TEXTOS PARA O 2º COL NOT – CAD 04
The Financial District
The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle Manhattan. To project
themselves from attacks, they built a strong wooden wall. Although it’s now
long gone, this wall gave its name to a street in Lower
Manhattan and the street, in turn, became synonymous with American
capitalism. The street, of course, is Wall Street.
It is easy to see why “Wall Street” means capitalism.
The New York
Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange are both in the Wall Street
area. So are many stockbrokers, investment banks and other banks, and
headquarters of many large corporations. There is also the Federal Reserve Bank
of New York, a branch of the national bank of the United States – and the only branch
that buys and sells government securities.
On any weekday you can visit the New York Stock Exchange, which began with
several merchants meeting under a tree on Wall Street, now has over 1,350
members. From the visitor is gallery you can watch as trading goes on at a
frantic pace below you.
Outside on the street, the pace is just as frantic
(but only during working hours – the city is nightlife is elsewhere). The area
is narrow streets and tall buildings can feel confining and can make the crowds
seem scared.
To escape the commotion of Wall Street, you can visit
the nearby South Street
Seaport. The seaport is an open area of low buildings on the East
River. In addition to many shops and restaurants, the seaport has
a museum. You can tour old houses, ships, and shipyards – reminders of the days
when New Yourk was above all a port. At the seaport, you can also tour the Fulton Fish Market, Where
city restaurants buy their fish – if you can be there at five in the morning!
Appropriately, the very first business deal in Manhattan was made in
what became the financial district. As every American schoolchild knows, the
Dutch bought Manhattan
from the Indians, for the ridiculously low price of 24 dollars worth of beads
and trinkets.
Standing Room On Airplanes a Possibility
The latest cost-cutting idea from inexpensive airlines
is for passengers to stand. Michael Ryan, the CEO of Ryanair, is seriously
considering this option. Ryanair is one of Europe
is biggest airlines. It carried 5.84 million passengers in June, which is 13%
more than a year earlier. Mr. Ryan says his airline is so popular because it is
so cheap. Most of Ryanair is flights are short trips to Europe.
This makes the idea of standing for an hour or so on an airplane a possible
one. Ryan said that many people stand for over an hour on a train, so it should
be no problem on an airplane. He told reporters he would even be prepared to
offer flights for free to passengers who stood. He said he could squeeze in 50
per cent more people and cut costs by 20 per cent.
Michael Ryan has changed the way many people think
about air travel. His focus is on cutting out unnecessary services and so
reducing fares. One idea he is still thinking about is to ask passengers to pay
one euro (around a dollar) to use the toilet. He said he could remove two
toilets on board the airplane and put in extra seats. The extra revenue would
reduce costs and therefore the price of airline tickets. He said asking
passengers to pay would encourage them to use the toilets at the airports. Ryan
has also talked about a “fat tax” on overweight travelers. His standing room
idea, however, might no take off. All airlines must stick to strict
international safety standards. Everybody over the age of two must have a seat.
The 21 Club
Underage drinking and deaths have prompted a movement
for change
NEARLY 5,000 people below the age of 21 die because of
excessive alcohol consumption. Each year. Oddly, this has triggered a new
movement to lower the drinking age. In America, young people can vote,
drive, marry, divorce, hunt and go to war before alcohol is legally allowed to
touch their lips. Many states once set their minimum drinking-age at 18. But in
1984 Ronald Reagan oversaw the passage of the “21 law”, which requires states
to set 21 as the minimum drinking-age or risk losing 10% of their highway
funds. Now campaigners want to move it back.
In the past, states have been too fiscally timid to
challenge the 21 law. But calls for change are growing louder.
Supporters of the status quo, including the
organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving, say that the law has averted
thousands of fatalities. But skeptics point out that other countries, like Canada, have
seen similar declines, even though their drinking-age is 18. They also argue
that barring young people from drinking does not stop the from consuming
alcohol: it just makes them drink more quickly.
John Mc Cardell, former president of Middlebury
College in Vermont, is part of the Amethyst Initiative, a group of educators
who are pushing for 18-year-olds to be allowed to drink. Those who have
graduated from high school, have a clean record and completed an
alcohol-education programme should qualify for a drinking licence, he says, in
the same way that people who go to driving school receive a licence to operate
a vehicle.
(The
Economist)
Letter
Dear Sir,
I am writing to inform you of the kind of services
rendered by some of your employees of your company, the Kopeh Omnibus Company.
Firstly, the drivers of some of the buses often do not
stop buses directly in front of the bus-stop, as one would expect, but twenty
or thirty meters before or after them. This results in the people having to run
to catch the bus. I use the word ‘run’ because, after stopping for only about
two minutes, the bus starts off again. The bus-driver and conductor seem to be
unable to see that people who are walking towards the bus might also be
interested in catching it. I know this for certain because, having a heart
condition, I try to make it a practice not to run. As a result, I have been
left behind by your buses six times.
Secondly, your conductors seem to feel that they are
in charge of educating the public. Once, I was rudely told “You are a man. Why
do not you stand up for this lady?” by a conductor half my years in age. It was
very embarrassing. Let us leave aside the point that, having a heart condition,
it was inadvisable for me to stand up for the whole journey. Do you think that
the conductor has the right to speak like that to the passengers? Are they not
on the buses to serve us rather than insult us?
The Kopeh Omnibus Company has the monopoly of bus
services in Kopeh. Thus, perhaps, the question of competition has never
occurred to spur your employees on to better service. However, as it manager, I
am sure that you will wish the public to have a good impression of the company.
PRISON – VS. – WORK
There is something seriously wrong here
@ PRISON
|
@ WORK
|
You spend most of
your time in a 10 x 10 cell
|
You spend most of
your time in a 6x6 cubicle
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You get three free
meals a day
|
You get a break for
one meal, and you have to pay for it
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For good behavior,
you get time off
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For good behavior,
you get more work
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The guard locks and
unlocks all the doors for you
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You must carry a
security card and open all the doors yourself
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You can watch TV
and play games
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You could get fired
for watching TV and playing games
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You get your own
toilet
|
You have to share
the toilet with people who pee on the seat
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They allow your
family and friends to visit
|
You are not even
supposed to speak to your family
|
All expenses are
paid by the taxpayers with no work required on your part
|
You must pay all
your expenses to go to work, and they deduct taxes from your salary to pay
for prisoners
|
You spend most of
your life inside bars wanting to get out
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You spend most of
your time wanting to get out and go inside bars
|
You must deal with
sadistic wardens
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They are called
‘managers’
|
WHO ARE THESE ALIENS?
A spaceship lands on Earth. Inside we find several ugly, fat, hairless
beings with no legs. What are these amorphous extraterrestrials? Jabba the
Hutt? No, returning human astronauts, according to Dr Lewis Dartnell of
University College London. Ease of movement in low or zero gravity will cause
muscle wastage, while at the same time causing fluids to gather in their heads,
which would make their faces puff up. The benevolent artificial environment
inside a spacecraft would result in hair loss. Dr Dartnell even suggested that
future astronauts would choose to have their legs amputated as ones lower limbs
only get in the way in zero gravity. And if the astronauts had had children
during their years in space travelling to other planets they would probably be
stunted as well as bald and fat. A study from NASAs Ames Research Center in
Mountain View, California has found that when newts tails are amputated to
re-grow in space, the new tails are only half as long as they would be on
Earth. Researchers affirm that gravity plays a role in cell division. Do you
still want to grow up to be an astronaut?
(Think
in English)
*newts: small
semiaquatic salamanders of North America and Europe and northern Asia.
NEW LAW TARGETS FAST-FOOD TOYS
San Francisco has passed a law banning
fast-food restaurants from giving away toys with some children's meals.
Supporters say many fast food meals are very unhealthy, but McDonald's called
the legislation misguided.
It could mean the end of the Happy
Meal, the fast-food snack that's a hit with children at McDonald's, because it
comes with a free toy. City leaders in San
Francisco argued the same meals also come with too many
calories and they say that has added to a situation where nearly 20% of
American children are obese.
Now San
Francisco has become the first major US city to ban fast-food
restaurants from giving away toys with meals that don't meet nutritional
recommendations. In future, you'll only get the toy if you buy a healthy snack.
The burger giant McDonald's sent
senior executives to the city to oppose the measure. In a statement, the company
said: ''Parents tell us it's their right and responsibility, not the
government's, to make their own decisions and to choose what's right for their
children.''
McDonald's, Burger King and 15 other
food companies have accepted to self-regulate how they advertise
food to
youngsters.
(Rajesh
Mirchandani, BBC News)
SANTA CLAUS IS TOO UNHEALTHY
An
Australian scientist writing in the British Medical Journal thinks Father
Christmas is a bad role model for children because he is very fat and drinks
too much alcohol.
Father
Christmas should get off his sleigh and
walk, lay off the mince pies and
go easy on the beer and brandy,
says research from the University
of Monash in Melbourne. Santa Claus, it
says, is one of the most widely recognised figures in the world, and it’s about time he started looking
after his health, because he’s a
terrible role model.
The
traditional image of him as a jolly little man with a fat belly promotes the view that obese
people are happy. The research isn’t intended
entirely seriously, says Nathan Grills, the scientist behind it, but there’s
still a good point to make about public
health.
Equally
worrying, he says, is the vast amount of alcohol Santa consumes on his rounds. All the beer, brandy
and sherry left out for him in a billion homes worldwide, it says, must mean he’s in no fit state to drive his
sleigh. In fact, says the research, he should abandon it altogether and find a
healthier way to deliver presents - like jogging. If that wasn’t bad enough,
the study says, Santa’s habits warrant
closer scrutiny. More research is needed, it says, before it pronounces
him a true public health menace.
(Janet
Barrie)
A WAVE OF ANGER IS
SWEEPING THE CITIES OF THE WORLD
The
protests have many different origins. In Brazil people rose up against bus fares,
in Turkey against a building project. Indonesians have rejected higher fuel
prices. In the euro zone they march against austerity, and the Arab spring has
become a perma-protest against pretty much everything.
Yet
just as in 1848, 1968 and 1989, when people also found a collective voice, the
demonstrators have much in common. In one country after another, protesters
have risen up with bewildering speed. They tend to be ordinary, middle-class
people, not lobbies with lists of demands. Their mix of revelry and rage
condemns the corruption, inefficiency and arrogance of the folk in charge.
Nobody
can know how 2013 will change the world – if at all. In 1989 the Soviet empire
teetered and fell. But Marx’s belief that 1848 was the first wave of a proletarian
revolution was confounded by decades of flourishing capitalism and 1968 did
more to change sex than politics. Even now, though, the inchoate significance
of 2013 is discernible. And for politicians who want to peddle the same old
stuff, news is not good.
(The
Economist, FUVEST)
ARTIST DETAINED IN GROWING CRACKDOWN BEIJING
Ai
Weiwei, China’s most prominent dissident after imprisoned Nobel laureate Liu
Xiaobo, was detained April 3 at the Beijing airport as he tried to board a
flight to Hong Kong. Perhaps best known for codesigning the 2008 Beijing
Olympic stadium known as the Bird’s Nest. Ai is an outspoken critic of the government
and has been detained several times. During one period in custody, he was
allegedly beaten so badly that he required brain surgery. This arrest comes
amid a widespread crackdown touched off by online calls for a Tunisian-style “jasmine
revolution.” Over the past several weeks, at least 26 activists have been
detained, 200 have been put under house arrest, and more than 30 have
disappeared.
(ITA)