Đề thi môn phiên dịch 2 khoa tiếng anh thương mại cho các bạn tham khảo. Every year, the Committee to Protect Journalists releases a report on the conditions faced by reporters around the world. The report tells about killings and suspicious disappearances of news writers, photographers, radio and television broadcasters and publishers. The report also discusses actions by governments and other groups to repress the news media. TwoThousandOne was a dangerous year for reporters around the world. At least thirtyseven were killed because of what they reported or because they were working in dangerous situations. That is thirteen more deaths than the year before. The report says conditions last year were very bad for reporters in Burma, Syria and Columbia. Three reporters were killed in Colombia. And the Committee to Protect Journalists says it still is investigating the suspicious deaths of five other reporters in Colombia. The Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists is Ann Cooper. She says reporting about wars is dangerous. Eight reporters died last year covering the war in Afghanistan. But, she says reporters generally face the greatest risk when reporting about government wrong doing in their own countries. She says members of the press may be murdered because of the information they report. That happened last year, she says, in Bangladesh, China, Yugoslavia and Thailand.
Committee to Protect Journalists 2001 Report By Caty Weaver Every year, the Committee to Protect Journalists releases a report on the conditions faced by reporters around the world The report tells about killings and suspicious disappearances of news writers, photographers, radio and television broadcasters and publishers The report also discusses actions by governments and other groups to repress the news media Two-Thousand-One was a dangerous year for reporters around the world At least thirty-seven were killed because of what they reported or because they were working in dangerous situations That is thirteen more deaths than the year before The report says conditions last year were very bad for reporters in Burma, Syria and Columbia Three reporters were killed in Colombia And the Committee to Protect Journalists says it still is investigating the suspicious deaths of five other reporters in Colombia The Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists is Ann Cooper She says reporting about wars is dangerous Eight reporters died last year covering the war in Afghanistan But, she says reporters generally face the greatest risk when reporting about government wrongdoing in their own countries She says members of the press may be murdered because of the information they report That happened last year, she says, in Bangladesh, China, Yugoslavia and Thailand The report by the Committee to Protect Journalists also suggests increased efforts last year to repress the media around the world For example, the Committee says there was a major rise in the number of reporters put in jail for doing their work The report says one-hundred-eighteen reporters were jailed last year compared to eighty-one in Two-Thousand China jailed thirty-five reporters, more than any other country for the third year The report also discusses the way the terrorist attacks on the United States affected reporting last year It says some governments acted to interfere with or block reporting about the attacks Other governments used national security concerns as an excuse to restrict the press after the attacks The report notes the American State Department’s unsuccessful attempt to stop the V-O-A from broadcasting part of an interview with Taleban leader Mullah Omar The report always includes a list of those people it considers the ten worst enemies of the press Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei again is at the top of the list He is followed by Charles Taylor, the president of Liberia, and Chinese President Jiang Zemin The Committee to Protect Journalists is based in New York It was established in Nineteen-Eighty-One to support freedom of the press internationally It works to defend the right of reporters to their work without fear of punishment AIDS Conference By Cynthia Kirk A new report says that the disease AIDS will cause a sharp drop in life expectancy in fifty-one countries by the year Two-ThousandTen A study by the United States Census Bureau was released during the International AIDS Conference this week in Barcelona, Spain Experts say several nations are losing one-hundred years of progress in extending the length of life of their citizens AIDS has killed more than twenty-million people around the world Experts say about forty-million people are infected with H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS More than six-million people are infected in Asian countries Most of them live in India, China and Indonesia AIDS is also spreading quickly in Russia, Latin America and the Caribbean But Africa has been hardest hit by the disease Almost thirty-million people are infected with the virus Seven countries in southern Africa now have life expectancies of less than forty years For example, in Botswana, life expectancy is thirty-nine years By TwoThousand-Ten, it could be less than twenty-seven years Mozambique is expected to have a similar reduction in life expectancy Lives would also be shortened in other southern African countries Without AIDS, officials say the average life expectancy in southern Africa by Two-Thousand-Ten would have been about seventy years There are also many more babies dying from AIDS in southern Africa Researchers say that in Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia, more babies will die from AIDS by Two-Thousand-Ten than from all other causes American Census Bureau official Karen Stanecki says there soon will be more deaths than births in southern African countries because of AIDS She says as adults die, millions of children will grow up without parents A United Nations report says about thirteen-million children have already lost one or both parents to AIDS in eighty-eight countries Most of these orphans live in southern African countries The report estimates that there will be at least twentyfive million AIDS orphans by Two-Thousand-Ten Some non-governmental organizations say that number is far too low They say there will be almost one-hundred-million orphans by Two-Thousand-Ten Carol Bellamy is the director of the United Nations Children’s Fund She says AIDS orphans face many problems, even if they are not infected They are often mistreated by the communities, forced out of school, and sometimes become targets for illegal activities She says girls are the group most at risk AIDS officials say ten-thousand-million dollars is needed each year for research, treatment and care for people with AIDS Yet, they say wealthy nations have agreed to pay less than one-third of that amount UN Population Study By Jill Moss The United Nations Population Fund has released a new study on the condition of the world’s population The main idea of the report is poverty and its relationship to population issues It says that several steps need to be taken immediately to reduce poverty by half by the year two-thousand-fifteen The first is to improve health care systems In the world’s poorest countries, people are expected to live just forty-nine years One in ten children not reach their first birthday The study says that poor health and poverty are linked The report also says that women are affected most by poor health care systems, especially pregnant women It says that better reproductive health can reduce poverty and build economic growth The report says family planning and helping women avoid unwanted pregnancies are also ways to reduce poverty The study says that when given a choice, poor people in developing countries have fewer children than their parents did Smaller families have fewer expenses and more chances to increase their earnings and savings Since nineteen-seventy, developing countries with lower birth rates and slower population growth have had faster economic growth They have had higher productivity, more savings and more investment The report also notes that poor people are more at risk for the infection that causes AIDS This is because they lack the knowledge and power to protect themselves against the disease The report says that investing in education, especially for women, can also reduce poverty Educated women have more choices in life and are more likely to send their children to school The study found that the right to an education has improved over the past ten years However, poor people in many developing countries are still less likely to attend school The report urges governments to change this and make sure all citizens learn to read and write The U-N study also says that women and men should be treated equally This means that legal and human rights for women should be strengthened, as well as their ability to earn money and speak out socially and politically The U-N report says that half the world’s population live on less than two dollars a day One-thousand-million people live on less than one dollar a day Air Pollution/Lung Cancer By Cynthia Kirk Researchers have completed a major study on the health effects of air pollution common in many large American cities The study shows that air pollution increases the risk of death from lung cancer and other diseases They say people living in heavily polluted areas have a sixteen percent higher risk of dying of lung cancer than people in less polluted areas They say the risk is similar to that of someone living with a person who smokes cigarettes The latest study involved five-hundred-thousand people in more than one-hundred American cities The researchers examined their health records from Nineteen-Eighty-Two through Nineteen-Ninety-Eight They also gathered information about air pollution in the cities where the people lived Researchers say the higher lung cancer risk is linked to pollution caused by small particles of soot from coal-burning power centers, factories and motor vehicles Power centers built before Nineteen-Eighty produce about half the nation’s electricity However, they also produce most of the power industry’s dangerous pollutants These include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and soot.Air pollution levels have decreased during the past twenty years because of better enforcement of clean air laws Yet levels of small particle pollution in major cities are at or above pollution limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency The E-P-A set new pollution limits in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven after studies showed a link between small particle pollution and lung cancer However, power companies have taken legal action against the agency to delay the restrictions.Environmental groups have long suggested that pollution from power centers has led to a sharp increase in deaths from lung diseases They have urged action to either close the factories or force them to put in anti-pollution equipment The American Lung Association says the latest findings show the urgent need to clean up aging power factories Experts who have spent years examining the links between pollution and sicknesses generally support the latest study The Environmental Protection Agency says it will consider the research as part of its continuing study of air quality rules on small particle pollution APEC Meeting and North Korea By Caty Weaver Leaders from many nations are attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in the holiday area of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico APEC was established in nineteen-eighty-nine as a trade group for the nations of Asia and the Americas It was formed in reaction to the growing dependency among economies of countries that border the Pacific Ocean Its goal was to support economic growth among those countries and to create a sense of community APEC has twenty-one member economies The combined population of APEC countries is about two-and-onehalf-thousand-million people The countries are responsible for almost half of all world trade APEC foreign and trade ministers started talks earlier this week On Thursday, the foreign ministers approved a joint statement that promised to suppress the financing of terrorism The statement also promised to strengthen security for air travel and shipping of goods President Bush and leaders of other APEC countries are meeting this weekend Reports say Mister Bush will be trying to gain support for his campaigns against terrorism and its supporters and against Iraq APEC leaders also are expected to discuss the latest situation involving North Korea Earlier this month, the United States announced that North Korea had admitted it is secretly developing nuclear weapons The admission reportedly came during talks between a high level North Korean official and an American special diplomat The diplomat reportedly had presented the official with American intelligence evidence about the suspected weapons program A North Korean nuclear weapons program would violate an agreement between the two countries In nineteen-ninety-four, North Korea agreed to halt its suspected weapons program In exchange, the United States said it would provide North Korea with nuclear power reactors and supplies of heating fuel North Korea says it does not believe the United States has honored the agreement Experts say North Korea considered the agreement a promise by the United States to end hostile relations and establish normal relations And, experts say that the relationship between the two countries has worsened in the last two years North Korea says it wants new talks with the United States about the agreement On Tuesday, North Korean officials threatened to take strong action if the United States would not agree to negotiations However, North Korea did not say what form such action would take The Bush administration has suggested that the issue can be settled through diplomatic action But, administration officials have not answered the call for talks They say the United States will decide what steps to take after APEC leaders discuss the issue Global Summit of Women By Cynthia Kirk About six-hundred business, professional and governmental leaders gathered in Barcelona, Spain, last week for the Global Summit of Women The three-day meeting dealt with economic development for women around the world The Global Summit of Women brought together women from more than seventy countries The largest delegations this year were from Spain, the United States and Kazakhstan Several governments sent trade officials to the summit, including the United States, Iceland and Canada The American group was led by Assistant Secretary of Commerce Maria Cino (SEE-no) Female business leaders and government officials spoke at the meeting They included vice presidents, deputy prime ministers and ministers of employment, science and technology from several countries The Global Summit of Women began in nineteen-ninety It has been held every year since nineteen-ninety-seven The majority of women attending the meeting are owners of small businesses The meeting offers women a chance to increase business and professional relationships and to exchange ideas It aims to increase women’s economic progress even though there are cultural barriers in many countries The summit dealt with problems that women face in starting or expanding businesses It provided information in many areas For example, the meeting provided information about doing business on the Internet computer system and developing effective Web sites The women also discussed how to get financial support for business owners and form important business alliances Other issues included how health crises and environmental concerns influence business The women discussed how to turn traditional activities into successful modern businesses And they also discussed how women can balance many concerns in their lives, including work, family and health The director of the Global Summit of Women is Irene Natividad of the United States Mizz Natividad says in Europe, Canada and the United States, at least onethird of all small and medium-size businesses are now owned by women And she says eighty percent of small businesses in developing countries are owned and led by women Mizz Natividad says small businesses are an important part of every free market economy Mizz Natividad says women are also an important part of every economy Yet she says many businesses fail to recognize the importance of women She says women must more to gain economic equality She also called on women to more to improve the education of girls and women around the world, especially in science and math She says this is important for the new world economy Latin American Economic Crisis By Cynthia Kirk The International Monetary Fund has agreed to provide an additional thirtythousand-million dollars in loans to Brazil I-M-F Managing Director Horst Koehler announced the agreement Wednesday Experts say the loan is designed to ease growing concerns about Brazil’s financial markets The thirty-thousand-million dollar loan is the largest ever given by the I-M-F Financial experts say it shows the I-MF’s strong support for the economic program that Brazil is following Brazil already received a fifteen-thousand-million dollar loan from the I-M-F last year Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America But investors and bankers are concerned about Brazil’s huge public debt It is more than two-hundred-fiftythousand-million dollars There also is concern about Brazil’s presidential election in October The two main candidates have sharply criticized the current government’s support of I-M-F policies aimed at cutting spending, reducing inflation and increasing free trade These concerns have weakened financial markets and caused a sharp drop in the value of Brazilian money in recent weeks The government has been forced to pay interest rates of more than thirty-percent on what it borrows Many fear that Brazil may not be able to pay its huge debt The I-M-F loan agreement requires that Brazil keep its budget at three-pointseventy-five percent of its total economic production And it must reduce inflation during the next year and a half American Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill visited Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina this week Uruguay received an emergency loan from the United States Monday of one-and-one-half-thousand-million dollars The loan was made to help Uruguay re-open its banks They had been closed to keep people from withdrawing too much money On Thursday, the I-M-F agreed to extend its line of credit to Uruguay so it could borrow more money Argentina, however, did not receive help this week The American treasury secretary said the Argentine government must complete more economic reforms and improve its banking system before it can receive aid Argentina has onehundred-forty-thousand-million dollars in government debt And it owes large repayments on past loans from the I-M-F and other international lenders About twenty-two percent of workers are unemployed in Argentina and more than half the country’s thirty-six million people are poor Until recent years, Argentina was South America’s richest nation Argentines protested Mister O’Neill’s visit They accused the United States and the I-M-F of blocking badly needed aid The United States is the largest and most influential shareholder in the I-M-F Mister O’Neill said he wants to help negotiate an agreement between the I-M-F and Argentina to pull the country out of a four year recession Group of Eight Conference By Cynthia Kirk Last week, the heads of government of the Group of Eight held a three-day meeting in Genoa, Italy The members are the leading industrial nations the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and also Russia The leaders met to discuss world trade and economic development They also discussed disease prevention, debt reduction, and other issues Officials from several developing countries including Nigeria, Mali, Bangladesh and El Salvador were invited to take part in the conference for the first time During the talks, about one-hundred-thousand protesters demonstrated outside the historic palace in Genoa where the meeting was held They gathered there to express their anger about world trade One person was killed during the protests The Italian Interior Ministry says the demonstrator was shot in an act of self-defense by a member of Italy’s national police force Many protesters condemned the deadly use of force by the Italian police The Group of Eight leaders expressed sorrow for the death and urged demonstrators to reject violence The protesters represented trade unions, environmental groups, farmers, and the unemployed Most shared a concern about the effects of international trade Many of the protesters believe world trade harms the people of poor countries They say major international companies are becoming wealthy while harming the poor and the environment Opponents of world trade want wealthy nations to reduce debt in developing countries They also called for better education in poor countries and more money to treat diseases in Africa The Group of Eight leaders said world trade helps all people They promised to work to bring the poorest countries into the world economy And they promised to continue to deal with issues important to all areas of the world The leaders also discussed the worldwide AIDS crisis and other deadly diseases They agreed to provide more than one-thousand-million dollars to support efforts to prevent and treat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria These preventable diseases kill millions of people each year Most of the victims live in poor countries One of the most disputed issues at the G-Eight meeting was the Kyoto treaty to halt the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere President Bush continues to reject the treaty He says it would harm the American economy Other leaders said they would work to put the treaty into effect At the end of the conference, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced they would hold new arms talks They said they want to link talks about reducing nuclear weapons with American plans to build a missile defense system European Union Expansion By Cynthia Kirk The European Union has officially asked ten countries to join the organization in Two-Thousand-Four The leaders of the fifteen current E-U member countries approved the invitations at a meeting in Copenhagen last week Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen led the meeting He called the decision, a victory for liberty and democracy He also said that, a new Europe is born Eight of the invited countries are in Eastern Europe Until nineteen-ninety-one, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania were part of the Soviet Union Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia all had Communist governments The E-U also offered membership to Malta and the Greek-ruled part of Cyprus The planned expansion would be the largest in the E-U’s history It would create a community of more than four-hundred-fifty million people in twenty-five countries The expansion also would create an economy of more than ninemillion-million dollars Such an economy would be close to that of the United States Intense negotiations took place at the Copenhagen meeting about the financial terms under which new members will join Candidates for E-U membership had demanded more aid Most of them are poorer than the average country in Western Europe They also have shorter histories as democracies and had problems with dishonest governments Many people in the invited countries did not fully support efforts to join the E-U Poland is the largest of the ten candidate countries It had threatened to sabotage the expansion plans if it did not receive more aid The agreement calls for the E-U to provide more than forty-thousand-million dollars in aid to the new members The expansion is planned for May, Two-Thousand-Four But first, citizens in each candidate country must approve E-U membership in a series of votes expected next year E-U members had hoped that a United Nations-negotiated agreement to end the division of Cyprus would be signed during the Copenhagen meeting Cyprus has been divided between Greek and Turkish Cypriots since nineteen-seventy-four The E-U offered membership to the southern, Greek side of Cyprus The Turkish north could enter later if it agrees on terms to end the island’s division Now, only the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government will receive E-U membership In another development, Turkey accepted an E-U decision to delay considering its membership until December, Two-Thousand-Four, at the earliest E-U leaders said Turkey must make the political and human rights reforms necessary to begin talks about membership The United States supports Turkey’s efforts to join the E-U The Bush administration has been attempting to win Turkish support for possible military action against Iraq Tobacco in Developing Countries By Jill Moss Tobacco smoking has long been considered an international health problem, especially in developing countries Health experts estimate that tobacco use causes diseases that kill three-million people each year Ninety percent of smokers begin before age twenty-one Sixty percent become smokers by age fourteen Based on these numbers, an international organization of anti-tobacco groups has released new evidence against the tobacco industry The public activist organization Infact and several members of the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals wrote the report It examines actions by the tobacco industry around the world The study says that tobacco companies spend huge amounts of money fighting anti-smoking legislation in developing countries It says tobacco companies take serious steps to make smoking as low-cost as possible And it says tobacco companies target young people For example, the report says tobacco companies give free cigarettes to young people at music shows, dance centers and even in some schools Tobacco companies also give away clothes or other products showing their signs or logos The effect of these actions is an increase in young smokers The report says the total number of young smokers has increased by more than seventy percent in developing countries during the last twenty-five years Anti-smoking activists also say tobacco companies try to market their products to as many people as possible For example, in India, cigarettes are sold individually or in boxes of two or five The price of these smaller boxes is much less than a full box of twenty cigarettes This makes it much easier for young people to get cigarettes The report comes as the World Health Organization begins new talks on an agreement seeking to limit the use of tobacco The document is called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Officials hope to have it finished by next year The agreement will deal with tobacco marketing campaigns, the illegal transport of tobacco, financial support for the tobacco industry and other issues Clearing Land Mines in Afghanistan By Jill Moss Each year, thousands of people are killed or injured by explosions from land mines This is a serious problem in many developing countries that are experiencing war Afghanistan is considered the most heavily land-mined country in the world Soviet forces fighting in Afghanistan placed most of the bombs during the Nineteen-Eighties The United Nations estimates that as many as ten-million land mines were buried in Afghanistan before the American-led war against terrorism started That number has increased United States military planes dropped unexploded cluster bombs in Afghanistan These bombs are especially dangerous because they look like games for children to play with Now, the United States is helping Afghanistan remove these dangerous land mines It has employed a company based in Washington, D.C., called Ronco Consulting Company Ronco is sending an eleven-man team of experts to Afghanistan to help remove the bombs The team will also train Afghan officials in mine removal techniques They will start in Jalalabad, then move to four other areas of the country Stephen Edelmann and Ronald Boyd started Ronco in Nineteen-Seventy-Four Since that time, the company has worked on more than three-hundred projects in more than fifty developing countries About ninety people work for Ronco in Land mine victim Afghanistan in the United States More than three-hundred people work for the company around the world In recent years, Ronco experts have gone to several other countries to find and remove land mines The company uses metal sensing equipment and specially trained dogs to find the buried bombs It also helps countries create special picture books for children These books warn children about the dangers of land mines Human Rights Watch estimates that a single land mine costs between three and thirty dollars to make Yet, the cost of finding and removing a single bomb is between three-hundred and one-thousand dollars Although the cost is high, the United States believes it is money well spent Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the United States will help rebuild Afghanistan and bring hope to its people He says that hope will begin with clearing the country of land mines Child Nutrition Program By Jill Moss A new program has been launched to provide children in developing countries with more healthy foods Officials made the announcement this month during a three-day special conference on children at the United Nations The new program is called “Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition,” or GAIN It aims to save at least two-thousandmillion children around the world from health problems linked to the lack of healthy foods Eating foods that lack nutrients can lead to serious health problems For example, when pregnant mothers not get enough nutrients, their babies may be born with development problems The baby’s brain might not grow to full size A lack of important vitamins and minerals in food causes many serious health problems including blindness Many important people in both government and business are working on the GAIN program They include the richest man in America, Bill Gates He started Microsoft, the company that makes computer programs and operating systems Two years ago, Mister Gates and his wife Melinda decided to use some of their money to create a private foundation in Seattle, Washington The foundation is the biggest not-for-profit organization in the world, with twenty-four-thousand-million dollars The Gates Foundation will give fifty-million dollars over five years to the GAIN program The money will be used to add vitamins and minerals to common foods, such as oil, flour and rice Several large American food companies are also involved in the program They are Kraft Foods, Procter and Gamble, and H-J-Heinz These companies manufacture food products that are sold around the world Through GAIN, the companies will add extra vitamins and minerals to foods sold in poor nations The companies will also provide governments and small food producers with technology to improve the nutritional value of foods eaten in local communities Some of the added nutrients include iron, vitamin A, iodine and folic acid The World Health Organization, several other U-N agencies and the World Bank are involved in the GAIN project So are the governments of Japan, Germany and the United States Organizers say the program is an investment in the future and could save millions of lives ... condemned the deadly use of force by the Italian police The Group of Eight leaders expressed sorrow for the death and urged demonstrators to reject violence The protesters represented trade unions,... E-U membership In another development, Turkey accepted an E-U decision to delay considering its membership until December, Two-Thousand-Four, at the earliest E-U leaders said Turkey must make... and math She says this is important for the new world economy Latin American Economic Crisis By Cynthia Kirk The International Monetary Fund has agreed to provide an additional thirtythousand-million