【clover】 ECO analysis by Julymay

JulymayUID: 2645085

先把帖子开出来，然后一点一点跟进！
July，你要加油！


January 26th， 2010
The spirit of enterprise fades
The cradle（发源地） of China’s start-up firms is showing its age

Jan 21st 2010 | HONG KONG
From The Economist print edition
Getty ImagesChinese capitalism at work: the thrill is gone


CHINA’S remarkable resurgence（复苏） began three decades ago with the designation of Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong, as a “special economic zone”（经济特区）. Businesses in the zone were free to re-engage with overt capitalism and make profits by satisfying customers, not the state. The result was the transformation of a farming village into a city of 9m people, bustling with production lines and sewing machines, making everything from iPods to Nikes, in a burst of entrepreneurial zeal（在创业精神的爆棚下）.（bustling and making,两个并列的短语，现在分词短语做伴随状。）




But that may describe its past more accurately than its future. （这句转折非常漂亮！承上启下）Inevitably（不可避免的，意料之中的）, prosperity has affected people’s attitudes and the local business environment. A study by the Shenzhen Academy of Social Sciences and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, released on January 18th, shows a precipitous（陡峭的，这个词非常形象） drop in the fraction of the population involved in starting new businesses, from 12% in 2004 to 5% in 2009. “It’s not so special anymore,” says Kevin Au, a professor of management at Chinese University.


Five other medium-sized Chinese cities that are part of a separate study show similar results, says Mr Au. Collectively, their levels of enterprise differ little from（与……相比较小） those seen in western Europe, which is to say（也就是说，可在写作文是用于概念替换） slightly weaker than in Britain, much less so than in America, but much stronger than in Japan.（这是一个很漂亮的长句子） The strongest signs of enterprise in China can be observed in very poor, rural areas that are just beginning to develop beyond agriculture.


There are any number of explanations for what is happening in Shenzhen. Not long ago, it was a city that needed everything and attracted everyone. Immigrants flooded in from the rest of China, anxious to seize a unique opportunity. （flood 和 anxious两个词用得很形象贴切，学习了~）Few laws, if any, restrained business. Factories could be opened anywhere. Even the most qualified people found they could get better jobs by moving to Shenzhen.




That has changed. （简单而又有力的转折用法）China has begun to develop large corporations that attract talented employees. Shenzhen itself has at least two global leaders, the telecoms giants（电信巨人，这个词可以拓展，比如：商业巨头，政治巨头等等） Huawei and ZTE. Land has become harder to find and, inevitably, more expensive. One of the last big parcels was not divided up for small businesses but transferred to BYD, a fast-growing manufacturer of cars and batteries. Many laws have been enacted to protect workers and the environment, making it more costly and complex to start a business. As factories have moved away, so has low-skilled labour.


In some respects this is good news. Small firms with slipshod standards are being replaced by bigger, better ones. Where people are creating companies, they are doing so out of choice, not economic necessity. But not all the news is so positive. The study also examined two other things. Only 9% of the respondents said the technology they hoped to use in their new venture（企业，enterprise company firm） was truly innovative—less than one year old. That makes Shenzhen more engaged in（be engaged in 从事什么） innovation than Brazil or Russia, but far less than Japan or Israel, and thus more vulnerable（脆弱的） to competition（在竞争面前愈显脆弱）.


The study also showed a sharp recent decline in the interest of private investors. That is, at least in part, （插入语的应用，不宜太长，不扰乱阅读逻辑）a reasonable response to the financial crisis（经济危机）. But it is nonetheless a real problem, because the Chinese banks lean heavily toward（严重倾向于……）
large state-controlled companies. Shenzhen has become a global synonym for business creation, but there is reason to wonder how much longer it will remain so.（有理由质疑他的持久性，这句在驳论文中很好用）

银落UID: 2632560

sf支持。。记得要总结。。不然看完就忘了。。》《

JulymayUID: 2645085

我稍微总结了一下词组和单词
词组：（翻译是我自己理解的，如果不够到位请各位指出）
show ones’ age     显出疲态
special economic zone 经济特区
in a burst of ……在……爆炸的状态下
entrepreneurial zeal   创业精神
telecoms giants  电信巨头
more vulnerable to competition 在竞争面前愈显脆弱
financial crisis 经济危机（这应该是最近很热门的词吧）
lean heavily toward  严重倾向于……
state-controlled companies   国营企业
单词：
Cradle  n. 发源地 摇篮
Resurgence  n. 复苏
Precipitous    adj. 陡峭的
Venture   企业  ，可以替换的有：enterprise company  firm  corporation

Fion_tongUID: 2659582

问下哦~这样的阅读一般都在哪里找到呢？

银落UID: 2632560

问下哦~这样的阅读一般都在哪里找到呢？
Fion_tong 发表于 2010-1-26 21:59

www.economist.com

JulymayUID: 2645085

January 27

Where to now?
A ticklish（棘手的） week for Barack Obama
Jan 25th 2010 | From The Economist online

THE president’s annual state-of-the-union speech, despite the fuss and standing ovations in Congress, is often a forgettable laundry list of priorities. But Barack Obama’s first proper go at the address to Congress on Wednesday January 27th as mandated（委托统治的） by the constitution（宪法） (his inaugural （就职的）speech last year did not count as a state-of-the-union talk) will be watched with unusual interest, and not only because he is a far better speaker than his predecessor, （比较级的用法，值得学习，为句子增色）George Bush. After the recent stinging （刺激人的）loss of a Massachusetts Senate seat to the Republicans, the president’s domestic （本国的，国内的）agenda is imperilled（遭受危险的）. He needs to present a clear idea of what he plans to do next.（前面铺垫了无数，这句才是全文的关键！蓄势方式值得借鉴）


Health care is still foremost （最重要的）in many minds despite the arguments surrounding Mr Obama's continuing efforts to rein in America's bankers. The Massachusetts vote means that Republicans, now with 41 of 100 seats, have denied the Democrats a super-majority and so can use a filibuster （红宝词汇，用拖延的方式阻碍立法通过）to talk out almost any bill. （这里运用了一个类似讽刺的手法来写Republican的失败）Scott Brown, the new senator （参议员）for Massachusetts, has promised to do just that. How the Democrats respond will matter greatly, both for the prospects of the bill and the performance of the two main political parties at mid-term elections in November year. Some Democrats want to push the Senate version of the health bill through the House of Representatives without amendment, which would mean not putting it back through the Senate. But that would appear to ignore the voters' wishes in Massachusetts, risking a big voter backlash later in the year.


Mr Obama has instead hinted （暗示）that he would like to build support for a bill “around those elements of the package that people agree on.” But if this means only the populist bits, this looks like bad policy. For example,（下定义加例子的论证法） both Democratic bills would make it illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage to customers because of a pre-existing condition. This would make premiums（保费） more expensive, by putting more unhealthy people in the system, as Mr Obama himself has conceded. It is not clear what other elements the president believes could be agreed on.


A bolder option Mr Obama might pursue is to make the bill bigger not smaller. Last year, he talked of （谈到）bringing America’s famously plaintiff-friendly medical malpractice （医疗失当）litigation
（诉讼）under control. （bring sth under control 控制住某事）This helped to win the support of the American Medical Association. But none of this proposal （提议）made it into either the House or Senate （众议院或参议院）bill. Offering this, the thing the Republicans say they want most out of health-care reform, could put Republicans on the spot. If they obstruct （阻拦）the bill, they would look like they have no interest but bringing Mr Obama down. But adding tort
（民事侵权行为） reform could lose Democrats, who are closer to trial lawyers（审判律师）.（我认为这是一个比喻的用法，“这两种做法哪一个更加接近于审判律师”，意思是：哪一个离宣判更近）


Mr Obama may instead want to move away from health care and to talk instead about the economy overall. One reason for the punishment in Massachusetts might have been voter anger that politicians are paying too little attention to joblessness and the recession. Mr Obama has claimed that the same anger that brought Mr Brown’s victory in Massachusetts carried Mr Obama himself to office. But the president can pose as an outsider only for so long. He needs to develop some of the empathy that Bill Clinton famously showed when he adopted and made famous the phrase “I feel your pain”. Mr Obama might try: “I feel your anger.”


This could mean even more of Mr Obama's bank-bashing populism（平民论）. His latest plans, unveiled （揭幕）on Thursday, will restrict the size and range of activities of American banks. They come a week after he announced plans to make the banks pay back, through special taxes, the bail-out money they received during the financial crisis. The latest rules to curb （限制）America's banks were inspired by the thinking of Paul Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman and Obama adviser. If this has made Ben Bernanke, current Fed boss, a little nervous, the wavering last last week of some Senate Democrats over backing his confirmation for a second term will not have improved his composure（镇静）. Mr Obama's team spent the weekend shoring up support for Mr Bernanke.
Other domestic agenda-items, such as cap-and-trade legislation on greenhouse gases, will be wrapped up （结束）in the language of energy security, job-creation and boosting American competitiveness（提高美国竞争力）, rather than by talking about the climate changing, about which voters appear relatively unconcerned.


Most attention will be on domestic issues, but in foreign policy, too, the president has daunting challenges. He has won Republican support (and Democratic grousing) for his decision to boost troop （增兵）numbers temporarily in Afghanistan（阿富汗）. His vice-president（副总统）, Joe Biden, has been deployed（部署） to hold hands in Iraq, where a de-Baathification commission （清楚复兴党委员会）has banned a large number of Sunni Arabs from the forthcoming elections, stoking fears of renewed sectarian war（新教派战争）. And Iran remains a conundrum（谜）, with Mr Obama still committed to offering negotiations over nuclear matters, while gradually stepping up criticism of the regime’s violent handling of opposition protests. It would not surprise to hear Mr Obama offer his most ringing condemnation （谴责）of Iran yet.

JulymayUID: 2645085

January28

我突然发现跟中国有关的文章貌似比别的文章好理解。不知道是背景知识充分还是写文章的人是中国人的缘故。下次要尽量多看跟美国有关的文章，积累一点背景知识~~
The Dalai Lama and Tibet
Showing willing
The Dalai Lama sends envoys （使者，使节）to China once again, as our correspondent（红宝词汇，adj 符合的一致的
n 联系员） returns to Tibet
Jan 25th 2010 | LHASA | From The Economist online
CHINESE officials appear ready to resume （中断后继续，与continue相互区别）talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama after a 15 month lapse, but in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, the authorities remain on guard（戒备）. Few expect the talks to make much progress, nor tensions in Tibet to subside. （仍然是英文文章的习惯，第一段是总写，表明立场观点总括）


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（步枪）, 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 （礼拜者）walking and prostrating themselves in ritual circuits around the Jokhang Temple, Tibet’s holiest shrine（圣地）, as the police watched impassively（木然地。这个词与上文的对朝圣者的描述形成鲜明对比。可以看出作者对这篇文章的态度是消极的）. Security was conspicuous but appeared far less intense than in the aftermath（余波） of the Tibetan rioting （暴乱）that erupted （喷发，爆发）in Lhasa in March 2008. （背景介绍和现状阐述，为后文阐述各方利弊做铺垫和对比）


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 （动荡不定的）Tibet. It is not clear why China has agreed to further discussions. After the 2008 riots, which triggered （引发）anti-Chinese
（反华。注意构词法）protests across the Tibetan plateau（高原）, China—under considerable foreign pressure–agreed to resume dialogue which had been sputtering on and off （断断续续，与resume相对应）with no apparent progress since 2002. Three more rounds were held, but at the last one in November 2008 the Chinese side was infuriated（震怒） by a detailed proposal submitted by the Dalai Lama’s officials for achieving “genuine autonomy” for Tibet and neighbouring Tibetan-inhabited areas.


Chinese officials denounced （严正申诉，可替换：blame censure condemn accuse reprimand）the proposal as a disguised（红宝词汇，掩饰，伪装） 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. （这两段通过陈述
the talks between China and DALAI 经过，理解中国的立场和态度）


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.


American presidents in the past have been careful to do so. But George Bush broke from tradition （打破传统）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 （欢喜）by some Tibetans. China does not want a conspicuous display of American solidarity with the Dalai Lama that could encourage anti-Beijing （构词法运用，反北京。同时可以看到，anti-China 反中国，等等）sentiment
（情绪）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 （陪伴，company sb to some place, conduct sb. over a place）by an (unwanted) official guide throughout his nearly week-long stay. （绕回自己：美国在其中扮演的角色和中国对其态度）



Twice this month senior Chinese leaders met to discuss Tibet policy. At the last conclave(秘密集会), which finished on January 20th, President Hu Jintao called for more efforts to improve the living standards of Tibetans. The per capita incomes （人均收入）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（集团）”. The chances of compromise are remote. （利弊分析总结）

JulymayUID: 2645085

January27 Eco analysis 的词汇整理
单词：
Ticklish   adj. 棘手的
Stinging  adj. 刺激人的
Filibuster   红宝词汇，阻碍或延迟通过提案
Senator  n 至少是托福词汇，参议员
Premium  保险费（补充：保险保险业insurance）
Populism  平民主义，平民论
Composure 镇静 （calmness mitigation poise）
Boost  增加，提高 （同义：elevation enhance  improve ）
Vice-president 构词法：副总统
Conundrum   谜，难题
Condemnation  谴责   （accuse  censure condemn）
Afghanistan  阿富汗：也是最近的热门词吧~
Phrase：
Talk of 谈到 补充： talk around 劝说  talk back 顶嘴  talk down/up 贬低 /赞扬，说好话  talk out 详尽地讨论  talk over 透彻地讨论
The  House and Senate   众议院和参议院
Wrap up 结束、完成
Boost American competitiveness 提高美国的竞争力（可替换用）
Boost troop 增兵

JulymayUID: 2645085

January 28 Eco analysis 词汇整理
Words:
  Envoys 使者，使节
Correspondent   adj 符合的，一致的   n 联系员 记者
Resume 中断后继续  与continue相互区别
Guard  戒备
Subside   下陷，我才是沦陷的意思
Rifle 步枪
Worshiper  朝圣者，礼拜者  崇拜者
Aftermath  余波
Plateau  高原
denounced（严正申诉，可替换：blame censure condemn accuse reprimand）
disguise  红宝词汇，掩饰、伪装
glee  欢喜 （替换：happy pleasure joy merriment）
anti-Beijing  反北京（反华），构词法  同时注意后文的anti-Chinese 与前文anti-Beijing同样是反华的意思~
chaperoned （陪伴，company sb to some place, conduct sb. over a place）
conclave 秘密集会
Phrase：
Holiest shrine 圣地
On and off 断断续续的
Break from traditional  打破传统
The per capita incomes 人均收入
The Dalai clique 达赖集团（也算是个热门词吧~）

JulymayUID: 2645085

10# Bela1229
Bela提出的问题我已经修改了~谢谢bela的提醒~bela好敬业哦~赞一个……

JulymayUID: 2645085

The state-of-the-union message
Still talking, at any rate
Barack Obama refocuses on jobs and the deficit but promises to press on with health-care reform
Jan 28th 2010 | WASHINGTON, DC | From The Economist print edition
Bloomberg
BEING a president and not a journalist, Barack Obama buried the lead. But for all his talk about creating jobs and taming the deficit, the big news in his state-of-the-union speech on Capitol Hill this week was that despite the Democrats’ recent stunning loss of Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts seat—and with it their supermajority in the Senate—the president intends to press ahead with health-insurance reform. The only thing he could not say was how he intends to do it.

Less than a fortnight（两周） ago Mr Obama had reason to believe that he would be addressing Congress（与美国政体有关的词：国会senate：参议院House of Representatives：众议院） in far happier circumstances. The House and Senate had each passed their own versions of a health bill and seemed on course to （在……的进程中）meld them into a single piece of legislation for Mr Obama to sign—perhaps tucking it away in time for a triumphant （欢欣鼓舞的同义：victorious succeeding）first state-of-the-union speech. The upset in Massachusetts demolished that calculation（破坏了如意算盘）. It has made it impossible for the Democrats to take a new bill through the Senate without some Republican support; and it has terrified many Democrats who were already fearing for their own seats in November’s mid-term elections. Many implored （恳求：crave obsecrate）the president to heed the voters of the Bay State（马萨诸塞州）, accept that he had overreached（不自量力） and either trim down（消减） his health plan or abandon it altogether.


On the evening of January 27th, however, a beaming and to all appearances relaxed president strode into the Senate like a lion into a den （兽穴）of Daniels, spoke at length about jobs, the deficit and the broken politics of Washington, and then accepted briskly that he shared some of the blame for failing to explain health reform clearly enough. He said he would listen to anyone from either party who had a better approach, but claimed that his plan offered a “vast improvement” over the status quo（现状）. He would not back down（撤销撤退）, and nor, he said, should Congress: “Do not walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job. Let’s get it done. Let’s get it done.”

One way or another
As to how to get it done, the president was silent—no doubt because he and his divided party are still in the throes （剧痛）of a bitter behind-the-scenes quarrel over tactics（战术手段策略）. It is still possible that if all else fails the House Democrats will reluctantly adopt the Senate bill, removing the need for the Senate to vote on it again, and then introduce amendments under a budget reconciliation procedure that does not require a supermajority（绝对多数）（这里有一个层层推理的论证，从一点出发展开延伸，一环扣一环）. All Mr Obama had to say in his speech was that even in an election year it remained necessary to govern: “We still have the largest majority for decades, and the people expect us to solve problems, not run for the hills.”

Despite his show of breezy confidence, Mr Obama plainly knows that on its first anniversary his presidency is in deep trouble. Only 48.7% of voters approve of his job performance and 46.3% disapprove, according to the polling average compiled by Real Clear Politics, a website. Gallup reported last week that after the vote in Massachusetts a majority of Americans (55%) wanted Congress to slow health-care reform efforts and consider alternatives that can win more Republican support. Plenty of senior Democrats concu（赞成）. Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana told the Wall Street Journal this week that the party had drifted too far to the left, and had not tried hard enough to seek consensus with moderates and independents. It might take a “political catastrophe of biblical proportions”, he quipped, before some of his colleagues got it.

That may be why Mr Obama buried his lead. While persevering（稳固的） with health reform he is also trying to refocus his administration on the issues that voters now say matter more to them, especially jobs and the deficit (see chart). That entails defending his record on the economy. Without the controversial Recovery Act, he claimed, about 2m Americans now at work would have been unemployed. The House has approved a $150 billion jobs bill, focused on infrastructure spending and aid to the states. As the first order of business this year, Mr Obama said in his speech, the Senate should do the same. The administration plans to create or save tens of thousands of jobs by using stimulus money to develop a high-speed rail network for 13 major corridors, including lines from Orlando to Tampa in Florida and Sacramento to San Diego in California. （job and deficit）

So far, however, job creation has been painfully slow. Unemployment has grown to 10%, despite forecasts that it would peak at 8% in late 2009. Mr Obama’s problem is that his two aims—stimulating （刺激）the economy in order to create jobs, and reducing the deficit（赤字）—pull policy in opposite directions. Because the recession has been deeper than expected, forecast revenues （税收）have fallen by $250 billion since last January. On the day before the speech the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that at an estimated $1.3 trillion and 9.2% of GDP, the 2010 federal deficit will be the second-largest in America’s post-war history—second only to last year’s.

Future deficits are forecast to shrink （收缩，红宝词汇）as the economy recovers (see chart), but to climb again from 2015. And even under the CBO’s rosy “baseline” forecast (which assumes, among other improbables, that Congress will control spending and let the Bush-era tax cuts expire), the deficit will rise to about $700 billion by 2020. A more realistic scenario（纲要） (which assumes that politicians will show less discipline自我控制) expects the deficit to move towards $1.3 trillion by that year. Even the baseline forecast has annual interest payments on the debt more than doubling, from 1.4% of GDP this year to 3.2%, or $723 billion, by 2020.

Against this background, Mr Obama’s plan to freeze “non-security” discretionary （无条件的）spending for three years from 2011 to 2013 is at best a signal of intent, saving only $250 billion over ten years as the cumulative deficit billows to $6 trillion over the same period. But even this small nod toward fiscal discipline has provoked howls of outrage from the liberal wing of his own party, aghast at the notion（念头） of protecting defence spending. And if the Democrats cannot agree among themselves on how to shrink the deficit, the hope of agreement across party lines looks scanter skill（希望渺茫）.

One day before the state-of-the-union message, the Senate failed to approve a proposal to create a bipartisan（bi二，双commission
(两党委员会)to consider ways to increase taxes and reduce spending. The yeas outnumbered the nays（反对票） by 53 to 46, but failed to reach the 60-vote supermajority. Republicans by and large recoiled畏缩） at the taxes, Democrats at the cuts. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the Republican co-sponsor of the proposal, called this “yet another indication that Congress is more concerned with the next election than the next generation.” Mr Obama responded in his speech by announcing that he would create a commission by executive order. But with the two parties at loggerheads（不和） and his own divided, the value of the commission is questionable, since none of its recommendations will be able to bind Congress.

Running against Washington, again

Can Mr Obama’s speech galvanise and unite a party that remains stunned and demoralised by the upset in Massachusetts? Mr Obama’s speech included a sop to the liberal wing （自由派）of the party, in the shape of a promise to end the ban on openly gay men and women serving in the armed forces. There is to be new help for working families, including measures to make it easier for families to pay for child care and college tuition（学费）, save for retirement and take care of elderly relations. Even so, Charlie Cook, a close follower of the electoral horse-race, takes a dim view of Democratic prospects in November. He predicts a net gain for the Republicans of five to seven seats in the Senate and between 25 and 35 in the House. More ominous（不详的） still is that so many Democratic candidates have read the runes already and decided to quit the field.（承上启下句）

The chicken run started before Massachusetts.（这句我没看懂。可能是在麻省之前不详预兆已初露端倪） In early January two Democratic senators—Byron Dorgan from North Dakota and Chris Dodd of Connecticut—said they would not seek re-election. This week Vice-President Joe Biden’s son, Beau, chose discretion over valour（选择谨慎而非蛮勇）: he announced that he would be sticking to his job as Delaware’s attorney-general instead of making a run for the Senate seat his father vacated（腾空）. That makes it all the likelier that the seat will fall to a 70-year-old Republican candidate, Mike Castle. Also this week Marion Berry, a “Blue Dog” conservative Democrat from Arkansas, said that he would not be defending his seat in the House.（选举上面的节节败退）
The president’s own former seat in Illinois（伊利诺伊）—a state that voted 62% for Mr Obama and 37% for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election—is now considered in play as well. Roland Burris, whom the disgraced Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich, appointed to fill the seat Mr Obama vacated, is not running, and none of the Democrats vying to capture the nomination （提名）in next week’s primary can be confident of beating the Republicans in November. Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who rebranded himself from Republican to Democrat last year, is also facing a serious primary challenge in May. Some polls show his Republican challenger, Pat Toomey, defeating him in the mid-terms.（从另一个方面分析形势，伊利诺伊州）

That the president understands the trouble his party is in cannot be doubted. Even before voting ended in Massachusetts, he had brought David Plouffe, the successful manager of his 2008 campaign, back to co-ordinate strategy （战略法）as November’s mid-term elections approach. But in the 2008 campaign Mr Obama was the outsider running against George Bush and the tawdry ways of Washington. This time it is he who is the incumbent （在职的）and the Republican grassroots who have the fire in their bellies (see Lexington).

Hence another theme of Mr Obama’s speech. President he may be, but he continues to portray himself as a crusader（改革运动的斗士） against Washington. America’s government suffered not just from a deficit of dollars but from “a deficit of trust”, he said. “To close that credibility gap we must take action at both ends of Pennsylvania （宾夕法尼亚州）Avenue to end the outsize influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; to give our people the government they deserve.” Having already excluded（排除） lobbyists from policy-making jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions, Mr Obama now wants to require them to disclose each contact they make on behalf of a client with the administration or with Congress.

For a president running a war or two, Mr Obama devoted relatively little of his speech to foreign policy. The fight against al-Qaeda would continue, but the war in Iraq was ending and all American combat troops would leave by August. The security gaps revealed by the foiled Christmas bomb plot were being closed. American diplomacy（外交）had brought deeper isolation （gemo）and sanctions （制裁）to bear on North Korea, and if Iran continued its nuclear defiance it would face “growing consequences” (though these were not specified). For most Americans, however, foreign entanglements have seemed less enthralling （吸引）in the past fortnight as a presidency that had been running fairly smoothly smashed into the buffer of Massachusetts. It remains to be seen whether Mr Obama can recover in time for November.

JulymayUID: 2645085

January 30
Tablet computing
The book of Jobs
It has revolutionised （革命）one industry after another. Now Apple hopes to transform three at once
Jan 28th 2010 | From The Economist print edition




Illustration
(说明)by Jon Berkeley

APPLE is regularly voted the most innovative （乐于引进新观念的）company in the world, but its inventiveness（独创性） takes a particular form. Rather than developing entirely new product categories, it excels at （擅长于做某事：specialized in, be clever at, be good at）taking existing, half-baked ideas and showing the rest of the world how to do them properly. Under its mercurial(反复无常的) and visionary（有远见的） boss, Steve Jobs, it has already done this three times. In 1984 Apple launched the Macintosh（苹果公司在1984年推出的一种系列微机，麦金托什机）. It was not the first graphical, mouse-driven computer, but it employed these concepts in a useful product. Then, in 2001, came the iPod. It was not the first digital-music player, but it was simple and elegant, and carried digital music into the mainstream（将数码音乐带进主流）. In 2007 Apple went on to launch the iPhone. It was not the first smart-phone（智能手机）, but Apple succeeded where other handset-makers had failed, making mobile internet access and software downloads a mass-market phenomenon（大众市场现象）. （总起。说APPLE公司一贯乐于创新，这次又开发出了新产品IPAD）

As rivals （对手）rushed to copy Apple’s approach, the computer, music and telecoms industries were transformed. Now Mr Jobs hopes to pull off the same trick for a fourth time. On January 27th he unveiled （揭幕）his company’s latest product, the iPad—a thin, tablet-shaped device with a ten-inch touch-screen which will go on sale in late March for $499-829 (see article). Years in the making, it has been the subject of hysterical online speculation in recent months, verging at times on religious hysteria: sceptics in the blogosphere jokingly call it the Jesus Tablet. （这句我没搞清楚是什么意思）

The enthusiasm of the Apple faithful may be overdone, but Mr Jobs’s record suggests that when he blesses a market, it takes off. And tablet computing promises to transform not just one industry, but three—computing, telecoms and media. (Ipad在市场上面的意义)

Companies in the first two businesses view the iPad’s arrival with trepidation（害怕、不安：tension restless unease inquietude）, for Apple’s history makes it a fearsome competitor. The media industry, by contrast, welcomes it wholeheartedly（全心全意地）. Piracy（盗版）, free content and the dispersal of advertising around the web have made the internet a difficult environment for media companies. They are not much keener on the Kindle, an e-reader made by Amazon, which has driven down book prices and cannot carry advertising. They hope this new device （装置）will give them a new lease of life, by encouraging people to read digital versions of books, newspapers and magazines while on the move. True, there are worries that Apple could end up wielding a lot of power in these new markets, as it already does in digital music. But a new market opened up and dominated by Apple is better than a shrinking market, or no market at all.（前文说IPAD改革了计算机、电信和媒体，这里说这三方面的态度和面临的形式）

Keep taking the tablets

Tablet computers aimed at business people have not worked. Microsoft has been pushing them for years, with little success. Apple itself launched a pen-based tablet computer, the Newton, in 1993, but it was a flop（彻底失败）. The Kindle has done reasonably well, and has spawned （产生）a host of similar devices with equally silly names, including the Nook, the Skiff and the Que. Meanwhile, Apple’s pocket-sized touch-screen devices, the iPhone and iPod Touch, have taken off as music and video players and hand-held games consoles. （其实是标榜一下ＡＰＰＬＥ有多牛～这种前后对比的写法很有效果，学习～）

The iPad is, in essence, a giant iPhone on steroids. Its large screen will make it an attractive e-reader and video player, but it will also inherit（继承） a vast array（一系列） of games and other software from the iPhone. Apple hopes that many people will also use it instead of a laptop. If the company is right, it could open up a new market for devices that are larger than phones, smaller than laptops, and also double as e-readers, music and video players and games consoles. Different industries are already converging （会聚：assemble congregate collect）on this market: mobile-phone makers are launching small laptops, known as netbooks, and computer-makers are moving into smart-phones. Newcomers such as Google, which is moving into mobile phones and laptops, and Amazon, with the Kindle, are also entering the fray: Amazon has just announced plans for an iPhone-style “app store” for the Kindle, which will enable it to be more than just an e-reader.

If the past is any guide, Apple’s entry into the field will not just unleash fierce competition （发动激烈竞争）among device-makers, but also prompt（促使：spur cause prompt
+to） consumers and publishers who had previously been wary of e-books to take the plunge（冒险尝试）, accelerating the adoption of this nascent（初生的）
technology. Sales of e-readers are expected to reach 12m this year, up from 5m in 2009 and 1m in 2008, according to iSuppli, a market-research firm. （预测一下Ｉｐａｄ的横空出世对于市场和消费者的影响）

Hold the front pixels（这个词的意思是像素，这个标题我不知道怎么翻译）


Will the spread of tablets save struggling media companies? Sadly not.
（设问句打头，引出下文）Some outfits—metropolitan newspapers, for instance（比如：for example ,such as ,suppose ）—are probably doomed （命中注定的）by their reliance on classified advertising, which is migrating(迁移) to dedicated websites. Others are too far gone already. Tablets are expensive, and it will be some years before they are widespread enough to fulfil their promise. In theory （从理论上讲）a newspaper could ask its readers to sign up for a two-year electronic subscription, say, and subsidise the cost of a tablet. But such a subsidy would be hugely pricey（非常昂贵，注意hugely其实可以直接译成巨，呵呵，玩笑玩笑）, and expensive printing presses will have to be kept running for readers who want to stick with paper.

Still, even though tablets will not save weak media companies, they are likely to give strong ones a boost. Charging for content（以容量计费）, which has proved difficult on the web, may get easier. Already, people are prepared to pay to receive newspapers and magazines (including The Economist) on the Kindle. The iPad, with its colour screen and integration with Apple’s online stores, could make downloading books, newspapers and magazines as easy and popular as downloading music. Most important, it will allow for advertising, on which American magazines, in particular, depend. Tablets could eventually lead to a wholesale （大规模的：extensive massive large-scale）switch to digital delivery, which would allow newspapers and book publishers to cut costs by closing down printing presses. （对于前景的利弊分析）

If Mr Jobs manages to pull off another amazing trick with another brilliant device, then the benefits of the digital revolution to media companies with genuinely （真正的）popular products may soon start to outweigh（超过） the costs. But some media companies are dying, and a new gadget（小装置） will not resurrect（使复活） them. Even the Jesus Tablet cannot perform miracles（奇迹）. （这段是说要拉动某个领域的经济状况，恐怕不是小小的ＩＰＡＤ能办到的）

JulymayUID: 2645085

January29整理：
Words：
Fortnight
两周
Congress（国会
与美国政体有关的词：senate：参议院House of Representatives：众议院）
triumphant （欢欣鼓舞的同义：victorious succeeding）
implore（恳求：crave obsecrate）
overreached（不自量力）
supermajority（绝对多数
stimulating
刺激
deficit
赤字
revenue 税收
shrink
收缩
scenario
纲要
discipline 自我控制
discretionary
无条件的
tuition 学费
ominous 不详的
incumbent 在职的
diplomacy 外交
sanctions 制裁
Phase：
on course to 在……的进程中
demolished that calculation（破坏了如意算盘）.
trim down（消减）
back down（撤销撤退）
liberal wing
（自由派）
chose discretion over valour（选择谨慎而非蛮勇）

JulymayUID: 2645085

January30整理
Words：
innovative
乐于引进新观念的
mercurial 反复无常的
rival 对手
unveil 揭幕
trepidation（害怕、不安：tension restless unease inquietude）
wholeheartedly
全心全意地，这个词太有趣了~
priacy 盗版
flop 彻底失败
spawn 产生
converging （会聚：assemble congregate collect）
prompt（促使：spur cause prompt+to）
nascent
初生的
doomed 命中注定的
wholesale （大规模的：extensive massive large-scale）
gadget 小装置
miracle 奇迹
Phase：
excels at （擅长于做某事：specialized in, be clever at, be good at）
carried digital music into the mainstream（将数码音乐带进主流）
a mass-market phenomenon（大众市场现象）.
a vast array（一系列）
unleash fierce competition （发动激烈竞争）
take the plunge（冒险尝试）
for instance（比如：for example ,such as ,suppose
In theory （从理论上讲）
hugely pricey（非常昂贵，注意hugely其实可以直接译成巨，呵呵，玩笑玩笑）
Charge for content（以容量计费

JulymayUID: 2645085

January 31
America's economy
Ticking up
America's economy grew by 5.7% at the end of 2009. Yet it remains vulnerable （脆弱的）
Jan 29th 2010 | WASHINGTON, DC | From The Economist online

AFTER a tough start to 2010, Barack Obama could not have asked for better news on the economy to distract attention from his political difficulties. In the fourth quarter of last year American GDP grew by an impressive 5.7%, at an annual rate, the best quarterly performance since 2003. Expansion was driven by growth in private inventories and an increase in exports. For all of 2009 output declined by 2.4%, but for Americans weary from two years of declining employment, the fourth-quarter figure offers a clear signal that the worst is over. （貌似是一个好兆头）




Yet only cautious celebration is in order.（承上启下） There are reasons to doubt that the impressive performance in a single quarter will be repeated in the coming months.（TS） Weak fundamentals will prevent the American economy from sustaining that fast pace of growth. Of the 5.7% increase in real output, 3.4 percentage points came from inventory changes, as firms which had operated on a shoestring in the recession built inventories back to normal levels. That brief buying spree brought some workers back to assembly lines, but unless a new source of demand arises the boost from restocking will fade and growth will slow.
There are already signs of a loss of momentum（动力，冲力）. According to Macroeconomic Advisers, a consultancy, most of the inventory boost came in October, when growth roared ahead at a 16.4% annual rate. By November, growth had already quietened substantially. And throughout the fourth quarter the economy has continued to shed jobs. It is difficult to sustain growth when employment is not rising.（反面说，危险讯号）




Nor is it clear where new demand might arise.（倒装。主题句） As the GDP report makes plain, personal consumption（消费）remains extremely weak; consumption rose by just 2.0% for the quarter, below the 2.8% increase of the previous three months. Spending will probably remain subdued （不太有力的）throughout 2010. According to a recent IMF research note, the crisis and recession significantly damaged household wealth, suggesting that savings rates will rise in a recovery. The effect on consumption may be to trim 3% off GDP relative to pre-crisis levels. Indeed, the fourth-quarter savings rate ticked up to （略升至）4.6%, from 4.5% during the previous period. New demand growth will have to come elsewhere.


Investment may also disappoint in 2010, because of overcapacity（生产能力过剩）. Oversupply in both residential and commercial property has discouraged investment in the sectors and meant that construction employment is not rising. Housing starts continue to languish （衰弱）at around a third of normal levels. Industrial-capacity use is similarly well below pre-recession levels. Until most existing capacity is put to productive use, there is little reason for（才有可能……） businesses to make new investments.
Nor does it help that government economic support will fade during 2010. Mark Zandi, an economist with Moody’s Economy.com, estimates that the federal stimulus （联邦刺激）contributed about two percentage points of growth in the fourth quarter. That will drop below one percentage point by mid-year and fall to nothing thereafter. State budget cuts will also be a drain （消耗）on output, as they have been for most of the recession. Drops in state-government spending subtracted（减去） 0.1% from output for all of 2009.




And even the fourth quarter's spirited performance may be overstated（夸大
exaggerate; overstate; magnify; aggrandize）. Third-quarter growth was originally reported at 3.5%, only to be revised down later to 2.2%. （从各种不利形势分析后，作出或许第四季度的数据是夸张的消极猜测。推理更近一步）


Nonetheless, the performance of the American economy in the fourth quarter is encouraging, suggesting firmly that America has pulled free of recession. Yet caution is in order. （然而，必须小心谨慎。）If the response is to cut back quickly on fiscal and monetary support （金融支持）for the economy, this flash of growth （昙花一现的增长，flash用的非常好）could disappear as quickly as it emerged.