Keys to Section 9 “Written translation”

Unit 1. Section 9.

Text 1. Plans to exploit Iraq's oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and the world's largest oil companies the year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, government documents show. The papers, revealed here for the first time, raise new questions over Britain's involvement in the war, which had divided Tony Blair's cabinet and was voted through only after his claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The minutes of a series of meetings between ministers and senior oil executives are at odds with the public denials of self-interest from oil companies and Western governments at the time.

Text 2. The 20-year contracts signed in the wake of the invasion were the largest in the history of the oil industry. They covered half of Iraq's reserves – 60 billion barrels of oil, bought up by companies such as BP and CNPC (China National Petroleum Company), whose joint consortium alone stands to make £403m ($658m) profit per year from the Rumaila field in southern Iraq. Last week, Iraq raised its oil output to the highest level for almost decade, 2.7 million barrels a day – seen as especially important at the moment given the regional volatility and loss of Libyan output. Many opponents of the war suspected that one of Washington's main ambitions in invading Iraq was to secure a cheap and plentiful source of oil.

Unit 2. Section 9.

Text 1. FOR years, foreign policy discussions have focused on the question of whether Islam is compatible with democracy. But this is becoming passé. In Tunisia and Egypt, Islamists, who were long perceived as opponents of the democratic system, are now promoting and joyfully participating in it. Even the ultra-Orthodox Salafis now have deputies sitting in the Egyptian Parliament, thanks to the ballots that they, until very recently, denounced as heresy. It was the exclusion and suppression of Islamists by secular tyrants that originally bred extremism. Islamists will become only more moderate when they are not oppressed, and only more pragmatic as they face the responsibility of governing.

Text 2. The main bone of contention is whether Islamic injunctions are legal or moral categories. Saudi Arabia’s religious police ensure that every Saudi observes every rule that is deemed Islamic. Yet members of the Saudi elite are also famous for trips abroad, where they hit wild nightclubs to commit the sins they can’t at home. And it raises the question of whether Saudi Arabia’s intense piety is hypocritical. By contrast, rather than imposing Islamic practices, the ultra-secular Turkish Republic has for decades aggressively discouraged them, going so far as to ban head scarves. Yet Turkish society has remained resolutely religious, thanks to family, tradition, community and religious leaders.

Unit 3. Section 9.

The Shard, which is approaching completion over on London's South Bank is almost the perfect metaphor for how the capital is being transformed – for the worse. The skyscraper both encapsulates and extends the ways in which London is becoming more unequal and dangerously dependent on hot money.This is a high-rise that has been imposed on London Bridge despite protests from residents, conservation groups and a warning from Unesco that it may compromise the world-heritage status of the nearby Tower of London. What's more, its owners and occupiers will have very little to do with the area, which for all its centrality is also home to some of the worst deprivation and unemployment in the entire city. The building is 95% owned by the government of Qatar and its developer, Irvine Sellar, talks of it as a "virtual town", comprising a five-star hotel and Michelin-starred restaurants. So one of London's most identifiable buildings will have almost nothing to do with the city itself. The only working-class Londoners will presumably bus in at night from the outskirts to clean the bins. Otherwise, to all intents and purposes, this will be the Tower of the 1%.

Unit 4. Section 9.

1. Danish statistics show that every 6 miles biked instead of driven saves 3 1/2 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and 9 cents in health care costs. But many cite happiness among the chief benefits of bicycle commuting. Several biking innovations are being tested in Copenhagen. Some, like footrests and “green wave” technology, which times traffic lights at rush hour to suit bikers, have already been put into place on the superhighway. Others, like garbage cans tilted at an angle for easy access and “conversation” lanes, where two people can ride side by side and talk, might show up on long-distance routes in the future.

Unit 5. Section 9.

1. Astronomers have puzzled over why some puny, extremely faint dwarf galaxies spotted in our Milky Way Galaxy's backyard contain so few stars. NASA's Space Telescope Hubble’s views of three of the small-fry galaxies reveal that their stars share the same birth date. The galaxies all started forming stars more than 13 billion years ago — and then abruptly stopped — all in the first billion years after the universe was born in the Big Bang.

2. The relic galaxies are evidence for a transitional phase in the early universe that shut down star-making factories in tiny galaxies. During this time, the first stars burned off a fog of cold hydrogen in a process called reionization. The reionization of the universe began in the first billion years after the Big Bang. During this epoch, radiation from the first stars knocked electrons off primeval hydrogen atoms, ionizing the cool hydrogen gas. This process allowed the hydrogen gas to become transparent to ultraviolet light.

3. Ironically, the same radiation that sparked universal reionization appears to have squelched star-making activities in dwarf galaxies. The small irregular galaxies were born about 100 million years before reionization began and had just started to churn out stars. Unlike their larger relatives, the puny galaxies were not massive enough to shield themselves from the harsh ultraviolet light. What little gas they had was stripped away as the flood of ultraviolet light rushed through them. Their gas supply depleted, the galaxies could not make new stars.

Unit 6. Section 9.

A new survey of singles, conducted by Match.com and TODAY.com, found that 70 percent of people appreciate dates who know their way around food and wine pairings, and 56 percent find it attractive when dates offer to share their food. "Food, sex and courtship go hand in hand in nature," said Helen Fisher, chief scientific adviser to Match.com, in a press release. "Food also informs: what and how a partner eats–and if they share–says crucial things about their habits, health and empathy." The more closed-minded people are about food, the more their chances of a second date dwindle: 66 percent of those surveyed said it's a turn-off if a date plays it safe with menu choices.