【clover】组外跟帖 ECO analysis by 环游世界

环游世界UID: 2743584

02.02
The Dalai Lama and Tibet
Showing willing
The Dalai Lama sends envoys to China once again, as our correspondent returns to Tibet
Jan 25th 2010 | LHASA | From The Economist online
好词好句
生词，难句
素材
结构

1.CHINESE officials appear ready to resume talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama after a 15 month lapse, but in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, the authorities remain on guard. Few expect the talks to make much progress, nor tensions in Tibet to subside.

背景介绍，引入主题。第三人称表达自己的看法。
2.As the Dalai Lama’s envoys headed to China for what are expected to be the first discussions between the two sides since November 2008, small groups of helmeted riot police, some of them carrying rifles, remained deployed near important temples in the centre of Lhasa. Your correspondent, who is on a rare authorised trip to Tibet by a foreign journalist, saw hundreds of worshipers walking and prostrating themselves in ritual circuits around the Jokhang Temple, Tibet’s holiest shrine, as the police watched impassively. Security was conspicuous but appeared far less intense than in the aftermath of the Tibetan rioting that erupted in Lhasa in March 2008.
西藏现状
3.The Dalai Lama’s representatives are highly unlikely to witness such scenes. Their talks in the next few days are expected to take place far from volatile Tibet. It is not clear why China has agreed to further discussions. After the 2008 riots, which triggered anti-Chinese protests across the Tibetan plateau, China—under considerable foreign pressure–agreed to resume dialogue which had been sputtering on and off with no apparent progress since 2002. Three more rounds were held, but at the last one in November 2008 the Chinese side was infuriated by a detailed proposal submitted by the Dalai Lama’s officials for achieving “genuine autonomy” for Tibet and neighbouring Tibetan-inhabited areas.

4.Chinese officials denounced the proposal as a disguised bid for the region’s independence. In it the Dalai Lama called for all of China’s Tibetan-inhabited regions to be unified under one administration. This would involve taking large chunks from neighbouring provinces. The Dalai Lama denies that he wants independence and insists his aim is merely to achieve greater cultural and religious freedom for Tibetans.
谈判的进展
5.America may be a factor. China is worried about the possibility that Barack Obama will soon meet the Dalai Lama in Washington, DC, for the first time since he became president. Mr Obama avoided such a meeting when the Dalai Lama visited the American capital last October, apparently to avoid angering the Chinese as he prepared for a summit in Beijing the following month. By resuming talks now, China might hope that an appearance of progress will help persuade Mr Obama to keep any meeting with the Dalai Lama low key.

6.American presidents in the past have been careful to do so. But George Bush broke from tradition in October 2007 when he presented the Dalai Lama with a congressional gold medal in a high profile ceremony. That event was greeted with glee by some Tibetans. China does not want a conspicuous display of American solidarity with the Dalai Lama that could encourage anti-Beijing sentiment in Tibet. The authorities’ nervousness is evident in tighter controls over visits by foreign tourists since the 2008 rioting. A Western tourist in Lhasa says he has been closely chaperoned by an (unwanted) official guide throughout his nearly week-long stay.（例子）
分析谈判重启的原因
7.Twice this month senior Chinese leaders met to discuss Tibet policy. At the last conclave, which finished on January 20th, President Hu Jintao called for more efforts to improve the living standards of Tibetans. The per capita incomes of Tibet’s rural population should be raised to the national average by 2020, he said. But he also said that Tibet faced “special contradictions” with what the state run news agency Xinhua called “separatist forces led by the Dalai clique”. The chances of compromise are remote.
中国的态度推测。

结构：
1.背景介绍，引入主题。第三人称表达自己的看法
2.西藏现状
3. 4.谈判的进展
5. 6.分析谈判重启的原因
7.中国的态度推测。

好词
Noun: Tibet’s holiest shrine      one’s solidarity with sb.
Verb: resume talks with    nor tensions in Tibet to subside   
         headed to                      keep…low key
Adj: remained deployed     volatile            was infuriated by

好句
sputtering on and off with no apparent progress
The chances of compromise are remote

环游世界UID: 2743584

02.03
South Africa's education system
No one gets prizes
Blacks suffer most, as schools remain ill-equipped and children are ill-taught
Jan 14th 2010 | JOHANNESBURG | From The Economist print edition
好词好句
生词，难句
素材
结构

1.SOUTH AFRICA spends a bigger share of its GDP on education than any other country on the continent. Yet its results are among the worst. Fifteen years after apartheid(以往南非的种族隔离制度) was buried, black children continue to receive an education that is vastly inferior to most of their white peers. Instead of ending inequality, as the ruling African National Congress (ANC) promised, the country’s schools are perpetuating it.
概括性事实介绍
2.For Graeme Bloch, an education expert at the Development Bank of Southern Africa, his country’s education system is a “national disaster”. He says around 80% of schools are “dysfunctional”. Half of all pupils drop out before taking their final “matric” (大学入学许可)exams. Only 15% get good enough marks to get into university. Of those who do get in, barely half end up with a degree. South Africa regularly comes bottom or near the bottom in international literacy, numeracy and science tests.
入学比例，学生水平
3.University heads increasingly complain about students totally unprepared for higher education. Employers bemoan a dearth of skilled manpower, yet—by some measures—one in three South Africans has no job. A study of first-year students by Higher Education South Africa, the universities’ representative body, found only half the 2009 intake to be proficient in “academic literacy” and barely a quarter in “quantitative literacy”, while no more than 7% were deemed to have the necessary mathematics skills.
市场需求与学生学习动力的矛盾
4.The ANC government has poured money into schools in black townships and rural areas in an effort to raise standards, yet black children still fare badly. Of the one in four who took matric maths in 2008, only 39% passed (despite a lowly passmark of just 30%), compared with 98% of whites; 28% of whites achieved a score of at least 80%, compared with just 2% of blacks.
政府对黑人学校投入很大，却收效一般。
5.Not surprisingly, the same story is repeated at tertiary level. Just one in ten black pupils qualifies for university, compared with more than half of their white peers. Whites, who account for 9% of the population, gained 42% of the degrees awarded in 2007, almost exactly the same proportion as blacks, who are nearly ten times more numerous.
以下分析原因
6.Much of this discrepancy is to do with history. Under apartheid, blacks were kept down. By the end of the 1960s, the government was spending 16 times more on educating a white child than a black one. Most black teachers were (and still are) far less qualified than white ones. Black schools had (and still have) fewer facilities and much bigger classes. And most black children came from poor, ill-educated families where English, the main language of instruction, was not their mother tongue.
7.Today, all state schools are desegregated. But it is the better-endowed former white schools, with their continuing traditions of discipline, excellence and hard work, that still produce by far and away(到目前为止，一般放在最高级前)the best results. The top 10% of former all-black schools are also achieving some excellent results. But, as the Congress of South African Trade Unions recently admitted, many are “unsafe, bleak, uninspiring places, where violence and abuse are rife”. In many cases, said COSATU, they were “no more than dumping grounds for children.”
历史原因
8.The latest matric results published this month showed a fall in the overall pass rate to 61%, compared with 73% in 2003. Though the pass rate has always fluctuated, the latest result has brought renewed heart-searching. Much of the blame has been attributed to the introduction in 1998 of a supposedly more child-centred “outcomes-based education”, designed to prepare children for a rapidly changing, technological world. But few schools had the resources to apply such ideas. The government now wants a return to greater emphasis on the three Rs(the three skills regarded as the fundamentals of education; reading, writing, and arithmetic).
政府原因
9.But more than the curriculum or organisation of classes, it is the teachers who are largely responsible for South Africa’s abysmal results. Only 18% are professionally qualified graduates. Most spend barely half the officially required 6.5 hours a day in class, sometimes running their own businesses on the side. Many are not up to teaching at all. Yet their performance is not systematically monitored. Now, to the horror of the powerful teaching unions, President Jacob Zuma’s government is talking of reintroducing a schools’ inspectorate.
教师原因
10.Not all is gloom. Many more black children are getting at least some kind of formal instruction than under apartheid. Around three-quarters of those aged 4-6 and 98% of those aged 7-15 are in full-time schooling, while the number of black university students has nearly quadrupled over the past 15 years. But with more than 5% of GDP being spent on education, South Africa is getting a rotten return on its investment.
补充，介绍些进步的方面，最后一句总结。

环游世界UID: 2743584

结构：
1.概括性事实介绍
2.
入学比例，学生水平
3.市场需求与学生学习动力的矛盾
4.5政府对黑人学校投入很大，却收效一般。个人感觉按权重来排的：213
6-9分析原因
(6,7历史原因;8,政府原因;9教师原因)
10介绍些进步的方面，最后一句总结；
简要的就是，事实-具体问题-原因-总结。
好词好句
Verb: comes bottom
brought renewed heart-searching

Adj: dysfunctional
better-endowed
are not up to
is not systematically monitored
好句：
Employers bemoan a dearth of skilled manpower,
yet black children still fare badly
Much of this discrepancy is to do with history.

环游世界UID: 2743584

02.04
NASA's new mission

Space to thrive
A plan to overhaul America’s space agency is long overdue
Feb 3rd 2010 | From The Economist print edition
好词好句
生词，难句
素材
结构

1.IN 2004 George Bush announced a plan for America’s space agency, NASA, to return to the moon by 2020, land there, explore the surface and set up a base. The moon would then serve as a staging post for a journey to Mars. It was, unfortunately, unclear how this modest proposal would be paid for and, as work began and costs spiralled, the “vision” seemed more science fiction than science.
背景介绍
2.On February 1st, reality caught up. The back-to-the-moon programme, Constellation, with its Ares rocket (pictured), fell victim to Barack Obama’s need to find cuts. The Office of Management and Budget described it as over budget, behind schedule and lacking in innovation due to a failure to invest. The office also said Constellation had sucked money from other, more scientific programmes, such as robotic space exploration and Earth observation.
现在计划搁浅
3.Much has been made of the fact that NASA will, as a consequence of Constellation’s cancellation, have to rely on private firms to send its astronauts to the international space station once the space shuttle is withdrawn. In many ways, though, this is the least interesting aspect of what is happening, for what Mr Obama proposed is actually a radical overhaul of the agency.
推测
Success is an option
4.The rethink looks at four areas: new ways of getting into space; extending the life and use of the space station; the agency’s relationship with the private sector; and its scientific mission. The first part of the plan, known as the transformative technology initiative, will cost $7.8 billion over five years. It will develop orbiting fuel depots, rendezvous-and-docking technologies, advanced life-support systems that recycle all of their materials, and better motors for spacecraft. The agency will also develop new engines, propellants and materials as part of a $3.1 billion heavy-lift programme, to allow it to send craft well beyond Earth, while $4.9 billion is allowed for advances in areas such as sensors, communications and robotics.

5.The second part of the plan is to postpone the death of the space station from 2016 to 2020. More science will be done there (cynics might take issue with the word “more”) and there will, specifically, be research into biology, combustion and materials science. There will also be more emphasis on space medicine, and the station is to get a centrifuge(离心机). This will allow people to experience artificial gravity in space, which may be important for long-term missions to places such as Mars. Inflatable（可充气的） “space habitats” were mentioned, and these might be used to build extensions to the space station on the cheap. All this will please the station’s other participants—Canada, Europe and Japan—which have invested a lot in it for, as yet, little return. It will also help build a coalition of countries that want to travel farther into the solar system.

6.Now Constellation is cancelled, the plan’s third part is to encourage private firms to provide transport to and from the space station. Such journeys into low Earth orbit do not need the heavy-lifting oomph that more wide-ranging missions require, so the proposal is to contract out all of this local delivery work. In fact, such a scheme already exists, and 20 cargo missions by two firms, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, are planned. The scheme will be extended to include at least two other companies, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corporation.

7.Under the new regime, companies will get fixed-price contracts instead of being paid on a “cost plus” basis. The risks and burdens of developing transport to low Earth orbit will thus fall to the private sector. According to Mike Gold of Bigelow Aerospace, a firm that hopes to build inflatable space habitats, such fiscal rectitude has been met with criticism from a surprising quarter: Republican politicians. Bill Posey, who represents Florida in Congress, described it as a “slow death of our nation’s human space-flight programme”. “If you could fuel a rocket on hypocrisy（伪善）,” Mr Gold suggests, “we’d be on Pluto by now.”

8.The last part of the plan is for more science. The Earth-observation programme will receive some $2 billion to improve the forecasting of climate change and monitor the planet’s carbon cycle and its ice sheets. As part of this, NASA will replace the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, a satellite that was lost a year ago, and which was supposed to identify the world’s sources, and sinks, of carbon dioxide.

9.There will also be a new emphasis on robotic missions, which are vastly cheaper than manned ones, and cause less angst(焦虑) if they blow up（vi）. The first robot destination will be the moon. There will also, according to Charlie Bolden, NASA’s administrator, be a mission to the sun, to study the solar wind, and one to improve the agency’s ability to detect and catalogue interesting (but potentially dangerous) asteroids that pass near Earth.
介绍原计划的四个方面，重点是第二个和第三个，按新意排序，2341+1，
10.It all, then, adds up to a radical shift—but a sensible one after years of fantasy. As Lori Garver, Mr Bolden’s deputy, put it, “the old plans lost us the moon. This gives us back the solar system.”
总结新计划的意义

结构：
1背景介绍
2现在计划搁浅
3推测结果
4-9介绍原计划的四个方面，重点是第二个和第三个，按新意排序，2341+1，
10.总结新计划的意义

好词好句：
Noun:
a staging post
radical overhaul of the agency
cynic
fiscal rectitude（…的正直性）
carbon cycle
ice sheet（大冰原）
Verb:
costs spiralled
fell victim to(因…而受伤) sucked money from other
take issue with（提出异议） blow up（vi）爆炸

环游世界UID: 2743584

02.05 The oil industry

Beyond the black stuff
Big Oil is being forced rethink its future
Feb 4th 2010 | From The Economist online
好词好句
生词，难句
素材
结构

1.ON THE face of it the world’s big and publicly quoted(公开上市的) oil companies should be celebrating some pleasing results this week. Royal Dutch Shell
unveiled its results on Thursday February 4th, reporting that it had made $9.8 billion in 2009. Two days earlier BP boasted profits of $14 billion for the same year. Yet these billions are a disappointment compared with the bonanza of previous years (Shell, for example, raked in $31.4 billion in 2008 alone) when soaring oil prices pulled profits ever higher.
Bonanza:a source, usually sudden and unexpected, of luck or wealth

2.In the long term, however, the firms’ success depends on sustaining reserves. (主题句)The big western oil companies are trying to expand through acquisitions(一直没背这个意思，并购) and investment, but the opportunities do so are becoming scarcer. The firms are spending where they can. Exxon Mobil（埃克森-美孚）, the biggest listed（上市的） oil company, says that exploration and capital spending（勘探和资本投入） hit $27.1 billion in 2009, 4% higher than in 2008. The company expects to spend $25 billion to $30 billion annually to the same end over the next five years. BP intends to spend some $20 billion this year on investment in new projects and drilling, roughly the same level as last year.
有足够的储量是关键的，但不是总能买到。下面又转到钱的限制。
3.But there are limits to what money can buy. State-controlled rivals—in the Middle East, Russia and beyond—jealously guard oil reserves on their home patches. (现有的大的不让采)Few new big fields of oil, at least those that are easy to reach and cheap to exploit, have been discovered in recent years.（新找到的一般都不好） And where new opportunities emerge, such as in Iraq, Western oil giants are scrambling to pay big sums at auctions for drilling rights in territory where the local government tightly limits their returns.（找到好的，又有很多限制） Even then, competition from Chinese, Russian and other state-run oil firms can be severe. National oil companies will often pay prices that would alarm shareholders in the big listed oil companies.（不仅是限制，还有竞争）


4.Thus Western firms are increasingly looking for different sorts of growth. One option is to deploy their expertise in the hunt for oil that is harder to reach, for example deep offshore, or to go for reserves such as tar sands that are trickier, and so much pricier, to refine.

5.Another route is to speed up the quest for other energy reserves. France’s Total has branched out into nuclear-power generation. This week Shell announced a $12 billion joint-venture with Cosan, a Brazilian producer of ethanol（乙醇） from sugar cane. This is something of a change of tack（航向）. Exxon and Shell are both spending money on “second generation” biofuels made from algae or waste materials, but these could take years to develop. Now Shell can sell Cosan’s “first generation” wares through it global distribution network.

6.By far the biggest bet laid, however, has been on natural gas. Around 40% of Shell’s daily production is now in the form of gas. Total and BP are not far behind. Gas is increasingly important for power generation and heating and the global market is expected to grow by half by 2030. Big oil companies are keen to expand, calculating that their skills at managing huge capital projects will be useful when building gas-liquefaction plants that make the stuff readily transportable. Late last year Chevron, Shell and Exxon agreed to spend $37 billion to develop the Gorgon field off Australia, another potentially huge source of gas.

7.Nonetheless investors remain cautious because prices are volatile. Exxon’s shares fell in December when the firm bid $30 billion for XTO Energy, which gets its gas from “unconventional” shale beds. Gas prices have tumbled in the past couple of years as new projects, especially shale, came on stream（on stream:投入生产） just as the global recession lessened demand. And technological improvements have made the huge reserves of gas in America, from shale beds and the like（=and so on）, a commercial prospect. BP believes that these factors will keep gas prices weak for three or four years, but it could be longer. Though national oil companies have forced the Western oil giants to look farther afield for new reserves, the oil prices, unlike gas prices, are supported by the state-owned firms that make up OPEC.
XTO:克洛斯提柏石油

结构：
从表面上介绍下问题-分析问题-现实状况
好词
Noun: exploration and capital spending
Verb:pulled profits ever higher
tumble(vi)
deploy their expertise in the hunt for oil unveil勘探和资本投入

Adj: came on stream（on stream:投入生产）
Adv:annually to the same end

readily transportable
and the like（=and so on）
好句：
there are limits to

环游世界UID: 2743584

补 02.06Buttonwood

Stimulating debate
The markets, and developed economies, are too dependent on government action
Feb 4th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
好词好句
生词，难句
素材
结构

1.AS JANUARY goes, so goes the year. That old stockmarket saying does not augur well for 2010, given that the MSCI World 摩根士丹利 index fell by 4.2% in the month, the biggest decline since February 2009, and emerging markets dropped by 5.6%.
总结股票词汇
2.Although markets rallied 恢复a bit in early February on better-than-expected economic data, the poor （糟糕的开始，用poor）start to the year reflected an inherent contradiction to the rebound of 2009. That rally seemed to be dependent both on extraordinary stimulus measures by governments and central banks, and on a vigorous economic recovery. But both cannot co-exist for long: either the recovery will not last or, if it does, the stimulus will be taken away.

3.In addition, governments’ ability to provide that stimulus is dependent on the markets’ own willingness to fund huge deficits at very low yields利润. But why would investors accept meagre yields if they expected a vigorous recovery? In a sense, the market seemed to be hauling itself up by its own bootstraps.

4.Sure enough, the bullish story has started to unravel,瓦解 if only at the edges. In the developing world China has attempted to tighten monetary policy.货币政策 That has caused some alarm because China was acting as the engine of global growth.

5.And in the developed world investors have started to question the ability of governments to keep financing their deficits. The obvious example is in Greece, where ten-year bond yields reached 7% late last month. At that level, which is well above likely Greek GDP growth, the country’s indebtedness would grow very rapidly. However unpopular it may prove to be, an austerity package is needed to prevent Greece from falling into this debt trap (see article).

6.So even in places where governments may wish to maintain fiscal stimulus, the markets may force them into corrective（矫正的，原来错现在对的） action. Britain, France, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and others have all indicated their determination to keep deficits under control, with varying degrees of conviction.

7.But withdrawal of even small parts of the stimulus packages can send an economy back into the doldrums. As an example, American new-home sales slowed sharply after an initial end-of-November deadline for the expiry of a buyers’ tax credit. Although the credit has since been extended until April, December’s sales were just 342,000, compared with 329,000 in January 2009, at the height of the crisis.

8.The stimulus may have prevented the global economy from slipping into depression. In the medium term, however, academic studies suggest that higher government spending leads to slower economic growth.
A 2008 paper by Antonio Afonso of the European Central Bank and Davide Furceri of the University of Palermo calculates that for every one-percentage-point rise in government spending as a proportion of GDP, the growth rate falls by 0.12-0.13 percentage points.

9.What’s more, the packages have not really dealt with the problem of excessive debt, but merely transferred it from the private to the public sector. This buys time, but is akin to those debt-consolidation plans that are sold to consumers on TV. The pain is spread out over a longer period. But pain there will be, (偶有倒装，看起不会那么单调)in the form of higher taxes, higher bond yields, slower growth or a combination of all three.

10.The authorities face a dilemma. Reduce the stimulus now and they risk plunging the economy back into recession, as happened in America in 1937 and Japan in 1997. But leave the stimulus in place for too long, and they risk damaging long-term growth prospects.

11.The bulls hope that the economy can escape from this trap by the simple expedient of private-sector growth. That is why they welcomed the rise in manufacturing activity signalled in this week’s latest purchasing managers’ indices. If the private sector rebounds of its own accord, unemployment will fall and budget deficits will decline.

12.But hopes for a strong private-sector recovery are undermined by the data on credit growth. In the year to December, the broad measure of money supply fell by 0.2% in the euro zone and grew by just 3.4% in America. In Britain the annual growth rate is higher (6.4% in December), but David Owen, an economist at Jefferies International, estimates that quantitative easing (QE), whereby central banks create money to buy assets, has been boosting the figure by an annualised rate of 10%. If the Bank of England stops QE entirely, the credit-growth rate could collapse. For the stockmarket rally to resume properly in 2010, economies in the developed world need to show they can stand on their own two feet.

环游世界UID: 2743584

补 02.07 Sri Lankan politics

Arrest the opposition
Sri Lanka’s president cracks down on opponents once more
Feb 9th 2010 | DELHI | From The Economist online
好词好句
生词，难句
素材
结构

NOT content with trouncing his main opponent, General Sarath Fonseka, in Sri Lanka’s presidential election last month, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has had him arrested. General Fonseka was nabbed—brutishly, by over 100 soldiers, according to his supporters—on Monday February 8th. Officials say he will be charged in a court martial with conspiring to topple the government.

He was accused shortly after he lost an acrimonious election on January 26th of plotting to assassinate Mr Rajapaksa and seize power. That heralded a purge in the army that General Fonseka led until recently, with 14 senior officers retired and around 40 serving and former soldiers arrested. But the government has given no details of General Fonseka’s alleged plot, which it says he hatched while still in uniform. A statement released by the defence ministry explained that the general had been detained “in connection with condemnation [sic] acts and other military offences”. A government spokesman also suggested that General Fonseka’s crime was in fact to have got involved in politics while still in uniform.

Neutrals, of whom there are few in Sri Lanka, a place sorely divided by a long, ethnically based war and now by politics, may reserve judgment. Mr Fonseka has an inclement reputation. He was the architect of the army’s annihilation of the Tamil Tiger rebels in a brutal military campaign that ended last May. It saw many atrocities, including an alleged slaughter of at least 8,000 civilian refugees in the war's last months. Yet his arrest, in the absence of any obvious evidence against him, is also consistent with the autocratic and vindictive habits of Mr Rajapaksa’s regime.

It follows an ugly election in which the president’s team, sensing an unexpectedly strong challenge from General Fonseka, set goons on his supporters and commandeered state resources to get out the vote. The general and his backers, including every main opposition party, claim that the vote-count was also rigged—though, even if true, this would perhaps not have affected the result, given Mr Rajapaksa’s thumping victory margin. Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority, to which both candidates belong, mostly voted for the president, whom they credit with ending the war. They also seem largely complacent about the erosion of their civil liberties that he has overseen.

Recent weeks in Sri Lanka have provided more evidence of this. To pay back the president’s election-time critics, journalists have been assaulted, threatened and arrested. The government has stepped up its efforts to discredit those, including General Fonseka, who harp on about its alleged war crimes. On the campaign-trial—perhaps surprisingly given his former commanding role—the general accused Mr Rajapaksa’s brother and defence chief, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, of ordering that all Tiger leaders should be shot and not allowed to surrender. He later retracted this; but on Monday said he would be happy to appear as a witness in any war-crimes investigation against the army. According to the government this confirmed “beyond doubt that the retired general was hell-bent on betraying the gallant armed forces of Sri Lanka who saved the nation from the most ruthless terrorist group in the world.”

For those hoping for better from the re-elected Mr Rajapaksa these events are dismaying. His regime’s wartime ruthlessness was repellent yet at least comprehensible—being largely driven by a justified fear of the terrorist Tigers’ capacity for survival. Yet the Tigers are no more. And Mr Rajapaksa is Sri Lanka’s unchallenged ruler: he will have another seven years as president and will expect his Sri Lanka Freedom Party and its allies to win a majority in parliamentary elections that are scheduled for April 8th. On Tuesday the president dissolved parliament ahead of the polls. With plenty more challenges ahead—including an urgent need for reconciliation between the Sinhalese majority and members of the bruised Tamil minority—many had looked to him for more careful leadership. Yet his government is looking as clumsy and paranoid as ever.

结构：
新政府对反对派领袖和支持者的报复-国内对他的期待。

credit with:相信，认为
I credit him with a certain amount of sense
He is credited with great achievements in physics

好词好句
noun: vote-count
verb: topple the government herald
It saw many atrocities
credit with
pay back

stepped up its efforts to discredit those

looked to him for
adj: ethnically based(adv+based)
is consistent with

thumping victory
beyond doubt that
hell-bent
repellent
adv: brutishly

生词，难句
trounce:痛打，呵斥
nab：捉住
commandeer：征用
rig：（用不正当手段）操纵，船桅

环游世界UID: 2743584

补 02.08 Toyota's ongoing troubles
It's not stopping...
More recalls deliver further blows to Toyota’s battered reputation
Feb 9th 2010 | From The Economist online
好词好句
生词，难句
素材
结构

ANNOUNCING the latest recall of Toyota vehicles, Akio Toyoda, the company's chief executive, invoked the principle of genchi genbutsu, an integral part of the car company’s production system. It urges managers to experience problems for themselves rather than relying on reports and then attempting a fix one or two steps removed.(fix：补救措施,个人理解，or two steps removed指的是前面两步都省掉)or two
On Tuesday February 9th Toyota said that it would recall over 400,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to address problems with their brakes. Later Mr Toyoda promised that he will shortly visit America, the car company’s largest market, where he will see the damage to Toyota’s reputation for himself. Finding a fix is another matter entirely.

Recalling another few hundred thousand cars may seem to be only a moderate additional problem for a company that has already shocked customers with the recall of more than 8m vehicles worldwide. On its own the recall of new Priuses, some Lexus models and other hybrids would not have caused the company much anxiety. But coming on top of the recall of cars with accelerator pedals that can jam open, another over brake pedals that sometimes refuse to operate is dreadful. Even before the latest news Toyota put the cost of the recalls at $2 billion. The adverse publicity has hit sales in America, which plummeted by 16% in January compared with the year before. Its shares have fallen by some 20% since the recalls were announced last month.

After announcing the earlier recalls Toyota made the unprecedented move of shutting production at six plants in North America and withdrawing from sale several models while it figured out what had gone wrong with its accelerator pedal. This delivered a pounding to Toyota’s image as a maker of reliable—though somewhat dull—cars. Now the Prius has been dragged into the mire. It is the world’s best selling hybrid car and Japan’s most popular new car of all. Around half of the cars affected by this recall are Priuses in Japan. This will undoubtedly do no good for a company that is attempting to maintain its lead in hybrid cars as competitors line up to launch competing green models.

Toyota’s hybrid technology is under suspicion. The system that recharges batteries using the brakes has failed in a small number of cases leaving drivers temporarily unable to stop. On top of which the Lexus brand, Toyota’s range-topping and profitable luxury cars, has also been tainted by the recall, though only a few hybrid models are affected.

The charge sheet against the company lengthens daily too. Not only are its suspect cars dealing(给予) a blow to Toyota’s public image but so is its reaction to the problems. America’s transport secretary, Ray LaHood, claimed that Toyota was pushed into making the recalls and press reports maintain that the customers have been complaining about the accelerator problem for several years before Toyota acted.

On Tuesday Japan’s transport minister, Seiji Maehara, gave a public dressing down to Mr Toyoda for failing to act swiftly enough in recalling faulty vehicles. Mr Toyoda had made his apologies for his company’s shortcoming on Friday. But keen students of Japan’s ritualised acts of obeisance noted that while he apologised and accepted responsibility for the firm’s failings he did not bow deeply in shame.

Toyota faces further scrutiny on Wednesday when its North American boss, Yoshimi Inaba, is set to testify before a congressional committee over the affair. It is unclear whether public recrimination and close-up scrutiny will help or hinder Toyota’s rehabilitation. Some may doubt whether it can recover fully at all. Toyota probably faces an avalanche of class-action lawsuits in America which will prolong the adverse publicity. What is clear for Toyota and other companies that may find themselves in a similar position is that swift and decisive action may be painful but less agonising than letting a problem boil over and then attempting to clear up afterwards.

环游世界UID: 2743584

补 02.09 Ukraine's presidential election

Orange squashed
Viktor Yanukovich seems the likely winner of Ukraine’s presidential election
Feb 8th 2010 | From The Economist online
好词好句
生词，难句
素材
结构

UKRAINIANS expect little from their politicians. But some had hoped that the presidential election on Sunday February 7th might bring an end to the ruinous political turmoil of their country, whoever turned out to be the winner. Yet uncertainty, once again, rules.

With over 90% of votes counted, Viktor Yanukovich, the villain of the 2004 orange revolution, has a lead of more than 3% over Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister and the princess of the orange drama. He had mustered 49% of the votes against her 45.5%. But Ms Tymoshenko dallied, refusing to accept defeat.

As she waited, a couple of thousand thuggish looking men gathered in front of the central election commission, offering to support Mr Yanukovich. This is a parody of the mass protests of five years ago: the enthusiasm and spirit which drove the orange revolution is long gone and protesters on both sides can only be enticed with a bribe. A repeat of the orange revolution is all but impossible. Ms Tymoshenko could, however, try to challenge the result in the courts which would lead to a prolonged legal battle and more uncertainty. Given the poor state of Ukraine’s economy, this is the last thing that the country needs.

International observers have declared Ukraine’s elections free and fair and called for a peaceful transition of power. This has severely reduced Ms Tymoshenko’s chances of clawing a victory through Ukraine’s notoriously corrupt courts. Trying to challenge the result, and thus generating more uncertainty, could undermine Ms Tymoshenko’s credibility overseas. Another rumored explanation for her silence is that she is trying to reach a deal with Mr Yanukovich which could even allow her to stay as prime minister. The main dilemma for Mr Yanukovich now is whether to call for new parliamentary elections or try to create a coalition within the current parliament.

Mr Yanukovich’s comeback should not be exaggerated, partly because he and his supporters never went away. The vast majority of his 48% of the vote comes from the Russian-speaking east of Ukraine, as it did five years ago when he also won over 40% but lost to Viktor Yushchenko, the hero of the orange revolution. He then served as Mr Yushchenko’s prime minister in 2006 and 2007. If Mr Yanukovich now becomes president he will owe his elevation largely to the spectacular failure of the orange coalition.

The tongue-tied and hard-fisted Mr Yanukovich did little to win this election. He abstained from televised debates with Ms Tymoshenko to avoid making gaffes. But squabbling among former orange allies and the financial crisis did him favours. Still, given the desperate state of the Ukrainian economy which is fast running out of money to pay public wages and pensions, Ms Tymoshenko did better than might have been expected.

Mr Yanukovich gained mightily from Mr Yushchenko who failed to deliver on any of his election promises and developed an almost irrational hatred of Ms Tymoshenko. Mr Yushchenko won just over 5% in the first round of presidential elections on January 17th and called on his supporters in western Ukraine to vote against both candidates. It is this 4% of Ukrainian votes that probably deprived Ms Tymoshenko of victory.

Moscow is likely to celebrate a victory for Mr Yanukovitch as a belated vindication of Mr Putin’s backing five years ago and as a victory over the West. In fact, Mr Yanukovich is sympathetic to large industrial groups and will guard their business interests more zealously than Ms Tymoshenko may have done. The relationship with the Kremlin will improve, but none of Ukraine’s mainstream politicians or tycoons sees any future in a political or economic union with Russia.

In any event, this election was not about geopolitics but about Ukraine’s own governance and economy. The choice of Mr Yanukovich as president would be neither a disaster nor a breakthrough for Ukraine’s oligarchic political system. He would inherit a country with weak institutions, a struggling economy and a disillusioned population. He may not be able to deal with those. But at this stage it is less important than having a clear winner.

好词好句：
making gaffes
did him favours
In any event：在任何情况下
inherit a country with weak institutions, a struggling economy and a disillusioned population

环游世界UID: 2743584

02.10 Electric cars

A Netscape moment?
Investors get out their chequebooks for electric-car start-ups
Feb 4th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
好词好句
生词，难句
素材
结构

THE idea of the “Netscape moment”, a fund-raising that signals the spawning of a whole new industry, is dear to Silicon Valley types who think back fondly to the browser firm’s spectacular initial public offering in 1995. So it was not surprising that in late January Shai Agassi, a former software entrepreneur, greeted a $350m investment in his company, Better Place, led by HSBC, in just those terms. Better Place, based in Palo Alto, which hopes to be the leading infrastructure provider for the world’s growing fleet of electric cars, has raised nearly $700m in two years, making it one of the biggest “clean-tech” start-ups. A few days later, lending some weight to Mr Agassi’s claim, Tesla Motors, a pioneering maker of battery-powered sports cars co-founded by Elon Musk, another technology entrepreneur, filed for an initial public offering aimed at raising $100m. There is certainly much discussion of electric cars all of a sudden, although not as much as the internet prompted in 1995 (see chart).

Two questions arise. The first is whether Mr Agassi is right in believing that electric vehicles and the industry required to support them(them指vehicles) are about to enter the mainstream; the second is whether the charge will be led by disruptive innovators like himself and Mr Musk, or whether they will end up being trampled underfoot by the traditional automotive and energy-supply heavyweights.

Investment in electric cars is being driven by tightening emissions regulations, worries about energy security and enthusiasm for the technology in China, already the world’s biggest car market. Industry forecasts suggest that by 2020 about 10% of new cars will be either entirely battery driven vehicles or plug-in hybrids, with accelerated growth thereafter.

Mr Agassi’s achievement is to have shown how it can all be made to work. What impressed HSBC, apart from Better Place’s own technology, was the quality and seriousness of its partners, including Renault-Nissan, which has committed