Enjoy Rendering!: Сборник текстов для перевода и реферирования. Батурина С.А. - 20 стр.

       The effect on Israel of Mr Sharon's policy of massive reprisal,                                Smoke and Mirrors
his preference for force over diplomacy, is what concerns writer after
writer. They see a new arrogance and a new cruelty. Michael Ben-Yair,              New York
a former attorney-general, writes that occupation has transformed Israel            Politicians were delighted by last November's settlement with
from a just society to an unjust one. The steps taken to prolong the oc-     tobacco manufacturers. There was only one drawback; the $206 billion
cupation – killing the innocent, executing wanted men without trial, the     deal to compensate 46 states for past smoking-related healthcare costs
encirclements, closures and roadblocks – "are causing us to lose the moral   would be spread over the next 25 years. Now even that problem has
base of our existence as a free, just society". Young reservists explain     been solved. This week's decision by Standard & Poor's to give a rating
why they refuse to serve in the occupied territories. Meron Benvenisti,      to bonds tied to the future tobacco-settlement payments should send the
a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, reflects on the arrogance of the sol-    financial markets to the rescue. Local governments will now be able to
diers at the roadblocks, and, in a concluding essay, looks to a time when    get a good deal of their money up-front by selling "securitised" tobacco
Israelis will oppose current policy. Yet none of these writers, not even     bonds to investors.
Mr Benvenisti, believes that this is likely to happen any time soon.
                                                                                    The first two – issued by New York city and Nassau County
     1. Vocabulary notes:                                                    (New York) – are expected to raise nearly $1 billion between them in
     1) dissent – разногласие, несогласие                                    the next couple of weeks. This dwarfs sums raised by the handful of
     2) articulate – выражать, ясно формулировать                            securitisations carried out before, which involved the sale of bonds
     3) strident – скрипучий, резкий                                         backed by the expected future revenues from taxes and parking fines as
     4) deplore – сожалеть, оплакивать                                       yet unpaid.
     5) detach – разъединять (-ся), отделять (-ся)                                  The tobacco money will be especially welcome because it does
     6) tribal – племенной, родовой                                          not have to be spent on health care. Politicians will be able to finance
     7) plough – продвигаться, прокладывать путь                             new spending initiatives, cut taxes or, in the case of governments with
     8) onslaught – нападение, удар                                          budget difficulties (such as Nassau County's), minimise unpopular
     9) lament – плач, рыдание, стенания                                     spending cuts, or increases in taxes or borrowing.
     10) reprisal – ответный удар, ответная мера, возмездие                         This may not be all it is puffed up to be, however. There is a risk
     11) arrogance – высокомерие, надменность, заносчивость                  that not all the settlement cash will come in – for instance, if the to-
     12) roadblock – засада, заграждение на дороге                           bacco firms' legal difficulties get dire enough to bankrupt them. Even if
     13) so be it – если; при условии, что                                   the cash is delivered, using one-off revenues of this sort can give a
     14) so-and-sos – такой-то; так-то и так-то                              falsely rosy idea of a local government's finances if the money is used
     15) white hats – положительные персонажи                                to meet ongoing financial liabilities. And although Standard & Poor's
     16) wrong headedness – заблуждение, упорствование в за-                 says it will rate tobacco bonds as high as single-A (compared with the
блуждении                                                                    best possible rating of triple-A), the ordinary general bonds issued by
     17) militant – воинствующий                                             most local governments typically get a higher rating. In other words,
     18) settler – зд. решающий довод                                        general bonds will often be a cheaper way of raising money.
                                                                                    However, these general bonds often require the explicit approval
      2. Make up a plan of the text in English.                              of voters. By selling tobacco bonds, politicians may be paying extra to
                                                                             borrow in a way that does not look particularly like borrowing and may
      3. Give a summary of the text.
                                                                             escape political oversight. Now, why would they want to do that?

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