高级口译补充阅读independent.docx

1、高级口译补充阅读independentA beginners guide to self-buildWith the right tradesmen, location and planning approval, building your own home can be a cost-effective option, says Christopher Browne08 October 2003 Roger Angus has designs on property. Plotting, drawing and planning hotels, office blocks and hous

2、es are all part of his daily routine as an architect. But when his daughter needed to move recently something totally unexpected happened: Angus the architect turned into Angus the project manager. One weekend on a family outing, he and his daughter Haidee spotted a disused patch at the end of some

3、terraced houses. They sought out the owner, made an offer and bought it. Then when Roger went to the office the next day, he drew up plans for a three-bedroom house to add on to the pretty little row in Twickenham, Middlesex.It was market insecurity that inspired me. My son had just been evicted fro

4、m his home as the landlord wanted to sell the house, and it made me realize that renting can sometimes be unstable. I was doubly determined to find a safe place for my daughter and this seemed the ideal solution, he says. Rogers next move was to get planning permission from the local council. It wen

5、t through pretty smoothly. The site was merely a rough-and-ready tract that a few residents had been using to park their cars in, and as there were other available spaces in the road I thought it wouldnt cause a problem, he says.His end-of-terrace will have the same brick facade and features as the

6、others in the row. The only difference is the house that Roger builds will be made from new materials. It wont be a piece of outstanding architectural beauty, but a good, solid and comfortable base for my daughter.According to government estimates, each year around 5,000 homes are built by enterpris

7、ing owners as they realize long-held dreams or cut down on the price of materials and middlemen. Most are detached houses and cost between 100,000 and 150,000 all-in. As for hotspots, Essex has attracted a big following as farmers sell off disused agricultural plots to enthusiastic DIYers. And locat

8、ion, location, location is certainly key if you decide to sell the property you built from scratch. Any self-builder who already owns the land to be built on and lives in central or outer London can make very big profits when he puts the property on the market, says a spokesman for the Royal Institu

9、tion of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).So what does it take to be a self-builder? The ideal candidate is someone who works in the building trade and has good links with contractors, surveyors and architects, says Roger. The RICS spokesman adds: You must ensure your planning permits are in place before y

10、ou start, treat all costs like a control freak and get a specialist project manager to run it.One way to start is to log on to www. . This offers timber-framed packages and self-build schemes with project managers. Site-seekers, meanwhile, can pay 39.99 (renewable for free) and log on for three mont

11、hs, picking out plots offered by councils, churches, farmers, public companies and individuals in six-county batches. If the idea of a quarter-of-an-acre in Dyfed, Wales, appeals, it would set you back around 26,000. A similar-sized plot in Hampshire would cost about 110,000. The highest prices are

12、in the Home Counties and the lowest in Wales and parts of Scotland, says a spokesman for Landbank Services, the websites owners.You could also build a house of straw - or more precisely, a barn with a thatched roof. When demand forced up the price of the much-coveted rural barn, Potton Homes started

13、 selling build-your-own kits. These cost from 41,300 to 57,000 (erection costs included) with all the basics from beams, doors and windows to skirtings and staircases. It is then up to you to find the bricks, tiles and other building materials - and a friendly local owl.More lenders are offering sel

14、f-build loans. You can either borrow in stages or take out an accelerator mortgage, giving you up to 95 per cent of the cost of the land and house in advance. Lenders include the Brittania, Skipton and Newcastle building societies.So how long will the enterprise take? If you are an experienced opera

15、tor, it could take four months; if you are new to the industry it might take you a year or two. The worst-case scenario is that the project goes pear-shaped, adds the Landbank Services spokesman. Meanwhile the house that Roger builds has a 12-month deadline - six months if all goes to plan.Are we go

16、ing to sacrifice a growing market for organic crops by risking contamination?Michael Meacher25 September 2003 The main advantages alleged for genetic modification are that it increases yields, reduces herbicide use and could feed the developing world. Unfortunately, all these claims are either stron

17、gly disputed or downright wrong.Monsanto has declared that yields increase, but the experience of Canadian farmers, who were initially favorable to GM, has proved the opposite. In India, the GM cotton harvest collapsed because of bollworm infestation. On herbicide use, powerful chemical weedkillers

18、still often have to be used three times - first to clear the ground, then as the crop begins to grow, and third as it matures. Cross-contamination has proved a nightmare, with oilseed rape pollen particularly promiscuous. And if world hunger is to be addressed, fair trade rules for the developing co

19、untries, a more equal distribution of land, and population management measures are vastly more important than GM, whose role is insignificant.The disadvantages of GM are that it is an untested, and potentially risky, technology. The insertion of GM DNA and lack of control over the genes functions co

20、uld cause undesired effects not immediately apparent. That is why it is so serious that no systematic clinical testing has been carried out on the health impacts of GM foods. We do know that food allergies and food-related illnesses have doubled here and in North America over recent years, but the s

21、uspected connection with GM has not been tested. Equally, long-term impacts of GM on the environment have not been explored.Other key disadvantages are that co-existence with organic crops is impossible. Organic oilseed rape has virtually been wiped out in Canada as a result of GM contamination. Do

22、we want the same to happen here? We have a choice. Are we going to sacrifice organic crops, for which there is an expanding market, in order to license GM crops, for which there is no market?People also want consumer choice. The Government says it is in favor. But people cannot choose GM-free food w

23、hen the labelling rules proposed have a 0.9 per cent threshold, so you do not know if it is GM free.Michael Meacher was the Environment minister from 1997 to 2003Globalization and the poor mans burdenGordon Brown21 September 2003 The collapse of the World Trade Organization talks at Cancun has been

24、a bitter disappointment for a world that must fight a war, not just against global terrorism but against global poverty.But behind the apparent growing divide between rich and poor countries is a debate about different approaches to globalization. So in our decisions on world economic growth, debt r

25、elief, and financing aid at this weekends International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Dubai, as well as giving priority to resuming trade talks, we must show that global economic change need not impoverish millions but can enrich even the poorest and bring social justice on a global scale

26、. It is only by action against poverty that a world divided over trade at Cancun can unite together again at Dubai.First we must assert that a multilateral trading system is essential to deliver fair trade for poor countries and, in putting developing countries interests first, we must focus on agri

27、culture and not be distracted by the Singapore issues (investment, competition, transparency in procurement and trade facilitation). Second, instead of the old vicious circle of debt, poverty and underdevelopment that held half the world back, we must show that a virtuous circle of debt relief, pove

28、rty reduction and economic development is now possible. In particular no country pursuing anti-corruption and pro-stability reforms should be denied the resources to meet the Millennium Development Goals: that by 2015 every child is in education and poverty is halved.So we propose a new compact betw

29、een the richest and the poorest.In return for the poorest countries eradicating corruption and pursuing pro-stability and pro-growth policies, the richest countries must not only provide a fair trading regime for developing countries but raise their contribution to the education and health of the wo

30、rlds poorest citizens through debt relief, traditional aid and policies for growth that help the poor.By removing unpayable inherited burdens, debt relief allows countries to grow again. Current debt relief plans are leading 27 countries to write off up to $70bn (42.7bn) of debt and we must now move

31、 to the next stage - a plan for post conflict countries. This plan can raise debt relief to $100bn in total and we will need additional relief to ensure a genuinely sustainable exit from the burden of debt. But this must come from additional resources and not be a reallocation of existing aid.Modern

32、 aid is not about compensating the developing world for its poverty but building new capacity to produce, trade, and prosper. That is why so much focus is on the needs of education and of the 120 million children, two thirds of them girls, denied even the most basic of schooling.When poor countries have workable plans to expand their schooling - as under the World Bank Fast Track Initiative - rich countries should offer to help with resources. Today only $20 a year is spent on educating the typical African child. At Dubai the world will have before it a World Bank repo