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1、The overthrow of Madagascars president in mid-March was partly caused by water problemsin South Korea. Worried by the difficulties of increasing food supplies in its water-stressed homeland, Daewoo, a South Korean conglomerate, signed a deal to lease no less than half Madagascars arable land to grow
2、 grain for South Koreans. Widespread anger at the terms of the deal (the islands people would have received practically nothing) contributed to the presidents unpopularity. One of the new leaders first acts was to scrap the agreement.三月中旬，马达加斯加总统下台，水资源问题难逃其咎韩国水资源问题。韩国大宇物流集团由于担心国内水资源缺乏，粮食短缺日益严重，便租用马达
3、加斯加近一半面积的可耕种土地，用作韩国人民粮食供给。协议中的条款引起举马达加斯加不满（因为人民几乎一无所获），总统的支持率跌至谷底。新总统上任后第一把火，就是撕毁协议。Three weeks before that, on the other side of the world, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California declared a state of emergency. Not for the first time, he threatened water rationing in the state. “It is clear,”
4、says a recent report by the United Nations World Water Assessment Programme, “that urgent action is needed if we are to avoid a global water crisis.”此事三周前，在世界另一端的加利福尼亚，州长阿诺.施瓦辛格宣布事态紧急，扬言要在州中分区供水这已经不是第一次了。联合国世界水资源评估方案最近报道也称：“显然，如果我们希望避免全球水危急，就必须采取紧急行动。”Local water shortages are multiplying. Australia
5、 has suffered a decade-long drought. Brazil and South Africa, which depend on hydroelectric power, have suffered repeated brownouts because there is not enough water to drive the turbines properly. So much has been pumped out of the rivers that feed the Aral Sea in Central Asia that it collapsed in
6、the 1980s and has barely begun to recover.地方水资源短缺现象日益严峻。澳大利亚干旱十年，依赖水电的巴西和南非也因为缺水，涡轮不能正常运转，只得受限电之苦。河流抽水过量，中亚咸海供水不足，20世纪80年代发生了生态灾难后，一直没能恢复。Yet local shortages, caused by individual acts of mismanagement or regional problems, are one thing. A global water crisis, which impinges on supplies of food and
7、 other goods, or affects rivers and lakes everywhere, is quite another. Does the world really face a global problem?个人行为管理不善或者区域问题引发地方性短缺是一回事，然而危及粮食和其他产品供应，影响各处河流湖泊的水危机，则另当别论。现在的世界，当真面临着一个全球性问题吗？精读经济学人：药物数字化进程Apr 16th 2009From The Economist print edition生物学和工程学的融合使得医疗保健成为了信息产业。Vijay Vaitheesearan表示，
8、这会引起混乱，但同时病人会大为受益。INNOVATION and medicine go together. The ancient Egyptians are thought to have performed surgery back in 2750BC, and the Romans developed medical tools such as forceps and surgical needles. In modern times medicine has been transformed by waves of discovery that have brought marvel
9、s like antibiotics, vaccines and heart stents.创新和药物一起发展。古代埃及人被认为早在公元前2750年就进行了外科手术，罗马人发明了医疗工具，如医用钳子和手术用针。到了现代，发现探索的浪潮给人们带来了诸多奇迹，如抗生素，育苗和心脏支架。这些都促进了医药的改革。Given its history of innovation, the health-care sector has been surprisingly reluctant to embrace information technology (IT). Whereas every other
10、 big industry has computerised with gusto since the 1980s, doctors in most parts of the world still work mainly with pen and paper.考虑到创新的历史，医疗保健行业迟迟没有拥抱信息技术（IT），这是颇为令人吃惊的。自从19世纪80年代，其他大型的产业都兴致勃勃地接受电脑化进程，而世界大多数地区的医生仍旧是与笔和纸打交道。But now, in fits and starts, medicine is at long last catching up. As this
11、special report will explain, it is likely to be transformed by the introduction of electronic health records that can be turned into searchable medical databases, providing a “smart grid” for medicine that will not only improve clinical practice but also help to revive drugs research. Developing cou
12、ntries are already using mobile phones to put a doctor into patients pockets. Devices and diagnostics are also going digital, advancing such long-heralded ideas as telemedicine, personal medical devices for the home and smart pills.虽然医药行业改变的步伐时断时续，但现在该行业终于逐渐赶上了这一趋势。此次的特别报道将会向你阐释，电子健康记录的出现将有可能改革医药行业。
13、该记录可转变为可搜索式的医疗数据库，为药物提供一个“智慧的网络”，不仅会改进临床实践，还有助于重振药物研究。发展中国家已经通过使用移动电话，使得医生陪伴着病人，寸步不离。医疗设备和诊断法也变得数字化，极大促进了长久以来就梦想的远程开药，家庭个人医疗设备和聪明药的发展。The first technological revolution in modern biology started when James Watson and Francis Crick described the structure of DNA half a century ago. That established t
14、he fields of molecular and cell biology, the basis of the biotechnology industry. The sequencing of the human genome nearly a decade ago set off a second revolution which has started to illuminate the origins of diseases.现代生物学的第一次技术革命始于在半个世纪前，James Watson和Francis Crick成功描述了DNA的结构。这一举动建立了分子细胞生物学，也奠定了
15、生物技术行业的基础。大约10年前的人类基因组排序引发了第二次革命，这一举动为人类探寻疾病的根源指明了道路。公司对冲愈难WARREN BUFFETT, one of the worlds most famous investors, once called derivatives “financial weapons of mass destruction”. Central bankers worry that those sold “over the counter”, meaning outside exchanges, threaten the stability of the whol
16、e financial system. Yet firms that rely on derivatives to limit their exposure to swings in commodity prices, interest rates or exchange rates cannot get enough of themliterally.世界上最著名的投资家之一，WARREN BUFFETT（沃伦巴菲特）曾经把衍生品叫“金融大规模杀伤性武器”。 央行官员担心这些衍生品的“柜台销售”， 意指他们是在所外交易，会威胁整个金融系统的稳定。 然而，有的公司靠衍生品来减低大宗商品的价格， 利率， 或汇率大幅波动的影响，这些公司对这些衍生品是如饥似渴却又求之不得。 Several firms using derivatives in an attempt to manage such risks have suffered huge
