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Comentadas sobre interpretação de texto | reading comprehension em inglês
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Cristina Fernández argues that her country's latest default is different. She is missing the point.
Aug 2nd 2014
ARGENTINA'S first bond, issued in 1824, was supposed to have had a lifespan of 46 years. Less than four years later, the government defaulted. Resolving the ensuing stand-off with creditors took 29 years. Since then seven more defaults have followed, the most recent this week, when Argentina failed to make a payment on bonds issued as partial compensation to victims of the previous default, in 2001.
Most investors think they can see a pattern in all this, but Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, insists the latest default is not like the others. Her government, she points out, had transferred the full $539m it owed to the banks that administer the bonds. It is America’s courts (the bonds were issued under American law) that blocked the payment, at the behest of the tiny minority of owners of bonds from 2001 who did not accept the restructuring Argentina offered them in 2005 and again in 2010. These “hold-outs”, balking at the 65% haircut the restructuring entailed, not only persuaded a judge that they should be paid in full but also got him to freeze payments on the restructured bonds until Argentina coughs up.
Argentina claims that paying the hold-outs was impossible. It is not just that they are “vultures" as Argentine officials often put it, who bought the bonds for cents on the dollar after the previous default and are now holding those who accepted the restructuring (accounting for 93% of the debt) to ransom. The main problem is that a clause in the restructured bonds prohibits Argentina from offering the hold-outs better terms without paying everyone else the same. Since it cannot afford to do that, it says it had no choice but to default.
Yet it is not certain that the clause requiring equal treatment of all bondholders would have applied, given that Argentina would not have been paying the hold-outs voluntarily, but on the courts' orders. Moreover, some owners of the restructured bonds had agreed to waive their rights; had Argentina made a concerted effort to persuade the remainder to do the same, it might have succeeded. Lawyers and bankers have suggested various ways around the clause in question, which expires at the end of the year. But Argentina's government was slow to consider these options or negotiate with the hold-outs, hiding instead behind indignant nationalism.
Ms Fernández is right that the consequences of America's court rulings have been perverse, unleashing a big financial dispute in an attempt to solve a relatively small one. But hers is not the first government to be hit with an awkward verdict. Instead of railing against it, she should have tried to minimise the harm it did. Defaulting has helped no one: none of the bondholders will now be paid, Argentina looks like a pariah again, and its economy will remain starved of loans and investment.
Happily, much of the damage can still be undone. It is not too late to strike a deal with the hold-outs or back an ostensibly private effort to buy out their claims. A quick fix would make it easier for Argentina to borrow again internationally. That, in turn, would speed development of big oil and gas deposits, the income from which could help ease its money troubles.
More important, it would help to change perceptions of Argentina as a financial rogue state. Over the past year or so Ms Fernández seems to have been trying to rehabilitate Argentina's image and resuscitate its faltering economy. She settled financial disputes with government creditors and with Repsol, a Spanish oil firm whose Argentine assets she had expropriated in 2012. This week's events have overshadowed all that. For its own sake, and everyone else's, Argentina should hold its nose and do a deal with the hold-outs.
(http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21610263. Adapted)
Cristina Fernández argues that her country's latest default is different. She is missing the point.
Aug 2nd 2014
ARGENTINA'S first bond, issued in 1824, was supposed to have had a lifespan of 46 years. Less than four years later, the government defaulted. Resolving the ensuing stand-off with creditors took 29 years. Since then seven more defaults have followed, the most recent this week, when Argentina failed to make a payment on bonds issued as partial compensation to victims of the previous default, in 2001.
Most investors think they can see a pattern in all this, but Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, insists the latest default is not like the others. Her government, she points out, had transferred the full $539m it owed to the banks that administer the bonds. It is America’s courts (the bonds were issued under American law) that blocked the payment, at the behest of the tiny minority of owners of bonds from 2001 who did not accept the restructuring Argentina offered them in 2005 and again in 2010. These “hold-outs”, balking at the 65% haircut the restructuring entailed, not only persuaded a judge that they should be paid in full but also got him to freeze payments on the restructured bonds until Argentina coughs up.
Argentina claims that paying the hold-outs was impossible. It is not just that they are “vultures" as Argentine officials often put it, who bought the bonds for cents on the dollar after the previous default and are now holding those who accepted the restructuring (accounting for 93% of the debt) to ransom. The main problem is that a clause in the restructured bonds prohibits Argentina from offering the hold-outs better terms without paying everyone else the same. Since it cannot afford to do that, it says it had no choice but to default.
Yet it is not certain that the clause requiring equal treatment of all bondholders would have applied, given that Argentina would not have been paying the hold-outs voluntarily, but on the courts' orders. Moreover, some owners of the restructured bonds had agreed to waive their rights; had Argentina made a concerted effort to persuade the remainder to do the same, it might have succeeded. Lawyers and bankers have suggested various ways around the clause in question, which expires at the end of the year. But Argentina's government was slow to consider these options or negotiate with the hold-outs, hiding instead behind indignant nationalism.
Ms Fernández is right that the consequences of America's court rulings have been perverse, unleashing a big financial dispute in an attempt to solve a relatively small one. But hers is not the first government to be hit with an awkward verdict. Instead of railing against it, she should have tried to minimise the harm it did. Defaulting has helped no one: none of the bondholders will now be paid, Argentina looks like a pariah again, and its economy will remain starved of loans and investment.
Happily, much of the damage can still be undone. It is not too late to strike a deal with the hold-outs or back an ostensibly private effort to buy out their claims. A quick fix would make it easier for Argentina to borrow again internationally. That, in turn, would speed development of big oil and gas deposits, the income from which could help ease its money troubles.
More important, it would help to change perceptions of Argentina as a financial rogue state. Over the past year or so Ms Fernández seems to have been trying to rehabilitate Argentina's image and resuscitate its faltering economy. She settled financial disputes with government creditors and with Repsol, a Spanish oil firm whose Argentine assets she had expropriated in 2012. This week's events have overshadowed all that. For its own sake, and everyone else's, Argentina should hold its nose and do a deal with the hold-outs.
(http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21610263. Adapted)
Cristina Fernández argues that her country's latest default is different. She is missing the point.
Aug 2nd 2014
ARGENTINA'S first bond, issued in 1824, was supposed to have had a lifespan of 46 years. Less than four years later, the government defaulted. Resolving the ensuing stand-off with creditors took 29 years. Since then seven more defaults have followed, the most recent this week, when Argentina failed to make a payment on bonds issued as partial compensation to victims of the previous default, in 2001.
Most investors think they can see a pattern in all this, but Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, insists the latest default is not like the others. Her government, she points out, had transferred the full $539m it owed to the banks that administer the bonds. It is America’s courts (the bonds were issued under American law) that blocked the payment, at the behest of the tiny minority of owners of bonds from 2001 who did not accept the restructuring Argentina offered them in 2005 and again in 2010. These “hold-outs”, balking at the 65% haircut the restructuring entailed, not only persuaded a judge that they should be paid in full but also got him to freeze payments on the restructured bonds until Argentina coughs up.
Argentina claims that paying the hold-outs was impossible. It is not just that they are “vultures" as Argentine officials often put it, who bought the bonds for cents on the dollar after the previous default and are now holding those who accepted the restructuring (accounting for 93% of the debt) to ransom. The main problem is that a clause in the restructured bonds prohibits Argentina from offering the hold-outs better terms without paying everyone else the same. Since it cannot afford to do that, it says it had no choice but to default.
Yet it is not certain that the clause requiring equal treatment of all bondholders would have applied, given that Argentina would not have been paying the hold-outs voluntarily, but on the courts' orders. Moreover, some owners of the restructured bonds had agreed to waive their rights; had Argentina made a concerted effort to persuade the remainder to do the same, it might have succeeded. Lawyers and bankers have suggested various ways around the clause in question, which expires at the end of the year. But Argentina's government was slow to consider these options or negotiate with the hold-outs, hiding instead behind indignant nationalism.
Ms Fernández is right that the consequences of America's court rulings have been perverse, unleashing a big financial dispute in an attempt to solve a relatively small one. But hers is not the first government to be hit with an awkward verdict. Instead of railing against it, she should have tried to minimise the harm it did. Defaulting has helped no one: none of the bondholders will now be paid, Argentina looks like a pariah again, and its economy will remain starved of loans and investment.
Happily, much of the damage can still be undone. It is not too late to strike a deal with the hold-outs or back an ostensibly private effort to buy out their claims. A quick fix would make it easier for Argentina to borrow again internationally. That, in turn, would speed development of big oil and gas deposits, the income from which could help ease its money troubles.
More important, it would help to change perceptions of Argentina as a financial rogue state. Over the past year or so Ms Fernández seems to have been trying to rehabilitate Argentina's image and resuscitate its faltering economy. She settled financial disputes with government creditors and with Repsol, a Spanish oil firm whose Argentine assets she had expropriated in 2012. This week's events have overshadowed all that. For its own sake, and everyone else's, Argentina should hold its nose and do a deal with the hold-outs.
(http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21610263. Adapted)
Cristina Fernández argues that her country's latest default is different. She is missing the point.
Aug 2nd 2014
ARGENTINA'S first bond, issued in 1824, was supposed to have had a lifespan of 46 years. Less than four years later, the government defaulted. Resolving the ensuing stand-off with creditors took 29 years. Since then seven more defaults have followed, the most recent this week, when Argentina failed to make a payment on bonds issued as partial compensation to victims of the previous default, in 2001.
Most investors think they can see a pattern in all this, but Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, insists the latest default is not like the others. Her government, she points out, had transferred the full $539m it owed to the banks that administer the bonds. It is America’s courts (the bonds were issued under American law) that blocked the payment, at the behest of the tiny minority of owners of bonds from 2001 who did not accept the restructuring Argentina offered them in 2005 and again in 2010. These “hold-outs”, balking at the 65% haircut the restructuring entailed, not only persuaded a judge that they should be paid in full but also got him to freeze payments on the restructured bonds until Argentina coughs up.
Argentina claims that paying the hold-outs was impossible. It is not just that they are “vultures" as Argentine officials often put it, who bought the bonds for cents on the dollar after the previous default and are now holding those who accepted the restructuring (accounting for 93% of the debt) to ransom. The main problem is that a clause in the restructured bonds prohibits Argentina from offering the hold-outs better terms without paying everyone else the same. Since it cannot afford to do that, it says it had no choice but to default.
Yet it is not certain that the clause requiring equal treatment of all bondholders would have applied, given that Argentina would not have been paying the hold-outs voluntarily, but on the courts' orders. Moreover, some owners of the restructured bonds had agreed to waive their rights; had Argentina made a concerted effort to persuade the remainder to do the same, it might have succeeded. Lawyers and bankers have suggested various ways around the clause in question, which expires at the end of the year. But Argentina's government was slow to consider these options or negotiate with the hold-outs, hiding instead behind indignant nationalism.
Ms Fernández is right that the consequences of America's court rulings have been perverse, unleashing a big financial dispute in an attempt to solve a relatively small one. But hers is not the first government to be hit with an awkward verdict. Instead of railing against it, she should have tried to minimise the harm it did. Defaulting has helped no one: none of the bondholders will now be paid, Argentina looks like a pariah again, and its economy will remain starved of loans and investment.
Happily, much of the damage can still be undone. It is not too late to strike a deal with the hold-outs or back an ostensibly private effort to buy out their claims. A quick fix would make it easier for Argentina to borrow again internationally. That, in turn, would speed development of big oil and gas deposits, the income from which could help ease its money troubles.
More important, it would help to change perceptions of Argentina as a financial rogue state. Over the past year or so Ms Fernández seems to have been trying to rehabilitate Argentina's image and resuscitate its faltering economy. She settled financial disputes with government creditors and with Repsol, a Spanish oil firm whose Argentine assets she had expropriated in 2012. This week's events have overshadowed all that. For its own sake, and everyone else's, Argentina should hold its nose and do a deal with the hold-outs.
(http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21610263. Adapted)
The Economist, June 21st 2014. Adaptado.
Segundo William Cobbett,
The Economist, June 21st 2014. Adaptado.
De acordo com o texto,
You know the exit is somewhere along this stretch of
highway, but you have
never taken it before
and do not want to miss
it. As you carefully scan
the side of the road for
the exit sign, numerous
distractions intrude on
your visual field:
billboards, a snazzy
convertible, a cell phone
buzzing on the
dashboard. How does your brain focus on the task at hand?
To answer this question, neuroscientists generally study the way the brain strengthens its response to what you are looking for – jolting itself with an especially large electrical pulse when you see it. Another mental trick may be just as important, according to a study published in April in the Journal of Neuroscience: the brain deliberately weakens its reaction to everything else so that the target seems more important in comparison.
Such research may eventually help scientists understand what is happening in the brains of people with attention problems, such as attentionͲdeficit/hyperactivity disorder. And in a world increasingly permeated by distractions – a major contributor to traffic accidents – any insights into how the brain pays attention should get ours.
Scientific American, July 2014. Adaptado.
You know the exit is somewhere along this stretch of
highway, but you have
never taken it before
and do not want to miss
it. As you carefully scan
the side of the road for
the exit sign, numerous
distractions intrude on
your visual field:
billboards, a snazzy
convertible, a cell phone
buzzing on the
dashboard. How does your brain focus on the task at hand?
To answer this question, neuroscientists generally study the way the brain strengthens its response to what you are looking for – jolting itself with an especially large electrical pulse when you see it. Another mental trick may be just as important, according to a study published in April in the Journal of Neuroscience: the brain deliberately weakens its reaction to everything else so that the target seems more important in comparison.
Such research may eventually help scientists understand what is happening in the brains of people with attention problems, such as attentionͲdeficit/hyperactivity disorder. And in a world increasingly permeated by distractions – a major contributor to traffic accidents – any insights into how the brain pays attention should get ours.
Scientific American, July 2014. Adaptado.
You know the exit is somewhere along this stretch of
highway, but you have
never taken it before
and do not want to miss
it. As you carefully scan
the side of the road for
the exit sign, numerous
distractions intrude on
your visual field:
billboards, a snazzy
convertible, a cell phone
buzzing on the
dashboard. How does your brain focus on the task at hand?
To answer this question, neuroscientists generally study the way the brain strengthens its response to what you are looking for – jolting itself with an especially large electrical pulse when you see it. Another mental trick may be just as important, according to a study published in April in the Journal of Neuroscience: the brain deliberately weakens its reaction to everything else so that the target seems more important in comparison.
Such research may eventually help scientists understand what is happening in the brains of people with attention problems, such as attentionͲdeficit/hyperactivity disorder. And in a world increasingly permeated by distractions – a major contributor to traffic accidents – any insights into how the brain pays attention should get ours.
Scientific American, July 2014. Adaptado.
When I ..................... a long time, very patiently, without ..................... him lie down, I resolved to open a little — a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it — you cannot imagine how stealthily,
stealthily — until, at length, a single dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and full upon the vulture eye.
Extracted from The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
Gabriel García Márquez was a Literary Giant
With a Passion for Journalism
By Karla Zabludovsky Friday, April 18,2014
The late Gabriel García Márquez holds a special place in the hearts of journalists.
Like Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway — or contemporaries like Pete Hamill and Tom Wolfe — García Márquez, a titan of 20th century literature, honed his writing skills as a reporter
before he became a celebrated novelist.
Even as his literary star rose, García Márquez, known colloquially across Latin America as Gabo, spoke proudly, tenderly and frequently about journalism.
“Those who are self-taught are avid and quick, and during those bygone times, we were that to a great extent in order to keep paving the way for the best profession in the world… as we ourselves called
it," said García Márquez during a speech about journalism at the 52nd Assembly of the Inter American Press Association in 1996.
Newsweek Magazine
Gabriel García Márquez was a Literary Giant
With a Passion for Journalism
By Karla Zabludovsky Friday, April 18,2014
The late Gabriel García Márquez holds a special place in the hearts of journalists.
Like Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway — or contemporaries like Pete Hamill and Tom Wolfe — García Márquez, a titan of 20th century literature, honed his writing skills as a reporter
before he became a celebrated novelist.
Even as his literary star rose, García Márquez, known colloquially across Latin America as Gabo, spoke proudly, tenderly and frequently about journalism.
“Those who are self-taught are avid and quick, and during those bygone times, we were that to a great extent in order to keep paving the way for the best profession in the world… as we ourselves called
it," said García Márquez during a speech about journalism at the 52nd Assembly of the Inter American Press Association in 1996.
Newsweek Magazine
Brazil turns to drones to protect Amazon
By Joe Leahy in Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso. April 21,2014.
Brazilian municipalities are turning to drones as they prepare to implement a tough new law designed to save the Amazon from total deforestation.
Municipal authorities in the Amazon region, ...........1 ............. of which covers double the size of Scotland, are looking to use drones to map properties and monitor whether farmers and others are maintaining the minimum of forest cover required under the new forest code.
“With the acquisition of a drone, we would have a better result, we would have a panoramic view of how this process of recuperation is progressing," said Gercilene Meira, a specialist with the state environmental secretariat in the municipality of Alta Floresta, in Mato Grosso state. “We have done some tests using balloons but it was not sufficient."
Passed in 2012, Brazil's forest code was hailed as a breakthrough in the country's efforts to protect the Amazon while maintaining its emergence as an agricultural power. It is already one of ...........2 ............. exporters of sugar, coffee, soya beans and beef.
The law requires farmers in the Amazon to preserve up to 80 per cent of the forest on their land as well as protect springs and rivers. Those who violated previous restrictions on deforestation are required
to recuperate parts of the lost vegetation on their lands.
The need for the new law was highlighted last year, when deforestation of the Amazon increased for the first time in several years.
Adapted from Financial Times
Brazil turns to drones to protect Amazon
By Joe Leahy in Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso. April 21,2014.
Brazilian municipalities are turning to drones as they prepare to implement a tough new law designed to save the Amazon from total deforestation.
Municipal authorities in the Amazon region, ...........1 ............. of which covers double the size of Scotland, are looking to use drones to map properties and monitor whether farmers and others are maintaining the minimum of forest cover required under the new forest code.
“With the acquisition of a drone, we would have a better result, we would have a panoramic view of how this process of recuperation is progressing," said Gercilene Meira, a specialist with the state environmental secretariat in the municipality of Alta Floresta, in Mato Grosso state. “We have done some tests using balloons but it was not sufficient."
Passed in 2012, Brazil's forest code was hailed as a breakthrough in the country's efforts to protect the Amazon while maintaining its emergence as an agricultural power. It is already one of ...........2 ............. exporters of sugar, coffee, soya beans and beef.
The law requires farmers in the Amazon to preserve up to 80 per cent of the forest on their land as well as protect springs and rivers. Those who violated previous restrictions on deforestation are required
to recuperate parts of the lost vegetation on their lands.
The need for the new law was highlighted last year, when deforestation of the Amazon increased for the first time in several years.
Adapted from Financial Times
Richard Hamming argues a major roadblock is thinking your success will be mainly about luck. To do first rate work, you have to drop any modesty and say to yourself: “Yes, I would like to do something significant.” Pasteur said, “Luck favors the prepared mind.” The prepared mind will eventually find something important and then do it. One characteristic of great people is usually “when they were young they had independent thoughts and had the courage to pursue them.” He says: “Once you get your courage up and believe that you can do important problems, then you can.” Psychology Today Magazine
Richard Hamming argues a major roadblock is thinking your success will be mainly about luck. To do first rate work, you have to drop any modesty and say to yourself: “Yes, I would like to do something significant.” Pasteur said, “Luck favors the prepared mind.” The prepared mind will eventually find something important and then do it. One characteristic of great people is usually “when they were young they had independent thoughts and had the courage to pursue them.” He says: “Once you get your courage up and believe that you can do important problems, then you can.” Psychology Today Magazine