1、考研英语必看阅读文章争取80分Online booksellers face highercosts for shipping abroadTHE Postal Service is taking the “ship” out of shipping, and thousands of small online booksellers are bracing for trouble. The post office said last month that as of mid-May, it would no longer transport goods internationally via
2、 cargo ships for individual customers. These so-called surface deliveries have been the crucial method by which booksellers have sold books to foreign markets because the cost is about one-third that of air mail. Analysts said A would not be affected by the change; international book shipments repre
3、sent a small fraction of its business, and because, like other high-volume businesses, it can qualify for discounts on foreign shipments. But many thousands of smaller used-and rare-book merchants say they will suffer, since they rely on foreign demand.“If postage costs as much, if not more, than th
4、e book, itll be hard to sell books,” said Rob Stuart, owner of FrenchboroB, a seller of rare and antique books in Frenchboro, Maine.“And maybe 25 percent or more of my books sell internationally.”In announcing the changes last month, the post office said demand for international air-mail delivery wa
5、s increasing at the expense of sea-borne services, which account for just 2.7 percent of foreign deliveries.“As a result, efficient international surface delivery networks have diminished and costs have dramatically increased,” the Postal Service said.Mr. Stuart called the changes “a brutal reality”
6、 that put him in a difficult position, since his entire town may feel the effects. His company has shipped enough rare and antique books to sustain mail deliveries for the 75 residents of Frenchboro, an island about eight miles off Maines northeast coast. Now Mr. Stuart, who is also a town selectman
7、, said the islands mail deliveries could be threatened, and he may also be forced to lay off a part-time worker. Yvonne Yoerger, a spokeswoman for the Postal Service, said customers arent yet aware of other options. She said “customized agreements” for surface mail are being developed for higher-vol
8、ume shippers that will be enhanced over the next several months to address the needs of small businesses. “The Postal Service has a longstanding commitment to small businesses and is working to accommodate customers needs as the international mail changes take effect,” Ms. Yoerger said. Philip Bevis
9、, chief executive of Arundel Books, which sells online and in its Seattle store, said he did not believe such customized agreements would extend to small booksellers like him. “I think the Postal Service dangled that to defuse any pushback,” Mr. Bevis said. “If they were really serious about this, t
10、hey wouldve pushed back the cancellation of surface mail until they could incorporate these other standards.” Because small booksellers typically list their inventories with multiple Web sites, like Amazon, AbeB and A, the new shipping costs will be felt, to varying degrees, up the industrys food ch
11、ain until those customized agreements are final. The falling dollarTHE dollars tumble this week was attended by predictable shrieks from the markets; but as it fell to a 20-month low of $1.32 against the euro, the only real surprise was that it had not slipped sooner. Indeed, there are good reasons
12、to expect its slide to continue, dragging it below the record low of $1.36 against the euro that it hit in December 2004.The recent decline was triggered by nasty news about the American economy. New figures this week suggested that the housing markets troubles are having a wider impact on the econo
13、my. Consumer confidence and durable-goods orders both fell more sharply than expected. In contrast, German business confidence has risen to a 15-year high. There are also mounting concerns that central banks in China and elsewhere, which have been piling up dollars assiduously for years, may start s
14、elling.Yet cyclical factors only partly explain why the dollar has been strong. At bottom, its attractiveness is based more on structural factorsor, more accurately, on an illusion about structural differences between the American and European economies.The main reason for the dollars strength has b
15、een the widespread belief that the American economy vastly outperformed the worlds other rich country economies in recent years. But the figures do not support the hype. Sure, Americas GDP growth has been faster than Europes, but that is mostly because its population has grown more quickly too. Dig
16、deeper and the difference shrinks. Official figures of productivity growth, which should in theory be an important factor driving currency movements, exaggerate Americas lead. If the two are measured on a comparable basis, productivity growth over the past decade has been almost the same in the euro
17、 area as it has in America. Even more important, the latest figures suggest that, whereas productivity growth is now slowing in America, it is accelerating in the euro zone.So, contrary to popular perceptions, Americas economy has not significantly outperformed Europes in recent years. And to achiev
18、e this not-much-better-than parity, America has had to pump itself full of steroids. Since 2000 its structural budget deficit (after adjusting for the impact of the economic cycle) has widened sharply, while American households saving rate has plunged, causing the current-account deficit to swell. O
19、ver the same period, the euro-area economies saw no fiscal stimulus and household saving barely budged.Americas growth, thus, has been driven by consumer spending. That spending, supported by dwindling saving and increased borrowing, is clearly unsustainable; and the consequent economic and financia
20、l imbalances must inevitably unwind. As that happens, the country could face a prolonged period of slower growth.As for Europe, the old continent is hobbled by inflexible product and labour markets. But that, paradoxically, is an advantage: it means the place has a lot of scope for improvement. Some
21、 European countries are beginning to contemplate (and, to a limited extent, undertake) economic reforms. If they push ahead, their growth could actually speed up over the coming years. Once investors spot this, they are likely to conclude that the euro is a better bet than the dollar.Democrats and g
22、lobal warmingA RECENT sketch on “Saturday Night Live” suggested how the world would be if Al Gore had won the presidency in 2000. “In the last six years we have been able to stop global warming,” intoned Mr Gore. “No one could have predicted the negative results of this. Glaciers that once were melt
23、ing are now on the attack.”Nerdy environmentalism is Mr Gores forte. He would have ridden that hobby-horse in the 2000 campaign, according to Joe Klein in “Politics Lost”, if his political consultants had not muzzled him. Now, almost alone, he has brought his favourite issue back into the political
24、spotlight. His film about the horrors of global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth”, opened this week in Los Angeles and New York.With it comes inevitable talk of another try at the presidency. Mr Gore consistently waves that away. But other prominent Democrats are raising their voices for the cause. T
25、his week Senator Hillary Clinton urged action on global warming in a big speech on energy policy in Washington, DC. Notably, she praised Mr Gore (now a potential rival for 2008, whatever he says) as a “committed visionary on global warming for more than two decades”. Last week, her husband Bill told
26、 graduates at the University of Texass public affairs school in Austinas temperatures outside soared to 34Cthat “Climate change is more remote than terror, but a more profound threat.”Do voters care? Although a Gallup poll this spring found that 67% of respondents thought the quality of the environm
27、ent was “getting worse” (a fairly steady rise from 54% in 2002), climate change is hardly in the class of Iraq or health care. And it is still rare for politicians to mention it on the stump. Bill Ritter, the Democratic nominee for governor in Colorado, notes that global warming is a worry for the s
28、ki industry in his statebut says his audiences care more about the quality of their water or their air. Most midwestern politicians nowadays cannot talk enough about alternative fuels, but they link them to the economy (and national security) rather than climate change, hoping for a boost for local
29、corn or soyabean farmers.A few bad hurricanes may change that indifference. The 2006 season begins next week, and federal meteorologists predict it will be particularly nasty. Although conservatives have vigorously disputed the link between global warming and last years dreadful storms, another Katr
30、ina could push people over the edge. Gregg Easterbrook of the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, says that politicians also need a new tack. Instead of dwelling on gloom and doom, they should appeal to American optimism, emphasising that the problem can probably be solved after all, and cheaper an
31、d faster than anyone thinks.And what about conservatives? George Bush has recently conceded that America is “addicted to oil”, but he still argues about the causes of global warming. (“He may be the last person in America who refuses to accept the science on this,” sighs Jay Inslee, a congressman fr
32、om Washington state.) John McCain, another possible presidential contender in 2008, has been out in front. He has sponsored legislation (with Joe Lieberman, a Democrat) for cap-and-trade emissions of greenhouse gases, and declared in a recent speech in Phoenix that “Climate change is real and is having a major impact on our way of life.”Seychelles: A president in paradiseBEST known as a destination for honeymooners in search of perfect white beaches and swaying palms, the Seychelles islands rare
