英美报刊选读12

The truth about Taliban ‘reintegration'From the Daily Telegraph of February 12, 2012The much-vaunted "reintegration" of the Taliban, which Britain has funded with £7 million, is not quite what it seems, writes Ben Farmer in Kabul.Former Taliban militants attend a ceremony during which they surrender under an US-backed Afghan government anmesty program, in Herat, AfghanistanWrapped in shawls against the cold, some with scarves to hide their faces, the men stand in front of a table bearing an arsenal of assault rifles and rockets.As the insurgents renounce their armed struggle and declare they have made peace with Hamid Karzai's government, local journalists film the ceremony for the evening television. Such scenes are now a common feature of Afghan news bulletins and portray one of the main pillars of Nato's strategy to overpower the Taliban and force them to the negotiating table prior to the planned exit by US and British forces.However, The Sunday Telegraph has discovered disturbing evidence that all is not as it seems.New figures have now shown that over the last 18 months the "reintegration" scheme which Britain has funded with £7 million has attracted only 19 militants in Helmand province, where British troops are fighting.And in at least one Afghan province, the insurgents pledging to change their ways and uphold the Afghan constitution were not what they seemed, officials have disclosed.Some 200 insurgents in the northern province of Sar-e Pol have recently been struck off the programme, officials toldThe Sunday Telegraph, because checks subsequently found they were not genuine fighters but instead imposters seeking cash handouts.The news will not surprise the scheme's sceptics who allege that Western tax-payers are being duped by criminals, the unemployed and corrupt local officials while the real fighters stay in the conflict, or only join the government temporarily.A leaked Nato report earlier this month also appeared to cast doubt on the very premise of the reintegration programme - that Taliban fighters are tired, motivated by money and want a way out.Interrogators who have questioned thousands of insurgent prisoners in the past year reported instead that they remain motivated, feel their support is rising and their victory inevitable as foreign troops withdraw.Fighters in Helmand, where the great majority of Britain's 397 dead have been killed, remain too afraid of their comrades in the Taliban to publicly relinquish the struggleand join the scheme despite security gains in the province, Nato and Afghan officials said.Under the scheme, agreed two years ago at the London conference on Afghanistan, fighters are offered amnesty, training, jobs and aid for their villages if they leave the insurgency.Around 3,000 men have joined nationwide in the past 18 months, but figures show the take-up in the southern and eastern strongholds of Taliban support, including in Helmand where Britain has been fighting for six years, has been negligible compared to that in the relatively peaceful north.Nato officers insist that the low figures do not reflect the unknown number of fighters who are quietly laying aside their weapons without publicity and settling their differences with Hamid Karzai's government.Major General David Hook, the British officer who leads Nato support for the Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Programme (APRP), said the numbers painted only a partial picture."They don't want to come in, because they are afraid that coming in to us exposes them to the threat of the Taliban," he told T he Sunday Telegraph."At the moment some of them are more afraid of the Taliban than they are of being killed or captured."The question here is how many people have done what Afghans traditionally do when they get tired of fighting. They have just gone home, laid their weapons aside and gone back to normal society. This informal effect is difficult to measure."British commanders point to lower levels of violence in districts such as Nad-e Ali as proof that fighters must be relinquishing the fight. But critics say the scheme is not working where it is most needed.Pressure for a breakthrough is likely to increase as the 2014 deadline for withdrawal of international combat troops approaches, increasing anxiety over how the Afghan security forces will hold up when in charge.Politicians in the US and elsewhere - in several cases facing imminent elections - are under pressure to speed the drawdown of troops.Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, said last week he wanted America to switch to mainly training missions by the middle of next year, and France has promised to hasten its exit as Nicholas Sarkozy faces a tough presidential election campaign this spring.Diplomatic efforts have focused on trying to open channels to the Taliban's ruling council, most recently by agreeing a political office in Qatar, in the hope of one day helping Mr Karzai's government reach a political deal or "grand bargain".Envoys in Kabul hope tentative talks may begin within weeks in the Gulf State, though even the most optimistic stress any resulting peace process would probably take years. Marc Grossman, American special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, reportedly met Taliban negotiators in Qatar late last month.One of the most imminent obstacles he faces is a Taliban demand that five of their leaders are transferred from Guantanamo Bay prison, where they have been held for a decade, as a confidence-building measure.Mr Grossman has said no decision has been made, but the concession faces growing resistance from American congressmen.At the other end of the scale, the APRP and Maj Gen Hook aim to weaken the insurgency by drawing away lowly fighters motivated more by unemployment and local grievances than ideology, or who are weary after years of fighting. Donors have set up a trust fund of £92 million, including £7 million from Britain, to fund it.The money pays for Afghan officials to reach out to fightersin their area and then provide a monthly stipend of around £100 as well as training and jobs to those who want to settle, plus aid to their villages.Such reintegration is unlikely until a broader peace deal is reached, some critics argue. Fighters will not defectpiecemeal until their comrades also stop fighting and they are free from the threat of reprisal, their argument goes. Maj Gen Hook disagrees, saying the two approaches feed off each other."The more we can integrate, the more we undermine the coherence of the various organisations, the more likely we are to have talks, because we are taking the wind from their sails," he explained.Another fear is that those joining the scheme are either not real fighters, or are only joining temporarily to gain a respite from the coalition surge.Such concerns stem from memories of similar reintegration ceremonies in the late 1980s when Najibullah, theSoviet-backed president, tried to persuade the Mujahideen to give up their struggle, often with large sums of money.A running joke at the time was that the same men could be seen handing in their weapons each week.Maj Gen Hook rejects the possibility the same is still happening and said greater vetting had been brought in.Anyone wanting to join the scheme is now verified locally and then again by Afghan defence and security officials in Kabul.Eye and fingerprint scans are taken so they cannot try re-joining later on.He admits the rush to set up the scheme had caused problems at first and it was still "of variable quality".But the programme was now running at "warp speed", he said, and the 200 Sar-e Pol cases proved new vetting checks were weeding out fakes.He said: "Because we hadn't established a proper vetting process, they were all accepted into the programme and for the past nine to ten months, it's been a constant issue, because when we vetted them nationally, we realised that they weren't all bona fide insurgents."The double vetting has been to take away stuffing the programme with local cronies and to make sure that the people who come in are insurgents and not just common criminals, which was I think a justifiable criticism at thestart of the programme." The Sar-e Pol imposters had not been given any of the £100 per month allowance, he said. "I am reasonably confident the Afghans have a robust process because they turn people away all the time," he added.Syed Anwar Ahmadti, governor of Sar-e Pol, said more than 600 insurgents had joined the government in his province in the past year and confirmed that 200 had subsequently been judged fraudulent.He however disagrees with that ruling, made in Kabul, and believes that the men had been fighting the government. The decision not to pay them will discourage others from laying aside their weapons, he said."It doesn't matter if they don't have guns, they were helping the insurgency in logistics or some other capacity, without guns." Sceptics allege the "insurgents" are in some cases only local men who are rounded up and given old weapons to hand in, so that local officials can appear efficient while also raking off a share of the reintegration money.Syed Obadullah Sadat, a council member from the eastern province of Ghazni has publicly denounced a defection last month by more than a dozen fighters as a sham.He said: "The process is fake, people are doing it for money. It's all just for show, it's nothing. These people are told to show up with a few old guns so it looks like a success." Dr Ghani Bahadari, the Afghan official in Ghazni who runs the scheme, rejected the criticism as "gossip".He said: "The reason they joined the government is that their leaders have established an office in Qatar and showed their interest in peace. They have also told us they are tired of war."。

单选题1.According to the media,Jordan_________.A.was too old to compete against younger players.B.was in a bad condition.C.was still able to scoreD.was still able to play dunks.答案:D2.avant-gardeA.relating to,or being part of an innovative groupB.a teenagerC.violence attack答案:A3.Which organization announced an emergency meeting to be held in Geneva this week?A.WTOB.WHOOD.EU答案:B4.suffuse.A.to spread through or overB.to kill sbC.to buy a great loaf of答案:A5.Why must local government keep his or her doors to every visitor?A.Economic development depends on it.B.The central government forces them to do that.C.In order to let more people enjoy the beauty of the sites.D.They are friendly and hospitable.答案:A6.______is one of the few areas where Israeli Jews and Arabs live in relative harmony.A.HaifaB.RamallahC.TulkarmD.Tel Aviv答案:A7.How many nations does the commonwealth have?A.54B.53C.48D.1答案:B8.deteriorateA.become worse in quality or conditionB.destroyC.well wealthy答案:A9.decrepit.A.to kill sb at timesB.worn out,impairedC.to set fire on答案:B10.What’s the CIA’s opinion on dealing with Iraq?A.remodel the successful war strategy in AfghanistanB.advocate a coup or destabilization to topple SaddamC.run a war in IraqD.others答案:B11._______is a distinct advantage if you want a career at what passes for the American establishment.A.gilt-edged diplomaB.wealthy familyC.AbilityD.Alumni connection答案:A12.H.M.O.A.家长会B.环保总局C.保健组织答案:C13.The key question in evaluating a college is_________.A.the number of studentsB.the alumniC.the location of the collegeD.how well it teaches its students.答案:D14.spurA.carry out a particular taskB.intriguingC.incite,stimulate答案:C15.tackleA.to try to deal with a difficult problemB.meet troubleC.make a hole答案:A16.What did not the workers do in the run up to the last October’s celebration?A.They finished a network of expressways and ramps crisscrossing the city.B.They built a huge airport in nearby Pudong.C.They built a large-sized shopping mall in the center of city.D.They built a cross-river tunnels linking Shanghai to Pudong.答案:C17.Richard Nixon thinks that the cooperation between the East and the West will be______.A.possibleB.impossibleC.unknown答案:A18.alluringA.get rid ofB.attractive or desirableC.never give up答案:B19.school-boardA.学校教工大会B.学校董事会C.学校组织D.学校大会答案:B20.wrack.A.keep sth from being hurtB.destroy or ruinC.help without any hesitation答案:B21.The1996law created the Temporary Assistant For Needy Families,which slapped a___lifetime on an individual’s right to collect benefits.A.ten-yearB.twelve-yearC.five-yearD.twenty-year答案:C22.-----is a member of the minority who do have problems during menopause.A.Sonja MckinlayB.JamisonC.Ravenna HelsonD.Carol Ryff答案:B23.maritalA.of or relating to marriageB.wife or husbandC.to save答案:A24.desperately.A.luckilyB.to give little hope of successC.hately答案:B25.______took responsibility for the attack in Haifa?A.An Islamic groupB.Several Palestinian soldiersC.Several Palestinian civiliansD.None答案:A26.rekindle.A.to relight(a fire)B.to put out fireC.to set fire on答案:A27.Moriarty is-----now.A.a workerB.a reporterC.an athleteD.a designer答案:D28.A200-point increase in the average SAT score of the college attended resulted in_____greater earnings for students from families in the lowest fifth of income distribution.A.5%B.6%C.7%D.8%答案:C29.alluring.A.Never say goodbye to somebodyB.attractive or desirableC.interesting30.gratifyA.please or satisfyB.discourageC.supremacy答案:A31.In the content of this lesson,among the drugs,_____can easily cause coma and deathA.MDMAB.LSDC.GHBD.heroin答案:C32.The NRA’s power depends on the relatively few close elections that often determine who controls____.A.PresidentB.Supreme CourtC.CongressD.jury答案:C33.grottoe.A.houseB.caveC.cottage答案:B34.Tejano music is dynamite in----but not in California,whose technobanda music does not sell elsewhere.B.New JerseyC.GeorgiaD.Wisconsin答案:A35.incentiveA.induce action or motivate effortB.hard workC.to devote one‘s heart to sb.答案:A36.The attitude of the author revealed in the article named “Exploding Tourism Eroding China’s Riches”is__A.nostalgiaB.criticalC.pessimisticD.optimistic答案:B37.Since1996,the number of people collecting food stamps has sunk by one-third,to___million.A.3B.17C.22D.20答案:B38.collaborationA.to express sorrow or regretB.working together,especially in a joint intellectual effortC.future generation答案:B39.consternation.A.a feeling of shock or worryB.a feeling of happiness and blessnessC.always wanting to fight答案:A40.brunt.A.the main impact or forceB.help sbC.never refuse others答案:A41.suffuseA.to spread through or overB.to kill sbC.to buy a great loaf of答案:A42.jutA.little potB.carefulC.extend beyond the limits of the main body,project答案:C43.Who was awarded the Order of Australia,the country’s highest civil medal of honor?A.CathyB.MoriartyC.Ros答案:B44.prudentA.careful,circumspectB.surprising or astoundingC.of two races答案:A45.The United States says large-scale direct military action may be required only in______.A.IraqB.Iraq and SomaliaC.SomaliaD.none答案:B46.In1981,6-8–year-olds averaged______minutes of homework per week.A.45B.50C.44D.60答案:C47.assumeA.of two racesB.supposeC.of other Spanish-speaking countries答案:B48.upheavalA.a sudden,violent disruption or upsetB.rucksackC.intensively答案:A49.backpack.A.dispute,argumentB.rucksackC.carry out a particular task答案:B50.emphaticallyA.intensivelyB.careful,circumspectC.condemn openly as being evil or reprehensible答案:A51.inboundA.to execute an inbounds passB.to have a tripC.lousy答案:A判断题1.Hug drug is good for people’s healthA.错误B.正确答案:A2.Most of the crimes are not concerned with young peopleA.错误B.正确答案:A3.To build a highway is to bring visitors convenience and safety.A.错误B.正确答案:B4.U.S.estimates the Taliban now controls the whole country of Afghanistan.A.错误B.正确答案:A5.The Taliban began as a group of seminary students.A.错误B.正确答案:B6.China spends the least money on cultural conservation.A.错误B.正确答案:B7.The troubles with gangs are not so seriousA.错误B.正确答案:A8.The Scots and the Welsh worry a lot about those Japanese companies.A.错误B.正确答案:A9.Hug drug is good for people’s healthA.错误B.正确答案:A10.Economic development depends on that local government must keep his or her doors to every visitor.A.错误B.正确答案:B11.In Britain the monarch remains very much at the heart of its Constitution.A.错误B.正确答案:B12.Campus romance is unrequited because women on campus do not expect a marriage.A.错误B.正确答案:A13.Nixon thinks that the cooperation between the East and the West is impossible.A.错误B.正确答案:A14.Nixon still believes that Communist party will be the enemy of the United States forever.A.错误B.正确答案:B15.1221is located at1221Yan’an Xi Road.A.错误B.正确答案:B16.John Kundereri Moriarty,living happily in an aboriginal tribal community in northern Australia,was transported south through Alice Springs.A.错误B.正确答案:B17.Economic development depends on that local government must keep his or her doors to every visitor.A.错误B.正确答案:B18.An unprecedented chance for Gypsies is to be recognized as a nation,albeit one without a defined territory.A.错误B.正确答案:B19.While low-wage jobs are the early magnet for many,there is also evidence of upward mobility.A.错误B.正确答案:B20.An entrepreneurial is someone who starts or organizes a commercial enterpriseA.错误B.正确答案:B21.“Soothe”means to make someone uncomfortableA.错误B.正确答案:A22.The old rule for a polite conversation is:Never mention the topic of sex,religion and politics.A.错误B.正确答案:B23.Hikers don’t like to walking a long way and climbing hills on foot.A.错误B.正确答案:A24.An irritable person is someone of mild temper.A.错误B.正确答案:A25.Nixon thinks that the cooperation between the East and the West is impossible.B.正确答案:A26.Nixon thinks that the cooperation between the East and the West is impossible.A.错误B.正确答案:A27.An irritable person is someone of mild temper.A.错误B.正确答案:A28.College officials should be blamed for the cheating in college rankings.A.错误B.正确答案:B29.The author believes that the rankings have become an unhealthy force in highereducation.A.错误B.正确答案:B30.Poverty rates among Hispanics remain lowA.错误B.正确31.Krueger and Dale concluded that smart,talented kids who attended less selective schools didn’t do just as well in their careers as their counterparts at elite colleges.A.错误B.正确答案:A。

同济大学英美报刊选读期末考试必备资料（由河清海晏整理）Part One1.What is news? What are some categories of news?2.What is news value? What are some basic elements of news value?3.What are the functions of the newspaper?4.What are the features of a front page in a newspaper?5.What are the main features of headlines in Lexis, Grammar and Rhetoric?6.How do news magazines differ from newspapers in layout and news coverage?7.What is news lead? What are direct lead and delayed lead?8.What is the body structure of a news story? What are advantages of it?9.What are the difference between tabloids and broadsheets? (at least four aspects)10.What are the main functions of mass communication for society?11.How to deal with new words in reading newspapers and magazines?12.What is communication? What are the forms of communication?13.What is the code of ethics for journalists?14.What is journalism? What does the study of journalism include?15.What is the definition of news agency? What are the major news agencies in America and Britain?16.What are the benefits obtained via appreciating the language of English news?17.What is privacy? What actions can be regarded as invasion of privacy?18.Give a brief account of the general communication process19.What is Yellow Journalism？20.What is hard news? What is soft news? How to distinguish between them?ANSWERS AND PERFECT VERSION:PLEASE CONTACT : NINE SIX ONE TWO THREE TWO EIGHT FOUR ONE(qqnumber)Part TwoAPEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation 亚太经济合作组织API Air Pollution Index 空气污染指数ATM Automatic Teller Machine 自动取款(出纳)机BBS Bulletin Board System 电子布告栏系统CFO Chief Financial Officer 首席财务官CIA Central Intelligence Agency (美国)中央情报局CPI Consumer Price Index 消费价格指数DJIA Dow Jones Industrial Average (美国) 道琼斯工业平均指数FIFA International Federation of Football Association 国际足球联盟IMF International Monetary Fund 国际货币基金组织IPR intellectual property right 知识产权ISO International Standards Organization 国际标准化组织NGO Non-Government Organization 非政府组织NMD National Missile Defense 国家导弹防御系统NPC National People's Congress 全国人民代表大会NYSE New York Stock Exchange 纽约证券交易所OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries石油输出国组织PPI Producer Price Index 生产者物价指数SOE State-Owned Enterprise 国有企业UPI United Press International 美国合众国际社。

Unit ThreeNuclear Proliferation and EnvironmentalProtectionText AFormula for TerrorThe former Soviet arsenal is leakinginto the West, igniting fears of anew brand of nuclear horror1By Bruce W. NelanOn a sunny afternoon in central Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the Baltic, two private security guards and a trading-company executive strolled along a quiet street. They were expecting to meet a middle-aged man from St. Petersburg. In exchange for $1 million, they would hand over a 20-cm by 20-cm metal container holding highly radioactive material. But as the traders and their client were about to make their open-air swap2in mid-August, 15 police officers rushed out to grab them. The police seized the 59-kg case emitting gamma radiation.3Until a specialized laboratory can examine the material, the police cannot be sure what it is or where it was stolen from, but they believe it is dangerous and illicit. This is the second major case of nuclear theft that Vladimir Kolesnik, the deputy chief o f St. Petersburg‟s organized-crime department, has thwarted since last May. “The problem,” he says, “is that security standards have slackened, and virtually everybody who has access to4nuclear materials could steal something.”The first symptoms of the nuclear plague are spreading into Europe. After years of scares and false alarms—almost all the supposed bomb-grade goods on offer turned out to be fraudulent—German police have in the past four months uncovered four cases of smuggled nuclear material that could actually be used to make an atom bomb. The biggest haul came on Aug. 10, when Lufthansa Flight 3369 from Moscow landed in Munich with 350 grams of atomic fuel aboard.5As it happened, so was Victor Sidorenko, Russia‟s Deputy Minister for Atomic En ergy, whose agency supervises Moscow‟s stocks of fissionable materials.6The lead-lined suitcase was carrying MOX—mixed-oxide fuel for reactors but perfectly usable in a bomb since it contained plutonium enriched to 87%.7 A Colombian and two Spaniards were arrested. While the Germans made it clear that they did not suspect Sidorenko of any involvement in the case, they had no doubts that it was the deputy minister‟s country from which the dangerous stuff had come. It was, said Bavarian Interior Minister Gun ther Beckman, “the biggest-ever plutonium find in Germany, and probably the world.”8Two days later, at a railway station in Bremen, a 34-year-old German man was arrested trying to peddle a sample of plutonium to a journalist acting for the police. The seller had only a very tiny amount, 0.5 gram, but of such startling purity that experts said it probably came from a top-of-the-line9Russian nuclear laboratory. Senior officials in Moscow reacted defensively, insisting that all their plutonium was accounted for and safely under guard.10The accusation from Germany, blustered Deputy Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeni Mikenin, “is a provocation of the purest water.”11The world…s first notice that weapons-grade plutonium was on the open market came in southern Germany last May, when 6 grams were found in a garage owned by a German businessman who had been arrested for counterfeiting.12That was followed in June by recovery of less than a gram of highly enriched uranium—probably fuel from a nuclear- powered submarine in Landshut. Even if all this smuggled booty were put together, there would not be enough for the smallest and crudest atom bomb, which in the hands of inexperienced makers would take about 8 kg of plutonium.13Even so, the emergence of a black market for the essential material of mass destruction is a historic and nightmarish challenge for the world.14It makes the threat of nuclear proliferation15 far more urgent and increases the number of characters who could do it themselves. “We‟ve crossed a thresh old. You smuggle small amounts of the stuff often enough, and you‟ve got a bomb,” says Leonard Spector, director of the nonproliferation project at Washington‟s Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.16 The arrival of these nuclear samples on the German market is a red alert, raising immediate questions about what is happening in other countries and who the potential users might be. If such snippets are on sale in Germany, what larger deals might be going undetected elsewhere? If bomb-grade plutonium is finally on sale, will a rogue state or terrorist group step up to buy enough to build a bomb?Such fears have a foundation: the world has seen terrorism continuously evolve to new heights of ingenuity and depravity. This week Carlos the Jackal17 is in jail in France, and North Korea is using the threat of nuclear weapons to try to extort billions from its neighbors. Their juxtaposition in the news, linking the worst of 1970s-style terrorism with the brazen threat of irresponsible nuclear ambitions, shouts a warning of a different sort of terror, still indefinable but extremely frightening.18The combination of brutality and fanaticism with nuclear weapons could bring about disasters almost too chilling to contemplate.The old wave of terror, personifi ed by Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez, is ebbing. “Carlos,” says Paul Wilkinson, an expert on terrorism at St. Andrews University in Scotland, “symbolized a terrorism of the extreme left which has almost died out in Europe.” Carlosand his Soviet, Marxist and leftist Palestinian allies represent failed ideologies. The inheritors today are nameless Islamic extremists from Hizballah,19Hamas20and their sponsors—everyone thinks first of Iran as chief sponsor—who see themselves as the force of the future in the Middle East. While their cause is the same—derailing the peace process and destroying Israel—the Islamists21do not need a secular professional like Carlos.Nuclear weapons in the hands of extremists willing to use them would produce terrorism of a wholly new magnitude. The central logic of terrorism is to maximize horror and shock, producing a blaze of publicity and attention for the cause it represents. By that measure, the crudest of fission bombs set off in a modern city, vaporizing entire blocks, would make the crimes of Carlos and his ilk rank as little more than pinpricks.22Who are the sellers? Beyond terrorism, if significant amounts of plutonium are beginning to flow from Russia, they could make the development of nuclear weapons much easier for states that up to now have found bomb programs too expensive and technically beyond their capabilities. Countries such as North Korea and Pakistan, which have some plutonium of their own, as well as countries such as Iran and Libya that would like to, might be gin to look seriously at what is on offer in the new marketplace. “There is already far more bomb-quality nuclear material23in Germany than the authorities can imagine,” said Russian atomic expert Vladimir Chernosenko, who was one of the officials charged with cleaning up the Chernobyl nuclear accident.24 “If economic conditions in Russia do not improve soon, there will be an outflow organized from the highest echelons.”25To help prevent that, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl sent intelligence coordinator Bernd Schmidbauer to Moscow on Saturday to talk with President Boris Yeltsin about ways to tighten controls over nuclear stocks. “We have to tell our Russian friends,” said Kohl, “ you must guarantee that these possibilities for theft are reduced as much a s possible.”Some Russian officials continue to deny that their facilities are the source of the leaks into Germany. “Not a single gram of plutonium-23926is missing from storage,” a spokesman for the Federal Counterintelligence Service insisted last week. “Our storage system is as reliable as a bank vault,”27claimed Alexander Rumyantsev, director of the Kurchatov Institute, a leading nuclear laboratory in Moscow.Conditions in Russia more closely resemble a bazaar than a bank. Industry and most sectors of the economy are tottering; workers are mostly unpaid. Poor people are inventive, goes a Russian proverb, and the poorer they are the more inventive they become. Among the most aggrieved are the 100,000 workers employed in national nuclear plants and laboratories, whose salaries have slid to $100 a month—or no pay at all for months at a time. So almost anything is for sale. Last year Russian police acknowledged thwarting11 attempts to steal uranium from nuclear installations.28Other attempts may have succeeded, as nuclear workers grew increasingly desperate. At Krasnoyarsk-26, a factory producing weapons-grade plutonium, employees mounted a protest last month, demanding salaries that had not been paid since May. Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin then had to rush to Arzamas-16, where nuclear warheads are being disassembled, to head off a similar kind of unrest.29What makes the disarray so frightening is the staggering amount of dangerous radioactive material all over Russia. Experts there say the old Soviet weapons complex produced more than 140 metric tons of plutonium. The stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, which can also be used to make bombs, total about 1,000 metric tons.Under strategic-disarmament treaties30with the U.S., Russia is dismantling about 2,000 warheads a year, recovering shiny, fist-size spheres of plutonium called pits —the elemental core of a bomb —which it is putting into storage. A purchaser who acquired one of these would have the key ingredient of a bomb. Over the next 10 years, the U.S. and Russia will take 100 metric tons of plutonium out of warheads, and their nuclear-power industries will produce an additional 110 tons. By then there will be enough plutonium in storage worldwide to build 42,000 atom bombs.Some Western estimates put Russia‟s current stock of plutonium at 200 tons. The military weapons, including all those pits, are still under tight security —as far as anyone knows. But other forms of plutonium are scattered all over the country in resea rch institutes, laboratories, reprocessing31 plants, shipyards and power stations, where security is believed to be lax and accounting is unreliable.With big money presumably to be made in the plutonium trade, some thefts will be inside jobs.32Deputy Interior Minister Mikhail Yegorov told Western officials at a conference in Germany that he believed the 6 grams of plutonium found in that country in May had been stolen by officials of the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry. In other cases, Russian gangsters33will step in and bribe or coerce34those with access to fissionable materials to steal them.When FBI director Louis Freeh visited Moscow last month, he told cadets and faculty of the Russian Police College that “one criminal threat looms larger than the others: the theft or diversion of radio-active materials in Russia and Eastern Europe.”35 Organized-crime groups, he warned, would try to obtain such materials “to be offered for sale to the highest bidder.” The Russian daily Izvestia36makes the same judgment. It reported recently that more than 5,500 criminal gangs were operating in Russia, and “the lion…s share of37their operations involve stealing fissionable nuclear materials and smuggling them out.”Who are the buyers? The rise of the illegal commerce suggests that there are serious bidders out there. But there is no evidence indicating who they are. Three of the foursamples of weapons materials that turned up in Germany were purchased by undercover agents in sting operations38designed to trap the sellers or their countries. Indeed, in the Bremen episode, the defendant‟s lawyer claims that his client too is a police operative. There have been rumors in Germany, but no proof, that the 6 grams found in May were acquired for a foreign government, possibly Iraq or North Korea. In fact, there is no evidence yet that anyone in Germany was buying or prepared to buy nuclear material except the police.When the first samples of low-grade nuclear material began to leak out of former Warsaw Pact Countries39 in 1991, the German police sent special squads into the field to find them. Since 1991, German police have counted 440 cases of nuclear smuggling, and almost all have been stings. With so many agents posing as buyers, some skeptical officials wonder if they might be creating a demand.40“There‟s no evidence of a real market for plutonium in Germany,” says Bremen‟s chief prosecutor. He wonders whether “our interest in pursuing criminals is bringing danger into Germany.”Yet the spectacle of apparent amateurs in the plutonium business getting their hands on the real thing could bring about serious conspirator onto the scene with big money. How big the money has to be is still unanswered because no deals outside police scams41 have come to light.42 Even so, the price of enough plutonium to make a bomb would have to be in the millions of dollars or tens of millions. It is doubtful that any terrorist group has that kind of financing. Even Hizballah, the extremist group most directly linked to a state sponsor, cannot expect to receive tens of millions for its own purchases from an Iran that is struggling to arm itself.Nor is a radical state like Iran, Libya or Iraq likely to buy a bomb and hand it over to terrorists. “If you just spent $300 million on something,” ask s a U.S. State Department specialist, would you turn it over to a band of terrorists “or would you keep it for your own protection?” He also wonders if Iran could keep secret forever the transfer of a nuclear weapon to Islamic militants. Teheran would have to be certain it did not leave fingerprints on the deal, or the country could become the target of reprisals—possibly nuclear.43“God help the state that gave terrorists nuclear material,” says the official. “The international community‟s response would be dramatic.”Yet the mere fact that plutonium is on the market could conceivably lend credibility to terrorist groups that might try to persuade people they have built a bomb.44“The problem now,” says Richard Guthrie of the Verification Technology Infor mation Center,45 a nonprofit group in London, “is blackmail. If someone says he‟s built a bomb in a basement somewhere, how does a government react when that person produces a gram or so of weapons-grade material to prove the threat?”While the ultimate horror would be a working bomb constructed by terrorists on theirown, the much likelier catastrophe46 is a large purchase of plutonium by a country looking for a shortcut to a nuclear arsenal. “It‟s clear that the highest bidder is going to be a state,”says Phebe Marr, an expert on Iraq at the National Defense University in Washington. A government with nuclear ambitions would want not just a single bomb but an arsenal or significant additions to an existing arsenal. One or two bombs could attract threa ts and retaliation from abroad. So an interested state would be in the market for tens or hundreds of kilograms of plutonium —and that amount would be extremely expensive.Experts in the Middle East suggest that only Iran—in addition to Israel—is believed to be actively pursuing nuclear weapons. In spite of its severe problems of debt and unemployment, the Iranian government has not reduced its spending on arms programs. “Iran wants to be the most powerful military presence in the gulf,” says Mourad El-Desouky, a military expert at Al Ahram Strategic Studies Center in Cairo. “It wants nuclear weapons for deterrence47and to intimidate its neighbors.” He believes that the Iranians have the money to go shopping for plutonium and weapons-grade urani um from Russia‟s black market in Western Europe, and “it‟s realistic to think they are doing that.”Who can control it? Policymakers and scientists in the West hope to persuade the Russians to take steps that would head off the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.48 On this score, the U.S. has often talked a better game than it has played. In 1991 the U.S. Congress authorized the Bush Administration to spend $400 million a year for three years to help the former Soviet republics keep nuclear materials and facilities secure. So far, in part because of congressional inaction, about $500 million of the first $900 million authorized has not been spent. Among the projects held up: a Pentagon-organized training course for border-control officials of the former Soviet Union.The National Academy of Sciences looked at the plutonium piling up in the U.S. and Russia and this year recommended concrete steps to take it out of circulation. Since the outright destruction of plutonium is problematic and prohibitively expensive, the academy suggested mixing it with other nuclear wastes and molten glass, creating radioactive glass logs weighing an unusable two tons. These would be stored in deep holes. It also proposes combining plutonium with uranium to make reactor fuel, which after use will leave the plutonium locked into containment fuel rods.49The main problem with such ambitious ideas is that the Russians want no part of them.50In general, there is enough suspicion left over from the cold war to make Russian nuclear officials determined to keep Americans from getting anywhere near their plutonium stocks. More specifically, the Russians view their plutonium as a national treasure, and they don‟t propose to do away with it.Rather, they want to store their plutonium to use later as fuel in a new generation of breeder reactors, which they hope to have up and running in about 20 years.51 They intend to keep their tons of shiny plutonium warhead pits in storage until then—even at a cost they estimate at around $2 per gram per year. The new reactors will be hugely expensive too, and the floundering Russian economy may not be able to afford them. Then the plutonium will be little more than an immense security problem, requiring protection against theft and diversion for about 25,000 years—the half-life of plutonium. It would be better if the experts could get to work on a solution before the huge stockpile…s still-small leaks turn into a flood that could engulf the world.TIMEAugust 29, 1994BACKGROUND1. None of the uranium and plutonium seized so far has been the type that could easily be turned into a bomb. The amounts were too small even for a bomb maker equipped with all the sophisticated gadgetry to make an explosive device.But the materials can be lethal. A tiny amount of plutonium can cause lung cancer if inhaled. Containers holding the materials could break in a crowded airport; contaminating could occur if couriers driving a consignment were involved in car crash.Nuclear materials can be easily transported. Uranium can come in the form of small pellets and plutonium as oxide powder or liquid. Both can be carried in a glass jar or a metal can.Seizures in Germany, Russia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania in 1994 have caused genuine fears that guerrillas could use just a few grams to threaten targets and governments.One thing is already clear. Nuclear trafficking took off when the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991, the end of the Cold War sending a fresh chill blowing through the West.“Most of the nuclear materials are coming from the successor republics of the Sovi et Union,” said a diplomatic source close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA.)The IAEA moved quickly in the early 1990s to provide help and cash to the Soviet Union‟s newly independent states to track down their nuclear stocks and set up stat e systems of accountancy and control.2. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty(NPT) was made permanent in May, 25 years after it entered into force. The four-week Conference on the Review and Extension of the NPT (held in New York April 17 to May 12) was the largest arms control conference ever held, with 175 of the treaty…s 178 parties participating. No state got all it wanted, although the weapon states had more reason to be satisfied than the non-weapon states.The United States, Russia, Britain, and France wanted the treaty extended indefinitely and unconditionaly. Only the first part of their wish was fully granted.A core group of 14 non-aligned states, led by Indonesia, wanted the treaty extended for a series of rolling fixed periods of 25 years, subject to reaching certain goals during each time period. The 14 non-aligned states didn‟t get their 25-year rolling extensions. Texts adopted at the conference at least implied some degree of conditionality as well as greater accountability by the nuclear powers.The Arab states, led by Egypt, refused to endorse any proposal for the extension of the NPT, unless pressure was brought on Israel to accede to the NPT and accept full-scope safeguards. Although the Arab states didn…t get that, they got language that urged all states in the Middle East to join the NPT.China was willing to accept either an indefinite extension or multiple fixed extensions of no less than 25 years. By playing both sides of the extension issue, it insure itself a strong voice with the nuclear powers and with the non-aligned nations.Excerpts from The Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistsJuly/August 19953. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) has played apositive role in containing nuclear weapons proliferation and China supports its smooth extension, Vice-Premier Qian Qichen said in the United Nations on April 18, 1995.Qian, who is also China‟s foreign minister, said China supports the three major objectives of the treaty: promotion of nuclear disarmament, prevention of nuclear proliferation and enhancement of international cooperation for peaceful uses of nuclear energy. To reaffirm the three objectives of the treaty in the new situation will contribu te to the maintenance of international peace, security and stability.The Chinese foreign minister stressed in his speech that prevention of nuclear weapons proliferation is not an end in itself, but an intermediate step leading towards the ultimate objective of complete and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons.The NPT, went into effect in March 1970 for a period of 25 years. China acceded to the treaty in March 1992.4. A priority for the United States is to stem the proliferation of nuclear weapons andother weapons of mass destruction and their missile delivery systems. Countries‟ weapons programs, and their levels of cooperation with our nonproliferation efforts, will be among our most important criteria in judging the nature of our bilateral relations.As a new part of our effort to control nuclear proliferation, we seek the indefinite extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty beyond 1995 and its universal application. Achieving a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty as soon as posible, ending the unsafeguarded production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons purposes and strengthening the NuclearSuppliers Group and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are important goals. They complement our comprehensive efforts to discourage the accumulation of fissile materials, to seek to strengthen controls and constraints on those materials, and over time, to reduce world-wide stocks.The proliferation problem is global, but we must tailor our approaches to specific regional controls. We are leading international efforts to bring North Korea into compliance with its nonproliferation obligations, including the NPT, IAEA safeguards, the North-South denuclearization accord. We will continue efforts to prevent Iran from advancing its weapons of mass destruction objectives and to thwart Iraq from reconstituting its previous programs. The United States seeks to cap, reduce and ultimately eliminate the nuclear and missile capabilities of India and Pakistan. In the Middle East and elsewhere, we encourage regional arms control agreements that address the legitimate security concerns of all parties. These tasks are being pursued with other states that share our concern for the enormous challenge of stemming the proliferation of such weapons.The United States has signed bilateral agreements with Russia and Ukraine, which commit both these countries to adhere to the guidelines of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). Russia has agreed not to transfer space-launch vehicle technology with potential military applications to India. We continue to push for the dismantlement of intercontinental ballistic missiles located in Ukraine and Kazakistan and to press China to formalize its earlier MTCR undertakings. With the United States and Russia, Ukraine is pressing forward on implementation of the Trilateral Accord, which provides for the transfer of warheads from Ukraine to Russia in return for fair compensation for their value.The strategic arms control process, with its prescribed reducations in strate gic offensive arms and steady shift toward less destabilizing systems, remains indespensible. The U.S. is committed to the ratification and entry into force of the START I and II Treaties. The U.S. is also reviewing whether future reductions in strateg ic forces below START II levelsare advisable. We will also explore strategic confidence-building measures and mutual understandings that reduce the rise of accidental war.Excerpts fromA National Security Strategy onEngagement and EnlargementThe White HouseJuly 19945. The United States developed the first atomic (unclear) weapons in the 1940s, many other nations have sought unclear arms and the power these weapons represent. However, the dangerous and destabilizing proliferation (spread) of nuclear weapons alarmed the global communi ty. Nevertheless, some nations continue their quest for “the bomb.” The technology to build nuclear weapons is still available, and many countries have the ability to make them or to help others do so. Therefore, international agreements—and the organizations that ensure compliance with such treaties —are important in controlling nuclear proliferation.The 1960s witnessed the progress of the nuclear nonproliferation movement. The United Nations (UN) Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the cornerstone of global efforts to curtail the manufacture of nuclear weapons, entered into force in 1970. The antiproliferation campaign scored a major success in 1996 when United Nations members approved a new treaty to ban all testing of nuclear weapons. However, the campaign to curb the spread of nuclear weapons was dealt a serious setback in May 1998, when bitter rivals India and Pakistan exploded several nuclear devices. Suddenly, the “nuclear club” had two new members.Antiproliferation efforts have also targeted conventional arms. The spread of conventional armaments and the development of unclear weapons are major threats to global stability.The Spread of Nuclear WeaponsThe Atomic Bomb and the United States. In August 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The attacks led to Japan‟s surrender and the end of World War II.The world had witnessed the awesome power of nuclear technology. Soon after the war, the Untied States proposed to the United Nations that all nuclear technology and materials be controlled by an international agency. The Soviet Union, however, vetoed this proposal and argued for a more immediate destruction of all existing unclear bombs. Because world could not reach an agreement on international control of nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union decided to continue their research on building nuclear devices. U.S. hopes of a nuclear monopoly were shattered when the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic device in 1949. Great Britain followed suit in 1952.An Expanding Nuclear Club.In the early 1960s, both France and China detonated atomic bombs, adding to the number of members in the “nuclear club.” The three original nuclear powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain—worried that even more nations would develop the bomb. They rationalized that as one nation in a particular region went nuclear, its neighbors or rivals would also want similar weapons to avoid or defend against attack, thus increasing the risk of nuclear warfare or accide nts. Many nonnuclear countries resented this assumption, contending that they would be just as careful in their use of nuclear weapons as the original members of the nuclear club.Nonproliferation Treaties. As more nations gained nuclear weapons in the 1960s, the possibility of nuclear confrontation grew. The nuclear powers began a campaign to persuade nonnuclear countries from attempting to acquire nuclear capability.UN Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.The1968 UN Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was designed to halt the spread of nuclear weapons and promote peaceful uses of nuclear power. It granted all nonnuclear signatories (signers) access to peaceful nuclear technology from participating nuclear powers. The nonnuclear countries had to promise that they would not use the technology to make weapons. The United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain signed the treaty, thereby agreeing that they would not help others build nuclear bombs and that they would reduce their nuclear arsenals. In 1995, UN members decided that the treaty should be extended indefinitely. However, Israel and some other nations suspected of having developed nuclear weapons have not signed the treaty.The Limited Test Ban Treaty.From the 1940s through the 1960s, the five nuclear powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, China, and France—conducted explosive tests to develop nuclear weapons and to increase their bombs‟ power. Concerned about environmental damage, in 1963, leaders from these countries signed a treaty to limit the testing of nuclear weapons. The Limited Test Ban Treaty made it illegal to test nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater.The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.After the Limited Test Ban Treaty went into effect, exploding nuclear weapons underground remained legal. However, by the early 1990s, many world leaders, particularly those from nonnuclear countries, wanted all nuclear blasts to cease. In 1996, more than fifty members of the United Nations signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, making all forms of nuclear explosions illegal.Future Nuclear Nations. The nuclear club added two new members in May 1998, when India and Pakistan successfully tested several nuclear devices. Iran, Israel, Libya, and North Korea may also have such weapons or may be attempting to make them.The United States, China, France, and Germany have supplied some countries with the knowledge, technology, and materials to construct nuclear reactors for generating electricity. However, the materials and technology sold for peaceful purposes can be used to develop nuclear weapons. Although most nuclear transfers take place under。

英美报刊选读_课文word整合版Unit2 Gender IssuesMen turn to jobs women usually do 1.HOUSTON - Over the last decade, Americanmen of all backgrounds have begun flocking to fields such as teaching, nursing and waiting tables that have long been the province of women.2."The way I look at it is that anything, basically,that a woman can do, a guy can do," said Miguel Alquicira, who graduated from high school when construction and manufacturing jobs were scarce and became a dental assistant.3.The trend began well before the crash,andappears to be driven by a variety of factors, including financial concerns, quality-of-life issues and a gradual erosion ofg ender stereotypes.4.In interviews, about two dozen men played downthe economic considerations, saying that the stigma associated with choosing such jobs had faded, and that the jobs were appealing not just because they offered stable employment, but because they were more satisfying.5."I.T. is just killing viruses and clearing paperjams all day," said Scott Kearney, 43, who tried information technology and other fields before becoming a nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.6.An analysis of United States census data by TheNew York Times shows that from 2000 to 2010, occupations that are more than 70 percent female accounted for almost a third of all job growth for men, double the share of the previousdecade. 7.That does not mean that men are displacing women - those same jobs accounted for almost two-thirds of women's job growth. But in Texas, for example, the number of men who are registered nurses nearly doubled in that time period.8.The shift includes low-wage jobs as well.Nationally, two-thirds more men were bank tellers, almost twice as many were receptionists and two-thirds more were waiting tables in 2010 than a decade earlier.9.Even more striking is the type of men who aremaking the shift. From 1970 to 1990, according to a study by Mary Gatta, senior scholar at Wider Opportunities for Women, an organization based in Washington, D.C., and Patricia A. Roos, a sociologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, men who took so-called pink-collar jobs tended to be foreign-born, non-English speakers with low education levels.10.Now, though, the trend has spread among men ofnearly all races and ages, more than a third of whom have a college degree. In fact, the shift is most pronounced among young, white, college-educated men like Charles Reed, a sixth-grade math teacher at Patrick Henry Middle School in Houston.11.Mr. Reed, 25, intended to go to law school after atwo-year stint with Teach for America, a national teacher corps of recent college graduates who spend two years helping under-resourced urban and rural public schools. But Mr. Reed fell in love with teaching. He says the recession had little to do with it, though he believes that, by limiting prospects for new law school graduates, it made his father, a lawyer, more accepting.12.To the extent that the shift to "women's work"has been accelerated by recession, the change may reversewhen the economy recovers. "Are boys today saying, 'I want to grow up and be a nurse?'" asked Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress."Or are they saying, 'I want a job that's stable and recession-proof?'"13.Daniel Wilden, a 26-year-old Army veteran andnursing student, said he had gained respect for nursing when he saw a female medic use a Leatherman tool to save the life of his comrade."She was a beast," he said admiringly.14.More than a few men said their new jobs werefar harder than they imagined. But these men can expect success. Men earn more than women even in female-dominated jobs. And white men in particular who enter those fields easily move up to supervisory positions, a phenomenon known as the glass escalator, said Adia Harvey Wingfield, a sociologist at Georgia State University.15."I hated my job every single day of my life," saidJohn Cook, 55, who got a modest inheritance that let him drop a $150,000-a-year database consultant's job to enter nursing school. 16.His starting salary will be two thirds lower, but database consulting does not typically earn hugs like the one Mr. Cook received from a girl after he took care of her premature baby sister. "It's like, people get paid for doing this kind of stuff?"Mr. Cook said, tears coming to his eyes as he recounted the episode.17.Several men cited the same reasons for seekingout pink-collar work that have drawn women to such careers: less stress and more time at home.At John G. Osborne Elementary School, Adrian Ortiz, 42,joked that he was one of the few Mexicans who made more in his native country, where he was a hard-working lawyer, than he did in the United States as a kindergarten teacher in a bilingual classroom. "Now," he said, "my priorities are family, 100 percent."18.Betsey Stevenson, a labor economist at theUniversity of Pennsylvania, said she was not surprised that changing gender roles at home, where studies show men are shouldering more of the domestic burden, are showing up in career choices. "We tend to study these patterns of what's going on in the family and what's going on in the workplace as separate, but they're very much intertwined," she said. "So as attitudes in the family change, attitudes toward the workplace have changed."19.In a classroom at Houston Community College,Dexter Rodriguez, 35, said his job in tech support had not been threatened by the tough economy. Nonetheless, he said, his family downsized the house, traded the new cars for used ones and began to live off savings, all so Mr.Rodriguez could train for a career he regarded as more exciting.20."I put myself into the recession," he said,"because I wanted to go to nursing school."Unit3 E-CommerceThe Post-Cash Economy1.In London, travelers can buy train tickets withtheir phones - and hold up the phones for the conductor to see. And in Starbucks coffee shops in the United States, customers can wave their phones in front of the cash register and pay for their soy chai lattes.2.Money is not what it used to be, thanks to theInternet. And the pocketbook may soon be destined for the dustbin of history - at least if some technology companies get their way.3.The cellphone increasingly contains theessentials of what we need to make transactions."Identification, payment and personal items," as Hal Varian, the chief economist at Google, pointed out in a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. "All this will easily fit in your mobile device and will inevitably do so."4.The phone holds and records plenty more vitalinformation: It keeps track of where you are, what you like and who your peers are. That data can all be leveraged to sell you things you never knew you needed.5.The survey, released last month by the PewResearch Center's Internet and American Life Project along with Elon University's Imagining the Internet Center in North Carolina, asked justover 1,000 technologists and social scientists to opine on the future of the wallet in 2020. Nearly two-thirds agreed that "cash and credit cards will have mostly disappeared" and been replaced with "smart" devices able to carry out a transaction.But a third of the survey respondents countered that consumers would fear for the security of transactions over a mobile device and worry about surrendering so much data about their purchasing habits.6.Sometimes, those with fewer options are theones to embrace change the fastest. In Kenya, a service called M-Pesa (pesa is money in Swahili) acts like a banking system for those who may not have a bank account. With a rudimentary cellphone, M-Pesa users can send and receivemoney through a network of money agents, including cellphone shops. And in India, several phone carriers allow their customers to pay utility bills and transfer small amounts of money over their cellphones.7.Several technology companies, big and small,are busy trying to make it easier for us to buy and sell all kinds of things without our wallets. A start-up,WePay, describes itself as a service that allows the smallest merchant - say, a dog walker - to get paid; the company verifies the reputations of payers and sellers by analyzing, among other things, their Facebook accounts. 8. A British start-up, called Blockchain, offers afree iPhone application allowing customers to use a crypto-currency called bitcoins, which users can mint on their computers.9. A company called Square began by offering asmall accessory to enable food cart vendors and other small merchants to accept credit cards on phones and iPads. Square's latest invention allows customers to register an account with Square merchants and pay simply by saying their names. The customer's picture pops up on the merchant's iPad.10.Google Wallet has been designed to sit in yourphone, be linked to your credit card, and let you pay by tapping your phone on a reader, using what is known as near field technology.But Google Wallet works on only four kinds of phones, and not many merchants are equipped for near field technology.11.Meanwhile, PayPal, which allows people tomake payments over the Internet, has quietly begun to persuade its users to turn to their cellphones. PayPal posted about $118 billion in total transactions last year and became thefastest-growing segment of eBay, its parent company.12."The physical wallet, which had no innovationin the last 50 years, will become an artifact,"John J. Donahoe, the chief executive of eBay, told me recently. The wallet would move into the cloud, and ideally, from his perspective, into PayPal. No more would the consumer worry about losing a wallet. Everything, he declared, would be contained within PayPal. It would also enable the company to collect vast amounts of data about customer habits, purchases and budgets.13.Mr. Donahoe said he wanted his company to become "a mall in your pocket."14.I recently described PayPal's plans to AlessandroAcquisti, an economist who studies digital privacy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Mr. Acquisti smiled. If today all you need to do is enter your phone number and PIN when you visit a store, perhaps tomorrow, he said, that store will be able to detect your phone by its unique identifier. Perhaps, you won't have to shop at all. Your shopping data would be instead collected, analyzed and used to tell you exactly what you need: a motorcycle from Ducati or purple rain boots in the next size for your growing child. Money will be seamlessly taken from your account. A delivery will arrive at your doorstep. "In the future, maybe you won't have to pay," Mr. Acquisti offered, only half in jest."The transaction will be made for you."Unit4Cultural ExchangeAsia’s Endangered Species: the Expat1.Forget expats. Western companies doingbusiness in Asia are now looking to locals to fill the most important jobs in the region.2.Behind the switch, experts say, are severalfactors, including a leveled playing field in which Western companies must approach newly empowered Asian companies and consumers as equals and clients—not just manufacturing partners./doc/2216449449.html,panies now want executives who can securedeals with local businesses and governments without the aid of a translator, and who understand that sitting through a three-hour dinner banquet is often a key part of the negotiating process in Asia, experts say.4.In fact, three out of four senior executives hiredin Asia by multinationals were Asian natives already living in the region, according to a Spencer Stuart analysis of 1,500 placements made from 2005 to 2010. Just 6% were noncitizens from outside of Asia.5."It's a strategic necessity to be integrated in theculture. Otherwise, the time to learn all of it takes forever," said Arie Y. Lewin, a professor of strategy and international business at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. He adds that locals may better navigate a business culture where copycats and competitors often play bydifferent rules.6.What's more, a failed expatriate hire can be acostly mistake and slow a firm's progress in the region, said Phil Johnston, a managing director at recruiter Spencer Stuart.7.To help companies fill Asia-based executiveroles, at least two search firms—Spencer Stuart and Korn/Ferry International—say they have begun classifying executives in four broad categories: Asia natives steeped in localculture but educated in the U.S. or Europe; the foreigner who has lived or worked in Asia for a long time;a person of Asian descent who was born orraised in a Western country but has had little exposure to Asia; and the local Asian executive who has no Western experience.8.For companies seeking local expertise, bothfirms said the first category is by far the mostsought-after. But Mr. Johnston said those candidates are difficult to find and retain, and they can command salaries of $750,000 to $1 million—on par with, and sometimes more than, their expat counterparts.9.German conglomerate Siemens AG in 2010hired Mei-Wei Cheng, a China-born Cornell University graduate, to head its Chinese operations—a role previously held by European executives.10.While Siemens's European executives had madeinroads with Chinese consumers—building sales in the region to nearly one-tenth of global revenue—the firm realized it needed someone who could quickly tap local business partners.11.After an extensive search, Siemens hired Mr.Cheng, formerly CEO at the Chinese subsidiaries of Ford Motor Co. and General Electric Co. GE12.The decision to hire locally seems to have paidoff for Siemens: In his first 18 months on the job, Mr. Cheng forged two wind-power jointventures with Shanghai Electric Group Co.13.Mr. Cheng communicates easily with localofficials, a major advantage when it comes to selling energy technology to individual cities, says Brigitte Ederer, head ofhuman resources for Siemens and a member of the company's managing board. Many local officials don't speak English.14.Bob Damon, president of recruiter Korn/FerryInternational's North American operations, said the current talent pool for executive roles is so limited that most top Asian executives simply rotate from one Western company to another, as Mr. Cheng did.15.Other companies are adding to the demand bycreating new positions in Asia.Campbell Soup Co. CPB last week announced the appointmentof Daniel Saw as its first-ever president of Asia operations, while Canadian conglomerate Bombardier Inc. BBD.B.T hired Albert Li to filla new role overseeing its aerospace business inChina. Both executives were born in Asia and have worked as regional managers for Western multinationals.16.Meanwhile, younger Chinese professionals arepositioning themselves to meet the need for executive talent in the years to come. Nearly four in 10 American M.B.A. programs say China was their fastest-growing source of foreign applicants last year, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the Graduate Management Admission Test.17.Foreigners with no Asia experience, on the otherhand, need not apply, recruiters said. Spencer Stuart's Mr. Johnston said he occasionally receives inquiries from Western middle managers, proclaiming that they are finally ready to make a career move to the region. He advises them that "there is nothing about their experience that is interesting or relevant to Asia."18.In hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong, expatsreceive as much as $200,000 a year in subsidies for housing, transportation and private schooling, Mr. Johnston said. Payments to offset taxes for these benefits add up to another $100,000.Altogether, a bad match can cost a company as much as $1 million, after figuring in relocation costs, he said.19.Monster Worldwide Inc. Chief Executive SalIannuzzi said the company has been hiring locally for several years, in part because he found deploying expatriates cost too much. "Ittakes them six months to figure out how to take a ferry, they're there for 12 months, and then they spend the next six months figuring out how to get home," he said.20.Like some other companies, Monster now tracksits own workers to ensure a pipeline of talent. 21.The online job-search company's current head ofChina operations, Edward Lo, a former fraternity brother of Mr. Iannuzzi, understands the local scene, is well connected in China and knows how to recruit, Mr. Iannuzzi said.Among Mr. Lo's duties: finding his own successor before he retires.22.Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.based in White Plains, N.Y., also develops its own leaders for Asia, plucking people who have come up through the company ranks. For example, the head of Asia Pacific started in the 1970s on the finance team in Hong Kong, and the head of the Middle East region was a hotel manager who worked his way up.23.Having grown up in their markets, managersunderstand customer needs, said Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen. Regional heads in China, for instance, know that whendealing with land owners or developers, deals are less "transactional," and more "trust-based," he said.They also know that Chinese travelers—who now comprise the majority of hotel guests in the region—feel more at home when they're supplied with tea kettles, slippers and chopsticks, headded.24.For fast-food company Yum Brands Inc. CEODavid Novak calls his Asia-bred regional head and executive team "our single biggest competitive advantage." China has become the company's biggest earnings driver, comprising more than 40% of operating profit.25.Thanks to Yum's China leaders, Mr. Novak says,KFC in China began serving rice porridge and soy milk for breakfast, and Pizza Hut now offers an afternoon tea menu—both of which have been big hits among local customers.Unit5Auto-WorldThe Future of the Car :Clean, Safe and it Drives itselfCars have already changed the way we live. They are likely to do so again1.SOME inventions, like some species, seem tomake periodic leaps in progress. The car is one of them. Twenty-five years elapsed between Karl Benz beginning small-scale production of his original Motorwagen and the breakthrough, by Henry Ford and his engineers in 1913, that turned the car into the ubiquitous, mass-market item that has defined the modern urban landscape. By putting production of the Model T on moving assembly lines set into the floor of his factory in Detroit, Ford drastically cut the time needed to build it, and hence its cost. Thus begana revolution in personal mobility. Almost abillion cars now roll along the world’s highways.2.Today the car seems poised for another burst ofevolution. One way in which it is changing relates to its emissions. As emerging markets grow richer, legions of new consumers are clamouring for their first set of wheels. For the whole world to catch up with American levels of car ownership, the global fleet would have to quadruple. Even a fraction of that growth would present fearsome challenges, from congestion and the price of fuel to pollution and global warming.3.Yet, as our special report this week argues,stricter regulations and smarter technology are making cars cleaner, more fuel-efficient and safer than ever before. China, its cities choked in smog, is following Europe in imposing curbs on emissions of noxious nitrogen oxides and fine soot particles. Regulators in most big car marketsare demanding deep cuts in the carbon dioxide emitted from car exhausts. And carmakers are being remarkably inventive in finding ways to comply.4.Granted, battery-powered cars have disappointed.They remain expensive, lack range and are sometimes dirtier than they look—for example, if they run on electricity from coal-fired power stations. But car companies are investing heavily in other clean technologies. Future motorists will have a widening choice of super-efficient petrol and diesel cars, hybrids (which switch between batteries and an internal-combustion engine) and models that run on natural gas or hydrogen. As for the purely electric car, its time will doubtless come.Towards the driverless, near-crashless car 5.Meanwhile, a variety of ―driver assistance‖technologies are appearing on new cars, which will not only take a lot of the stress out of driving in traffic but also prevent many accidents. More and more new cars can reverse-park, read traffic signs, maintain a safe distance in steady traffic and brake automatically to avoid crashes. Some carmakers are promising technology that detects pedestrians and cyclists, again overruling the driver and stopping the vehicle before it hits them.A number of firms, including Google, are busy trying to take driver assistance to its logical conclusion by creating cars that drive themselves to a chosen destination without a human at the controls. This is where it gets exciting.6.Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, predictsthat driverless cars will be ready for sale tocustomers within five years. That may be optimistic, but the prototypes that Google already uses to ferry its staff (and a recent visitor from The Economist) along Californian freeways are impressive. Google is seeking to offer the world a driverless car built from scratch, but it is more likely to evolve, and be accepted by drivers, in stages.7.As sensors and assisted-driving softwaredemonstrate their ability to cut accidents, regulators will move to make them compulsory for all new cars. Insurers are already pressing motorists to accept black boxes that measure how carefully they drive: these will provide a mass of data which is likely to show that putting the car on autopilot is often safer than driving it.Computers never drive drunk or while texting. 8.If and when cars go completely driverless—forthose who want this—the benefits will be enormous. Google gave a taste by putting a blind man in a prototype and filminghim being driven off to buy takeaway tacos. Huge numbers of elderly and disabled people could regain their personal mobility. The young will not have to pay crippling motor insurance, because their reckless hands and feet will no longer touch the wheel or the accelerator. The colossal toll of deaths and injuries from road accidents—1.2m killed a year worldwide, and 2m hospital visits a year in America alone—should tumble down, along with the costs to health systems and insurers.9.Driverless cars should also ease congestion andsave fuel. Computers brake faster than humans.And they can sense when cars ahead of them are braking. So driverless cars will be able to drive much closer to each other than humans safely can. On motorways they could formfuel-efficient ―road trains‖, gliding along in the slipstream of the vehicle in front. People who commute by car will gain hours each day to work, rest or read a newspaper.Roadblocks ahead10.Some carmakers think this vision of the future is(as Henry Ford once said of history) bunk.People will be too terrified to hurtle down the motorway in a vehicle they do not control: computers crash, don’t t hey? Carmakers whose self-driving technology is implicated in accidents might face ruinously expensive lawsuits, and be put off continuing to develop it.11.Yet many people already travel, unwittingly, onplanes and trains that no longer need human drivers. As with those technologies, the shift towards driverless cars is taking place gradually.The cars’ software will learn the tricks that humans use to avoid hazards: for example, braking when a ball bounces into theroad, because a child may be chasing it. G oogle’s self-driving cars have already clocked up over 700,000km, more than many humans ever drive;and everything they learn will become available to every other car using the software. As for the liability issue, the law should be changed to make sure that when cases arise, the courts take into account the overall safety benefits of self-driving technology.12.If the notion that the driverless car is round thecorner sounds far-fetched, remember that TV and heavier-than-air flying machines once did, too.One day people may wonder why earlier generations ever entrusted machines as dangerous as cars to operators as fallible as humans.Unit6 RomanceThe Modern Matchmakers现代红娘Internet dating sites claim to have brought scienceto the age-old question of how to pair offsuccessfully. But have they?互联网相亲网站声称已经将科技运用如何成功配对的问题之上。