经济学人经济类文章精选3

What went wrong

IN RECENT months many economists and policymakers, including such unlikely bedfellows as Paul Krugman, an economist and New York Times columnist, and Hank Paulson, a former American treasury secretary, have put “global imbalances”—the huge current-account surpluses run by countries like China, alongside America’s huge deficit—at the root of the financial crisis. But the IMF disagrees. It argues, in new papers released on Friday March 6th, that the “main culprit” was deficient regulation of t he financial system, together with a failure of market discipline. Olivier Blanchard, the IMF's chief economist, said this week that global imbalances contributed only “indirectly” to the crisis. This may sound like buck-passing by the world’s main interna tional macroeconomic organisation. But the distinction has important consequences for whether macroeconomic policy or more regulation of financial markets will provide the solutions to the mess.

In broad strokes, the global imbalances view of the crisis argues that a glut of money from countries with high savings rates, such as China and the oil-producing states, came flooding into America. This kept interest rates low and fuelled the credit boom and the related boom in the prices of assets, such as houses and equity, whose collapse precipitated the financial crisis. A workable long-term fix for the problems of the world economy would, therefore, involve figuring out what to do about these imbalances.

But the IMF argues that imbalances could not have caused the crisis without the creative ability of financial institutions to develop new structures and instruments to cater to investors’ demand for higher yields. These instruments turned out to be more risky than they appeared. Investors, overly optimistic about continued rises in asset prices, did not look closely into the nature of the assets that they bought, preferring to rely on the analysis of credit-rating agencies which were, in some cases, also selling advice on how to game the ratings system. This “failure of market discipline”, the fund argues, played a big role in the crisis.

As big a problem, according to the IMF, was that financial regulation was flawed, ineffective and too limited in scope. What it calls the “shadow banking system”—the loosely regulated but highly interconnected network of investment banks, hedge funds, mortgage originators, and the like—was not subject to the sorts of prudential regulation (capital-adequacy norms, for example) that applied to banks.

In part, the fund argues, this was because they were not thought to be systemically important, in the sense that banks were understood to be. But their being unregulated made it more attractive for banks (whose affiliates the non-banks often were) to evade capital requirements by pushing risk into these entities. In time, this network of institutions grew so large that they were indeed systemically important: in the now-familiar phrase, they were “too big” or “too interconnected” to fail. By late 2007, some estimates of the assets of the bank-like institutions in America outside the scope of existing prudential regulation, was around $10 trillion, as large as the assets of the regulated American banking system itself.

Given this interpretation, it is not surprising that the IMF has thrown its weight strongly behind an enormous increase in the scale and scope of financial regulation in a series of papers leading up to the G20 meetings. Among many other proposals, it wants the shadow banking system to be subjected to the same sorts of prudential requirements that banks must follow. Sensibly, it is calling for regulation to concentrate on what an institution does, not what it is called (that is, the basis of regulation should be activities, not entities). It also wants regulators to focus more broadly on

things that contribute to systemic risk (leverage, funding and interconnectedness), the significance of which was probably under-appreciated until the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the subsequent chaos. And there is much more to be done, it suggests, involving cross-border banking, disclosure requirements, indices of systemic risk and international co-operation.

Yet there is an underlying inconsistency here. The IMF’s version of “how it all happened” is a classic example of institutions gaming the regulatory system. It is impossible to anticipate all the possible ways in which regulations can be evaded. And while the wisdom of hindsight may make it appear blindingly obvious that non-bank financial institutions could become large enough to pose a risk to the entire system, clearly this was not apparent to policymakers at the time. Increasing the scope of regulation may well prevent the precise problems that led to this crisis from recurring in the same way, but nothing stops financiers from finding ways to evade the plethora of regulations that the fund is proposing. It is hard to shoot a moving target.

And what about those pesky imbalances? The IMF’s view, broadly speaking, is that without excessive risk-taking by financial institutions, which was aided by the absence of regulation, imbalances would not by themselves have caused the meltdown. But equally, without the flood of money seeking returns, the risky financial instruments that the IMF is blaming for increasing systemic risk may not hav e grown and posed the risk that they did. Some blame the IMF’s policies during the Asian crisis for spurring countries in the region to build up enormous reserves. That may offer part of the explanation for why the Fund has come down so strongly on one side of the debate. Household chores

THERE are two radically different tales doing the rounds about HSBC, Europe’s biggest lender by market value. The first says that HSBC, deep down, is still an emerging-markets operation run by rugged types who disdain the sorcery of modern finance. Under the temporary grip of an evil spell in 2003 they bought Household, an American consumer-credit firm that then haemorrhaged losses. On March 2nd they snapped out of it. HSBC’s chairman acknowledged that it was “an acquisitio n we wish we had not undertaken”, wrote off its cost and promised to run down its book of dodgy loans. Having opened its heart, HSBC felt able to lower its dividend and raise its core tier-one capital ratio to 8.5%, above those of JPMorgan Chase (6.4%) and Santander (7.2%), two more of the Western world’s biggest banks also vying for the title of the safest one.

Against this there is a horror story. It says that HSBC’s definition of capital excludes mark-to-market losses on asset-backed securities (ABS). Furthermore, particularly demanding critics say that it also excludes mark-to-market losses on its loan book. Like almost all banks, HSBC carries these at book value and impairs as customers default. However, include both these items and the core tier-one ratio would drop to just 2%. Treating loan books on the same basis, JPMorgan would be at 5% and many other banks would be insolvent.

This would suggest that HSBC is in fact poorly capitalised, and needs to raise even more equity. The alternative, advocated by, among others, Knight Vinke, an activist investor, would be to cut loose Household, which HSBC does not legally guarantee and which accounts for just over half of the additional mark-to-market losses. Household’s credit spreads are much higher than HSBC’s, suggesting that investors think this is possible, despite HSBC’s verb al assurances to the contrary. Which story is right? Given the risk of litigation, the reputational hit and the fact that HSBC has itself loaned Household some $13.5 billion, its mark-to-market loss would have to get a lot worse before HSBC was prepared to let it default. And like many banks, HSBC argues that there is at least some chance mark-to-market losses overstate the ultimate impairments it will face. The ABS loss

has been very volatile, doubling in six months and stands at ten times HSBC’s “stress test” estimate of the probable hit. The mark-to-market loss on Household’s loan book is double what optimistic analysts think the likely ultimate impairment will be.

Pleading that fair-value accounting is cruel is hardly unique, but what makes HSBC’s position more credible than most is that it has the capacity to wait and see. Its funding position is excellent with deposits exceeding loans, reducing its dependence on wholesale markets. And the core business continues to generate lots of pre-provision earnings. If spread out over several years, the bank could absorb the hit from Household implied by the mark to-market valuation without damaging its capital.

Indeed the real moral of the tale is different. Compared with other banks HSBC is protected by its big deposit base and its profitability. It looks therefore as if investors will back the rights issue. Others do not have even that comfort.

Slash and burn

IT FELT like death by a thousand cuts. Already this month has seen plenty to rattle stockmarkets, from dreadful economic news to the continuing bloodshed at American International Group, an insurer. Commodity firms were given a reprieve on March 4th by hopes of a big stimulus package in China—though all they got was reaffirmation of the country’s 8% growth target. Meanwhile, a new fear haunts the markets: the mounting number of firms slashing their dividends.

That banks and insurance companies will chop their payments is now understood, but the pain has spread. General Electric (GE) has cut its dividend for the first time in 71 years, Dow Chemical for the first time since 1912. In Europe previously reliable payers like Telecom Italia and Anglo-American, a mining firm, have reduced their payouts, and even BP has said it cannot increase its dividend at today’s oil prices. Income investors were left to ponder Eurotunnel, the operator of the rail link between France and Britain, which will pay the first dividend since its creation in 1986. Its $9m may buy a few tissues for those mourning the loss of $9 billion of annual payouts from GE alone.

Based on experience since the second world war, investors had cause to be more optimistic. Although stock prices and earnings move up and down violently, dividends have been more reliable, typically falling from the peak of a cycle to its trough by only one-tenth in real terms. Furthermore, the share of American earnings paid out as dividends has declined from a post-war peak of almost two-thirds to about one-third in 2007, with many firms preferring stock buybacks (which have now ground to a halt). That should have given companies a bigger buffer.

Unfortunately other structural trends worked against income-lovers. Firms’ debt levels rose, increasing the volatility of earnings. And the quality of the profits fell. Financial companies contributed about one-third of the $736 billion of dividends paid globally by quoted firms in 2007. Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency, reckons that dividends in America could fa ll by about a quarter this year—the steepest drop since 1938. Even this may understate the decline. Financial firms’ payouts will collapse—even relatively well capitalised banks like JPMorgan Chase have reduced their dividends. And more of the industrial firms that make up the other two-thirds of total dividends will cut too. Pessimists point to 1931-35, when dividends per share in America fell by 45% from peak to trough.

For many firms dividend cuts are an unpleasant task that should not be shirked. There is no point in starving a business and endangering a firm’s balance-sheet in order to meet macho dividend commitments. The counter-argument, that cuts remove an important discipline on managers, hardly

holds true today, when all firms are counting the pennies. That being so, when firms announced cuts why did their share prices slump? The reason has a lot to do with signalling.

A share’s value must be the present value of all future dividends—otherwise stockmarkets would be a giant Ponzi scheme. But in theory shareholders should not care whether dividends are paid out today or later. Just as taking money out of a cash machine does not make you richer, nor does extracting cash from a firm you own. Investors who need income to meet pension payments, for example, can raise it just as well by selling a small part of their holdings instead of receiving dividends. It is true that dividends, rather than capital appreciation, have provided a big chunk of long-term equity returns. But this partly reflects the choice of firms to pay out a big chunk of their earnings. Had they paid out less, capital appreciation would, in theory, have been commensurately higher.

The main reason why investors are worried is that dividends are a guide to managers’ views of when earnings might reach their trough: they do not want to pay the dividend out of borrowing, or worse, cut it again. Occasionally this floor is breached—in 1933 American earnings per share dropped below dividends. Today, GE has cut its quarterly dividend from 31 cents per share to ten cents. That is partly to reduce gearing, but also suggests managers’ low confidence in analysts’ forecasts for earnings of about 30 cents. Likewise if American dividends fall by a third from their recent peak, then—assuming they set a floor for profits—earnings would bottom out at about two-thirds below the level of 2007. That would be a drop on a par with the 1930s and far below most forecasts. An overblown scenario perhaps, but the scare over dividends suggests that many investors are still too optimistic.

What went wrong

最近几个月，许多经济学家和决策者们，包括一些意见不太可能的一致的家伙：例如纽约时报专栏作者，经济学家保罗?克鲁格曼和美国前财长汉克?保尔森，都一致认为“全球失衡”——像中国一样的一些国家拥有巨大的经常账户盈余，而美国却有着巨额的赤字——是这次金融危机的根源所在。但是国际货币基金组织却与上述观点相左。在其周五（3月6日）发布的最新论文中，国际货币基金组织认为金融危机的“罪魁祸首”是金融系统的监管不足和市场纪律的失败。国际货币基金组织首席经济学家Olivier Blanchard本周表示，全球失衡仅是此次危机的间接原因。这听起来好像这个国际宏观经济组织在推诿责任。然而这个争论却非常重要，因为它决定着究竟是宏观经济政策还是更多的金融市场监管会对解决当前危机起到作用。大体来说，全球失衡导致危机的观点认为那些资金过剩的国家，像高储蓄率的中国和富产石油的国家将其资金大量地注入了美国。这导致了低利率和信贷泡沫，从而诱发了房产和股市泡沫，而正是房产和股市泡沫的破裂导致了这场金融危机。因此，处理现在危机的一项长期可行的措施必须包括如何处理这个全球失衡的问题。

但是国际货币基金组织认为，如果没有那些富于创新能力的金融机构创造出那么多的新的金融工具来迎合投资者高收益的需求，全球失衡也不会导致这场危机。最终证明，那些金融工具远比其表面看起来危险的多。过度期望资产价格持续上升的投资者没有看清楚其购买资产的本质，而是更倾向于那些评级机构的研究。有些时候，这些评级机构也出售戏弄[蒙骗]评级系统的点子。国际货币基金组织认为，这些“市场纪律的失败”在危机中扮演了重要的角色。根据国际货币基金组织所言，金融监管的缺陷、无效和范围局限是个巨大的问题。它所说的“影子银行体系”——管理松懈但是却与投资银行，对冲基金，抵押机构以及其它类似的组织关系密切的银行系统——并没有受到一些适用于银行的严谨监管规则（例如资本充足标准）的监督。

某种程度上来说，国际货币基金组织认为上述规程之所以不被重视是由于其并不被认为是有

着系统性的重要性，像银行那样的重要。但是恰是由于其未被监管，所以对银行（其下属机构一般是非银行金钩）来说有很大的吸引力——可以用来逃避资本要求而将风险注入这些机构。最终，这个体系越来越大使其拥有系统性的重要性：用一个非常时髦的词来说就是，他们“太大”或者“太互相关联”了，所以不能使其倒闭。有人预计，到2007年年底，在美国这些类似银行，而不受到严谨规则监管的机构的资产大约有10亿美元，和美国受到监管银行体系的资产一样大。

做了上述解释后，国际货币基金组织自然将其大规模提升金融监管的级别和范围的一系列文章重磅推出，为二十国峰会做准备。作为众多的提议之一，国际货币基金组织建议影子银行体系需要达到与银行相同的严谨规范标准。很明显，它是要求要重点依据一个机构在做什么进行监管，而不是叫什么进行监管（这就是说，监管的根据是其行为而不是其实体身份）。它同时希望监管者更广泛地关注那些增加系统风险的行为（杠杆、融资行为和互相关联性），这些行为在雷曼倒闭以及之后的混乱来临之前都未得到足够重视。现在还有很多事情要做，包括跨境银行行为，信息披露程度，系统风险指数和国际协作。

但是这里有个潜在的基本矛盾。国际货币基金组织的“所有事情如何发生”的版本是个典型的机构践踏监管系统的例子。但是不可能预防所有规则可以被逃避的路径。事后诸葛亮发现非银行金融机构变得足够大给系统带来极大风险，显然政策制定者并不能够先知先觉。增加监管范围会产生精确性差的问题，从而导致危机以同样的方式重新发生，但是没有什么能够阻止金融从业者们去逃避国际货币基金组织所提议的繁冗规则。打中移动靶很难。

而且烦人的全球失衡问题怎么办呢？国际货币基金组织的观点大体来说就是，没有金融机构过度冒险的行为（这也正是监管缺失所致），全球失衡本身不会导致全球金融危机。但是，相对地，没有这些热钱来寻求回报，那些风险极高的金融工具（国际货币基金组织所归咎的，给系统带来极大风险的金融工具）也不会产生。有人批评说，正是国际货币基金组织在上次亚洲金融危机的政策导致那个地区产生庞大的外汇储备。这可能也部分说明了为何国际货币基金组织在此次辩论中如此坚定地站在一边的原因吧。

Household chores

对于欧洲市值最大的借贷商，汇丰银行来说，一直以来有两个风马牛不相及的故事围绕着它，第一个故事是说：实际上汇丰仍然在新兴市场里运营一个不论是谁都会放弃的现代金融的类似巫术般的困难类型的项目。在2003年那段黑暗的时期，他们购买了房产，是一个连美国消费者信贷公司都蒙受巨大损失的项目。在3月2日，他们东山再起，汇丰主席意识到“这是我们希望，却不可能得到的东西”，注销了其成本，并且答应减少不良贷款。事实上，汇丰能够降低他的红利和提升其核心一级资本充足率至8.5%，高于摩根大通的6.4%和桑坦德银行的7.2%。更多西方国家的最大的银行们都在竞争最安全银行的名号。

（除了上面提到的故事），这里有一个恐怖故事，据说汇丰的资本定义是不包含资产证券化过程中的市值损失。此外苛刻的评论家们还说资产定义也不包括贷款项目的市值损失。和几乎大多数的银行一样，汇丰银行将这些损失和贷款人的违约损失一并入账。然而包括这些项目和核心一级比率会降至2%，影响到贷款项目的相同基准，摩根大通大约5%，许多其他银行则相继破产

这暗示汇丰事实上是资本不充裕的，需要提升股本。在很多的投资者中有一位叫Knight Vinke 的提出一种方法，就是割断汇丰不能合法的提供担保并且也是占据额外市值损失高达一半的房产项目。尽管汇丰不能提供书面担保，投资者认为房产的信贷差额高于汇丰估计的可能性很大。

那么那个是对的呢？在给定的法律风险下，名声的打击和汇丰借出房贷，即市值损失高达135亿美元之巨这一事实所造成的恶劣影响，以致其不如让这些借贷者违约所产生的影响要来的小。和很多的银行一样，汇丰认为至少有一些可能使市值损失夸大了他所面临的损失。6个

月内翻倍，或在汇丰压力测试中的可能损失的估计值的10倍，都表明资产证券化的损失是不稳定的。房贷项目的市值损失是乐观分析师他们估计的可能最大损失值的2倍。

拜公允价值会计严格之所赐，这几乎不是唯一的。，汇丰银行的地位比大多数银行更可靠的原因是他有能力观望。他的资金条件的优势是储蓄大于借贷，这就减少了对批发市场的依赖，而且他的核心业务不断的产生大量的预先规定的收益。如果储蓄和借贷之间的差额已经持续好几年的话银行就能吸收来自房贷市值损失的冲击，从而避免他的资本受损。

的确，故事的真实道德是不同的。与其他银行不同，汇丰受其庞大的储蓄和高盈利业务的保护，避免损失。因此这看起来似乎投资者要支持增股。其他银行就没有这么好的待遇了。Slash and burn

削减分红的感觉就像被千刀万剐了一样。这个月股市里风声鹤唳，从受到可怕经济消息到不断亏损的美国保险公司，即美国国际集团。尽管中国的目标是保证经济8%的增长，但是在3月4日中国4万亿经济刺激计划推迟对日用品公司的资助。同时，市场又有一个新的忧虑：越来越多的公司削减他们的红利。

银行和保险公司降低他们的红利付款是可以理解的，但是这种情况还在扩散。通用汽车公司71年以来首次削减了红利，这是自1912年以来陶氏化学公司的第一次。在欧洲，过去可靠的付款人，类似意大利电信公司，矿业公司英美资源集团，现已减少了他们的红利支付，甚至是英国石油公司都宣称，以现在的石油价格，他们将不再提高红利。投资者现在不得不去考虑，建造连接英国和法国海底隧道的欧洲隧道公司，因为它会分发红利，当然这也是他自1986年以来的第一次。他的9百万美元仅仅是对通用公司每年90亿美元的花费来说，也仅是杯水车薪。

基于第二次世界大战以来的经验，投资者更有理由自信。尽管股票价格和收益上下波动的很厉害，但是红利是比较稳定可靠的，按实值计算从波峰跌落到波谷也就十分之一的差距。此外发放的红利占每股收益，从战后的三分之二下降到2007年的三分之一，同时许多公司也更偏爱股票回购（现在也已停止）。这应当会给大公司更多的缓冲。

不幸的是，其他很多结构化趋势与收入偏好者们相反。公司债务水平上升，提高了收益的不确定性。利润的质量也在下降。2007年，金融公司捐献了涉及全球公司的7360亿美元分红的三分之一。标准普尔，一家评级公司，估计了今年美国的分红会下降四分之一，这是自1938年以来最大幅度的下降，甚至有可能这还是保守估计。金融公司的支付能力将会崩溃，甚至连资本相对充裕的银行类似摩根大通，也降低了红利发放，更多的公司，他们占股利发放总数的三分之二，都会降低红利。悲观者指出，1931-1935年，这一时期是美国每股红利从高峰跌至低谷，下降45%。

对许多公司削减红利来说，这是无法避免和不愉快的任务。为了满足大量红利承诺，停止业务，并危机公司资产负债表是毫无意义的。当所有公司都在精打细算的时候，削减红利会移除在管理上的基本原则，这一反论点在今天很难说的真确的。当公司宣布削减红利的时候，情况也是一样。那为什么股价下跌什么厉害呢？很大程度上与这些信息有关。

股票的价值是未来所有年金的现值，否则股票市场就是一个旁氏骗局。但是理论上股东并不在乎股利发放的早晚。就像从ATM取钱一样，并不能使你变富，同样撤出你所在公司的资金也不能使你变富。举个例子，需要收入来弥补的投资人，需要提供大量长期的股权收益。假如他们支付的过少，理论上，资本增值会相当的高

投资者担忧的主要原因是红利是职业经理人在收益到达低谷时的观点的一种信号，他们不想从贷款中拿出来支付股利，更糟糕的是，削减红利。有时这层窗户纸还是被捅破了-在1933年在美国，每股收益低于红利。今天，通用汽车公司削减了他的季度红利，从每股31美分下降至10美分。这也不免的降低了资本充足率，这也暗示了职业经理人在对30美分的收益的分析预测中，表示出信心不足。同样的如果美国红利大约下降他们过去顶峰时的三分之一的

话（假定他们对利润都有底线）收益会稳定在低于2007年的三分之二的水平。这种下降幅度会和20世纪30年代的同等的，并且也是远远低于大多数预测。或许一个曾今辉煌过的情节，即对于红利恐惧暗示许多投资者应当更乐观

经济学人经济类文章精选3

What went wrong IN RECENT months many economists and policymakers, including such unlikely bedfellows as Paul Krugman, an economist and New York Times columnist, and Hank Paulson, a former American treasury secretary, have put “global imbalances”—the huge current-account surpluses run by countries like China, alongside America’s huge deficit—at the root of the financial crisis. But the IMF disagrees. It argues, in new papers released on Friday March 6th, that the “main culprit” was deficient regulation of t he financial system, together with a failure of market discipline. Olivier Blanchard, the IMF's chief economist, said this week that global imbalances contributed only “indirectly” to the crisis. This may sound like buck-passing by the world’s main interna tional macroeconomic organisation. But the distinction has important consequences for whether macroeconomic policy or more regulation of financial markets will provide the solutions to the mess. In broad strokes, the global imbalances view of the crisis argues that a glut of money from countries with high savings rates, such as China and the oil-producing states, came flooding into America. This kept interest rates low and fuelled the credit boom and the related boom in the prices of assets, such as houses and equity, whose collapse precipitated the financial crisis. A workable long-term fix for the problems of the world economy would, therefore, involve figuring out what to do about these imbalances. But the IMF argues that imbalances could not have caused the crisis without the creative ability of financial institutions to develop new structures and instruments to cater to investors’ demand for higher yields. These instruments turned out to be more risky than they appeared. Investors, overly optimistic about continued rises in asset prices, did not look closely into the nature of the assets that they bought, preferring to rely on the analysis of credit-rating agencies which were, in some cases, also selling advice on how to game the ratings system. This “failure of market discipline”, the fund argues, played a big role in the crisis. As big a problem, according to the IMF, was that financial regulation was flawed, ineffective and too limited in scope. What it calls the “shadow banking system”—the loosely regulated but highly interconnected network of investment banks, hedge funds, mortgage originators, and the like—was not subject to the sorts of prudential regulation (capital-adequacy norms, for example) that applied to banks. In part, the fund argues, this was because they were not thought to be systemically important, in the sense that banks were understood to be. But their being unregulated made it more attractive for banks (whose affiliates the non-banks often were) to evade capital requirements by pushing risk into these entities. In time, this network of institutions grew so large that they were indeed systemically important: in the now-familiar phrase, they were “too big” or “too interconnected” to fail. By late 2007, some estimates of the assets of the bank-like institutions in America outside the scope of existing prudential regulation, was around $10 trillion, as large as the assets of the regulated American banking system itself. Given this interpretation, it is not surprising that the IMF has thrown its weight strongly behind an enormous increase in the scale and scope of financial regulation in a series of papers leading up to the G20 meetings. Among many other proposals, it wants the shadow banking system to be subjected to the same sorts of prudential requirements that banks must follow. Sensibly, it is calling for regulation to concentrate on what an institution does, not what it is called (that is, the basis of regulation should be activities, not entities). It also wants regulators to focus more broadly on

2019经济学人考研英文文章阅读八十五

Leopard seals share their suppers 豹海豹会分享它们的晚餐 Bad news if you are a penguin 假如你是一只企鹅，这真是个坏消息 Leopard seals resemble their terrestrial namesakes in two ways.They have polka-dot pelts.And they are powerful,generally solitary carnivores that are quite capable of killing a human being if they so choose—as has indeed happened once,in2003,when a British marine biologist was the victim. 豹海豹与生活在陆地上的同名动物（豹）有着两点相似之处。其一，它们的皮毛上都有着圆点花纹。其二，它们都是强大的独栖性食肉动物，只要它们愿意，是完全有能力杀死一个人的——正如2003年真实发生的那样，当时一位英国海洋生物学家就成了受害者。 Curiously,though,there have also been reports of leopard seals behaving in a friendly manner towards people—apparently trying to present gifts,in the form of prey,to divers. 但奇怪的是，也有报道称豹海豹对人类表现得十分友好——它们很显然把猎物作为礼物赠送给了潜水员。 Until now,there has been no explanation for this philanthropy.But work just published in Polar Biology by James Robbins of Plymouth University, in Britain,suggests that what the seals are actually looking for is a dining partner.

经典文章摘抄

经典文章摘抄 经典文章摘抄 经典文章摘抄，能够哭就好，哭是开始痊愈的象征，以下的经典文章摘抄范文，很值得阅读哦。 经典文章摘抄【1】 1、生命从来不是公平的，得到多少，便要靠那个多少做到最好，努力的生活下去。《我们不是天使》 2、聪明人，无谓争意气。《连环》 3、爱一个人决不潇洒，为自己留了后步的，也就不是爱《星之碎片》 4、一个成熟的人往往发觉可以责怪的人越来越少，人人都有他的难处。《我们不是天使》 5、能够说出的委屈，便不算委屈;能够抢走的爱人，便不算爱人。《开到荼蘼》 6、行乐及时，上天给你什么，就享受什么。千万不要去听难堪的话，一定不去见难看的人。或者是做难做的事情，爱上不应爱的人。《电光幻影》 7、人一定要受过伤才会沉默专注，无论是心灵或肉体上的创伤，对成长都有益处。《花解语》 8、要生活得漂亮，需要付出极大忍耐，一不抱怨，二不解释，绝对是个人才。《变形记》

9、结婚与恋爱毫无关系，人们老以为恋爱成熟后便自然而然的结婚，却不知结婚只是一种生活方式，人人可以结婚，简单得很。爱情????完全是另外一回事。《我的前半生》 10、做一个女人要做得像一副画，不要做一件衣裳，被男人试完了又试，却没人买，试残了旧了，五折抛售还有困难。《喜宝》 11、何必向不值得的人证明什么，生活得更好，乃是为你自己。《忽而今夏》 12、麻烦来找你，你才去应付它，如不，任它沉睡《花解语》 13、我也想清楚了，婚姻根本就是那么一回事，再恋爱得轰动，三五年之后，也就烟消云散，下班后大家扭开电视一齐看长篇连续剧，人生是这样的。《独身女人》 14、做人要含蓄点，得过且过，不必斤斤计较，水清无鱼，人清无徒，谁又不跟谁一辈子，一些事放在心中算了。《蔷薇泡沫》 15、通常吸引男人的是这种冷漠，但是男人终于娶的是仰慕他的女人，没才干的女人靠嫁人过活，有本事的女人靠自己过活。《城市故事》 16、最佳的报复不是仇恨，而是打心底发出的冷淡，干嘛花力气去恨一个不相干的人。《我的前半生》 17、能够哭就好，哭是开始痊愈的象征。《绝对是个梦》

经济学人科技类文章中英双语

The Brain Activity Map 绘制大脑活动地图 Hard cell 棘手的细胞 An ambitious project to map the brain is in the works. Possibly too ambitious 一个绘制大脑活动地图的宏伟计划正在准备当中，或许有些太宏伟了 NEWS of what protagonists hope will be America’s next big science project continues to dribble out. 有关其发起人心中下一个科学大工程的新闻报道层出不穷。 A leak to the New York Times, published on February 17th, let the cat out of the bag, with a report that Barack Obama’s administration is thinking of sponsoring what will be known as the Brain Activity Map. 2月17日，《纽约时报》刊登的一位线人报告终于泄露了秘密，报告称奥巴马政府正在考虑赞助将被称为“大脑活动地图”的计划。 And on March 7th several of those protagonists published a manifesto for the project in Science. 3月7日，部分发起人在《科学》杂志上发表声明证实了这一计划。 The purpose of BAM is to change the scale at which the brain is understood. “大脑活动地图”计划的目标是改变人们在认知大脑时采用的度量方法。 At the moment, neuroscience operates at two disconnected levels. 眼下，神经学的研究处在两个断开的层次。 The higher one, where the dimensions of features are measured in centimetres, has many techniques at its disposal, notably functional magnetic-res onance imaging, which measures changes in tissues’ fuel consumption. 在相对宏观的层次当中各个特征的规模用厘米来衡量，有很多技术可以使用，尤其是用来测量组织中能量消耗变动情况的核磁共振成像技术。 This lets researchers see which bits of the brain are active in particular tasks—as long as those tasks can be performed by a person lying down inside a scanner. 该技术可使研究人员找出在完成具体的任务时，大脑的哪些部分处于活跃状态。At the other end of the scale, where features are measured in microns, lots of research has been done on how individual nerve cells work, how messages are sent from one to another, and how the connections between cells strengthen and weaken as memories are formed. 而另一个度量的层次则要求用微米来测量各种特征，这一层次的研究很多都是关于单个神经细胞是如何工作的、信息在神经细胞之间是如何传递的以及当产生记忆的时候神经细胞之间的联系是如何得到加强和减弱的。 Between these two, though, all is darkness. 然而，位于这两个层次之间的研究还处于一片漆黑当中。 It is like trying to navigate America with an atlas that shows the states, the big cities and the main highways, and has a few street maps of local neighbourhoods, but displays nothing in between.

考研英语经济学人文章阅读训练2020021502

Youngsters’job preferences and prospects are mismatched 年轻人的工作偏好与就业前景不相匹配 Teenage picks 青少年的选择 The world of work is changing.Are people ready for the new job outlook? A survey of15-year-olds across41countries by the OECD,a club of mostly rich countries,found that teenagers may have unrealistic expectations about the kind of work that will be available. 职业的世界正在发生变化。人们做好准备接受新的就业观了吗？世界经合组织（一个以发达国家为主的组织）对41个国家的15岁青少年进行了一项调查，结果发现青少年对于未来可能从事的工作抱有不切实际的期望。 Four of the five most popular choices were traditional professional roles: doctors,teachers,business managers and lawyers. Teenagers clustered around the most popular jobs,with the top ten being chosen by47%of boys and53%of girls.Those shares were significantly higher than when the survey was conducted back in2000. 在五个最受欢迎的职业选择中有四个是传统的职业角色：医生、教师、企业经理和律师。青少年对于最受欢迎工作的选择呈现了聚集性，有47％的男孩和53％的女孩选择了排在前十位的职业。这一比例显著高于2000年调查时的水平。 The rationale for this selection was partly down to wishful thinking on the part of those surveyed(designers,actors and musical performers were three of the top15jobs).Youth must be allowed a bit of hope. 受访者做出这一选择往往是出于自己的一厢情愿（最受欢迎的15个职业中有3个分别是设计师、演员和歌手）。我们必须给年轻人一点希望。

高中英语 【高考阅读拔高训练】精选外刊篇章解析 经济学人：Rural education in China

经济学人：中国乡村教育 写在前面的话： 篇章阅读一直是高考英语拉分重点，也是同学们一直头疼的问题。对于阅读部分，同学们一方面要掌握答题技巧，扩充词汇量，另一方面也要拓展自己的阅读面，尤其是阅读一些外刊原文，体会英文地道表达和文章结构的呈现方式。虽然一开始会很难，但是长期坚持下去，阅读能力就会有质的提升！ 对于本资料的使用： 如果你是阅读一般，平时不能完全看懂文章，答题正确率较低的同学，先不要阅读原文，直接阅读每个段落的词汇详解部分，打好词汇基础。然后看每个段落的句子分析，再打开本文，进行阅读，回顾词汇及句子分析，感受原文风采。 如果你是阅读能力强，词汇储备量高，答题正确率高的同学，可直接阅读本篇外刊文章，挑战自己，尽最大能力去理解文章中的句子含义，了解文章大意。之后再看下面的词汇详细介绍，查缺补漏。如此，进一步提升自己的阅读能力，强化语言实力。 So, are you ready now ? Let's read it! 篇章总览 来源：本文来自经济学人2017.4.15. 主要内容：中国乡村教育现状。 语言特点：中国特色表达；高频中等词汇；写作亮点短语；固定搭配短语；熟词僻义。Rural education in China ：Separate and unequal Last year some images spread on the internet in China. They showed children descending an 800-metre (2,600-foot) rock face on rickety ladders made of vines, wood and rusty metal. Their destination: school. The photographer was told by a local official that "seven or eight" people had died after losing their grip. Yet the children did this regularly—there is no school at the top of the mountain in Sichuan province where they live. The photographs conveyed two striking aspects of life in the Chinese countryside: a hunger for education so strong that children will risk their lives for it, and a lack of government attention to the needs of rural students. In many ways, education in China is improving. Since 2000 the annual tally of students graduating from university has increased nearly eightfold, to more than 7.5 million. But many rural students are neglected by China's school system, and they are not the only ones. So too are the children of migrants who have moved to the cities from the countryside and poor students who want to go to senior high school. This is not only unfair; it is also counterproductive. China faces a demographic crunch: its workforce is shrinking and it can no longer depend on cheap, low-skilled migrant labour to

《经济学人》科技类文章整合

Autism? 自闭症 Why it's not “Rain Woman”? 为什么它不是“雨女” Women have fewer cognitive disorders than men do because their bodies are better at ignoring the mutations which cause them? 与男性相比，患有认知障碍的女性较少，因为她们自身的身体能更好的忽略导致认知障碍的基因突变 AUTISM is a strange condition. Sometimes its symptoms of “social blindness”(an inability to read or comprehend the emotions of others) occur alone. This is dubbed high-functioning autism, or Asperger's syndrome. Though their fellow men and women may regard them as a bit odd, high-functioning autists are often successful (sometimes very successful) members of society. On other occasions, though, autism manifests as part of a range of cognitive problems. Then, the condition is debilitating. What is common to those on all parts of the so-called autistic spectrum is that they are more often men than women —so much more often that one school of thought suggests autism is an extreme manifestation of what it means, mentally, to be male. Boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls are. For high-functioning autism, the ratio is seven to one.?

经典散文经典文章大全

携一份美好幽居禅意里 清晨醒来，打开窗帘，一抹慵懒的阳光照进来，暖暖的，柔柔的，时光瞬间变得温婉静美，打开音乐，沏一杯花茶，躺在床上，暖阳淼淼，茶香淡淡，音乐袅袅，闭上眼睛，嘴角轻轻上扬，算是对着光阴的镜子，和自己撒个娇。 时钟滴答滴答，一秒一秒的走着，毫无表情，不缓不急，过去了就是过去了，或许，有很多事情，我们会缅怀，会留恋，会铭刻，会珍藏，但那还是属于过去，还是被盖上了刻有“曾经”两字的印章，来不及细思量，来不及描绘，来不及逗留，转瞬即逝，洒下一地落英碎碎念，留下一串心语声声慢。生命只是时间中的一个停顿，一切的意义都只在它发生的那一时刻，如果可以，不要等！ 人生没有预定的轨迹，一切都在不确定中前行，你根本就无法预知明天会是什么样，好想把日子过成诗，爱为主题，幸福为背景，思考为主线，微笑为韵脚，日月星辰，花草树木，雨霜雪露为载体，经历和感受为表达方式，想象和幻想为延伸，时光温婉，岁月静好，让生活充满美妙旋律。至于生活中出现的一切不爽就让沉默来掩埋，让雨雪去消融，不论怎样，都不能让灵魂发出惨淡苍白的声音，哪怕是孤独轻影茕茕孑立，也要播一曲梵音，在柔和典雅，清澈湛寂，明净清幽的音乐中，把寂寥坐穿，把浑浊驱散，在心间开出一朵莲。

向往一种回归自然的生活，于心间修篱种菊，在一山一水间领悟悠幽禅意，滋养灵魂，静居幽谷，晨霭缭绕，晚霞轻舞，幽竹拔节，翠林窸窣，溪水潺潺，泉水叮咚，蜂飞蝶舞，鸟语花香，青苔萋萋，煮一壶茶，揽一抹暖阳，铺一卷唐诗宋词，摊一纸素笺，于文字间追寻一份淡然优雅，不去考量对错好坏，不去思忖是非曲直，守望一个不老的传说，典藏一份徜徉在生命里的馈赠，静看烟火悠悠绕山腰，聆听雨声淅沥诉缠绵，悦赏白雪飘飘任逍遥，清风朗月，云卷云舒皆美画，花开花落，风吹叶落尽诗意，只要有爱，世界就不会一片荒凉，只要有情，满眼都是潋滟清波，一路风光旖旎。 菩提本无树，明镜亦非台，本来无一物，何处惹尘埃。空灵的境界，不染世俗，不受困于贪念囹圄。一份真情，种在心田，汲取日月精华，沐浴甘甜雨露，根深叶茂，葱茏浓郁。历经岁月沧桑，风虐霜寒，一年又一年，收了又收，几度轮回，滤掉了浅薄，滤掉了浮华，滤掉了嗔痴，滤掉了怨恨，滤掉了冷漠，剩下的大概就是慈悲了吧！轻如云，重如山，浅如白，深如黑，柔如水，坚如石，如天对地，雨露对花朵，无声无息，无私无欲。电影《致我们终将逝去的青春》里郑微在结尾说过这样一句话：“爱一个人应该像爱祖国，爱山川，爱河流……”咋一听，觉得够矫情，细想锥心不已。爱就是爱了，一个人的事，无关他人，无需回应，无需复返，正如山川的静默不语，河流的奔流不息。需要经过多少沉淀，才会有如此厚重绵延的感悟？有即是无，无即是有，有无之间，一切在心。

经济学人

China in Laos Busted flush How a Sino-Lao special economic zone hit the skids May 26th 2011 | BOTEN, LAOS | from the print edition ?Tweet ? Soon all this will be jungle again AT HOME and abroad, China is a byword for fast-track development, where yesterday’s paddy field is tomorrow’s factory, highway or hotel. Less noticed is that such development can just as quickly go into reverse. Golden City, in Boten, just over the border from China in tiny Laos, is a case in point. When a Hong Kong-registered company signed a 30-year, renewable lease with the Lao government in 2003 to set up a 1,640-hectare special economic zone built with mainland money and expertise, Golden City was touted as a

考研英语经济学人文章阅读训练2020082202

Cloth of gold 一块价值堪比黄金的布 Why the economic value of a face mask is$56.14 为什么说一个口罩的经济价值是56.14美元 After a brutal first six months of the year,governments across the world are hoping for an economic bounce-back.Rich-world GDP fell by about 10%in the first half of2020. 在经历今年上半年的残酷考验后，世界各国政府都期待经济能够触底反弹。2020年上半年，发达国家的GDP下降了约10%。 Yet much has changed since—including that more people are now wearing masks.Economists,obsessed with translating everything into GDP,wonder if more widespread face-covering could help the recovery.然而，自从越来越多的人戴上口罩后，情况发生了显著变化。经济学家痴迷于用GDP来解释一切事物，如今他们想知道，随着更多的人戴上了口罩，经济能否走向复苏。The thinking goes that masks can,in part,substitute for lockdowns. People wearing them need not be discouraged as much from using public transport.More shops and offices might be able to reopen,albeit while practising social distancing. 这种想法基于这样一个逻辑，戴口罩在一定程度上可以代替封锁措施。当人们戴上口罩后，就不必再对公共交通工具进行限制了。更多的商店和办公室也将重新开放，尽管是在保持社交距离的前提下。 Calculations from Goldman Sachs,a bank,suggest that a15 percentage-point rise in the share of the population that wears masks

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经典散文/经典文章大全 各位读友大家好，此文档由网络收集而来，欢迎您下载，谢谢 “漆漆一片间，亮亮一点光。独舞池塘边，伴我入梦乡。” 小时候，我和伙伴们经常念这样的儿歌。我们也都知道儿歌唱的是萤火虫。在空旷的山野里、小院的梧桐树下、村口的柴垛子里、池塘的草丛里、乡野的地畔头，萤火虫是随处可见的。从夏至秋的夜晚，伙伴们成群结队不知疲倦地追随着那些在低空中轻轻飘飞的萤火虫，脸上露出惊喜的神色。我们追啊，赶啊，仿佛小小的萤火虫就是童年黑夜里最明亮的灯光。曾经那样的夜晚不知陪我走过多少，那样的黑夜不知扑捉了多少只萤火虫。时光渐远，那些儿时的往事像珍珠一样，串接在记忆的门扉里至今璀璨夺目。

小时候，我是在乡村度过的。那时候的乡村淳朴得像一幅山水画，人们的生活清净简单，在我心里仿佛是一首纯净的田园牧歌。春种秋收，年复一年。在乡下我们能见到很多种小昆虫，萤火虫是其中最常见的一种。离我家不远处有一方池塘，夏天的时候，池塘边长满了野草，到了晚上，田野里、池塘边的草丛上空萤火虫飞来飞去，就像一个个小小的灯笼，照耀着恬静的乡村。有了这些萤火虫，我们这些顽皮的孩子便有了很多趣事。那时整个村子里只有三台电视机，夏天的晚上，人们常聚在村头的树下，拉拉家常，说说笑话。我们这些孩子便跑到野地里去扑捉那些漫天飞舞的流萤，因看到萤火虫身上的发光体总是让我们感到好玩。我们走在水塘边，看萤火虫的倒影在水中一闪一闪，我们数着天上的星星，也数着水塘上面飞舞的流萤，一只，两只，三只…… 在迷人的夏夜里，我们结伴而行去野外扑捉萤火虫。去之前，妈妈会给我

们准备一个透明的瓶子，我们便蹦蹦跳跳地奔向池塘。晚上，月光明媚、星光灿烂，我们轻快地奔跑着，凉风在耳边呼呼飘过，仿佛在为孩子纯真的梦想助威。许多萤火虫从我们面前飞过，在深蓝的夜空里一闪一闪的，煞是可爱，它们轻盈的身影伴着我们童年的梦一起装进了透明的瓶子里。 我仔细地观察过，那些萤火虫的飞行速度都比较慢，由于时刻发出亮光，所以飞行轨迹十分明显。只要我们发现亮光，十有八九都能扑捉到萤火虫。如果它停息在小树上或草叶上，我们就直接用手去扑捉。因为萤火虫身体娇弱，有时候稍不留意便会把它们捏伤，很快会死掉。那时候，我们只知道玩，压根也不觉得死掉几只萤火虫有什么可怜，反正乡村漫山遍野到处都是，永远也扑不完捉不尽。有时候，我还会荒唐地想：要是萤火虫能像秋蝉的体型那么大该多好，那样我们可以把捉来的萤火虫当电灯使了。

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《经济学家》读译参考（第13篇）：一路繁衍——你知道外来入侵物种吗？ Go forth and multiply 一往无前，生生不息 WHAT makes for a successful invasion? Often, the answer is to have better weapons than the enemy. And, as it is with people, so it is with plants—at least, that is the conclusion of a p_______①published in ★Biology Letters[1] by Naomi Cappuccino, of Carleton University, and Thor Arnason, of the University of Ottawa, both in Canada. 怎样才能成功入侵？答案常常是：拥有比敌人更好的武器。人是这样，植物也是如此——至少，《生物书简》上发表的一篇论文是这么认为的，作者是来自加拿大加里敦大学的纳奥米?卡普奇诺和渥太华大学的索尔?阿纳森。 The phenomenon of alien species ★popping up[2] in unexpected parts of the world has grown over the past few d________② as people and goods become more mobile and （1）?plant seeds and animal larvae have ★hitched[3] along for the ride?. Most such aliens blend into the ecosystem in which they arrive without too much fuss. (Indeed, many probably fail to establish themselves at all—but those failures, of course, are never noticed.) Occasionally, though, something ★goes bananas[4] and starts trying to take the place over, and an invasive species is born. Dr Cappuccino and Dr Arnason asked themselves w_______③. 过去的几十年，随着人和货物的流动日益频繁，植物种子和动物幼体也乘机“搭便车”四处播散，世界各地无意间出现了越来越多的外来物种。这些外来物种大多数都轻而易举地融入了所到之处的生态系统。（事实上，许多物种可能还没有站稳脚跟——当然，人们从未注意到这一点。）不过，偶尔也有某些物种疯狂繁殖，开始企图占领原有物种的生长空间，一种入侵物种就这样形成了。卡普奇诺和阿纳森对此感到百思不得其解。 One hypothesis is that aliens leave their predators b________④. Since the predators in their new homelands are not adapted to exploit them, they are able to reproduce unchecked. That is a nice idea, but it does not explain why only certain aliens become invasive. Dr Cappuccino and Dr Arnason suspected this might be because native predators are [b]（2）