Evermore

12.17TE
bayonet  n.刺刀,vt.用刺刀刺
unconventional  adjective
not based on or conforming to what is generally done or believed
不依惯例的；非常规的
pretence  n.假装, 作假, 做作,自命, 自称, 自吹, 炫耀
all-out  adj.竭力的,全部的
FOMC  n.联邦公开市场委员会 Federal Open Market Committee
ammunition  n.弹药, 军火
securities  n.有价证券
momentous  adj.重大的, 严重的
formidable  adj.可怕的, 令人畏惧的,令人惊叹[钦佩]的,难以克服[对付]的
aggression  n.侵略, 侵犯
measurable  adj.可量度的, 可测量的, 可衡量的,明显的; 重大的
awash  adj.与水面齐平的, 刚被水覆盖的,很多的
buy up  全部买下
resumption  n.重新开始; 继续
dub  vt.给…起绰号; 把…称为,配音; 复制
an array of  一排;一群;一批
uncharted  adj.未知的; 图上未标明的
spectacular  adj.壮观的, 雄伟的, 引人入胜的
integrated  adj.综合的,完整的
notion  n.概念, 观念, 看法,突然的念头, 奇想; 意图, 打算
annualised    年度化
inventory  n.详细目录, 存货清单
foreclose  vt.取消(抵押品)赎回权,取消(抵押人的)赎回抵押品的权利,排除, 阻止
byproduct  n.副产品
energyintensive  adj.能源密集型的,需要消耗大量能源的
outright  adv.完全地; 彻底地,坦率地; 直率地; 无保留地,立即, 当场adj.
完全的; 彻底的
sizable  adj.相当大的, 颇大的
home sales  国内销售
contraction  n.订约,(分娩时)子宫收缩,收缩, 缩短,缩减
sated  adj.〈正〉厌腻的
inaugurate  vt.为…举行就职典礼,为…举行仪式, 为…举行落成[开幕]仪式,开创, 创始
bid for  (在拍卖中)出(某价)竞买(某物),争取达到(某个目标),靠许愿来获得(赞成、支持等)
asset-backed securities  具资产保证的证券; 具资产保证的证券
backdrop  n.背景幕布,背景

Evermore

What is love?Dec 17th 2008
From Economist.com
Google offers some insights into life's big questions
THE oldest questions are still the most puzzling. According to Google's annual list of popular search terms, even in these times of economic crisis, people are most concerned with working out what love is. The nature of gout, an ailment most commonly associated with gentlemanly excess, has fallen off the list since 2007. With fewer expensive meals and bottles of wine on offer, it is likely to be less of a problem in these frugal times. Interest in the identity of the president-elect, Barack Obama, reached such a fever pitch that he has replaced God on the list. John McCain could perhaps take comfort from the fact that more interest was shown in him than in his running mate, Sarah Palin.
AFP




The Siemens scandal
Bavarian baksheeshDec 17th 2008 | BERLIN
From The Economist print edition
The stench of bribery at Siemens signals a wider rot in Europe
AFP
WHEN Siemens, Europe’s biggest engineering firm, adopted the slogan “be inspired” in the mid-1990s, bribery was not what it had in mind. But no one can accuse its managers of lacking inspiration when it came to devising novel ways to funnel huge sums in backhanders to corrupt officials and politicians across the globe. On Monday December 15th Siemens pleaded guilty to charges of bribery and corruption and agreed to pay fines of $800m in America and

Evermore

The Siemens scandal
Bavarian baksheeshDec 17th 2008 | BERLIN
From The Economist print edition
The stench of bribery at Siemens signals a wider rot in Europe
AFP
WHEN Siemens, Europe’s biggest engineering firm, adopted the slogan “be inspired” in the mid-1990s, bribery was not what it had in mind. But no one can accuse its managers of lacking inspiration when it came to devising novel ways to funnel huge sums in backhanders to corrupt officials and politicians across the globe. On Monday December 15th Siemens pleaded guilty to charges of bribery and corruption and agreed to pay fines of $800m in America and

Evermore

文章粘贴不全，文章来源于TE网站：http://www.economist.com/busines ... e=features_box_main


gout  n.〈法〉味,趣味,嗜好,一滴,痛风,一团
ailment  n.疾病(尤指慢性病), 不适
frugal  adj.节省的, 节俭的,量少而且便宜的
fever pitch  n.高度兴奋,狂热
take comfort  感到安慰,安心,宽心;(从…中)得到安慰(in)

Bavarian  adj.(有关)巴伐利亚的; (有关)巴伐利亚人的; (有关)巴伐利亚方言的
n.巴伐利亚人, 巴伐利亚居民,巴伐利亚方言
baksheesh  n.酬金, 小费
stench  n.臭气, 恶臭
inspired  adj.有创造力的,有雄心壮志的
funnel  noun (轮船, 火车等的)烟囱,漏斗
verb (funnelled, funnelling; 美 funneled, funneling)
[with obj. and adverbial of direction]guide or channel (something) through or as if through a funnel 通过漏斗将…导入；似通过漏斗般输送
candour  n.直率,公正,洁白
went about  四处走动,着手,从事
crooked  adj.畸形的,弯曲的, 歪的,不正当的, 不诚实的
tax deduction  n.课税减免(指在计算所得税时可从纳税者所得总额中扣除的款项,如子女抚养费等)
merrily  adv.愉快地,高兴地
launder  n.流水槽v.洗涤,清洗,洗黑钱(把来路可疑的钱弄得貌似合法)
illicit  adj.法律不许可的, 非法的,不正当的
outlaw  n.歹徒, 亡命之徒,vt.宣布…为不合法
subject to  v.使服从,使遭受
nefarious  adj.极坏的; 恶毒的
outsource  vt.①外购(指从外国供应商等处获得货物或服务)②外包(工程)
half-hearted  adj.兴趣不大的, 不热心的, 半心半意的
clamp down on  压制; 取缔
eccentric  adj.古怪的, 怪癖的; 异乎寻常的
staggering  adj.难以置信的; 令人震惊的
brazenness  厚颜无耻
brazen  adj.无耻的, 无礼的,黄铜制的, 黄铜般的,声音响亮刺耳的
pervasive  adj.无处不在的; 遍布的; 充斥各处的
Transparency International  国际透明度组织
lag behind  落后  逾期付款  落后于
bevy  noun pl. -ies  a large group of people or things of a particular kind
一大群，一大批（人或物）
Debevoise Plimpton LLP  德普律师事务所 纽约一家律师事务所
leniency  n.宽大,仁慈,温和,慈悲宽厚的行为
pore over  v.注视,凝视
bar from  禁止(接近〔做〕…)
doomed  adj.命中注定的; 难逃一死的

Evermore

Supersarko leaves the podiumDec 18th 2008 | PARIS
From The Economist print edition
Even as he vacates the European Union presidency, the French president contemplates a comeback
Reuters
AFTER six months of high drama and showmanship, the French will hand the rotating European Union presidency over to the Czechs on January 1st. Often, even fellow Europeans scarcely notice who is at the helm. But few can have missed the chairmanship of France’s hyperactive president, Nicolas Sarkozy. After a presidency mainly preoccupied with the Russia-Georgia war and global economic meltdown, what has Mr Sarkozy’s energetic, abrasive, impulsive brand of diplomacy really amounted to?
In terms of their set-piece ambitions, the French achieved much of what they aimed for. In July Mr Sarkozy launched a Union for the Mediterranean, bringing together leaders of 43 countries from the EU and the sea’s rim. It now has a base (Barcelona) and a co-presidency (France and Egypt); its five deputy secretary-generals include an Israeli and a Palestinian.

At the recent EU summit in Brussels, Mr Sarkozy also persuaded his colleagues in record time to accept binding rules to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2020. On France’s watch, the 27 EU members signed up to an “immigration pact”. Britain and France, the EU’s two biggest military powers, even made modest progress on common European defence: a British-led anti-piracy force off Somalia, the EU’s first joint naval operation, is now cited as an example of the sort of ad hoc military arrangement that the EU should be able to put together at short notice.
The mood in the Elysée is quietly triumphant. “Europe has an image of being soft, slow and divided; now it has proved itself to be united, efficient and reactive,” declares a senior presidential aide. Mr Sarkozy thrives on adversity and is bored by tranquillity. With his customary mix of bullying and charm, he has rolled up his sleeves to tackle problems. His shuttle diplomacy during the Russia-Georgia war and the financial crisis was not without fault, and the results were often less impressive than the diplomatic hoopla. But he did help to give Europe a single voice.
All this is a far cry from the divisions inside the EU over the Iraq war in 2003, when no leader could pretend to speak for the club and Jacques Chirac, Mr Sarkozy’s predecessor, called for Europe to be a counterweight to American power. French voters approve of the new approach: in one poll, 56% judge Mr Sarkozy’s EU presidency to have been a success. In a paper for the Robert Schumann Foundation, Jean-Dominique Giuliani, the think-tank’s president, described the French presidency’s crisis management as “brilliant”. One EU diplomat calls Mr Sarkozy’s chairmanship “outstanding”. Martin Schulz, the leader of the Socialist group at the European Parliament, has accepted that “the French presidency has been a success.” Even an editorial in Le Monde, a leftist daily, has applauded Mr Sarkozy.
Yet behind all this self-congratulation lurk more sobering considerations. For all his dynamism, Mr Sarkozy has imposed himself as a globe-trotting dealmaker partly because of the absence of American leadership. The French EU presidency coincided with the dying months of the Bush administration. When Mr Sarkozy rushed to Moscow and Tbilisi in August, for example, the Americans stayed at home. In responding to financial troubles, he has already had to share the limelight with Britain’s Gordon Brown. Come January 20th, when Barack Obama is inaugurated, Mr Sarkozy will be in for a rude shock as the world’s attention turns to a new charismatic leader.
Second, Mr Sarkozy’s mercurial leadership style makes him an erratic partner. In his eagerness to broker headline-grabbing deals, he tramples over the sensitivities of other countries, especially smaller ones. He offended the Germans by excluding them from his original plan for the Mediterranean Union. It took months of patient diplomacy to win them round. Yet despite his often strained ties with Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr Sarkozy seems to find it hard to resist taunting her. Last month, amid frustration over Germany’s reluctance to do more to stimulate its economy, Mr Sarkozy said in front of her that “France is working on it; Germany is thinking about it.”
Or consider his dealings with China and Russia. During his 2007 election campaign, Mr Sarkozy promised to be tough on both. Yet French business chiefs are now distressed that he has fallen out with the Chinese, who cancelled a planned EU-China summit. His cosiness with Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, has also taken him off in a strange direction. The Americans were taken aback when Mr Sarkozy declared that their planned anti-missile shield, to be deployed in the Czech Republic and Poland, would “bring nothing to European security”. Mr Sarkozy is now pushing an idea backed by Moscow to hold a summit next year with the Russians to rethink Europe’s “economic and security architecture”, a proposal seen by many EU countries as a Russian ploy to weaken NATO in Europe.
Some are even wondering if Mr Sarkozy has ditched his Atlanticism and discovered his inner Gaullism, returning to a traditional French indulgence of Russia and outspoken hostility towards America. It cannot help that, according to insiders, Mr Sarkozy was especially cross that Mr Obama did not meet him when he was in America for a G20 gathering last month.
In some ways, Mr Sarkozy is a prisoner of his own impulsiveness, as well as of his tendency to over-personalise diplomatic relations. He has bottomless faith in his ability to persuade others. Hence his efforts, however naive, to accommodate Russia. Mr Sarkozy seems to think that he has an avuncular influence over Mr Medvedev, ten years his junior, and that he can build a grown-up relationship on this.
Yet the best bet is that Mr Sarkozy’s underlying instincts remain broadly pro-American. He has sent extra troops to join NATO’s force in Afghanistan. Next April he plans to return France to NATO’s integrated military command, when he co-hosts the alliance’s 60th anniversary meeting. This is one platform that he will exploit to prolong his international prominence.
Indeed, it is hard to see Mr Sarkozy taking a back seat after he hands the EU presidency to the Czechs. Despite German hostility, he has not given up hopes of presiding over meetings of countries in the euro, which conveniently excludes the Czechs. He also has his Club Med forum. And in any case, he is unlikely to be deterred by diplomatic niceties. After a speech to the European Parliament this week, he stated that he would naturally “be taking initiatives” next year. Mr Sarkozy may be about to see the last of the EU presidency; but the EU has by no means seen the last of Mr Sarkozy.

Evermore

12.19 TE
podium  n.表演台; 讲台; 乐队指挥台
vacate  vt.空出; 退出; 腾出; 撤离
contemplate  vt. & vi.深思, 细想, 仔细考虑,vt.注视, 凝视
comeback  n.恢复,复原
showmanship  n.主技演出的技巧
rotate  vt. & vi.(使某物)旋转[转动],(使某人或某物)轮流[按顺序循环]
scarcely  adv.仅仅; 几乎不,决不
at the helm  掌舵;掌权
hyperactive  adj.活动过度的,极度活跃的,活动亢进的
preoccupied  adj.被先占的,全神贯注的
aim for  计划, 打算,力争…，针对
abrasive  adj.有磨蚀作用的,使人厌烦的; 粗鲁的,
impulsive  adj.(指人或人的行为)冲动的, 易冲动的
amount to  共计,意味着,发展成
Barcelona  n.巴塞罗纳(西班牙东北部港市)
bind  vt.捆绑, 捆扎,约束,装订,vt. & vi.(使)结合
cite  vt.引用, 举例,表彰, 嘉奖,传唤, 传讯
ad hoc  adv.特别
triumphant  adj.胜利的, 成功的,(因胜利而)喜气洋洋的, 欢欣鼓舞的
thrive on  靠吃…长壮,喜欢…因...蓬勃发展
adversity  n.逆境, 不幸
tranquillity  心神稳定
sleeve  n.衣服袖子,套管, 套筒
shuttle diplomacy  n.穿梭外交
hoopla  n.喧闹,投环套物游戏
a far cry  n.遥远的距离, 大不相同的东西
pretend to  〈正〉自称〔命〕〈书〉觊觎
self-congratulation  自我庆幸；沾沾自喜
lurk  vi.潜伏, 埋伏, 潜在
globetrotting  adj.环球旅行的； 游历世界的.n.自助游
Tbilisi  第比利斯(格鲁吉亚共和国首都)
limelight  n.众人注意的中心
inaugurate  vt.为…举行就职典礼,为…举行仪式, 为…举行落成[开幕]仪式.开创, 创始
be in for  必定会遭到; 定要受罚
charismatic  adj.有魅力的; 有感召力的(基督徒中的一派)认为有神赐超凡能力的
mercurial  adj.墨丘利神的,水星的,雄辩机智的,活泼善变的,水银的n.水银剂,汞剂
erratic  adj.飘忽不定的; (运动或行为)不规则的
eagerness  n.热心
strained  adj.紧张的; 不友善的,勉强的; 态度不自然的,滤过的
distressed  adjective suffering from extreme anxiety, sorrow, or pain
（极度）焦虑的；悲伤的；痛苦的
fall out  脱落, 离队, 争吵, 结果是【化】 落下; 脱落; 散落物; 核爆炸散落物; 沉降物; 落下灰,[美军口令]解散!
cosiness  n.舒适,安逸
ploy  n.策略, 手法
ditch  n.沟, 渠,vt.摆脱, 抛弃
personalise  vt.在(某物上)作物主标志(尤指表示物主的地址或姓名的首字母),使(某事物)针对个人、带有个人感情或个性化
Gaullism  戴高乐主义
bottomless  adj.无底的,难解的
avuncular  adj.像伯伯[叔叔]似的; 谆谆长辈风范的; 慈爱的
underlying  adj.根本的, 基础的,含蓄的, 潜在的
prominence  n.声望, 杰出,突出; 重要; 要事
hostility  n.敌意, 敌对状态,战争行动, 战斗
in any case  无论如何, 不管怎样,还有
nicety  n.微妙; 细微,细微之处, 细微的区别; 细节

Evermore

没法帖过来，显示不了
http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12831883&source=features_box_main


12.21 TE
sin  n.违背宗教[道德原则]的恶行,罪恶, 罪孽,过错, 罪过; 愚蠢的事, 可耻的事,vi.犯罪; 犯过错
battered  adj.(通常是被家庭成员虐待殴打而)身体受伤的
Steady as she goes   把定 照直走
metaphor  n.隐喻 （抽象事物的）代表物；象征物
tirade  n.长篇激烈的演说
asleep at the switch   玩忽职守 坐失良机
enforcement   实施 执行
due diligence  应有的注意,(律)（尤指买卖中，为避免犯罪所采取的）适当行动
shadowy  adj.多阴影的,似影子的; 模糊的  虚无的；虚幻的
espouse  vt.(决定)支持, 拥护(目标、主张等)
prudential  adj.谨慎的
consummate  vt.使结束, 使完美.完婚; (婚礼后的)圆房.adj.完美的
patchwork  n.缝缀而成的各色布片; 补缀的手工
book-keeping  n.簿记
disarray  n.混乱, 紊乱
a sea of  无限的, 很多的
allegedly  adv.依其申述
top up  给…加满（手机话费）充值或者公共交通卡充值
reproach  v.责备
propensity  n.倾向; 习性

Evermore

Climate-change diplomacy
Fiddling with wordsDec 21st 2008 | BRUSSELS
From The Economist print edition
Global consensus on climate change is maddeningly elusive
EPA
IMAGINE that some huge rocky projectile, big enough to destroy most forms of life, was hurtling towards the earth, and it seemed that deep international co-operation offered the only hope of deflecting the lethal object. Presumably, the nations of the world would set aside all jealousies and ideological hangups, knowing that failure to act together meant doom for all.
At least in theory, most of the world’s governments now accept that climate change, if left unchecked, could become the equivalent of a deadly asteroid. But to judge by the latest, tortuous moves in climate-change diplomacy—at a two-week gathering in western Poland, which ended on December 13th—there is little sign of any mind-concentrating effect.

To be fair to the 10,000-odd people (diplomats, UN bureaucrats, NGO types) who assembled in Poznan, a semicolon was removed. At a similar meeting in Bali a year earlier, governments had vowed to consider ways of cutting emissions from “deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries; and the role of conservation [and forest management]”. After much haggling, delegates in Poland decided to upgrade conservation by replacing the offending punctuation mark with a comma.
At this pace, it seems to hard to believe that a global deal on emissions targets (reconciling new emitters with older ones) can be reached next December at a meeting in Copenhagen, seen as a make-or-break time for UN efforts to cool the world.
In the background of the Poznan meeting, there was mild optimism (and a reluctance by others to put fresh cards on the table) ahead of an expected change of stance by an Obama administration in America; resentment (among the poor and green) over the refusal of Japan and Canada to promise deeper cuts; and strong demands from China for the transfer of technology from the rich to others. In the final hours of the conference, the governments of small, sinking island nations were delighted to learn that they, and not some global body, would control a fund to help them adapt to a warming world. Their mood changed when it became known that no extra money had been set aside for this purpose.
However hard it looks to put this global jigsaw together, there were some encouraging unilateral moves, especially from Latin America. Mexico vowed to halve greenhouse emissions by 2050; Brazil said it could reverse a recent rise in deforestation and cut the rate of forest loss by 70% over the next decade; Peru said that with help it could reduce deforestation to zero.
The Brazilian plan rests in part on using satellites, laws and police to combat illegal loggers and ranchers. Guyana’s president, Bharrat Jagdeo, made a different argument as he presented a plan for a low-carbon economy designed to suit the interests of all countries at an early stage of developing their natural resources.
Even on the (optimistic) assumption that the police try their best, efforts to stop deforestation may fail unless it becomes more profitable for people who control the forest to leave trees intact than it is to cut them down. Moreover, Mr Jagdeo and his advisers insist, any plan to compensate countries for keeping trees must avoid the trap of rewarding past malefactors while penalising the virtuous. The case is not a moral one—it’s merely that rewarding ex-sinners alone could displace deforestation to pristine places like Guyana.
Compensation plans must therefore be based not on past sins, but on current economic pressures (like high palm oil prices). In practical terms, the owners of Guyana’s forest need to get at least the $580m a year which they could earn from exploiting it for logs and agriculture: from the world’s point of view, a cheap way to conserve carbon and other desirables like biodiversity.
Whether Mr Jagdeo’s vision ever materialises depends not just on the UN’s deliberations over punctuation, but also on the willingness of powerful players like the European Union to abide by emissions goals that keep the price of carbon high.
At a summit on December 11th and 12th, the EU’s leaders eventually decided to keep their targets intact while also allowing opt-outs which may yet undermine their stated goals. President Nicolas Sarkozy, who chaired the summit, boasted of a “terrific fight” which French diplomacy had managed to finesse. Despite many concessions for heavy industry and poor newcomers to the EU, the final deal (perhaps to its credit) left everybody unhappy. European industry felt too much was being asked of it, while green groups thought industry had gained rather too many concessions.
Twenty-twenty visionIn the background of the EU’s wrangling were some goals laid out last year in pre-recession times. By the year 2020, the EU promised three things: to cut overall greenhouse gas emissions by 20% over 1990 levels; to obtain 20% of overall EU energy from renewables like wind, waves and plant waste; and to make efficiency savings of 20% over forecast consumption.
The new EU deal kept the targets, but offered sops to countries that fear an emphasis on the “polluter pays” principle may drive up electricity costs, or push heavy industry away to places, like Asia, that in Copenhagen will oppose big emission cuts. Opt-outs were granted from plans to force large polluters to buy allowances to emit carbon at auction. Poorish ex-communist countries that rely on coal for power will be allowed to dish out up to 70% of the carbon allowances needed by power firms, for no payment, for a few years after 2013.
Heavy industries that face global competition will also get up to 100% of their allowances free, at least initially, if they use the cleanest available technologies. And EU nations will be allowed to buy in credits for emissions reductions far from Europe, and count them against as much as 90% of their national reduction targets.
Eurocrats say a reduced emphasis on auctioning permits won’t undermine the benefits of the package; carbon-cutting discipline still comes from the ceiling on the number of allowances issued. That cap will be cut each year after 2013: this should help to support carbon prices in the EU’s Emissions-Trading Scheme.
The concessions risk prolonging some follies. For example, big power firms that now get carbon allowances free have been passing on their nominal cost to customers. Handing out free allowances may also reduce revenues available to governments for investment in greenery. Moreover, some pro-market countries fret that using climate-change policies to redistribute money within the EU will cause trouble in global talks. It will make it harder to resist China and India when they seek transfers of money in the name of “solidarity”.
Faced with such diplomatic gamesmanship, some greens may now hope that an asteroid-type warning appears on the radar screen. It may already be in view. On December 16th, a scientist from America’s National Snow and Ice Data Centre said the shrinking of Arctic ice (and exposure of extra sea to radiation) was warming the world at an accelerating pace.

Evermore

12.22 TE
fiddle with  v.乱动
maddeningly  adv.令人发狂地,使人恼火地
elusive  adj.难以捉摸的; 难以找到的; 不易记住的
projectile  n.抛射体,(炮弹、子弹等)射弹; (火箭等)自动推进的武器
rocky  adj.多岩石的, 由岩石组成的.坚如磐石的, 坚硬的,摇摆的; 摇晃的
hurtling  adj.疾驰的,飞奔的
deflect  vt. & vi.(使)偏斜, (使)偏离, (使)转向
presumably  adv.据推测, 大概, 可能
hangup    挂断
unchecked  adj.〈贬〉未遏制的; 未受制止的
asteroid  n.(尤指火星和木星轨道间运行的)小行星
tortuous  adj.弯弯曲曲的,(指政策等)不直接阐明的; 含混不清的
Poznan  波兹南(波兰城市)
semicolon  n.分号
degradation  n.降级,降格,退化
haggle  vi.讨价还价
emitter  n.发射器
Copenhagen  n.哥本哈根
make or break  v.要么成功要么毁灭
resentment  n.怨恨,愤恨
logger  n.樵夫,圆木装车机
rancher  n.大农场主
Guyana  n.圭亚那(拉丁美洲)
malefactor  n.犯罪分子
biodiversity  n.生物多类状态, 生物多样性
materialise  vi.具体化; 成为现实
abide by  遵守, 信守,忠于(某人),接受, 承担
intact  adj.完整无缺的; 未经触动的; 未受损伤的
opt-out  noun an instance of choosing not to participate in something
决定不参与
■(Brit.)an instance of a school or hospital withdrawing from local authority control.
(英)（学校，医院）决定自主管理（摆脱地方当局的控制）
undermine  vt.在某物下挖洞或挖通道; 侵蚀…的基础,暗中破坏; 逐渐削弱
wrangle  vi.(尤指生气、喧闹和长时间的)争吵; 争论; 口角n.(尤指长时间的)激烈争吵; 口角, 吵嘴
sop  noun （对某人的主要要求未曾予以满足，而用来安抚的、价值不大的）抚慰品；小礼品 （浸泡在肉汁、汤或调料中吃的）面包片 (古)湿透；浸透
dish out  大量给予或分发
Eurocrat  n.欧洲共同市场的官员或职员
follies  n.罪恶,时事讽刺剧
nominal cost  名义成本
hand out  搀扶…出来,〈非正〉分发, 发给, 散发,提出
pro-market    主供市场经济
fret  vt. & vi.(使某人)不愉快, 烦躁vt.磨损, 咬坏,以刻出的或锯出的图案装饰
gamesmanship  n.竞赛时使用的虽不光明但不犯规的方法
（通过使用各种战术、策略取得心理优势来赢得比赛的）克敌制胜术

Evermore

Barack Obama
A well-stocked cabinetDec 22nd 2008 | NEW YORK
From Economist.com
Barack Obama has chosen a team of heavyweights
AP
WHEN Barack Obama nominated Hillary Clinton to be his secretary of state, the phrase of the week was “team of rivals”. But as Mr Obama fills out his cabinet, the new term might be “all-star team”. Mr Obama has convinced heavyweights from politics and the private sector to take jobs in his administration that do not grab the headlines.
Mrs Clinton was the first 2008 presidential candidate to take a job under Mr Obama. The next was Bill Richardson. He surprised many by quitting as governor of New Mexico to become secretary of commerce. He had previously served as ambassador to the United Nations and secretary of energy under Bill Clinton. Such is his eagerness to serve that he has taken a low-profile job often given to unremarkable cronies of the president.

Next in the presidential-contender list was Tom Vilsack. The former governor of Iowa was well-enough regarded (for competence if not charisma) that he briefly ran for president himself, before finding fundraising tricky. He will become secretary of agriculture. His roots in a corn-growing state have dismayed opponents of America’s corn-based ethanol subsidies. But bravely, he has proposed lowering the tariff on greener, more efficient Brazilian sugar-based ethanol. His reckons that more ethanol in the energy mix will encourage the development of a delivery infrastructure. This will boost future investment into promising forms of non-corn ethanol, such as production from cellulose.
Behind the presidential contenders come other surprisingly weighty candidates for medium-sized cabinet posts. Ken Salazar, a senator from Colorado, has been tapped for the interior department. Mr Salazar, a moderate from a state that usually swings behind the Republicans, was valuable to Senate Democrats and was thought of as an up and coming. Mr Obama’s nominee for secretary of energy is Steve Chu, a Nobel-prize-winning physicist and head of the Lawrence Berkeley national laboratory, an important research centre.
Two appointments might seem like partisan payback. Tom Daschle was the head of the Senate Democrats until his South Dakota seat was taken by gleeful Republicans in 2004. The well-connected Mr Daschle will spearhead reform as head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Eric Shinseki was pushed into early retirement as army chief of staff, after predicting the Iraq war would take hundreds of thousands of troops to win. Mr Obama has nominated him to be Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs. Yet even these two appointments have drawn surprisingly little Republican criticism.
Mr Obama’s picks may be one reason why the approval rating of his transition is high, according to polls, and well above that of George Bush or Bill Clinton at similar points. Including the appointment of Hilda Solis as Labour Secretary he has even managed to pick two blacks, three Hispanics and two Asian-Americans—and five of his cabinet are women—without any accusations of tokenism. The biggest point for criticism might be his choice of Eric Holder for attorney-general. Mr Holder is a well-respected lawyer. But he is tangentially implicated in some of the grubbier episodes of the Bill Clinton era, including Mr Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich, a fugitive financier. Mr Holder may provide the only piece of controversy in cabinet confirmation hearings.
Below the cabinet-level headlines, transition staffers are being bombarded with calls, e-mails and Facebook requests from everyone they ever shared a beer with, as eager Democrats seek lowlier jobs. A new administration is always a feeding-frenzy, but seasoned observers say that they have seen nothing like this scramble for employment.
With the influx of talent, Mr Obama resembles John Kennedy, who inspired many to service. But the “best and the brightest”, as David Halberstam, a well-regarded journalist, ironically titled Kennedy’s crew, failed in several ways, especially in Vietnam. Mr Obama’s team will inherit tough times; a competent crew will be the least that he needs. The trouble is that pulling in so many big names may, in time, produce rivalries that Mr Obama will have difficulty reconciling.