ГУСЬКОВА (1). 1. Инфинитив в функции определения
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Часть III 1  . ТЕКСТЫ ДЛЯ УСТНОГО ПЕРЕВОДАПроанализируйте тексты, определите задачу автора (информация, обзор, критическое выступление и т.д.)- Сделайте устный перевод, а затем дайте краткую аннотацию текста, 1. Hong Kong Won't Dollarize As Way to End Speculation Hong Kong — National pride appears to be preventing authorities here from using what may be their most potent weapon against speculators attacking the Hong Kong dollar. That weapon is the threat to replace Hong Kong's currency with the US dollar, thereby removing any target for speculators to aim at. Already, Argentina has raised the possibility of dropping its own currency in favor of the dollar. The suggestion, put forward recently be Argentine President, came in the wake of rising concerns that Brazil's decision to abandon support of the real would lead to other currency collapses in Latin America. In theory, Hong Kong — which has a US dollar-linked currency system almost identical to Argentina's — could make the same switch. And some currency watchers believe no move would be more effective at ending the speculative pressure against the Hong Kong dollar than taking steps to «dollarize» the economy. Yet Hong Kong's government has instead declared publicly that it doesn't believe dollarization is a viable option. The reason, some analysts say, is chiefly political: Hong Kong is Chinese territory, and China wouldn't want to relinquish sovereignty over any aspect of Hong Kong's governance, including its currency. Yeung Wai Hong, publisher of Hong Kong's most widely read weekly magazine, calls it «nationalistic pride.» A frequent commentator on monetary issues, Mr. Yeung says dollarization would be « a perfect solution» to Hong Kong's recurring run-ins with speculators. 189 «From a tactical point of view, dollarization makes sense,» adds Dong Tao, senior economist at Credit Suisse First Boston (Hong Kong) Ltd., who has prepared a detailed report on the issue. Not that Hong Kong hasn't looked at the issue. In April last year a government report examined the possibility of Hong Kong doltarizing, but concluded that it would be «draconian» and «may contravene» the Basic Law, the Hong Kong mini-constitution that governs its relationship with Beijing. The Basic Law says that «the Hong Kong dollar, as the legal tender (in Hong Kong), shall continue to circulate.» The report also highlighted that «huge legal problems» could arise as some contracts signed in Hong Kong would automatically become invalid. Mr. Tao and other analysts say that and other technical problems could be circumvented by a gradual phasing out of the Hong Kong dollar, giving time for laws and contracts to be rewritten. A government spokeswoman on financial issues states: « We have examined the issue (of dollarization) and we find that it is not to be pursued in Hong Kong.» carried advertisement material on their person or clothing» may not participate in the Olympics. None of that applies anymore. The Dream Team, a group of the greatest basketball players in the world, the cream of the National Basketball Association, each giant player a multimillionaire, was drafted to play in the 1992 and 1996 Summer Games in order that the US, drubbing such weighty teams as Albania and Peru, could win the gold medal. Tennis players, skiers, track-and-field runners? They are all professionals. Paid professionals. Paid and smug professionals. Just like the officials of the IOC International Sports Federation. Everyone has been greased. But it doesn't matter anymore. The ceremony of innocence is drowned. The spirit is gone, as well. «Swifter, higher, stronger,» long the noble and altruistic slogan of the Olympic Games, should be changed to «Richer, fatter, happier.» The pursuit of excellence? Not anymore. 2. The Olympic Sham Is it cynical of me to ask if anyone was surprised at the scandal regarding the state of Utah bribing Olympic officials in order to win the venue of the 2002 Winter Games? The Olympic Games have become a sham. They are not only professional now but also no longer independent of politics or chicanery or graft. Television income has ruled almost every aspect of the event, both Winter and Summer games. «I do not believe in professional Olympics,» Lord Killanin pronounced when he took over in 1972. Yet under his aegis a set of new rules were passed for all athletes, allowing them money for food and lodging, for transport and all sorts of equipment and clothing, for physical therapy and coaches and insurance, and even pocket money. No limit is placed anymore on the length of time that any of that money may be spent in training. The attempt to mix amateurism and economics, which are surely incompatible, has now turned the Games from a noble experiment in global unity to a battle-ground of crass nationalism and shameless graft. The eligibility code of the Olympic Games Charter, which was created by the Congress of Paris in 1894, expressly stated: «A competitor must not have received any financial rewards or material benefits in connection with his or her sports participation.» It went on to declare that «competitors who have been registered as professional athletes or professional coaches in any sport; signed a contract as a professional athlete; 190 3. The Problem of Generations Most serious writers on the problem of youth have recognized that youth's present difficulties in Western society are closely related to changed social and economic conditions and to the ensuing difficulty for youth in finding self-realization in work. As Goodman observes: «It's hard to grow up when there isn't enough man's work,» and he continues, «To produce necessary food and shelter is man's work. During most of economic history most men have done this drudging work, secure that it was justified and worthy of a man to do it, though often feeling that the social conditions under which they did it were not worthy of a man, thinking, «It's better to die than to live so hard» — but they worked on... Security is always first; but in normal conditions, a large part of security comes from knowing your contribution is useful, and the rest from knowing it's uniquely yours: they need you.» Just as in this country an earlier generation needed youth because the economic security of the family depended on its contribution, so in Russia today youth is needed because only it can carry on the task of creating the new and better society; and in Africa because only it can move society from tribal confusion toward modern democracy. If the generations thus need each other, they can live together successfully, and the problem of their succession, though not negligible, can be mastered successfully. Under such conditions youth and age need each other not only for their economic but even more for their moral survival. This makes youth secure _ if not in its position, at least in its self-respect. But how does the 191 parent in modern society need the next generation? Certainly not for economic reasons any more, and what little expectation a parent may have had that his children would support him in old age becomes superfluous with greater social security. More crucially, the status-quo mood of the older generation suggests no need for youth to create a much different or radically better world. In many respects youth has suddenly turned from being the older generation's greatest economic asset into its greatest economic liability. Witness the expense of rearing and educating youth for some twenty or more years, with no economic return to be expected. Youth still poses emotional problems. To the preceding generation, as of old. But in past generations these emotional problems were, so to speak, incidental or subservient to economic necessity. What at best was once the frosting on the cake must now serve as both solid food and trimmings — and this will never work. Thus the economic roles, obligations, and rewards are no longer clearly defined between the generations, if not turned upside down. Therefore, another aspect of the relation between the generations looms even larger; in a balance sheet of interaction that is no longer economic but largely emotional. Modern man, insecure because he no longer feels needed for his work contribution or for self-preservation (the automatic machines do things so much better and faster), is also insecure as a parent. He wonders how well he has discharged that other great function of man, the continuation of the species. At this point modern youth becomes the dreaded avenging angel of his parents, since he holds the power to prove his parents' success or failure as success is no longer so important in society of abundance. Youth itself, feeling insecure because of its marginal position in a society that no longer depends on it for economic security, is tempted to use the one power this reversal between the generations has conferred on it: to be accuser and judge of the parents' success or failure as parents. tion of the family. Churchmen and sociologists proclaim that the American family, as it has always been defined, is becoming and «endangered species,» with the rising divorce rate and the enormous increase in single-parent families and people — especially women — living alone. Women's abdication of their age-old responsibility for the family is also being blamed for the apathy and moral delinquency of the «me generation.» Can we keep on shrugging all this off as enemy propaganda — «their problem, not ours?» I think we must at least admit and begin openly to discuss feminist denial of the importance of family, of women's own needs to give and get love and nurture, tender loving care. What worries me today are the agonizing conflicts young and not-so-young women are facing — or denying — as they come up against the biological clock, at thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-nine, forty, and cannot «choose» to have a child. 1 fought for the right to choose, and will continue to defend that right, against reactionary forces who have already taken it away for poor women now denied Medicaid for abortion, and would take it away for all women with a constitutional amendment. But 1 think we must begin to discuss, in new terms, the choice to have children. What worries me today is «choices» women have supposedly won, which are not real. How can a woman freely «choose» to have a child when her paycheck is needed for the rent or mortgage, when her job isn't geared to taking care of a child, when there is no national policy for parental leave, and no assurance that her job will be waiting for her if she takes off to have a child? What worries me today is that despite the fact that more than 45 per cent of the mothers of children under six are now working because of economic necessity due to inflation, compared with only 10 per cent in 1960; no major national effort is being made for child-care services by government, business, labor, Democratic or Republican parties — or by the women's movement itself. 4. The Second Stage The first stage of the women's movement, says Friedan, was fought against the « old structure of the unequal polarized male and female sex roles.» In their struggle for equality, however, some militant feminists went too far and also rejected the family itself. In the second stage, Frei-dan believes that women should fight for a restructuring of our institutions so those women can be truly free to choose their roles — including the important choice of having children. The women's movement is being blamed, above all, for the destruc- 192 5. Fight to Veto 'Dirty Dozen' Pesticides An international campaign has been launched yesterday to ban the use and sale of the «dirty dozen», a list of pesticide chemicals that have been linked with cancer, birth defects and poisonings. Friends of the Earth have joined forces with other environmental groups in Britain and abroad to have the 12 pesticide active ingredients banned worldwide. « Many of the chemicals are already banned in several countries but the British government continues to give official clearance to them for use in agriculture, the home and garden,» a spokesman said. 193 The campaign is being supported by groups in 25 countries taking simultaneous action. «Manufacture, import and export trade is allowed in all 12 of the 'dirty dozen' pesticides, even though there is worldwide evidence of their bad effects. « Some of the chemicals have been linked with cancer and birth defects, while Parathion is a nerve-poison pesticide so acutely toxic that a teaspoonful splashed on the skin is fatal. « Paraquat is also so poisonous that it has been responsible for many deaths in both humans and animals. «These pesticides should be immediately suspended by the British government, pending a full and public review procedure, in which the evidence against them can be heard,1 said FE pesticides campaigner, «They must be assumed guilty until proven innocent. Thousands of people have suffered and environments have been ruined. The case against the 'dirty dozen1 is overwhelming, and the government must explain why it insists on letting this irresponsible trade go on.» 6. Jobless Youth Liverpool — Until several years ago, the West European labor movement, as well as governments and business communities, did not even recognize youth unemployment as a major problem, or one that should be dealt with separately from adult joblessness. But there are now over 10 million residents of the European Union without jobs, and people under 25, most of them with little or no employment experience, account for more than 40 per cent of their ranks. In France, Britain, and the Netherlands, youths are three times as likely to be without jobs as adults are. In Italy, youth unemployment rates are a startling seven times those for adults. Among the EU countries only Germany, perhaps because of a combination of strong apprenticeship programs and low wages for teen-agers, has brought youth unemployment down to adult levels of joblessness. As the problem of jobless youth has moved to center stage—through international conferences, demonstrations, or riots like those that recently exploded in Liverpool and other British cities — the trade union movement has been under almost as much scrutiny and criticism as government officials and employers. Labor leaders have been forced to concede that the economic crisis is often pitting the interests of older workers, struggling to hold on to their jobs, against those of younger people seeking employment for the first time. Businessmen and government officials, who once whispered their 194 reservations, are now loudly proclaiming that past trade union successes in raising wage levels, social benefits and job security have priced young people out of the labor market. Only belatedly have labor leaders recognized that their impressively organized unions are not particularly endowed to help people leaving school and applying for their first jobs. A sign of growing labor concern in Britain, where youth unemployment is among the worst in Europe, was the decision of the Trades Union Congress to launch a campaign with the country's main youth organizations to mobilize public concern over the young jobless. Labeling youth unemployment «the most serious crisis since World War II». the TUC general secretary warned that more violence would erupt in British cities unless action is taken on jobs. In Liverpool, whose total unemployment rate is at twice the national level and has reached 40 per cent among young people, trade unions have only recently considered establishing centers to advise school leavers where to seek job training and how to claim unemployment benefits. «It doesnt sound tike much, and we're not at all certain we can take on such costs,» a division officer for the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, said a few weeks before the upheavals in Liverpool. «A lot of us still feel we are talking about something that should be government's job. But the situation is appalling. Just a few days ago, there were 69 applicants for one secretary job in these offices — all of them 18- to 20-year-olds who never worked in their lives.» That ratio is not much worse than elsewhere in the city: The Liverpool Employment Offices recently listed 51,000 job seekers for 1,000 vacancies. In a now-famous speech, the Prime Minister suggested some time ago that people should be prepared to move away from their communities in search of jobs. But with few jobs available anywhere in the country, moving offers no solution to Liverpool's unemployed youth. |