20150716 Soggy(dull): can team emulate(copy) coffee?
Tea, cheap and healthy, is the world’s top drink after water-though steady growth of just over 1% since the second world war has made the market look more satisfying than exciting. But change is brewing(coming). Pricier specialty teas (such as new blends and flavors) are catching on. So are infusions, such as herb and floral potions. Ambitious tea traders in Dubai, well-positioned for the Middle East, are shaking up the market. Coffee chains have demonstrated the profits in selling hot drinks at high price: now teashops are following suit (notably in Germany). The big prize is the American market, growing fast from a low base. The scope for better innovation, marketing and branding is huge: even insiders concede that the tea industry has long lagged behind its buzzier cousin coffee. A low-profile world body, the International Tea Committee, politely turns away media enquiries, pleading pressure of work. More hot water?
20150716 Food for thought: American grocers
Today Walmat, American’s and the world’s biggest retailer, unveils its first quarter results. Analysts are expecting another dip in profits, as sales growth continues to stagnate. And although Target, one of Walmart’s rivals, is expected to reveal better figures tomorrow, these are difficult times for American grocers. Last week the Census Bureau reported that retail sales in April were flat. Even if the economy does start to boom again, both Walmart and Target may continue to struggle. Since the recession, ordinary Americans have apparently been shelling out(spend) their extra income on dining out rather than on more food to eat at home. In the past few months, as Mark Perry of the University of Michigan points out, they have been spending more in restaurants and bars than in grocery stores for the first time on record. Good news for American consumers won’t necessarily be good for Walmart.
20150517 Nepal’s agony: another lethal earthquake
Another earthquake struck Nepal yesterday, spreading panic among those who survived the much bigger one last month and complicating an already difficult humanitarian situation. The new tremor, with an estimated magnitude of 7.3, centered on a village east of capital, Kathmandu. The death toll (nearly 70 when Espresso was published) seems likely to be far fewer than the 8,000 victims in April-partly because the quake happened during the day, when people are awake. It is calamitous nevertheless. Nepalis are struggling to recover from the earlier disaster, with many still sleeping out of doors. They fear more tremors but are also apprehensive ahead of the annual monsoon, which brings torrential, sometimes violent, downpours. Grumbles over the slow recovery efforts of Nepal’s government reflect the perennially weak capacity of the state. Any rebuilding must be founded on a grim certainty: earthquakes will recur, relatively often, in Nepal and northern India.
Agony: extreme physical or mental pain or sufferingLethal: extremely dangerous
Panic: 恐慌Humanitarian：人道主义Tremor: 地震Magnitude：震级Calamitous：disastrous
Apprehensive: feeling worried about something
Torrential: heavy (rain) Grumble: complaint
Perennially: lasting a very long time Grim: without hope
这是短文阅读吗？
20150717 Foes to friends: Vietnam and America
Today Barack Obama meets Nguyen Phu Trong, the boss of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party, at the White House. Mr Trong is the first Vietnamese party chief to visit Washington, and his trip underscores warming ties between the two former foes. American frets about Vietnam’s atrocious human rights record, but appreciates its enthusiasm for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed American-led regional trade pact. Vietnam, for its part, is looking to cut its reliance on China, its northern neighbor, which is growing bolder in asserting a territorial claim over rocks near its coast. Most ordinary Vietnamese heartily support more chumminess with the Americans, but some party members fear that the old enemy still harbours(hide) hopes of unseating them, and worry about provoking China further. A Chinese drilling rig, which last year caused consternation when it was towed into disputed waters, is once again roaming near Vietnameses seas.
2 party chief：党的书记。3 underscore：强调。
4 foe：敌人。5 fret：担心。11 roam：漫步、漫游。
6 atrocious：骇人惊闻。（名词：atrocity）
7 reliance：依赖。8 chumminess：友好。
9 assert：断言。10 consternation：惊愕。
好惭愧，看来要好好学习了:(
20150720 Xiaomi the way forward: next stop, Brazil
What does the world’s most valuable startup do when it runs out of growing room at home? That is the challenge facing Xiaomi, a Chinese smartphone maker valued at$45 billion in its latest investment round. Its domestic market is almost saturated: smartphone penetration is 70%, and Xiaomi’s sales of 34.7m handsets in the first half of this year fell slightly from 35m in the previous six months. So it is looking abroad to India (smartphone penetration:20%) and, starting today, Brazil(27%). Manufacturing its high-spec, low-cost Redmi 2 handsets in Brazil avoids import tariffs and lets Xiaomi sell them for just $160; Hugo Barra, a Brazilian who left Google in 2013 to lead Xiaomi’s global expansion, is eyeing Mexico and Colombia next. Fans mobbed last week’s launch event in Sao Paulo-just as they do back home. That will cheer investors hoping that Xiaomi’s magic will work outside China.
Startup: 创业公司Saturated:饱和
Market penetration：渗透率Handset：手机
High-spec: high-specification/高规格
Tariff：关税
20150720 The Apple Watch: calling time on queues
Today the Apple Watch goes on show at Apple’s stores around the world, giving people their first chance to play with it-and, if they like it, pre-order one for delivery on April 24th. It’s a different approach from selling iPhones or Ipads: Apple’s retail chief, Angela Ahrendts, want to avoid the queues that form outside its shops in the days before each major launch. The lines generate media coverage and demonstrate the devotion of Apple’s fans. But images of enthusiasts camping on the street send the wrong message for a company now positioning itself as a luxury fashion brand( the fanciest Apple Watch costs $17000), and suggest it is unable to anticipate or meet consumer demand. Moreover, the queues have become a circus: people buy and sell spots outside Apple’s flagship stores, and use media interviews to promote startups, new apps and other products. Now says Apple, time’s up.
calling time: that’s time ladies and gentlemen=calling time. the end of something
e.g. Banks are calling time on interest free loans
go on show: on display but not “go on sale”
form queues: 排队major launch: 铺货
generate media coverage: 引起媒体的广泛报道
circus：disorganized behaviormedia circus
e.g. Not only is he an astute politician but he also knows how to deal with the media circus
这是楼主的才艺展示吗？;P 先收藏了，等有空了再看。
20150721 TL;DR: Reddit is the new Digg
Reddit, a site that calls itself” the front page of the internet”, is in turmoil. The firing of Victoria Taylor, who oversaw the company’s relations with the volunteers who moderate its thousands of discussion board, or sub-reddits, prompted fury. Many of them shuttered their forums. Even the well-known “Ask me Anything?”, which Ms Taylor helped coordinate, went dark. Managers have been putting a greater emphasis on making money; the moderators worry that this is destroying Reddit’s distinctive culture of link-sharing and discussion. Ellen Pao, the interim chief executive, has apologized (twice) but 200,000 have signed an online petition calling for her resignation. The episode exemplifies the online world’s perennial tension between commerce and community. As with Wikipedia and Flickr (and Digg and Myspace-remember them?), it’s a reminder that sites whose success depends on user’ fervour must treat them with respect: they are volunteers, not employees.
TL;DR: too long; didn’t read turmoil adj. 动荡、骚乱prompt v. 促使、导致fury n. 暴怒、狂怒oversee v. 监管moderate v. 主持、调节
shutter v. 关闭；停止运行coordinate: v. 协调、管理
distinctive: adj. 独有的、与众不同的interim chief executive 临时首席执行官 episode：n. an event or a short period of time during which something happens exemplify: v. 举例证明
perennial: adj. 常常发生的，终年不断的 例句：Teddy bears are a perennial favorite with children.fervour: very strong belief or feeling
Lucky for some: Britain’s first seven-way TV debate
Five weeks before Britain’s general election, the first televised head-to-head of the campaign takes place tonight. It will feature seven party leaders. Why so many? At the start of the current parliament there were three main parties: the Conservatives, their Liberal Democrat coalition partners and Labour. Five years on, the UK Independence Party, the Scottish National Party and the Greens are muscling in (up from 6% together in the 2010 election to over 20% in recent polls). The leaders of all six, plus that of the Welsh-nationalist Plaid Cymru, each get a podium. The format may favour Nigel Farage, the blustering but charismatic leader of UKIP. Attention will also be on Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, deemed to have exceeded (admittedly rock-bottom) expectations when he and David Cameron, the Tory prime minister, were grilled separately on television last week. Repeating the trick in a seven-way bunfight may prove trickier.
lucky for some, indicating for unlucky for some
bingo game: 7, lucky number, 13 lucky for some
head-to-head: direct/straightforward
tete-a-tete: private conversation/feature: contain
The conservatives: /Tories. Oldest party,
Right Wing, the rich, upper class.
Thatcher. Ding-Dong, the witch is dead
Lib Dem: between Tories and Labour. Floating voters.
coalition: current parliament is run by 2 parties
repairing job/Majority government/coalition government
Labour Party: working class, support poor,
public spending.Socialists./Left Wing. Tony Blair
xxx on: xxx down the line
UKIP: Fascist(in some way), boycott immigration,
nationalist. White, disenfranchise voters. 2-year old
BNP: extreme right-wing
SNP: regional, independence of Scotland.
Referendum /Greens: environmentalist, hippies,
cosmetic with the system/muscle in: elbow one’s way in
Monster Raving Loony Party: making a mockery on democratic systems
podium: 讲台blustering: outspoken/charismatic:
deemed: considered
rock-bottom: non-existent
grilled: questioned quite ferociously.
The police grilled the criminal.
Interrogate bunfight: a petty squabble
tricky: complicated, difficult
给大家几个常用网盘搜索网站。
西林街 http://www.xilinjie.com/
胖次 http://www.panc.cc/
天天网盘 http://www.daysou.com/
爱挖盘 http://www.iwapan.com/
吸盘 http://so.xpan.me/index.html
盘搜 http://www.pansou.com/
盘找找 http://www.panzz.com/
我的盘 http://www.wodepan.com/
壹搜网 http://www.yiso.me/
网盘搜 http://www.wangpansou.cn/
360搜网盘http://www.360swp.com/
网盘搜搜 http://wpsoso.com/index.html
EV搜 http://www.evsou.com/
呆木瓜 http://file.daimugua.com/
20150722 Sales trip: Ms Rousseff goes to Washington
In 2013 revelations of American snooping on her e-mail led Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, to call of a state visit to Washington. Not all will be forgiven as she dines with Barack Obama tonight in the White House, on her first official trip to American since then. But bilateral relations are on the mend. Tomorrow the two will sign agreements to co-operate in areas including education and human rights; expect a limp joint statement on the need to tackle climate change, too. But the agenda will be dominated by trade. Today in New York Ms Rousseff will woo American bosses and investors with infrastructure concessions; on Wednesday she will seek advice on innovation from tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. A deal on easing non-tariff barriers looks likely. With Brazil stuck in stagflation, and her approval ratings flirting with single digits, small wonder Ms Rousseff is seeking sources of growth-and positive headlines-abroad.
Dilma Rousseff: 迪尔玛•罗塞夫，巴西历史上首位女总统
revelation n. 披露、揭发
例句： I was shocked, brought down to earth by this revelation. 真相的披露让我深感震惊，我被带回了现实。
snooping: v. 窥探
call off: v. 放弃，取消
state visit: n. 国事访问
on the mend 在改进中或者在康复中
bilateral relations双边关系
joint statement 联合声明
limp adj. not firm or strong
woo: v. to try to persuade someone to do something
infrastructure concession: 基础设施特许权
non-tariff barrier: 非关税贸易壁垒
stagflation: 停滞性通货膨胀，简称滞胀或停滞性通胀。这个词的拼写源于其含义的两个方面，也就是经济停滞（stagnation），以及通货膨胀（inflation）同时持续高涨的经济现象。通俗的说就是指物价上升，但经济停滞不前。它是通货膨胀长期发展的结果。
approval rating: 支持率
first with something: to do something that is dangerous
small wonder: 难怪
20150722 The dog ate it: late climate homework
Today the world ought to discover whether or not a global climate treaty will be agreed in Paris in December. That deal is to be based on “national contributions”-aims and policies that countries promise to implement after 2020.
Individual states are supposed to announce their contributions by March 31st. Needless to say, most haven’t. Nations accounting for only a third of greenhouse-gas emissions have unveiled their proposals. They include the European Union, Switzerland and Mexico, the only developing country on the list. Many of the biggest polluters, such as China, India and Russia, say they will wait until nearer the summit to announce their plans. Today’s deadline was informal: participants were merely invited to meet it. But a global treaty failed in Copenhagen in 2009 partly because negotiators felt blindsided. The process adopted for Paris was intended to avoid that. It has flunked its first test.
The dog ate it:
不交作业的经典借口 cliche，对应后文中的homework
ought to: be expected to /deal=treaty
blindsided:
flunk a test: fail a test
20150723 Odd News:
No ‘narsisstics’: Music festivals ban fan’ selfie sticks
You’ll have to find a new way to commemorate your festival fun this year. You can bring your beach towels and floral headbands, but forget that selfie sitck if you’re planning to go to the Coachella or Lollapalooza music festivals. The devices, which grasp cellphones to allow people to take pictures of themselves farther away from their faces, are banned at this summer’s multiday festivals in Indio, California, and Chicago. Coachella dismissed them as “marsisstics” on a list of prohibited items.
“They will be turned away and we’ll probably make fun of you.”A statement from Ultra Music Festival in Maiami
Selfie sticks have become a popular but polemical photo taking tool, and Coachella and Lollapalooza are among dozens of popular events and landmarks taking a stand against the sticks. In Europe, the Palace of Versailles outside Pairs, Britain’s National Gallery in London and the Colosseum in Rome have all banned selfie sticks, saying they need to protect exhibits on display and ensure the safety of visitors.
narsisstics: narcissist, stick. portmanteau，
commemorate: 纪念festival fun: 押头韵
device：装备 gadget/polemical：disputable
20150723 The truth is out there: World UFO Day
Today is World UFO Day, celebrated each year since 2001 on the anniversary of the crash in 1947 of a supposed flying saucer near Roswell, New Mexico. Back in the days of film cameras, blurry snaps of UFOs were taken by some as evidence that aliens were already among us. In recent years, they seem to be visiting more often; more likely, strange lights in the sky are easier to capture on ubiquitous camera-equipped smartphones. Yet they seem to be choosy about when they come. According to data gathered by the National UFO Reporting Centre, a non-profit organization, UFO sightings occur mainly in summertime, in the evening, and especially on Fridays, which suggests aliens may be timing their visits to coincide with alcohol consumption. And those tow bright lights close together above the western horizon tonight? Not UFOs, but Jupiter and Venus, which are in conjunction (astronomer-speak for a close encounter) this week.
2015724 All work, low pay: American’s labour market
America’s economy is puzzle. Employment growth has been strong, but wage growth feeble. In the past year the economy has added over 3m job; the unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the rich world. Tomorrow’s jobs report is expected to contain more of the same. All this should be pushing wages up. Yet earnings are only 3% higher, after inflation, than when the recession ended in mid-2009. Despite the low jobless rate, other measures show that the labour market still has plenty of slack; the number of part-time workers who would rather be full-timers is 50% higher than before the recession. And long-term forces may be holding wages down, including import competition from China and the offshoring of well-paid jobs. The Federal Reserve is watching for faster wage growth, as a sign of reviving inflation-although Janet Yellen, the Fed’s head, has said interest rates may rise even if pay increases remain measly.
all work, low pay: all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Enjoy leisure/feeble: pathetically weak
measures: indices/indexes
slack: lull/force：factor
measly: stingy/meagre: contemptibly small
20150724 A marathon not a sprint: Fitbit’s flotation
Today, Fitbit, which makes wearable devices that measure how far you run and how many calories you burn, is expected to price shares for its initial public offering at between $17 and $19 each. The eight-year-old firm will raise around %400m, suggesting a valuation of $3.7 billion. Trading is due to start tomorrow. Fitbit has been setting the pace in wearable, one of the fastest-growing categories in consumer technology. But its market share has declined; the chasing pack contains some formidable competitors, notably Apple, whose smartwatch has just gone on sales, and Samsung. Fitbit also faces claims of cheating from another young contender, Jawbone, which says that employees poached by Fitbi took trade secrets with them and accuses its rival of infringing its patents. Fitbit will have to cope with all this as a public company, with investors watching its every move. From now on, the tracker will be tracked.
1 marathon：马拉松/2 sprint：短跑
3 flotation：发行股份/4 IPO：initial public offering
5 wearable device：穿戴设备/6 be due to do预期做某事
7 formidable：难对付的/8 notably：尤其/9 poach：挖人
10 infringe：侵犯
20150728 Change of tempo: Apple Music arrives
Today Apple presses “play” on its much-ballyhooed music-streaming service, Apple Music. The product reflects the music industry’s shift away from digital downloads-which Apple itself helped to popularize with the launch of the iTunes Music Store in 2003. Streaming has rapidly picked up pace: Spotify, the early market-leader, has 20m paying subscribers, twice as many as a year ago, and 75m total active users(most listen to its free, ad-supported service). After a three-month free trial period, Apple Music will cost $9.99 a month. It will have to navigate a crowded dance floor: listeners are spoiled for choice. On June 23rd Google said it would make a version of its music-streaming service available for nothing. Apple can push its service to the hundreds of millions who own iPhones, but that is no guarantee that it will dominate streaming. People do like Apple, but they like free stuff even more.
tempo n. 音乐术语，表示乐曲的速度，一分钟多少拍。much-ballyhooed adj. 大吹大擂的
music-streaming service n.流媒体音乐服务
Spotify: 全球最大的正版流媒体音乐服务平台之一
free trial period n. 免费体验期
20150728 Waiting for Hillary: this time, it’s personal
Seldom has a Brooklyn office lease sparked so many headlines. Those waiting for Hillary Clinton to launch a presidential run now expect an announcement within days, after she reportedly rented campaign headquarters in New York. Prominent backers brief that the former first lady, senator and Secretary of State plans to show her human side at small-scale campaign events in early voting primary state-eschewing the grand rallies that fell flat when she completed for the Democratic nomination against Barack Obama in 2008. The world may have other ideas. A simple tweet from Mrs Clinton calling on China to stop detaining women’s-rights activists prompted a rebuke from the Chinese foreign ministry yesterday. Her full views of the draft nuclear accord with Iran are unclear, though she has called it an important step. If and when they emerge, they will flash around the world. Even before she formally declares her candidacy, she is the contest’s international star. it’s personal: for real. 动真格
prominent: very well-known and important
backer: supporter/eschew: avoid/rally: a public meeting
nomination: 提名/detain：hold sb in a place. 监禁
rebuke：disapprove/accord：treaty
20150727 England’s Richard III,
the ‘villainous’ king, gets ceremonial reburial
Richard III, the last English King to die in battle and the country’s most maligned monarch, will be re-buried on Thursday three years after his remains were found under a car park. Depicted by Shakespeare as a sadistic, crafty hunchback, Richard will be re-interred at Leicester Cathedral in central England some 530 years after he was slain at the Battle of Bosworth Field on Aug.22, 1485. Following the battle, his naked body was thrown on the back of a horse, taken to Leicester and buried in a humble grave, without the dignity usually bestowed on a king.
“He seems a hero to some and a villain to others, and the few short years of his reign held promise of a time of peace and good government that was not to be,” wrote David Monteith, the Dean of Leicester, in a foreword to Thursday’s order of service. The ceremony will feature a message from Queen Elizabeth, who will be represented by minor members of the royal family.
“At last he’s been treated as he should have been 500-plus years ago. Remains of most English monarchs at Westminster Abbey or Windsor Castle, his conqueror in battle Henry Tudor, later Henry.
infamous：臭名昭著/villainous：强盗的/villain
most maligned monarch：最残暴的君王
头韵：alliteration/remains：尸骨/sadistic：施虐狂的
sadomasochism：虐恋/crafty：狡猾的
hunchback：驼背/inter：inter the body 入葬
slay, slain, slew
humble grave：无名坟 shallow grave, unmarked grave
watery grave=where someone drown
dignity：尊严
bestow on：赋予
reign：统治/governance
was not to be：天不遂人愿
20150727 The joys of divorce: will Qualcomm split?
Examples of failed technology mergers abound, but demergers have a better record-which is a chief reason why they are back in fashion. Since PayPal, a digital-payment service, officially took its leave of eBay, an e-commerce giant, on Friday, two other possible tech splits have made headlines. One is Yahoo, a troubled web portal, which has filed to register a spin-off company that will include its 15% stake in Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce group. And reports say that today Qualcomm, a chipmaker, will announce a sweeping strategic review to consider its break up into a production business and a patent-licensing operation. Yahoo’s motivation is tax: it wants to avoid a bill when it sells its Alibaba shares, which are worth $32 billion. Qualcomm seems to be reacting to shifts in its industry, in particular rapid consolidation among chipmakers. Other tech firms are said to have spin-off plans in the drawer. Expect more corporate divorces.
Split: 分离/Merger：并购/Abound：大量存在
Spin-off：资产拆分/Sweeping：彻底的
Consolidation：整合/In the drawer: 酝酿之中
20150728 Modesty blaze: the Clinton declaration
Surprising nobody, Hillary Clinton formally announced yesterday that she is running for president of the United States. Unlike Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, the two Republican senators who have already declared their intentions, and Marco Rubio, who joins the race today, Mrs Clinton declined to stage a rally or give a speech. Instead, she tweeted her entry and released a short video via a new campaign website. Today, the former senator is in Iowa, where she will try to meet voters in such intimate setting such as coffee shops or restaurants. Winning over the Hawkeye State’s Democrat caucus voters is crucial: in 2008, Mrs Clinton was humiliated there, trailing in third place behind Barack Obama and John Edwards. Small-scale events will help her to avoid looking entitled or arrogant, her team seems to think. But with an enormous press pack following her every move, the illusion may be difficult to maintain.
blaze： 光辉/declare：郑重的宣布。
rally：集会。/tweet: 发推特消息。
intimate：熟悉的，令人感到亲切的。
caucus: 一小撮政治观点相同的、一起决定候选人的党派成员。humiliate: 屈辱。entitled: 理所当然。
pack: 量词，群，通常形容狼，此处形容媒体。
20150729 India’s thirsty soil: the monsoon and inflation
Much in India’s economy depends on the monsoon, the three-month rainy season beginning in June. Farming is India’s largest employer, accounting for 18% of GDP. Food makes up almost half of the consumer-price index. And more than half of cultivated land depends solely on the monsoon for irrigation. So a forecast by the Indian Meteorological Department of a deficient rainy season raised concerns that inflation, which has fallen by half to 5% since late 2013, would rebound. Yet the IMD’s prediction already looks too gloomy. Rainfall in the first three weeks of June has been 21% above its 50-year average. Most of India has been rinsed thoroughly. Only in the north-west (where irrigation is more prevalent) have the rains been below normal. July and August may yet be unduly dry. But economists are already nudging down their inflation forecasts-and talking up the changes of another interest-rate cut.
deficient 不足/rinse 冲洗/prevalent -popular的近义词
unduly 过度的、过分的
nudge：to move by a small amount in a particular direction
talk up 夸大/interest-rate cut 降息
20150729 Braking good: China’s slowing economy
Headlines about China’s first-quarter GDP, due to be reported today, will look gloomy. The economy is thought to have grown at its slowest pace since early 2009, when the global financial crisis was at its worst. But beyond that unflattering comparison, the news will be brighter. Thanks to the vast expansion of China’s economy, growth of 7% this year (the official target) would add as much to global demand as growth of twice that rate in 2007. Consumption is supplanting investment as the economy’s most powerful engine, a transition that will put China on a more sustainable path. Slower growth is also part of the government’s plan for fixing the economy’s ills: China’s leaders want to rein in debt, which has soared to worrying heights. But they also worry about braking too sharply-and have already started to ease monetary policy and increase spending.
braking good: brake=slow down/Breaking Bad: 绝命毒师
beyond: except
unflattering: less attractive than it usually is
vast expansion: 大规模扩张/supplant： replace
fix ills: 治病/rein sth in：control
debts soar to worrying heights: 债台高筑
20150730 Brief encounter: a visit to Pluto
相见恨晚
Today, at 11.50 am GMT, a piano-sized spacecraft call New Horizons will whizz pas Pluto. It will thus complete one of humanity’s most impressive collections: when New Horizons was launched, in 2006, Pluto was regarded as a planet-and the only one never to have been visited by a space probe. New Horizons should reveal much about the place. Pluto is tiny-its mass is only 0.006 times that of the Earth-and so far away that, even though the Hubble space telescope, it shows up as little more than a pixelated blob. Since its demotion, later in 2006, Pluto has been classed as the largest of the solar system’s”dwarf planets” and the biggest member of the Kuiper Belt
20150731 Britain’s economy: credit, due or not
Amid a general election campaign dominated by the economy, the Bank of England will today keep interest rates at 0.5% for the 73rd consecutive month. Britain’s economy grew faster in 2014 than that of any other G7nation. Yet inflation is zero, mainly due to falling oil prices. That is a relief for squeezed worker, whose real wages are finally rising. George Osborne, the Conservative chancellor of the exchequer, is desperate to take the credit: his party has let a coalition government since 2010, and is seeking re-election almost entirely on its economic record. In truth Tory policies-chief among them deficit reduction-have contributed little to recent growth or low inflation. And flat lining interest rates are a sign of fragility: in the event of a crisis, such as a euro-zone blow-up, the bank would have to resort to more quantitative easing. Those nuances may be lost on many voters.
amid: in the middle of /dominated: controlled
consecutive: continuous
G7 nation: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States, European Union. 70% of the global wealth/chancellor of the exchequer : 财政大臣
desperate：迫切的
fragility：vulnerability/nuance：small/trivial things
20150731 A bird? A plane? A tale of two bosses
Today provides two case studies in managing a chief executive’s succession: one in how to do it, one in how not to. Boeing’s boss, James McNerney, is handing over to his chief operating officer, Dennis Muilenburg, who arrived at the aircraft-maker as an intern 30 years ago. Twitter’s chief executive, Dick Costolo, is departing under pressure from activist investors. Jack Dorsey, who co-found the microblogging site in 2006 and ran it until he was ousted in 2008, will be interim chief. A worrying number of companies are more like Twitter than Boeing. The National Association of Corporate Directors calculates that 44% of American companies have no succession plan. Even big firms trip up: Bank of America was left rudderless when Ken Lewis resigned in 2009. Such crises are expensive and disruptive. They often force companies to hire outsiders-who cost a lot and are likelier(likely) to fail. When they do, the cycle starts again.
succession：继任/predecessor：前人
microblog：微型博客/oust：逐出
trip up：绊倒/disruptive：引起混乱的
Boeing：波音公司/Twitter：推特
under pressure：在某种压力下
20150730 BBC drops Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear over steak and chips ‘fracas’
The BBC will not renew Jeremy Clarkson’s contract as a Top Gear presenter after an investigation concluded he assaulted his producer, according to reports. Clarkson, one of the BBC’s most popular stars, was suspended shortly after he admitted to bosses he was involved in a “fracas” with producer Oisin Tymon. The presenter reportedly verbally abused Tymon for 20 minutes before he launched into a 30-second assault against him.
Lord hall, the director general of the BBC said in a statement:”It is with great regret that I have told Jeremy Clarkson today that the BBC will not be renewing his contact. It is not a decision I have taken lightly.
fracas：massive dispute over something insignificant
renew the contract：续约
investigation conclude：调查结果
assault：攻击/suspend：停职
verbal abuse：语言攻击/with great regret：非常遗憾
decision…taken lightly：轻易做出的决定
20150730 Beyond Windows: Microsoft in middle age
It may come as a shock to those who have grown up with the company and still think of themselves as young. But on Saturday Microsoft will celebrate its 40th birthday. As it enters middle age, Microsoft is still the world’s biggest software firm, with annual revenues of $87 billion and profits of $22 billion. But it is much less important than it once was: it responded flat-footedly to the shift of computing from desktop PCs and corporate servers to smartphones and vast data centres( alias the “cloud”). To make Microsoft relevant again, Satya Nadella, its boss of 14 months, is doing all he can to end its dependence on Windows, the dominant operating system of the desktop years-and to turn it into a company that “builds stuff that people like”. If he can do that, Microsoft may yet be thriving at 50.
Beyond: What comes after/Personification
It may come as a shock to: it may come as a surprise to
think of oneself: consider oneself as…
enter middle age: 步入中年
flatfooted: clumsy, awkward
alias: a.k.a/also known as
under the alias of: pseudo name, nom de plume
thrive: 繁荣/Build to Last: 《基业长青》