[综合资源] 父母好好学习,孩子天天向上

Aid before the rains: after Nepal’s earthquake

The United Nations will today launch a fresh push for international help for Nepal, which suffered a devastating earthquake last Saturday.
As relief operations crank up, the country’s Prime Minister, Sushil Koirala, has estimated that the death toll, which has passed 5,000, could yet exceed 10,000.
Now the focus will increasingly shift from rescue efforts to helping survivors, many of whom lack food, water or shelter.
In Kathmandu, the capital, two-thirds of drinking water is usually delivered by tankers: restoring steady supplies will be crucial.
The summer monsoon is due within two months- a tight deadline for beginning reconstruction and improving public health and sanitation.
Foreign aid will eventually arrive. But the notoriety of Nepali civil servants and politicians, who can be staggeringly corrupt and self-interested, suggests problem with its dispersal are likely in the weeks ahead.
Ordinary Nepali‘s risk becoming victims twice over.
Staggeringly=surprisingly
Crank up the volume, crank up the pressure.

Tinker, tailor, diplomat, spy: spooks and security
A congressional committee will today hold a hearing (there will probably be more) into the data breach (revealed this month) at the Office of Personnel Management, which handles security clearances for federal employees. Hackers, thought to be Chinese, broke into the office’s database of past and present employee’s ultra-private financial, health and sexual histories, plus all foreign travels and contacts. That is a goldmine to foreign spymasters looking for personal weaknesses to exploit. The CIA is furious, too: it has a separate system, but its spies often pretend to be boring government officials when posted aboard. If you know who the non-spies are, identifying the real ones is alarmingly easy.
The latest breach comes on top of Edward Snowden’s removal of a trove of documents from America’s National Security Agency and the Pentagon, which let to urgent relocations and rescues of endangered agents. Suitcases are being hurriedly packed again.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief
Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief, Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief
spook: n. 鬼（是ghost的同义词）; vt. 吓唬某人
breach: n. 泄密
security clearance: n. 安全许可；参与机密的资格

因为这个题目进来看看，结果看不懂！！

29150706 Coded welcome: Aung San Suu Kyi in China

Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese democracy activist and Nobel peace laureate, begins her first visit to China today. The Chinese government had been reluctant to invite such a prominent(famous) champion(strong supporter) of political reform, and the four-day trip, during which she will meet Xi Jinping, the president, and Li Keqing, the prime minister, only partly reflects a change of heart. China prizes its economic ties with Myanmar, but tensions flared in March when fighting broke out between Burmese government troops and local militia in the border Kokang region, mostly populated by ethnic Han-Chinese. Five Chinese nationals were killed when a Burmese bomb fell across the frontier onto a sugar-cane field. On June 2nd China began live-fire military exercises nearby. By meeting Ms Suu Kyi, China’s government is building bridges with a politician whose party is likely to do well in November’s elections-but more important , it is signaling to Myanmar’s current rulers that it is losing patience.
Coded: written or sent in code
Nobel laureate: 诺贝尔奖获得者
Reluctant: 迟疑Prominent: famous
Champion: strong supporter
Change of heart: change of mind
Flare: burn brightly
Militia: 民兵

20150706 The only way is up: oil firms bottom out
The worst is over. That has been big oil companies’ message this week as they publish quarterly earnings. Oil prices have lifted since the lows of the year-end and are now more likely to rise than fall. Costs are down and share-holders are benefiting, at least for now. Stronger-than-expected refining revenues helped BP confound the gloomsters. Ditto ExxonMobil, which also raised its dividend. ConocoPhillips managed to maintain its guidance on output and profit.
Today Chevron is likely to highlight its strength in unconventional oil: America’s fracking boom can lift big boats as well as small one. The longer term looks more worrying. Reserves are depleting(use up), but replacing them means large bets on big risky projects-such as deep offshore and Arctic drilling which delight engineers but rattle shareholders. Climate-change campaigners say most oil reserves must stay underground to save the planet. Will big oil still be a good investment in 2025? Perhaps!
1. bottom out: 触底持平11.rattle: make sb nervous
2. Nymex: New York Mercantile Exchange纽约商品交易所/Brent Crude Oil: 布伦特原油3. quarterly earnings: 季度盈利
4. Silent  Traveller： “哑行者”（蒋彝先生）5. OPEC：欧佩克
6.  refining  revenues  炼化收益7. dividend 股息分红
8. unconventional oil: 非常规石油 9. fracking :hydraulic fracturing（水力压裂法）10. Shale gas: 页岩气12.Friedrich Hayek（哈耶克）著有《The road to serfdom》：《通向奴役之路》

20150703 Gluttons for punishment: “Fifty Shades” returns

Today is special for Christian Grey, anti-hero of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey”, a bestselling trilogy of erotic novels by E.L. James, a British author. Not only is it Mr Grey’s birthday; he also gets to tell his side of the story in “Grey”, Ms James’s new book, published today. Things have been running less smoothly lately for his creator. Ten days ago a manuscript copy was stolen-although fears that” Grey” would be leaked online have not been realized. Earlier this year, as the film adaptation was released, it was rumored that Ms James, like Mr Grey, enjoyed exercising unreasonable control, in this case over the script. Sam Taylor-Johnson, the director, announced she wouldn’t be involved with the sequels. All this is unlikely to worry Ms James unduly. Despite critical thrashings, the movie grossed more than $569m and the original trilogy sold over 125m copies, in 52 languages.
glutton：贪吃 anti-hero：非主流英雄 平凡的主角
trilogy：三部曲 erotic：情色的 manuscript：手稿
realize：成为现实sequel：续集
rumors：有传言script：剧本unduly：过度的
gross：总数/恶心thrashing：鞭打

20150703 The pound: prepare for summer shakes

Sterling has been probing five-year lows against the dollar, amid uncertainty over both the path of global interest rates and the outcome of Britain’s general election next month. America’s Federal Reserve may raise rates as early as June, when Britain’s next government-assuming it has been formed – will be in its infancy. Meanwhile the governing Conservative Party and insurgent UK Independence Party both promise a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. Any prospect of a “Brexit” might make Britain less attractive to investors, who also worry about the Labour Party’s perceived anti-business rhetoric. Little surprise, then, that markets are braced for summer swings: three month forward volatility in sterling exceeds the high reached in September, just before Scotland’s independence referendum. First-quarter GDP figures, revealed a week before the election, could cause further ructions. Currency traders may want to cancel their summer holidays.
Sterling: Pound sterling, pound, the currency of UK
Probe: touch, approach
Insurgent: rebellions/rising/uprising
Referendum: voters ask to vote on a particular propose
Rhetoric: a public display
volatility: instability unpredictability
ructions: upset, disturbance  Brexit=Britain Exit

20150702
China and Pakistan: what $46 billion buys
Xi Jinping, China’s president, today completes a two-day visit to Pakistan, marked by an effort to bolster (to support or improve something or to make it stronger) an important strategic partnership with drastically enhanced economic ties. China has proposed a “China- Pakistan Economic Corridor”, one part of its plan to build “new Silk Roads” to improve infrastructure links with its neighbors. The corridor, to run from Gwadar, a Chinese-build port on the Arabian Sea in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, to Kashgar in China’s western region of Xinjiang, is estimated to cost a staggering(very shocking) $46 billion. For China it offers a new route to Gulf oil and European consumers; for Pakistan an unprecedented economic boost. But it will not be easy. Baloch-nationalist insurgents(someone who fights against the government in their own country) have at times attacked Chinese targets, and Pakistan has many other resources of political instability. And India, whose prime minister, Narendra Modi, is due (expected) in China next month, will be wary(not completely trusting) of China’s efforts to stabilize and strengthen its unclear-armed neighbor.
bolster strategic partnership staggeringly expensive

20150702

Good in parts(局部): America’s labour market

Today’s American employment report is likely to show the labour market returned to winning ways in April.
After a weak March, the economy probably added 220,000 job last month-and more than 3m in the past year. The unemployment rate is expected to fall to just 5.4%, much less than economists predicted a year ago.
Yet America’s economy is far from full strength. Despite rock-botton interest rates, in the first quarter GDP grew by a measly(extremely low) 0.2%, at an annualized rate. Surprisingly, cheaper oil has not stimulated consumer spending: but it has prompted deep cuts in investment by energy companies. And although the number of people who want to work full-time but can only find part-time job has fallen, it remains much higher than before the recession hit. Don’t expect strong wage growth-for which the Federal Reserve is watching closely-until some of this slack(疲软) disappears.

20150702
The jitters (an anxious situation): coffee prices and El Nino

Coffee prices have been enjoying a rally(re-establish strong position): Arabica has risen to 136 cents per pound on the ICE futures market. True, the shot of excitement follows a seven-month slide: in October prices reached 227 cents, their highest since May 2011, by late last month they have slumped(dropped) to 124. Last year’s climb began with a drought in Brazil, the world’s leading coffee supplier; the tumble(falling quickly) reflects Brazil’s weakening currency, which drives producers to maximize revenue by boosting exports, thus depressing prices globally. But prices may continue their revival(good increase) if El Nino- a weather pattern that warms the Pacific Ocean-arrives as predicated. Droughts in South-East Asia could imperil(put…in danger) Vietnamese and Indonesian coffee harvests, as well as Asian sugar, palm oil and cotton. Meanwhile rains in Latin America could benefit Brazilian and Central American coffees this year, though heavy enough downpours may harm subsequent(coming) harvests. Caffeinated(excited by coffee) investors are preparing for a stormy (unstable) couple of quarters.

Signifying (show) nothing (no signs): Britain’s tight election

With ten days to go in Britain’s election campaign, the country’s exhausted politicians must wonder why they bother. The opinion polls have hardly stirred (moved). The Labour Party is slightly ahead of the Conservatives in overall votes, and probably slightly behind in parliamentary seats. A hung parliament looks inevitable (unavoidable); on current form, neither party could make a majority with only one ally. Labour would need the separatist Scottish Nationalists and perhaps the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party. The Tories might well need the DUP, which is open to any offer, and the Liberal Democrats, their current coalition partners though even these outlandish(strange/odd/freakish/
unlikely) combinations might be insufficient. What could break the deadlock(make progress)? The Tories must urgently restore discipline to a campaign that has proved surprisingly distractible and talk relentlessly about the economy. Ed Miliband, Labour’s leader must make more people see him as a prime minister; if he can manage that, he probably will be.

20150707 Fun at fifty: Berkshire Hathaway’s meeting
The population of Omaha, Nebraska, will rise by 40,000 or more this weekend as Berkshire Hathaway holds its annual meeting-and celebrates Warren Buffett’s golden anniversary as its boss. The gathering is a blend of investment seminar, all American funfair and personality cult. Some things have not changed. Mr. Buffett still loves high jinks: this week he appeared in a video with a ukulele, singing the praises of Coca-Cola, of which Berkshire owns 9%. Yet the meeting is also deadly serious. Berkshire is the world’s sixth-most-valuable firm, worth $351 billion. Its investment approach has become much more aggressive, with over $100 billion of big-ticket acquisitions since the financial crisis, most recently of Kraft, a food company. Berkshire’s insurance businesses now have assets of $225 billion, arguably making them too-big-to –fail. And Mr. Buffett, 84, has not yet named a successor. Those are issues he must address amid the fun-runs and picnics.
golden anniversary: 50周年a blend of: 一系列seminar: 研讨会
funfair：游园会
personality cult: officially organized admiration and love for a particular person
high jinks: 也作hijinks. 狂欢作乐deadly serious: 极其严肃
big-ticket acquisition: 大宗收购fun-run: 慈善长跑

20150707 The internet’s address book: ICANN meets
Meetings of ICANN, the international organization that oversees the internet’s address system, are usually festivals of the arcane: wonks spend days discussing the minutiae of such things as top-level domain names and IP addresses. But at Sunday’s get-together in Buenos Aires ICANN will ponder (and perhaps even take) a far-reaching decision: how it should function once the American government relinquishes ultimate control of the internet’s address book, turning ICANN into an independent global body. The Americans promised to withdraw long ago, but only after Edward Snowden, a former contractor at their National Security Agency, revealed the extent of surveillance by the NSA did they begin to do so: even America’s allies now want it to reduce its role in internet governance. ICANN won’t be able to decide on its fate alone: any arrangement will be closely scrutinized in Washington. Congressional Republicans in particular are suspicious of giving up American power.
•        ICANN: ( Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) arcane: adj. 鲜为人知的；晦涩难懂的
•        wonk: n. 极度用功的、严肃的人minutiae: n. 细枝末节
•        ponder: vt. 思索，衡量
•        relinquish: vt. 移交、放弃、让出权利
•        withdraw: v. 撤走（本文表示移交对ICANN的控制权）
•        surveillance: n. 监控decide on one’s fate: 决定某人的命运
•        scrutinise: v.仔细检查suspicious: adj. 猜疑的；不信任的

20150707 Good in parts: America’s labour market

Today’s American employment report is likely to show the labour market returned to winning ways in April. After a week March, the economy probably added 220,000 jobs last year. The unemployment rate is expected to fall to just 5.4%, much less than economists predicted a year ago. Yet America’s economy is far from full strength. Despite rock-bottom interest rates, in the first quarter GDP grew by a measly 0.2%, at an annualized rate. Surprisingly, cheaper oil has not stimulated consumer spending; but it has prompted deep cuts in investment by energy companies. And although the number of people who want to work full-time but can only find part-time job has fallen, it remains much higher than before the recession hit. Don’t expect strong wage growth- for which the Federal Reserve is watching closely-until some of this slack disappears.
1 be likely to do sth：有可能做某事。
2 expect：预期。3 predict：预测。4 strength：力量、能力。
5 recession：衰退。6 measly：少的可怜的。
7 despite：没受到despite后面词的影响，without being affected by，尽管。
8 stimulate：刺激。9 prompt：导致。10 slack：疲软、不景气。

20150708 VW: dropping the back-seat driver

Wolkswagen is searching for a new chairman today, after the resignation on Saturday of Ferdinand Piech-the victim of his own campaign to dispose of the German carmaker’s chief executive, Martin Winterkorn. Mr. Piech rarely picks a fight he can’t win, but he failed to secure backing for his coup from the unions, politicians and other members of the Piech and Porsche families who collectively control the firm. In fact, VW could be better steered. It is the world’s second-largest car company, behind only Toyota, building over 10m cars a year, yet its growth has come at the expense of profit, for which it relies too heavily on its posh Audi brand. It has long failed to replicate its success in the rest of the world in America. But Mr Piech’s isolation forced him to go. Further humiliation awaits if Mr. Winterkorn now replaces him.
Anglification/anglifying/Englishing

20150708 What’s past in prologue: Japan and South Korea

Today Japan and South Korea mark 50 years of official friendship with cultural events in Tokyo and Seoul. But the past will cloud the festivities. As revisionism over Japan’s conduct during the Second World War has become more strident, so too have South Korean calls for Japanese contrition; Japan maintains that comprehension was settled in the bilateral treaty of 1965 feted today. Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, and Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s president, have yet to meet, though both have been in power for more than two years. Still, there are signs of a thaw. Against expectations, the two leaders will attend local celebrations today. Yesterday Yun Byung-se became the first South Korean foreign minister to visit Tokyo since 2011, meeting Fumio Kishida, his Japanese counterpart. But the progress could yet be undone on a more nettlesome anniversary in August, 70 years after the war’s end, when Mr. Abe will deliver a much-anticipated statement.
prologue: n. 序曲、序幕 【1) 反义词：epilogue n. 后记、尾声。2) 常用于 prologue to 例句：a prologue to his spectacular career in computer engineering】
mark: vt. 【英文释义：to celebrate an important event】 【例句：The invention of the computer marks the beginning of a new era in human history. 电子计算机的发明标志着人类历史新纪元的开始.】
official friendship：这里指（日韩）两国邦交 【常用于表示邦交的词还有 diplomatic relations; diplomatic ties】
cloud: v. to make something less pleasant or more difficult than it should have been
festivities: n. things such as drinking, eating, or dancing that are done to celebrate a special occasion 【注：用作这个含义时，常见形式就是复数，不用改成单数形式，例句：The festivities started with a procession through the town. | 用作单数形式时，意义就变了，而且成了不可数名词，表示节庆的氛围，例句：There was an air of festivity in the village.】
revisionism: n. 修正主义 【英文释义：ideas which are changing away from the main beliefs of a political system, especially a Marxist system】
strident: adj. 强硬的、令人生厌的【英文释义：forceful and determined, especially in a way that is offensive and annoying】
call for: vt. 吁请、要求 【英文释义：a request or order for something or for someone to do something】【不过本文中 call 是个名词，不是和for连用做动词，务必注意】
contrition: n. 悔改 【英文释义： feeling guilty and sorry for something bad that you have done】
maintain: v. 宣称、坚持 【英文释义：to strongly express your belief that something is true 近义词：claim】
compensation: n. 【不可数名词】补偿 【英文释义：money paid to someone because they have suffered injury or loss, or because something they own has been damaged】
settle: v. 解决 【英文释义： to end an argument or solve a disagreement 常见搭配： settle a dispute /lawsuit /conflict /argument】
bilateral treaty: 双边条约
fete: v. (通过举行宴会等)纪念、欢迎 【英文释义：to honor someone/something by holding public celebrations for them】
Shinzo Abe: 安倍晋三（日本首相）
prime minister: 首相 【注：在新闻中，该词常和premier一词互换，但用法在不同的国家还是不一样。一般的说法有两种，一是在有议会制、内阁的国家，使用Prime Minister；而在共和国，例如中国，对“总理”的翻译使用Premier；另一种用来区别这两个词的方法是根据不同国家的国庆，例如 The chiefs of government of the provinces of Canada as well as in Australia are called premiers but the head of the country is called Prime minister】
thaw: n. （这里特指两国关系的）缓和；解冻 【英文释义：an improvement in relations between two countries, after a period of unfriendliness】
Yun Byung-se: 尹炳世（韩国外交部长官）Fumio Kishida: 岸田文雄（安倍内阁的外务大臣、外相）
counterpart: n. 相对的人/物 【英文释义：someone or something that has the same job or purpose as someone or something else in a different place】
undone: adj. 毁坏；无望 【英文释义：destroyed and without hope】
nettlesome: adj: 恼人的；令人厌烦的【近义词：irritating】
much-anticipated: adj. 备受瞩目的

20150709 Golden gloves: boxing’s biggest night
Floyd Mayweather Jr, the world’s best-paid athlete, will get even richer tomorrow, when he takes on Manny Pacquiao in the most hyped boxing match of this century. The pair are by far the sport’s best known fighters: the undefeated Mr Mayweather often promotes his bouts on television; Mr Pacquiao is a congressman and national icon in the Philippines. The flight will be the most lucrative ever: 3.15m people are expected to pay $99 each to watch on TV, and the cheapest tickets in the 17,000 seat Las Vegas arena have a face value of $1,500. Mr. Mayweather should earn $180m for under an hour’s work; Mr Pacquiao will pocket $120m. These eye-popping figures would seem to refute the perception that boxing’s disorganization and brutality have reduced it to a fringe sport. But with no similarly bankable stars on the horizon, this bout will set records that could last a very long time.
Fringe=edge
hype：大肆宣传bout：拳击比赛
national icon: 国民偶像lucrative：profitable
pocket：装入袋中eye-popping：令人咋舌的
refute：驳斥fringe：边缘bankable：叫座的
on the horizon: likely to happen or exist

20150709 Berlin is watching: Germany’s spy scandal
The latest spying scandal involving Germany and America continues to destabilize German politics. At issue is whether the German secret service, the BND, collaborated illegally with American’s NSA in spying on European companies and friendly governments, such as France’s. Today the top federal prosecutor, Harald Range, will testify to a parliamentary committee about the allegations, as will Thomas de Maiziere, the interior minister and a former chief of staff to the chancellor, Angela Merkel. Tomorrow it is the turn of Gerhard Schindler, the BND’s president. Even Mrs Merkel has said she may appear as a witness in future. The scandal is a double test: first, of already fraught relations with America; second, of the fraying grand coalition between Mrs Merkel and her Social Democratic partners. Sigmar Gabriel, the Social Democrats’ boss and her likeliest challenger in 2017, is increasing the pressure, speculating that the imbroglio could have severe repercussions”.
1. The Butterfly Effect:蝴蝶效应
2. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU (George Orwell,1984)
3. spy: surveillance /espionage 间谍活动
4. At issue: in question (现在的问题是)
5. BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst)德国联邦情报局
6. NSA (National Security Agency)美国国家安全局7. testify:作证
8.Chief of staff：德国总理府部长/Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff(美国参谋长联席会议主席)
9. Perjury（伪证罪）/Obstruction of Justice（妨碍司法罪）/Impeachment（弹劾）10. fraught: stressful（紧张的）
11. fraying: irritated(上火)12. speculate：推测13. imbroglio:政治纠葛
14.repercussion: consequence （后果）

20150709 City states: elected mayors in England

Today the residents of Tower Hamlets, a borough in east London, vote for a new mayor. The previous incumbent, Lutfur Rahman, was found guilty in April of corrupt practices ( as well as the unusual charge of exerting “undue spiritual influence”) and banned from office for five years-a mess that seemed to justify many voter’s skepticism about directly elected mayoralties. First introduced by Tony Blair’s Labour government, elected mayors remain rare in England. The coalition administration of 2010-15 was keen on them, and introduced a few in cities such as Bristol, but people elsewhere rejected the idea-one reason why Britain remains one of the most centralized countries in the developed world. Now the new Conservative government wants to devolve further powers to the country’s region. For example by bestowing unprecedented fiscal autonomy on mayors elected in metropolises such as Manchester. Whatever Mr. Rahman’s spiritual influence, that is surely wise.

20150710 Freedom and the open road: a July 4th ritual


Falling fuel prices are reintroducing many Americans to a cherished Independence Day tradition: sitting in a traffic jam. Despite reports that car culture is in decline, it seems that if filling up is cheap enough, the country still loves a road trip. This July 4th the national average price of a gallon of petrol (gasoline) is $2.77, almost a dollar less than a year ago, and the lowest on this date since 2010. The American Automobile Association reckons about 35.5 m Americans will travel by car over the holiday, and reports that monthly petrol demand has risen by 4.5% since June 2014. The Federal Highway Administration, meanwhile, reports that total vehicle miles travelled have risen for 14 consecutive months. Americans drove nearly a trillion miles in the first four months of 2015-a new record.
Europeans can only gape in disbelief: British drivers, for comparison, pay the equivalent of $7 a gallon.
1 ritual：仪式
2 reintroduce：重新介绍
3 Independence Day：独立日，7月4日
4 be in decline：每况日下5 gallon：加仑（3.79升）

20150710 Test of time: Apple Watch deliveries begin

Beyonce, Pharrell Williams, Karl Lagerfeld and other celebrities have already got theirs; today ordinary mortals will take delivery of the Apple watch for the first time. The entire first batch of smart watches, made available for online pre-order two weeks ago, sold out within six hours. Apple has not released sales figure, but analysts put global pre-orders at 1.2m-2.3m units; that would make Apple the instant leader in the smart watch market, ahead of both Samsung and Pebble. But that only matters if smart watches prove to be an enduring product category, rather than a fad. It’s still too soon to tell: as with the iPad, many early buyers of the Apple Watch are either die-hard Apple fans, or people in the technology and media industries who are curious about its potential. As deliveries begin, the question now is whether ordinary punters will soon be lining up behind those early adopter.

1.delivery  传输 ， 传送 此文中表示交付
2. Celebrity (pl. celebrities) ① a famous person 名人的意思，同时它还有 ②The state of being famous. 为众人所仰慕的名声。
3. ordinary 普通的平凡的
4.Mortals  人类

20150713 Catch-22 constitution: politics in Myanmar

Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Myanmar’s opposition, faces difficult decisions before a general election in November, supposedly the dawn of a new democratic era. Parliament yesterday rejected significant changes to a deeply flawed constitution. They included, crucially, a proposal to lower the “threshold” for approval of constitutional amendments from over 75% of parliamentarians to over 70%. (Clue: 25% of seats are reserved for the army.) This was no surprise, but made clear that the army, which ruled directly until 2011 when it yielded power to(give power to) a “civilian” government dominated by ex-soldiers in mufti, will keep at least veto-power over the new administration. The constitution also bars Miss Suu Kyi from becoming president, because her two sons are British citizen. Her party, the National League for Democracy, will be reluctant to boycott an election it is likely to win. But it may start making more noise about its unfairness, perhaps on the streets.

Catch-22: a logical paradox bar=prevent

20150713 Petrobras: the day of reckoning

How much did politicians pilfer from Petrobras? Today Brazil’s state-controlled oil giant is at last expected to give an answer, when it publishes its results for 2014. These were delayed while the company and its auditor. PwC, scrambled to pin down the cost of a scam in which big Petrobras suppliers allegedly funneled 3% of the value of some contracts to political slush funds;34 congressmen are under investigation. Early estimates of the write-down lay between 4 billion reais($1,3 billion) and 89 billlion reais. Today’s figure is likely to be somewhere in that wide range. Last week the prospect of audited books unlocked 19 billion reais in loans to tide the company over for this year; it had already slashed its annual investments by 30%, to $31 billion-33 billion. But with production flat and oil prices low, Petrobras need more than accurate accounting to recover.
reckoning ：计算，估计也有账单；算账；
pilfer=steal 偷窃，盗窃 Scramble to 争夺，爬行，攀爬
Pin down：阻止，约束，减小allegedlty依其申述；据说，据称
funnel：通过漏斗或烟囱等；使成漏斗形
write down: 减低帐面价值 recover : 恢复 tide over=conqure

20150714 Central mama to the rescue: China’s markets
Chinese investors jokingly call the central bank”central mama”. They thanked her for dispensing(give out/offer /provide) a bit of love over the weekend by trimming interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, the fourth cut since November, and reducing banks’ reserve requirements. Benchmark one-year lending rates are now 4.85% a record low. Investors hope this will save the stock market from further carnage. Having led the world for much of the past year, China’s share prices have been in free fall for the past fortnight, tumbling 19%. Had the central bank done nothing, the rout would have been sure to deepen. Its actions should help stabilize the market. But the easing was carefully calibrated. The central bank didn’t cut required reserves for all banks. Instead, it made only a selective reduction, mainly to help smaller borrowers, and insisted that economy-wide liquidity was already ample. Even central mama’s love has its limits.
carnage n. 大屠杀；残杀      stock market crash
fortnight: 两星期rout: n. 溃败，大败
deepen: get worse easing: n. 好转、缓和
calibrate: v. 调校；微调；校正

20140714 Love in the cloud: tech takeover talk

The excitement over a possible takeover of Sales force, a cloud-computing provider built by larger –than life Mark Benioff, has died down somewhat. Oracle, one of the likeliest suitors, is apparently not interested; pundits have realized that Mr Benioff’s company, whose price tag is said to be $ 50 billion, may be too big even for IBM, Microsoft or SAP to buy. But expect more tech takeover rumors soon: the recent round of financial results has left some big social-media companies weekend. LinkedIn, Twitter and Yelp all saw their share prices drop by as much as a quarter last week after their figures showed slower growth than expected. Some already regard this as the beginning of the end of the current technology boom(or bubble, arguably). More likely it shows that markets are becoming more discerning, and distinguishing the winners-principally Google and Facebook from the rest.
1.        larger-than-life有英雄色彩的larger-than-life Figure 传奇人物
2.        die down 逐渐消失。类似短语：die out 灭绝；消失
3.        pundit leave no stone unturned千方百计； 想尽办法
4.          arguably: (形容词) 可论证地;可争辩的
14.  discerning:  有辨识能力的；眼光敏锐的
15.  principally: 主要的，首要的，也可以用mainly 或者 primarily

20140714 Sterling stuff: Markets and Britain’s election

Can British markets sustain their post-election rally this week? Sterling rose by around two cents against both the dollar and the euro in the wake of the Conservations’ surprise victory, while ten-year gilt yields fell from 1.92% before the polls closed to 1.88%. In equities, the FTSE 100 index jumped by 160 points, or 2.3%, on Friday, In part, investors were simply expressing relief that Britain had avoided weeks of uncertainty as parties haggled over(argue) coalition terms; and in the near term, they clearly prefer the Tories’s more business-friendly program and clearer plan for reducing the budget deficit. In the medium term, however, the markets may start to worry about the uncertainty associated with a referendum on leaving the European Union in 2017(which may discourage foreign direct investment) and from the potential for Scottish independence, given the nationalist’ overwhelming success in the election.

20150715 The AIIB: China’s way or the highway?
Documents signed in Beijing this morning formalize a new international financial institution: the Aisan Infrastructure Investment Bank. It is a triumph for Chinese financial diplomacy. America had lobbied against the AIIB, fearing it would be a tool of Chinese policy and threaten standards upheld by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Those fears have eased as 56 countries, including close American allies, have joined China as founder members. To court them, China has accepted a loosening of its control of the AIIB and agreed that it will adhere to international standards. But the AIIB is just one of several new institutions in which China plays a leading role and America none at all. Its founding makes America even keener to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-member free-trade area that so far excludes China. Rather than challenge America’s dominance of the existing world order, China is building its own.
AIIB (The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) 亚洲基础设施投资银行formalize v. 正式化；官方化
triumph n. 巨大成就financial diplomacy 金融外交
lobby v. 游说court v. 设法获取某个事物而献殷勤;讨好 adhere to 遵循。Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) 泛太平洋战略经济伙伴关系协定

20150715 Vault Disney: the cold never bothered it anyway

Analysts are expecting plenty of smiles when Disney reports second-quarter results today. The slate of films that Disney will release in 2015 is considered one of the strongest in the history of the movie business, and could gross over $2.2 billion, according to Barclays, a bank. “The Avengers: Age of Ultron,” which opened on May 1st, has already enjoyed around $600m in ticket sales globally. The film’s popularity affirms Disney’s strategy of making fewer, high-budget films with well-known intellectual property, much of which was acquired through billion-dollar deals for Pixar(in 2006), Marvel(2009) and Lucasfilm(2012). In December Disney will release the first in its new “Star Wars” trilogy, called “The Force Awakens”, and is expecting galactic ticket sales for that, too. Investors are hoping the force will be with all of them.
box-office takings        blockbuster  
a pun   “a play on words”
a slate of films
affirm a strategy /intellectual property  
trilogy /film franchise /of galactic  proportions
“may the force be with you”     film catchphrase  / film tagline  

20150716 Making a splash: Russia, China and the Med

Today up to four Chinese and six Russian naval vessels will meet somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean for a ten-day joint exercise, including live-fire drills. The exercise, which follows similar ones in the Pacific, is intended to demonstrate both the strength of the growing Sino-Russian strategic partnership and that the Mediterranean is no longer just an “American Lake”. Such pretensions are more symbolic than real. The US Sixth Fleet stationed at Naples, and the Fifth, which patrols the Persian Gulf and The Arabian Sean from Bahrain, can deploy overwhelming power. But the Chinese, whose ships have come from anti-piracy duty in the Gulf of Aden, are keen to show off their increasing global reach and to gain operational experience in an unstable region (in 2011 China had to evacuate 38,000 expatriate workers from war-torn Libya). And the exercise is another sign of Vladimir Putin’s ambition to restore Russia’s great power status.
1.make a splash: 引人注目
2.the Med: the Mediterranean Sea（地中海）
3.naval vessels:海军舰艇
4.live-fire: live ammunition（实弹）
5.pretensions:炫耀6.symbolic:象征性的
7.overwhelming:压倒性的8.evacuate:疏散
9.expatriate:侨民10.war-torn:饱受战火蹂躏的
11.ambition:雄心/野心12.status quo:现状