考研阅读精选.doc

考研阅读精选：匈牙利抗议Hungary steps out THE symbolism was telling. Inside Budapests Opera House, Hungarys great and good were knocking back sparkling wine at a gala event to celebrate the inauguration of the countrys new constitution, which came into effect on January 1st. Outside, on Andrssy Avenue, tens of thousands of protestors demanded its withdrawal. Brushing off the demonstrations, President Pal Schmitt hailed Hungarys new basic law as a brave new dawn. It may well be, but probably not the kind that Hungarys rulers are hoping for. As the blog Contrarian Hungarian reports, protestors are increasingly taking control of the streets. The Andrssy Avenue march was just the latest in a series of public actions against the governments growing autocratic tendencies and its relentless centralisation of power. Mondays protests were significant as well as symbolic. This was the first time that opposition partiesthe Socialists, the Democratic Coalition and the green-liberal LMPhad joined forces with street activists. Peter Konya, leader of the Hungarian Solidarity Movement, welcomed what he called “the long absent co-operation between civil groups and parties of the democratic opposition”. Gabor Ivanyi, a Methodist pastor, told the crowd that “There is no truth where laws are passed forcefully, without consultations, where people live in fear and where people are not equal.” Mr Ivanyi is one of 13 former dissidents and liberal politicians to have signed a letter calling for the European Union to intervene and protect Hungarian democracy. Government officials deny that Hungarian democracy is in danger. How, they ask, can this be so when an enormous crowd is free to demonstrate outside the very building where they are celebrating? In 2010 the right-wing Fidesz party won a two-thirds parliamentary majority in a free and fair election, they argue, and the government is simply fulfilling its mandate of radical change and renewal. But as the government brushes off requests from the EU, the IMF, the European Central Bank and the United States to reconsider key legislation that may be in breach of its international treaty obligations, such arguments sound increasingly unconvincing.考研阅读精选：中国入世十年回想当年Ten years of China in the WTOShades of grey CHINAS efforts to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) dragged on for 15 years, long enough to “turn black hair white”, as Zhu Rongji, Chinas former prime minister, put it. (His own hair remained Politburo-black throughout.) Even after membership was granted, ten years ago this week, Mr Zhu expected many “headaches”, including the loss of customs duties and the distress of farmers exposed to foreign competition. Yet the bet paid off for China. It has blossomed into the worlds greatest exporter and second-biggest importer. The marriage of foreign know-how, Chinese labour and the open, global market has succeeded beyond anyones predictions. It is instead Chinas trading partners who now contemplate its WTO membership with furrowed brows (see article). They have a variety of complaints: that China exports too much, swamping their markets with cheap manufactured goods, subsidised by an undervalued currency; that it hoards essential inputs, such as rare earths, for its own firms; and that it still skews its own market against foreign companies, in some cases by being slow to implement WTO rules (notably on piracy), in others by suddenly imposing unwritten rules that are unfavourable or unknowable to foreigners. The meddling state lets multinationals in, only to squeeze them dry of their valuable technologies and then push them out. Much of this criticism is right. China made heroic reforms in the years around its WTO entry. That raised expectations that it has conspicuously failed to meet. It signed up for multilateral rules, but neglected the rule of law at home. Free trade did not bring wider freedoms, and even the trade was not exactly free. It is in Chinas interest to liberalise its exchange rate further, to prevent local officials from discriminating against foreigners and above all to do far more to support the global trading system. The WTO is undermined when any member flouts the rules, never mind one as big as China. Too big to be a bystanderor to be kept out But Chinas sins should be put into perspective. In terms of global trade consumers everywhere have gained from cheap Chinese goods. Chinese growth has created a huge market for other countries exports. And Chinas remaining barriers are often exaggerated. It is more open to imports than Japan was at the same stage of development, more open to foreign direct investment than South Korea was until the 1990s. Its tariffs are capped at 10% on average; Brazils at over 30%. And in China, unlike India, you can shop at Walmart, most of the time. As for the hurdles foreign firms face in China, they are disgracefulbut sadly no worse than in other developing countries. The grumbles are louder in China chiefly because the stakes are higher. Foreigners may have won a smaller slice of Chinas market than they had hoped, but China is a bigger pie than anyone dared to expect. Had China been kept out of the WTO, there would have been less growth for everybody. And the WTO still provides the best means to discipline and cajole. Rather than delivering congressional ultimatums, America and others could make more use of the WTOs rules to curb Chinas worst infractions. So celebrate Chinas ten years in the WTO: we are all richer because of it. But, when it comes to trade, Chinas rulers now badly need to grow up. Their cheating is harming their own consumers and stoking up protectionism abroad. That could prove to be economic self-harm on an epic scale.考研阅读精选：远离故土的家Home away from homeThe existence of the most Earthlike planet yet has just been confirmed ONE of the more memorable slogans to come out of the climate-change talks in Durban over the past few days is: “there is no planet B”. But what if there were? Over the past couple of decades astronomers have logged thousands of so-called “exoplanets”worlds which orbit stars other than the sun. On December 5th the scientists in charge of Kepler, a space telescope designed to look for such planets, confirmed their instruments discovery of its first Earthlike world. It is dubbed, rather unromantically, Kepler 22b. The existence of this planet, which circles a star 600 light-years away, in the constellation of Lyra, had previously been suspected. Kepler, which belongs to NASA, Americas space agency, works by observing dips in a stars brightness as a planet passes in front of it. It flags likely looking reductions as “candidate planets”, of which Kepler 22b was one. But three passes are needed to confirm a planets existence, and Kepler 22b has now passed this test. Crucially, it orbits well within its stars “Goldilocks zone”: neither too close nor too far away for liquid water (and therefore, perhaps, life) to exist on its surface. It joins two other Earthlike planetsGliese 581d and HD 85512 bdiscovered by another instrument within the past few years. In truth, the term “Earthlike” is a stretch. Kepler 22b has a radius 2.4 times that of Earth, and if it is made from roughly the same stuff its surface gravity will also be about 2.4 times as strong. But NASAs astronomers remain unsure whether it is predominantly gaseous, liquid or solid. Nevertheless, Kepler 22b is the most promising exoplanet yet found. Unlike the others, which skirt the edges of their stars Goldilocks zones, Kepler 22b orbits comfortably within its own. NASAs researchers reckon its surface temperature is about 22C, compared with 15C (at least for now) on Earth. Its parent star is similar to the sun, again unlike those of the other two candidates, both of which orbit cooler, dimmer stars. Indeed Gliese 581ds parent is a red dwarfthe tiniest stellar species. That means its Goldilocks zone is so close to it that the planet may be tidally locked, as the moon is to the Earth. If that were the case, one side of Gliese 581d would be permanently lit (and heated) while the other experienced unending darkness. These three potentially habitable exoplanets may soon be joined by many more. In the two and a half years since its launch, Kepler has spotted 2,326 candidate planets. About 650 others have been discovered by other instruments. That plethora allows astronomers to start drawing conclusions about how common various sorts of planets are. Of Keplers haul, 9% seem to be of a similar size to Earth (though not all are in the Goldilocks zone of their star); a further 29% are Super Earthsplanets substantially larger than Earth that are nevertheless rocky. Forty-eight of Keplers unconfirmed candidates look as if they orbit within their stars habitable zones; of those, ten seem to be Earth-sized. The ultimate goal, of course, is to let astronomers make a plausible estimate of the total number of planets in the galaxy, of the number that could conceivably support life, and of the fraction of those that could (at least in theory) sustain human colonists. If only a few of Keplers possible Earthlike planets turn out to be real, that third number is likely to be in the millions. Such knowledge will mark an historic transition, says Chris Lintott, an astronomer at Oxford University who is giving the Kepler team a hand with the data analysis, since the uncertainties around the question of whether life exists elsewhere will cease to be astronomical (how many suitable planets are there?) and become purely biological (how easy is it for life to get going, and how easy is it for it to become intelligent?). Based on the preliminary data, it looks as if there are numerous suitable planets. The science of exobiology may soon cease to be an oxymoron.考研阅读精选：寻找香水中的价值FINDING THE VALUE IN PERFUME Buy a bottle of perfume and you could pay as much for its advertising as its contents. The Sceptical Shopper sniffs out some niche alternatives . From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, January/February 2012 Wearing scent is one of lifes pleasures. Humans have been dousing themselves in concoctions of olfactive molecules since at least the Bronze Age, and any habit that persistent has to have something going for it. Yet it does seem odd that most of the time we mask our own, genetically unique smell with others so widely available you can catch a whiff of them in cities across the planet: Opium on the streets of Barcelona, Eternity in Istanbul. Heavily advertised, widely worn perfumes can smell good. But buy one and a fair proportion of your cash will go on its marketing, not on its contents. All those portentous, mini-movie perfume adsfilled with celebrity models running (presumably so they dont have to spoil the effect by speaking) towards romantic assignations through increasingly rococo setsdont come anything close to cheap. Not only this, but such perfumes are vital money-makers for fashion brands, so they are almost without exception made to a price. When profit is put before pong, the results tend to be one-dimensional scents, made of cheap ingredients, that smell the same on everyone. Perhaps most irritating is that this instant recognisability is in fact a bonus for the big manufacturers. It turns you into a walking advert for their productand unlike those celebrity models, youre not getting paid. Unfortunately, having a bespoke perfume made just for you will cost upwards of 600 for 100ml of eau de parfum (the most concentrated form of perfume), whereas a similar volume of a globally available brand typically costs 70. So it might be worth considering the middle groundwhat you might call niche perfumes, which tend to cost anything from 80-350 for 100ml. These are produced on a small scale, often by individual “noses” rather than existing fashion labels, have a negligible or non-existent advertising spend, and you wont smell them wafting down every high street. What, if any, is the actual difference? Most perfumes are a combination of top, middle and bass notesscented ingredients ranked according to their volatility. Citrus smells, the commonest top notes, are highly volatile and