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一、文章目录.
[2013.03.30] Online media 网络媒体
[2013.03.30] Know your own strength 实力究竟如何，当有自知之明
Dark matter 寻寻觅觅暗物质
[2013.02.02] If in doubt, innovate 若质疑，则创新
[2013.04.06]Inside the cult of Kim 平壤一如往常
[2013.04.07] Law of the lend 借贷的法则——LIBOR丑闻后续报道
[2013.04.08]The lady who changed the world 改变世界的女人 撒切尔夫人
[2013.04.13] Sex, drugs and hope 性、药物与希望
[2013.04.13]The death of inflation 通货膨胀的终结
[2013.04.13] Abs-olutely fabulous 男性魅力|腹肌，绝对是极好的
[2013.04.13] Smoking: Weight watchers 抽烟=减肥
[2013.04.19] Clean, safe and it drives itself 清洁，安全并且自动驾驶
[2013.04.20] You’re not welcome 这里不欢迎你们
[2013.04.20] Horn of scarcity 犀角难再得
[2013.04.20] Paris, c’est fini 巴黎我们缘尽了
[2013.04.20] China’s economy: Speed isn’t everything速度并非一切
[2013.04.27] A continued infrastructure boom: Going underground 大修地铁
[2013.04.27] Apple: Tim Cook's cash card 库克先生打出现金牌
[2013.04.27] America and the 2nd world war 美国参加二战为何犹豫不决
[2013.04.27] Butterflies in America: To marvel at all things 美国的蝴蝶
[2013.04.27]Japan: For whom the bell tolls副相参拜靖国神社激怒邻国
二、文章内容
[2013.04.27] A continued infrastructure boom: Going underground 大修地铁
A continued infrastructure boom
基础设施建设持续升温
Going underground
大修地铁
Dozens of cities are building a metro system. Some do not need it
中国城轨情未了
Apr 27th 2013 | HANGZHOU | From the print edition
NOT many global cities of nearly 9m people lack an underground line, but until the end of last year the eastern city of Hangzhou was one of them. Now city slickers and rural migrants squeeze together inside shiny new carriages, checking their smartphones and reading free newspapers like commuters the world over. There is standing-room only in the rush hour and, with tickets at less than a dollar, the metro is revolutionising the way people travel across town.
世界上大部分人口近900万的城市都修有地铁，而杭州(中国东部城市)却是例外。直到去年年底，杭州才运营首条地铁线路。如今，无论是土生土长的城里人还是农民工，都得一起挤地铁。在闪亮的新地铁里，他们玩着自己的智能手机，看着免费的报纸，就跟世界上其他地区的上班族一样。[color=Blue]只要不是高峰时段，地铁上均有座位，而且票价不到一美元。因为地铁，人们的出行方式正发生着翻天覆地的变化。
Two other Chinese cities—Suzhou and Kunming—have also opened their first underground lines in the past year, and the north-eastern city of Harbin is preparing to open one too. Four more cities have just added a new line to their existing systems. At least seven others have begun building their first lines.
无独有偶，中国另两座城市—苏州和昆明的首条地铁线路已于去年开通，与此同时，东北城市哈尔滨亦筹备运营地铁。此外，还有四座城市已在原有铁路线路基础上增加了新线路。而至少还有七个城市已经开始修建首条地铁线路。
If all the metros approved by central officials are built, 38 cities will have at least one line by the end of the decade, with more than 6,200km (3,850 miles) of track (London has nearly 400km.) As with many infrastructure projects in China, including the high-speed rail network above ground, questions abound about the wisdom and potential wastefulness of such ambitions. Many of the underground systems are needed, but some are being built in cities that are too small to justify the exorbitant expense. By some estimates the total bill could approach $1 trillion, not including the cost of operation.
倘若这些通过官方审批的地铁都建了起来，到2019年年底，拥有一条以上地铁线的城市将达38座，线路总长将超过6200千米(3850英里)而伦敦地铁总里程仅400千米。同包括修建高铁在内的诸多政府基础设施工程一样，对于地铁修建的质疑声亦充斥耳际：如此“野心勃勃”是否明智?是否可能浪费资源?诚然，不少地铁系统实为所需，但对于有些小城市而言，斥巨资大修地铁得不偿失。据有关统计，不算运营成本，仅修建成本一项便可达1万亿美元。
Zhao Jian of Beijing Jiaotong University reckons that metros in fewer than 20 of the 38 designated cities make sense. He says that perhaps ten of those could be replaced with cheaper light rail, which runs above ground. The minimum core urban population that can qualify a city for an underground system is 3m people, but even a place that big may find the operating costs crippling. Mr Zhao says the systems in Harbin and Kunming are unnecessary.
北京交通大学教授赵坚表示，38座通过地铁修建项目审核的城市中，真正有修建必要的城市还不到20座。他表示，也许剩下的那十个城市可以选择修建成本低一些的地上轻轨。常住人口超过300万的城市才有资格修地铁，但即便是人口达到标准的大城市，可能也难以负担地铁的运营成本。赵指出，像哈尔滨和昆明均没有修建地铁的必要。
Shi Nan of the Academy of Urban Planning and Design in Beijing says it is obvious that “we cannot count on private cars” to get around the big cities. But the metro projects mostly rely on government subsidies, and operating them will be a “bottomless pit”, says Mr Zhao. He says city officials tend to pursue grand projects that may not even make money because they will not be around to bear the burden. The performance of local officials is evaluated on how much they increase local GDP, not on whether projects they build are needed. Today’s leaders get credit for spending money. Tomorrow’s must foot the bill.
虽然中国城市规划协会(北京)石楠曾表示在大城市，显然“我们不能指望私家车”出行。但赵坚称地铁工程几乎依赖政府补助且运营成本是个“无底洞”。他表示，城市官员不惜成本，大搞政绩工程，因为到清算之日，他们已卸任抽身，不必承担后果。政府绩效考核基于GDP增长率，并不关注所建项目的实用性。今任领导大可花钱得荣誉，而下任领导不得不为之买单。
Even megacities long overdue for more underground tracks—like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou—are building and operating them at a cost that worries planners. Operating the metro lines of Beijing, now up to 442km of track, has cost about $1.6 billion over the past two years, but passengers pay just 30 cents a ride. The metro has helped to alleviate traffic and pollution, yet Beijing remains one of the world’s most jammed and polluted cities; it needs more investment in public transport of all sorts.
就连北上广这类大城市地铁修建和运营情况亏损严重，规划者心有所虑，新建计划因而被长期搁置。北京地铁总长达442千米，过去两年其运营成本高达16亿美元，而单程票票价仅为30美分。诚然，地铁有助缓解交通拥挤和环境污染情况，但北京仍是世界上最堵、污染最为严重的城市之一，它需要加大投资，修建各种公共交通。
In Hangzhou the underground is just one way to get to work; above ground, fleets of red buses, often in designated lanes, form a Bus Rapid Transit network to beat the gridlock. Critics say cities like Hangzhou should be investing more in these cheaper options above ground. But the metro remains an important part of the city’s future. It plans at least another eight lines.
在杭州，地铁只是上班出行选择之一。地上车水马龙，各种红色巴士明确运营线路，形成一个快速公交网络体系以治理交通拥挤。有评论家指出，像杭州这样的城市更应该投资这种成本较低的路上交通。但对于城市未来而言，地铁角色不容小觑。如今杭州正准备修建其他8条地铁线路。
[2013.04.27] Apple: Tim Cook's cash card 库克先生打出现金牌
Apple
苹果
Tim Cook’s cash card
库克先生打出现金牌
The biggest single share buy-back in history will not solve Apple’s problems
史上最大规模的单笔股份回购无力为苹果公司纾困
THERE was no timetable for an iWatch or for an iTV. There was, however, the promise of perhaps the biggest share buyback in American corporate history. Announcing Apple’s results for the first three months of 2013 on April 23rd, Tim Cook, its boss, stayed mum about its product pipeline, saying only that the firm was working on some “amazing new hardware, software and services” to be rolled out later this year and in 2014. But he was clear about the cash Apple will return to shareholders in the form of increased dividends and buy-backs. Altogether, it plans to fork out $100 billion by the end of 2015.
尽管苹果公司的新产品iWatch电子手表和iTV智能电视的上市时间还不明朗，美国公司却仿佛要迎来史上最大规模的单笔股份回购。2013年4月23日，苹果公司的首席执行官蒂姆·库克在公布公司第一季度财报时对其产品线支支吾吾，仅表示苹果正在研发一些“十分出色的软硬件以及服务”，成果将会在2013年下半年和在2014年陆续对外展示。但库克先生十分明确地表示，苹果将以增加派息和股份回购的方式向其股东分红，预计2015年底分红总额将达到1000亿美元。
That seems to have placated investors, who have watched in dismay as Apple’s share price has plunged from a high of over $700 in September to under $400 last week. On April 24th the firm’s shares closed at $405.
此消息一出让投资者们似乎松了口气——他们焦虑万分地见证了苹果股价从九月份700美元的高位一路暴跌到上周400美元以下。本月24号苹果股价报收405美元。
Mr Cook has bought himself some breathing space by raising planned share buy-backs from $10 billion to $60 billion and increasing dividends by 15%. However, he still needs to produce new blockbuster offerings to bolster future growth. Ever since he replaced Steve Jobs at Apple’s helm, speculation has mounted that the company has lost some of the magic that produced the iPhone and iPad.
库克先生计划将股份回购从之前的100亿美元提升到600亿美元，同时增加15%的派息分红，这些举动为他赢得了一些喘气的空间。然而要想让公司业绩在未来持续增长，库克先生尚需推出一些重磅产品才行。自打他接过乔布斯的班，一些舆论持续升温：有声音说苹果已经丢失了部分成就iPhone和iPad的神奇魔力。
Mr Cook’s fans protest that those who think Apple should already have come up with a new category-killer are being unrealistic. A few years between big ideas is nothing to worry about. And they note that the iPad and the iPhone are still minting money. In the first quarter of 2013 Apple reported revenue of $43.6 billion: an 11% increase compared with the same period in 2012, and a figure that exceeds the combined sales of Google and Microsoft.
库克先生的支持者们反驳称，那些认为苹果本应已经制造出新的品类杀手的人们真是异想天开。天才想法之间的几年空档期无需担忧。库克的粉丝们认为iPad和iPhone仍然在为苹果带来滚滚财源。2013年苹果的第一季财报显示，苹果公司获利436亿美元，这一数字较去年同期上涨了11%，苹果的销售额超过谷歌和微软的总和。
But Apple’s margins are being squeezed by the introduction of the iPad mini, which is less lucrative than bigger iPads. In its latest quarter the firm’s gross margin shrank year-on-year, from 47.4% to 37.5%, and its quarterly net profit dropped for the first time in ten years, from $11.6 billion to $9.5 billion.
但是苹果的利润正在受到其新品iPad mini的挤压，而且该产品的利润也不如iPad那么丰厚。公司在上一财季的毛利率从之前的47.4%同比缩水至37.5%，同时苹果的单季净利润也从116亿美元跌至95亿美元，这是十年来的首次下跌。
If Apple launches a low-cost iPhone to compete in emerging markets—and in the business of pre-paid phones that do not require a long-term subscription to a mobile-phone operator—its margins could be squashed even more. That could affect its share price. Ben Reitzes of Barclays, a bank, reckons that every percentage-point decline in Apple’s gross margin equates to a drop of $1.40 in earnings per share.
如果苹果推出廉价版iPhone来参与市场竞争(主要是面向新兴市场和不需要用户长期签约的预付费移动运营商)，公司的利润空间还将受到进一步挤压，这样一来其股价必然受到牵连。巴克莱银行的分析师本•瑞兹先生预计，苹果公司毛利率每下降一个百分点就意味着其每股收益减少1.40美元。
Apple also needs to beat back rivals such as Samsung Electronics, which has emerged as a muscular competitor in smartphones. Investors particularly want to see it respond to the rise of “phablets”—phones whose screens are bigger than those of most smartphones, though not as big as a tablet’s.
苹果还需要击败像三星电子这样强劲的智能手机新秀。投资者尤其希望看到苹果对日渐流行的平板电话做出产品回应——这类电话的屏幕尺寸比绝大多数智能手机要大，但尺寸又不及平板电脑。
Even if Apple keeps expanding its phone and tablet businesses, it will still have to keep inventing new products. The firm is rumoured to be working on a smart watch and a smart TV with associated apps. It is also looking at mobile payments. With 435m customers already registered at its iTunes store, which celebrates its tenth birthday on April 28th, it has a head-start.
尽管苹果公司的手机和平板电脑的业务持续扩张，产品创新还是必须的。有传言称苹果正在设计一款智能手表以及一款可以装载应用程序的智能电视。苹果也正着眼发力移动支付。4月28日，苹果iTunes商店已经有435,000,000注册用户为庆祝开店10周年。这样看来，苹果还是抢占了一些先机的。
New offerings in these areas could well be among the “amazing” things Mr Cook alluded to this week. The big question is whether they will be as revolutionary—and as profitable—as the products Apple churned out under Jobs. Mr Cook has played his cash card. Now he needs to turn up trumps on the innovation front, too.
根据库克先生本周所透露的消息，苹果公司的一系列新产品将会“十分出色”。然而问题的关键是，这些产品能否重现乔布斯时代的辉煌——不仅有革命意义，而且利润颇丰?库克先生已经打出了现金这张牌，是时候在创新上出奇制胜了。
[2013.04.27] America and the 2nd world war 美国参加二战为何犹豫不决
America and the second world war
美国和二战
That special relationship
那种特殊的关系
Why America dithered about joining the war
美国为何迟迟不参加二战
Apr 27th 2013 | From the print edition
Hero and fascist
英雄?法西斯分子?
Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941. By Lynne Olson. Random House; 548 pages; $30 and £20. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
书名：《那些愤怒的日子：罗斯福、林白及美国对是否参加二战的争论，1939至1941年》
作者：Lynne Olson
出版社：Random House
页数：548页
价格：30美元，20英镑
Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk 有售
WHEN “the chips are down”, David Cameron declared on a visit to Washington last year, Britain and America know that they can always count on each other. Standing beside Barack Obama on a sun-drenched White House lawn, Britain’s prime minister invoked the memory of their respective grandfathers, serving in the same campaign to drive Hitler’s forces from France. The message was clear. Seven decades on, when the British need to claim a special relationship with America, nothing approaches the second world war’s talismanic power.
去年，卡梅伦在访问华盛顿时说：在“危急时刻”，英美两国明白，双方总是可以互相信赖的。卡梅伦首相与奥巴马一同站在白宫洒满阳光的草坪上，卡梅伦唤起了双方对各自先辈的回忆：他们并肩作战，将希特勒的军队从法国驱赶出去。卡梅伦传达了一条明确的信息：七十年后的今天，当英国需要与美国保持一种特殊关系时，什么也比不了二战的特殊魔力。
In truth, for two terrifying years after it declared war on Germany, Britain did not know that America would come to its aid. Winston Churchill’s government wavered between a conviction that President Franklin Roosevelt did not want Hitler to control the whole of Europe and so would send help, and a suspicion that many in his government dreamed of scavenging the assets of a doomed British empire. Britain made an extraordinary effort to bring America into the war before it was too late. With Roosevelt’s tacit approval, hundreds of British agents flooded neutral America, secretly spying on isolationist politicians, Axis diplomats and Nazi sympathisers and more openly wooing public opinion with lectures, radio broadcasts and stories planted in friendly newspapers (some of them true). Marrying a historian’s thoroughness with a biographer’s eye for human nature, Lynne Olson’s magnificent new account shows what a close-run thing their campaign was.
实际上，在英国向德国宣战后可怕的两年中，英国不知道美国会对其提供帮助。丘吉尔政府摇摆不定，时而坚信罗斯福不会让希特勒控制整个欧洲，因此会向英国提供援助;时而又怀疑罗斯福政府中的一些人，认为他们梦想着大英帝国会毁灭，然后蚕食其资产。英国竭尽全力及时地拉动美国参战。在罗斯福的默许下，数百名英国间谍涌入中立的美国，秘密监视孤立派政治家、轴心国外交官和纳粹的同情者，他们还发表演讲、进行电台广播，同时在亲英的报纸上刊登故事(有些是真实的故事)，来更加公开地争取民心。在这部精彩绝伦的新书中，作者Lynne Olson结合历史学家的全面性和传记作家对人性的探寻，向读者展示了他们的行动是如何地惊险。
“Those Angry Days” describes a divided America that is little remembered now, amid (well-earned) praise for the greatest-generation years that followed. She depicts an anti-war country in which bars near army bases sported signs banning soldiers, and generals wore mufti to testify on Capitol Hill, lest their uniforms provoke isolationist members of Congress.
《那些愤怒的日子》一书描述了一个现在鲜为人知的分裂的美国，字里行间也体现了对之后数年内最伟大一代【1】(应得)的赞许。她描述了一个反战的国家，在那里，军事基地附近的酒吧挂着禁止士兵入内的标识，将军则在美国国会山身穿便服作证，以免他们的制服惹恼议会中不主张美国参战的人。
In defence of that pacifism, she explains how Americans felt (with some reason) that their country had been dragged into the first world war by clever British propaganda and promises that Americans killed in Europe’s mud were making the world “safe for democracy”. Twenty years later, many Americans believed that Europe’s squabbling powers once again seemed unwilling or unable to defend democracy. Less defensibly, a series of grandees—whether army officers, senators, press barons, or students at Yale and Harvard—are shown questioning whether there was any great moral difference between Britain and Nazi Germany, a view that was often tinged with anti-Semitism.
美国人感到正是英国人狡猾的宣传和保证(英国人曾向美国人保证：在欧洲战场牺牲的美国人会让这个世界“对民主来说很安全”)才把美国卷入了第一次世界大战，这些感受还是有原因的。作者为反战主义辩护，解释了美国人为什么这样想。二十年后，许多美国人认为欧洲争吵不休的大国再次似乎不愿意或不能够保卫民主。作者还较客观地指出：一系列的大人物——不管是军官、议员、报业巨头或是耶鲁和哈佛大学的学生——都在质疑英国和纳粹德国之间是否存在任何道义上的不同，这种观点常常带有一丝反犹太主义色彩。
Many pages are devoted to an isolationist leader whose clay feet are well known: the transatlantic air pioneer, Charles Lindbergh (pictured), who came grievously close to sympathising with the Nazis. But the book’s power lies in its finely shaded portraits of figures more usually remembered in poster-bright hues of heroism.
作者还用了许多笔墨来描述一位孤立派领导人，他就是跨大西洋飞行员查尔斯-林白【2】 (Charles Lindbergh，如图)，他的致命弱点广为人知：他十分接近于同情纳粹。但是本书的妙处就在于作者擅于用委婉的手法对一些人物进行描述，这些人物在当今人们的眼中英雄色彩更浓一些。
George Marshall, who would later become a great war commander, is shown resisting help for embattled Britain until late in 1941. Marshall never quite rebelled openly, but he shielded aides as they leaked and schemed against government policy. Several senior officers were (in the private judgment of Roosevelt’s secretary of war) “essentially pro-German”. For his partRoosevelt is shown as perilously indecisive, poring over opinion polls and “waiting to be pushed into war”, as he told his treasury secretary. Even after the attack on Pearl Harbour, which was greeted with champagne by British officials in America, the president hesitated, detecting a “lingering distinction” in public opinion between war with Japan and a second front with Germany. In the end, Hitler made the decision for him by declaring war on America.
本书写道：后来成为战时指挥官的马歇尔一直拒绝向四面楚歌的英国提供帮助，这种情况一直持续到1941年年末。尽管马歇尔基本上从来没有公开反对向英国提供援助，但是当来自美国的援助一点点流向英国时，他对之进行了阻止;马歇尔还暗中反对政府的政策。几名美国高级军官(根据罗斯福的战争部长私下里的判断)“实际上是亲德的”。在本书中，罗斯福优柔寡断至极、埋头研究民意调查、“等着被推入战争”——罗斯福就是这么告诉他的财政部长的。珍珠港袭击发生后，在美的英国军官用香槟酒庆祝，甚至在那以后，罗斯福总统仍然犹豫不决，认为“向日本开战”和“在第二战线与德国开战”这两种民意“一直存在区别”。最后，希特勒率先向美国开战，从而为罗斯福做了决定。
The British are not let off scot-free. In addition to planting propaganda, British agents broke American laws with a will. The British tapped phones, opened letters and even forged a map given to Roosevelt, supposedly showing Nazi plans to take over Latin America. Snobbery played into Britain’s hands. The book could be sub- titled “Wasps at War”, as east-coast anglophiles and Wall Street millionaires pushed their country towards engagement, against isolationist forces drawn from the prairies and small towns of middle America.
英国人的所作所为我们可不能不追究。除了四处播撒言论，英国间谍还大肆破坏美国的法律。英方窃听电话、私拆信件、甚至虚造了一幅地图给了罗斯福，让他以为纳粹可能有占领拉丁美洲的计划。英国人正是利用某些美国人的势利眼而达到了自己的目的。该书的副标题可作“战时的VIP们”，因为那时美国东海岸的亲英派和华尔街百万富翁将美国推向了参战之路，尽管那些来自北美大牧场和美国中部小镇的孤立派反对这么做。
Among the heroes are Wendell Willkie, the Republican presidential candidate in 1940, who after his defeat backed Roosevelt and vitally campaigned for Americans to be conscripted and trained for war and for Britain to be sent aid. That enraged many in Willkie’s party, but may have helped avert a Nazi victory.
温德尔•威尔基【3】是众多英雄之一，他在1940年是共和党总统候选人，在总统竞选失败后他支持罗斯福，并积极动员美国人为战争应征入伍并接受训练、推动为英国送去援助。这激怒了很多共和党人，但这很可能扭转了战局，防止了纳粹的胜利。
In the end, the public was ahead of many in the elite. Even before Pearl Harbour, polls showed Americans preferring entry into the war to a German victory over Britain. Japan had hoped its bombs would demoralise Americans. Instead, America was united by the attack. Two years of savage debate had already aired every argument for and against war, Ms Olson notes. Democracy was America’s strength, as an anxious Britain had hoped it would be. It was a point despotic enemies could never have understood.
最后，民众反而走在了很多上层人士的前面。甚至在珍珠港事件发生以前，民意测验就显示美国人更倾向于美国参战，而不是德国战胜英国。日本原本希望在珍珠港投下的炸弹能使美国人人心涣散;然而，那场袭击让美国人团结一心。作者Olson指出，在两年的激烈辩论中，人们可以听到各种支持和反对美国参战的言论。民主是美国的力量所在，而这正是焦虑的英国所希望能做到的。而这一点是任何专制的敌人永远也不会明白的。
注释：
【1】"The Greatest Generation" is a term coined by journalist Tom Brokaw to describe the generation[1] who grew up in the United States during the deprivation of the Great Depression, and then went on to fight in World War II, for which the generation is also termed the G.I. Generation.
【2】查尔斯•奥古斯都•林白(Charles Augustus Lindbergh，又译林德伯格，1902 年2月4日—1974年8月26日)，美国飞行员，首个进行单人不着陆的跨大西洋飞行的人。1924年，他开始随美国陆军航空团，训练成美国空军飞行员。
在欧洲法西斯主义盛行时，林白数次奉美军之命往德国。1938年，赫尔曼•戈林授林白德国荣誉勋章，林白接受，表示了林白和纳粹亲近。林白更拒绝将勋章交还德国，声称这样做是对纳粹首领“不必要的侮辱”。
纳粹德国展开第二次世界大战后，林白得到孤立主义和亲德国政治派系的支持。1941年1月23日，林白在国会前提案建议美国和希特勒建立中立关系。林白亦是美国第一的主要发言人。1941年9月11日在爱荷华州迪莫伊的一个集会中，林白批评犹太人背后操纵，要美国加入同盟国。他同时表明他认为美籍犹太人不太爱国。虽然林白不曾将其勋章交还，但当总统富兰克林•罗斯福质问其忠诚时，林白将其任命书交还美国陆军航空团。
可是在1941年的珍珠港事件后，他想回到航空团，却得不到同意。结果他一直以平民顾问协助二战中的美国。美国陆军航空队虽然与他合作，林白以他的经验提供其他飞行员如何进行长距离飞行以及延长飞机的航程，他并且以平民的身份飞行过50次的战斗任务，其中一次还击落过一架日本战机，只是这个纪录当时没有公开。
【3】温德尔•威尔基 (Wendell Lewis Willkie 发音：/ˈwɪlki/;1892年2月18日-1944年10月8日)，美国政治人物、律师、共和党人。曾代表共和党在1940年美国总统选举，与民主党的罗斯福竞争美国总统，最后失败。
对罗斯福政府的国内政策多有批评，然在外交事务上采取合作态度，鼓吹“天下一家”的国际合作思想，反对共和党内的孤立主义。1941年和罗斯福总统夫人埃莉诺•罗斯福共同创建非政府组织自由之家(Freedom House)，1942 年9 月和10 月受罗斯福之托历访非洲、中东、苏联和中国等地。在中国期间，曾建议宋美龄访问美国已获得援助。翌年将见闻写成《天下一家》，呼吁战后合作，甚有影响。1944年因心脏病病逝。
词汇及用法：
Wasp 美国社会中享有特权的中上层白人
When the chips are down 在危急关头
close-run thing 险胜
[2013.04.27] Butterflies in America: To marvel at all things 美国的蝴蝶
Butterflies in America
美国的蝴蝶
To marvel at all things
所有事都值得惊奇
A splendid twinning of natural science and America
自然科学与美利坚民族的完美结合
Apr 27th 2013 | From the print edition
Butterfly People: An American Encounter with the Beauty of the World.
蝴蝶客：美国与世界之美的相遇
By William Leach. Pantheon; 416 pages; $32.50. Buy from Amazon.com
“BUTTERFLIES and butterflies”, wrote Walt Whitman, “continue to flit to and fro, all sorts, white, yellow, brown, purple”. Whitman may have had an eye for colour, but as a mere journalist and poet with perhaps a touch of lepidopterophilia, he does not quite qualify as one of William Leach’s “Butterfly People”.
“蝴蝶、还是蝴蝶”，沃尔特惠特曼写道，“它们不停地来回飞过，各种各样的，有白的、黄的、棕色的还有紫色的”。惠特曼对颜色是有判断力，但是仅仅作为一位知道点鳞翅类昆虫的记者和诗人，并不是威廉所称的“蝴蝶客”
True butterfly people were far more serious. They were enthusiasts and obsessives who took advantage of the unfettered access to undeveloped land afforded by a young country pressing its frontier westward. They were artisans and aesthetes: scientists of a sort that gradually ceased to exist as the natural sciences grew more formal and mature.
真正的蝴蝶客远远严谨的多。他们狂热而迫切，年轻的国家正在向西部扩充领土，所以他们可以利用这种优势，自由使用未开发的土地。他们既是工匠又是审美家：随着自然科学发展得更加正式和成熟，这类科学家渐渐不存在了。
Mr Leach’s compelling thesis is that 19th-century America provided a uniquely hospitable time and place for lovers, and especially collectors, of butterflies. Agricultural toil and westward expansion brought droves of ordinary people into intimate contact with vast expanses of pristine lands. Most 19th-century Americans, Mr Leach writes—uncharitably but probably accurately—saw nature “as something to dig up or harvest from the earth or to be torn down and transformed into real estate or money”, and yet because there was so much untouched land, even the most rapacious miner or builder would in the course of his life come into contact with the natural world on a scale and in a way unknown to Americans today.
里奇先生的有趣命题是：19世纪的美国为蝴蝶爱好者，特别是收藏家提供了一个独一无二的热情好客的时代。农业耕作和西部扩张将大批的普通人与广袤无际的未开垦土地紧密联系在一起。里奇先生写道：大多数19世纪的美国人没有慈悲心，视自然为“某种从地球上被挖掘或收割的，被扯下来转化成财产的东西”，可是因为有如此之多为开垦的土地，即使是最贪婪的财主和建设者也会在他生命的过程中一定程度上以某种现在的美国人不理解的方式与大自然发生联系。
Perhaps more important, “natural science” had not yet become “biology”. It was practised out of doors rather than in a laboratory, and aside from the classification madness of Linnaeus, it was light on systems and formality. Its early titans, such as Charles Darwin and Alexander von Humboldt, a Prussian aristocrat whose masterwork, “The Cosmos”, began being published in 1845, “seemed indifferent to drawing lines between art and science,” Mr Leach writes. “Their prose was often excellent and readable, so much so as to later seem unscientific. They often wrote on behalf of the artistic attractions of nature.” They led with a sense of curiosity driven by rapture and wonder. Natural science belonged not to the trained and pedigreed biologist, but to the passionate amateur: they were “naturalists”, not biologists.
或许更重要的是，“自然科学”没有发展为“生物学”。它的研究在户外进行而不是在实验室，不像林奈繁杂的分类法，体系和形式是次要的。有关研究它的早期的泰斗，像查尔斯达尔文，以及亚历山大洪堡特，一位在1845年出版名著《大宇宙》的普鲁士贵族，“似乎对划分科学与艺术的界线漠不关心”，里奇先生写道。“他们写的散文出色而易懂，以至于到后来科学性显得不强了，他们常常为了自然的艺术吸引力而写文章。”狂喜和惊奇让他们满怀好奇心地探索下去。自然科学不属于受过训练的正统生物学家，但却属于热情激昂的业余爱好者：他们是“博物学家”，而不是生物学家。
Butterfly people learned by observing, thinking and arguing. They included Samuel Scudder, who named the monarch butterfly and wrote a magisterial, three-volume work about North American butterflies that won raves from lepidoptery’s literary champion, Vladimir Nabokov, 70 years after its publication. Another was William Henry Edwards. His great grandfather was America’s most renowned Puritan theologian, and he eventually wrote his own three-volume doorstop.
蝴蝶客们从观察、思考和争论中学习。他们中包括萨缪尔斯卡德，他命名了黑脉金蝴蝶，写了一本关于北美蝴蝶的三卷的权威著作，这部书出版70年后令鳞翅类昆虫的文学巨匠弗拉基米尔•纳博科夫惊叹不已。另一位是威廉•亨利•爱德华。他了不起的祖父是美国最有名望的普鲁士神学家，他最终写出了自己三卷的杰作。
Mr Leach is at his best when profiling men such as Edwards, Scudder and others, including solitary, taciturn Herman Strecker and resentful, bilious Augustus Grote. These are the amateur giants on whose broad shoulders much contemporary biology and entomology rests.
里奇先生最擅长介绍爱德华、斯卡德等等，包括沉默寡言的隐士斯特雷克和坏脾气的奥古斯塔斯•格罗特。当代生物学和昆虫学正是站在这些业余研究巨匠宽阔的肩膀上。
From the print edition: Books and arts
注释：doorstop(保持门敞开的)制门器、门档
[2013.04.27]Japan: For whom the bell tolls副相参拜靖国神社激怒邻国
Japan and its neighbours
日本及其邻国
For whom the bell tolls
丧钟为谁而鸣
A visit to the controversial Yasukuni shrine upsets the neighbours
麻生参拜靖国神社，邻国纷纷表示不满
Apr 27th 2013 | TOKYO |From the print edition
韩国新任外长尹炳世原定本周访问日本，同日本外相岸田文雄进行会晤，开启两国友好关系的新纪元。但在日本副首相兼财务大臣麻生太郎于4月21日参拜了位于东京的靖国神社之后，尹外长取消了访日计划。
靖国神社按照日本神道教的信仰供奉了240万余名日本战争死难者的亡灵，其中包括14名甲级战犯。对日本的邻国来说，这种祭祀活动反映出日本从未真正忏悔过其侵略罪行。在麻生参拜靖国神社的同一天，首相安倍晋三虽然没有亲自前往参拜，但也向神社供奉了名为“真榊”【注】的祭品。周末，又有另外两名内阁成员参拜靖国神社。靖国神社的神职人员说，以往每年春季例行大祭期间，到访的国会议员仅有100来人，而今年仅4月23日当天，就有168名议员同时前来参拜。这让他们也感到惊讶。继韩国之后，中国也对日本高层参拜靖国神社的行为表示谴责，使日本在亚洲显得孤立无援、麻木不仁。
这一事件发生的时机也很不讨巧。这段时间，为了五个小岛礁(日本称之为“尖阁诸岛”，中国则使用“钓鱼岛”的称谓)，中日每天都游走在擦枪走火的边缘。面对来自中国的领土争端和来自朝鲜的核威胁，日本很有必要与韩国修好。美国也一直敦促日本这样做。
日本官方称，麻生参拜靖国神社纯属个人行为。但中日之间有一种心照不宣的约定，即只要日本首相、内阁官房长官和外相与靖国神社保持距离，两国就会相安无事。日本上智大学政治学教授中野晃一如是说。自从2001至2006年间，小泉纯一郎将参拜变成一年一度的保留节目以来，还没有第二位首相莅临过该神社。但这次麻生的行为差点打破了这种约定;因为他的身份特殊：既是现任副首相，也是前首相。
安倍是小泉在自由民主党(自民党)内的同僚。在他担任日本首相的第一个任期内，安倍曾尝试与韩国和中国修好。但一些评论家担心，安倍的政党现在已经开始现出原形。随着股市飞涨，民调数据上升，自民党可能渐渐以为自己有权纵容其民族主义倾向的发展。反对党日本民主党的前外相冈田克也认为，首相不论是直接指使麻生太郎参拜靖国神社，还是默许了他的参拜，都是出于自负。更糟糕的是，在一次议会委员会会议上，安倍似乎故意要与前几任首相所做的道歉拉开距离，并且就一些用语的定义问题吹毛求疵。
比这些四月的参拜活动更重要的将是8月15日靖国神社是否有人祭拜的问题。8月15日是日本二战投降纪念日，对日本来说是个敏感的日子。一位高级自民党官员说，麻生此行实际上是经过精心设计，是为了给安倍提供政治掩护，让安倍在8月15日可以理所当然地远离靖国神社。这位官员还说，如果不这样做，自民党的右翼便会以领导人屈服于外国压力为由对其施加惩罚。有些人甚至希望麻生可以继续从前的努力，降低靖国神社的争议性。2006年，麻生太郎建议将靖国神社转变成由国家监管的基金会，这样便可以将靖国神社供奉的战犯移到他处。但就目前而言，大家更关注的还是新酿的恶果。
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