30150803 Misaligned alliance: Turkey and America
The deal between Turkey and America to establish a “safe zone” along a 70-miles (113km) section of the Turkish-Syrian border is fraught with problems. The aim is to drive Islamic State forces out of the area, in order to encourage some of the 2m Syrian refugees in Turkey to return to their country and to provide space for “moderate” rebels to train. The Ankara government is now letting American warplanes fly from nearby bases, and long-range Turkish artillery can fire over the border. But neither country will have ground forces in the zone. The biggest doubt is the absence of a shared agenda. Turkey now seems prepared to his IS, but its main objectives are still toppling Bashar Assad, Syria’s president, and stopping Syrian Kurds from expanding the territory they control. The American’s priority remains degrading IS, in which they see Syrian Kurds as useful allies. Try making that work.
Misaligned: 错误排列
Alliance：联盟
Fraught with：充满
Topple：颠覆
20150804 It’s about time: a president in prison
Barack Obama visits El Reno, a federal prison in Oklahoma, today. That may not sound unusual, but he is the first sitting president to pay such a call. This is one sign of how the politics of crime have changed in the past decade. Democrats were once nervous about seeming less punitive than Republicans; it has taken them time to catch up with Republicans like Rick Perry, ex-governor of Texas and a presidential candidate, who have long argued that mass incarceration is expensive and ineffective. Now the idea that America locks up too many people is almost orthodoxy in both parties. No fewer than 1.6m people are detained in federal and state prisons and another 740,000 in local jails, most of them awaiting trial. The vast majority are in state-run facilities. Welcome as Mr Obama’s visit is, that means the president’s influence over the numbers is rather limited.
El Reno Federal Prison厄尔里诺联邦监狱Oklahoma：俄克拉何马州
sitting president: 现任总统
pay a call on sb: 拜访 【pay a call of nature 上厕所】
punitive adj. 惩罚性的/mass adj. 大规模的incarceration n. 监禁
orthodoxy n. 正统观念，意指获得广泛的支持/detain v. 拘留、扣留
state prison: 州立监狱/ vast majority：绝大多数
jail: 大多数情况下和prison为同义词。其差异在于被关押时间的长短。jail及detention facilities一般指的是用来关押等待判决的嫌犯、服刑期在一年以下的犯人以及未能保释的犯人，可译为看守所。而prison则指关押长期罪犯的监狱/awaiting trial候审
20150803 Cold thaw: Obama meets Castro
The end of the Cold War is finally reaching the Western hemisphere. Today or tomorrow Barack Obama will hold an unprecedented meeting in Panama. Either then or shortly afterwards Mr Obama will (with Congress’s approval) seek to remove Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, as a prelude to establishing full diplomatic relations for the first time since 1961. The relaxation of some American travel and trade restrictions since December has already encouraged small-scale private enterprise on the island, chipping away at state control. Though the wider embargo remains, Mr Obama’s historic gesture in Panama will improve America’s image among its neighbors: its failed attempts to isolate Cuba have long generated a rift. Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela still incites anti Americanism, but his country’s economic troubles have weakened its leverage over Cuba. Unexpectedly, an American envoy visited Caracas this week to mollify Venezuela, too.
thaw: 化冻。to become friendlier or more relaxed
unprecedented: 史无前例的/remove from…:移除
prelude to: 序曲，前奏，序幕mollify：to pacify or soften
chip away at：cut away from/wider embargo: all other restrictions / incite: 煽动/ envoy: 特使
historic gesture: symbolic act
isolate Cuba: impose and enforce the embargo
rift: a serious disagreement
leverage over: power to influence
20150804 It’s about time: a president in prison
Barack Obama visits El Reno, a federal prison in Oklahoma, today. That may not sound unusual, but he is the first sitting president to pay such a call. This is one sign of how the politics of crime have changed in the past decade. Democrats were once nervous about seeming less punitive than Republicans; it has taken them time to catch up with Republicans like Rick Perry, ex-governor of Texas and a presidential candidate, who have long argued that mass incarceration is expensive and ineffective. Now the idea that America locks up too many people is almost orthodoxy in both parties. No fewer than 1.6m people are detained in federal and state prisons and another 740,000 in local jails, most of them awaiting trial. The vast majority are in state-run facilities. Welcome as Mr Obama’s visit is, that means the president’s influence over the numbers is rather limited.
El Reno Federal Prison厄尔里诺联邦监狱Oklahoma：俄克拉何马州
sitting president: 现任总统
pay a call on sb: 拜访 【pay a call of nature 上厕所】
punitive adj. 惩罚性的/mass adj. 大规模的incarceration n. 监禁
orthodoxy n. 正统观念，意指获得广泛的支持/detain v. 拘留、扣留
state prison: 州立监狱/ vast majority：绝大多数
jail: 大多数情况下和prison为同义词。其差异在于被关押时间的长短。jail及detention facilities一般指的是用来关押等待判决的嫌犯、服刑期在一年以下的犯人以及未能保释的犯人，可译为看守所。而prison则指关押长期罪犯的监狱/awaiting trial候审
20150804 Seeking super symmetry: the LHC restarts
If all goes well the world’s largest particle accelerator will be restarted this week with the circulation of a test beam of protons. Before it was shut down two yours ago for a refit, the Large Hadron Collider discovered the Higgs boson, a particle that gives mass to other particles. Once tests are completed the collider will follow this up by searching for signs of super symmetry, a theory which suggests that the known fundamental particles (electrons, quarks, and so on) have heavier partners with complementary properties. Increasing the size of the particle zoo in this way would, paradoxically, make the universe a simpler and more rational place. Super symmetric particles may also explain dark matter, a mysterious substance, five times as abundant as familiar atomic matter, whose gravity holds galaxies together. Many physicists believe dark matter is made from neutralinos, a type of particle predicted by super symmetry.
proton：质子/hadron：强子/Higgs boson：上帝粒子
complementary：互补的/property：特性
zoo：类群/paradoxical：矛盾的
substance：物质/matter
gravity：引力/galaxies：星系
neutralino：微中子
do not go gentle into that good night
20140804 The IMF: no spring in the step
Today the men and women who control the levers of the global economy meet in Washington, DC. At their bi-annual summit the IMF’s 188 governors (usually finance ministers) and their “alternates” (mainly central –bank heads) will ponder the fund’s forecasts for their countries. Some will be chipper: in recent years Britain’s chancellor, George Osborne, has faced scorn of his deficit-cutting austerity, but with British GDP predicted to grow by 2.7% in 2015 such criticism has died away. For most there will be little joy: globally the IMF predicts “moderate and uneven” growth this year. It has slashed its forecasts for Russia and Brazil. The fund’s boss, Christine Lagarde will remind the governors that despite improvements in the euro zone, deflation lurks and lots of capacity sits idle. The solution is more of the same: cleaned-up banks, cheap money and (for those that can afford it) investment in infrastructure.
spring: 跳跃/lever：杠杆/bi-annual: 双年的
alternates: other delegates/ponder: think carefully
forecast: anticipation/chipper: very happy
scorn: 鄙视/cut deficit: 削减赤字
austerity: 艰苦朴素/die away: disappear
moderate grow: 略微增长/uneven: 不平均的
slash: reduce/lurk: exist unnoticeably/sit idle: 闲置
more of the same: similar /cleaned-up banks: 整顿银行
20150805 Books to babysitters: Amazon’s next move
Has Amazon ever seen a market it didn’t want to enter? The internet behemoth started by selling books, before becoming a retailer for everything from art supplies to zombie survival kits. It has branched out into e-readers, cloud computing and tablet computers, and even makes its own nappies. Today it is expected to announce Amazon Home Services, a marketplace to connect customers with nearby plumbers, gardeners and babysitters in several American cities. (Amazon has been testing a version of the service since late 2014.) The company’s willingness to enter unexpected new markets is one of its greatest strengths: it refuses to be constrained by internal or external perceptions of what industry it is in. Some critics worry that it has over-diversified. But Amazon, whose technology chief, Werner Vogels, was recently mocked when he described the firm as “a 20-year-old startup”, is still in land-grab mode-as today’s move demonstrates.
books to babysitter: 押头韵/behemoth: something of monstrous size,
derived from Hebrew for /“beast”。商业巨头/retailer:零售商
zombie survival kits: 僵尸急救包
branch out into: expand into/nappies: diapers (American English)
marketplace:/ the activity of buying and selling products
plumber: 水管工/constrain: limit the development
perception: impression/Some critics worry: over-diversified: 过分多元化/crossover: 跨界mock: make fun of /land-grab mode: 圈地运动
20150805 Gentle descent: China’s slowing economy
China’s turbo-charged are over. The question is whether the economy will land softly or in an untidy heap. Data published today should point to the former GDP growth in the second quarter is expected to have slipped to 6.9%, year on year. That would be the slowest since the depths of the global financial crisis, but there’s no cause of alarm: it would be just a smidgen less than the first quarter’s 7% (and consistent with the official target). Given the economy’s size, growth at that rate creates even more demand than did growth twice as fast in 2007. Moreover, the economy is responding to the government’s “mini-stimulus”. Data on investment, industrial output and retail sales, also due today, are all forecast to have stabilized. With debt levels still high, China’s economy might eventually face trouble. But for now its descent –unlike that of the country’s crazed stock market-is admirably smooth.
turbo-charged adj. 原指用涡轮（给发动机）增压，这里指速度加快
land softly：软着陆，安全着陆
(land/fall/collapse) in a heap: to fall down and lie without moving 意指跌落的幅度太大，摔得很惨而不能动弹
slip to：下滑到，下落到/year on year：与前一年同期比较
the depths of something: when a bad situation is at its worst level
cause for alarm：引起恐慌/smidgen n. 一点点
be consistent with 与……保持一致/ descent n. 下降
admirably adv. 出色的，极好的，令人叹服的
20150806 Facebook moves toward drone air fleet and virtual reality tech
Virtual reality, artificial intelligence and drones will enable Facebook Inc to create a more lifelike and useful social network, the company said. Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday proclaimed the successful test of a wide-winged, solar-powered drone built to deliver wireless internet service to remote spots. The test flight of a drone prototype dubbed “Aquila” took place in Britain and was considered a milestone in an internet .org project to bring online access to billions more people. Move toward 向..进军/Drone 无人机/Fleet 舰队、机队
“Aircraft like these will help connect the whole world because they can affordably serve the 10 percent of the world’s population that live in remote communities without existing Internet infrastructure.
The drone has a wingspan greater than that of a Boeing 737 and weighs about as much as a small car. Facebook’s future also includes “teleporting” social network users with virtual reality technology form Oculus, which they bought last year. Virtual reality headsets could transform how people communicate on Facebook. Events such as a birthday party or a child’s first bike ride could be shared on Facebook so users in different parts of the world felt as if they were taking part.
virtual reality 虚拟现实/Virtual world 虚拟世界/ Transform 改变
Artificial intelligence 人工智能/Lifelike更加仿真的/ Prototype 原型
Co-founder联合创始人/Solar-powered 太阳能的/Spots 地点
Dub=named as=called as=以..为命名
20150806 Sex bias in the Valley: the Ellen Pao case
This week –maybe today-a jury in San Francisco will start deliberating in the case of Ellen Pao, a former junior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a leading venture-capital firm in Silicon Valley. Ms Pao alleges that pervasive sexism at Kleiner kept her from becoming senior partner; Kleiner denies this, saying she just wasn’t up to scratch. Whatever the verdict, the widely followed trial has shone a light onto the cut-throat internal competition in venture-capital firms: Ms Pao was criticized for not being able to “own the room”. Whether the case has also advanced the cause of women in VC-where they are even more under represented than in the wider tech world-is a different question. Kleiner was one of the few firms that had any women partners at all. Some say that now others will be even less likely to, because they want to stay out of court. Well-founded fear or thin excuse?
bias：歧视/jury：陪审团/deliberate in the case：=consider
allege：指控/hold/pervasive：泛滥的/increasingly pervasive
deny：否认/not up to scratch=not as good as expected/verdict：判决
trial：审判/shine a light upon=draw the attention to/reveal
cut-throat competition=fierce competition/cut-throat industry
cut one’s throat：自取灭亡/one of the few：为数不多的
well-founded：reasonable/fully-supported
thin excuse：牵强的借口/feeble/flimsy/lame excuse：牵强的借口
20150806 Amazon at 20: bargains and much, much more
Today Amazon celebrates its website’s 20th birthday. To the giant online retailer, it’s a sales opportunity: it promises subscribers to its Prime shopping service “more deals than Black Friday”. Love or loathe Amazon, it’s changed how people shop and much else. In the 1990s typing your credit-card number into a browser seemed insane; Amazon proved otherwise, sparking what is now a $1.5 trillion global e-commerce market. The Kindle, launched in 2007, popularized e-books, with low prices and instant delivery to the device. Less obviously, Amazon pioneered customer reviews and rating, first of books and then other things. Professional critics were appalled; today everything from hotels to washing machines is rated online. And by renting out server capacity by the hour, Amazon catalyzed cloud computing and powered internet startups from Netflix to Airbnb. Apple may have popularized digital music players, smartphones and tablets, but Amazon has arguably done just as much to shape the digital world.
To promise a service /deal
Love or loathe /To prove otherwise
To spark /To Popularize
To Pioneer/Catalyse
Arguably /Shape the digital world
20150807朝鲜大选 And the winner is: North Korea’s elections
On Sunday North Koreans go to the polls to select mayors, provincial governors and county assemblies. These local elections take place every four years, and will be the first under Kim Jong Un, the country’s dictator since 2011. Citizens will be presented with a single candidate for each position in their district, chosen by the Democratic Front for the reunification of the Fatherland, the governing coalition. Propaganda posters that have gone up around and country exhort them to vote “yes”. Ballots are cast under the watchful gaze of an official –and of the ubiquitous Kim portraits, to which voters must first bow. Choosing “no”, by marking the slip with a red pen, is considered treason, as is abstaining Indeed elections are a way for the totalitarian regime to keep tabs onits subjects through a census turnout figures are typically just short of 100%.
assemblies : 与会者们。/abstaining：弃权、缺席。
ballot：选票。/census： 人口普查。/coalition: 联合。
dictator：独裁者。/exhort：鼓励，忠告。/figures:：数字。
poll： 民意测验，投票票数。portrait： 画像。propaganda ： 宣传。
regime 政体、政权制度。/slip：纸条。
keep tab of something：监视关注某人的行为或者某事的发展。
treason：叛国罪。/totalitarian：集权。
ubiquitous ：无处不在。
reunification of the fatherland：祖国统一
20150806 Facebook moves toward drone air fleet and virtual reality tech
Virtual reality, artificial intelligence and drones will enable Facebook Inc to create a more lifelike and useful social network, the company said. Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday proclaimed the successful test of a wide-winged, solar-powered drone built to deliver wireless internet service to remote spots. The test flight of a drone prototype dubbed “Aquila” took place in Britain and was considered a milestone in an internet .org project to bring online access to billions more people. Move toward 向..进军/Drone 无人机/Fleet 舰队、机队
“Aircraft like these will help connect the whole world because they can affordably serve the 10 percent of the world’s population that live in remote communities without existing Internet infrastructure.
The drone has a wingspan greater than that of a Boeing 737 and weighs about as much as a small car. Facebook’s future also includes “teleporting” social network users with virtual reality technology form Oculus, which they bought last year. Virtual reality headsets could transform how people communicate on Facebook. Events such as a birthday party or a child’s first bike ride could be shared on Facebook so users in different parts of the world felt as if they were taking part.
virtual reality 虚拟现实/Virtual world 虚拟世界/ Transform 改变
Artificial intelligence 人工智能/Lifelike更加仿真的/ Prototype 原型
Co-founder联合创始人/Solar-powered 太阳能的/Spots 地点
Dub=named as=called as=以..为命名
20150806 Sex bias in the Valley: the Ellen Pao case
This week –maybe today-a jury in San Francisco will start deliberating in the case of Ellen Pao, a former junior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a leading venture-capital firm in Silicon Valley. Ms Pao alleges that pervasive sexism at Kleiner kept her from becoming senior partner; Kleiner denies this, saying she just wasn’t up to scratch. Whatever the verdict, the widely followed trial has shone a light onto the cut-throat internal competition in venture-capital firms: Ms Pao was criticized for not being able to “own the room”. Whether the case has also advanced the cause of women in VC-where they are even more under represented than in the wider tech world-is a different question. Kleiner was one of the few firms that had any women partners at all. Some say that now others will be even less likely to, because they want to stay out of court. Well-founded fear or thin excuse?
bias：歧视/jury：陪审团/deliberate in the case：=consider
allege：指控/hold/pervasive：泛滥的/increasingly pervasive
deny：否认/not up to scratch=not as good as expected/verdict：判决
trial：审判/shine a light upon=draw the attention to/reveal
cut-throat competition=fierce competition/cut-throat industry
cut one’s throat：自取灭亡/one of the few：为数不多的
well-founded：reasonable/fully-supported
thin excuse：牵强的借口/feeble/flimsy/lame excuse：牵强的借口
201520150807 Nuclear divided: Iran’s oil and gas
As the outlines of a deal on Iran’s nuclear ambitions take shape by Lake Geneva, prospects for its oil and gas industry brighten. The exploitation of Iran’s abundant hydrocarbons has been hindered by revolution, war, politicking, mismanagement and latterly sanctions. And even when a nuclear deal is finalized, lifting all curbs on oil exports, finance and shipping will take time; Iran’s plan to double oil exports 5o 2m barrels a day is optimistic. World demand is slack, supply from elsewhere plentiful, the industry in poor technical shape and the investment climate unfriendly. And then there’s OPEC-the oil producers’ cartel run by Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies, who detest the interfering heretics of Tehran. So gas prospects may be better. But spare a thought for the real losers of Iran’s international rehabilitation: the sanctions-busters. Nobody will need their intricately arranged shell companies and Mongolian-flagged tankers any more, will they?
Nuclear dividend: payout
take shape=begin to happen.和outline对应
prospects: the future
brighten: improve
exploitation resources
hydrocarbon: fossil fuels
hinder: hold back
progress is hindered
politicking: 政治斗争
latterly: recent /sanctions：制裁
lift the curbs: remove limits/curb one’s behaviors
curb the late nights
put a curb on something /optimistic:
ignoring the negative side,
probably unachievable/cartel
drug cartel
detest: hate
heretics:
heresy, non-believers
spare a thought:
consider/give a thought/
spend sometime thinking about
sanction-buster: who break the sanction
intricate: complicated
shell company: 借壳公司
nobody…will they?
Nobody wears /bowtie anymore though, do they?
20150810 The whispering sea: China’s silent conclave
If a government conclave takes place and no one reports it, does it make a sound? That is the question at Beidaihe, a dowdy seaside resort near Beijin where China’s leaders take in warm breezes most summers. The relaxed atmosphere is thought conducive to policy discussions but official media are unlikely even to confirm that meetings have occurred. This year’s session may be unusually important. It is expected to run an extra week, amid rows over slowing growth. Some officials want to push for potentially painful reforms; while others worry that the economy is in trouble and needs immediate help. Neither group will have much time to swim. A murky political storm is raging, with previously untouchable senior figures being probed for corruption and denounced as “negative examples”. President Xi Jinping, it seems, wants to crush all opposition. Who will be next? Listen out for one hand clapping!
Whisper: 低语/Conclave：密会
Dowdy：过时的/Take in: absorb
Conducive to：有助于
Amid: 处于…之中
Row over: 分歧
Murky：阴暗的
Denounce：指控
Listen out for：认真倾听
20150810 Deal or default: the Greek crisis
Greece was supposed to make the first of four June Payments to the IMF today. But last night, with Greece apparently out of cash and ideas, the fund agreed that it could bundle all four into one jumbo Euro 1.6 billion ($1.8 billion) settlement on June 30th, as the rules allow. Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister, will address his Syriza party this morning and parliament this evening. Greece and its creditors have produced conflicting proposals on the reforms needed to unlock the bail-out funds the country needs to stay afloat. After a flurry of meetings this week, compromises over labour reform and Greece’s fiscal path have been sketched, but the two sides remain far apart on other issues, including cuts to Greece’s pension system that Mr Tsipras says he cannot accept. Greece’s bail-out expires on the same day as its IMF bill falls due. If no deal is struck by then, it will default.
1. default: 违约/2. volcano: 火山/3. bloated：膨胀的
4. unsustainable: 无法持续发展的
5. ECB：the European Central Bank:欧洲中央银行
6. jumbo: 巨大的/7. Syriza:左翼激进联盟
8. bail-out: 纾困/救市/9. absurd:荒谬
10. stay afloat:维持下去/11. a flurry of:一阵儿
12.sketch:轮廓/13.austerity：勒紧裤腰带/14.irreconcilable：不可调和
15.impasse：僵局/16.folly：愚蠢/17.ghastly：毛骨悚然/18.blunder：错误
20150811
North Korea: still in the Great Leader’s shadow
Today North Koreans mark 21 years since the death of the country’s founding ruler and Great leader, Kim Il Sung, who is still revered as its Eternal President. His grandson, the current Eternal President, Kim Jong Un, paid his respects at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where Kim Il Sung’s embalmed body lies in state. The young Mr Kim has co-opted the Great Leader’s personality cult, copying his genial manner and hairstyle. This may remind older folk of the country’s fatter years, before the devastating famine of the 1990s. But a younger generation is emerging, less watches South Korean soaps secretly, makes its living from the country’s informal markets-and has no memory of the state’s largesse under Mr Kim’s grandfather. Officialdom seems cautious. Daily NK, a news source with informants in the North, reports a stepping up of surveillance around statues of the Kims.
be revered as…… 被尊崇为……
embalmed 做了防腐处理的
lie in state 遗体放在公共场合供瞻仰、吊唁
co-opt v. 借鉴，吸取(口号或政策等) If a group or political party co-opts a slogan or policy, they take it, often from another group or political party, and use it themselves.
personality cult 个人崇拜/older folk 老人
official rhetoric官方的说辞/officialdom 政府官员
20150811Fast track in the slow lane: Obama and trade
Barack Obama has long been nagged to sell policies on Capitol Hill harder. The president has now launched an all-out push for Congress to grant him broad powers to broker foreign trade deals-and finds himself caught between trade-sceptic Democrates and unions, and far-right Republicans reluctant to give him more say over anything. As early as today the Senate will vote on opening debate on Trade Promotion Authority, a “fast-track” law limiting Congress’s right to amend the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pact with 11 other Pacific nations. The Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, wants other bills debated first. Republican Senate leaders are keen on trade, but may have to wait. The House of Representatives will be even harder. At most 20 House Democrats back TPA, though Mr Obama says he will campaign for any whose pro-trade votes hurt them. Without huge Republican backing, TPA will struggle.
考验我的英语水平~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
厉害！大家都好好学习！天天向上！
好棒的妈妈
2015-0901/0608 美国航空业
A whinge and a prayer: America’s airline
Today America’s biggest airlines are expected to intensify their campaign against Gulf carriers. The bosses of American, Delta, and United are likely to call on their government to freeze the rights of Emirates, Qatar and Etihad to fly to America, in a long-running argument over subsidies. The Americans, fearful of a beating like that many big European carriers have taken from the Gulf airlines, accuse their Middle Eastern rivals of benefiting from enormous state handouts to build their increasingly popular globe-spanning networks. The Gulf airlines deny that the competition is unfair and accuse the American carriers of resorting to protectionism rather than allow travellers a free choice. As the lobbying against the Gulf upstarts heats up, their encroachment onto American runaways shows no sign of slowing: last week Qatar said it would add service to Boston, Atlanta and Los Angeles next year.
2015-0901闪光..All that glitters: Hermes and luxury goods
Hermes International, famous for its leather handbags and silk scarves, today report its first half results, having seen sales rise by 9% (at constant exchange rates) in the first six months of the year, compared with the same period in 2014. Growth was strongest in Japan and the Americas. Hermes has consistently seen off difficulties in the luxury goods market in recent years: despite the Chinese government’s crackdown on flashy gifts, Russia’s assorted woes and Europe’s lackluster economic recovery, sales and profits at the French family controlled firm have steadily increased. But can the growth in profits last? The weak euro has boosted sales but will dampen operating margins, the company says. And the devaluation of the yuan and low oil prices could hit demand even harder in China and in oil-rich countries respectively. Received wisdom has it that the market for luxury goods is resilient in the face of economic adversity. But sometimes are more adverse than others. Glitter: 闪金光/All that glitters is not gold/Scarves: 丝巾/Constant exchange rates: 恒定汇率（用前一年的汇率进行计算）/See off difficulties: 熬过困难Adversity：逆境
Crackdown严打/Assorted：各种各样的/Woe悲伤/逆境
Lackluster：缺乏活力的/Respectively: 分别地
Received wisdom has it that: 过往的经验表明/Resilient: 抗打击
2015 0724/0831 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 smart watch has just gone on sales, and Samsung. Fitbit also faces claims of cheating from another young contender, Jawbone, which says that employees poached by Fitbit 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
2015-0831 关于1929的一切
1929 and all: markets in turmoil
The bloodbath in global stock markets continued yesterday, dubbed “Black Monday”. The Shanghai Composite index closed down 8.5%, triggering falls in markets around the world. Amid the uncertainty there is disagreement over which previous crisis offers the closest historical parallel to the current situation. Some commentators liken it to the Asian financial crisis of 1997, triggered by tightening monetary policy America and currency devaluations in Asia. Others see it as a Chinese replay of the global financial crisis of 2008, when plunging asset prices caused several big banks to fail. Ominously, however, the best comparison may be to the Wall Street crash of 1929. At the time, it was widely assumed that the crash triggered the Great Depression, but modern research suggests that falling share prices were a symptom of deep problems in the real economy, not the cause. That mirrors the question being asked today: just how bad a state is China’s real economy in?
And all that: 诸如此类
Turmoil: 混乱
Bloodbath：大屠杀
Dubbed：又称
Parallel：相似之处
Liken…to…: 将…比作…
Ominously: 不祥的
2015-0828 婚外情泄漏门
Security and infidelity: the Ashley Madison leak
The home page of Ashley Madison, a dating website for people who want to have extramarital affairs, shows a woman holding a finger to her lips. So much for keeping secrets. Last month hackers stole the site’s user database; now they have released it online in its entirety, including 33m member’s names and personal details.
Downloading it is fiddly, but already users of the site are being exposed as the records are combed for celebrities, business leaders and politicians. A deluge of revelations seems inevitable in the coming days. The theft of personal information from large companies and government agencies has become so routine that most such breaches are quickly forgotten. But this breach could have far more visible consequences, destroying marriages and generating headlines for months. If it proves to be the wake-up call that gets companies to take security more seriously, at least some good will have come from this sorry affair.
affair：婚外情。/breach：违反。/comb：仔细的梳理。
deluge：大洪水，大量的。/extramarital：婚外的。
entirety：全部。
/fiddly：需要费周折、需要技巧的来做。
hacker：骇客。
revelation：令人吃惊的且先前并不知道的事实。
wake-up call：警钟。
2015-0827 中国智能手机挺进印度
Game on: China’s smartphone-makers go to India
It’s official: China’s smartphone market is saturated. New figures from Gartner, a market-research firm, show that smartphone sales in China, the world’s biggest market for such devices, fell by 4% in the three months to the end of June compared with the same period a year earlier-the first such decline. No wonder China’s big handset-makers, Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi-the third-, fourth-and fifth-biggest vendors in a global market led by Samsung and Apple-are looking abroad for growth. And they are interested in one place in particular: India, where the market is still booming. According to CMR, another research firm, smartphone sales in India in the second quarter grew by 36% compared with a year earlier; Chinese vendors doubled their share of the market, to about 17%, over that period. To avoid import duties and compete with India’s own low-cost smartphone makers, such as Micromas and Intex, the Chinese firms are setting up local factories. Battle is joined.
2015-0721/0827英国大选
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
本帖最后由 andyandjasmine 于 2015-9-2 08:06 编辑
20150826
Russia’s war on the West: fire and fury
America is preparing a provocation against Russia. Possibly a war, almost certainly a local conflict, because its indebted economy can only be remedied by pillaging others. These are not the gibbering of a conspiracy theorist, but Sergei Naryshkin, chairman of Russia’s parliament and a close ally of Vladimir Putin’s, writing in the official state newspaper. Russia’s neighbors worry: the Kremlin often carries out the plans it ascribes to others. The likely cause of this bout of warmongering lies in the Russian economy. In the worst figures for six years, GDP shrank year on year by 4.6% in the second quarter. A tumbling Rouble, low oil prices, a sharp drop in consumer spending, and sanctions which have cut Russia off from international capital markets all contribute to a deepening crisis. Unable to fix the economy, the Kremlin may indeed divert public attention inside the country by escalating tension abroad.
Fury
n. 狂怒 (extreme anger; rage)
adj. furious
From Shakespeare’s Macbeth:
Life… is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Sound and Fury (喧嚣与躁动) by William Faulkner
provocation: 挑衅 (一般是贬义)
provocative:
eg. 1. a provocative remark (充满挑衅的)
2. This book will take a provocative look at the issue of violence. (充满启发的)
3. She leaned forward in a provocative way (挑逗的)
thought-provoking （褒义）: 激发想象、引人深思的
conflict: 冲突（观念上的、武力的、时间上的等等）
eg. the conflicts between politicians and scientists (观念上的)
a regional conflict (武力上的)
a timetable conflict (时间上的)
indebted: 除了表示负债以外，常常用来表达谢意。
eg. I’m indebted to her for her help in proofreading my thesis.
remedy
n： 药（衍生意义：解决方法）
eg. 1. herbal remedies (草药)
2. the best remedy for grief is hard work. (解决方法)
v：解决；补救
eg. This mistake should be remedied immediately.
pillage
v：通过战争手段对征服地的劫掠
同源词plunder
eg. This village was pillaged and plundered.
gibber:
v：（因恐惧等原因）语无伦次；瞎扯
eg. stop gibbering, man, and tell us what you saw.
gibberish
n：胡言乱语 （nonsense, meaningless speech）
(theories of postmodernism are) a good deal of plain gibberish. (Chomsky on postmodernism)
conspiracy theorist: 阴谋论者-
ascribe
v. ascribe A to B: 将A归因于B
He ascribes his success to the support of his family.
bout量词：a bout of.. 强调段时间内一些列高强度活动
warmonger: 战争贩子（鼓吹战争的人）
warmongering: 鼓吹战争的行为
sanction n. 制裁；批准；
eg. 1. Many nations have imposed sanctions on this country because of its attack of its own people. (制裁) 2. We should get official sanction for this scheme. (批准)
tumble v. 下降
表示下降/削弱的词汇：drop/ diminish/slump/plunge/descend ／shrink
表示上升的词汇：ascend/ soar/ shoot up / escalate
股市暴跌的词汇：collapse/crash
crisis n. 危机（经济、政治、心理等）。
He went through a crisis last month, preventing him from making any progress in his thesis writing.
divert attention 转移注意力
escalate
v. 上升；加强（问题的严重性）
eg. 1. This economic issue escalated into a political crisis.
2. Those nations should not escalate this regional conflict.
escalator 电梯 — elevator/lift 升降梯
tension n. 紧张关系、肌肉紧绷（如脖子）