Sunday, March 6, 2011

Weekly Bilingual News


Dear Friends:


Hello! Welcome to another online communication of the Spanish-English Club! The new issue of Weekly Bilingual News includes comments that we posted in important online publications during the last few days. They are interesting subjects for your debate and bilingual conversation. The Vocabulary included will help you.

FEBRUARY JOB NUMBERS - WSJ story: "Jobless Rates Falls Further" (March 4, 2011). The article talks about the February job report of the US Labor Department. Private companies added a net of 192,000 jobs, but the number of people out of work continues high: 13.7 million, approximately double the number before the recession.
WSJ Journal Comment: "While the US Labor Department posted that in February the private sector added thousands of jobs and the unemployment rate slipped to 8.9%, more low-paid employees only survive. Nobody expects big changes in short time."

SMALLER GOVERNMENT – WSJ – Journal Community Questions: Do we need a smaller government? Is Washington bloated? And does it mean we need a smaller government? Can we have that without cutting services that might really help people? (March 3, 2011)
Journal Community Answer: "Yes, the government is bloated. We need a smaller and more efficient government. Every office, every department, every position in the Congress and the White House has to be justified. The ideas that for every issue, for every problem, for every difficulty, the government needs a new program, a new adviser, a new commission, and a new budget are not the right way to make more jobs. With the current technology available, and techniques of analysis of information systems of the administration, the government can reduce billions of dollars of expenditures and offer better services to the country, the community, and the citizens."

STEVE JOBS IN ACTION - WSJ story: "Apple's Showman Takes the Stage" (March 2, 2011). The article comments that Apple CEO stopped his medical leave to introduce iPad 2, appearing in public in the conference where Apple introduced a thinner, lighter and faster digital tablet than the first iPad. In connection with the launch of the new product, Steve Jobs said: "With more than 15 million iPads sold, iPad has defined an entirely new category of mobile devices. While others have been scrambling to copy the first generation iPad, we're launching iPad 2, which moves the bar far ahead of the competition and will likely cause them to go back to the drawing boards yet again."
WSJ Journal Comment: "Always Steve Jobs brings to market the next innovative news for the industry. It was splendid that the Apple's CEO introduced personally his new creature: iPad 2. Congratulations!"

NUCLEAR ENERGY - WSJ Journal Community Question: "Should the U.S. explore nuclear power for energy needs more aggressively?" (March 2, 2011) According to Wall Street Journal, Bill Gates is funding and guiding a start-up called TerraPower, whose goal is to make nuclear reactors smaller, cheaper and safer than today's nuclear energy sources. The company has made pitches in France and Japan.
WSJ Journal Answer: "We agree nuclear power has to be one of the most important priorities of the United States. About the initiative of Bill Gates, TerraPower seems very interesting, if Microsoft is not in the middle."

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the positive territory, despite the fall of Friday. Dow Jones Industrial Average went up 39.43 points or 0.33% to 12169.88. Nasdaq Composite gained 3.62 points or 0.13% in the same period, to close at 2784.67.

In summary, during the last few days, Libya and the Arab world were again important headlines of the international press. Different western leaders agree that opponents of Gadhafi need tanks, heavy weapons and military logistics, but nobody is sure about what are the best actions to stop the Libyan massacre. During an interview of the TV program NewsHour, retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, who commanded no-fly zones over Iraq during the 1990s, said "no-fly zones" implies a military intervention and whoever imposes the fly-prohibition has to be able to knock down the airplanes that violate it. He also said US has to act together with the United Nations.

Also during the week,Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh - another protagonist of the Arab turmoil - apologized for his statements against the U.S. government, and is planning to leave the presidency. Some days ago, during a university conference, the Yemeni leader said the United States and Israel were behind the Arab protesters across all the countries of the region.

In the United States, the debates about the size of government and how the states could cut expenditures continued at the top. During the week, the agreement between US and Mexico to allow Mexican trucks driving across the border between both countries produced opposed opinions. On Friday, the unemployment rate of February generated good comments from analysts and members of the government.

In Brazil, Europe and other countries of the world, during these days the people are celebrating the 2011 Carnival. In Germany, this festive season is used to mock politicians and criticize the mistakes of political leaders made during the last twelve months. The case of the former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg who resigned during the week over a plagiarism scandal is part of the scene.

Best regards,

Domingo

Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/

Questions - Preguntas:

1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?

2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?

Vocabulary - Vocabulario:

- Arab = árabe
- bloated = hinchado
- Brazil = Brasil
- carnival = carnaval
- commission = commission
- double = doble
- Europe = Europa
- faster = más rápido, más rápida
- fly = volar ("fly" was other very different meanings is Spanish)
- German = alemán, alemana
- Germany = Alemania
- headline, headlines = titular, titulares
- heavy weapons = armas pesadas, armamento pesado
- Iraq = Irak
- jobless = sin trabajo, desempleado, desempleada
- knock down, knocked down = derribar, derribó
- Libya = Libia
- lighter = más liviano, más liviana
- Mexican = mexicano, mexicana, mejicano, mejicana
- military = militar
- million = millón
- mock, mocked = ridiculizar, ridiculizó, ridiculizaron, burlarse de, se burló de, se burlaron de
- no-fly zones = espacio aéreo desmilitarizado
- out of work = sin trabajo (Also in Spanish: fuera de funcionamiento).
- pitches = lanzamientos
- plagiarism = plagio
- priority, priorities = prioridad, prioridades
- reactor = reactor
- recession = recesión
- resign, resigned = renunciar, renunció
- retired = retirado, jubilado
- safer = más seguro. (Also in Spanish: fuera de peligro).
- scene = escena, escenario 
- showman = director de espectáculos. (Also in Spanish: empresario de espectáculos, actor, gran actor)
- slip, slipped = deslizar, deslizó
- stage = escena
- start-up = empresa joven
- tablet = tablero
- tank, tanks = tanque, tanques
- thinner = más delgado, más delgada
- truck = camión
- United Nations = Naciones Unidas
- Yemeni = yemenita

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Anne, Betty, Bob, John, Marcus, Stephanie for your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.


Carnival Parade in Germany

No comments: