我靠 我差点把这么重要的事情都忘了 因为我不记得星期几了！！！！！下周就要奔赴战场了！！！！！求各路神仙显灵显灵啊！！！！最后的越障题目隐藏了的哈~ 这个编辑的东西老是不听我的话 有多地方都改不了字体 各位不好意思 这次的排版有点不太好 明天我看看能不能改的上！！！
SPEED
[Time1]
A famous building in New York City is turning 100 years old this month. A year-long celebration is planned for Grand Central Terminal, which is usually called Grand Central station.
Christopher Cruise tells us more about the sixth most-visited place in the world.
The huge building has not changed much since it opened in February, 1913.
About 750,000 people pass through Grand Central every day. Some just come to look at it, others to visit the stores. But most are there to catch the trains that enter and leave from the station. It is the largest train station in the world. There are 67 train tracks, all of them underground.
The main part of the building has large, arched windows, a jeweled four-sided clock and ticket windows. Grand Central has been seen in many movies through the years. Dan Brucker is with the New York Transit Authority, which operates the station.
"Grand Central is the kind of temple, cathedral, that testifies to the magnificence of rail transportation, the kind that God would have built if he'd had the money."
Dan Brucker has worked for the transit authority at Grand Central for 30 years. In all those years, he has not lost his interest in the building.
"This is the beginning of 20th century architecture. And as people come through this terminal, they don't even realize that the magnificent celestial ceiling above them, the very roof of heaven, is exactly wrong, is exactly opposite. It's a mirror image."
Justin Ferate, a historian, has been giving tours of Grand Central Station for 30 years. He says the station was designed to make travel a pleasure.
"You know that you're a traveler, you're going off on a great adventure, you're going to follow your stars and find your dream. You're also going to find your train where it's supposed to be -- which is one of the brilliant parts of the design of the building."
Justin Ferate likes to show how the building was designed for large numbers of people.
"Why people don't run into each other in Grand Central is simple: each block of stone in Grand Central is the length of your leg. Each block of stone in Grand Central is the length of your arm. Each block of stone is a different color, so it's a checkerboard, based on you."
A ten-year-long fight against plans to build a huge office building over Grand Central in 1968 helped create the modern preservation movement. Now, no one would think of changing the beauty of the station.
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[Time2]
During World War Two, as American men went off to war, women filled the jobs they left behind. Women worked in factories, stores and shipyards. One group of women made musical instruments, building Gibson guitars. Christopher Cruise has more on their story.
John Thomas is a writer and a lover of guitars. He was surprised when he saw a wartime photograph of the Gibson guitar factory in Michigan. Nearly all of the 75 people in the picture were women. Irene Stearns, now age 90, spent several of the war years working at the factory.
"I got out of high school and everybody is looking for a job, and there weren't any jobs. Then one day, they called and I started at Gibson. I suppose it was because of the war."
Irene Stearns is one of the former Gibson factory workers who John Thomas found in the Kalamazoo, Michigan area. She made guitar strings for some of the thousands of instruments the factory produced in the 1940s.
"All the celebrities and people who were buying the guitars would come and they would be on the other side of the wall where I sat making strings. So, it was really nice in that part. I could hear them playing all these beautiful guitars."
John Thomas calls the women who worked at the Gibson factory, the "Kalamazoo Gals." That is also the name of his new book about the female guitar makers. He believes the company kept their work secret because it did not think guitar buyers of the day would use instruments built by women.
Mr. Thomas collected three of the World War II Gibson guitars and borrowed several others to help tell the story. Then a friend told him about Lauren Sheehan, a professional musician who agreed to help.
"When the author said, 'I'm thinking about making this record,' and wouldn't it be cool if a woman played the guitar since it's a whole women's story, I thought, God this gets better and better, that would be a great project. And then he invited me to do it. Certainly I'm a champion for a story about women excelling at work that is traditionally a man's domain."
For the new CD that comes with John Thomas' book, Lauren Sheehan plays songs that were popular during World War II. Each tune was played on a different Gibson guitar.
"Okay, so here's one."
After she finished recording the songs, Lauren Sheehan bought a restored Gibson guitar for herself. She says she wanted to own a piece of America's musical heritage.
（425）
[Time3]
SOME years ago a satirical cartoon strip set in ancient Rome, the very fine “Hom Sap” series, imagined an uprising by moderates. “What do we want? Gradual change!” chanted a band of tunic-clad centrists. “When do we want it? In due course!” Revolts of the reasonable are hard things to pull off, not least because zealots and partisans have catchier slogans. Yet that does not dismay a growing number of America’s not-very-strident. Pointing to record levels of public disgust for the political classes, moderates fizz with innovative schemes for grabbing power from extremists of the left and right. Some are wiser than others. More than 50 members of Congress have joined the bipartisan No Labels group, chaired by Joe Manchin, a Democratic senator from struggling West Virginia, and Jon Huntsman, a former Republican governor of Utah whose 2012 presidential ambitions were undone by wonkishness and a general lack of belly-fire. Members are called “Problem Solvers” rather than centrists, and insist that staunch conservatives and liberals are welcome. Books and newspaper columns talk of an “insurgency of the rational” and of the “sane, pragmatic majority” taking charge. A political action committee founded by New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, plans to spend millions backing moderates and independents in state and federal elections, with a nicely balanced focus on promoting gun control (angering the right) and school reform (which makes teachers’ unions seethe). The Common Sense Coalition, set up by entrepreneurs and fund managers, wants an online “Army of Moderates” to lobby candidates and elected officials. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is said to be poised to launch a group pushing education and immigration reforms, using Republican and Democratic strategists. The same arguments are cited, repeatedly, to explain why the time is ripe for a centrist insurgency. First, Americans are fed up with both big parties, especially in Congress, a body with an 11% approval rating in one recent poll. Self-styled “independents” account for up to 40% of the electorate by some measures. Finally, great faith is put in the power of technology to help new groups out-organise and out-campaign incumbent party machines, like small furry mammals scampering beneath dinosaur feet. Some innovations have already sputtered out. Americans Elect, an online project to find a third-party presidential challenger for the 2012 election, failed to attract either voters or heavyweight candidates. The White House was the wrong goal, argues “The Centrist Manifesto”, a new book with a different plan to sell. The book’s author, Charles Wheelan, a teacher at Dartmouth College (and former Economist journalist), argues that a Centrist Party should focus on the Senate, aiming to win just four or five seats in moderate states. Thanks to quirks of Senate arithmetic, a handful of centrists could hold the balance of power. (458) [The Rest] The moderate start-ups tend to be fiscally conservative but socially liberal, keen on free trade and free markets, worried about social mobility and open to immigration. Some talk of curbing campaign spending and involving more ordinary voters in primaries that select candidates. In short they are brilliant, noble and good-looking people who agree with Lexington’s employer. But there is a hitch. They would struggle to win a majority in any statewide or national election in America. Voter disenchantment is not really a mandate for technocrats to tinker, innovatively, with the status quo. Across the West, from Nome to Nicosia, alarming numbers suspect that the status quo is a con, stiffing strivers in the middle of society while those at the top (ie, the rich or politicians) and bottom (immigrants, those on welfare) are doing fine. A driving force in politics is anger, rooted in a sense that things are getting worse and politicians are either impotent or colluding to game the system. The globe-spanning nature of that rage undercuts claims that American voter disillusion can be addressed by clever, local innovations. Yes, runaway campaign spending is a headache. But the entire 2010 British general election cost less than some individual Senate races in 2012, and furious British voters still think their politicians are money-grubbing thieves. Broadening primary-voter pools is a good idea. But moderates are wrong to think that America’s self-styled independents are inevitably allies. Most “independents” are Democrats or Republicans in all but name, studies show. About a quarter are apolitical. Very few are true swing voters. What unites independents is hatred of politicians, which is not the same thing as centrism. (273) [Time4].
North Korea is urging foreign embassies to consider telling their workers to leave the capital, Pyongyang, because of rising tensions. Britain says North Korea gave the warning to embassies and international organizations on Friday. The North Korean government reportedly said it cannot guarantee their safety after April tenth in, what it called, "the event of a conflict."
The government has made a series of threats in recent weeks against South Korea and the United States.
The two countries have long enjoyed a strong alliance. For years, the United States stored nuclear weapons in South Korea for use against the North if it attacked the South. Those weapons were removed in 1991. But South Korean officials have been debating whether to have the United States redeploy the arms.North Korea has wanted to keep its military strong. The North launched its first long-distance rocket in 1998. After a year of negotiations, North Korea agreed to stop long distance missile tests in exchange for better contacts with the United States and its allies. As part of the 1999 agreement, the North received money and food aid.
Since then, North Korea has gone back, periodically, to using threats to get more money and food. But in the past few months, the war of words has gotten louder and more threatening. Last December, North Korea launched a long distance rocket. Then, in February, it carried out an underground nuclear test.
Those actions led the United Nations Security Council to expand existing sanctions against North Korea. The Council's decision so angered the North that this week, the government said it had been given final approval for a nuclear attack against the United States. But many military experts do not believe the North can act on the threat.
South Korea reported this week that North Korea has moved one of its missiles to its eastern coast. South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-Jin said the missile appears to have what he called "considerable range." But he does not believe it can reach the United States mainland.
American Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said he is taking the threat seriously.
"Some of the actions they've taken over the past few weeks present a real and clear danger and threat certainly to the interest of our allies, starting with South Korea and Japan."
On Wednesday, the United States said it plans to deploy an advanced missile defense system to Guam, an American territory in the Pacific Ocean. The move is meant to serve as a warning, but it will take several weeks for the system to arrive.
South Korea's Ministry of National Defense has confirmed the movement of at least one missile by North Korea.
South Korea is also preparing for an attack. It has deployed two warships with radar designed to monitor missiles.
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[Time5]
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So you thought the fashion weeks were over for now, and that you didn’t have to hear about catwalk shows for at least another three months or so (until June, anyway, when menswear begins again). Sucker!
In fact there’s a fashion week going on somewhere in the world almost every week of the year. Sometimes more than one. Istanbul fashion week, for example, ends on Saturday. Lakmé fashion week in India runs from March 22 to 26. And Moscow’s starts on March 29. Indeed, I’ve often thought John Cheever’s short story “The Swimmer” would work equally well in fashion: instead of crossing suburbia by stroking your way from one pool to another, you could spend a year crossing the globe from one fashion week to the other.
But I digress. The point is, if there’s a gap, a fashion week will be created to fill it. Hence this Tuesday, squished in between Istanbul and India, London will welcome its first Kids Fashion Week. Yup, they already have womenswear; last year they introduced menswear; and now they’ve got children’s wear too. However, unlike men’s fashion week, which was widely applauded, this is bound to upset a lot of people.
The sanctity of childhood! Can we not leave some part of our world unbranded? Protect our youth from the evils of rampant consumerism! And so on. That’s the easy attack, anyway. And while I, too, have an issue with this particular development, both as a parent and as a fashion person (and not necessarily in that order) it’s not for the above reasons, which are, in truth, a lot of hooey.
Kids are already heavily exposed to brands, from Disney to McDonald’s, and they have been for years. They are just as aware of what it means to be part of the club as anyone. My seven-year-old can lecture me quite cogently about why Apple is cooler than Nokia.
The only thing new about this is the brands themselves; when I was a kid, back in the olden days, it was all Danskin and Laura Ashley instead of Dolce and Rachel Riley. Besides, there’s a lot of upside to a fashion week – any fashion week.
Consider it from a municipal perspective, and all the business it generates for related industries such as hotels, restaurants and taxis. No wonder London would be interested. (This is also why, despite industry disquiet, I think it will be so hard to change the ready-to-wear season – the cities don’t want to let their fashion weeks go or even truncate them; they want to keep all those visitors spending money in their town as long as possible.)
From a brand perspective, it also makes sense: creating childrenswear feeds into the fashion labels’ desire to pitch themselves as “lifestyle” (life including families). It seduces adults who are brand-addled by allowing them to buy into the idea for slightly less money (children’s clothes being cheaper than adult’s), and hooks the kids young so that when they grow up, they become brand consumers too. After all, also jumping on the kids’ bandwagon recently (though not showing at Kids Fashion Week) are Gucci, Burberry, Dior and Stella McCartney.
The “week” will last two days (Tuesday and Wednesday, with Wednesday being open to the public) and include catwalk shows from Paul Smith Junior, Chloé, Little Marc Jacobs, Diesel and more. Announcing the event, Alex Theophanous, founder of kids fashion ecommerce brand Alex and Alexa, said: “Children’s wear designers believe it deserves its own dedicated platform. With this event, we aim to put children’s fashion on the map worldwide.”
(595)
OBSTACLE
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Was Shakespeare a tax dodger?
It sounds like the sort of character who would have been deeply unpopular in one of his plays.
William Shakespeare was a 'ruthless businessman' and tax dodger, researchers have claimed.
Although he wrote plays that championed the rights of the poor and the needy, archived documents show the playwright was actually a wealthy landowner repeatedly dragged before the courts and fined for illegally stockpiling food and threatened with jail for evading taxes.
He 'stored grain, malt and barley for resale at inflated prices to neighbors and local tradesmen' at a time when Europe was suffering famines, the academics said, and channeled the profits into land purchases.
They added that Shakespeare did all he could to 'avoid taxes, maximize profits at others' expense and exploit the vulnerable – while writing plays about their plight'.
And his approach of 'combining both illegal and legal activities' meant he could retire after a working life of only 24 years.
Researchers at Aberystwyth University carried out an academic study looking into Shakespeare's 'other life' as one of Warwickshire's biggest landowners and have uncovered the less than savory side to Britain's greatest playwright.
The allegation he exploited famine has also led to suggestions that his Coriolanus, for years regarded as a plea for the starving poor, was in fact his way of trying to expunge a guilty conscience.
Jayne Archer, a researcher in Renaissance literature at Aberystwyth University, said in the Sunday Times: 'There was another side to Shakespeare besides the brilliant playwright — as a ruthless businessman who did all he could to avoid taxes, maximize profits at others' expense and exploit the vulnerable — while also writing plays about their plight to entertain them.
'Shakespeare is remembered as a playwright, but there was no copyright then and no sense that his plays could generate future income.
'That drove him to dodge taxes, illegally hoard [food] and act as a money-lender.
'He had two surviving daughters and would have seen himself as providing for them, but he was acting illegally and undermining the government's attempts to feed people.'
Coriolanus depicts a famine created and exploited by rich merchants and politicians to maximize the price of food and includes the lines: 'They ne'er cared for us yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain.'
It has now emerged that as Shakespeare wrote the play at the height of the 1607 food riots, he was himself hoarding grain.
As one of the biggest landowners in Warwickshire, he was ideally placed to push prices up and then sell at the top of the market.
Ms Archer worked with Richard Marggraf Turley, a professor in the department, and Howard Thomas, a professor of plant science, to study Shakespeare's life as a businessman and owner of arable farmland and pasture at a time when Europe was suffering famines.
They found documents in the court and tax archives showing he was repeatedly dragged before the courts and fined for illegally stockpiling food and was threatened with jail for evading tax payments.
In a paper, the academics wrote: 'Over a 15-year period Shakespeare purchased and stored grain, malt and barley for resale at inflated prices to neighbors and local tradesmen.
'In February 1598 he was prosecuted for holding 80 bushels of malt or corn during a time of shortage. He pursued those who could not pay him in full for these staples and used the profits to further his own money-lending activities ...
'Profits were channeled into land purchases. He also acquired tithes on local produce, including "corn, grain and hay", allowing him to cream off the profits from others' manual work.
'By combining both illegal and legal activities, Shakespeare was able to retire in 1613 as the largest property owner in his home town, Stratford-upon-Avon. His profits — minus a few fines for illegal hoarding and tax evasion — meant he had a working life of just 24 years.'
Shakespeare's experience as a rich landowner at a time of famine may be reflected in plays such as King Lear, which depicts an ageing monarch trying to divide his lands, and the food they produce, between his daughters.
Professor Jonathan Bate, the Shakespeare scholar and provost of Worcester College, Oxford, said Archer and her colleagues had performed a valuable service in setting Shakespeare's work in the context of the famines and food shortages of the period.(chinadaily)
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发表于 2013-4-7 01:18:07
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