【每日阅读训练第二期——速度越障6系列】【6-11】

whitethelittle

热烈神速小子马好肥710，今天的速度就4段

【速度】

Chinatown Can Cheer, but Can’t Watch, Rise ofan Adopted Star

By KEN BELSON

【计时1】
The rather awkward bit of détente began around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the NomWah dim sum restaurant on Doyers Street in the heart of Chinatown. It was anhour beforeJeremy Lin, the rising star for the Knicks, took the court atMadison Square Garden and before much of Chinatown was going to be once againprevented from seeing its adopted son work wonders on the basketball court.
Like about 2.5 million Time Warner Cable customers throughout the state,residents in places like Confucius Plaza, a 44-story apartment building inChinatown, have been unable to watch Lin — an international phenomenon and thenation’s most prominent Asian-American athlete — because the cable company hasbeen in rancorous dispute with MSG Network, which televises Knicks games.
So network executives invited the neighborhood to a hastily arrangedall-you-can-eat dim sum party to explain their side of the dispute. There weretranslators and plenty of food, a life-size cardboard cutout of Lin, andbecause the restaurant had a different cable provider, there was an actuallive, legal telecast of the game on television.
There was not, however, a whole lot of peace and understanding. Instead, it wasjust another night of paradox and frustration: New York fans with perhaps thestrongest affection for Lin unable to see him perform in their own homes.
Lin scored only 10 points Wednesday night as the Knicks beat the SacramentoKings, 100-85, but he contributed 13 assists, a career high.
【241】

【计时2】
Vincent Lau, a Time Warner customer, heard about the event at the restaurantfrom his wife, and quickly ran over to be heard.
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Mr. Lau, 28, “for a New Yorker to not be able towatch their home teams.”
Jeffrey Wong is a graphic designer and lifelong Knicks fan who lives inConfucius Plaza and thus has not been able to see Knicks games since Jan 1. “Idon’t know who to fault,” he said. “I don’t even know who to call.”
Thanks to Lin’s meteoric rise, interest in the team — which two weeks ago wasstaggering through yet one more failing season — has never been higher. Lin’sname is chanted in bars and restaurants in Chinatown, and establishments thathave other providers, like DirecTV, are now teeming with extra patrons on gamenights.
The scramble to find places to watch Lin play is particularly acute inChinatown, which lacks the concentration of sports bars found in other parts ofthe city. Mr. Wong, who was a passionate recreational basketball player untilhe was slowed by injuries, hardly missed the Knicks during the first few weeksof the blackout because the team performed so poorly.
Thanks to the team’s disastrous record in recent years, Mr. Wong was expectingthe season to fade into obscurity.
That changed on Feb. 4, when Lin played his first significant minutes againstthe Nets. Mr. Wong received a text message from a friend that “Lin was lightingit up.” Since then, he has had to find bars that carry televised Knicks games.He watched one game on a Web site, the legality of which is uncertain.
“Until Jeremy Lin started playing, I don’t think the blackout mattered much tome,” said Mr. Wong, who grew up in Chinatown. But “I’ve watched every gamesince then except for last night.”
【309】

【计时3】
Like other fans interviewed for this article, Mr. Wong is uncertain whom toblame for the blackout. But for now, Mr. Wong and other neighbors will remainbasketball refugees in their own city because Verizon and DirecTV, which haveagreements to show the MSG Network to their customers, are unable to installtheir services in Confucius Plaza.
Andy So, who was born in Chinatown and also lives in the apartment tower, hasbeen cast out into bars to see Lin and the Knicks. When he heard that Lin wasmaking his first start last week against Utah, he bought tickets to see himplay.
“We thought it was a pretty cool moment in the history of the N.B.A. for anAsian-American to start on the Knicks,” he said.
Now, thanks to Lin’s continued rise — he outscored Kobe Bryant last Friday —reasonably priced Knicks tickets are far harder to find. So while the MSGNetwork has seen its television ratings soar 87 percent since Lin entered thestarting lineup last week, the fans who would undoubtedly have raised thoseratings even further have been excluded from the party.
To limit the damage, the MSG Network held the viewing party at the dim sumrestaurant two blocks from Confucius Plaza. It was not the most natural eventto pull together. And so it hired Julie Huang, a publicist whose firm is bestknown for producing Chinatown Restaurant Week.
“No matter who’s right or wrong, I give MSG props for showing up,” Ms. Huangsaid.
By 6:15, the line of residents waiting to get into the improvised summitstretched out to the Bowery. They were a mix of retirees, restaurant workers,businessmen and some of Chinatown’s more recent arrivals; the area, like manyethnic corners of the city, has become gentrified.
【298】

【计时4】
Some people clearly scrambled from the Confucius Plaza apartment building,drawn by word of mouth or the commotion on the street.
The 100 or so fans who were admitted on a first-come first-served basisreceived “Just Lin Baby” T- shirts and raffle tickets for Knicks tickets and asingle sneaker signed by Lin. Dan Ronayne, an executive vice president for MSGNetworks, also attended with staff who were on hand to show Time Warner Cablecustomers how to switch cable providers.
Wilson Tang, the owner of Nom Wah, brought in an extra flat panel televisionfor the event. A basketball fan, Mr. Tang has been personally affected by theblackout, too. While he has been able to watch Knicks games at his restaurant,which has DirecTV, and at home, where he has RCN, his father is a Time Warnercustomer.
“We’ve been Knicks fans since I was a little kid,” Mr. Tang said. “So now hecomes to my apartment.”
The dispute essentially comes down to how much Time Warner Cable, the leadingpay television provider in Manhattan, is willing to pay to carry MSG Network.
Time Warner Cable has also been making its case to subscribers. Last month, itflew 10 pairs of Knicks fans to Charlotte to see the team play the Bobcats. Thecompany put them up for two nights, fed them, gave them $500 gift certificatesand had them sit in the company’s suite in the arena.
Jimmy Zheng, in Chinatown on Wednesday evening, just wanted to see Lin ontelevision. No one — in Chinatown or elsewhere — knows how long Mr. Lin’smagical run will last, or if anything like it, for Asian-Americans, will everbe seen again.
“Probably both are to blame,” Mr. Zheng said of the television dispute. “I’msure each side has their arguments. But I can’t watch the games, so that’s allthat matters.”
【312】

【越障】
Rescuing Greece Beyond the edge
Whatever happens to Greece, the failings of the euro zone have not beenaddressed
Feb 18th 2012 | from the print edition

BILL HICKS, a comedian, used to joke that there must be a “ledge beyond theedge”. How else could the survival of Keith Richards be explained? What goesfor rock stars also appears to go for Greece, which has been on the brink of asecond bail-out package for weeks.

Deadlines have already been missed. A meeting of the Eurogroup of financeministers, scheduled for February 15th, at which the terms of a deal weresupposed to have been endorsed, was postponed the day before. Euro-zoneministers wanted more details of proposed spending cuts as well as writtenassurances that Greek politicians won’t renege on the deal once a generalelection, pencilled in for April 8th, is over. Greece has consistently missedits targets to date; trust among its troika of rescuers—euro-zone governments,the IMF and the European Central Bank (ECB)—that it will stick to a newagreement is low.

The delays may reflect the brinkmanship that is part of any tough negotiation.Greece is short of cash but not of bargaining chips. Without fresh bail-outmoney, it faces a chaotic default on its public debt. That might provoke widercontagion. Its rescuers, for their part, are putting pressure on Greece tocommit to further austerity and reform by sounding sure that fallout from a messydefault could be contained.

The way financial markets shrugged off news of the cancelled summit suggeststhat investors are confident that a deal can still be reached when theEurogroup next meets on February 20th. There is a deadline that ought to concentrateminds: Greece has a ?4.4 billion ($18.8 billion) bond that falls due on March20th.

A scheme under which private investors would “voluntarily” take losses, byswapping their Greek bonds for longer-dated ones with half the face value, hasto be completed before then. Around ?0 billion of the second bail-out pot isset aside for guaranteed euro-zone bonds to sweeten the swap deal. The processmay have to start before that money is in place, which will make somebondholders reluctant to take part. The deal could easily unravel.


The pressures on Greece are even more acute. Its economy shrank by 7% in theyear to the fourth quarter of 2011. The fall in GDP in the final three monthsof 2011 was around 5%, according to Haver Analytics, compared with an averagefall of 0.3% across the whole euro area. That made the Greek economy the worstof a sorry bunch (see chart). Uncertainty is the economy’s biggest problem.Businesses will not invest until Greece’s future in the euro is secure; norwill suppliers extend Greek firms credit, worsening a savage liquidityshortage.

Greece has missed its fiscal targets, in part because of the deepeningrecession. The budget deficit in 2011 was probably close to 10% of GDP, barelychanged from 2010. But European leaders agreed on ?30 billion for Greece inOctober and are loth to ask their parliaments to approve a bigger sum now. TheECB will have to forgo the profits on the Greek bonds it bought at a discountif Greece is to have a chance of cutting its debt burden to 120% of GDP by2020. More immediately, Greece has been asked to make ?.3 billion of extracuts this year. That will prolong the recession. Private-sector wage cutsneeded to restore Greece’s competitiveness will make things worse in the shortterm.

The growing social tensions in Greece mean its politicians cannot embrace yetmore cuts with much enthusiasm. But Greece’s official creditors have their ownreasons to get cold feet about another rescue package. Most of the new bail-outmoney will be disbursed this year to cover Greece’s big budget deficit; toenhance the bond-swap deal; and to inject capital into Greek banks after theyhave taken losses when privately held Greek bonds are restructured. Once thisrescue money is paid, euro-zone governments will have fewer means of takingGreece to task.

What’s more, from 2013 Greece is supposed to sustain a series of “primary”budget surpluses (ie, excluding interest payments) so as to cut its debtburden. But once the state has eliminated its primary deficit, it will not needexternal finance to fund its day-to-day operations. If Greece then refuses torun big surpluses, a second round of debt restructuring would beckon. Thatwould hurt official creditors, as well as the remaining private bondholders.

One way to keep Greece in line would be to stagger the bulkier bail-outpayments. The money required to get private bondholders to take losses cannotbe delayed if Greece is to avoid default. The troika could, however, withholdthe funds reserved to recapitalise Greek banks. That would give them leverageover the government that is formed after Greece’s elections, which would haveto use promissory notes in lieu of capital. But it would also spur a freshround of deposit flight from banks, worsening the liquidity shortage that hasmade the recession so harsh.

Greece’s euro-zone creditors might be willing to live with that outcome. Theyhave been emboldened by the success of the ECB’s three-year bank loans inpushing down bond yields for troubled-but-solvent countries like Italy andSpain. Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said on February 13ththat Europe is “better prepared” for a Greek default than it was two years ago.Perhaps, but without continuing external support in the event of default,Greece might also be forced to leave the euro.

There remain large gaps in the euro zone’s defences against contagion shouldthat happen. The euro-zone rescue fund, capped at ?00 billion, is designed torescue only small countries. Its size is limited by its structure: the morecountries that have to be bailed out, the fewer there are to take on the burdenof rescuer. It could not credibly bail out Italy, for instance, were thatnecessary. A jointly issued Eurobond would allow burden-sharing across allcountries but would also require governments to give up some control over theirtax-and-spending decisions. The reaction in Greece to impositions by itscreditors shows how hard that would be.

The failings of the euro as a currency zone have barely been addressed. The lackof a co-ordinated fiscal policy, and the loss of competitiveness (and bankingtroubles) at its periphery, help explain why it has tipped into recession, saysLaurence Boone of Bank of America. The chosen remedies are fiscal austerity,structural reform and deleveraging by banks. Given enough time, these measuresmight restore the zone to health. But they might first push some countries offthe ledge.
【1096】

铁板神猴

GOOD 我这么晚也能拿到沙发，真是神奇

1'28''
1'34''
1'34''
1'32''

6'54''

我想说，粘连现象还是很影响阅读的……

泾渭不凡

小白哎~前排占座！

phoebe0624

速度
1'09
1'30
1'13
1'21

越障 7'16''
Greek faces a terrible economic stituation
the gorverment catch the deadline that the measure should be taken.
4.8 the eruos' vote was outdated
the GDP fall 7% in this year but other euro conutries only in 0.3%
inverstors did not invest to the business untill they know that Greek will have insurance from eruo.
big budget deficit in Greek makes things worse
it's hard to get enough money from EBC for
Greek may force to leave the euro union at last, it will bring bad shock.

shelvey

座位就不占了，开始计时！！
187
196
212
209
186
同为吗啡庆祝啊~~
典型提问题-谈影响-解决问题模式。
firstly, the deadline has been missed that people are not in confidence of the three saviors(IMF,还有两个忘记了)
then, the effect is that the greece economy has been shrinked, and  government losed its fiscal target, and the social tension has been increased.
然后又bala了大段大段的个人感觉意思都差不多的，就说经济如何如何糟糕，又其实不做什么又会更糟。
last,the arguer find that it will takes a long time to save the economy , through banks,  fisical policies and stucture reform.

aprilzhanghj

今天人好少哦~白天做了GWD，错的那叫多啊。越来越发现阅读的重要性了

2'01
2'12
2'03
2'11

速度
The cable television cannot be accessed and many Kicks fan cannot watch the game even the game is played in their own city. With the Lin dominate most of the NBA reporting paper, asian fans are follow the game enthusiastically than before.
There some compensation made by the cable proivder.

second time reading
The Time Warner blackout some of its user's cable televsion access due to the un-decided agreement to purchase the NKG network. The blackout affect most the Knick's fans in China town. Though some remedy solutions were made to compensate, many users are blame both sides.


阅障
The greece is struggling internally to stay in Euro zone while its financial crisis is even worsening. The problem of the Euro zone is unintegrated fiscal system. Though some countries think the Euro zone is more ready to save the Greece out of  the sluggish economy, the more country it saves the less it will get be paied back.

second time reading
The delayed Eurozone financial ministers' meeting suggest the difficulty and hardship to deal with the third bayout money to Greece. Greece creditor face either the default or the endorsement of the third bayout which is in brink of the month. Greece face large pressures including budget deficit, uncertainty of staying in Eurozone and the low investment and financial liquidity.
The author thought Eurozone need to set up a coordinated fiscal policy, strengthen the euro and push some leave the ledge of the zone.

yiayia

1  01:07
2  01:20
3  01:08
4  01:19
5  05:54
今天没什么感觉。The failings of the euro as a currency zone have barely been addressed.
1.the failing of fiscal policy
2.lack of the competitiveness
babalala讲了一堆关于希腊财政危机，对政党的影响，还有投资者对希腊市场的建议等等

attractg

速度：
1’25’’
1’12’’
1’16’’
1’01’’


越障：
6’27’’

Rescuing Greece beyond the edge

1. Greece faces serious financial crisis.  The government of Greece cannot make ends meet. The Greece is lack of currency.
2. What was worse, the recession of economy made investors feel insecure.  They would not make any investment.
3. Taking social issues into consideration, the government cannot have more cuts.
4. The GDP decreased in Greece . It’s economy shrank 7% in the year ….2011 .The GDP falls only 5% in the final months of 2011. If Greece fail to cut down its deficit, the Greece may have to exit the EU.
5. The lack of…  fiscal policy ,and the less comparativeness in its periphery ,are the factors of recession of Greece.


今天就这么多了。。。

Roxas605

我要加入！！ 虽然我只能晚上上网！～～督促自己

fox0923

50"
1'21"
1'13"
1'13"

总是不练习，退步好大啊~~
- Greece postpones the meeting one day later. Greece trust more on IMF and Euro zone government than others. The delay of meeting would become an important part of fiscal problem.
- Greece faces serious recession problems. The Euro zone asked Greece to cut its spending, and such requirement will make even worse situation for Greece in a short period at least. However, the Greece creditors may okay to live with such outcome.
- Greece has missed its fiscal targets.
- The politicians of Greece do not support the spending cut. Once the bailout is paid by the Euro zone, the means of rescue of Greece will not be a central concern for EU.
Solution:
- Greece has to maintain a bailout surplus in order to avoid a worse recession in 2013, but the Greece government doesn't seem to support this propose. Eventually, the undecided method will push Greece into another recession.
- The Euro zone government only offers bailout to small countries. More bailout the countries get, less burden these countries will take. However, this case doesn't apply to Italy. For Greece, it's possible that Greece will loss its control of tax and other relevant issues, and this will possibly make Greece default itself at the end and even leave EU.
Result
The problem of Greece has been barely resolved, and the lack of competitiveness and loss of policy explain how EU trapped into this recession.