TEXT 80
Salty tales
咸话地中海（陈继龙编译）
Nov 16th 2006
From The Economist print edition
JOHN JULIUS NORWICH is the author of more than a dozen books on Norman Sicily ①, the Sahara, Mount Athos② and the Venetian and Byzantine empires. （1）Yet even his immense knowledge is not enough to keep his latest chronicle —of 5,000 years of Mediterranean history—from appearing somewhat lopsided[1].
约翰?朱利叶斯?诺威奇撰写过不少关于诺尔曼-西西里岛、撒哈拉沙漠、阿陀斯山以及威尼斯和拜占庭帝国的作品。然而，尽管知识渊博，他最近一部记述地中海沿岸五千年历史的编年体著作仍免不了有失偏颇。
Lord Norwich's first test, he notes in his introduction to “The Middle Sea”, was to compensate for an ignorance of Spain. He records that he was fortuitously invited to dinner by “my dear friend” the Spanish ambassador to London and “a few weeks later there came an invitation for my wife and me to spend ten days in Spain.” （2）It is hard to believe that was all the effort he made, for he acquits himself well, even in the convoluted[2] diplomacy that ended in the war of the Spanish succession.
诺威奇勋爵在《中央之海》一书序言中指出，他的首要任务就是让人们了解西班牙的一些不为人知之处。书中写道，他幸运地被他“亲爱的朋友”——西班牙驻伦敦大使邀请参加晚宴，并“在几个星期之后收到了邀请他及其夫人到西班牙度假十天的请
柬”。人们难以相信这就是他所作的全部努力，因为他表现出色，尤其是在美西错综复杂的外交斡旋中表现优异，不过双方的外交在西班牙王位继承战后中止。
Lord Norwich's second task was to strike a balance over time. “The Middle Sea” reaches from ancient Egypt to the first world w ar. Like many long, chronological narratives, it becomes progressively more detailed, though it is debatable whether this is a good thing. （3）Few people have changed the region as much as the Romans, yet their republic's five centuries get only a page more than the great siege of Gibraltar which began in 1779.
诺威奇勋爵要做的第二件事则是对各时期的史实都等量齐观。《中央之海》的触角从古埃及一直延伸到第一次世界大战。如同许多长篇编年体叙事性作品一样，它注重挖掘细节，不过这是否可取尚有争议。罗马人民对该地区产生的影响没有哪个民族能与之相比，然而本书关于罗马共和国五个世纪的历史的记述也就比始于1977年的直布罗陀包围战多了一页而已。
（4）Lord Norwich's final, and arguably most important, challenge is the area that is most likely to engage modern readers: the intermittent, but frequently savage, conflict between Muslims and Christians. Impatient with the notion, echoed most recently and disastrously by Pope Benedict, that the Koran sanctions the spreading of Islam by the sword, Lord Norwich is no Islamophobe. He is hostile to the Crusades and fulsome[3]in his praise of that traditional Western schoolbook villain, Saladin③.
诺威奇勋爵最后需要面对的最为重要的问题是，如何评述穆斯林与基督教徒之间间或发生但常常十分残酷的冲突，而这方面的内容可能对现代读者最具吸引力。有人认为，古兰经是允许伊斯兰教进行武力扩张的，可悲的是，最近本笃教皇也附和了这一观点。
诺威奇对这种观点很反感，他并没有“伊斯兰恐惧症”。他愤恨十字军东征，不过对西方传统教科书中的反面角色萨拉丁的赞美却又言过其实了。
Yet his account remains disappointingly focused from Christendom[4]outwards. （5）It is true that Muslims do appear in his book—usually in battle—but they rarely speak. Only two items in the 170-volume bibliography are by Arab scholars and only one is by a Turk. This is unabashedly history of the old school: Eurocentric (Octavian④, the author declares without irony, was the “undisputed master of the known world”) and largely uninterested in what other economic, social and technological changes may have shaped events.
然而令人失望的是，他依旧站在基督教的角度来记述历史。穆斯林在他的书中的确登场亮相了——往往都是在战争之中——但他却很少介绍穆斯林对历史的看法。在多达170条的参考书目中，仅有2条引自阿拉伯学者，1条引自土耳其人。这是守旧派记述历史的突出风格——以欧洲为中心（作者断言，渥大维乃“已知世界无可争辩的主人”，这话并无半点挖苦意味），而对其他地域由经济、社会和技术变革所引发的历史事件一般都不感兴趣。
What fires Lord Norwich is recounting the doings of princes and preachers, warriors, courtiers and courtesans[5]. And he does it with consummate[6]skill. He spices his narrative liberally with entertaining anecdotes, deft portraits and brisk judgments. Aristotle, for example, is given short shrift[7]as “one of the most reactionary intellectuals that ever lived”. Lord Norwich's control of his vast and complex subject matter is masterly. And the subject matter itself is as colourful as history can get. No sooner have readers bidden farewell to a short, fat, dissolute sultan, Selim the Sot, than they encounter
TEXT 19 Fair enough Mar 30th 2006 | MEXICO CITY AND SAN JOSé From The Economist print edition MAKING good coffee is not a simple business. Coffee bushes must be grown in shade—neither too much, nor too little. A hillside is best—but it mustn't be too s______ ①. After three years, the bushes will start to produce bright-red coffee “cherries”, which are picked, processed to remove the pulp, and spread out to dry for days, ideally on concrete. They are m_______②again to separate the bean, which needs to rest, preferably for a few months. （1）Only then can it be roasted, ground and brewed into the stuff that dreams are ★quelled with[1]. In Mexico and parts of Central America, as in Colombia and Peru further south but not in Brazil, most coffee farmers are smallholders. （2）They found it especially hard to deal with the recent ★slump[2] in the coffee price. The price has since recovered: the benchmark price applied to m________③coffee now ranges from $1.11 to $1.14 per pound. That is roughly double its ★rock-bottom[3] level of August 2002. But the v_________④of their income makes it hard for farmers to invest to sustain their crop, says Fernando Celis of the Mexican National Organisation of Coffee Growers. The slump forced many small farmers to switch to other crops, or migrate to cities. Mexico's exports of coffee are less than half of what they were six years ago. （3）For farmers, one way out of this dilemma is to decouple the price they are paid from the international commodities markets. This is the a_______⑤of Fairtrade, a London-based organisation which certifies products as “responsibly” sourced. Fairtrade determines at what price farmers make what it considers a reasonable profit. Its current calculation is that the appropriate figure is 10% above the market price. W________⑥, sales of Fairtrade-certified coffee have increased from $22.5m per year to $87m per year since 1998. This is still only a tiny fraction of the overall world coffee trade, worth $10 billion annually. But there are plenty of other ★niche markets[4] for high-quality coffee. Some small producers can c_________⑦more by marketing their coffee as organic—a switch which takes five years or so—or “bird-friendly” （4）because, unlike large, mechanised plantations, they have retained shade trees. Starbucks, the Seattle-based coffee-bar c________⑧, says it uses a similar formula to that of Fairtrade in buying its coffee. All is bought at a “fair price”, says Peter Torrebiarte, who manages Starbucks' buying operation in Costa Rica. （5）Some niches can be large. Only 6% of world o________⑨is of top quality, but in Costa Rica and Guatemala the figure rises to 60%, says Mr Torrebiarte. Starbucks bought 37% of Costa Rica's entire coffee crop in the 2004-05 season, according to Adolfo Lizano of the country's coffee institute. Mexico lags behind its neighbours in extracting higher prices. But 95% of the coffee in Mexico is arabica—the
TEXT 80 Salty tales 咸话地中海（陈继龙编译） Nov 16th 2006 From The Economist print edition JOHN JULIUS NORWICH is the author of more than a dozen books on Norman Sicily ①, the Sahara, Mount Athos② and the Venetian and Byzantine empires. （1）Yet even his immense knowledge is not enough to keep his latest chronicle —of 5,000 years of Mediterranean history—from appearing somewhat lopsided[1]. 约翰?朱利叶斯?诺威奇撰写过不少关于诺尔曼-西西里岛、撒哈拉沙漠、阿陀斯山以及威尼斯和拜占庭帝国的作品。然而，尽管知识渊博，他最近一部记述地中海沿岸五千年历史的编年体著作仍免不了有失偏颇。 Lord Norwich's first test, he notes in his introduction to “The Middle Sea”, was to compensate for an ignorance of Spain. He records that he was fortuitously invited to dinner by “my dear friend” the Spanish ambassador to London and “a few weeks later there came an invitation for my wife and me to spend ten days in Spain.” （2）It is hard to believe that was all the effort he made, for he acquits himself well, even in the convoluted[2] diplomacy that ended in the war of the Spanish succession. 诺威奇勋爵在《中央之海》一书序言中指出，他的首要任务就是让人们了解西班牙的一些不为人知之处。书中写道，他幸运地被他“亲爱的朋友”——西班牙驻伦敦大使邀请参加晚宴，并“在几个星期之后收到了邀请他及其夫人到西班牙度假十天的请
TEXT 51 The seven-year itch 七年之痒（陈继龙编译） Jul 27th 2006 | MACAU From The Economist print edition THE army of workers operating along what used to be Macau's waterfront is conducting “land reclamation[1]”: dumping sand into the water to create more land on which to build ever more casinos, resorts and hotels in the formerly Portuguese playground. Cranes and bulldozers beaver away[2] throughout the territory, building new high-rises. Like most of China's booming conurbations[3], Macau is paying an environmental price; the air is thick with smog and dust, and the Pearl River has transferred some of its p_______①to Macau's seas. （1）But the damage pales when set against[4] the promise of growth, and billboards proudly herald the coming of “the Las Vegas of Asia”. 在过去曾是澳门码头的沿线地区，成群结队的工人们正在“填海造田”：把沙子倒进水中以形成更多的陆地，从而在这片曾经是葡萄牙人的一亩三分地上建造更多的赌场、度假村和饭店。起重机和推土机无处不在，全力以赴地建造着新的高楼大厦。同中国大多数飞速发展的大都市一样，澳门正在为此付出环境上的代价。空气中弥漫着烟雾和灰尘，一些来自珠江的污染物也流入了澳门附近海域。但是，展望未来发展，这种损失算不了什么。一张张广告牌自豪地昭示着“亚洲的拉斯维加斯”即将来临。（译注：pale指“逊色、失色”，此处的when set against可以用“before”或“beside”来代替，意为“相比……”） Amid all the buzz, the music from a boat docked at the inner harbour sounds a strange note. The red-robed musicians and their audience are Taoists engaged in a religious ceremony. As the musicians play their instruments, the believers on board burn incense and e_______②scraps of food into the water as an offering to the gods. （2）The contrast of ancient ritual with feverish modernisation is the story of modern Macau: the story of development transforming a once-sheltered nook[5]. 内港码头边停靠的一艘小船上传来的音乐夹杂在一切喧嚣之中，调子听上去怪怪的。身着红袍的乐师及其听众们都是一些道教信徒，他们正在举行一个宗教仪式。乐师们演奏着乐器，船上的信徒们一边烧香，一边将供品倒进水中。古老的仪式与狂热的现代化之间的这种反差诉说着这样一个关于现代澳门的故事——让一个曾经偏僻的小地方面貌一新的发展故事。 Macau's stunning economic boom—2004 saw its GDP grow by 28%—has been powered by gambling, tourism and the construction necessary to support such endeavours. Since Stanley Ho, Macau's most famous casino mogul[6], found his monopoly on the gambling industry broken in 2001, American firms such as Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands Corporation have stepped in to build impressive new f_______③. （3）Visitors include rich and powerful Chinese, wishing to indulge in games of chance illegal on the mainland, as well as tourists from nearby countries like South Korea and Singapore. 赌博、旅游以及相关的支撑性建设推动澳门经济发生了令人瞠目结舌的增长——2004年其GDP增长28％。自从澳门最有名的赌场大亨何鸿燊对博采业的垄断在2001年被打破以来，永利度假村有限公司和拉斯维加斯金沙公司（注：建造了金沙会展中心）之类的美国公司逐步登陆澳门，建造了许多面目一新的设施。参观者中包括有钱有势的中国人，他们希望在赌博中碰碰运气，而赌博在内地是非法的。此外，还有来自邻近国家如韩国和新加坡的旅游观光者。 There has been a price. Construction firms are eager to hire immigrants from Fujian, Guangdong and even Shanghai who are willing to work for lower wages than the local Macanese. （4）The ill-will thus created was evident last May 1st, when locals (quite a few of whom were also illegal immigrants when they first arrived) rioted.They protest that outsiders are finding jobs in the new economy while many middle-aged Macanese remain j_______④. 增长是有代价的。建筑公司都迫切希望雇用来自福建、广东甚至上海的移民，这些人要求的薪水要比澳门
TEXT 97 Health consumerism 保护消费者健康权益 The wellness boom 健康产业飞速发展（陈继龙编译） Jan 4th 2007 | NEW YORK From The Economist print edition Helping consumers to lead healthy lifestyles is becoming a big business 引导消费者健康生活潮流的行业越做越大。 BACK in 1979, a fat, unhealthy property developer, Mel Zuckerman, and his exercise-fanatic wife, Enid, opened Canyon Ranch, “America's first total vacation/fitness resort”, on an old dude[1]ranch in Tucson, Arizona. At the time, their outdoorsy, new age-ish venture seemed highly eccentric. Today Canyon Ranch is arguably the premium health-spa brand of choice for the super-rich. It is growing fast and now operates in several places, including the Queen Mary 2. It is also one of the leading lights in “wellness”, an increasingly mainstream—and profitable—business. 事情要追溯到1979年，身胖体虚的房地产开发商梅尔?扎克尔曼和他喜欢运动的妻子艾妮德开办了Canyon Ranch。这是“美国首个纯粹的度假和健身胜地”，位于亚利桑那州图森的一个老的度假农场上。那时，他们冒险投资这一具有新时代特征、倡导户外活动的行业似乎非常不合正轨。照现在看来，Canyon Ranch已经成为那些富豪们温泉疗养的首选去处。它发展迅速，现已在好几个地方开展业务，其中包括“玛丽皇后二世”。它也是“健康产业”的领跑者之一，而后者正日益成为一个有利可图的主流
TEXT 85 Chinese capital markets中国资本市场 Out of the shadows 正大光明（陈继龙编译） Dec 13th 2006 | HONG KONG From The Economist print edition New ways to recycle fat profits 重复利用丰厚利润有新招 （1）COMMERCIAL bankers, nostalgic[1] for the days when corporate customers still belonged to them rather than the capital markets, have for some time gazed longingly at China. Under sanction from regulators, Chinese banks pay 2% for deposits, lend at a bit more than 6%, and that is that. Loan losses are high, but the spreads are so large that with any semblance of credit discipline there should be room for profits. It is rather like what was once fondly referred to in New York as 3-3-3 banking: pay 3%, charge 3% more, and get out of the office (and on the golf course) by 3pm. 曾几何时，各公司都是商业银行家的客户，并没有进入资本市场。一段时间以来，念念不忘那段时光的商业银行家们纷纷把热切的目光投向中国。经监管部门批准，中国的银行存款利率为2％，贷款利率为6%多一点，这是不容改变的事实。虽然存在大量的呆账，但存贷利率差价如此之大，给任何表面上守信用的银行都提供了盈利空间。这很像曾经被亲切地称为3-3-3制的纽约银行业，即存款给3％的利率，放贷时再加3％，然后下午3点下班（去打高尔夫球）。 Change, however, is on its way. （2）Capital-markets activity is growing and,
TEXT 37 Brothers in arms 袍泽之情（陈继龙编译） Jun 29th 2006 | TORONTO From The Economist print edition RAY BLANCHARD, a researcher at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, was reviewing some data a few years ago when he noticed something odd: gay men seemed to have more older brothers than straight men. 几年前，多伦多毒瘾与心理健康中心研究员雷·布朗夏尔在回顾一些数据时注意到一个奇怪的现象——同性恋男子的哥哥似乎比异性恋男子多。 Intrigued—and sceptical—he decided to investigate. He recruited 302 gay men and the same number of heterosexual controls and inquired about their families. How many siblings[1] did they have, _______①what sex, and how had the births been spaced? How old had their parents been when they had had them? Dr Blanchard found that only one detail seemed to predict sexual orientation: the more elder brothers a man had, the more likely he was to be gay. （1）Neither elder sisters nor younger siblings of either sex had any effect, but each additional elder brother increased his chance of being gay by about 33% from the population average of one man in 50. 由于对此感到好奇和怀疑，他决定做个调查。他招募了302名同性恋男子和一样多的异性恋男子，并问及一些与家庭有关的问题：有几个兄弟，几个姐妹，前后出生间隔多长时间？出生时父母多大年龄？布朗夏尔博士发现，预示性取向的似乎只有一个细节：哥哥越多，成为同性恋的可能性就越大。姐姐以及弟妹的数量对某人的性取向没有任何影响。一般而言，平均50个男人中就有1人可能成为同性恋，每多一位哥哥，此人成为同性恋的可能性就增加33％左右。（译者注：这句有些费解，我的理解是：from the population average of one man in 50中的“from”与前面的“increase”相对应，也就是在此基础上增加了33%。这个基础就是指“平均每50个男人中就有一个人可能成为同性恋”，这是一般而言的，如果这“一个”人多一位哥哥，他成为同性恋的可能性就增加33％，也就是这个“50分之一”发生的可能性增加33%。有点乱，仅供参考。） It was a rather perplexing discovery. It implied either that being brought _______②with a lot of elder brothers affects a boy's sexual orientation, or that a mother's body is somehow able to keep count of how many sons she has conceived, and that this count affects the orientation of future children. （2）Hard as it was to explain, though, the finding was replicated again and again, across different cultures, eras and even psychiatric groups. 这一发现很是令人费解。它意味着和许多哥哥一起成长会影响某个男孩的性取向，抑或是指母体有可能计下了其曾经孕育的男孩数，而这一计数过程则会影响后出生男孩的性取向。这一现象虽难解释，但是在不同文化、不同时期甚至不同心理状况的人身上都得到了反复再现。 Those who argued for a social explanation suggested that having lots of elder brothers makes a boy more likely to engage _______③same-sex play, and might also increase the chance he is a victim of sexual abuse. But, regardless of whether either of these conjectures[2] is true, neither playing with other boys nor sexual abuse has been scientifically linked to homosexuality. 那些认为应该从社会学角度解释这一现象的人指出，哥哥多会使得一个男孩与同性别的人在一起玩耍的可能性加大，也更有可能使之成为不正当性行为的受害者。不过，不管这两个猜测哪一个正确，从科学的角度看，同别的男孩一起玩耍或者不正当性行为都与同性恋毫无关联。
TEXT 95 Entrepreneurship in Shanghai 外国企业家在上海 Mandarin mogul 老牌中国通（陈继龙编译） Jan 18th 2007 From The Economist print edition NO MATTER what you may be selling, your business in China would be enormous if the Chinese who are meant to buy your goods would only do so. （1）This observation about the perils of doing business in China should be uppermost in the thoughts of every hopeful foreign executive whose plane touches down on the mainland today. Yet it was first made 70 years ago, by Carl Crow, perhaps the orig inal “old China hand” and author of one of the most influential and amusing books on how to sell to the Chinese—his 1937 bestseller, “Four Hundred Million Customers”. 如果那些能买你东西的中国人真的买了的话，那么不管你是卖什么的，你在中国的业务都将是巨大的。这句话描述了在中国经商的危险性，对于今天每一位满怀期望来到中国内地的外国经理主管人员而言，这可能是他们最先想到的一句话。首次发此感言的人是70年前的卡尔?克罗，他大概是最早的“老中国通”，其所著《4亿消费者》也是关于如何在中国经商的最具有影响力和最有意思的作品之一，并成为1937年的畅销书。 The lessons Crow drew from observing Western companies in China, first as a journalist and newspaper publisher and then as an advertising executive in
《经济学家》读译参考（99）：印度经济过热－欲赶超中国必先深化 The world economy 世界经济 India overheats 印度经济过热（陈继龙编译） Feb 1st 2007 From The Economist print edition India cannot run as fast as China without further reform 不深化改革，印度就无法赶上中国 THE Indian tiger is on the prowl[1].（1）This week, in an apt piece of symbolism, Tata Steel, which dates back to the days of the Raj, leapt into the league of top producers when it bought Britain's Corus, which includes the steelmaking remnants of the old imperial power. Nor is Tata alone: younger Indian companies such as Infosys and Wipro are storming international markets.Meanwhile, the world's business people and investors queue up to lavish money on India's talented engineers and computer scientists, 印度这只老虎正在四处觅食（寻找投资机会）。本周，塔塔钢铁集团（Tata Steel）收购了英国科鲁斯（Corus）集团，一跃成为世界最大钢铁制造商之一。塔塔创立于英帝国殖民统治时代（Raj），而科鲁斯又是古老的英帝国钢铁制造业历史的仅存见证，因而这次并购案具有很好的象征意义。塔塔公司并非特例——印度新生代企业如Infosys和Wipro都在抢占国际市场。与此同时，世界企业人和投资者也纷纷把钱“砸”在才华横溢的印度工程师和计算机专家身上。 The roar from Delhi is echoing across Asia. After peevish[2] years cast as China's underperforming neighbour, the huntress is now in hot pursuit. Over the past year the Indian economy has grown by an impressive 9.2%, not far behind China's 10.4%. At some point this year India's growth rate could even outpace China's; and if you measure things by purchasing power parity, India should soon overtake Japan and become the third-biggest economy, behind only America and China. 德里的热闹传遍了亚洲。印度这个“捕猎者”作为中国的近邻，多年来一直表现不佳，心情急躁，如今正奋起直追。过去一年印度经济显著增长，达9.2%，接近于中国的10.4%。在一定的时期内印度今年的增长速度甚至可能超过中国；如果按购买力平价（purchasing power parity, PPP）计算，印度很快就会超过日本，成为仅次于美国和中国的世界第三大经济体。 （2）No wonder an increasing number of Indian businessmen, policymakers and economists are basking[3] in the belief that their country is burning bright having at last broken free of its bureaucratic cage. An economy once famous for the “Hindu rate of growth”, of 3% a year, was opened up by the reforms of the 1990s, many of them pushed through by the man who is now prime minister, Manmohan Singh. His government's latest five-year plan assumes that India can sustain average growth of 9%. Who can doubt “Incredible India”, to borrow the slogan of its tourism campaign? 很显然，印度越来越多的商人、决策人士和经济学家满以为他们国家彻底摆脱了官僚主义的束缚，形势一片大好。这个曾经以“印度式发展速度”（即每年3%）著称的经济体，从上世纪90年代开始进行改革开放，其中很多改革
TEXT 24 Love thine enemy 爱你的敌人（陈继龙 编译） May 18th 2006 | WASHINGTON, DC From The Economist print edition AMERICA's churches are nothing if not nimble[1]. You might think that they would be up in arms[2] about “The Da Vinci Code(1)”. Dan Brown's novel has sold well over 40m copies in 44 languages; the film version of the novel, which is being r_________① around the world on May 19th, will reach millions more; and yet Mr Brown's message is about as heretical as you can get.“The Da Vinci Code” holds that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and fathered a daughter; that the Bible was put together by a fourth-century Roman emperor with a thing against women; that the Catholic Church is a criminal conspiracy. 美国的教堂脑筋极为灵活。（“nothing if not”一般用于强调某人 或某物的品质“尤其……”，“极为……”）也许你以为他们将与 《达·芬奇密码》干戈相向了。丹·布朗这部小说十分畅销， 已经被翻译成44种语言，印数超过4000万册；根据小说改 编的电影5月19日将在全球首映，必定引得更多人瞩目。 然而，从布朗的小说中你所能看到的不外乎是一种异教论。 《达·芬奇密码》认为，耶稣娶玛丽·玛德琳娜为妻，生了 一个女儿；《圣经》是四世纪一位罗马皇帝（即君士坦丁） 怀着对女性敌视的思想捏造出来的；天主教堂隐藏着一个犯罪阴谋。 Roman Catholics are c_________②up in arms. The Vatican has urged the faithful to boycott the film. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched a documentary and a website, https://www.doczj.com/doc/171591281.html,. The American Society for the Defence of Tradition, Family and Property is organising prayer-vigils[3] at cinemas. The film is the most flagrant[4] example of American anti-Catholicism, some say, since the Know Nothings(2) of the 19th century. 罗马天主教肯定是要怒目以对的。梵蒂冈罗马教廷已经敦促信徒们抵制这部电影。美国天主教主教集会发布了一部纪录片，并推出一个网站（https://www.doczj.com/doc/171591281.html,）。美国传统、家庭与财产保护协会正组织在电影院举行静坐守夜抗议活动。有人说，该片是自19世纪的“一无所知党”以来，美国反天主教最为明目张胆的例证。 But many other Christians, particularly evangelicals[5], are taking a different approach. For them the film provides a golden opportunity to get people talking about Christian subjects. Some churches are giving away tickets along with Starbucks v_________③to encourage post-film discussion. The Campus Crusade for Christ has printed 1m copies of its guide to the code. This Sunday, thousands of preachers across the country will be addressing Mr Brown's book. 不过，其他许多基督教徒，尤其是福音信仰者的反应却迥然不同。他们认为，这部影片为争取基督教成为人们的中心话题提供了一个千载难逢的机遇（译者按：“golden opportunity”意为“绝好的机会”）。有些教会正把
TEXT 8 Ready, fire, aim 预备！开火！瞄准！！ Feb 16th 2006 From The Economist print edition Foreword：A vice-president, a ★quail[1] and the first glimmer of class warfare in hunting 引言：一位副总统，一只鹌鹑，等级矛盾第一次在打猎中凸现。 POLITICALGRA VEY https://www.doczj.com/doc/171591281.html, is （1）a goldmine for both trivia addicts and congenital time-wasters.▲ Do you want to find out about American politicians who were killed in duels (17 a______①_____ to the site)? Or about politicians who were murdered (86)? Or politicians who have been to outer space (6)? Or politicians who died while hunting or fishing (14)? Just point and click. But as yet the site doesn't have an entry for politicians who almost kill the poor ★ saps[2] they are hunting or fishing with. 对于喜欢捕风捉影的人和那些天生爱好浪费时间 的人而言，政治墓园网站（https://www.doczj.com/doc/171591281.html,） 是一个极佳去处。您想知道有多少美国政治家在决斗中丧生吗（该网站认为是17人）？有多少政治家遭谋杀（86人）？有多少政治家曾去过外太空（6人）？又有多少政治家在打猎或钓鱼时不幸身亡（14人）？点击便知。不过迄今为止，有关那些差点杀死同去狩猎或者钓鱼的“可怜虫”的政治家人数，这家网站还没有登记。 No doubt （2）the good people ▲at politicalgraveyard will soon update their site. Ever since Dick Cheney took aim at a quail on February 11th and hit a 78-year-old lawyer i_________②, America has been talking of little else. This is not only because Mr Cheney's tragicomic accident seemed to sum up his style of shooting first and asking questions later (hence a torrent of jokes about Mr Cheney's insistence that he was right to shoot despite the failure to find quail in the bushes). It is also because he handled the incident with astonishing ★ineptitude[3]. 政治墓园网站指定要更新他们的网页了。2月11日，迪克?切尼瞄准一只鹌鹑，结果却击中一位78岁的律师。自那以后美国人无不对此议论纷纷。切尼先生令人啼笑皆非的遭遇，似乎充分表明他惯于先斩后奏（因此这事也一时传为笑柄，都说他有权开枪射击，即便是灌木丛中没有鹌鹑），不过人们关注的焦点并非仅此而已，他在处置这一突发事件中所表现出来的无能也让人感到惊讶。 Harry Whittington's wounds were s________③: he was pepper-sprayed in the face, neck, chest and rib cage, and rushed to intensive care. But Mr Cheney didn't bother to tell the public that their vice-president had ★winged[4] a lawyer until the next day (when he got his host to phone her local paper, the ★Corpus Christi[5] Caller-Times) and he didn't give a television interview until February 15th, a day after his v_________④suffered a mild heart attack. As one ally puts it, “（3）Dick is beyond PR.”▲ 哈里?惠廷顿伤得不轻，面、颈、胸和胁部都被散弹击中，当时已立即被送往重症救护中心。不过切尼却直到事发次日才不情愿地告知公众，他们的副总统开枪误伤了一名律师（他让牧场女主人打电话给当地的《圣餐号召者时报》透露实情），并且直到2月15日（也就是事发后第四天）才接受电视采访，而此时受