves can influence the process and performance is hard to measure. He suggests that extreme pay differentials can damage companies by attracting the wrong sort of bosses and demotivating the rank and file(群众). He also worries about the legitimacy of the system. One survey suggests that only 13% of people trust what CEOs say.
So far the voting is going heavily against the motion. But I wonder how far this is driven by emotion rather than a reasoned assessment of the evidence. I would urge the participants to pay close attention to the wording of the motion-particularly the key phrases 'one the whole' and 'deserve'. We need to focus more on the overall picture, around the world as well as in the United States, rather than on a few attention-grabbing anecdotes. And we need to think more closely about the word 'deserve'. Mr Kaplan's best chance of turning the voting around is to demonstrate that outstanding bosses can boost the performance of the organisations that they head, not only earning their pay but also benefitting workers, shareholders and consumers.


The proposer's rebuttal remarks
Oct 23rd 2009 | Steven N. Kaplan

Nell Minow argues that top executive compensation(高管薪酬) was a major cause of the financial crisis. She bases her conclusion on two "outlier" examples, Angelo Mozillo and Aubrey McClendon, that she calls "anecdotes". The plural(复数) of anecdote is data. And the data, that is the pay at a broad sample of financial companies, simply do not support her conclusion. Ironically, neither do her two anecdotes.
Ms Minow makes the following claims. (1) Incentive compensation rewarded top financial executives for the quantity of transactions, not the quality. (2) Top CEOs, like Mr Mozillo, took large amounts of money out of their companies before their companies failed. (3) The CEOs knew they were making bad investments, but did so anyway because they could make more money doing so. (4) CEOs get upside, but no downside. (5) The post-meltdown awards create incentives that reward management, but damage shareholders and everyone else.
These claims are false. As David Yermack of NYU pointed out in a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, Vikram Pandit of Citigroup, John Mack of Morgan Stanley and Kenneth Lewis of Bank of America:
"all lost small fortunes in 2008. The 2008 compensation of Messrs Pandit, Mack, and Lewis was approximately minus $105 million, minus $40 million, and minus $108 million, respectively, after taking account of the losses on the stock that each CEO owned in his firm. Other CEOs in the financial industry had similarly bad years. Kerry Killinger of Washington Mutual lost more than $25 million before being ousted(驱逐,取代) in September, Kennedy Thompson of Wachovia lost more than $30 million before being fired in June, and Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric lost more than $60 million ... These CEOs' financial reversals(反转,撤销) were part of a robust system of pay-for-performance widely used by most U.S. companies."
Yermack also points out that James Cayne lost most of his billion-dollar fortune when Bear Stearns failed and Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers lost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The fact is that most financial-company CEOs received the lion's share of(大部分) their pay in stock and options. And they kept most of that pay as shares in their companies which they never cashed in. When the crisis hit and their stock prices sank, those CEOs lost a large fraction of their wealth and, in many cases, their jobs.
As I wrote in my first entry, this is true, in general, of the overall CEO market. CEOs earn a lot and their stock appreciates when their companies perform well. CEOs lose large amounts of wealth and their jobs when their companies perform poorly. It is irresponsible to claim that CEOs do not bear any downside risk. In 2008, CEOs as a group lost roughly 40% of their wealth.
In direct contradiction to Ms Minow's conclusion, the financial CEOs were compensated in the end for the quality of their transactions. The CEOs did not take much off the table. The CEOs had a substantial amount of downside risk. In fact, those CEOs would have been much better off if they had not engaged in the transactions they did.
It is worth adding that David Yermack is a noted researcher on CEO pay who studies large amples over long periods. He has written several articles highly critical of specific CEO pay practices, like corporate jet usage. Nevertheless, his conclusion on the relation of CEO pay to the financial crisis is diametrically(对等) opposed to Ms Minow's (as is his characterisation of the CEO market in general).
A study of CEO incentives in a broader group of financial institutions during the crisis by Rudi Fahlenbrach and Rene Stulz of Ohio State (and a former president of the American Finance Association) confirms Yermack's analysis and also clearly refutes Ms Minow's conclusion.
Ironically, even her two anecdotes about Angelo Mozillo of Countrywide and Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy fail to support her case.
Unlike the other CEOs mentioned above (and most financial-institution CEOs), Mr Mozillo did manage to sell a lot of his stock. Unfortunately for him, the SEC has charged him with securities fraud and insider trading. And it is unlikely to lead to a good outcome for him. If found guilty, he potentially will end up paying three times what he took out. Clearly, he appears to have behaved badly, but he did not get away with it.
As for Mr McClendon, he runs an energy company. How could he possibly have had anything to do with the financial crisis?
The preponderance(优势) of the data and, even Ms Minow's "outlier" "anecdotes," therefore, fail to provide any evidence that top executive compensation had much to do with the financial crisis.
Top executive compensation did not cause the financial crisis. Instead, the crisis was caused by loose monetary policy, a global capital glut(过剩), over-high leverage(杠杆作用) at investment banks, mandates from Congress to provide mortgages to people who could not afford them, flawed ratings from the rating agencies(评价机构) and poor incentives at mortgage origination (not the CEO) level. Consistent with this, the financial crisis has spread to financial institutions in other countries with very different pay practices.


The opposition's rebuttal remarks
Oct 23rd 2009 |  Nell Minow

The headlines are writing my rebuttal for me.
GoldmanSachs set aside $16.7 billion for compensation and benefits in thefirst nine months of 2009, up 46% from a year ago. While its net incomehas tripled, its core investment banking business is down 31%. The Toronto Star quotesGoldman's CFO, David Viniar, using an unforgivable oxymoron(反比) in a conference call with reporters: "Our competitors are paying people quite well [and are] very willing to pay employees guaranteed bonuses of very high amounts." (emphasis added)
MrViniar also showed that he has a very short memory, arguing thatGoldman is operating without any government guarantee, ignoring the reality of the government guarantee that kept the system going just ayear ago.
These bonuses have nothing to do with paying for performance. How much of Goldman's bouncing back is due to thegovernment's guarantees and the hundreds of billions of dollars itpoured into Goldman, Wall Street, and other subsidies and outrightwelfare payments to the very institutions that came close to bringingdown the entire economy? Shouldn't the American people expect some sortof discounted calculation of the bonuses that reflect a market-basedassessment of performance? Once again, Wall Street is all aboutcapitalism when it comes to the upside, but all about socialism when itcomes to the downside, that is, from each, according to his ability, toeach, whatever he can get away with.
Also this week, we had thetestimony of Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for thegovernment's financial rescue programme before the House Committee onOversight and Government Reform. The serial offender AIG has promised$198m in bonus pay to its employees next March, according to thetestimony, and there is very little the government or anyone else cando about it. Because the bonus agreements were entered into before thebailout, the government has no legal authority to stop them. AllSpecial Master Kenneth Feinberg can do is ask the company not to paythe bonuses and rattle his sabre(战刀) about the pay he can control goingforward, hoping that the threat of clamping down on the 25 executives at each of the covered companies he does have authority over will be enough of an incentive to force a change. In the meantime, once again,pay is uncoupled(非耦合) from performance. Even the company has given up on trying to make that case, relying instead on opportunity costs tojustify the bonuses and arguing that these kinds of payments are necessary in order to keep the employees from leaving. Based on their past performance and their unwillingness to tie future pay to genuine measures of sustainable growth, I suggest that the best choice forshareholders is to let them leave.
Mr Barofksy gave thecommittee a Treasury Department report on the last set of outrageousAIG bonuses. It concluded in part that "Treasury invested $40 billionof taxpayer funds in AIG, designed AIG's contractual executivecompensation restrictions, and helped manage the Government's majoritystake in AIG for several months, all without having any detailedinformation about the scope of AIG's very substantial, and verycontroversial, executive compensation obligations." If a private entityhad been asked for emergency funds, it is unthinkable that any moneywould have been advanced without establishing some control overcompensation. There are two reasons for this. The first is agencycosts. Anyone (other than Secretary Henry Paulson, apparently) puttingmoney at risk will want to ensure that it will not be inappropriatelyappropriated. The second is the high likelihood that the previous incentive structure was a significant factor in the bad decisions and catastrophic risk management that created the need for the funds in the first place.
And really, that is all the argument one needs. By definition, the incentive compensation was badly designed, as proved by  the results. However, I will respond to some of the points raised byProfessor Kaplan.
First, we disagree on the calculations thatsupport the conclusion that CEO play has been declining. Our figures,based not on theoretical pay but on realised pay, are as follows.


Clearly actual pay is the better measure of pay effectiveness. I also question the validity of the Equilar survey figures. They are based on the reported total compensation in the summary compensationtable, which is even further from reality than the "expected pay", asit is just an accounting cost.
I do not understand why he brings up the net worth of CEOs; that has no relationship whatsoever to their pay, its relationship to performance, or its effectiveness at aligning CEOs' interests with shareholders'.
Second, ProfessorKaplan states, "The typical CEO is paid for performance. Boards increasingly fire CEOs for poor performance." The second sentence has no relationship to the first. Boards may fire CEOs for poor performance, but they pay them boatloads of money for that performanceon the way out of the door. Just look at Ken Lewis's departure fromBank of America. Disastrous performance that apparently included lying(about what else? bonuses) and an unprecedented vote of no confidencefrom shareholders that removed him as chairman, may indeed have causedhim to be fired (though the board did not use that term). But his $53m retirement package does not feel like pay for performance to me.
Professor Kaplan tries to obscure the point by bringing in law firm partners,athletes and other highly-paid professionals. Partners in law firms are paid according to formulas set by the partnership. As in any otherprivate firm, there are no agency costs to worry about and they can do whatever they like. Athletes, movie stars and recording artists, who have a much greater range and far greater elasticity in compensation,engage in vigorous arm's length negotiations on pay; their pay is not set by boards they appoint, as CEOs' is.
And it is hard for me to understand how anyone could point to the US or UK government authorising excessive pay as a validation of the system. As noted above, the government has repeatedly failed as regulator or as providerof capital in curbing outrageously destructive executive compensation.
Here are seven deadly sins found in executive compensation plans.Each of them is conclusive evidence that the system is out of whack(不一致).
1.    Making up for losses in stock value with other grants of cash or stock.
2.    Imputed years of service to increase retirement benefits.
3.    Setting the performance goals too low or other phony(空头的) metrics to trigger bonuses.
4.    Dividends on unvested(尚未归属的) stock.
5.    Outrageous departure packages.
6.    Stock options that are not performance-based or indexed.
7.    Perquisites(额外赏赐,临时津贴) and gross-ups.

In my next response, I will explain how to do it right.
作者: pluka    时间: 2009-12-26 01:12:40

唔,其实每次看到你的头像……(小声)……就会忍不住YY……(掩面逃走)……
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-26 01:28:15

75# pluka

你也稀饭他哈?看来偶们是志同道合的一代哦~~:lol
作者: kulewy531    时间: 2009-12-26 03:01:13

回踩你一个!阅读笔记做得真是认真啊!
作者: aladdin.ivy    时间: 2009-12-26 15:43:51

75# pluka

恕我无知……这头像是谁啊?
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-27 21:28:45

Comment:

The last part of the financial debate report has finally explained the two contrary remarks clearly. Among the rebuttal statements, what the two groups really concern is the effective of pay-performance policy and the main culprit of financial crisis. The murder of global economy is the one who makes use of money from others to invest in his business. In order to realize his plot and secure his legitimacy, he has to create numerous financial instruments, which leads to disastrous capital blankness. What’s more, according to the stubborn facts, it is certain that the executive compensation has nothing to do with financial crisis. Although the opposed group claimed the poor performance executives leaved their position with outrageous departure package, one still needs to consider the possibility of the unemployed executives to be re-occupied and the price they have paid for it.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-27 21:32:01

Golden parachute:

Contractual benefits that assure a high-level employee of generous payments if a company is taken over and he or she is dismissed as a result.

金降落伞:合同中规定的保证高层雇员因公司被收购而遭解职时可获得的一大笔钱的福利。


Leverage:

金融杠杆(leverage)简单地说来就是一个乘号(*)。使用这个工具,可以放大投资的结果,无论最终的结果是收益还是损失,都会以一个固定的比例增加,所以,在使用这个工具之前,投资者必须仔细分析投资项目中的收益预期,还有可能遭遇的风险,其实最安全的方法是将收益预期尽可能缩小,而风险预期尽可能扩大,这样做出的投资决策所得到的结果则必然落在您的预料之中。另外,还必须注意到,使用金融杠杆这个工具的时候,现金流的支出可能会增大,必须要考虑到这方面的事情,否则资金链一旦断裂,即使最后的结果可以是巨大的收益,您也必须要面对提前出局的下场。
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-27 22:27:30

Tech.view
Passwords aplenty
Dec 18th 2009 | LOS ANGELES
From Economist.com
How to stay sane as well as safe while surfing the web
AT THIS time of the year, your correspondent crosses the Pacific to Japan for a month or so. He repeats the trip during the summer. He considers it crucial in order to keep abreast of(跟上) all the ingenious technology which, once debugged(调整) by the world’s most acquisitive(贪婪的) consumers, will wind up(终结,关门大吉) in American and European shops a year or two later.

Each time he packs his bags, though, he is embarrassed by having to include a dog-eared set of notes that really ought to be locked up in a safe. This is his list of logons(注册) and passwords for all the websites he uses for doing business and staying in touch with the rest of the world. At the last count, the inch-thick list accumulated over the past decade or so—your correspondent’s sole copy—includes access details for no fewer than 174 online services and computer networks.



Alamy
He admits to flouting the advice of security experts: his failings include using essentially the same logon and password for many similar sites, relying on easily remembered words—and, heaven forbid, writing them down on scraps of paper. So his new year’s resolution is to set up a proper software vault(库,拱顶,地窖) for the various passwords and ditch(摆脱,甩开) the dog-eared list.

Your correspondent’s one consolation(安慰) is that he is not alone in using easily crackable words for most of his passwords. Indeed, the majority of online users have an understandable aversion to strong, but hard-to-remember, passwords. The most popular passwords in Britain are “123” followed by “password”. At least people in America have learned to combine letters and numbers. Their most popular ones are “password1” followed by “abc123”.

Unfortunately, the easier a password is to remember, the easier it is for thieves to guess. Ironically, the opposite—the harder it is to remember, the harder it is to crack—is often far from true. That is because, not being able to remember long, jumbled sets of alphanumeric(文字数字) characters interspersed with symbols, people resort to writing them down on Post-it notes left lying around the office or home for all and sundry to see.

Apart from stealing passwords from Post-it notes and the like, intruders basically use one of two hacks to gain access to other people’s computers or networks. If time and money is no problem, they can use brute-force(强力) methods that simply try every combination of letters, numbers and symbols until a match is found. That takes a lot of patience and computing power, and tends to be the sort of thing only intelligence agencies indulge in.

A more popular, though less effective, way is to use commercial software tools such as “L0phtCrack” or “John the Ripper” that can be found on the internet. These use dictionaries, lists of popular passwords and rainbow tables (lookup tools that turn long numbers computed from alphanumeric characters back into their original plain text) to recover passwords.

According to Bruce Schneier, an independent security expert, today’s password crackers “can test tens—even hundreds—of millions of passwords per second.” In short, the vast majority of passwords used in the real world can be guessed in minutes. And do not think you are being smart by replacing the letters “l” or “i” in a password with the number “1”; or the letter “s” with the number “5” or the symbol “$”. Cracking programs check all such alternatives, and more, as a matter of course(习以为常).

What should you do to protect yourself? Choose passwords that are strong enough to make cracking them too time consuming for thieves to bother.

The strength of a password depends on its length, complexity and randomness. A good length is at least eight symbols. The complexity depends on the character set. Using numbers alone limits the choice to just ten symbols. Add upper- and lower-case letters and the complexity rises to 62. Use all the symbols on a standard ASCII keyboard and you have 95 to choose from.

The third component, randomness, is measured by a concept borrowed from thermodynamics(热力学)—the notion of entropy(熵) (the tendency for things to become disordered). In information theory, a tossed coin has an entropy of one “bit” (binary digit). That is because it can come down randomly in one of two equally possible binary(二) states.

At the other extreme, when you set the encryption of a Wi-Fi link, you are usually given the choice of 64-bit or even 128-bit security. Those bit-numbers represent the entropy (or randomness) of the encryption used. A password with 64 bits of entropy is as strong as a string of data comprising 64 randomly selected binary digits. Put another way, a 64-bit password would require 2 raised to the power of 64 attempts to crack it by brute force—in short, 18 billion billion attempts. A 64-bit password was finally cracked in 2002 using brute-force methods. It took a network of volunteers nearly five years to do so.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, the American government’s standards-measuring laboratory in Gaithersburg, Maryland, recommends 80-bit passwords for state secrets and the like. Such security can be achieved using passwords with 12 symbols, drawn from the full set of 95 symbols on the standard American keyboard. For ordinary purposes, that would seem overkill. A 52-bit password based on eight symbols selected from the standard keyboard is generally adequate.

How to select the eight? Best to let a computer program generate them randomly for you. Unfortunately, the result will be something like 6sDt%k&3 that probably needs to be written down. One answer, only slightly less rigorous, is to use a mnemonic constructed from the first letters (plus contractions) of an easily remembered phrase like “Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts” (MCa1otFA) or “To be or not to be: that is the question” (2Bo-2b:?).

Given a robust 52-bit password, you can then use a password manager to take care of the dozens of easily guessable ones used to access various web services. There are a number of perfectly adequate products for doing this. In an early attempt to fulfil his new year’s pledge(保证), your correspondent has been experimenting with LastPass, a free password manager that works as an add-on to the Firefox web browser for Windows, Linux or Macintosh. Versions also exist for Internet Explorer on Windows and Safari on the Mac.

Once installed and given a strong password of its own, plus an e-mail address, LastPass encrypts all the logons and passwords stored on your computer. So, be warned: forget your master password and you could be in trouble—especially if you have let the program delete (as it urges you to let it do) all the vulnerable logons and passwords on your own computer.

Thereafter, to visit various web services, all you have to do is log into LastPass and click the website you wish to check out. The tool then automatically logs you on securely to the selected site. It will even complete all the forms needed to buy goods online if you have stored your home address, telephone number and credit-card details in the vault as well.

Your correspondent looks forward to using the service while travelling around Japan over the next month or so. To be on the safe side, however, his dog-eared list of passwords will still go with him.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-27 23:37:07

Comment:

Well, it is said that the strength of a password depends on its length, complexity and randomness. To realize this ideal objective, software vendors provide a password manager to throw light upon this plight. However, it is unwise to reckon the password generated from the computer is really random. In fact, the so-called random number is produced by fixed computer operating. In that case, if the first number is fixed, the followed ones can get from some operating system. So it is naive to believe the randomness created by the computer program. On the other hand, it is still fortunate to figure out the progress in safety awareness. No one can satisfy his appetite by depending on his over-simple or seemed delicate password in such a dangerous world. Information war is not as unfamiliar as it was 20 years ago. No wonder mankind spare no efforts to find out more effective ways to secure their private information, especially for the ones that concerned with their fortune. In spite of the subsequent decipher, the increasing attention on safety still paves way for the future information safety system. After all, the most horrible thing is not facing the risk, but ignoring the danger without awareness.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-27 23:43:22

补充:
haven-forbid that :但愿...不要发生
dog-eared:翻旧了的,折角的
作者: pluka    时间: 2009-12-28 00:17:19

Comment:
...
So it is naive to believe(believe in) the randomness created by the computer program.
zhengchangdian 发表于 2009-12-27 23:37
Comment:
...
On the other hand, it is still fortunate to figure out the progress in safety awareness.  
zhengchangdian 发表于 2009-12-27 23:37

figure out似乎更多的用在理解原因或者找出解决方案上面,比单纯的了解、知道多那么一点背景。

:)
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-28 00:22:12

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-29 01:26 编辑

Art.view
Back to the future
Dec 19th 2009
From Economist.com
The taste for clutter(喧闹) and realism is curiously buoyant(轻飘,乐呵呵)
WHILE the contemporary art market constantly seeks the new—new names, new imagery, new media or simply new novelty—another curious corner of the art market has remained steadfastly old-fashioned, cluttered and sentimental. With bad weather coming, much of London may have been preparing to shut down early for Christmas last week. But Christie’s sale of Victorian and British Impressionist pictures on December 16th and Sotheby’s sale of Victorian and Edwardian paintings the next day were surprisingly busy.

Sotheby's

Of the two auctions, Sotheby’s was by far more successful, fetching &pound;4.4m ($7.1m) for works by some of the best-known names of the period, including Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Sir Alfred Munnings, Dame Laura Knight and Charles Spencelayh. The cover lot, Spencelayh’s “The Old Dealer”, sold for a record price for the artist at auction. The buyer was David Mason, a London dealer who joined his father’s firm, MacConnal-Mason, when he was just 17. Mr Mason, who has seen recessions come and go in the 53 year he has been in the business, said afterwards: “Prices today reflect what is happening out there. People are discounting the coming inflation and buying quality. They know that inflation has always been the art dealer’s friend.”

Buyers in every sector of the art market, from Chinese porcelain to Old Masters, now seem to follow a pattern(按照样式来). They are happy to pay over(支付,交付) the odds(优势,可能性) for top-ranking pictures, but leave the rest untouched. Nearly 40% of the lots in Sotheby’s sale were bought in. Its success lay in the high prices achieved for those that sold, half of which were bid up beyond their high estimate. Some pieces went for as much as four times what the auction house had predicted.

John Atkinson Grimshaw is a painter who celebrated(赞颂,表扬) industry, commerce and conspicuous(突出的) wealth during Queen Victoria’s reign, dying in 1893. His works are often dark social commentaries featuring streets and portsides(左舷), full of ships’ rigging(装置,设备) and lamplight that seems visually interchangeable with moonlight. Eight years ago Mr Mason sold an 1881 Grimshaw entitled “Prince’s Dock, Hull” to an American collector for &pound;130,000. Consigning the picture to Sotheby’s, that same American saw his Grimshaw sell to an anonymous bidder for &pound;397,250 (including commission and taxes), the third highest price achieved for the artist at auction.

Spencelayh, the son of an iron and brass founder, rose to be a prolific(多产的,丰富的) member of the Royal Academy of Arts and a favourite of Queen Mary. His work is, if anything, even more unfashionable-looking than Grimshaw’s. Spencelayh, who died in 1928, liked to paint fussy(过分装饰的) interiors. The most sought after are realistic pictures of men, often gathered around a table in a room full of clutter, with glazed jugs, books, umbrellas and pieces of velvet(天鹅绒) jumbled together. There is usually a pipe or two on the table, and there is nearly always a clock hanging on the wall.

A Manchester cotton merchant named Levy supported Spencelayh from the early 1920s. He offered the artist and his wife a house to live in and bought a number of his paintings. When Levy's widow, Rosie, auctioned his collection in 1946, the picture that fetched the highest sum was “The Old Dealer”, which Spencelayh had painted in 1925. It was sold again in 1973, where it was bought by Richard Green, a London dealer, on behalf of an American collector for about &pound;30,000.

Consigned last week to Sotheby’s by this same collector, it sold for more than ten times that (&pound;337,250 including commission and taxes) to Mr Mason. Mr Green, an earlier owner, was the underbidder(喊价对手). “It has everything you could want: the old man, the clock, the knickknacks(小玩意,花哨的小物件),” Mr Mason said afterwards. “It is quite simply the best example of a Spencelayh I have ever seen.” Mr Mason said he bought the picture for stock, with no particular collector in mind.



On the Cliffs” (pictured above) is one of a series of pictures that Laura Knight painted of women sitting high above the water on the Cornish coast. In one of the earliest examples, “Daughter of the Sun”, the women were naked. That picture did not sell when Knight exhibited it at the Royal Academy in 1912, and Knight later cut it up and sold the pieces after it had become damaged. She continued to be inspired by the Cornish theme in the years before the end of the first world war, after she and her husband moved to London. In “On the Cliffs” one woman is sewing while the other may be threading a needle. Both are strong, calm figures. Behind them the sea, silvery, shimmering and full of light, has the same idyllic quality of water painted at the time by the Scottish Colourists. But there are no men in any of Knight’s pictures of this period, reminding viewers that war was close at hand.

“On the Cliffs” sold to an anonymous bidder for &pound;646,050, nearly twice the top estimate. Even at that price, many regard the painting as a bargain. In July, Galen Weston, a Canadian billionaire whose family owns Fortnum & Mason, bought the companion picture, “Wind and Sun”. It cost him &pound;914,850.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-29 02:44:50

Comment:

Art has always been a popular topic since mankind created cave paintings to record their daily life. It is believed that the arts reveal the otherwise hidden ideas and impulses of a society. In other words, the purpose of art is to upset the tradition. To illustrate this point of view clearly, here’s a good example. As known to all, the aesthetic conception has adjusted to the wave of change all the time. During the period of Renaissance, the famous painter Botticelli created a languished Venus to express the melancholy of goddess to come to this misery world. From then on, painters began to impute their creations with humanity, especially to depict emotions in the eyes of goddess. After that, Venus with soft and gentle profile symbolized the desire for love in numerous art works. And until the outbreak of Tiziano’s boldness and unrestraint could a voluptuous Venus greet us. In this development of aesthetic perception, one can draw a definite conclusion that the aim of art is overthrow the past.

What’s more, one can gain a new revelation from the selling of “On the Cliff”. It is really amazing to find that a delicate art work can be sold out when it has been cut up and damaged. At the same time the courage of Knight to wreck his own work is also worth celebrating. Maybe this act can be seen as a new way to preserve a work of art. In sum, art has always played an important role in overthrowing the tradition and providing new energy for the future life.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-29 02:58:56

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-31 01:34 编辑

A special report on entrepreneurship

Global heroes

Mar 12th 2009 From The Economist print edition

Despite the downturn(衰退), entrepreneurs are enjoying a renaissance the world over, says Adrian Wooldridge

IN DECEMBER last year, three weeks after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and in the midst(中间) of the worst global recession since the 1930s, 1,700 bright-eyed(目光炯炯的) Indians gathered in a hotel in Bangalore for a conference on entrepreneurship. They mobbed(聚众) business heroes such as Azim Premji, who transformed Wipro from a vegetable-oil(菜油) company into a software giant, and Nandan Nilekani, one of the founders of Infosys, another software giant. They also engaged in a frenzy(疯狂,狂乱) of networking. The conference was so popular that the organisers had to erect a huge tent to take the overflow(解决资源过剩). The aspiring entrepreneurs did not just want to strike it rich; they wanted to play their part in forging(放弃) a new India. Speaker after speaker praised entrepreneurship as a powerful force for doing good as well as doing well.

Back in 1942 Joseph Schumpeter gave warning that the bureaucratisation of capitalism was killing the spirit of entrepreneurship. Instead of risking the turmoil of “creative destruction”, Keynesian economists, working hand in glove with(沟通) big business and big government, claimed to be able to provide orderly prosperity. But perspectives(观点,看法) have changed in the intervening(干预) decades, and Schumpeter’s entrepreneurs are once again roaming(漫游,闲逛) the globe.

Since the Reagan-Thatcher revolution of the 1980s, governments of almost every ideological stripe haveembraced entrepreneurship. The European Union, the United Nations and the World Bank have also become evangelists(布道者). Indeed, the trend is now so well established that it has become the object of satire(讽刺). Listen to me, says the leading character in one of the best novels of 2008, Aravind Adiga’s “The White Tiger”, and “you will know everything there is to know about how entrepreneurship is born, nurtured, and developed in this, the glorious 21st century of man.”

This special report will argue that the entrepreneurial idea has gone mainstream(主流), supported by political leaders on the left as well as on the right, championed by powerful pressure groups, reinforced by a growing infrastructure(基础设施) of universities and venture capitalists(风险资本家) and embodied by wildly popular business heroes such as Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson and India’s software kings. The report will also contend that entrepreneurialism needs to be rethought: in almost all instances it involves not creative destruction but creative creation.

The world’s greatest producer of entrepreneurs continues to be America. The lights may have gone out on Wall Street, but Silicon Valley continues to burn bright. High-flyers(有抱负的人,轻便马车) from around the world still flock to America’s universities and clamour(喧闹,吵嚷) to work for Google and Microsoft. And many of them then return home and spread the gospel(真理,主义,福音书).

The company that arranged the oversubscribed(超额认购,过多的被认购) conference in Bangalore, The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), is an example of America’s pervasive influence abroad. TiE was founded in Silicon Valley in 1992 by a group of Indian transplants who wanted to promote entrepreneurship through mentoring, networking and education. Today the network has 12,000 members and operates in 53 cities in 12 countries, but it continues to be anchored in the Valley. Two of the leading lights at the meeting, Gururaj Deshpande and Suren Dutia, live, respectively, in Massachusetts and California. The star speaker, Wipro’s Mr Premji, was educated at Stanford; one of the most popular gurus, Raj Jaswa, is the president of TiE’s Silicon Valley chapter.

The globalisation of entrepreneurship is raising the competitive stakes(赌注) for everyone, particularly in the rich world. Entrepreneurs can now come from almost anywhere, including once-closed economies such as India and China. And many of them can reach global markets from the day they open their doors, thanks to the falling cost of communications.

For most people the term “entrepreneur” simply means anybody who starts a business, be it a corner shop or a high-tech start up. This special report will use the word in a narrower sense to mean somebody who offers an innovative solution to a (frequently unrecognised) problem. The defining characteristic of entrepreneurship, then, is not the size of the company but the act of innovation.

A disproportionate(不成比例) number of entrepreneurial companies are, indeed, small start-ups. The best way to break into a business is to offer new products or processes. But by no means all start-ups are innovative: most new corner shops do much the same as old corner shops(街头小店). And not all entrepreneurial companies are either new or small. Google is constantly innovating despite being, in Silicon Valley terms, something of a long-beard(长胡子).

This narrower definition of entrepreneurship has an impressive intellectual pedigree(家谱,系谱) going right back to Schumpeter. Peter Drucker, a distinguished management guru, defined the entrepreneur as somebody who “upsets and disorganises”. “Entrepreneurs innovate,” he said. “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship.” William Baumol, one of the leading economists in this field, describes the entrepreneur as “the bold and imaginative deviator from established business patterns and practices”. Howard Stevenson, the man who did more than anybody else to champion the study of entrepreneurship at the Harvard Business School, defined entrepreneurship as “the pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources you currently control”. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, arguably the world’s leading think-tank(智囊团) on entrepreneurship, makes a fundamental distinction between “replicative” and “innovative” entrepreneurship.

Five myths

Innovative entrepreneurs are not only more interesting than the replicative sort, they also carry more economic weight because they generate many more jobs. A small number of innovative start-ups account for(占) a disproportionately large number of new jobs. But entrepreneurs can be found anywhere, not just in small businesses. There are plenty of misconceptions about entrepreneurship, five of which are particularly persistent. The first is that entrepreneurs are “orphans and outcasts(孤儿和流浪者)”, to borrow the phrase of George Gilder, an American intellectual: lonely Atlases battling a hostile world or anti-social geeks(怪胎) inventing world-changing gizmos(小玩意) in their garrets(阁楼). In fact, entrepreneurship, like all business, is a social activity. Entrepreneurs may be more independent than the usual suits who merely follow the rules, but they almost always need business partners and social networks to succeed.

The history of high-tech start-ups reads like a roll-call(点名) of business partnerships: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (Apple), Bill Gates and Paul Allen (Microsoft), Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google), Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes (Facebook). Ben and Jerry’s was formed when two childhood friends, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, got together to start an ice-cream business (they wanted to go into the bagel(面包圈) business but could not raise the cash). Richard Branson (Virgin) relied heavily on his cousin, Simon Draper, as well as other partners. Ramana Nanda, of Harvard Business School (HBS), and Jesper Sorensen, of Stanford Business School, have demonstrated that rates of entrepreneurship are significantly higher in organisations where a large number of employees are former entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship also flourishes in clusters. A third of American venture capital flows into two places, Silicon Valley and Boston, and two-thirds into just six places, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego and Austin as well as the Valley and Boston. This is partly because entrepreneurship in such places is a way of life—coffee houses in Silicon Valley are full of young people loudly talking about their business plans—and partly because the infrastructure is already in place, which radically reduces the cost of starting a business.

The second myth is that most entrepreneurs are just out of short trousers. Some of today’s most celebrated figures were indeed astonishingly young when they got going: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell all dropped out of college to start their businesses, and the founders of Google and Facebook were still students when they launched theirs. Ben Casnocha started his first company when he was 12, was named entrepreneur of the year by Inc magazine at 17 and published a guide to running start-ups at 19.

But not all successful entrepreneurs are kids. Harland Sanders started franchising(特许经营) Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was 65. Gary Burrell was 52 when he left Allied Signal to help start Garmin, a GPS giant. Herb Kelleher was 40 when he founded Southwest Airlines, a business that pioneered no-frills discount flying in America. The Kauffman Foundation examined 652 American-born bosses of technology companies set up in 1995-2005 and found that the average boss was 39 when he or she started. The number of founders over 50 was twice as large as that under 25.

The third myth is that entrepreneurship is driven mainly by venture capital. This certainly matters in capital-intensive industries such as high-tech and biotechnology; it can also help start-ups to grow very rapidly. And venture capitalists provide entrepreneurs with advice, contacts and management skills as well as money.

But most venture capital goes into just a narrow sliver of(狭长的一小片) business: computer hardware and software, semiconductors, telecommunications and biotechnology. Venture capitalists fund only a small fraction of start-ups. The money for the vast majority comes from personal debt or from the “three fs”—friends, fools and families. Google is often quoted as a triumph of the venture-capital industry, but Messrs Brin and Page founded the company without any money at all and launched it with about $1m raised from friends and connections.

Monitor, a management consultancy that has recently conducted an extensive survey of entrepreneurs, emphasises the importance of “angel” investors, who operate somewhere in the middle ground between venture capitalists and family and friends. They usually have some personal connection with their chosen entrepreneur and are more likely than venture capitalists to invest in a business when it is little more than a budding idea.

The fourth myth is that to succeed, entrepreneurs must produce some world-changing new product. Sir Ronald Cohen, the founder of Apax Partners, one of Europe’s most successful venture-capital companies, points out that some of the most successful entrepreneurs concentrate on processes rather than products. Richard Branson made flying less tedious by providing his customers with entertainment. Fred Smith built a billion-dollar business by improving the delivery of packages. Oprah Winfrey has become America’s richest self-made woman through successful brand management.

The fifth myth is that entrepreneurship cannot flourish in big companies. Many entrepreneurs are sworn enemies(死对头) of large corporations, and many policymakers measure entrepreneurship by the number of small-business start-ups. This makes some sense. Start-ups are often more innovative than established companies because their incentives are sharper: they need to break into the market, and owner-entrepreneurs(业主企业家) can do much better than even the most innovative company man.

Big can be beautiful too

But many big companies work hard to keep their people on their entrepreneurial toes. Johnson & Johnson operates like a holding(控股) company that provides financial muscle(财力) and marketing skills to internal entrepreneurs. Jack Welch tried to transform General Electric from a Goliath into a collection of entrepreneurial Davids. Jorma Ollila transformed Nokia, a long-established Finnish firm, from a maker of rubber boots(胶靴) and cables(电缆) into a mobile-phone giant; his successor as boss of the company, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, is now talking about turning it into an internet company. Such men belong firmly in the pantheon(万神殿) of entrepreneurs.

Just as importantly, big firms often provide start-ups with their bread and butter. In many industries, especially pharmaceuticals and telecoms, the giants contract out innovation to smaller companies. Procter & Gamble tries to get half of its innovations from outside its own labs. Microsoft works closely with a network of 750,000 small companies around the world. Some 3,500 companies have grown up in Nokia’s shadow.

But how is the new enthusiasm for entrepreneurship standing up to the worldwide economic downturn? Entrepreneurs are being presented with huge practical problems. Customers are harder to find. Suppliers are becoming less accommodating. Capital is harder to raise. In America venture-capital investment in the fourth quarter of 2008 was down to $5.4 billion, 33% lower than a year earlier. Risk, the lifeblood(生命线) of the entrepreneurial economy, is becoming something to be avoided.

Misfortune and fortune

The downturn is also confronting supporters of entrepreneurial capitalism with some awkward questions. Why have so many once-celebrated entrepreneurs turned out to be crooks(恶棍,骗子)? And why has the free-wheeling(滑行,自由轮) culture of Wall Street produced such disastrous results?

For many the change in public mood is equally worrying. Back in 2002, in the wake of the scandal over Enron, a dubious energy-trading company, Congress made life more difficult for start-ups with the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation on corporate governance. Now it is busy propping up(支撑) failed companies such as General Motors and throwing huge sums of money at the public sector. Newt Gingrich, a Republican former speaker of America’s House of Representatives, worries that potential entrepreneurs may now be asking themselves: “Why not get a nice, safe government job instead?”

Yet the threat to entrepreneurship, both practical and ideological, can be exaggerated. The downturn has advantages as well as drawbacks. Talented staff are easier to find and office space is cheaper to rent. Harder times will eliminate the also-rans(失败者) and, in the long run, could make it easier for the survivors to grow. As Schumpeter pointed out, downturns can act as a “good cold shower(冷水淋浴) for the economic system”, releasing capital and labour from dying sectors and allowing newcomers to recombine in imaginative new ways.

Schumpeter also said that all established businesses are “standing on ground that is crumbling beneath their feet”. Today the ground is far less solid than it was in his day, so the opportunities for entrepreneurs are correspondingly more numerous. The information age is making it ever easier for ordinary people to start businesses and harder for incumbents to defend their territory. Back in 1960 the composition of the Fortune 500 was so stable that it took 20 years for a third of the constitutent companies to change. Now it takes only four years.

There are many reasons for this. First, the information revolution has helped to unbundle(松绑) existing companies. In 1937 Ronald Coase argued, in his path-breaking article on “The Nature of the Firm”, that companies make economic sense when the bureaucratic cost of performing transactions under one roof is less than the cost of doing the same thing through the market. Second, economic growth is being driven by industries such as computing and telecommunications where innovation is particularly important. Third, advanced economies are characterised by a shift from manufacturing to services. Service firms are usually smaller than manufacturing firms and there are fewer barriers to entry.

Microsoft, Genentech, Gap and The Limited were all founded during recessions. Hewlett-Packard, Geophysical Service (now Texas Instruments), United Technologies, Polaroid and Revlon started in the Depression. Opinion polls suggest that entrepreneurs see a good as well as a bad side to the recession. In a survey carried out in eight emerging markets last November for Endeavor, a pressure group, 85% of the entrepreneurs questioned said they had already felt the impact of the crisis and 88% thought that worse was yet to come. But they also predicted, on average, that their businesses would grow by 31% and their workforces by 12% this year. Half of them thought they would be able to hire better people and 39% said there would be less competition.





作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-29 03:01:25

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-29 11:45 编辑

86# pluka

一直以来,我总是忽略believe in,而且figure out确实用小了,嘿嘿,谢谢啦!:handshake
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-30 20:32:30

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-31 03:16 编辑

这次的题目感觉好像一直在谈创新的事情,不是很有话说的 :mad:

Comment


As the old saying goes, a hero is known in the time of misfortune. At present, the world is suffering from an unprecedented disaster that hurls the global economy into the abyss. However, this downturn inevitably provides opportunities for bold and imaginative deviator from established business patterns and practices. The fact that these innovative entrepreneurs overthrow the traditional rules and recombine resources in new ways really accelerates the global economy metabolism. In other words, the upgrading staffs’ personal quality and the declining detrimental competition would pave way for the further economic development.

As the establishment of turbulent balance may be too recondite to receive for the public, a better way to clarify this issue is to merely concentrate on the main point. No matter what different circumstances the numerous entrepreneurs are embraced, one thing they share in common is that to maximize their profits is the underlying objection in the pursuit of self-achievement. As a consequence, the entrepreneurs could simplify the complicated and changeable situation and make breakthroughs only if they go on straight and ignore the distractions.

作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-30 21:23:02

An evolutionary biologist on religion

Spirit level
Dec 17th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Why the human race has needed religion to survive

Alamy
The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why it Endures. By Nicholas Wade. Penguin Press; 310 pages; $25.95. Buy from Amazon.com


WHEREVER their investigations lead, all analysts of religion begin somewhere. And in the final lines of his densely but skilfully packed account of faith from the viewpoint of evolutionary biology, Nicholas Wade recalls the place where he first felt sanctity(圣洁,神圣): Eton College chapel.

The “beauty of holiness” in a British private school is a far cry from(与迥然不同) the sort of religion that later came to interest him as a science journalist at Nature magazine and then the New York Times. To examine the roots of religion, he says, it is important to look at human beginnings. The customs of hunter-gatherer peoples who survived into modern times give an idea of religion’s first forms: the ecstasy of dusk-to-dawn(黄昏到黎明) tribal dances, for example.

Charles Darwin, whose idea of the sacred also came from an English private school, witnessed religion at its most primordial(原始) when he went to Australia in 1836. He found it horrifying: “nearly naked figures, viewed by the light of blazing fires, all moving in hideous(可怕的) harmony…”

Whatever Darwin’s personal sensibilities, Mr Wade is convinced that a Darwinian approach offers the key to understanding religion. In other words, he sides with those who think man’s propensity(倾向,癖性) for religion has some adaptive function. According to this view, faith would not have persisted over thousands of generations if it had not helped the human race to survive. Among evolutionary biologists, this idea is contested(有争议的). Critics of religion, like Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker, suggest that faith is a useless (or worse) by-product(副产品) of other human characteristics.

And that controversy leads to another one. Does Darwinian selection take place at the level only of individuals, or of groups as well? As Mr Wade makes clear, the notion of religion as an “adaptive” phenomenon makes better sense(更有意义) if one accepts the idea of group selection. Groups which practised(实践)
religion effectively and enjoyed its benefits were likely to prevail over those which lacked these advantages.


Of course, the picture is muddied(模糊不清) by the vast changes that religion went through in the journey from tribal dancing to Anglican hymns. The advent of settled, agricultural societies, at least 10,000 years ago, led to a new division of labour, in which priestly castes(僧侣阶级) tried to monopolise(独占) access to the divine(神学家,造物主), and the authorities sought to control sacred ecstasy.

Still, the modifications(改良,修正) that religion has undergone(经历,经受,遭受)
should not, in Mr Wade’s view, distract from
(分散的注意力) the study of faith’s basic functions. In what way, then, does religion enhance a group’s survival? Above all, by promoting moral rules and cementing cohesion, in a way that makes people ready to sacrifice themselves for the group and to deal ruthlessly with outsiders. These arguments are well made. Mr Wade has a clear mind and limpid prose style which guides the reader almost effortlessly through 200 years of intellectual history. Perhaps, though, he oversimplifies the link between morality, in the sense of (在的意义上)obedience to rules, and group solidarity based on common participation in ecstatic(狂喜的)
rites.


All religion is concerned in varying degrees with metaphysical ideas, moral norms and mystical experience. But in the great religions, the moral and the mystical have often been in tension. The more a religion stresses ecstasy, the less it seems hidebound by rules—especially rules of public behaviour, as opposed to purely religious norms. And religious movements (from the “Deuteronomists” of ancient Israel to the English Puritans) that emphasise moral norms(道德规范) tend to eschew the ecstatic.

Max Weber, one of the fathers of religious sociology, contrasted the transcendental feelings enjoyed by Catholic mass-goers with the Protestant obsession with behaviour. In Imperial Russia, Peter the Great tried to pull the Russian Orthodox church from the former extreme to the latter: to curb its love of rite and mystery and make it more of a moral agency like the Lutheran churches of northern Europe. He failed. Russians liked things mystical, and they didn’t like being told what to do.

As well as giving an elegant summary of modern thinking about religion, Mr Wade also offers a brief, provocative history of monotheism(一神教). He endorses(赞同,批准) the radical(激进的) view that the story of the Jews’ flight from Egypt is myth, rather than history. He sympathises(同情) with daring ideas about Islam’s beginnings: so daring that many of its proponents(支持者) work under false names. In their view, Islam is more likely to have emerged from dissident Christian sects in the Levant than to have “burst out of Arabia”, as the Muslim version of sacred history teaches.

At times(有时), the book stumbles(失误). In describing the interplay between Hellenic and Hebrew culture at the dawning of Christianity, Mr Wade makes exaggerated claims. He says there is no basis for a mother-and-child cult in the religion of Israel. In fact there are many references in the Hebrew scriptures to the Messiah and his mother; the Dead Sea Scrolls have made this even clearer. And his micro-history of Christian theology(神学) is inaccurate in places.

These objections aside, this is a masterly(高妙的) book. It lays the basis for a rich dialogue between biology, social science and religious history. It also helps explain a quest for collective ecstasy that can take myriad forms. Perhaps his brief autobiographical reference to Eton should have noted the bonding(粘结) effect not only of chapel, but also of songs like “Jolly Boating Weather”.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-30 21:24:25

Comment:

This is really a new, mystical and unknown sphere for me.

Only if religion enhances a group’s survival can it have power over the individuals and be preserved in the long course of history as the author claims. It emphasizes both the ruthlessness to outsiders and the individual sacrifice for the religious group.

This characteristic of religion—the so-called adaptive function—has similar natures to numerous organizations, such as family and social class. It is primarily through our identification with these social groups that we define ourselves. In other words, one’s identity keeps changing when he belongs to different units. The fact that mankind have no fixed status leads to the momentary identity. At the same time, one would like to accentuate his sense of belonging when he involves in a specific group. For example, one would unconsciously speak a dialect when he gets together with his countryman.

In sum, one tends to define himself through the social group he involves in and make decisions depending on his role in the group. Above all, no one is capable of surviving without the guideline of any group.

作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-30 22:02:19

本帖最后由 zhengchangdian 于 2009-12-30 22:05 编辑

关于这篇文章,还有一点思考:

Darwin evolution theory 可以被应用到社会学的领域:

"the evolution of society is similar to the evolution of individuals more or less. In the wild, different kinds of creatures change their physical structure or living habits in order to adapt the surroundings. People are struggling for surviving in this competitive society."——来自splendidsun

人们define themselves 依靠gruops, 并且随之带来了role--duty--action--evaluation,
借助Darwin的理论,进行类比:
我们找到了
role——we can also the group that dangle at the bottom of the food chain in our society——伊拉克难民

duty——So the group has to strenghen itself for survival by accentuate or emphasize the responsibility of its members—— 保卫国家领土主权的完整,不被侵犯,同时追求生命和自由平等

action——individuals have to take action to realize their collective objection——拿起武器,进行战斗,人体炸弹,恐怖活动

evaluation——outside accaptance and self-evaluation(belonging)

evolution——adaptive functioning,increasing cohesion, racial harmony and national identity——世界各国的援助支持和自我种族认同
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2009-12-30 23:33:14

From 程远:
        类比不成立:自然界的食物链是由上帝决定的,但是社会的制度是由人决定的。如果默认这个类比,等于要求穷人默认自己是生来应该被剥削,再一句剥削而产生适应剥削的进化。

       至于Max Weber:崇尚自由竞争....

等待大师的回复邮件中:sleepy:
作者: pluka    时间: 2010-1-1 12:26:11

新年快乐~~
话说,我们组要搞点啥活动不?
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2010-1-2 23:48:57

Film
Floating in the Digital Experience
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: December 30, 2009

HOW much our world of moving-image entertainment has changed in the past decade! We now live in a world of the 24-Hour Movie, one that plays anytime and anywhere you want (and sometimes whether you want it to or not). It’s a movie we can access at home by pressing a few buttons on the remote (and agreeing to pay more for it than you might at the local video store) or with a few clicks of the mouse. The 24-Hour Movie now streams(喷射,流) instead of unspools, filling our screens with images that, more and more, have been created algorithmically(算法上的) rather than photographically.

And yet how little our world of moving-image entertainment has changed! On April 14, 1896, The New York Times ran an article with the exciting if cryptic(神秘的,令人困惑的,含义隐秘的) headline “Edison’s Latest Triumph.” The triumph was the Vitascope, a machine that “projects upon a large area of canvas groups that appear to stand forth from the canvas, and move with great facility and agility, as though actuated(促使,开动) by separate impulses.” A proprietor(老板) of the music hall where the Vitascope was shown off said this machine would reproduce “scenes from various successful plays and operas of the season, and well-known statesmen and celebrities,” adding, “No other manager in this city will have the right to exhibit the Vitascope.”

Today, even when digital, our movies are still filled with celebrities and scenes from successful plays (and books and comics), and the owners of image technologies continue to hold on to their exclusive rights ferociously(凶猛). Edison didn’t invent the Vitascope, but that’s another story. The story I want to tell here does involve him. But first I want to fast-forward(快进) to a recent night when, at a movie theater rigged(控制,操纵) for 3-D projection, I saw James Cameron’s “Avatar” with an audience that watched the screen with the kind of fixed attention that has become rare at the movies. True, everyone was wearing 3-D glasses, which makes it difficult to check your cellphone obsessively(痴迷), but they also seemed captivated.

When it was over, people broke into enthusiastic applause and, unusually, many stayed to watch the credits, as if to linger in the movie. Although much has been made of the technologies used in “Avatar,” its beauty and nominal(名义) politics, it is the social experience of the movie — as an event that needs to be enjoyed with other people for maximum impact — which is more interesting. That’s particularly true after a decade when watching movies became an increasingly solitary affair, something between you and your laptop(笔记本电脑). “Avatar”(化身,体现) affirms the deep pleasures of the communal, and it does so by exploiting a technology (3-D), which appears to invite you into the movie even as it also forces you to remain attentively(用心) in your seat.

“Avatar” serves as a nice jumping-off point to revisit how movies and our experience of them have changed. For starters, when a critic calls a new release “a film” these days, there’s a chance that what she (and you) are looking at wasn’t made with film processes but was created, from pre-visualization to final credits, with digital technologies. Yet, unless a director or distributor calls attention to the technologies used — as do techno-fetishists(盲目崇拜者) like Michael Mann and David Fincher, who used bleeding-edge digital cameras to make “Collateral” (2004) and “Zodiac” (2007) — it’s also probable that most reviewers won’t mention if a movie was even shot in digital, because they haven’t noticed or don’t care.

This seems like a strange state of affairs. Film is profoundly changing — or, if you believe some theorists and historians, is already dead — something that most moviegoers don’t know. Yet, because the visible evidence of this changeover(改变,转入) has become literally hard to see, and because the implications are difficult to grasp, it is also understandable why the shift to digital has not attracted more intense analysis outside film and media studies. Bluntly(直言) put, something is happening before our eyes. We might see an occasional digital artifact (usually, a bit of unintentional data) when a director shoots digital in bright light — look for a pattern of squares or a yellowish tint(黄色色调) — but we’re usually too busy with the story to pay much mind.

Should you care? I honestly don’t know, because I’m not sure what to think about this brave new image world we have entered. I love the luxurious look and warmth of film, and I fervently(热切) hope it never disappears. And yet many of us who grew up watching movies in the predigital era have rarely experienced the ones in, and shown on, film in all their visual glory: battered(破旧,磨损) prints and bad projection have helped thwart(挫败) the ideal experience. Theater 80 St. Marks, a downtown Manhattan repertory house(仓库) where I spent a lot of time in the 1970s, showed threadbare prints of classic and not-so-classic movies in rear(后方的) projection, which meant they often looked worse on screen than they did on my television back home.

It is because the movies and our experience of them has changed so radically in recent years — we can pull a movie out of our pocket now, much as earlier generations pulled out a paperback(平装版) — that makes it difficult to grasp what is happening. In 1996, Susan Sontag set off a storm in cine-circles(电影圈) with an essay, “The Decay of Cinema,” which could have been titled the death of specialized cinephilia, one centered on art-house film (“quintessentially(典型) modern”), from Dziga Vertov to Jean-Luc Godard, and experienced inside a movie theater, “ideally the third-row center.” Sontag’s essay inspired a spate of(一连串) similarly themed if often less vigorous examinations: Google the words “death of cinema,” and you get more than 2.5 million hits.

In one sense the beginning of the end of cinema as we tend to understand it can be traced to 1933, the year that a feature-length film — a 1932 detective tale called “The Crooked(弯曲) Circle” — was first shown on television. Few Americans owned sets in the 1930s, but the genie(魔鬼,精灵) was already out of the bottle, or, rather, the movies were out of the theater. As televisions began to fill postwar American homes — from an estimated 20,000 in 1946 to 30.5 million in 1955 — so did the movies, which, despite Hollywood’s initial anxiety, became a crucial television staple(主要产品). (The studios soon learned that television was a revenue source.) Generations of cinephiles fell in love with the object of their obsession while flopped(跳) on the floor, basking in the glow of the family television.

In “The Virtual Life of Film,” an elegant 2007 inquiry into the past, present and future of film, the theorist D. N. Rodowick writes, “All that was chemical and photographic is disappearing into the electronic and digital.” Film captures moments in time, preserving them spatially(空间上) in images we can root around in, get lost in. Digital delivers data, zeroes and ones that are transformed into images, and this is a difference to contemplate. The truth is that the film object has already changed, from preproduction to projection. And the traditional theatrical experience that shaped how viewers looked at film and, by extension, the world, has been mutating for some time. The new types of image consumption and digital technologies have complicated our understanding of cinema.

And yet we still watch movies. And if it looks like a duck (in widescreen) and quacks(聊天,吹牛) like a duck (in stereo(立体声)), nothing has changed, right? It has and it hasn’t, as we will only understand as film continues to disappear. These days instead of falling in love with the movies at home in front of the television, new generations fall in love with movies they watch on hand-held devices that, however small, play images that are larger than those Edison showed to customers before the invention of the Vitascope. A teenager watching a movie on her iPhone might not be looking at an actual film. But she is enjoying something like it, something that because of its narrative strategies and visual style carries the deep imprint(印记) of cinema.

It’s also a good bet that this teenager also watches movies in theaters. If she goes to “Avatar,” she will see a movie that, despite its exotic beauty, seems familiar, even in 3-D. Narrative cinema employs devices, from camera placement to editing, that direct your attention and, if the movie is successful and you fall under its sway(受...统治,控制), lock you into the story. Mr. Cameron might be a visionary of a type, but he’s an old-fashioned (and canny) storyteller and he locks you in tightly. The 3-D images are often spectacular, and his characters, like the figures in that 1896 Edison film, “appear to stand forth from the canvas, and move with great facility and agility, as though actuated by separate impulses.”

You can get lost in a movie, or so it seems, and melt into its world. But even when seated third row center and occupying two mental spaces, you understand that you and the movie inhabit separate realms. When I watched “The Dark Knight” in Imax, I felt that I was at the very edge of the screen. “Avatar,” in 3-D, by contrast, blurs(模糊) that edge, closing the space between you and the screen even more. Like a video game designer, Mr. Cameron seems to want to invite you into the digital world he has created even if, like a film director, he wants to determine your route. Perched between film and digital, “Avatar” shows us a future in which movies will invite us further into them and perhaps even allow us to choose not just the hero’s journey through the story, but also our own.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2010-1-3 01:52:09

Comment:

What a wonderful experience do we have through the amazing development of visual presentation. Thanks to the existence of film, television, video tape, computer and digital camera, numerous original works such as paintings and historical documents are available to everyone. Not only do they create a brand new world, but they also enable anyone-not just scholars-to have access to these works. To illustrate this point of view clearly, here’s a good example. Li, a Chinese student who has never been abroad before, could drone on for hours about the dramatic moment that God breathes life into Adam by the magical touch in the magnificent fresco of the Sistine Chapel in Italy. The reason why he has an exhaustive knowledge of this art works comes from a documentary film about the famous art works all over the world and the satisfactory Internet search engine.

Of course, anxiety and apprehension have occurred when a trend forces mankind to accept something new. In this case, it refers to the rise of visual novelty which aims at altering mankind’s life gradually and completely. Most of the 30s and above have witnessed the earth-shaking change especially since the invention of computer and the wide spread of Internet. The original fear that books are meant to be replaced by the computer is eliminated when man recognize the drying up of imagination which should be fired by books. So the current trend is that books and computers would coexist for quite a long time.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2010-1-3 13:09:30

Beyond Righteousness(正义) and Gain

by Zhou Guoping

"A virtuous man is concerned with righteousness while a mean man, with gain,” Confucius(孔子) says. The "righteousness" and "gain" have long been a central theme in the Chinese philosophy of life. But, what if I am neither virtuous nor mean?

There was once a time when almost everyone claimed to be a gentleman and every word uttered was about righteousness. At that time, there might have been some truly virtuous men who were so righteous as to give up whatever was profitable. But, more likely, one might meet hypocrites who used righteousness as a fig leaf(遮羞布) for their cupidity, or pedants(书呆子,空论家) believed in whatever passed for righteousness. Gone are the old days. The social trend has taken on a dramatic change unawares: the reputation of righteousness nosedived(暴跌), truly virtuous men became extinct, hypocrites dropped the fig leaf and the scales(鱼鳞) fell from the eyes of the pedants. With- out exception, they all joined in the scramble(争夺) for gains. It is believed that the philosophy of life has changed and a new interpretation of righteousness and gain looms large: seeking material gains is not the exclusive patent(专利) of the mean, but a golden rule for all.

"Time is money" is a vogue word nowadays. Nothing is wrong when entrepreneurs apply it to boost productivity. But, when it is worshipped as a motto of life and commercialism takes the place of other wisdom of life, life is then turned into a corporation and, consequently, interpersonal relations into a market.

I used to mock at the cheap "human touch(人情味)". But, nowadays even the cheap “touch” has become rare and costly. Can you, if I may ask, get a smile, a greeting, or a tiny bit of compassion for free?

Don’t be nostalgic, though. It is in fact of little help if you try to redeem(赎回) the world or salvage(救助) the corrupt minds through preaching various brands of righteousness. Nevertheless, beyond righteousness and gain, I believe, there are other attitudes towards life; beyond virtue and meanness, there are other individualities. Allow me to coin(模压,生造) a sentence in the Confucian style: "A perfect man is concerned with disposition(性格,倾向,气质)."

Indeed, righteousness and gain, seemingly poles apart(相距甚远), have much essence in common. Righteousness calls for a devotion to the whole society while gain drives one to pursue material interests. In both cases, one’s disposition is over- looked and his true “self” concealed. "Righteousness" teaches one to give while "gain" induces one to take. The former turns one’s life into a process of fulfilling endless obligations while the latter breeds a life-long scramble for wealth and power. We must remember, however, the true value of life is beyond obligations and power. Both righteousness and gain are yoked by calculating minds. That’s why we often find ourselves in a tense interpersonal relationship whether Mr. Righteousness is commanding or Mr. Gain, controlling.

If "righteousness" stands for an ethical philosophy of life, and "gain," a utilitarian one, what I mean by "disposition" is an aesthetical philosophy of fife, which advocates taking your disposition as the operational guidance for your fife, whereby everyone is allowed to keep his true "self". You do not five for the doctrines you believe in or the materials you possess. Instead, your true "self" makes you who you are. The true meaning of life lies not in giving or possessing, but in creating, which actively unfolds your true disposition, or, in other words, the emotional gratification you obtain through the exertion of your essential power. Different from giving, which is the performance of an external responsibility, creating is the realization of one’s true self. The difference between creating and possessing is more than crystal clear. Let’s take creative writing as an example: "Possessing" focuses on the fame or social status a piece of writing may bring, while "creating" highlights the plea- sure in the process of writing. A man of disposition seeks nothing but the communication of feelings while in company, and the cultivation of taste while possessing something. More valuably, in a time when most people are busy hunting for wealth and being hunted by it, a man of disposition is al- ways at ease in social intercourses. Here I' m not talking about the leisure of traditional Chinese scholar-officials, nor the complacency of conservative peasants(农民), but about a peaceful mind coming from a non-materialistic attitude towards life. Using the writing example again, I’ve been wondering why a writer needs to be prolific. If he dreams of being enshrined(供奉), an immortal short poem is enough. Otherwise, he could be pretty much satisfied with a carefree life. In this sense, writing is merely a way for such a life.

Bernard Shaw once said, “There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it." With it I couldn’t agree more. I did admire him for his easy and humorous way in describing the quandary(困境) of life. However, a deep ponder over it has brought home to me that Shaw’s standpoint is no other than "possessing", which keeps us stranded in a double dosage(计量) tragedy of life: it' s a pain not to possess your heart' s desire, and a tedium(乏味), to have possessed it. However, if we shift the standpoint from "possessing" to "creating", and look at life with an esthetic eye, we can interpret Shaw’s words the other way round: there are two comedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire, so you still have the opportunity to seek or create it. The other is to get your heart’s desire, and then you are able to enjoy tasting or experiencing it--Of course, life can never be free from pains, and a wealth hunter can not dream of the sadness of a man who places a premium(保险费,佣金,奖励) on his true disposition. However, to be free from the mania for pos- session may at least save you many petty worries and pains, and let you enjoy a graceful life. 1 have no intention to prescribe the esthetic viewpoint as the cure for a corrupt world. I just want to express a belief: there is a life more worth living than the one haunted by righteousness and gain. And, this belief will help me sail through the unpredictable waters of my future life.

作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2010-1-3 14:44:19

Comment
Well, I have to say that the author is excessively sensitive on the goal in life much or less. Faced with the food shortage, over-capacity of production, environmental issues and so on, mankind should pay more attention to these global severe threatens instead of persuading others to subscribe the motto of righteousness on shield. I concede that what the author emphasizes is an undoubtedly fact, however, it is not the right time to preach the ideal of being a true man when one is surrounded with thorny difficulties.

Maybe pragmatism is detrimental in some aspects, but it has advantages over the na&iuml;ve idealism, especially taking the current global plight into consideration. After all, no one would like to live in a dilapidated house and concern about his meals. In this case, the wealth hunter should receive a warm welcome when he is also a wealth creator. Thanks to the liability to pay taxes, the rich also have to make a contribution to the society such as the infrastructure development and the unemployment benefits. Without their pursuit for utilitarian, poverty and stagnation would rule the world ruthlessly.

In sum, as far as I am concerned, the pursuit of wealth is not contradicted with the goal to realize the true value of life. And the utopian condition for the majority is to unify the two objections to the fullest extent possible. Maybe only artists and layman Buddhists could have access to peacefulness and serenity and the state of neglecting the fame and money.

作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2010-1-3 15:02:52

看了Pluca的comment,很赞其中关于世俗将人们面对现实的无奈描写:
“"We all live in the gutter," yes I know the next words, promising and beautiful, yet this line alone have been heavy enough. I'd like to read essays delving human's heart, exploring the inner universe, finding out the silent galaxy singing within; this sometimes feels like touching the eternal and escaping the mundane. Yet simply too often the gravity drags me down, with the pale face and dim lights flickering  in the murky, reminding that here's still earth: enoumous, inextricable, right in the gutter.”

这使我想起了关于离心力于向心力的那段描述:

There is a relation between the hours of our life and the centuries of time. As the air I breathe is drawn from the great repositories of nature, as the light on my book is yielded by a star a hunderd millions of miles distant, as the poise of my body depends on the equilibrium of centrifugal and centripetal forces, so the hours should be instructed by the ages, and the ages explained by the hours.
作者: zhengchangdian    时间: 2010-1-4 13:25:47

今天回来竟然还没有留新作业,所以就先补上1.1的吧!
The World in 2010
The Americas

Canada's northern goal
Nov 13th 2009
From The World in 2010 print edition
By Jeffrey Simpson, OTTAWA



The Arctic is no longer the forgotten frontier(边疆)
Canada is a northern nation. “O Canada”, the national anthem, speaks of “true north, strong and free”. But for most Canadians, 80% of whom live within 200km (124 miles) of the United States border, the Far North (Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut) is a vast area never visited, largely unknown, usually forgotten and populated only by aboriginal peoples with quaint(离奇有趣) customs. All that will start to change in 2010.

Pangnirtung(庞纳唐), population 1,300, on the east coast of Baffin Island, a settlement mostly known for Inuit(因纽特) art and a nearby national park, will see construction start on a C$42m ($40.5m) harbour for the small Inuit fishing fleet(船队). At Gjoa Haven, the only settlement on King William Island, cabins(客舱) used by polar-bear researchers will be upgraded. At Eureka, on Ellesmere Island, an atmospheric laboratory will be overhauled(大修). At Iqaluit, capital of the Nunavut territory, tens of millions of dollars will be spent on badly needed housing, a research institute and a research vessel(船).

Add to that oil and gas exploration in the Beaufort Sea; C$100m for social housing(社区住宅); the same sum for geology research; another C$90m for economic-development projects; C$85m to improve Arctic research stations. The result is activity such as the Far North, from Alaska in the west to Baffin Bay in the east, has never before seen. And still to come—delayed by debilitating(减弱) squabbles(争吵) among Canada’s shipbuilders and the usual cost overruns(泛滥,溢出) of military projects—are three Arctic patrol(巡逻) ships and a polar icebreaker, plus the publication of plans for a deep-water port at Nanisivik, on the north coast of Baffin Island. Later in the year, if all goes according to plan, the federal government will select a community that will get a High Arctic Research Station.

During the cold war, Canada and the United States constructed a Distant Early-Warning detection system against any attack by Soviet bombers. Apart from this DEW line, Canada paid little heed(注意,留心) militarily to the Far North. Soviet and American submarines(潜艇) roamed(漫游) under the Arctic ice without Canada having any ability to monitor them. The Canadian government outfitted(供给,装备) a few Inuit with baseball hats and rifles(步枪), called them Rangers, and forgot about the region.

Now, the rush is on to discover the Far North, quite literally in the sense of research into atmosphere, ice and animals; and more urgently to get ready for the widening of sea lanes(航道) caused by global warming. Higher temperatures mean less sea ice and more scope for mineral and fossil-fuel exploration, more foreign ships traversing(遍历) the north, and potential conflicts with other Arctic states over the seabed, sea lanes, and sea and land borders.

The Arctic is full of unresolved border delineations(轮廓图). Canada and the United States disagree over the maritime(海事) boundary between Alaska and Yukon. Canada and Denmark have both planted flags on tiny Hans Island. Canada will continue working in 2010 to prepare its claim under a United Nations convention(根据公约准备索赔) for underwater rights extending as far as the North Pole, a claim that will surely conflict with one already filed by Russia.

No country agrees with Canada’s contention that the Northwest Passage (there are actually two or three possible routes) belongs to Canada. The United States, Russia and the European Union all believe the passage constitutes an international strait. The trickiest decision for Canada is whether to consider the United States as friend or rival in the Far North, a decision that has to come soon. Do the two countries co-operate in managing the sea lanes? Do they sort out their maritime border dispute(解决争执)? Do they support each other against Russia, or go their own ways?

Canada’s belated interest in its Far North is somewhat ironic given that climate change has hit the Far North harder than any other part of the Earth, and yet Canada’s record in curbing greenhouse-gas emissions is the worst in the G8. In the Kyoto climate-change protocol(协议), Canada pledged to reduce emissions by 6% from 1990 levels by 2008-12; instead, emissions have risen by 27% and will rise again in 2010, especially if development intensifies in the tar(焦油) sands of Alberta.

No matter who governs Canada in 2010—the country’s fractured political system has thrown up(呕吐,放弃) a series of unstable governments—all parties agree that the rush to research, develop and protect the Far North has become a national priority(国家重点). The Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, made the Far North one of his signature issues after being elected in 2006. That the other parties now agree with this priority, without giving him any credit(相信) of course(倒置), means that the days of benign(良性,仁慈) neglect(善意忽视) of the Far North are over.






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