Enjoy Rendering!: Сборник текстов для перевода и реферирования (для студентов экономических специальностей)

Министерство образования и науки Российской Федерации Омский государственный университет им. Ф.М. Достоевского

УДК 802.0 ББК 81.2Англ. Е56

Рекомендована к изданию редакционно-издательским советом ОмГУ. Протокол № 1 от 25.01.2005 Рецензент: ст. преподаватель кафедры иностранных языков ОмГУ О.К. Сургутская

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ENJOY RENDERING! Сборник текстов для перевода и реферирования (для студентов экономических специальностей)

Enjoy Rendering!: Сб. текстов для перевода и реферирования (для студентов экон. специальностей) / Сост. С.А. Батурина. – Омск: Изд-во ОмГУ, 2005. – 76 с. ISBN 5-7779-0557-9 Включенные в сборник аутентичные тексты современной зарубежной периодики, освещающие проблемы экономики, политики, образования, культуры и др., предназначены для совершенствования навыков реферирования и перевода. Для студентов экономических специальностей. УДК 802.0 ББК 81.2Англ.

Изд-во ОмГУ

Омск 2005 1

ISBN 5-7779-0557-9

© Омский госуниверситет, 2005 2

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ Целью сборника является совершенствование навыков реферирования и перевода. В издание включены тексты, освещающие экономические, политические вопросы, а также актуальные проблемы образования, культуры, быта. Сборник состоит из трех частей. Первая содержит обучающую статью, в которой дается определение реферирования и рекомендации по составлению реферата. Во второй части представлены тексты для реферирования, сопровождаемые вокабуляром, заданиями и образцами реферирования. Третья часть включает несколько текстов для самостоятельного перевода по темам, входящим в программу обучения иностранному языку студентов экономического факультета. Сборник включает аутентичные тексты современной зарубежной периодики, может быть использован как для аудиторной, так и для самостоятельной работы студентов.

Part I. РЕФЕРИРОВАНИЕ ТЕКСТА НА ИНОСТРАННОМ ЯЗЫКЕ1 Чтение иностранной литературы по специальности направлено на получение нужной специалисту информации. В настоящее время работа с целым текстом является программным требованием для неязыковых вузов: ставится задача обучения студентов беспереводному чтению, составлению рефератов и аннотаций статей. Все методы реферирования построены на смысловой компрессии текста, которая предусматривает устранение избыточности в тексте, т. е. элементов, которые дублируют друг друга. В зависимости от поставленной перед читающими цели различают следующие виды чтения: 1. Просмотровые: а) поисковые, б) обзорные, в) ориентировочные; 2. Ознакомительные: а) конспективные, б) реферативные; 3. Изучающие: а) филологические; б) критические; в) углубленные. Целью просмотрового чтения является получение общего представления о содержании текста или поиск нужной информации. Полученная в результате такого чтения информация может быть оформлена в виде аннотации. Ознакомительное чтение – это более внимательное чтение текста без словаря (словарь здесь может оказаться нужным только для того, чтобы узнать значение нескольких ключевых слов). Его цель – полностью понять содержание текста, не переводя его. Зафиксированным результатом такого чтения является реферат. Изучающее чтение нацелено на полноценное усвоение прочитанного, на расширение словаря и расшифровку языковых форм текста. Такое чтение может быть оформлено в виде перевода текста со словарем. Рефератом называют текст, построенный на основе смысловой компрессии первоисточника с целью передачи его главного содержания. При реферативном изложении референт самоустраняется и излагает информацию с позиций автора, следовательно, 1 Составлено по: Вейзе А.А. Чтение, реферирование и аннотирование иностранного текста. М.: Высш. шк., 1985.

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материал не содержит никаких элементов интерпретации или оценки. Деятельность по реферированию имеет две основные цели: информативную и учебную. Как информативный документ реферат призван заменить первоисточник и дать читателю возможность сберечь время при знакомстве с объектом описания. В отличие от собственно реферирования учебное реферирование мало связано с информативными задачами. Студенты обычно реферируют материал, не представляющий ценности в информативном отношении. Реферирование здесь выступает как эффективный способ контроля понимания прочитанного. Владение техникой реферирования – это показатель сформированности умений зрелого чтения. Таким образом, учебное реферирование служит еще одним способом оценки знаний студентов. Реферируя заданный текст, студенты могут декорировать его различными клише (они представлены в приложении Vocabulary Notes), которые также играют связующую роль при изложении текста. Приветствуется также высказывание студентами собственного мнения по поводу статьи, что может продемонстрировать не только языковые навыки, но и интеллект. Реферат оформляется следующим образом: а) выходные данные реферируемого материала (автор, название, вид публикации – статья, интервью, обзор и т. д., год и место издания); б) основная тема, проблема, основные положения реферируемого материала; в) доказательства и подтверждение основных положений автора; г) выводы автора. Средний объем учебного реферата 10–15 предложений (50– 100 слов). Для написания реферата рекомендуется пользоваться следующими общепринятыми выражениями: • The book (article, interview, passage) titled … describes (gives, contains, includes, sums up, etc.); • The author writes (considers, points out, believes, confirms his idea, describes, analyses, concludes, refers to and so on).

Реферирование литературы по специальности предполагает владение запасом лексики и терминов в 1 000–1 500 единиц, знание и понимание структурных особенностей языка, времен, активного и пассивного залогов, причастий I и II и др., умение правильно определить структуру основных типов предложений. Не бойтесь незнакомых слов, широко пользуйтесь обоснованной догадкой по контексту, привлекайте для этого уже имеющиеся у вас сведения и знания по данной теме или проблеме. Здесь важно уметь увидеть интернациональные слова, узнать слово по суффиксам или префиксам. Поскольку при чтении, целью которого является реферат, необходимо следить за логикой повествования, понимать основные идеи и факты каждого абзаца, рекомендуется разделить текст на смысловые куски, затем выделить в каждом из них основное смысловое ядро и выписать ключевые слова. И только после этого суммировать разрозненные смысловые группы в единое целое. И, наконец, нужно отменить чрезвычайную важность умения реферировать в мире бизнеса, когда людям часто приходится кратко излагать содержание переговоров, суть доклада, основные идеи документа и т. д. Однако, обучение реферированию вызывает много проблем. С одной стороны, считается, что реферировать умеют все, с другой стороны, этому трудно научить, т. к. у многих студентов возникают сложности с нахождением ключевых идей при чтении и последующим их ясным, четким, кратким изложением, могущим заменить оригинал. Нижеследующие указания помогут студентам научиться реферировать. 1. Прочитайте быстро весь текст с целью понять авторский стиль, тон и главную идею. Обратите внимание на заголовок, он зачастую проецирует главную идею. Избегайте чтения и сокращения отдельных предложений на протяжении всего текста, это приведет к разрозненности и непоследовательности изложения. 2. Перечитайте оригинал, отметив (подчеркивание, скобки и т. д.) только важные моменты. Обращайте внимание только на основную информацию, такую как: 9 важные названия, даты и статистические данные; 9 главные заключения или рекомендации.

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Учитывайте, что: 9 утверждение, содержащее суть дела, часто может находиться в начале рассуждения; 9 основные моменты, поддерживающие главное утверждение, часто находятся впереди. В тексте из пяти или более абзацев – главных моментов от по крайней мере двух до шести, но редко более; Исключайте менее важную информацию, такую как: • вступление; • иллюстративные эпизоды; • повторы (часто сопровождаемые такими маркерами, как “that is” и “in other words”); • отступления, риторические вопросы и частные подробности; • промежуточное рассуждение, направляющее восприятие представленных задач читателями (например, “The last point I would like to make”, “as everyone knows”, etc.); • большая часть примеров и дефиниций. 3. Откорректируйте отмеченные слова, фразы и предложения, сокращая ненужные слова. 4. С учетом записей и пометок сделайте набросок, соединив слова, фразы в ваши собственные предложения и абзацы. Придерживайтесь порядка оригинального текста, если это возможно, не бойтесь пожертвовать им ради краткости изложения, но сохраняйте при этом точность. Избегайте оценивающих комментариев, а также вашего собственного метарассуждения (“the author says”, “this is an interesting finding”, “I believe”, etc.); представляйте информацию беспристрастно, как если бы вы говорили за автора. 5. Прочитайте ваш набросок. Логичен ли он по развитию? Последовательны ли утверждения? Являются ли все рассуждения связными, единым целым? Соответствуют ли стиль оригиналу? 6. Усовершенствуйте ваше изложение, сократив ненужные слова и добавив переходные слова-связки для соединения фраз. Некоторые советы по сокращению слов: – применяйте притяжательный падеж (the words of the author => the author’s words);

– используйте множественное число (an abstract is a brief summary => abstracts are brief summaries); – заменяйте Active Voice на Passive (inferences should be reported => report inferences). – превращайте существительные в глаголы (an abstract is a brief summary => abstracts briefly summarise). 7. Сравните оригинал с вашим резюме и убедитесь в том, что значение, акценты и тон оригинала не нарушены. Эффект от прочтения резюме должен быть таким же, как от прочтения оригинального документа.

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Part II. ARTICLES FOR RENDERING Why Italians don’t Make Babies? NCE upon a time, the AngloSaxon cliche held that Italy stood for love and passion; frequent and frenzied sex, without, of course, contraception; and, as a result, big weddings, big families and loads of children. How times – and images – change. Italians have stopped making babies; the nation is ageing fast; and, according to the country's chief statistical body, Italy has the lowest fertility rate in the world. Women now bear 1,2 babies apiece. Only the Spaniards, in Western Europe, are as unproductive. At last count, in 1996, deaths had outpaced births for four years in a row. If Italy's population is slightly up, it is thanks to the 178 000 immigrants who took up legal residence two years ago. Why? No explanation is definitive. Ever more Italian women work, so have less time for bambini. North European women work just as much, but mothers get more help: public nurseries, finance, holidays, husbands who (more often than in Italy) help in the house. But there are anomalies. The region of Emilia Romagna, for instance, has some of the best nurseries in the world but also Italy's lowest babymaking rate. Perhaps the dearth is due to late-coming feminism: the region is also Italy's most left-wing. Ida Magli, an anthropologist, has come up with another reason: childlessness no longer bears a stigma, and the social pressure to marry and have children is much weaker. That applies even in the Mezzogiorno (Italy's poor and ultra-traditional south), where women are choosing to have fewer babies. In any event, the notion that impetuous Italians have unprotected sex is false. It is some time since most Italians, even the good Catholics among them, eschewed contraception. 9

One more possible explanation? Young Italians discovered yuppiedom later than their American or French counterparts. But many of them do now want to go dancing, travel and have a good time for many more years than before. Marriage and babies can wait. And the two are still more closely linked than in most other countries in Europe: only 6 % of Italian babies are born out of wedlock. But less than a third of women now become mothers before they are 28. One Italian habit still survives, and may also inhibit baby-making: the, "mammoni-phenomenon". A lot of young adults – perhaps even more than before – still live with their parents, partly because they cannot afford to live so comfortably on their own. Living with parents, however open-minded they are, does tend to make you behave a bit more demurely with friends of the other sex. And there is still, even in Italy, a connection between sex and babies. 1. Vocabulary notes: 1) frenzied – бешеный, яростный, темпераментный 2) fertility – воспроизведение потомства 3) dearth – недостаток, нехватка (продуктов) 4) stigma – пятно позора, стигма 5) eschew – избегать, сторониться 6) yuppiedom – светская жизнь 7) inhibit – мешать, препятствовать, сдерживать 8) demurely – скромно, сдержанно 9) impetuous – порывистый, темпераментный 2. Answer the following questions. 1) Does the title of the text “Why Italians don’t make babies” express its main idea? 2) What are the consequences of Italians have stopped making babies? 3) Can Italian women employment be considered as a definitive explanation? 4) Is childlessness still believed to be shameful? 5) Do Italians postpone marriage and babies because of their wish to have a good time? 6) What is “mammoni-phenomenon”? 10

3. Summary. The article titled “Why Italians don’t make babies” concerns Italians fertility rate, which is the lowest in the world. Analysing the reasons of this phenomenon the author points out some facts: 1) Italian women employment, despite social help; 2) childlessness no longer bears a stigma; 3) people don’t want to be responsible for family and children; 4) living with parents young adults tend to behave a bit more demurely with friends of the other sex. The author concludes his article with still existing connection between sex and babies.

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Doctored In any list of die great names in the history of economics, there is sure to be more than a sprinkling of Britons – from Adam Smith to Ricardo, Marshall, Keynes and Hicks. But British economics dons are asking themselves an uncomfortable question: where are their successors coming from? And who is going to teach them? The number of Britons taking master's degrees-generally regarded as the minimum qualification for professional economists – is holding up. But the number going on to doctorates is falling. Andrew Oswald, an economics professor at Warwick University, says that the top ten economics departments in Britain now average only one new British doctoral student a year. In 1997 the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which finances the studies of about a quarter of PhD economics students, handed out 33 awards. British students took only 16 – the rest went to students from the European Union. The British share of applications for awards also fell below half for the first time, from 58 out of 100 in 1995 to 31 out of 84 in 1997. In Keynes's day, none of this would have mattered – the great man had but one degree, in mathematics. But the ESRC is sufficiently concerned about all this to be planning a study of why the number of would-be PhDs is falling. The obvious answers is pay. The starting salary for a university lecturer, with a doctorate in economics, is, at best, £20 000 ($32 400) a year. Yet in the City of London, economists with only master's degrees can expect to start on nearer to £30 000- and comfortably more than that if they have a few years’ experience in the Bank of England or the Treasury. Indeed, a PhD usually adds nothing to an economist's earning power in a City firm, unless it is in a sought-after area such as econometrics (high-powered number-crunching). 12

The growth of economic consultancy has provided another career path, drawing economists away from academe. Behind this, says Simon Gaysford of London Economics, a consultancy, lie two things. One is privatisation, which in effect forced companies to hire experts on economic regulation. AS privatisation has spread across the world, so British economists have found that expertise gained at home is highly marketable. Second, because antitrust cases "how turn on economic as well as legal arguments, companies are paying big fees to economists as well as lawyers. Besides the pay gap, academic life is less secure than it used to be: staff who would once have had tenure are as sackable as anybody else. Also, says Dieter Helm – who is an Oxford don as well as director of «Oxera», a consultancy – the burden of paperwork and lack of research funds are extra reasons not to become an academic . The market for economists works far better outside the universities than it does inside them. The scarcity of top professors, says Professor Oswald, is now driving their salaries up; but the cartel of university bosses has succeeded in keeping the lid on junior dons' pay. Meanwhile, the City and the consultancies pay up. This may be lucrative for the current generation or economists. Who will educate the next generation, though, is an unanswered question. 1. Vocabulary notes: 1) sprinkling – посыпание, уснащение 2) PhD (= Doctor of Philosophy) – доктор философии 3) master’s degree – степень магистра 4) sought after – популярный, модный 5) econometrics – эконометрика (наука, изучающая конкретные количественные связи между экономическими объектами и процессами) 6) expertise – специальные знания, компетенция 7) tenure – зд. срок пребывания в должности 8) scarcity – недостаток, нехватка, редкость 9) to keep the lid on – держать в секрете 10) lucrative – прибыльный, доходный, выгодный

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2. Answer the following questions. 1) What uncomfortable question are British economics dons asking themselves? Why? 2) Which fact from the article proves the unpopularity of scientific activity among British students? 3) What is the obvious explanation of the fact the number of would be PhDs is falling? 4) What is the role of the growth of economic consultancy? 5) Which two things make economic expertise highly marketable? 6) What does it mean “academic life is less secure than it used to be”? 7) What is the author’s conclusion? 3. Summary. The aim of the article is to discuss the problem of reducing doctors of economics in Britain. The author considers pay to be the main cause. A university lecturer with a doctorate in economics starting salary is much lower than that of an economist with only master’s degree. The growth of economic consultancy has provided another career path. Economic regulation expertise in privatisation issues and antitrust cases has become highly marketable. Less secure academic life and the burden of paperwork and lack of research funds are believed to be extra reasons not to become an academic. Nowadays market situation may be lucrative for the current generation of economist. But the question “who will educate the next generation?” is still unanswered.

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Write on Just as the introduction of the printing press in Europe in the late 15th century led many scribes of the time into a state of unemployed despair, so the more recent spread of the computer – whose typefaces can reproduce calligraphic designs of enormous variety – has made many latter-day scribes redundant Nevertheless, calligraphy as an art is still alive – both in its three traditional forms, based on Chinese, Roman and Arabic scripts, and in experimental new departures. For most people in the West, pride in penmanship is rare nowadays; however, in eastern countries good handwriting is still steadfastly taught in schools. China's Chairman Mao aspired to write out his own mediocre poems in a jagged script. And modern calligraphic masterpieces in Japan can sometimes fetch as much as a small Picasso painting. Oriental calligraphers (who work with the brush rather than the pen) study and copy the output of their great forerunners and work within the same rigorous limits. Varying effects are created by holding the brush at different angles, and no mistakes can be altered or erased. After Mao's death in 1976, however, a new generation in China dared to use calligraphy in avant garde as well as traditional ways. And in Japan, at least one modern Japanese master, Ogawa Toshu, has also rejected the old limits. One of his calligraphic drawings, using' the characters for "Nesting Crane", depicts eyes at the heart of an ink storm; the artist says that it represents a mother crane who is protecting her young in a blizzard. Western and Arabic calligraphy is based on the pen (though the brush was employed for illuminating manuscripts). Medieval Christian monks preferred to use a quill, made from goose or swan feathers, and modern secular calligraphers often use the same antiquarian tool. Islamic calligraphers preferred pens cut from dried reeds, as they still do today. Later Christian craftsmen were usually clerks whose business was to make copies of the Bible in acceptable, workmanlike fashion. 15

Islamic calligraphy, on the other hand, has always been perceived as a meditative, even mystical exercise; the scribe has to make himself or herself (many Arabic calligraphers have been women) ritually pure before they set about transcribing from the Koran. The best 20th-century calligraphers in the West are powerfully painterly. And their inspiration, as in the case of Mark Tobey, an American Expressionist who studied calligraphy at a Zen monastery in Japan, is usually oriental and (sometimes) Islamic. Hans-Joachim Burgert, a German master, believes that calligraphy is now free to discover its own underlying, primitive forms. His spirited brushwork in English of the words "Unknown Branches", in which the letters tumble and sway like a tree in a tempest, hovers provocatively on the borders of illegibility. 1. Vocabulary notes: 1) scribe – писец, переписчик 2) despair – отчаяние, источник огорчения, безысходность 3) typefaces – печатные литеры 4) departure – отклонение, направление, курс 5) penmanship – каллиграфия, чистописание 6) steadfastly – упорно, прочно 7) rigorous – строгий, точный, неукоснительный 8) “Nesting Crane” – «Журавль, вьющий гнездо» 9) blizzard – метель, буран, буря 10) quill – птичье (гусиное) перо 11) secular – зд. светский, нецерковный 12) reed – тростник, камыш 13) workmanlike – искусно 14) meditative – созерцательный 15) painterly – живописный, относящийся к живописи 16) underlying – лежащий в основе, основной 18) spirited – смелый, задорный, выразительный 19) tumble – валяться, метаться, кувыркаться 20) sway – качаться, раскачиваться 21) tempest – буря 22) hover – парить, зависать, болтаться

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2. Answer the following questions. 1) What is the article about? 2) In what countries can one be taught modern calligraphy? 3) What calligraphic styles does the author of the article mention? 4) Can we say that the art of calligraphy has been developing? 5) What does the author tell us about the best modern calligraphers? 3. Summary. In this article the author describes calligraphy, an art which is still alive. There are traditional calligraphic forms, based on Chinese, Roman and Arabic scripts, and modern as well. Modern calligraphic masterpieces in Japan can be compared with Picasso painting (the author describes “Nesting Crane”). The article contains basic features of Western and Arabic, Christian and Islamic calligraphy and considers calligraphic art in its development. The best modern calligraphers in the west are as powerfully painterly as their old brothers.

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Dyed in the Womb A lesbian's sexual identity seems to be established before her birth. Men and women blink differently when startled . That simple and well-established observation has led Qazi Rahman of the University of East London, in England, and his colleagues to evidence supporting the idea that homosexuality is a characteristic which people are born with, rather man one they acquire as they grow up .The team's research, just published in Behavioral Neuroscience, shows that lesbians blink like heterosexual men. That, in turn, suggests that the part of their brain that controls this reflex has been masculinised in the womb. Anyone who is startled by an unexpected noise tends to blink. If, however, the startling noise is preceded by a quieter sound, this blink is not so vigorous as it would otherwise have been. It is this lack of vigour which differs between the sexes. Men blink less vigorously than women when primed in this way. Given such a clear and simple distinction, testing the responses of homosexuals to noise seemed an obvious experiment to do. So Dr Rahman and his colleagues did it. Their subjects, men and women, gay and straight, were sat down one by one in a dimly lit room. The muscles that cause blinking were wired up with recording electrodes, and the subjects were fitted with headphones through which the sounds (sometimes a single startling noise, and sometimes a combination of soft and loud) were fed. In the latter case, as compared with the former, straight men had blinks that were 40 % less vigorous. In the case of straight women the drop was 13 %. Lesbians dropped 33 % which, statistically, made them more similar to straight men than straight women. Gay men were also intermediate, although in their case the difference was not statistically significant. Even in this apparently trivial matter, it seems, lesbians have male-like brains. So what is going on? By default, people are female. Without influence of testosterone in the womb, a fetus will develop into a girl. The way testosterone acts to turn a fetus male is still poorly understood. It seems likely, though, that different organs respond independently to the hormone, and may do so at different times. Hormonal surges at critical moments could thus cause particular organs in an otherwise female body to become "male". (A lull in hormone products might have the opposite effect.) If the organ concerned is the brain, the result is more male-like behaviour 18

including, possibly, male-type sexual preferences. Previous research has provided some evidence for this idea. Lesbians, for instance, are more accurate throwers of objects such as darts than straight women. In this they resemble straight men in a way that has nothing to do with sexual preference. And tissues other than the brain's may be affected, too. On average, lesbians ring fingers that are longer than their index fingers, a feature that is typical of men but not of heterosexual women. In that context, a difference in the blink of an eye is no surprise at all. 1. Vocabulary Notes: 1) blink – мигать, закрывать глаза 2) startle – пугать, поразить 3) masculine – мужской, мужеподобный 4) vigour – сила, мощь, живость, энергичность 5) prime – зд. воздействовать 6) wire up – связывать, соединять 7) straight and gay – гетеросексуальные люди и гомосексуалисты 8) default – бездействие, пассивность, неявка, отсутствие 9) fetus – плод, зародыш 10) surge – скачок, колебание 11) lull – перерыв, затишье 12) tissue – биол. ткань 13) ring finger – безымянный палец 14) index finger – указательный палец 2. Answer the following questions. 1) What observation has made some East London specialists support the idea that homosexuality is an inborn characteristic rather than acquired one? 2) What exactly differs between the sexes startled by an unexpected noise? 3) What experiment was waged by Dr. Rahman and his colleagues ? 4) What way does testosterone act? 5) What features are lesbians and straight women characterized by? 3. Make up a summary of the text. 19

Omnipresent Bengt Ryden, chief executive of the Stockholm Stock Exchange (SSE), calls it an "agreement to merge", but he is not fooling anybody, OM Gruppen, one of the SSE'S listed companies, has taken over Mr Ryden's venerable exchange itself, OM Gruppen's startling rise holds lessons for other small financial centres: it has reinvented itself to bring a different line of work to a city in danger of losing its traditional financial businesses. Like its new subsidiary, OM Gruppen is in the business of running an exchange – several, in fact. These include Sweden's derivatives exchange, OM, its sister exchange in London, OMLX, and PULPEX, a wood-pulp exchange. But the firm likes to compare itself with other Nordic companies such as Ericsson and Nokia. OM Gruppen sees its chief business as designing "transactions technology" to make markets run more smoothly. This might include writing computer programs to handle securities trading, designing efficient communications networks to route "buy" and "sell" orders, and building electronic clearing and settlement systems. The company was founded in 1983 by Olof Stenhammar, a Swedish options trader who worked in Chicago in the 1970s. Mr Stenhammer's original plan was to set up a Swedish version of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) to trade options on Swedish company shares. The venture got off me ground quickly and OM Gruppen soon diversified into technology sales. Last year that business matured. OM Gruppen built a new electronic trading system for the Australian Stock Exchange, including an order-routing network to connect 60 Australian banks across three time zones. It added the Athens Stock Exchange to its growing list of clients. And it won a contract to design technology for CalPX, the Californian Power Exchange, which is set to become America's first electricity Exchange. OM Gruppen has already built and is running the world's two other electricity exchanges, both in Scandinavia. The company also has a nice sideline in selling back-office consultancy services to banks and brokers. Recently the firm bought Research & Trade, a Swedish company that specialises in designing software to provide access to lots of electronic exchanges from a single computer screen. 20

Some of this is now showing up on the bottom line. Operating profits last year increased by 92 %, to SKr338m ($44m), buoyed by runaway growth in technology-sales income, which accounted for about 40 % of sales. Return of equity was 22 %. The company's shares, before the takeover of the SSE, WEre trading on a lofty price/earnings ratio of 20. In the five years since the beginning of 1993, OM Gruppen's share has risen tenfold . Per Larsson, the company's 37-year-old chief executive, suggests several reasons for OM Gruppen's success. It ran one of the first exchanges in the world to champion electronic trading, giving it an early lead in exchange technology. Moreover, right from the start the company has been owned by shareholders, not by its trading members, helping it to avoid conflicts of interest. Some exchanges that have developed technology in-house have squandered extraordinary sums of money. The Swiss exchange, the Deutsche Borse and the London Stock Exchange have all built their own systems with the help of Andersen Consulting. According to one its board members, Deutsche Borse has spent DM150m developing its new system, Xetra. London may have spent even more. Mr Larsson does not claim to be cheap, but other exchange executives say a company like his could supply an off-the-shelf system for a small fraction of that kind of money. Tradepoint, a British stock exchange, spent just £9m setting up an electronic exchange (bought from Canada) with the capacity to handle all the shares traded in Britain. As for the vanquished Mr Ryden, he still has an ace or two up his sleeve. As part of the merger agreement, the SSE gets to keep a fairly independent board. If the board sniffs out any fishy trading in its parent's stock, it' must report it directly to Sweden’s financial regulator.

6) diversify – зд. вкладывать деньги в различные предприятия 7) show up – выявлять (-ся), обнаруживать (-ся) 8) buoy – поддерживать 9) runaway – стремительный, неудержимый 10) lofty – зд. высокий 11) squander – растрачивать, проматывать 12) vanquished – побежденный 13) to have an ace up one’s sleeve – иметь козырь про запас 14) sniff – зд. чуять, подозревать 15) fishy – зд. сомнительный, подозрительный 2. Answer the following questions. 1) The article begins with startling rise of OM Gruppen, one of the SSE’s listed companies, doesn’t it? 2) Its chief business is designing “transactions technology” (computer programs for securities trading, communications networks for “buy”/”sell” orders routing and electronic clearing and settlement systems) to make markets run more smoothly, isn’t it? 3) OM Gruppen spends a lot to expand its business, doesn’t it? Give examples. 4) The company’s chief executive Per Larsson suggests several reasons for OM Gruppen’s success, doesn’t he? Name them. 5) Yet an independent board of the SSE can keep the exchange trading under its control, can’t it? 3. Give a summary of the text.

1. Vocabulary notes: 1) Omnipresent – вездесущий (получается игра слов: OMnipresent, где «OM» – часть названия компании) 2) venerable – почтенный, солидный 3) startling – поразительный, ошеломляющий 4) Nordic – скандинавский 5) settlement – зд. покрытие задолженности, расплата с кредиторами

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Why Thailand's Star is Rising Southeast Asia is back. After several years of watching investors flee, Southeast Asian stock markets soared in the first quarter: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Thailand all posted double-digit percentage gains. The best-performing fund of the 500 offshore funds tracked by BusinessWeek was Fidelity Investments' Thailand Fund, with a 29,26 % gain. Fidelity's Asean and South East Asia funds also finished in the top 10. Keith Ferguson, Fidelity's chief investment officer for the AsiaPacific region, says Southeast Asia reforms are finally paying off with more efficient companies, stronger financial institutions, and greater corporate transparency. Growth prospects were already solid thanks to strong domestic demand, and the U.S. recovery will be a boon for exports. Why did Thailand top the rankings? In the past few years, key sectors such as banking and cement have seen consolidation and staff cutbacks, producing higher margins. And many companies have brought in foreign management expertise. At the same time, Thai consumers are shelling out for everything from designer jeans to new cars – auto sales might grow 30 % this year – and the residential-property sector is finally showing signs of recovery. The result: In the first quarter, foreigners were net buyers of $550 million worth of Thai stocks, after selling $348 million over 2000 and 2001. Ferguson saw the Southeast Asia recovery coming late last year and sent his analysts on a search for good companies. "We looked where foreigners were underweight and where earnings looked attractive again, and we spent time and focused on it," he says. In Thailand, he picked up property developer Land & Houses, Siam Cement, Siam City Cement, and bank stocks. Can this winning streak continue? With Thailand's banks and blue chips having already enjoyed a good run, Ferguson says smart investors should start looking at mid-cap stocks such as Delta Electronics Inc., poised to benefit from stronger export demand. Across Southeast Asia, Ferguson sees plenty of value: Indonesian stocks are trading as low as seven times 2002 earnings, Malaysia's 17, and Thailand's 14. But a word of caution. Although the region's markets have shown resilience, its economies are still tethered to the U. S. If the 23

American recovery stalls, the promising start to Southeast Asia's year will quickly lose steam. By Frederik Balfour in Kuala Lumpur 1. Vocabulary notes: 1) flee – бежать, убегать, сторониться 2) soar – стремительно повышаться, взлетать 3) transparency – прозрачность 4) boon – благо, удобство, преимущество 5) cutback – сокращение, понижение 6) margins – прибыли, денежные запасы 7) bring in – вводить, вносить, импортировать 8) shell out – раскошеливаться 9) streak – период, промежуток, полоса 10) poise – удерживать (-ся), уравновешивать 11) resilience – упругость, эластичность 12) tether – ограничивать, связывать 13) stall – останавливать (-ся), стопорить 2. Answer the following questions. 1) What is the main idea of the article? And who is the main hero of it? 2) What do Southeast Asia reforms do finally result in? 3) What is the cause of Southeast Asian stock markets soaring? 4) What can you say about the purchasing power of Thai consumers? 5) What point should investors beware of looking at mid-cap stocks? Such as Delta Electronics Inc.? 3. Give a summary of the text.

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Deadly Traffic

Dushanbe Opium and heroin plague the region

Ictoria was 18 when she started injecting heroin. Now 22, she claims to have been clean for the past six months. She works as a volunteer for RAN, an NGO based in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, which provides counselling – and clean syringes – to some of the city's growing number of drug-takers. With neighbouring Afghanistan once again a major grower of opium, and demand for heroin still strong on the streets of Europe, Tajikistan and its neighbours are getting caught in the middle. Central Asia has become a major route for Afghan opium and heroin travelling to Europe. As Pakistan and Iran have cracked down on drug trafficking from Afghanistan, the flow has moved north. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the trade of opium through Central Asia started to develop in the early 1990s, and heroin first appeared in 1995. Today the UN estimates that about one kilo in four of heroin coming out of Afghanistan goes through Central Asia. In 2002, drug-trafficking of Afghan opiates generated $2.2 billion in Central Asia-equivalent to 7 % of the area's GDP. With 1 400 km (875 miles) of porous borders with Afghanistan, Tajikistan is affected far more than any other Central Asian country. In 1996, the country's authorities seized 6,5 kg of heroin. Last year, they intercepted close to four tonnes, almost 80 % of the total seized in-the 25

region. As much as 80 tonnes of heroin may have passed through the country. The value of heroin transiting has gone up by three to four times in 2002, reflecting an improvement in purity. In 2001 the quality of heroin was so poor that unhappy Russian buyers returned some to Afghanistan. Less opium, on the other hand, seems to have been exported since 2000; it is increasingly being processed into heroin inside Afghanistan before being shipped out. As traffickers handle increasingly valuable loads, they are hedging their bets by organising more, but smaller, shipments. Operations are also becoming more sophisticated, and traffickers better organised and better armed. But so are Tajikistan’s authorities, in spite of persistent suspicions of corruption and high-level involvement the drug trade. Border guards now have test kits, sophisticated communication equipment and four-wheel-drive cars, nowhere evident a few years ago. A drug-control agency reports directly to Tajikistan’s president. Last year the leadership of the boarder guards was changed. And the fight against the growing drug plague is one of the few things on which Central Asian countries have brought themselves to co-operate. Since most local traffickers are paid in kind, the heroin trade leaves a trail of ad-dicts in the transit countries of Central Asia. According to the UN, heroin addic-tion in Central Asia has been the fastest-growing in the world since the late 1990s, and the region now has more than 300 000 opiate-takers, including children as young as ten. According to RAN, $5-8 will buy you a gram of heroin on the streets of Dushanbe today, and with purer heroin now available the number of overdoses has shot up. Although reliable statistics are hard to come by, Murtazokul Khidirov, RAN'S director, compares the spread of HIV due to dirty needles to an ‘uncontrollable forest fire’. So the NGO supplies up to 3 000 clean syringes a day to 1 000 or so people in Dushanbe, a drop in the ever-deeper ocean of the city’s estimated 20 000 heroin junkies, each of whom would needs about five needles a day. Unfortunately, little help is available for those who want to escape drugs. Victoria went in and out of rehab three times. She was locked up and offered sleeping pills as the sole treatment, RAN can offer little more than counselling and moral support to those who want to break their habit. Drug-takers are regarded as criminals, and even 26

RAN's volunteers-former or current addicts-are occasionally arrested and beaten up by the police when they go out to distribute syringes. 1. Vocabulary notes: 1) syringe – шприц 2) crack down – зд. принимать крутые меры, закручивать гайки 3) trafficking – торговля, перевозки 4) intercept – перехватить, препятствовать 5) hedge one’s bet – заключить двойную сделку, перестраховываться 6) pay in kind – платить натурой 7) trail – след, проторенная дорожка 8) rehab – сокр. от “rehabilitation” 2. Answer the following questions. 1) What problem does the author of the article highlight? 2) Why has the major route of drug trafficking changed? 3) What numbers in the article prove the fact it’s hardly possible to solve drug issue (at least in existing, traditional way)? 4) Why has heroin addiction in Central Asia been the fastestgrowing in the world since the late 1990s? 5) In what why does NGO try to help heroin junkies? 3. Give a summary of the text.

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Berlusconi Burlesque Italy's pension reforms Rome Not for nothing do they call the man a populist

Under fire on pension reform, and sensing that this issue could make or break his government (it helped destroy his previous one in 1995), Silvio Berlusconi has announced that he will write to every household in Italy explaining his plans. That may not be a bad idea. For he faces more than the usual resistance of trade unions, who have called a four-hour general strike on October 24th. He faces more even than the habitual vacillation of his allies who, having agreed a modest compromise after tortuous negotiation, are now trying to water it down again. His real problem is that he is up against public opinion. Pensions absorb 14% of Italy's GDP, the highest share in any big European country. They thus siphon off cash that could be more productively used elsewhere. Yet, in a poll for Messaggero, a Rome newspaper, only 25 % of those questioned would accept more than "minor corrections". Behind that response lie some deep-seated cultural attitudes. The thrust of the government's reform is to persuade Italians to retire at an age that would be considered normal in most other countries. From 2008, a full state pension would kick in only at the age of 65 (for men) and 60 (for women), or after 40 years' worth of contributions. It would still be possible to retire, as now, at 57, or with 35 years' worth of contributions. But that would mean accepting a lower pension. The trouble is that Italians, particularly in the north, are now used to the idea that it is their right to stop working in middle age. That seems odd, given that advances in medicine now allow 65-year-olds to expect 15 years or more of retirement. It is odder still in a country where so many leaders and opinion formers are well past normal pensionable age. President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is 82. One of his predecessors, Francesco Cossiga, is still active in politics at 75. Italy's most revered newspaperman, Enzo Biagi, is still scribbling perceptively at 83. Even Mr Berlusconi is, at 67, no spring chicken. Yet less than three in ten of their compatriots over the age of 55 holds a (legal) job. Even allowing for employment in Italy's extensive 28

black economy, that figure is exceptionally low. As a first step towards raising it, Mr Berlusconi's reforms propose that, from January 1st, anybody of pensionable age who chooses to stay at work will get a bonus worth 32,7 % of their salary, representing the cash they would otherwise have taken for their pensions. Yet when asked by Il Messaggero, only 28 % said they would take the money rather than opt for the deckchair. Italians may not be lazy; but they certainly have what economists call a high leisure preference. And that may be harder for Mr Berlusconi to tackle than even the noisiest protests. 1. Vocabulary notes: 1) burlesque – пародия, карикатура 2) be under fire – служить мишенью нападок 3) vacillation – колебания, нерешительность 4) tortuous – извилистый, уклончивый 5) water down – смягчать, ослаблять 6) siphon off – откачивать 7) deep-seated – укоренившийся, глубокий 8) thrust – толчок, удар, выпад 9) revere – почитать, чтить 10) scribble – заниматься сочинительством, быть писакой 11) no spring chicken – не первой молодости 12) deckchair – шезлонг/ лонгшез 13) tackle – иметь дело с, решать, постараться переубедить 2. Make up a plan of the text in English. 3. Give a summary of the text.

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Desperate Measures Beijing Protests against forced relocation are getting worse

Attempting suicide by burning one-self in public is a particularly powerful form of protest in China, to which even the most desperate rarely resort. Yet in the past seven weeks, at least three people have tried to kill themselves in this way. Their grievances have been the same: forced relocation from their homes to make way for commercial developments. The extent of public anger over the brutality and unfairness involved in China's urban makeover is starting to alarm the leadership. This weekend, the Central Committee of China's Communist Party begins a meeting to set policy guidelines for the leaders who took office late last year and early this. The new party chief, Hu Jintao, presents himself as a man attuned to the sufferings of those pushed aside by China's breakneck development. Addressing the complaints of those whose shabby old homes are being demolished is hard. The number of protests triggered by urban redevelopment has risen fast in recent years. According to the official China Economic Times, 8 516 petitions were delivered to the central government in 2001 complaining about forced relocation. The figure increased to 13 513 last year and already stood at 11 641 for the first eight months of this year. Frenzied investment in construction-up 33 % between January and August compared with the same period a year ago-is fuelling the greed of developers and of officials who take bribes in return for development rights. The protests have become more potent recently. On August 22nd, a man set fire to himself in the eastern city of Nanjing after his house was destroyed to make way for a new business district. On September 15th,a man did the same in Tiananmen Square, and another tried on September 25th in eastern Beijing. China Daily, an official newspaper, noted that according to the law, the government cannot take away residents' land-use rights except for public-welfare projects. In practice, local officials often sell landuse rights without consulting the occupants of buildings on the land. Developers, with official connivance, sometimes intimidate occupants into accepting meagre compensation. The residents may get newer housing, but often far from their work. 30

Whether the government is likely to offer much more than sympathy is doubtful, given the massive development plans that Beijing, Shanghai and other cities have in mind. Beijing will hold the Olympic Games in 2008 which will involve a lot of work for the demolition teams. Shanghai has been relocating people at a rate of 80 000 a year since 2000 and plans to move another 400 000 by 2007 (the city wants a new look for the 2010 World Fair). In September, 152 lawyers in Shanghai formed a group to give legal aid to those being moved out. But other, unnamed lawyers have been quoted as saying that without laws clarifying the rights of the uprooted, talk of protecting their interests is "idle". They might also have mentioned one Shanghai lawyer, Zheng Enchong, who argued on behalf of the displaced. He was arrested in June on what human-rights groups say are bogus charges. 1. Vocabulary notes: 1) resort – прибегать, обращаться 2) grievance – жалоба, недовольство 3) makeover – переделывание 4) attune – настраивать, делать гармоничным 5) breakneck – опасный, стремительный 6) shabby – зд. убогий, ветхий, захудалый 7) demolish – разрушать, уничтожать 8) trigger – приводить в действие, вызвать 9) frenzied – бешенный, безумный, неистовый 10) greed – жадность, алчность 11) connivance – потворство, попустительство, молчаливое согласие 12) intimidate – запугивать, угрожать, шантажировать 13) meagre – скудный, недостаточный 14) uproot – насильно выселять с места жительства 15) idle – зд. бесполезный, тщетный, пустой 16) bogus – поддельный, фальшивый, мнимый 2. Make up a plan of the text in English. 3. Give a summary of the text. 31

What to Do about Slums? Slums are growing fast. The solution must begin with property rights.

In Pakistan they are katchi abadis, in Cuba focos insalubres, in India bustees and in Brazil favelas. Whatever the local name for slums, there are a lot of them and they are growing fast. A new report, “The Challenge of Slums” by UN-Habitat, the United Nations agency responsible for "human settlements", says that in 2001 just under a billion people were living in slums-about a third of the world's city dwellers. In the last decade, urban populations in less developed regions increased by a third. On present trends, says the UN report, 2 billion people could be living in slums by 2030. In Africa, many parts of the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, migrants are leaving farm land which is unable to support them, and arriving in cities which are unprepared to deal with them. This has been a long-term trend, and is unlikely to abate no matter how awful the slums become. In 1800, only 2 % of the world's population was urbanised; by 2008 more than half of the world's population will be. Because such migration is so predictable, and long established, it might seem surprising that many governments are ill-equipped for it. But there is little new in that either: the now-rich countries fared just as badly when their cities first began to grow rapidly. What can be done? Lessons from history make it clear what should not be done: ignoring slums or harassing the people that live in them through summary evictions and clearances. Although few governments openly advocate such repressive policies, arbitrary evictions are still common in many developing countries. In any case, slum eradication and resettlement create more problems than they solve. Most residents pushed out of their homes soon have little option but to return to the same area, because they need the work that drew them to the city in the first place. Improving slums, rather than relocating their residents, is a much better approach. But in developing countries, resources to build new housing rarely exist. Instead, government-aided "self help" is more realistic. Loans for home improvement and investment in infrastructure are crucial for upgrading slums. But the central problem is that slum 32

residents rarely have the formal rights to remain on the land they occupy. So they have no incentive to develop the land for the future, and are unable to raise the money to do so. A stake in the future Hernando de Soto, a well-known economist from Peru, has long advocated another solution: giving formal title deeds to the poorest slum dwellers. Possessing, legal proof that they own the land beneath their home, however humble, gives poor people the means to raise finance for improving their dwelling and even, in many cases, for starting a business. The Peruvian government has issued well over a million property titles to the great benefit of impoverished families. As the UN report points out, awarding titles is not always easy. Land laws in many developing countries are overly complicated, and government bureaucracies frequently inefficient or corrupt. But legal complications are often the unwelcome legacy of the colonial era, and should be untangled in any case. And bureaucratic inefficiency is a headache for reforms in every area, not just in that of slum policy. The owners of much slum land have long since abandoned any serious claims to it. In other places, the land belongs to the government. In both cases, awarding a title to slum dwellers can be seen as a fair way to establish property rights, the bedrock of any prosperous society. If governments are brave enough to try it, slums could yet become an engine of growth in poor countries, rather than a crisis in the making.

10) title deed – документ, устанавливающий или подтверждающий право на что-либо 11) title – зд. правооснование, право собственности 12) overly – слишком, чрезвычайно 13) unwelcome – нежеланный, неприятный 14) legacy – наследство 15) untangle – распутывать 16) bedrock – базис, основа 2. Make up a plan of the text in English. 3. Give a summary of the text.

1. Vocabulary notes: 1) dweller – житель 2) abate – ослаблять, уменьшать, снижать 3) fare – поживать, жить, быть 4) harass – беспокоить, тревожить 5) eviction – выселение, лишение имущества (по суду) 6) eradication – искоренение 7) upgrade – повышать качество, исправлять 8) incentive – побудительный мотив, стимул 9) stake – зд. заинтересованность 33

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Med Sea Bubble Even as Alan Greenspan frets about how to handle America’s stock-market, bubble-watchers should spare a thought for policymakers on the sun-soaked Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Investors there are taking stock-market mania to new heights. When it opened three years ago in Nicosia, the Greek-Cypriot capital, the Cyprus Stock Exchange seemed set for a quiet life, with daily turnover last year rarely topping 3m Cypriot pounds ($1,6m). This year, huge demand for its 50-odd shares has pushed the index up by more than 500 %. Daily trading volumes have topped $200m, and traders scarcely flinch when the index jumps by 15 % in a day. Share valuations are in the stratosphere: Bank of Cyprus, the largest listed firm, has a price-earnings ratio of 70. What is going on? One reason for the surge is that Cyprus is seen as a convergence play – yes, really – now that it is in talks to join the European Union; the prospect of closer ties with Greece, an EU member, has also boosted takeover activity. Another factor is the increasing prospect of a political settlement of Cyprus's long-standing division into Greek and Turkish zones. Cyprus has also become a favourite destination for Russian money, some of which goes into the stock-market. The main factor, though, has been simple herd mentality. As soon as returns on shares started looking decent, ordinary Cypriots piled in. Some have bet their life savings on the market; others have borrowed to buy shares. Fittingly, in a country where beach restaurants tend to raise prices rather than mark them down in the slow season, the amateur investors – reckoned to be one in four adults – are more enthusiastic than financially savvy. Mamoun Tazi of Salomon Smith Barney says most look at absolute numbers rather than fundamentals. A share priced at 3 Cypriot pounds is good value; one costing 3 000 Cypriot pounds sounds like a rip-off. Small wonder that listed companies have been "adding value" by splitting their shares into smaller units. All of which has caused plenty of headaches for the financial authorities. The exchange was forced to close for most of September so that bewildered brokers could clear a backlog of some 60 000 orders. Investors must now stump up cash before placing buy orders; transac-

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tion volumes have been restricted to 2 000 per session (a figure hit in the first 13 minutes of one day last week). Although the central bank has tried talking the market down, and has asked banks to stop lending to would-be punters, they show no sign of cooling. Almost every day since the exchange reopened, it has hit a new high, despite the retreat of foreign investors and Cypriot institutions. New listings are lapped up : a recent one was 50 times oversubscribed. Dinos Papadopoulos, the exchange's chairman, is hoping for an orderly correction. He sees the euphoric mood "continuing for a while, but after that it's hard to predict". Really? 1. Vocabulary notes: 1) fret – волноваться, тревожиться 2) mania – мания, увлечение 3) flinch – отступать, уклоняться 4) valuation – оценка, определение стоимости 5) surge – волна, резкий скачок 6) boost – поднимать, поддерживать, повышать 7) herd – стадо, толпа 8) pile in – забираться (куда-то), толпиться 9) fittingly – надлежащим образом, соответственно 10) adult – взрослый, зрелый, совершеннолетний 11) savvy – смекалка, здравый смысл 12) fundamental – принцип, основы 13) rip-off – воровство, грабеж, мошенничество, плагиат 14) bewildered – озадаченный, сбитый с толку 15) backlog – резерв, запас; отставание 16) slump up – выкладывать деньги, платить наличными 17) talk down – перекричать, говорить с кем-либо свысока 18) punter – профессиональный игрок (на бирже) 19) bubble – дутое предприятие; волнение, шум (моря) 20) lap up – глотать, поглощать, умываться (перен.) 21) orderly – планомерно, организованно, регулярно 22) oversubscribe – превысить намеченную сумму 23) 50-odd – 50 с лишним

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2. Scan the text and find: 1) the sentence, expressing the main idea of the article; 2) the passage, describing the reasons of the current financial situation in Cyprus; 3) the passage telling about national mentality peculiarities of ordinary Cypriots; 4) the passage informing about the consequences for the business world; 5) the sentence, containing the conclusion. 3. Give a summary of the article.

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Patriots too The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent (Edited by Roane Carey and Jonathan Shainin. Foreword by Tom Segev.)

After the collapse of the Camp David peace talks towards the end of 2000, and the start of the Palestinian intifada, many Israelis started to articulate a single, strident message: they had offered the Palestinians a priceless gift, and been kicked in the teeth for their pains; so be it, they would now show the so-and-sos who was master. A substantial majority of voters (twice) elected Ariel Sharon to do just that. But some disagreed, and a few of those – loyal Israelis all – have packaged their dissent into a neat volume of short essays and articles written over the past two years. What good will it do? asks Tom Segev, an Israeli newspaper columnist, in his foreword. Israelis have an expression "shoot and cry" for those who allow things to happen even as they deplore them. Maybe, he suggests, he and his fellow dissenters are writing for their own relief, to detach themselves from Israel's "tribal, isolated, emotional and nationalistic mood", and to show future historians that there were white hats around, even if they couldn't do much about anything. Listen for instance to Ami Ayalon, once head of the Shin Bet security service, describing in an interview with Le Monde the wrongheadedness of current Israeli policy. Freed from American pressure since September 11th – a date that another writer describes as "a Hanukkah miracle" for Israel – the Israeli government ploughs its own path. But time, Mr Ayalon argues, is not on Israel's side. Demographically, it benefits the Arabs. Politically it favours the extremists: Hamas, the militant Islamist movement and the ideological settlers. He calls, as others do, for withdrawal from the occupied territories to give the Palestinians the hope of a proper state. Gideon Levy is a journalist who, like Mr Segev, writes for Haaretz, the newspaper from which several of these essays are reprinted. Mr Levy questions the wisdom of Mr Sharon's onslaught on terrorism, and laments that "We have again become one nation that speaks with one voice and doesn't ask questions such as… what is the infrastructure of terrorism if not the occupation, the despair and the hatred?" 38

The effect on Israel of Mr Sharon's policy of massive reprisal, his preference for force over diplomacy, is what concerns writer after writer. They see a new arrogance and a new cruelty. Michael Ben-Yair, a former attorney-general, writes that occupation has transformed Israel from a just society to an unjust one. The steps taken to prolong the occupation – killing the innocent, executing wanted men without trial, the encirclements, closures and roadblocks – "are causing us to lose the moral base of our existence as a free, just society". Young reservists explain why they refuse to serve in the occupied territories. Meron Benvenisti, a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, reflects on the arrogance of the soldiers at the roadblocks, and, in a concluding essay, looks to a time when Israelis will oppose current policy. Yet none of these writers, not even Mr Benvenisti, believes that this is likely to happen any time soon. 1. Vocabulary notes: 1) dissent – разногласие, несогласие 2) articulate – выражать, ясно формулировать 3) strident – скрипучий, резкий 4) deplore – сожалеть, оплакивать 5) detach – разъединять (-ся), отделять (-ся) 6) tribal – племенной, родовой 7) plough – продвигаться, прокладывать путь 8) onslaught – нападение, удар 9) lament – плач, рыдание, стенания 10) reprisal – ответный удар, ответная мера, возмездие 11) arrogance – высокомерие, надменность, заносчивость 12) roadblock – засада, заграждение на дороге 13) so be it – если; при условии, что 14) so-and-sos – такой-то; так-то и так-то 15) white hats – положительные персонажи 16) wrong headedness – заблуждение, упорствование в заблуждении 17) militant – воинствующий 18) settler – зд. решающий довод 2. Make up a plan of the text in English. 3. Give a summary of the text. 39

Smoke and Mirrors New York

Politicians were delighted by last November's settlement with tobacco manufacturers. There was only one drawback; the $206 billion deal to compensate 46 states for past smoking-related healthcare costs would be spread over the next 25 years. Now even that problem has been solved. This week's decision by Standard & Poor's to give a rating to bonds tied to the future tobacco-settlement payments should send the financial markets to the rescue. Local governments will now be able to get a good deal of their money up-front by selling "securitised" tobacco bonds to investors. The first two – issued by New York city and Nassau County (New York) – are expected to raise nearly $1 billion between them in the next couple of weeks. This dwarfs sums raised by the handful of securitisations carried out before, which involved the sale of bonds backed by the expected future revenues from taxes and parking fines as yet unpaid. The tobacco money will be especially welcome because it does not have to be spent on health care. Politicians will be able to finance new spending initiatives, cut taxes or, in the case of governments with budget difficulties (such as Nassau County's), minimise unpopular spending cuts, or increases in taxes or borrowing. This may not be all it is puffed up to be, however. There is a risk that not all the settlement cash will come in – for instance, if the tobacco firms' legal difficulties get dire enough to bankrupt them. Even if the cash is delivered, using one-off revenues of this sort can give a falsely rosy idea of a local government's finances if the money is used to meet ongoing financial liabilities. And although Standard & Poor's says it will rate tobacco bonds as high as single-A (compared with the best possible rating of triple-A), the ordinary general bonds issued by most local governments typically get a higher rating. In other words, general bonds will often be a cheaper way of raising money. However, these general bonds often require the explicit approval of voters. By selling tobacco bonds, politicians may be paying extra to borrow in a way that does not look particularly like borrowing and may escape political oversight. Now, why would they want to do that? 40

1. Read the text and say if the following statement are true or false. 1) The author of the article describes advantages and disadvantages of “securitised” tobacco bonds. 2) The tobacco money will enable politicians to finance new spendings, cut taxes or minimize unpopular spending cuts. 3) The author warns of a possible risk that not all the settlement cash will come in. 4) Ordinary general bonds issued by most local governments typically get a higher rating. 5) The author of the article doubts if politicians will want to sell tobacco bonds. 2. Make up a plan of the text in English. 3. Give a summary of the text.

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Ploughshares into Swords The European Union spends $45 billion a year of taxpayers' money on subsidising farmers through the common agricultural policy. Taxpayers are fleeced a second time as consumers, because the EU protects and rigs the market in farm goods to ensure that consumers have to pay artificially high prices for their food. The system makes nobody happy. It encourages high levels of fraud. It appears to encourage the industrialised production of food by disgusting means. And it creates a riot-prone caste of subsidy-addicted farmers who, despite the transfers they receive from the taxpayer, frequently declare themselves poor and miserable. At the same time the EU wants to develop a common defence capacity that will help it punch its collective weight in the world and so make it less dependent on America for its security. But unless European defence spending and procurement programmes change fundamentally, Europe's forces will be woefully under-armed when measured against America's. Europe spends only a third as much as America on research and development for defence. The maintenance of national armies and national weapons programmes within the EU denies the European defence establishment the economies of scale available to its counterpart in the United States. That leaves the Europeans lagging behind in most areas of high-technology weaponry, the research and development for which strains even a Pentagon-sized budget. Hence this modest proposal: let the EU stop wasting $45 billion a year on driving up the price of food, and let it use the money to pay for a new research and development agency serving the European defence industry. At a stroke, European spending on defence research would outstrip even that of the United States. And, since national governments would be mad to waste their taxpayers' money maintaining rival weapons programmes of their own when world-beating European designs were available and paid for, over time European armies would 42

end up with the same weapons. This would help ensure a common defence capacity that worked efficiently in practice, and assist an eventual merging of forces if that was the way Europe wanted to go. Defence research is one of the very rare industries in which an economic case could be made for EU intervention. It is already dominated by government policy, not by market forces. Managing it at a European level would generate economies of scale without loss of previous market efficiency. Contrast that with the common agricultural policy, where EU intervention demands a tireless fight against market forces that would otherwise help to deliver good cheap food to the European table. Atlanticists should support a switch in EU spending from farms to defence, because it will answer to American demands that Europe do more to provide for its own defence. Anti-Atlanticists should applaud the idea because it will help Europe to provide credibly for its own security. Farmers, of course, will scream blue murder. It is hard to imagine a better set of incentives

4) What measures can help ensure a common defence capacity and eventual merging of forces? 5) What kind of industry is defence research? 6) What is the author’s conclusion in the article? 3. Give a summary of the text.

1. Vocabulary notes: 1) ploughshares into swords – мечи на орала 2) fleece – обирать, вымогать деньги 3) rig – оснащать 4) procurement – снабжение, приобретение 5) woefully – ужасающе, удручающе 6) lagging – отставание 7) at a stroke – одним махом, в два счета 8) outstrip – обгонять, превосходить 9) world-beating – замечательный, мирового класса 10) scream blue murder – орать, дико вопить 2. Answer the following questions. 1) Do you think the title of the text is symbolic? Why? 2) Enumerate the drawbacks of subsidizing farmers through the common agricultural policy by the European Union. 3) What does the author say comparing European defence and America’s defence forces?

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Are the Rules being Bent Again? A judge says an accused terrorist can call the witnesses he wants. No, he can’t…

A federal judge has ruled that prosecutors may not seek the death penalty against Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person in the United States to have been charged so far in connection with the September 11th terror attacks. Nor may they present any evidence linking this socalled "20th hijacker" with the planning or execution of the attacks. The ruling, by a district judge, Leonie Brinkema, came after the federal government refused to allow Mr Moussaoui to question al-Qaeda suspects who, he claims, could prove his innocence. The government says it will appeal . Mr Moussaoui, a 35-year-old French man of Moroccan descent, was first arrested in the United States in August 2001 on minor immigration charges. It was not until after the suicide hijackings the next month that investigators began to take a keener interest in the Muslim trainee pilot being held in a Minnesota jail. Three months later Mr Moussaoui was charged on six counts of conspiracy – four of them punishable by death – to commit acts of terrorism, aircraft piracy, use of weapons of mass destruction, destruction of aircraft, murder of government employees and destruction of government property. Although he admitted being a member of al-Qaeda, Mr Moussaoui claimed he knew nothing about the attacks until after they had occurred. In an attempt to prove his innocence, he sought to question three key al-Qaeda prisoners, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of 9/11, and Mustafa Ahmed, its alleged financier. In two rulings earlier this year, Judge Brinkema ordered that he should be allowed to question by satellite link the three men, all being held at secret locations outside the United States. The government has refused to comply, arguing that national security could be jeopardised by the disclosure of confidential information. In her latest ruling, delivered on October 2nd, Judge Brinkema said the government could not "maintain this capital prosecution while simultaneously refusing to produce witnesses who could, at a minimum, help the defendant avoid a sentence of death". But she refused to 45

take the widely expected step of dismissing all charges against Mr Moussaoui, who could face life imprisonment if convicted of the charges still pending. Her desire to keep the case under civilian jurisdiction appears to have been among her reasons for wishing to continue with a truncated trial. "This case can be resolved in an open and public forum," she declared. Among the options now facing the government is the possibility of transferring the trial to a military tribunal whose rules, including the right to extensive hearings behind closed doors, would be likely to help the prosecution. But this would attract widespread criticism. The government is already under attack for its treatment of some 660 al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, an American naval base in Cuba, where they are supposed to be awaiting trial before special military courts. Although some have now been detained for over 21 months, no charges have yet been brought. Nor have any of the prisoners, who include citizens of some of America's closest allies, had access to a lawyer or a consular official. Despite the criticism, the American government insists the Guantanamo Bay detainees are not prisoners of war but "enemy combatants", who are being held outside strictly-defined United States territory (the Guantanamo base is leased in perpetuity from Cuba) and therefore have no rights under either the Geneva Conventions or the American constitution. Last month Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defence, seemed to confirm suspicions that the government does not wish to bring these prisoners to trial. "Our interest," he said, "is not in trying them and letting them out. Our interest is in-during this global war on terror-keeping them off the streets, and so that's what's taking place." But that war could go on for a very long time, perhaps for decades. The government insists the Guantanamo prisoners are being treated "humanely". All now have individual indoor cells, proper beds, washing facilities and toilets. In July six of them, including two Britons and an Australian, were said to be eligible for trial. But, since then, nothing. No charges have been brought and no trial date set. Britain has made known its "strong reservations" about it all.

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1. Vocabulary notes: 1) rule – постановлять, решать (в судебном порядке) 2) prosecutor – обвинитель 3) hijacker – воздушный пират, бандит 4) suspect – зд. подозреваемый 5) alleged – предполагаемый, обвиняемый 6) mastermind – руководитель, вдохновитель 7) comply – подчиняться, уступать 8) defendant – подсудимый, обвиняемый 9) pending – предстоящий, ожидающий решения 10) treatment – обращение, обхождение 11) detain – арестовывать, содержать под стражей 12) try – зд. допрашивать, привлечь к суду 13) eligible – подходящий, приемлемый 2. Statements for discussion. 1. Al-Oaeda is a very potent, well-financed, militant organization, responsible for a lot of suicide hijackings. 2. An accused terrorist can’t call the witnesses he wants because of threat to the US national security, caused by possible disclosure of confidential information. 3. Military court provides detainees with less rights than civilian court. 4. Keeping some 660 al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects at Guantanamo Bay may be “Solomon’s decision” of the American Government. 5. Prisoners of all kinds should be treated humanely. 3. Give a summary of the text.

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Breathe or be Strangled If eskimos have dozens of words for snow, Germans have as many for bureaucracy. The most popular is Amtsschimmel, a word of obscure origin that translates roughly as “the office horse”. The government declares that it is bent on chasing these clodhoppers out of Germany. But has it any more chance of success than in the past? The Institute for the German Economy, the research arm of the country’s business associations, hopes so, if only because the economy might be strangled to death unless red tape is loosened. Germans are fed up with forms and rules. Pollsters at the Allensbach Institute say that as many as 90 % of Germans have had rows with bureaucrats, up from 64 % in 1978. Bild, Germany’s biggest tabloid, recently sent out a reporter in search of ridiculous rules. One example: a tailor who had to put up a sign saying “fire extinguisher” next to (guess what) her fire extinguisher, to produce a thick folder with all regulations relevant to her business, to raise her work table by ten centimeters, to buy a special emergency kit, and to check if her only employee was allergic to nickel – at a cost of €400 ($428). Germany is, in short, one of the most rule-bound countries in the world. And that is bad news for the economy, particularly for entrepreneurs hoping to set up in business. A new World Bank study, “Doing Business in 2004”, illustrates the problem . The study shows that it takes an average of 45 days to register a new firm in Germany, compared with 18 in Britain and only four in America. The process is also cheaper in America, Britain, Canada and France than in Germany. The government has launched a “masterplan for reducing bureaucracy”, listing dozens of cases where archaic rules should be scrapped or simplified. It recently brought in a bill to do away with such workplace regulations as where to put light switches or the shape of rubbish bins. The government has also chosen three regions where some laws will be suspended while local and federal agencies try out alternatives. 48

Yet it will take years for Germany to match America and Britain. Germans may inveigh against bureaucrats, but they have a soft spot for state mollycoddling. In any case, over a third of the members of the federal parliament are former civil servants, hardly likely to be in the forefront of a campaign to cut bureaucracy. Even some businessmen are ambivalent, for regulation can be useful barrier to competition. The supposedly free market opposition has attacked government plans to loosen laws protecting guilds of architects and craftsmen from competition. The language of officialdom hardly helps. A recent example of cutting red tape was a law to speed up approval for building roads. Its name: VerkehrswegeplanungsbeschleunigunVerkehrsweggsgesetz. 1. Vocabulary notes: 1) red tape – волокита, бюрократизм 2) skirmish – схватка, столкновение 3) strangle – подавлять, душить 4) clodhopper – увалень, неповоротливый 5) pollster – лицо, проводящее опрос общественного мнения 6) folder – папка, проспект 7) scrap – выбрасывать (за ненадобностью) 8) inveigh – выступать против 9) soft spot – уязвимое место 10) mollycoddle – баловать, нежить 11) ambivalent – двойственный 12) officialdom – чиновничество, бюрократический аппарат 2. Statements for discussion. 1) Germans are fed up with forms and rules much more than Russians are. 2) Too many rules is bad for any economy. 3) It is easy to do business in Germany in a civilized way, for business culture has had long history there. 4) Germans are ambivalent concerning cutting their bureaucracy. Prove that. 5) Red tape in Russia. Could you give some examples? 6) Business culture in Russia. Has it made any progress recently? 3. Give a summary of the text. 49

Spying on the Spies Throughout the 1990s, Peru’s National Intelligence Service was synonymous with Vladimiro Montesinos, the sinister spy chief who spun a web of corruption and intimidation from the heart of the authoritarian government of Alberto Fujimori. Since July 2001, Peru has been governed democratically under President Alejandro Toledo, and Mr Montesinos is now in jail. But the intelligence service remains in turmoil-just when once again Peru needs one. Last month, Mr Toledo sacked the service’s head, Alfonso Panizo, a retired admiral, the fourth man to hold the job in two years. His departure came after it had emerged that one of the president’s phone calls had been tapped, and the tape of the call given to a scandalhungry television programme. Another television show then accused the intelligence service of spying on several awkward journalist. Mr Panizo denied the charges; his agents were simply trying to discover who has leaking secrets to the media, he said. The new intelligence chief is Daniel Mora, a retired general but also a member of Mr Toledo’s Peru Posible party (its secretary for ethics, no less). His appointment has stirred controversy: opponents say that the intelligence service should serve the state, rather than the governing party. But the bigger problem is that the service needs thorough reform. Mr Montesinos still casts a long shadow. He turned the service from a small group of academics and analysts into a lavish outfit packed with military men engaged in dirty tricks. Sophisticated monitoring equipment, some donated by America’s Central Intelligence Agency to fight drugs, was diverted to political and commercial use. Mr Montesinos routinely tapped the phones of politicians, journalists, top businessman and judges; he even surreptitiously recorded some of Mr Fujimori’s private meetings. Mr Toledo’s government has slashed the service’s budget and personnel (though in it still overstaffed). The perverse result is that most of the monitoring equipment now seems to be in the hands of private security companies, some run by former army cronies of Mr Montesinos. In effect, telephone-tapping has been privatized; the results are leaked to pursue political vendettas. 50

Apart from poisoning politics, all this is bad for public safety. Peru has real security threats that need watching. Drug exports are rising, as is kidnapping. Though nothing like the threat they used to be, small groups of Shining Path guerrillas roam remote areas. The country need spies – but honest ones. 1. Vocabulary notes: 1) sinister – зловещий, темный 2) spin (spun, spun) – плести, составлять 3) intimidation – запугивание, шантаж 4) turmoil – беспорядок, смятение 5) tap – зд. подслушивать 6) controvercy – спор, полемика 7) lavish – расточительный 8) divert – отвлекать, уводить в сторону 9) surreptitiously – исподтишка 10) slash – зд. урезать, сократить 11) crony – близкий, закадычный друг 12) guerrilla – партизан 13) roam – скитаться, бродить 2. Statements for discussion. 1) Vladimiro Montesinos is known to have been a master of the dark arts. 2) The appointment of the new intelligence chief Daniel Mora has been approved unanimously in Peru. 3) Donated by America’s Central Intelligence Agency sophisticated equipment to fight drugs was used perversely. 4) Public safety in Peru is reported to be far from normal state. 5) Each country should have spy web to provide security for its citizens. 3. Give a summary of the text.

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Part III. ARTICLES FOR TRANSLATING Money in, Money out Beijing

Although China's financial links with the rest of the world are expanding, data about them remain scant. That may be why Chinawatchers place undue emphasis on what is published regularly, namely the monthly data on China's external trade and foreign direct investment (FDI). These have painted a mildly warming picture of late. Exports seem to be picking up at last, while FDI – down by just 10 % this year – has not fallen as much as some had feared. The case for a yuan devaluation, many conclude, is weakening. Yet there are other signs. Thanks to the obsession with monthly figures, one change in China's financial flows over the past couple of years has gone little noticed. In 1996 China had a capital-account surplus of $40 billion. By last year, that had swung to a deficit of $6,3 billion, with а near-$30 billion decline taking place in 1998 alone. Although some $45.6 billion of capital flowed in, $52 billion, officially noted, passed it on the way out. Some of that was foreign money. Last year, foreign banks pulled in their horns. Having lent $8,7 billion in China in 1997 they withdrew $8.6 billion last year. Portfolio investment shrank by $3,7 billion. After allowing for small sums of money lent or invested by China abroad, the best part of $35 billion of Chinese money seems to have left the country last year. Does this matter? China ran a currentaccount surplus in 1998 of $29,3 billion, offsetting its capital-account deficit by $23 billion. Yet foreign-exchange reserves increased by a paltry $5 billion, to $145 billion. Some $18 billion seems to have disappeared, mostly into a black hole labelled errors and omissions". Has China got a problem with capital flight? Economists tend to be more sanguine about China's capital flight than, say, Russia's. If Chinese companies are worried about devaluation, it makes sense for them to stash foreign exchange offshore. They can do this by falsifying import orders or keeping export earnings out of China. The government may not like this – indeed it has cracked down on it – but at least much of the money remains as Chinese com52

panies' working capital. The Chinese, unlike the Russians, are not enriching money launderers and tax havens. A large if unquantifiable amount of capital returns to China, as foreign investment eligible for tax breaks. Nicholas Lardy of the Brookings Institution notes another reason for the outflows: a huge increase in trade credit extended to foreign (mainly South-East Asian) buyers of Chinese goods. Chinese firms have not traditionally got involved in export finance. That changed when Asian turmoil threatened a collapse in Chinese exports. In the end, exports reportedly grew by 0,5 % in 1998. That good performance is explained, says Mr Lardy, by the extension of trade credits and by cooking of the books by government statisticians. It will be months before statistics are published for this year's capital account, just possibly, outflows may be lessening. Trade credits might be being paid back; the government's anti-smuggling campaign may succeed. Fewer smuggled imports means less hard currency stashed offshore. But Mr Lardy argues against ending the capital-outflow scare. Trade credit may continue to be extended; and the level of eventual defaults remains unclear. Capital outflows could thus remain high. The future for capital inflows, particularly FDI, is also uncertain. FDI may not yet have dropped sharply, but this is mostly money committed before foreigners took a grimmer view of China's economic future. Meanwhile, huge current-account surpluses cannot be expected to offset capital outflows for ever. The export recovery taking place this year is weaker than September's 20 % year-on-year growth suggests. That growth came on a very low base last year. The statisticians may not have to fiddle this year, but exports are unlikely to grow by more than 5 % in 1999 as a whole: hardly stellar, given the recovery in the rest of the region. With imports surging, the current-account surplus could tumble by nearly half. An export sector in difficulties and declining foreign investment: it is no longer unthinkable that China's perennially growing foreign reserves, currently $152 billion, might shrink. And that concern about the yuan could rise.

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Science and the Nazis Bullying by numbers Hitler's Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil's Pact (By John Cornwall) Mathematicians Under the Nazis

John Cornwell’s account of the dilemmas faced by scientists and mathematicians after the rise of Hitler begins before the first world war, when German science was at its peak. German speakers had won more than half of the Nobel prizes in science, while extensive collaboration with industry led to profitable development of soaps, fertilisers, pharmaceuticals, dyes and other products. The war had opened a period of difficulty for the scientific community, but in the late 1925 German science began to recover its prestige. This was destroyed by the rise of National Socialism. After Hitler came to power in 1933, Jewish scientists were dismissed en masse from their jobs. Hitler cared little for the damage this would cause German science. "If science cannot do without Jews, then we will have to do without science for a few years," he told Max Planck, a physicist. Indeed, half of Germany's theoretical physicists lost their jobs, to the immense benefit of Britain and America, which gained a generation of talented minds. Some scientists supported the Nazis or used the dismissals for personal advantage. Empty positions were filled by junior colleagues, usually without protest or delay. But could scientists opposed to Nazi policies retain their integrity and continue to work in Germany? Many scientists chose to stay, and hoped to preserve German science for better times. Among them was Max von Laue, another physicist, who had spoken bravely on Einstein's behalf in the early 1935 (and who is said to have developed a habit of carrying large parcels under each arm, to avoid having to give the Nazi salute). Other cases are more debatable. Mr Cornwell devotes several chapters to Werner Heisenberg, whose wartime conversations with Niels Bohr have been famously dramatised in Michael Frayn's recent play, "Copenhagen". Despite ample opportunity to leave, Heisenberg chose to remain in Germany and ran the German atomic-bomb programme. He made a poor director, and some have suggested that he in effect sabotaged the programme. Mr Cornwell sees no evidence for 54

this, arguing that Heisenberg was neither a hero nor a villain, but was instead "morally and politically obtuse". Sanford Segal's book looks in depth at the fate of German mathematics under Hitler. Mathematicians, of course, were also faced with the wave of expulsions of Jews from the profession. For those who remained, Nazism quickly impinged on their lives. Mathematicians were subject to repeated political evaluations. University employees had to swear oaths of loyalty to Hitler and greet their colleagues with the Nazi salute. Foreign contacts and travel were strictly limited, and research stagnated. Some mathematicians, such as Hermann Weyl, chose to leave, while many remained and kept a low profile. However, a few collaborated with enthusiasm. A particularly egregious example was Ludwig Bieberbach, a senior professor in Berlin and a leading mathematician of the period. Bieberbach was an enthusiastic proponent of Nazi ideology, publicly advancing a theory of racial and national differences in mathematical style. His theory divided mathematicians into two types: Jewish or French mathematicians (the "S-type") were pure theorists who imposed their ideas upon the world, while true German mathematicians (the "I-type") supposedly understood the world as it really was. Mr Segal's account of this episode is one of the most interesting parts of the book. While the maths may at times prove too technical for the lay reader, the strength of the book lies in its many individual stories and case histories. Mr Cornwell's work is more wide-ranging and accessible, and evokes the moral dilemmas of the period very effectively. Both books offer disturbing and important accounts of the life of science and scientists under the Nazis.

Economics Focus Soft science no more

Once a beautiful turn of phrase would take you a long way in economics. From Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes, economists were content to put their theories and ideas into (mostly) English prose, and leave it at that. Their big, breezy thoughts made great, but imprecise reading. Contradictions were glossed over. So prolix was Keynes, for example, that he is thought to have said everything at least once. This will no longer do. Since 1945 or so, practitioners of what was once called "political economy" have become more demanding. They sought to test their grand thoughts against the hard facts of the real world. Incomes, interest rates, and prices of all sorts could be measured. Did they behave as theory supposed? National accounts, the detailed measures of GDP, were just being created, at Keynes's behest. But economic data were, and still are, messy; analysing them even more so. It took decades to develop the tools to detect and measure economic relationships with much certainty. This year's (2003) Nobel prize has gone to two economists who epitomise the rise of statistical techniques: Robert Engle, an American economist at New York University, and Clive Granger, a Briton at the University of California at San Diego. They have crafted some of the most sophisticated tools to analyse economic data. Their contributions, developed during the 1980s, deal especially with "time-series" data: share prices, household consumption, inflation-anything, in fact, that changes over time, and thus poses difficulties for older forms of statistical analysis. Poets and Plumbers The Nobel committee seems to be highlighting the wide range of ideas and skills that comprise modern economics: a healthy equilibrium, you might say, between poets and plumbers. Last year one of the two winners was a psychologist whose findings contradict many of the assumptions of economic theory. This year the plumbers were back. Only three years have passed since James Heckman and Daniel

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McFadden were also honoured for sharpening econometrics, the statistical methods with which economic data are analysed. Mr Engle and Mr Granger have crafted techniques that demand even greater virtuosity at maths, but which are nevertheless crucial in separating wheat from chaff. Mr Engle's work has helped build the foundations for measuring and avoiding myriad types of risks in the modern economy. He has studied the volatility – the severity of swings – of time series ranging from inflation to the prices of securities. Anyone who watches the stockmarkets knows that they undergo periods of wild adolescent swings as well as times of geriatric languor. Until Mr Engle came along, people interested in such things-financial types, mostly, but also regulators-used crude measures of historical volatility, looking back over a year, say, to see what the average of the swings was. They would then use this as a gauge of likely future volatility. Mr Engle's approach, ARCH (for autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity, should you insist on knowing) gave researchers the power to test whether and how volatility in one period is related to volatility in earlier times. There often is a link, as casual observation suggests. After several days of stockmarket upheaval, there may be several days of calm. A 3 % rise or fall in shares is often heralded by increasing volatility, much as an earthquake is preceded by tremors. Mr Engle's high-powered maths has made market risk easier to forecast. Thus banks and investors who use "value at risk" techniques to analyse their portfolios owe much to Mr Engle. So does the Basel committee which is drawing up new rules for banks' capital requirements. Mr Granger's research was aimed more at coming to grips with longer-term swings in economic growth, inflation and currencies than with shorter bouts of risk and volatility. Macroeconomic data often share some common features. GDP per head, for example, has tended to grow over time (at least for as long as it has been reliably measured). But the "trend" rate of growth discussed by forecasters – and, yes, by journalists – is never as fixed as they make it seem: it can be influenced by shocks like rising oil prices or wars. This may obscure deeper relationships hidden in the data, posing tricky problems for statisticians. Using standard statistical tools – derived from things that do not change much over time, such as the distribution of people's heights – can be misleading. An economist using

these tools might conclude that a casual relationship existed where none really does, and thus be fooled by a statistical mirage. Mr Granger devised a clever solution to this, called co-integration. He made use of the notion of economic equilibrium- the idea that variables tend to move towards particular values, and thus in a predictable direction. He found that when two sets of economic data are compared, for example inflation and exchange rates, they can often be treated with standard techniques. In collaboration with Mr Engle, he worked to create tests for economists to ensure that they were getting reliable results when making such comparisons. Despite these sophisticated techniques, which economists now apply as a matter of course, the analysis of economic data remains messy. "Driving a Mercedes down a cow-track" is how Thomas Mayer, an American academic economist, once described the application of fancy tools to real-world phenomena that are not easy to model, much less to measure. Even so, the place of econometricians at the centre of economics is now confirmed. Indeed, there now seems to be a dearth of the grand theorists of days past. Specialisation – to use an economists' term – is the order of the day. But then a good plumber is in greater demand than any poet.

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Western Promise

Seen from close to, Britain's universities are in a sorry state: overcrowded, cash-strapped and demoralised. But from far away they can look very attractive. Their marketing to foreign students is excellent, especially in China, where educating children abroad is increasingly fashionable . The latest firm figures, from 2001, show around 18,000 Chinese students in British higher education. That makes them the largest group out of a total of 143,000 foreigners. And it is a 71% increase on 2000. Preliminary figures for 2002 show a further increase of 67 %, taking the likely total over 25,000. By far the most popular subjects are business studies and accountancy (35 %) followed by computing (14 %) and engineering (11 %). On the face of it, that benefits everyone. Chinese students pay handsomely – at least £15,000 ($24,000) for a one-year MBA, or £8,000 annually for a three-year undergraduate course. That helps fill the universities' rattling coffers, especially at the hard-up ex-polytechnics, which are finding it hard to attract British students. With cash comes enthusiasm. Chinese students tend to be brighter and harder-working than their local counterparts. An engineering lecturer at a midlands university newly popular with Chinese customers waxes lyrical on the subject: "Compared to my British students they are a joy to teach. They actually like to work, and they actually know the necessary maths, like calculus, already." But there are big problems elsewhere, mostly reflecting a fundamental difficulty: it is easier for universities to sell their courses than to deliver what the customers want The most mundane example is dayto-day life. British universities assume that students are, to most intents and purposes, independent adults, able to make choices about both academic and private life. Accommodation is mostly self-catering. Social life revolves heavily around alcohol. By contrast, arrangements in China are more paternalistic. Students either live at home or sleep six to a room. Take-away food is extremely cheap. Few know how to cook or do housework – especially if they are the pampered offspring of the one-child families encouraged by China's population controllers. British habits such as pub-crawls and binge drinking are mystifying, even repellent, to them. As a result, cop-

ing with life in Britain often involves hanging out with other Chinese students – meaning that one big hoped-for benefit, exposure to an English-language environment, is muted. Yvonne Turner, an academic specialising in the Sino-British cultural gulf, says some Chinese students tell her that their English-language skills decline while in Britain. This fits in with a second problem. Chinese university teaching is different to that in British higher education. Class discussion and questioning the teacher are rare and often discouraged. Exams are very important; group-based activities and course-work hardly feature. Memorizing and regurgitating texts matter a lot; use of other source material and critical thinking skills, especially at undergraduate level, are minimal. Coupled with the often-hesitant spoken English of many Chinese students, that can create irritation in the classroom. British students often feel frustrated by their Chinese colleagues' silence. Academics find it hard to know if they have got their points across. For their part, Chinese students are often scornful of discussions that they regard as little more than "playing". Coming from a highly competitive system themselves, they often find the British system of assessment overly fluffy and sympathetic. Another big difference is that Chinese university teachers abandon formality outside lessons and develop close ties with their students. In Britain it tends to be the other way round. There is a scramble to solve these problems before customers look elsewhere. Other countries are competing for the Chinese market too. One private outfit in Germany offers an English-language MBA specially tailored to Chinese students. Australia and New Zealand are stepping up their efforts too. British universities need to manage expectations better. The British Council, the government's cultural diplomacy outfit, offers training to the agents who help Chinese families choose universities for their children. A website provides feed-back and advice from Chinese students already in Britain. The better universities offer specially tailored induction courses for new Chinese arrivals – ranging from tips shopping and public transport to thorough training in how to write essays and give presentations. That differs sharply m the boozy welcome given to local freshers. Chinese students' main priority extra-curricular activity is not social life, points out a British Council specialist, but finding some workplace experience to go with their studies. Odd, or what?

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Chinese students are flooding in to British universities

When its economy was booming, cars and electronics were not the only industries in which Japan battled the West. Japanese authors also competed with their gaijin counterparts to churn out treatises about Japanese ways of doing things. On one point almost everyone agreed: the Japanese way of organising society was better, as its juggernaut economy proved. Needless to say, outside Japan, demand for such books is modest at the moment. But what about in Japan? After a decade of economic torpor, how do Japanese writers see their country now? The swagger that marked books such as "The Japan that Can Say No", in which Akio Morita (Sony's co-founder) and Shintaro Ishihara (a novelist and nationalist politician who is now governor of Tokyo) trumpeted Japan's rise to world, prominence just before the bubble popped, has certainly faded. But Naoki Inose, a popular history writer who gained headlines last year serving on a committee for highway reform, says that many Japanese were never as confident as the best-selling titles of the bubble years encouraged them to be. For all the affluence that Japan achieved in the 1980s, he argues, many Japanese still felt an underlying anxiety, and were never really convinced that their success reflected fundamental strengths in their society. Even as western and Japanese authors were praising the bureaucratic and business structures that Japan had developed over the previous century, Mr Inose argues, ordinary Japanese remained unsure of where those overweening institutions were taking them. Even if anxieties were lurking all along, however, the events of the past decade have driven them to the surface, and Japan's economic weakness has clearly played a role. A quick glance at the bestseller lists highlights the change in tone. Tohan, which publishes the most prominent list, compiles separate tables for business books and other sorts of non-fiction. In 1989, one of the few economic worries on the minds of Japanese readers was taxes: four of the top ten business books aimed to help them cope with a new consumption tax. Two other popular business books that year took a stab at forecasting the 1990s, and both of their authors were op-

timistic. "Nihon no Jidai" (Japan's Era), by Keitaro Hasegawa, took the prize with its bold forecasts about how Japan would soon be managing the flow of money, people and goods around the world. It may be unfair to single out Mr Hasegawa just because his book sold more copies than the dozens of others that made similar extrapolations. "It is considered bad form to ask what most of these guys were writing ten years ago," says Peter Tasker, a consultant and writer in Tokyo. Still, it is worth comparing Mr Hasegawa's outlook with that of the top-selling business book now. "Tomorrow's Economics", published recently by Heizo Takenaka – the economics and banking minister in Junichiro Koizumi’s cabinet – also tries to envisage a bright future for Japan; but his optimism hangs on Japan's making a string of tough choices that authors in the bubble years did not predict. Japan's economy has not been the only source of worry and confusion, however. One of the country's best-known authors, Haruki Murakami, points out that two of the most significant events in Japan during the 19905 were not economic: the Kobe earthquake and the poison gas attacks by the Aum Shinrikyo cult in the Tokyo metro system, both of which took place in 1995. Though one was a natural disaster and the other man-made, Mr Murakami argues, I both shook the faith of many Japanese in their society's underpinning. In "Underground", which recounts his interviews with the metro attackers and their victims, Mr Murakami tried to examine broadly the cruelty with which Japanese society can treat those who are different. After reading about a victim of the gas attacks who had subsequently been shunned by his fellow workers, Mr Murakami writes, he decided to find out "how Japanese society could perpetrate such a double violence". It is hard to say whether this sense of economic and social drift explains the slew of self-help books, several imported, which now line Tohan's non-business list of bestselling non-fiction. In 1989, the list was stocked with home-grown biographies and photograph albums of prominent Japanese, from actresses and divas to Hirohito, who died at the beginning of that year. Such lists can be misleading, however. Books known as nihonjinron, a class of pop-anthropology books that revelled in the uniqueness of the Japanese, were cranked out so frequently, and resembled each other so closely, that they rarely topped the charts of bestsellers. But many Japanese could not get enough of them in the 1980s, paying to read again and again about how their long

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Japan Tokyo

history as island rice-cultivators had set them apart from the rest of humanity. A decade of gloom has led some Japanese to give this implicit belief a different twist. "We may be cultivators," a few reformists say, "but it might not be so bad if we acted a little more like hunters." Although their sense of uniqueness remains, however, the Japanese seem to share at least one trait with readers everywhere: when times are tough, it helps to laugh at someone else. One of the most popular books in Japan now is "Stupid White Men", by Michael Moore, an American author and film-maker. It dwells on corruption, injustice and electoral shenanigans in the United States.

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The Job Market. New Ideas Needed Washington, DC Why many Americans are staying out of work?

Few statistics are followed more closely in George Bush's White House than the monthly jobs figures. In 1992, unemployment cost his father the election; the son has presided over more than 2,5m job losses. Small wonder that the White House jumped on the latest report, released on October 3rd. It showed that non-farm payrolls rose in September, the first rise in eight months. At 57 000, the net number of new jobs created was barely half the 125 000 or so needed to keep up with new entrants into the labour force; but at least it was not a drop. Better still, August's job loss number was revised down by more than half. "Things are getting better," said Mr Bush. Are they? One month of modest employment growth hardly proves the end of "the jobless recovery". Nonetheless, there are reasons for hope. One is that all of the increase in September's jobs came from the private sector, much of it from a rise in the number of temporary workers. The number of temporary jobs has risen for the fifth month in a row. Hiring more temporary workers often precedes a rise in permanent jobs as economies emerge from recession. According to Richard Berner, an economist at Morgan Stanley, America's firms have spent the past two years trimming their workforces, after taking on too many employees during the bubble years of the late 1990s. With the excess cut out, and profit margins bigger, he reckons hiring should start again. The pace of job growth, however, may well continue to lag behind that of previous post-1945 recoveries. This is because America's recent slowdown was no ordinary recession. Structural changes in America's economy-such as technological innovation and moving production abroad – have played a far bigger role than before in job losses. Rather than temporarily laying off workers as demand slowed, firms have been getting rid of them entirely. Those dismissed have to find jobs in new firms and new industries, which takes much longer than simply returning to an old employer.

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In a recent study, Erica Groshen and Simon Potter, two economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, carefully examined the relative importance of cyclical and structural factors in the labour market. They point out that temporary lay-offs, when a worker is laid off during a recession but later returns to the same employer, played a significant role in four recessions before the 1990s. In the two most recent downturns, those of 1990–91 and 2001, they figured little. The two economists also tried to measure whether job losses were due to cyclical or structural factors. If a job is lost because demand for the firm's product is temporarily low, then the job should come back as the economy begins to recover. But if a job is lost because a firm or industry is structurally in decline, then it never returns. In the sharp recession of the early 1980s, they found that job losses were split almost evenly between cyclical and structural changes. In the most recent slowdowns, however, most job flows were due to structural changes. By 1990–91 almost 60 % of America's workers were in industries undergoing structural adjustments. By 2001 that figure was almost 80 %. This highlights two important points. First, it may well take longer than expected for the jobs figures to rise, since they will have to be new jobs, often in new industries. Second, today's trend towards structural rather than cyclical shifts is an intensified version of a phenomenon already evident in the 1990–91 slowdown. In one way, this bodes well: although it took more than a year for job growth to pick up in the early 1990s, about 18 months into the recovery employment growth soared. Given that America had more cyclical excesses to work off this time, and that structural shifts are even more important than in 1991, employment may well take longer to rise than it did in the early 1990s. But rise it eventually should. Time, unfortunately, is not on Mr Bush's side. With the presidential election little more than a year away, the White House needs to point to job increases now. Unfortunately, in their haste for results, both Mr Bush's team and his Democratic rivals are pushing wrongheaded ideas. The politicians' focus has been on trying to slow down the pace of structural change, particularly in one area, foreign competition. China – source of soaring imports and the place to which many

America’s firms shift their production – is cast as the chief villain. The pressure is on for China to revalue its exchange rate or, say many lawmakers, face punitive tariffs. Alas, the attempt to slow structural change in American industry will not stop there. The fear of losing service-sector jobs to foreigners is close behind. A study by Forrester, a business research group, suggests that the number of such jobs that will be outsourced to places such as India is likely to rise from 400 000 today to 3,3m in 2015. Already some states are trying to resist this by ordering state agencies not to use call centres and the like in India. It would be better to address the factors that depress American hiring directly. One good place to start would be the rising nonwage costs of employing permanent workers, especially health-care costs. After slowing in the mid-1990s, these are soaring again, at double-digit rates since 1998. Finding a way to control health-care costs would be a far more sensible way to help America's workers than bashing China.

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Japanese Banks Rising Tokyo But not resurrected

Not for the first time, the message from the stockmarket looks clear. Japan's sickly banks are at last on the mend. The price of shares in Mizuho, the biggest, jumped by a third in two weeks, and is now five times its record low, set in April. The next three – Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group (MTFG) and UFJ-have enjoyed similar leaps. Even Resona, the number five, which received ¥2 trillion ($17 billion) from the government in May (and still thinks it lost ¥1 trillion or more in the six months to September 3oth), has seen its share price triple since the bail-out. Resona's rescue, which cost shareholders nothing, signalled that the government would not let any top banks (or big borrowers) collapse. It sparked a general stock-market rally, helped along by evidence of economic recovery in Japan, though it was no surprise that banks thought too big to fail proved especially popular. First, foreign institutions bought; then locals switched from bonds to equities. Investors who were late to the rally seem to have given bank shares an extra fillip, buying them because their ups and downs amplify those of the economy. As the yen has climbed recently, bank snares have done well again, as investors have turned away from exporters and towards domestic stocks, such as banks and retailers. In addition, banks have been making rosy profit forecasts for the half-year ending on September 30th. MTFG has almost quadrupled its net profit forecast, to ¥270 billion. On October 6th, Mizuho raised its estimate from ¥100 billion to ¥230 billion. Two days later, SMFG revised its forecast from ¥80 billion to ¥130 billion. UFJ is expected to follow suit. Banks made big profits by selling bonds in the spring. Now that the stock-market has risen, they can count unrealised share-price gains too. Their profits also include one-off tax refunds from the Tokyo city government. MTFG and Mizuho say that the mild economic upturn seems to have helped stem the flow of bad loans. MTFG has even cut its general reserves against loans to weak borrowers, on the assumption that the improving economy will have helped their finances. 67

Despite all this, there are good reasons for caution. Jason Rogers, of Barclays Capital in Tokyo, gives warning that Japan's banks have merely moved back from near crisis a year ago to a more even keel. Their operating environment remains weak. Land prices are still falling and bankruptcies are still high. Arguably, says Mr Rogers, the health of the small and medium-sized businesses that make up 70 % of banks' corporate loans is continuing to deteriorate. Hironari Nozaki of HSBC Securities points out that loan demand remains weak, banks are charging too little interest, given the risk, and banks' fee-based businesses are barely growing. Although bad loans are being disposed of more speedily, their quantity remains enormous. What is more, much of the recent reduction in bad debts is accounted for by the forgiving of some loans to big, "zombie" firms. Instead of removing the living dead from their books, banks continue to support them with credit lines or fresh loans, which analysts think will probably turn sour in a couple of years. The fact that Resona's new management seems to have discovered another ¥1 trillion or so of bad loans since May is one sign that Japanese banks' difficulties are far from over.

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Home Improvements in China Doing up the Middle Kingdom Shanghai and Shenzhen A boom in private housing is fuelling a new market for home decoration and could change the way the Chinese shop

store, which opens in Beijing in October. Steve Gilman, head of B&Q International, wants to have 75 stores in 30 Chinese cities by the end of 2008. If everything goes to plan, analysts think that by 2010, China could contribute £3 billion ($5 billion) of sales and £185m of operating profit, one tenth of Kingfisher's present operating profit. Trust me

Gaudy paper lions dance between shopping trolleys. The store is full bright lights, banner; and orange-clad helpers beaming at the throng of eager shoppers. In one corner, children hammer together pieces of wood, while in another rapt adults are watching a product demonstration. Everywhere, customers are pulling items off shelves to touch and even smell them. But this is no toyshop at Christmas. It is the recent opening of B&Q’s newest store in Shenzhen. "Home improvement" has arrived in China – and with it, a potential shopping revolution. As with so many opportunities in the world's most populous country, the market promises to be huge. B&Q, part of Britain's Kingfisher retailing group, estimates that one-tenth of China's 400m households have "western" levels of disposable income, with $1,000 or more a year to spend on home improvements. That number is increasing rapidly. Government deregulation (Chinese used to rent accommodation from their work units) is boosting home ownership by 30 % a year. Along with home ownership comes an interest in decor. China's homeimprovement market, estimated to be worth almost 200 billion yuan ($24 billion) two years ago, has since grown much bigger. "Chinese people have the money, intention and desire to improve their homes," says David Wei, head of B&Q China. In readiness, foreign chains are trying to move quickly ahead of new rules that will allow them to open shops anywhere in China from December 2004. B&Q is already China's biggest chain by sales. Its foreign rivals include Sweden's IKEA and Germany's Obi. America's giant Home Depot, which already has links to Homeway, a Chinese chain, may enter in its own right. China's domestic retailers, including Homemart (the second biggest), No 9 and Orient Homes, are expanding. B&Q plans to open 12 new stores a year. It has doubled sales each year since it opened its first store in China in 1999, and will have 15 stores in seven cities by the end of the year, including its largest-ever

But that would require big changes in how retailing works in China. The key advantage foreign chains currently have is trust. Chinese shoppers are used to being sold shoddy goods backed by dodgy guarantees. Their defence is to negotiate fiercely and examine goods carefully. Wandering around B&Q’s Shenzhen store, 34-year-old Yuan Ye is reassured by the fact that it is foreign. "I can trust international retailers," she says. Signs around the shop promise "no fakes" and money-back guarantees. In China, B&Q even takes customers to workshops to reassure them about quality. Ms Yuan also likes the idea of one-stop-shopping. In China, retailing is over-specialised. Along Hong Kong's home-improvement alley, Lockhart Road, one store sells door handles, another paint and yet another paintbrushes. On the mainland, new homes are often concrete shells, with no plumbing or even dividing walls. Decorating takes enormous energy, requiring trips to scores of stores, and a hunt for a reliable contractor. B&Q is profiting from this. Its "home solutions" service will fit out an entire house, including furniture, and guarantee all the work. It is proving to be very popular, boosting B&Q’s same-store sales in China by 19 % this year and prompting it to experiment with the same service back in Britain, where the home-improvements business is more popularly known as do-it-yourself (DIY). The big challenge facing B&Q, and its rivals in China, is that most customers are not doing it themselves. "Chinese DIY is still really BIY – buy it yourself," admits Mr Wei. Government policy is to build homes that are more finished, so B&Q needs to turn DIY into more of a hobby and the Chinese into a nation of home improvers, like the Americans and British. Yet middle-class Chinese feel it is beneath them to build a cabinet or fit a shelf and, thanks to the abundance of cheap labour, have never had to. Many Chinese don't know how to wire a plug or rise to the challenge of scumble painting. So the company is giving its customers

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lessons, showing them how to use a drill, for instance, and even teaching children the mysteries of self-assembly furniture. Even if B&Q succeeds in changing how people shop, it must also change its supply chain. In a low-margin industry like retailing, efficient suppliers are the key to success. However in China, getting goods into stores is expensive and costly, says David Inglis, head of operations for B&Q China. The company's gross margins in China are half of those of its international division, and the group will not break even (excluding pre-opening costs) until 2005 on an investment of $120m and rising. China's huge size and enormous regional variations mean retailers struggle to establish a national infrastructure, let alone a national brand. Laminated wood, for example, cannot survive Shenzhen's humid summers while the aquariums popular in the southern city freeze over during a Beijing winter. "It's like operating in different countries," adds Mr Inglis. As a result, even the biggest retailers remain in thrall to regional manufacturers – and their middlemen – which raises costs. B&Q has 600 vendors supplying its 350 British stores but 1 800 for 15 Chinese ones. Even worse, these middlemen cut deals behind retailers' backs. Even on the shop floor, vendor representatives routinely offer customers "special" prices. Mr Gilman is concerned: "This is a state-controlled economy. Price fixing is endemic. Retailers are at the bottom of the food chain in China. They have far less power than manufacturers. It is the opposite of the rest of the world." B&Q is heroically trying to change how its suppliers operate. From next year it plans to open regional warehouses and to buy directly from manufacturers. It also wants to turn suppliers into partners. Nippon Paint makes B&Q own-label paint, which earns a margin of over 20% for the retailer, compared with 6% for an independent brand. But even as market leader B&Q is still not yet big enough to matter in such a vast market. Even if it were, foreign, retailers are treated inequitably. They pay sales tax which tiny stores have the guanxi, (connections) to avoid. They are frequently offered only the poorest sites – B&Q had to build its new Shenzhen store under a residential tower block, for example. Nor does cheap labour compensate. While staff costs in China are a third of those in Britain, B&Q needs twice as many people per store to meet the greater service levels expected.

Even if foreign retailers can make China's retail industry efficient, shoppers will not readily trust their promises. In Shenzhen and Shanghai, China's most western cities, customers in B&Q still try to haggle over price. And even Ms Yuan, the customer in the new Shenzhen store, walked out empty handed. "I need to check the prices of the local specialists down the road," she explained.

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Supplement. VOCABULARY NOTES 1) данная статья – the present paper, article 2) тема – the theme (subject-matter) 3) основная проблема – the main (major) problem 4) цель – the purpose 5) основной принцип – the basic principle 6) проблемы, связанные с – problems related to; problems of 7) аналогично – similarly; likewise 8) потому, следовательно, в результате этого – hence; therefore 9) наоборот – on the contrary 10) тем не менее – nevertheless; still; yet 11) кроме того – besides; also; in addition; furthermore 12) сначала – at first 13) далее, затем – next, further, then 14) наконец, итак – finally 15) вкратце – in short, in brief Цель написания статьи: 1) the object (purpose) of this paper (to discuss, to describe, to show, to develop, to give)... 2) the paper (article) puts forward the idea (attempts to determine)... Вопросы, обсуждаемые в статье:

Переход к изложению следующей части статьи: 1) then follows a discussion on... 2) then the author goes on to the problem of... 3) the next paragraph deals with (presents, discusses, describes)... 4) after discussing... the author turns to... 5) next (further, then) the author tries to (indicates that, explains that)... 6) it must be emphasized that (should be noted that, is evident that, is clear that, is interesting to note that)... Конец изложения статьи: 1) the final paragraph states (describes, ends with)... 2) the conclusion is that the problem is... 3) the author concludes that (summarizes the)... 4) to sum up (to summarize, to conclude) the author emphasizes (points out, admits) that... 5) finally the author admits (emphasizes) that... Оценка статьи: 1) in my opinion (to my mind, I think)… 2) the paper (article) is interesting, of importance (of little importance), valuable (invaluable), up-to-date (out-of-date), useful (useless)... (not interesting)...

1) the paper (article) discusses some problems relating to (deals with some aspects of, considers the problem of, presents the basic theory, provides information on, reviews the basic principles of)... 2) the paper (article) is concerned with (is devoted to)... Начало статьи: 1) the paper (article) begins with a short discussion on (deals firstly with the problem of)... 2) the first paragraph deals with... 3) first (at first, at the beginning) the author points out that (notes that, describes)... 73

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Содержание Предисловие ................................................................................................. 3 Part I. РЕФЕРИРОВАНИЕ ТЕКСТА НА ИНОСТРАННОМ ЯЗЫКЕ .......................................................................................................... 4 Part II. ARTICLES FOR RENDERING Why Italians don’t make babies? ............................................................... 9 Doctored .................................................................................................. 12 Write on ................................................................................................... 15 Dyed in the womb.................................................................................... 18 Omnipresent............................................................................................. 20 Why Thailand's star is rising? .................................................................. 23 Deadly traffic ........................................................................................... 25 Berlusconi burlesque................................................................................ 28 Desperate measures.................................................................................. 30 What to do about slums?.......................................................................... 32 Med sea Bubble ....................................................................................... 35 Patriots too ............................................................................................... 38 Smoke and mirrors................................................................................... 40 Ploughshares into swords......................................................................... 42 Are the Rules being bent again? .............................................................. 45 Breathe or be strangled ............................................................................ 48 Spying on the spies .................................................................................. 50

Учебное издание

Составитель Батурина Светлана Анатольевна

ENJOY RENDERING! Сборник текстов для перевода и реферирования (для студентов экономических специальностей)

PART III. ARTICLES FOR TRANSLATING Money in, money out ............................................................................... 52 Science and the Nazis .............................................................................. 54 Economics focus ...................................................................................... 56 Western promise ...................................................................................... 59 Japan ........................................................................................................ 61 The job market......................................................................................... 64 Japanese banks rising............................................................................... 67 Home improvements in China ................................................................. 69 Supplement. VOCABULARY NOTES...................................................... 73

Технический редактор Н.В. Москвичёва Редактор Е.С. Радионова Подписано в печать 03.03.05. Формат бумаги 60х84 1/16. Печ. л. 4.7. Уч.-изд. л. 5.1. Тираж 200 экз. Заказ 96. Издательство Омского государственного университета 644077, г. Омск-77, пр. Мира, 55а, госуниверситет

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