Журавлева Сборник текстов для подготовки аспирантов-економистов 2011

security arrangements – система безопасности refugee – беженец, эмигрант

Give synonyms to

accountable, contradict, protuberant, prominent, plausible, concession, highlight, folly, undermine, partition

Find out the words, which describe the conflict best

If you were the author writing about this conflict, which words would you choose?

Imagine you are a reporter interviewing heads of the warring states. Write a list of questions you would like to ask.

Write an essay “My vision of the national conflicts”.

Supplementary Reading

The settlement freeze

Sep 27th 2010, 15:41 by The Economist online | REVAVA SETTLEMENT

"THEY can build,” declared Israel’s military spokesperson of his country's settlers, announcing the end of Israel’s self-declared settlement moratorium in the West Bank. The expiry induced cheers from Israel’s 300,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, and their many supporters at the heart of Israel’s decision-making process. But from Palestinian officials came cries of dismay. The decision, they warned, could torpedo direct negotiations over a two-state solution to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians only three weeks after they began.

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In defying American and Palestinian appeals to extend the tenmonth freeze, Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, deemed his internal allies more important for his political survival than his external ones. He appears determined to avoid the miscalculation of his first term, when he heeded American demands to partially withdraw from the West Bank town of Hebron, prompting his religious backers on the right to abandon him and precipitate his downfall.

The cost to the political process is already tangible. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators left America without reaching a compromise on a formula or a date for resumption of talks. Mr Abbas says he will seek Arab League advice on October 4th before deciding his next steps. Palestinian negotiators, who had earlier expressed “pleasant surprise” at Mr Netanyahu’s readiness to discuss Palestinian sovereignty in the West Bank, now accuse him of speaking with a forked tongue.

In Revava, a small settlement in the northern West Bank, thousands marked the end of the freeze at a rally called by activists from

ments deep in the West Bank as Israel’s homeland. (Their rhetoric drowned out more nuanced messaging from another Likud minister and former hawk, Michael Eitan, who is lobbying for negotiations to continue on a rapid Israeli withdrawal from most of the West Bank.)

By early Monday, bulldozers were again breaking ground not only in the settlement "blocks" adjoining the 1967 border, but deep inside the West Bank. While playing down bulldozer activity - particularly during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot- a settler leader, David HaIvri, said work could now resume on hundreds of units in settlements surrounding Nablus, the main Palestinian town in the northern West Bank.

While Mr Netanyahu courts his domestic hardliners, Mr Abbas is sidling towards his. Indicating his alternative options should talks collapse, Mr Abbas sent an adviser, Azzam al-Ahmed, to Damascus to

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resume negotiations on ending the rift with the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas. Following a meeting with Khaled Meshal, Hamas’s politburo chief, both sides reported progress. A deal, noted one of Mr Abbas’s advisers, would strengthen Mr Abbas’s negotiating hand, and refute Israeli barbs that Mr Abbas would be unable to implement any deal without control of Hamas-run Gaza, where forty percent of the Palestinian Authority's subjects live.

Across the political spectrum, Israeli and Palestinian politicians warned that a collapse of negotiations could so harden positions and induce despair in a negotiated settlement that it could trigger a fresh bout of fighting. Last week Mr Abbas’s security forces successfully contained the spread of Palestinian clashes with Jewish settlers in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. But drive-by shootings of West Bank settlers have increased, and not only by Hamas. A couple were shot last night by the armed wing of Fatah, Mr Abbas’s faction following a series of warnings.

Even if formal negotiations were to be suspended and violence to flare up again, precedent suggests that under American tutelage talks would

the blocks adjoining the pre-1967 armistice line would make any resumption more digestible for the Palestinians.

But after two decades, commentators question how many more interruptions and attacks on their credibility negotiations on a twostate settlement can bear. With settlement growth peaking during negotiations and slowing during bouts of violence, Palestinian leaders remain vulnerable to the charge that negotiations are simply a cover for Israeli expansion.

The trajectory during the current talks appeared to be no different. According to monitors, the moratorium was always more symbolic than real. "The government issued hundreds of exemptions to the freeze, and settlers built hundreds more regardless, without permits," says Dror Etkes, who mapped construction during the freeze. Last

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month, Peace Now, an anti-settlement Israeli watchdog, issued a report stating that "there was almost no visible slowdown." And contrary to his repeated undertakings, Ehud Barak, the defence minister, has shied away from dismantling over a hundred outposts, settlements Israel’s government never authorised.

For Palestinians, the moratorium’s real achievement was less a perceptible slowing in construction than the fact that in declaring its freeze, Israel acknowledged the contradiction between simultaneously expanding its West Bank presence and negotiating a withdrawal. Mr

Vocabulary

expiry - окончание, истечение срока действия – expiry date Syn: expiration , lapse

dismay – испуг, беспокойство, волнение, смятение to smb.'s dismay – к чьему-л. ужасу Syn: perturbation;. лишать мужества, силы духа, решимости; пугать; приводить в смятение; Syn: appall , horrify

negotiations – переговоры; ведение переговоров

appeal – призыв, обращение, воззвание (к кому-л.) to make an appeal – выступить с обращением

ally – друг, союзник, сторонник

heed -обращать внимание, учитывать, принимать во внимание; внимательно следить (за чем-л.)

partially – немного, отчасти, частично, частью Syn: partly , parcel prompting – побуждение; Syn: motive , impulse; указание, помощь, precipitate – низвергать, торопить, ускорять, форсировать; подгонять

tangible – вещественный, материальный, осязаемый; tangible assets

– материальные средства Syn: palpable , material; ясный; ощутимый, заметный; отчётливый, реальный

drowned out – заглушать

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hawk – ястреб; сокол – fish hawk; Syn: falcon; хищник (о человеке);

амер.- милитарист, сторонник военных действий; сторонник "жёсткого" курса (в политике)

adjoining – граничащий, пограничный, прилегающий, примыкающий, сопредельный, соседний Syn: neighbouring

bout – раз, черёд; круг, приступ

clash – сталкиваться; ударяться друг о друга (обычно об оружии); сталкиваться с кем-л. (бороться), стычка

tutelage – опекунство, опека, попечительство 2) нахождение под опекой

commitment – обязательство; вручение, передача digestible – удобоваримый, усвояемый, перевариваемый vulnerable – восприимчивый; чувствительный, уязвимый exemption – освобождение (от налогов, пошлин)

undertaking – предприятие; дело large-scale undertaking – крупно-

масштабное предприятие Syn: project; обязательство; соглашение shied away – сторониться, избегать, уклоняться

acknowledge – признавать, подтверждать

Blockbuster files for bankruptcy

Sep 23rd 2010, 12:56 by The Economist online

IN THE early days of the commercial internet, it was often predicted that pure e-commerce sites would begin to struggle as bricks-and-mortar stores moved online. “Clicks-and-mortar” stores, which could reach consumers both on the internet and on the high street, were thought to be inherently superior. Surely Blockbuster would be able to crush Netflix, an online service that rents DVDs through the post? Surely Barnes & Noble, a bookseller, would easily see off Amazon? As it turned out, they could not. Shares in Barnes & Noble have slumped over the past few years as those of Amazon have soared. The British arm of Borders, another media retailer, went into administration last year. And on September 23rd Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York. The firm, once owned by Viacom, a giant media conglomerate, aims to reduce its debts by about $900m. It is likely to close some

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of its 3,000 American stores. (The company’s non-American operations and franchised outlets are not affected by the bankruptcy filing.) The growth of Netflix, a technologically savvy company with a vastly superior website and an attractive subscription model, was hard on Blockbuster. But the firm was caught in a pincer movement. On one side was Netflix. On the other was the decidedly low-tech Redbox, owned by Coinstar. Redbox rents films for one dollar a night through kiosks in drug and grocery stores—a 1950s technology applied successfully to a new medium. Netflix is a long-tail company. Its vast selection of DVDs means consumers with rarefied tastes can indulge their taste for Satyajit Ray films and Italian comedies. The firm is promoting the online streaming of older films, which subscribers will increasingly be able to obtain through internet-connected television sets. Redbox, in contrast, focuses on big films and recently-released DVDs. Blockbuster thus faces a “clicks” competitor that offers an enormous selection of films and a “mortar” competitor that specialises in hits. Life in between is tough.

Tears in Tinseltown

There will be no gloating in Hollywood at Blockbuster’s struggles. Although the film studios greatly prefer to sell DVDs than rent them, they would rather rent through Blockbuster than through Netflix or Redbox. Warner Bros estimated in December that it makes $1.45 when a film is rented from a bricks-and-mortar store. It makes $1.25 from a subscription rental, and just one dollar when a film is rented from a kiosk (most people keep their dollar-a-night kiosk movies for two nights). And Blockbuster sells DVDs as well as renting them. Hollywood wants to persuade consumers to rent films as videos-on-demand through their cable and satellite boxes. On each of these Warner Bros earns fully $3.50. To goose demand, studios now release some films as videos-on- demand before bringing them out on DVD. The worry is that the growth of two low-priced alternatives will persuade couch potatoes that films can be had cheaply. Netflix and Redbox have severely wounded Blockbuster. The next battle will pit them against the cable companies.

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Airbus to launch a new A320 version

Cleared for take-off

Sep 23rd 2010, 10:42 by The Economist online | TOULOUSE

AIRBUS is about to unveil a new version of its best-selling A320 aircraft. Along with its main rival, the Boeing 737, such single-aisle planes are the workhorses of worldwide aviation, accounting for four out of five commercial jets sold. But the Airbus A320 NEO will not be an allnew aircraft built from scratch; instead it will be an upgraded version of the classic A320, with a choice of two new, advanced engines which will offer big savings in fuel consumption. Airbus bosses will meet on September 30th to put the finishing touches to the $1.3 billion project before putting it to the parent company, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS). John Leahy, an Airbus executive, hopes to begin marketing the new plane as early as mid-October. Airbus’s chief executive Tom Enders says his only remaining concern is to be reassured that his core team of 200-300 senior engineers can move on to the new single-aisle plane without disrupting other programmes, such as the A350 wide-body jet or the A400M military transporter—both of which have already suffered delays. That hurdle should be cleared at next week’s meeting. One of the new engines, Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbo-fan, cuts fuel consumption by incorporating a gearbox that allows the air-intake fan to run at a different speed to the turbine that generates the thrust, unlike conventional jet engines. The other, an advanced version of the CFM56 engine made by a joint venture between America’s General Electric and France’s Safran, improves mileage by running at hotter temperatures than the current version.

Developing an all-new A320 would cost at least $10 billion. But Airbus does not believe the technology is currently available to make a big enough leap forward to justify spending that much. Mr Leahy points out that on smaller planes, unlike on large wide-bodies, it is difficult to achieve significant fuel economies through weight reduction, by using carbon-fibre composites instead of aluminium. Moreover, both Airbus

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and Boeing have found on their large-aircraft programmes that switching to carbon fibre is a lot harder than they had expected

Mr Leahy thinks the new A320 NEO—which is likely to cost up to $8m more than the current model—will keep the product line going until 2025. He foresees sales of a further 4,000 planes, which is as many as it has delivered since the first A320s were launched in 1988. By 2025, he believes engine and composite fuselage technology should be ready for a dramatic improvement in weight and fuel economy. In the mean time, a touch of “frugal innovation” will keep the orders rolling in from costconscious airlines.

France's reputation

Carla's charm offensive

Sep 21st 2010, 12:23 by The Economist | PARIS

IT HAS been a disastrous week for France’s public image, but now the presidency has struck back. As part of a rescue operation, President Nicolas Sarkozy called yesterday for a global finance tax to help the world’s poor, during a speech at a UN anti-poverty summit in New York. He persuaded Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, to pose with him for the cameras, just days after her office had denied his version of a conversation the pair had had in Brussels over the expulsion of illegal Roma. And Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the president’s wife, put in an elegant performance on CNN to quash rumours about her published in two new French books. Mr Sarkozy’s suggestion that a modified version of the so-called "Tobin tax" be put in place to raise money to finance development in Africa and elsewhere is likely to go nowhere, since the Americans aren't interested. But it could help to soften his image abroad, after the widespread international condemnation he has faced for the highprofile expulsion of illegal Roma in France this summer. The Elysée clearly wants to draw a line under the affair, after the row hijacked last week's EU summit in Brussels, undermining the president’s standing just weeks before France takes over the presidency of the G20, in midNovember. Now the president’s wife has been recruited to the charm

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offensive too. In her CNN interview, which was conducted in English, she denied that Michelle Obama had told her that life in the White House is “hell, I can’t stand it.” This was the most diplomatically damaging of the various rumours published last week in Carla and the Ambitious, a book—unauthorised, Ms Bruni-Sarkozy added - by Michaël Darmon and Yves Derai, two French journalists. A spokeswoman for Mrs Obama had already denied the claim. In the midst of an outbreak of anti-sarkozysme in France, and concerns about the protection of journalists’ sources and the freedom of the press, Ms Bruni-Sarkozy made one other comment of particular note. “I live in France, and France is a free country where anyone can fantasise [about something] and print it,” she said. As a democrat, she went on, she believes that everybody should be free to say and write what they like. Which prompts a question: was she speaking just for herself, or on behalf of her husband too?

Organize a discussion in your group. While making a presentation you should keep in mind the following points:

in my opinion first of all

in general in the end my aim is

consequently as stated

as have already been mentioned to my mind

as mentioned above generally speaking

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Remember!

Good communicators:

-listen to people and take in what is said

-maintain eye contact and have a relaxed body language

-seldom interrupt and stop people talking

-if they want to clarify something the wait for a suitable opportunity

-good at given information

-do not confuse their listeners

-make their point clearly

-avoid technical terms, abbreviations or jargon

-give easy to understand examples

-not lose sight of their main message

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