作者：刘明绪,黄彦玲
出版社：暨南大学出版社
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
英语报刊选读——中国篇试读：
前言
传媒大亨默多克曾说过：“想让你的报纸畅销吗？就在头版刊登关于中国的文章。”
全球化的发展为中国提供了空前的发展机遇，中国的崛起已成为不争的事实。中国的发展不仅改善了十三亿人口的生活质量，同时也为世界经济作出了巨大贡献。中国和中国人民比以往任何历史时期都更加自信。中国经济的飞速发展和中国作为负责任大国的地位自然吸引了世界越来越多的关注，根据笔者所作的统计分析，2013年1月至12月，美国《时代》周刊网站刊登的与中国有关的文章达到1 542篇，远远高于其他新兴经济体，如俄罗斯（837篇）、印度（692篇）、巴西（330篇）等。这也从一个侧面说明了美国主流媒体对中国崛起的关注。“英语报刊选读”是英语专业和翻译专业的传统选修课程，市面上有关英语报刊阅读的教材不计其数。虽然难度有差异，编写手法亦不同，但所选文章大多以反映西方，尤其是美英两国的经济、政治、文化等内容为主。很少有专门收集西方媒体从不同侧面观察、评价中国的报道的报刊阅读教材出版。笔者常年为英语专业、新闻专业和翻译专业本科生讲授“英语报刊选读”、“新闻英语”和“媒介翻译”等课程。在教学过程中，笔者会经常让学生就中外政治制度、经济模式、教育体制、生活观念等进行口头或书面的对比分析，发现大部分学生对于我国传统文化和国情的了解非常有限，使用的描述词汇极其贫乏而且肤浅。
鉴于上述发现，笔者决定编写一部包含外国（主要是英美两国）主流媒体对中国的新闻报道、特写和综述的《英语报刊选读》教材，这些报道的主题包括经济、文化、教育、环境保护、对外关系、娱乐、价值观等方面。编写本书的目的有二：首先，俗话说“兼听则明，偏听则暗”，通过批判地阅读外媒对中国的分析和评价，读者可以获得对我们国家在以上各方面更加客观的认识与了解；其次，通过阅读这类文章，中国学生可以极大地扩充描述中国本土社会、文化、经济所特有的词汇，这对于他们日后从事相关的外事翻译活动会有极大帮助。
本教材共分为七个单元，涵盖中国的经济、外交、环保、文化、教育、娱乐和社会生活。每个单元的第一部分是背景知识介绍，之后是一篇课内阅读文章，紧接着是新闻知识介绍，然后是一篇相同主题的课后拓展阅读文章。为了节省学生查阅词典的时间，每篇阅读文章后都附有生词表和详细的专有名词及难点解释。最后是阅读效果检查，包括单选题、单句翻译、简答题和话题讨论。
本教材虽然是专为翻译专业和英语专业本科学生修读“英语报刊选读”课程而编写的，但也可以作为非英语专业学生备考公共英语四、六级考试的教材，其他有志于提高英语报刊阅读能力的英语爱好者也可以用此作为自学教材。
本书在编写的过程中得到多位同事的帮助，在此谨表谢意。刘明绪 黄彦玲2014年9月
Unit One Economy
Ⅰ. Background Information
1. Market EconomyA market economy is an economy in which decisions regarding investment, production and distribution are based on supply and demand, and the prices of goods and services are determined in a free price system. This is contrasted with a planned economy, where investment and production decisions are embodied in a plan of production. Market economies can range from hypothetical laissez-faire and free market variants to regulated markets and interventionist variants. Most existing market economies include a degree of economic planning or state-directed activity, and are thus classified as mixed economies.
In the real world, market economies do not exist in pure form, as societies and governments regulate them to varying degrees rather than allow full self-regulation by market forces. The term free-market economy is sometimes used synonymously with market economy. However, as Ludwig Erhard once pointed out, this does not preclude an economy from providing various social welfare programs such as unemployment benefits, as in the case of the social market economy.2. Stock Market
A stock market is a public market for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately. The stocks are listed and traded on stock exchanges which are entities of corporations or mutual organizations specialized in the business of bringing buyers and sellers of the organizations to a listing of stocks and securities together. The stock market in the United States includes the trading of all securities listed on the NYSE Euronext（纽约—泛欧交易所）, the NASDAQ（全美证券交易商协会自动报价系统）, the AMEX（美国证券交易所）, as well as on the many regional exchanges, e.g. OTCBB（场外柜台交易系统）and Pink Sheets（粉纸市场，也称粉单市场）. European examples of stock exchanges include the London Stock Exchange（伦敦证券交易所）and the Deutsche Brse（德意志证券交易所）.Participants in the stock market range from small individual stock investors to large hedge fund traders, who can be based anywhere. Their orders usually end up with a professional at a stock exchange, who executes the order.
The stock market is one of the most important sources for companies to raise money. This allows businesses to be publicly traded, or raise additional capital for expansion by selling shares of ownership of the company in a public market. The liquidity that an exchange provides affords investors the ability to quickly and easily sell securities. This is an attractive feature of investing in stocks, compared to other less liquid investments such as real estate.3. The Shanghai Stock Exchange （上海证券交易所）
The Shanghai Stock Exchange（SSE）is a stock exchange that is based in the city of Shanghai, China. It is one of the two stock exchanges operating independently in mainland China, and the other is the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The Shanghai Stock Exchange is the world's 6th largest stock market by market capitalization at U.S.$2.3 trillion as of December, 2011. Unlike the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Shanghai Stock Exchange is still not entirely opened to foreign investors due to the tight capital account controls exercised by the Chinese mainland authorities.
The current exchange was re-established on November 26, 1990 and was in operation on December 19 of the same year. It is a non-profit organization directly administered by the China Securities Regulatory Commission（CSRC）.4. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange（深圳证券交易所）
The Shenzhen Stock Exchange（SZSE）is one of the three stock exchanges in the People's Republic of China, alongside the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It is based in Shenzhen, China. The market capitalization of its listed companies was about U.S.$1 trillion in 2011.5. Renminbi
The Renminbi（abbreviation: RMB; sign: ￥; code: CNY）is the official currency of the People's Republic of China. The yuan is the basic unit of the Renminbi, but is also used to refer to the Chinese currency generally, especially in international contexts. The ISO 4217 standard code for Renminbi is CNY, an abbreviation for “Chinese yuan”. The distinction between the terms “Renminbi” and “yuan” is similar to that between sterling and pound, which respectively refer to the British currency and its primary unit. The name（simplified Chinese: 人民币）literally means “people's currency”.
One yuan is subdivided into 10 jiao（角）, and one jiao in turn is subdivided into 10 fen（分）. Renminbi banknotes are available in denominations from 1 jiao to 100 yuan（￥0.1-￥100）and coins have denominations from 1 fen to 1 yuan（￥0.01-￥1）. Thus some denominations exist in both coins and banknotes. Coins under ￥0.1 are used infrequently.6. Chinese Economic Reform
The Chinese economic reform refers to the program of economic reforms called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” in the People's Republic of China that was started in December, 1978 by reformists within the Communist Party of China led by Deng Xiaoping.
China was one of the world's largest and most advanced economies prior to the 19th century, while national product per capita remained average in global terms. The economy had stagnated since the 16th century, and even declined in absolute terms in the 19th and much of the 20th century, only with a brief recovery in the 1930s.
Economic reforms introducing market principles began in 1978 and were carried out in two stages. The first stage, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, involved the de-collectivization of agriculture, the opening up of the country to foreign investment, and the permission for entrepreneurs to start-up businesses. However, most industry remained state-owned. The second stage, in the late 1980s and 1990s, involved the privatization and contracting out of much state-owned industry and the lifting of price controls, protectionist policies, and regulations, although state monopolies in sectors such as banking and petroleum remained. The private sector grew remarkably, accounting for as much as 70％ of China's GDP by 2005. From 1978 to 2013, unprecedented growth occurred, with the economy increasing by 9.5％ per year. China's economy surpassed that of Japan in 2010 as Asia's largest economy and became the second largest after the United States and is projected to become the world's largest economy by 2029.
Ⅱ. Text Amid the Global Economic Crisis, China Rises
BEIJING—The auto-parts maker Delphi Corp.is headquartered in Troy, Mich., in the heart of the region which made the United States the car capital of the world. It's a place where the phrase “buy American”is right at home.
Now the 3,000 employees of Delphi's brake and suspension unit are getting a new boss. Battered by weak sales, Delphi is selling the unit to investors led by a company named Shougang Corp.
Shougang is a steel maker owned by the government of China—a government that calls itself communist but espouses a “socialist market economy” as it marches down globalization's road toward a capitalistic future.
“Everyone's so desperate for cash that the Chinese show up with a checkbook and people say, 'Yes, please',” says Arthur Kroeber, managing director of Dragonomics, a Beijing research firm.
Explosive growth in China and India, coupled with Japan's clout as the world's No. 2 economy, has long been expected to shift economic power from the United States to Asia as this century progresses. The financial crisis and resulting Great Recessionare accelerating that process.
“China certainly comes out of the crisis stronger rather than weaker, and it's the opposite for the United States,” says Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia.
Even some Americans have begun declaring this the “Chinese century” since it began nearly a decade ago. But while they and others fear the rise of China in international relations and the global economy, the reality is less dramatic: Beijing is still getting its own sprawling, chaotic house in order and is in no position to supplant the United States as global leader in the near future.
At the same time, Beijing's power remains undefined: On an unfamiliar global stage, it is unsure what role it wants to play.
For decades, China followed the dictum of its late supreme leader, Deng Xiaoping, to keep its head down abroad and focus on development at home. But earlier this decade, emboldened by success and mindful that their globalized economy needs stability, communist leaders started pressing for a place among the nations that manage world affairs.
These days, Beijing is claiming a bigger voice in global economic forums such as the Group of 20 and is getting more deference in the United Nations, which could mean protection for friends such as Iran and Myanmar. Its military spending is the world's second-highest, behind that of the United States.
“China is very likely to be the second-most-powerful country—if it isn't now, then within a decade,” says Kenneth Lieberthal, director of the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Centerin Washington.
For the United States, it's a mixed blessing. The American and Chinese economies are intertwined, and the success of one depends on the health of the other.
The United States is China's biggest trade partner. China sent $338 billion in goods here last year. Beijing is Washington's biggest creditor, with more than $800 billion invested in government debt. American automakers look to China's growing market to propel future sales.
The financial crisis set back U.S. growth by years and will add trillions to the federal debt over the next decade. But China avoided the worst of the crisis. Its banks are healthy and, with the help of a 4 trillion yuan（$586 billion）stimulus, this year's economic growth is on track to top 8 percent.
Already, demand from China can affect oil prices, and it is starting to influence what products are available worldwide. Western jobs are tied to Chinese spending, from British auto factories to Australian iron mines. Chinese money is financing development of oil fields from Venezuela to Central Asia.
And China's role as Washington's lender-in-chiefis altering the dynamic of the countries' relationship.
At a meeting in London in April, President Barack Obama assured his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, that Washington would cut its budget deficit—a promise no American leader ever had to make to a Sovietleader.
Washington's three-year-old strategic dialogue with Beijing has long been dominated by U.S. trade grievances. But the latest round in July, overshadowed by America's need for China to keep buying its debt, became a discussion between equals.
China, a major destination for foreign investment, was starting to reverse the flow and invest abroad before the financial crisis. The crisis accelerated that and has led to a flurry of deals. In some cases, Chinese companies have stepped in to save Western jobs—a notion unthinkable a decade ago.
In Britain, China's Nanjing Automobile Group plans to reopen the Longbridge factory idled by the collapse of MG Roverto make limited-editionMGTF sports cars. And in Sweden, Beijing Automotive is joining a bid to buy Saabfrom General Motors, while Geely Automobilewants to acquire Ford's Volvounit.
“It's better to be part of the race than to watch it from the stands,” says Paul Akerlund, a union representative at Saab. “We see advantages in gaining access to the Chinese market, which is the fastest-growing auto market in the world.”
In diplomacy, China is only starting to stake outpositions on a wide array of global issues. It has used its influence in the United Nations to help allies such as Sri Lanka resist Western pressure on human rights. But Chinese leaders have yet to decide what overall political and military role they want abroad.
“They clearly want to be a country of some gravitas both regionally and globally,” Lieberthal says. “But there are a lot of aspects of the American approach—too ready to interfere, to tell others what to do—that the Chinese criticize as 'hegemonic'. ”
Even as it is on track to overtake the American economy in size as early as 2030, China is burdened by enormous problems of corruption, poverty and pollution. Measured by income per person, China ranked 130th out of 210 economies in a World Bank survey last year, behind most of Latin America and parts of Africa.
“China's foreign currency reserves are huge. But that does not mean we are a rich country,” says Cho Tak Wong, chairman of Fuyao Group, which produces glass for Chinese and global automakers. “We are about 100 years behind the United States.”
China also has become a fast-growing market, and the financial crisis has only increased its importance to global companies. Chinese demand affects everything from global steel prices to the design of consumer goods. Cadillaccreated its 2008 CTS with China in mind, adding a deeper back seat for Chinese buyers driven by chauffeurs.
Other countries' urgent need for cash has created opportunities for Beijing to make deals for resources to drive its booming economy. State companies have struck oil deals in Brazil, Venezuela, Russia and Africa and bought stakes in Australian and Canadian miners.
Delphi turned to Chinese buyers for its remaining brake and suspension operations after it sought bankruptcy court protection four years ago. The buyers are Shougang and two partners—the Beijing city government and an auto-parts maker, Tempo Group. Delphi says the $90 million sale should close in November, seven months after it was announced.
Contrast that with 2005, when Chinese oil company CNOOC Ltd. tried to acquire Unocal Corp. CNOOC offered to pay more than a rival American bidder but withdrew after critics in Washington said the sale might threaten U.S. energy security.
Still, the United States has many strengths that China lacks. The U.S. remains the world center for innovation in many areas and a magnet for smart, ambitious immigrants.
“Europeans may hope that the U.S. has been knocked down a peg or two, but even if that is so, they could be in for a nasty surprise,”says Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners, a London brokerage. “Never underestimate the ability of the American people to rise to a challenge.”By Joe McDonaldAssociated PressOctober 7, 2009New WordsExercise
A. Choose the best answer to answer the question.
1. Why is Delphi selling the unit to a Chinese company named Shougang Corp.？
A. Because it's a place where the phrase “buy American” is right at home.
B. Because Delphi needs cash and investors led by Shougang Corp. who are willing to buy it.
C. Because Shougang Corp. is a company owned by Chinese government.
D. Because China has experienced explosive growth.
2. Which of the following statements is not true?
A. Japan's economy is only second to the United States.
B. India is experiencing explosive growth as China.
C. Economic power is shifting from the United States to Asia.
D. Great Recession has slowed down the shift of economy power from the USA to Asia.
3. Which of the following about China is true?
A. China will replace the United States as global leader in the near future.
B. Unlike the United States, China comes out of the financial crisis weaker.
C. With its economic success, China is getting more respect in the United Nations.
D. China is sure what role it should play in the world arena.
4. Which is not mentioned by the author as a problem that China is confronted today?
A. Crime.
B. Poverty.
C. Corruption.
D. Pollution.
5. What, according to the author, is the United States not superior to China?
A. Innovation in many areas.
B. Perseverance.
C. Ability to cope with challenges.
D. Attraction to intelligent immigrants.
B. Answer the questions based on the text.
1. What does the author mean by saying that “Beijing is still getting its own sprawling, chaotic house in order”?
2. What changes has the author noticed as far as China's role in the international affairs is concerned?
3. In what way do Chinese and American economies intertwine?
4. As Washington's lender-in-chief, how is China altering the dynamic of the two countries' relationship?
C. Discuss the topics.
1. Why is China's rise for the United States a mixed blessing?
2. In what way does China influence the world economically and politically?
D. Translate the sentences into Chinese.
1. China, a major destination for foreign investment, was starting to reverse the flow and invest abroad before the financial crisis.
___________________________
___________________________
2. Even as it is on track to overtake the American economy in size as early as 2030, China is burdened by enormous problems of corruption, poverty and pollution.
___________________________
___________________________
3. Never underestimate the ability of the American people to rise to a challenge.
___________________________
___________________________
Ⅲ. Journalistic English
1. Journalistic StyleNews style, journalistic style or news writing style is the prose style used for news reporting in media such as newspapers, radio and television.
News style encompasses not only vocabulary and sentence structure, but also the way in which stories present the information in terms of relative importance, tone, and intended audience.
News writing attempts to answer all the basic questions about any particular event—who, what, when, where and why（the Five Ws）and also often how—at the opening of the article. This form of structure is sometimes called the “inverted pyramid”, to refer to the decreasing importance of information in subsequent paragraphs.
Journalistic writing also contains at least one of the following important characteristics relative to the intended audience: proximity（接近度）, prominence（显著性）, timeliness（时效性）, human interest（人情味）, oddity（奇异性）, or consequence（重要性）.2. Exercise
Read the news story and comment briefly on its style.China Demands Malaysia Turn over Satellite Data
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia（AP）—China demanded that Malaysia turn over the satellite data used to conclude that a Malaysia Airlines jetliner had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, killing everyone on board, as gale-force winds and heavy rain on Tuesday halted the search for remains of the plane.
The weather is expected to improve so that the multinational search being conducted out of Perth, Australia, could possibly resume on Wednesday. But the searchers will face a daunting task of combing a vast expanse of choppy seas for suspected remnants of the aircraft sighted earlier.
“We're not searching for a needle in a haystack—we're still trying to define where the haystack is,” Australia's deputy defense chief, Air Marshal Mark Binskin, told reporters at a military base in Perth as idled planes stood behind him.
Australian and Chinese search planes spotted floating objects in an area 2,500 kilometers（1,550 miles）southwest of Perth on Monday, but none was retrieved. Now, with the harsh weather and a 24-hour delay in the search, those objects and other possible debris from the plane could drift to an even wider area.By Scott McDonald and Eileen Nghttp://news.yahoo.comMarch 25, 2014Ⅳ. Home Reading How a Beige BookCould Shed Light on China's Shadow Economy
A man reads a newspaper at the entrance of a temple in Beijing on July 16, 2013. China's GDP expanded 7.5％ in the April-June quarter, official data showed, a second consecutive slowdown in growth as worries mount over the world's No. 2 economy.
China's economy has grown at such an astonishing rate over the past 30 years that even economists have hailed it as a “miracle.” GDP has grown by an annual average of 10％ since 1979, effectively doubling in size every eight years. China now is the second biggest economy in the world and may overtake the U.S., the world's largest, within the next decade. But a lingering doubt hangs over all these heady figures—whether they're from the past, present or future—because they have originated from a little-known branch of the Chinese government called the National Bureau of Statistics, whose inner workings remain infuriatingly arcane.
Officials have been reluctant to give outsiders a peek, and there are hints at unsavory practices. Current Chinese Premier Li Keqiang admitted in one cable released by Wikileaksthat GDP figures were “man-made.” The National Bureau of Statistics has occasionally reprimanded local officials for embellishing provincial statistics to boost their chances of winning promotion. This may explain how China has achieved the mathematical impossibility of getting every region to grow faster than the nation as a whole. In addition, “too much is changing too fast,” says Carsten Holz, an economist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He points to a flourishing service sector—barbershops, computer-repair stores, shadow banks—which adds value in ways much harder to measure. The overworked number crunchers in China's National Bureau of Statistics, accustomed to Soviet measures of tractors and concrete, have struggled to track the changes in this fluid, fast-growing sector, issuing reports that Holz says “are a mix of a lot of good statistics and guesstimates.”
Unfortunately for China's foreign investors, they can rarely tell the fact-based appraisals and guesstimates apart. This has created an opportunity for a private company headquartered in New York City, called the China Beige Book, to rush into the credibility gap with its own statistics. Each quarter it publishes a roughly 70-page-long namesake report curated from their online and in-person surveys of more than 2,000 businesses and banks spread across the mainland. The China Beige Book is based on its pre-existing U.S. equivalent, quietly compiled by census takers and published with little fanfare by the U.S. Federal Reserve. China Beige Book believes its customers can drill below the Beijing government's semireliable national figures, past its completely unreliable regional figures, to a bedrock of measures that matter to them. “Official data is not enough,” says CEO Leland Miller. “You need deeper data to get underneath the hood.” The firm sells the report to hedge-fund managers, multinational executives and anyone who has tens of millions of dollars riding on China's economy.
Miller's team has one distinct advantage over the vast bureaucracy at China's statistics bureau: an ability to coax candid answers out of Chinese businesspeople. To oversee this effort, they tapped Craig Charney, a professional “crisis pollster” whose firm has conducted surveys in some of the trickiest polling environments on earth: Yemen, Iran, apartheid South Africaand some 40 other “emerging” to “full-fledged countries in flames.” In all these he has noted that long-silenced populations, once they get comfortable, have a startling desire to speak up. So when he and Miller launched their first surveys of China's businesspeople, gathering them inside a Shanghai conference room and watching them behind a one-way mirroras they opened up about labor shortages, worker strikes and banks that refuse to give loans, Charney was not surprised by their candor. The polling effort went smoothly, “like breathing,” he says, but Miller could hardly contain his excitement about the numbers. “We really think that we've enveloped the entire economy,” says Miller.
He gives as an example China's official unemployment rate, a nice, placid figure perpetually hovering around 4％. Unfortunately, the measure excludes migrant and rural workers. Miller likens it to “going to Greenwich, Conn., and surveying 36-to-40-year-old white males.” The China Beige Book, on the other hand, shows a job market full of surges and undertows. Companies in some provinces report severe labor shortages; in some sectors workers have demanded higher wages.
And even if these insights into China's hidden economy fail to impress the wider business community, the project has one trend working in its favor: big hiccups in official data. In December, when China's economy was humming along at an 8％ clip and official data showed an economy awash with easy credit, Miller says his team was seeing “huge flashing yellow lights.” Businesses in their surveys said they were struggling to secure a loan. The interest rates actually paid by firms, which they had gathered from surveys of real and shadow banks, kept climbing higher. They headlined their warnings in their first-quarter report. The next quarter, as if on cue, a credit crunch that few saw coming caused stocks to nosedive, slowing China's economy and grabbing headlines.
Not everyone is convinced as to the merits of the China Beige Book, however. Holz expressed reservations that any private company could outperform the massive polling efforts of China's government, but conceded, “It's worth a shot.” The success of the China Beige Book will depend in part on proving each time that its data fits the reality better than the official accounts. This could spread to other countries with faulty economic data. “We'd be delighted if there were more beige books in the future,” says Charney. If so, perhaps investors all over the world will soon be lauding beige as the best way to stay out of the red, and firmly in the black.By Dan KedmeyTimeAugust 5, 2013New WordsExercise
A. Choose the best answer to complete the statement or answer the question.
1. Which of the following is true about China's economy?
A. In the past three decades China's economic development has been impressive.
B. China will definitely overtake the U.S. to be the world's biggest economy within ten years.
C. The size of China's economy has increased almost three times in the past 30 years.
D. Chinese readers think these economic statistics are not reliable.
2. What did the author say about GDP figures in China?
A. The figures sound exciting,but peope doubt their credibility.
B. Some local officials change GDP figures to avoid being criticized.
C. The economy develops so fast that it is easy to calculate.
D. The nation's total GDP equals the sum total of the individual provinces and cities.
3. The China Beige Book .
A. is a company that publishes books on China's economy
B. publishes four reports a year that contain statistics on China's economy
C. sells their reports to foreign investors who have business in China
D. collects economic data from interview with economists from all over the world.
4. Why does Miller mention “going to Greenwich, Conn., and surveying 36-to-40-year-old white males”?
A. To show that the official unemployment rate in China is not accurate.
B. To show that Greenwich has a low unemployment rate.
C. To tell the readers that 36-to-40-year-old white males are likely to lose their jobs.
D. To tell the readers that the unemployment rate in the U.S. is higher than China's.
B. Answer the questions based on the text.
1. What is the China Beige Book?
2. How does it collect economic data?
3. Why does Holz think of the official economic data as “a mix of a lot of good statistics and guesstimates”?
C. Discuss the topics.
1. Do you think the China Beige Book offers more reliable statistics than those by the National Bureau of Statistics? Why?
2. To tackle economic problems, decision makers need reliable statistics. Could you suggest some ways to improve the quality of such statistics?
D. Translate the sentences into Chinese.
1. China's economy has grown at such an astonishing rate over the past 30 years that even economists have hailed it as a “miracle.”
___________________________
___________________________
2. Miller's team has one distinct advantage over the vast bureaucracy at China's statistics bureau: an ability to coax candid answers out of Chinese businesspeople.
___________________________
___________________________
3. To oversee this effort, they tapped Craig Charney, a professional “crisis pollster” whose firm has conducted surveys in some of the trickiest polling environments on earth: Yemen, Iran, apartheid South Africa and some 40 other “emerging” to “full-fledged countries in flames.”
___________________________
___________________________
4. And even if these insights into China's hidden economy fail to impress the wider business community, the project has one trend working in its favor: big hiccups in official data.
___________________________
___________________________Unit Two DiplomacyⅠ. Background Information1. Diplomacy
It is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states. It usually refers to international diplomacy, the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to issues of peace-making, trade, war, economics and culture. International treaties are usually negotiated by diplomats prior to endorsement by national politicians.
In an informal or social sense, diplomacy is the employment of tact to gain strategic advantage or to find mutually acceptable solutions to a common challenge, one set of tools being the phrasing of statements in a non-confrontational, or polite manner.2. Foreign Relations of the People's Republic of China
The foreign relations of the People's Republic of China guide the way in which it interacts with foreign nations. As a great power and an emerging superpower, China's foreign policy and strategic thinking is highly influential. China officially states that it “unswervingly pursues an independent foreign policy of peace. The fundamental goals of this policy are to preserve China's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, create a favorable international environment for China's reform and opening up and modernization construction, maintain world peace and propel common development.”
Recent Chinese foreign policy makers may be seen to adhere to the reality rather than the liberal school of international relations theory. Thus, in sharp contrast to the Soviet Union and the United States, China has not been devoted to advancing any higher international ideological interests such as world communism or world democracy since the Cold War; that is, ideology appears to be secondary to advancing its national interest. China is a member of many international organizations, holding key positions such as a permanent member on the UN Security Council, and is a leader in many areas such as non-proliferation, peacekeeping and resolving regional conflicts.3. Big Events
1950: China and the Soviet Union signed “Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance.”
1951: Vatican and China broke off diplomatic relations.
1964: China and France established diplomatic relations. Taiwan's embassy in Paris was closed.
1971: The People's Republic of China replaced the Republic of China（Taiwan）in UN Security Council.
1972: China and Japan established diplomatic relations.
1979: Diplomatic relations were established between the U.S. and China.
1984: Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed.
1997: China and Britain forged a strategic partnership.Ⅱ. Text A New Strategic and Economic Dialogue with ChinaFew Global Problems Can Be Solved by Either Country Alone
When the United States and China established diplomatic relations 30 years ago, it was far from clear what the future would hold. In 1979, China was still emerging from the ruins of the Cultural Revolutionand its gross domestic product stood at a mere $176 billion, a fraction of the U.S. total of $2.5 trillion. Even travel and communication between our two great nations presented a challenge: a few unreliable telephone lines and no direct flights connected us. Today China's GDPtops four trillion dollars, thousands of emails and cellphone calls cross the Pacific Ocean daily, and by next year there will be 249 direct flights per week between the U.S. and China.
To keep up with these changes that affect our citizens and our planet, we need to update our official ties with Beijing. During their first meeting in April, President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao announced a new dialogue as part of the administration's efforts to build a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship with Beijing. So this week we will meet together in Washington with two of the highest-ranking officials in the Chinese government, Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo, to develop a new framework for U.S.-China relations. Many of our cabinet colleagues will join us in this “Strategic and Economic Dialogue,” along with an equally large number of the most senior leaders of the Chinese government. Why are we doing this with China, and what does it mean for Americans?
Simply put, few global problems can be solved by the U.S. or China alone. And few can be solved without the U.S. and China together.
The strength of the global economy, the health of the global environment, the stability of fragile states and the solution to nonproliferation challenges turn in large measure on cooperation between the U.S. and China.
While our two-day dialogue will break new ground in combining discussions of both economic and foreign policies, we will be building on the efforts of the past seven U.S. administrations and on the existing tapestry of government-to-government exchanges and cooperation in several dozen different areas.
At the top of the list will be assuring recovery from the most serious global economic crisis in generations and assuring balanced and sustained global growth once recovery has taken hold.
When the current crisis struck, the U.S. and China acted quickly and aggressively to support economic activity and to create and save jobs.
The success of the world's major economies in blunting the force of the global recession and setting the stage for recovery is due in substantial measureto the bold steps our two nations have taken.
As we move toward recovery, we must take additional steps to lay the foundation for balanced and sustainable growth in the years to come. That will involve Americans rebuilding our savings, strengthening our financial system and investing in energy, education and health care to make our nation more productive and prosperous.
For China it involves continuing financial sector reform and development. It also involves spurring domestic demand growth and making the Chinese economy less reliant on exports.
Raising personal incomes and strengthening the social safety net to address the reasons why Chinese feel compelled to save so much would provide a powerful boost to Chinese domestic demand and global growth.
Both nations must avoid the temptation to close off our respective markets to trade and investment.
Both must work hard to create new opportunities for our workers and our firms to compete equally, so that the people of each country see the benefit from the rapidly expanding U.S.-China economic relationship.
A second priority is to make progress on the interconnected issues of climate change, energy and the environment.
Our two nations need to establish a true partnership to put both countries on a low-carbon pathway, simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissionswhile promoting economic recovery and sustainable development. The cross-cutting nature of our meetings offers a unique opportunity for key American officials to meet with their Chinese counterparts to work on the global issue of climate change. In the run-up to the international climate change conference in Copenhagen in December, it is clear that any agreement must include meaningful participation by large economies like China.
The third broad area for discussion is finding complementary approaches to security and development challenges in the region and across the globe.
From the provocative actions of North Korea, to stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as the economic possibilities in Africa, the U.S. and China must work together to reach solutions to these urgent challenges confronting not only our two nations, but also many others across the globe.
While this first round of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue offers a unique opportunity to work with Chinese officials, we will not always agree on solutions and we must be frank about our differences, including establishing the right venues to have those discussions. And while we are working to make China an important partner, we will continue to work closely with our long-standing alliesand friends in Asia and around the world and rely on the appropriate international groups and organizations.
But having these strategic-level discussions with our Chinese counterparts will help build the trust and relationships to tackle the most vexing global challenges of today—and of the coming generation. The Chinese have a wise aphorism: “When you are in a common boat, you need to cross the river peacefully together.”Today, we will join our Chinese counterparts in grabbing an oar and starting to row.By Hillary Clinton and Timothy GeithnerThe Wall Street JournalJuly 27, 2009New WordsExercise
A. Choose the best answer to complete the statement or answer the question.
1. What is true about the USA and China 30 years ago?
A. The future of the relationship between the USA and China was clear.
B. China was already a rich country.
C. China had suffered a decade's political turmoil.
D. Communications between the USA and China were easy.
2. Who were involved in the present dialogue?
A. Barack Obama and Hu Jintao.
B. The authors（Hillary Clinton and Timothy Geithner）.
C. The authors' cabinet colleagues.
D. The authors, their cabinet colleagues and their Chinese counterparts.
3. The topics of the dialogue are______.
A. economy, climate change and security
B. economy, foreign policies and cooperation
C. economic crisis, foreign policies and nonproliferation
D. economy, environment and nonproliferation
4. The keys to dealing with global climate change are______.
A. promoting economic recovery and sustaining development
B. strengthening the social safety net
C. developing low-carbon economy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions
D. strengthening investing in energy
5. In the authors' opinion,______.
A. the USA should strengthen its financial system
B. few global problems can not be solved with the U.S. working together with China
C. after a series of high level dialogues, the USA and China have no differences now
D. China's economy relys too much on domestic consumption
B. Translate the following phrases into English.
1. 建立外交关系 ________
2. 国内生产总值 ________
3. 高级官员 ________
4. 战略对话 ________
5. 经济危机 ________
6. 切实措施 ________
7. 可持续发展 ________
8. 内需 ________
9. 低碳发展途径 ________
10. 温室气体排放 ________
C. Answer the questions based on the text.
1. What agreement was reached during their first summit meeting between Barack Obama and Hu Jintao？
2. The authors mentioned four challenges that needed to be resolved in the text. What are they?
3. What are the security and development challenges the world faced with?
4. There are still differences between the two countries. Can you just list one of them?
D. Discuss the topics.
1. What are the reasons for the USA to attach so much importance to China?
2. Do you think the USA and China will one day become allies?
3. How do you understand the aphorism the authors have quoted in the end of the passage？
E. Translate the sentences into Chinese.
1. The strength of the global economy, the health of the global environment, the stability of fragile states and the solution to nonproliferation challenges turn in large measure on cooperation between the U.S. and China.
___________________________
___________________________
2. The cross-cutting nature of our meetings offers a unique opportunity for key American officials to meet with their Chinese counterparts to work on the global issue of climate change.
___________________________
___________________________
3. But having these strategic-level discussions with our Chinese counterparts will help build the trust and relationships to tackle the most vexing global challenges of today—and of the coming generation.
___________________________
___________________________Ⅲ. The Structure of a News Story
Journalists usually describe the organization or structure of a news story as an inverted pyramid. The essential and most interesting elements of a story are put at the beginning, with supporting information following in order of diminishing importance.
This structure enables readers to stop reading at any point and still come away with the essence of a story. It allows people to explore a topic to only the depth that their curiosity takes them, and without the imposition of details or nuances that they could consider irrelevant, but still making that information available to more interested readers.
The inverted pyramid structure also enables articles to be trimmed to any arbitrary length during layout, to fit in the space available.
Some writers start their stories with the “1-2-3 lead”, yet there are many kinds of lead available. This format invariably starts with a “Five Ws” opening paragraph（as described in the inverted pyramid）, followed by an indirect quote that serves to support a major element of the first paragraph, and then a direct quote to support the indirect quote.
The following is an illustration of the inverted pyramid.Ⅳ. Home Reading Japan and China: Is the Ice Breaking?
China is usually the first nation to protest any perceived backsliding by Japan on its acceptance of guilt for World War II abuses. So it was notable that not a peep came out of Beijing last month over the international furor ignited by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe'sdenial that Japan's wartime army had forced tens of thousands of Asian women into sexual slavery.
Beijing's diplomatic silence—much appreciated in Tokyo—was the latest sign of an unexpected thaw in the two nations' often troubled relationship.
Japanese diplomats who could barely talk to their Chinese counterparts a year ago say communication has never been better, and on Wednesday, Tokyo welcomes Premier Wen Jiabao for a three-day stay that will be the first high-level Chinese visit to Japan in nearly seven years.
The turnaround began last October when Abe made a surprise trip to Beijing shortly after becoming Prime Minister. That helped break the ice that had built up over the previous five years, in part because of previous Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi'srepeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, a Shintomemorial to Japan's war dead viewed by many nations as an irredeemable symbol of Japanese imperialism.
Over the same period, many in Tokyo accused the Chinese government of cynically stoking anti-Japanese sentiments for domestic political purposes. But both sides appear to have taken the end of Koizumi's term last fall as an opportunity to revive what Tokyo officials like to call a “future-oriented relationship.”
Abe, who had visited Yasukuni repeatedly during his years as a legislator, punted on the issue by refusing to say whether he would continue to do so. That appears to have been good enough for Beijing.
Japanese analysts believe China's President Hu Jintao has staked significant political capital on an improved bilateral relationship.
And so has Abe, whose China visit proved to be a rare bright spot in a difficult first six months in office.
The political stake of leaders in Beijing and Tokyo means that “both countries' top priority will be to make sure Wen's visit is a great success,” says Ryosei Kokubun, director of the Institute of East Asian Studies at Tokyo's Keio University, “It has to be.”
A successful visit will require that both sides accentuate the positive and avoid generating an expectation of breakthroughs on points of tension.
One potentially fruitful—and uncontroversial—area of cooperation is the environment: China's rapid industrialization and inefficient energy use has created a horrific pollution problem; Japan has coped with similar problems in the past to become one of the world's most efficient energy users, and its expertise in this field could be of great benefit to China.
A more challenging energy issue, however, is the disputed ownership of rich underwater natural gas deposits in the East China Sea. Maritime boundary lines between China and Japan aren't fixed, and both claim a right to the gas—ships from the two countries faced off in tense confrontations in the area in 2004 and 2005.
Even if they've managed to ease the standoff, the competition for scarce energy resources between two countries without adequate domestic supplies of their own make it difficult to resolve.
Abe and Wen will discuss the possibility of jointly developing the gas deposits, but Tokyo isn't hopeful. “I don't think we'll sign anything specific,” says a senior Japanese foreign ministry official. “If it's worthwhile we will, and if it's not, we won't.”
The two sides may also sidestep their differences on how to handle North Korea's nuclear program—Japan wants more pressure on Pyongyang, but China has orchestrated a softer compromise in the Six-Partyprocess.
Despite the strains—and the rivalry dating back millennia—today's China-Japan relationship is held together by an overwhelming imperative: business.
Even when ties were at their frostiest over Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni and the response of Chinese protestors, economic ties continued to strengthen—last year, bilateral trade passed $200 billion, and China will soon become Japan's top trading partner.
Public opinion in both countries is not exactly fueling a thaw: A recent survey on college campuses in both countries found that 46％ of students in Japan and 57％ in China held a negative view of the other country, while over 80％ of both characterized Japan-China relations as “bad.”
In Japan, feelings of cultural superiority combine with a fear of being superseded to create a surprisingly common racism.
One prominent Japanese executive, in a recent conversation, explained why he found Chinese immigration to Japan undesirable: “They put much less value on life there.”
In China, the simmering sense of humiliation over Japan's wartime atrocities can unleash waves of public rage with the least provocation. And should Abe eventually give in to his conservative political base and visit Yasukuni, the reaction from China would be swift and angry. “That is the worst scenario,” says Kokubun. “The relationship between the two countries might end up worse than it was before.”
Still, as aware as they are of the inevitability of future storms, diplomats and politicians on both sides have plenty of incentive to put on their friendliest faces, ever mindful of their shared incentive for maintaining the flow of trade and investment.By Bryan WalshTimeApril 9, 2007New WordsExercise
A. Choose the best answer to complete the statement or answer the question.
1. Which is true about Japanese's attitude towards the abuses they have committed in WWII?
A. The Japanese never accept the guilt.
B. The Japanese never deny the guilt.
C. Some Japanese politicians refused to accept Japan's guilt in WWII.
D. China does not react to Japan's change of attitude to its guilt in WWII.
2. Shinzo Abe ______.
A. denied that the Japanese army had never force thousands of Asian women into sex slaves in WWII
B. visited Beijing shortly after he took office as Prime Minister
C. never visited Yasukuni Shrine
D. visited Yasukuni Shrine after he took office as Prime Minister
3. A survey on Sino-Japanese relations indicated that ______.
A. the percentage of Chinese college students that dislike Japan is higher than that of Japanese students that dislike China
B. most students from both countries believe the two countries have good terms
C. only a few students from the two countries believe the relations are bad
D. Chinese students feel their culture is superior to Japanese culture
4. In which area can China and Japan cooperate without any controversy?
A. Underwater gas.
B. Economy.
C. Trade and investment.
D. Environment.
B. Answer the questions based on the text.
1. What was the latest sign of an unexpected thaw in the two nations' often troubled relationship?
2. What happened that helped break the ice that had built up over the previous five years?
3. What did diplomats see from the end of Koizumi's term as Prime Minister?
4. How should China learn from its neighbor in dealing with environmental problems?
5. Why is it a challenging issue for the two countries to jointly develop the gas deposits in East China Sea?
C. Discuss the topics.
1. Despite the disputes between Japan and China, leaders from the two countries strive to keep good terms. Why?
2. Japanese politicians' visits to Yasukuni Shrine often ignite furor among peoples in Asian countries. What do you think are the reasons behind？
3. In your opinion, what could be done to improve China's ties with Japan?Unit Three EnvironmentⅠ. Background Information1. Environmental Issues
A variety of environmental problems now affect the entire world. As globalization continues and the earth's natural processes transform local problems into international issues, few societies are being left untouched by major environmental problems. Some of the largest problems now affecting the world are acid rain, air pollution, global warming, hazardous waste, ozone depletion, smog, water pollution, overpopulation, and rain forest destruction.2. Environment of China
Some serious negative consequences of the People's Republic of China's rapid industrial development are the increasing pollution, smog, and degradation of natural resources. Much solid waste is not properly disposed of. Water pollution is a source of health problems across the country, and air pollution causes up to 1,750,000 premature deaths each year. China's pollution problem is largely a result of the country's rapid development and consequently a large increase in primary energy consumption, which is primarily provided by coal power plants. China has pursued a development model which prioritizes export-led growth（similar to many other East Asian countries）. In early 2006, Forbes reports that all 10 of the 10 most polluted cities in the world are in China.
Nevertheless, China has achieved some significant improvements to its environment during the recent years. According to the World Bank, China is one of a few countries in the world that have been rapidly increasing their forest cover. It is managing to reduce air and water pollution.
As part of U.S.$498 billion economic stimulus package of November, 2008（the largest in China's history）, the government plans to enhance sewage and rubbish treatment facilities and prevent water pollution, accelerate green belt and natural forest planting programs, and increase energy conservation initiatives and pollution control projects.3. Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for future generations. The term was used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”4. The World Bank
The World Bank, established in 1944, is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to the developing countries around the world. Its mission is to fight poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting results and to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors.
The World Bank is not a bank in the common sense. It is made up of two unique development institutions owned by 188 member countries: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development（IBRD）and the International Development Association（IDA）.
The World Bank provides low-interest loans, interest-free credits and grants to the developing countries for a wide array of purposes that include investments in education, health, public administration, infrastructure, financial and private sector development, agriculture, and environmental and natural resource management.5. Greenhouse Gases
Gases in an atmosphere absorb and emit radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The main greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Greenhouse gases greatly affect the temperature of the Earth; without them, Earth's surface would be on average about 33℃（59）colder than the temperature at present. Human activities since the start of the industrial era around 1750 have increased the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.6. Greenhouse Effect
The heating of the surface of a planet is due to the presence of an atmosphere containing gases that absorb and emit infrared radiation. Thus, greenhouse gases trap heat within the surface-troposphere system.
The Earth receives energy from the Sun mostly in the form of visible light and nearby wavelengths. About 50％ of the sun's energy is absorbed at the Earth's surface. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb most of the infrared radiation emitted by the surface and pass the absorbed heat to other atmospheric gases through molecular collisions, like all bodies with a temperature above absolute zero on the Earth's surface radiate energy in the infrared range. The greenhouse gases also radiate in the infrared range. Radiation is emitted both upward, with part escaping to space, and downward toward Earth's surface. The surface and lower atmosphere are warmed by the part of the energy that is radiated downward, making our life on earth possible.7. Global Warming
Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. Global surface temperature increased 0.74℃±0.18℃（1.33±0.32）between the start and the end of the 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change（IPCC）concludes that most of the observed temperature increases since the middle of the 20th century was caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases resulting from human activities such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation. The IPCC also concludes that variations in natural phenomena such as solar radiation and volcanism produced most of the warming from pre-industrial times to 1950 and had a small cooling effect afterward. These basic conclusions have been endorsed by more than 40 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries.8. Haze
Haze is traditionally an atmospheric phenomenon where dust, smoke and other dry particles obscure the clarity of the sky. Sources for haze particles include farming（ploughing in dry weather）, traffic, industry, and wildfires. Seen from afar（e.g. approaching airplane）and depending upon the direction of view with respect to the sun, haze may appear brownish or bluish, while mist tends to be bluish-grey. Whereas haze often is thought of as a phenomenon of dry air, mist formation is a phenomenon of humid air. However, haze particles may act as condensation nuclei for the subsequent formation of mist droplets; such forms of haze are known as “wet haze.”Ⅱ.Text China 'Unfairly Seen as Eco-villain'
China's rapid economic expansion in recent years has been matched by its increasingly voracious appetite for energy and natural resources, says William Bleisch. However, as he explains in this week's Green Room, the nation has sometimes been unfairly portrayed as the world's biggest environmental villain.
As early as 1995, Lester Brown, one of the world's leading environmentalists, predicted that China's increasing demand for food and other commodities would soon drive world prices to record highs.
If the figures were alarming then, they have only grown more so as China's prosperity has increased its global reach and purchasing power.
Cries of alarm have come from more and more people, as China's demand for everything from oil to hardwood timber has been blamed for global price rises. The increasing affluence of Chinese consumers and their new-found ability to travel the world means that far more of them have the opportunity and the means to purchase tiger skins, ivory and rhinoceros horn.
And as the nation's energy and mining industries have ventured beyond the nation's borders, they have turned out to be every bit as rapacious and unethical as Western companies can be; perhaps more so, since they do not have to answer to an open press and domestic outrage.
Growing Appetite
The impacts of China's affluence are being felt downstream as well, in the form of greenhouse gases emissions. CO emissions 2from China are increasing faster than from any other country in the world.
In 1990, it already accounted for some 10.5％ of the world's CO 2emissions. Now, according to some analyses, China has become the world's largest emitter of climate-altering gases.
The backlash has been predictable. China's exemption from caps on greenhouse gas emissions was one of the major reasons why the U.S. Senate unanimously rejected the Kyoto Protocolin 1997.
It was a powerful justification for the Bush administration's stance on Kyoto.
The politicians believed that U.S.' efforts would be pointless if China's emissions continued to grow.
But are the criticisms entirely fair? First, markets and emissions must be considered relative to China's enormous population and fairly recent emergence as a newly industrialized nation.
China's population of 1.3 billion is about four times larger than that of the U.S., but each Chinese citizen uses about 25％ of the energy consumed by his or her U.S. counterpart.
Even that measure is skewed, because much of that energy used in China is to manufacture goods that are then purchased by Americans, Europeans and Japanese.
The current rates of emissions also hide the fact that the industrialized Western nations have been belching out CO far longer 2than China, which only reached newly industrialized status in the 1990s.
Exotic Tastes
China certainly deserves criticism for its impacts on other areas of the environment.
Chinese consumers have a large and growing appetite for exotic medicines that has directly led to dozens of species in China and throughout the world becoming endangered.
Its citizens are still responsible for consumption of staggering amounts of wildlife and threatened timber products, some illegally smuggled from as far away as Indonesia and Zimbabwe.
In 2008, several U.S. states moved to ban turtle trapping on public lands, and 12 more U.S. turtle species have been proposed for the endangered species list—all because of the impact of trade to China.
But even with regard to trade in wildlife, the story is hardly as simple as it is often portrayed.
China signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species（CITES）and put it into force in 1981, passing legislation soon after to back up the treaty.
In many areas, the government has made dramatic strides in controlling wildlife trade over the past 20 years, even as demand has sky-rocketed due to consumers' new affluence.
Illegal wildlife products have largely disappeared from shops and markets in much of China, as enforcement of wildlife laws has become clearer and more effective.
Gone are the days when tiger bone wine could be openly advertised, and monkeys and wild caught parrots were openly sold in markets.
The tiger brand plastersfound in every Chinese pharmacy contain no tiger, and the tiger and leopard skins sold to foolish Westerners at many tourist traps are actually just poorly dyed dog skins.
Chinese consumers seeking to stock up on threatened wildlife must now travel to neighboring countries, where unscrupulous local dealers still feel safe offering them a multitude of products, both fake and real.
China has also made dramatic strides in protecting the best examples of natural habitats in nature reserves and other protected areas.
More than 15％ of the nation's land area is legally protected in thousands of nature reserves and national parks, and most national reserves now have full-time staff that carry out regular patrols.
The proposal and approval of the enormous Giant Panda Sanctuary World Heritage Natural Sitein the Sichuan Qionglai Mountainsis just one of the most recent examples of China's political will and dedication to protecting world natural heritage.
This is essential, since the rapid pace of development means that natural ecosystems outside protected areas are under increasing threat from the relentless search for more land and resources.
Controlling the breakneck development has proved to be difficult or impossible for many regions, but a new law on Environmental Impact Assessments, which became effective in September 2003, has been praised as a model of good legislation.
It includes provisions to increase protection for critical habitats and protected areas. There is still a major gap between policy and implementation, but it may not be long before the “Three Simultaneous Commencements”（the start of permit application, the start of the environmental impact assessment and the start of digging）becomes a thing of the past, at least in the country's more progressive regions.
Team Effort
China has made impressive efforts to rise to standards set by the international community, but the efforts have not always been good enough to stem the tide in the face of massive and growing pressures.
It can be argued that none of this will mean much if China's greenhouse gas emissions cause climate disasters to habitats and species throughout the world. But here too, China has responded to global needs.
It signed the Kyoto Protocol of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change（UNFCCC）in 1998 and ratified the Protocol in 2002, something that the U.S. failed to do.
More importantly, it made emissions reduction a national policy in 2005, when the nation's 11th Five-Year Plan（from 2006 to 2010）set a target of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20％.
The EUgave itself a similar target, but has until 2020 to achieve it; U.S.' plans are less ambitious still.
Given the pattern of exaggeration and over-statement often seen in the international press, it is little wonder that strident international criticism just seems to be dismissed as sour grapes by most people in China.
Is it time, as many Chinese critics argue, for Westerners to back off and tend to their own houses?
Perhaps. But isn't it the responsibility of all, both producer nations and consumer nations, to work together to solve problems such as depletion of ocean fisheries and over-exploitation of threatened species?
We might hope that at least global climate change is so much of a clear and present danger that, for once, countries could put aside their differences and act together to find a workable solution, perhaps based on the seemingly fair standard of a “climate change allocation” for each person on the planet.
China should respond to critics by providing clear answers detailing what is being done to solve real problems. And that is not “China-bashing”; the same could be said of every fully industrialized nation.
Global problems demand global accountability, and that creates a responsibility of each of us to point out when policy and implementation are failing, and to help each nation rise to the needs.By William BleischBBC NewsJune 16, 2009New WordsExercise
A. Choose the best answer to answer the question.
1. What would drive world food and other commodity prices to record highs, according to Lester Brown?
A. Shortage of natural resources.
B. Population explosion.
C. Excessive consumption.
D. China's increasing demand.
2. Which of the following is not listed as a reason by the author to refute the Western criticism of China as the biggest environmental villain?
A. Each Chinese citizen uses only about one fourth of the energy consumed by his or her U.S. counterpart.
B. China uses energy to manufacture goods that are exported to the United States, Europe and Japan.
C. Chinese companies do not have to answer to an open press and domestic outrage.
D. Industrialized countries have been emitting climate-altering gases far longer than China.
3. What has the government of China done to protect wildlife?
A. The government prescribes that consumers seeking to stock up on threatened wildlife must travel to neighboring countries.
B. It has made dramatic strides in controlling wildlife trade.
C. China has established thousands of nature reserves and national parks.
D. The country has implemented clearer and more effective wildlife protection laws.
4. Which of the following statements is true?
A. The European Union has set a similar emission reduction target and planned to achieved it in 2010.
B. China as a producer nation should respond to critics by providing clear answers detailing what is being done to solve real problems.
C. The Westerners that are used to criticizing China should back off and tend to their own business.
D. The United States has made similar emission reduction plan as China.
B. Translate the phrases into Chinese.
1. voracious appetite ________
2. purchasing power ________
3. the endangered species ________
4. exotic taste ________
5. nature reserves ________
6. world natural heritage ________
7. team effort ________
8. emissions reduction ________
9. strident international criticism ________
10. global accountability ________
C. Answer the questions based on the text.
1. Is it right to say that China's increasing demand for food and other commodities has driven world prices to record highs？
2. Why did the U.S. Senate unanimously reject the Kyoto Protocol in 1997?
3. How do you see some Chinese's growing appetite for exotic medicines?
4. Why is strident international criticism seen as sour grapes by some people in China?
D. Discuss the topics.
1. Why is team work needed in dealing with global climate change?
2. How do you see the phenomenon of “China-bashing”?
3. As an individual, what should you do to help combat global warming and save those endangered species?
E. Translate the sentences into Chinese.
1. China's rapid economic expansion in recent years has been matched by its increasingly voracious appetite for energy and natural resources, says William Bleisch.
___________________________
___________________________
2. Even that measure is skewed, because much of that energy used in China is to manufacture goods that are then purchased by Americans, Europeans and Japanese.
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3. China has made impressive efforts to rise to standards set by the international community, but the efforts have not always been good enough to stem the tide in the face of massive and growing pressures.
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___________________________Ⅲ.Writing Effective News Headlines
The headline is the text indicating the nature of the article below it. A headline's purpose is to quickly and briefly draw attention to the story. It is generally written by a copy editor, but may also be written by the writer, the page layout designer, or other editors.
The best way to write a good headline is to keep it simple and direct. The following are tips of writing effective headlines.Word Choices
► Be specific, accurate, clear and concise.
► Don't repeat key words in the same headline.
► Avoid unclear or little known names, phrases and abbreviations.
► Don't use pronouns alone and unidentified.
► Alliteration should be intentional and not change the general tone of the story.Verbs
► No headline may start with a verb.
► Headlines are complete sentences or imply complete sentences.
► A linking verb can be implied rather than spelled out.
► If a story is about past or present events, write present tense verbs.
► If a story is about future events, use the infinitive verb（to leave, to work）.
► Link verbs, such as is, are, was and were should be omitted.Punctuation
► Use punctuation sparingly.
► Don't eat up space with the conjunction and. Instead, use a comma.Grammar
► Don't use the articles a, an and the. They waste space unnecessarily.
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