And now let's have another look at the road map

 

Dec 19th 2002, BRUSSELS, From The Economist print edition

Words and phrases

to swing open – распахнуться настежь

application – заявление на вхождение

an awkward moment – неловкий момент

to disguise one’s bitterness – скрыт свою горечь

linked by the horrors of the recent war – связанные ужасами недавней войны

the accession treaties – договоры о вступлении

banging on its door – стучащийся в его дверь

to treble – утроить

worrying exception – печальное исключение

a further boost – дальнейшее расширение

impact of the newcomers – влияние новичков

to hold on to the loot – держаться за добычу, ухваченное

sundry – различный, всяческий

loud cheers – громкие одобрения

further applicants – дальнейшие претенденты

troublesome - беспокойный

to reunite the island – объединить остров

 

AT EIGHT in the evening on December 13th, the doors of the European Union swung open. The leaders of ten countries eager to join were ushered in to meet those of the 15 current members. Their applications had been approved. Champagne and speeches flowed. Latvia's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga proclaimed (in English and French) that “justice has been done.” Peter Medgyessy, from Hungary, averred that for his country “history begins again today, after an interruption of 60 years.”

Then came an awkward moment. The leaders of three candidates not yet accepted, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, were allowed to join the throng. Abdullah Gul, Turkey's prime minister, did not disguise his bitterness. Turkey had been told that the earliest it might even start negotiating was the end of 2004, and then only if a demanding series of political reforms had been put in place. “Far from satisfactory,” he said, though it would not deflect Turkey from its determination to join.

But the Copenhagen summit was indeed historic. What began as a club of six West European countries, linked by the horrors of a recent war, is due soon to number 25, up to—indeed, with the Baltic states, into—the edges of the former Soviet Union. The accession treaties must still be ratified. Nine of the ten would-be members will put them to referendums next year. Hungary is expected to go first, on April 12th. Current polls put approval there around 75%, and EU officials hope this will create momentum in places such as Estonia, where a recent poll recorded just 39% (albeit with only 31% against). Votes in Malta and Latvia too may be close.

The most eagerly awaited vote will be in Poland, with 39m of the hoped-for 75m new EU citizens. The last stages of the Polish accession negotiations were bitter, and its anti-EU voices are strong. Still, current polls show clear “yes” majorities.

And then?

If all goes well, the new members will join on May 1st, 2004. There will then be three key issues: their economic development; their impact, as members, on the EU; and the EU's handling of those countries still banging on its door, in particular Turkey.

Central Europe's economies are mainly doing well. All are growing faster than the EU average: by 5% in free-market Estonia last year. Free trade with the EU, except in farm products, is already in force. Taken together, Czech and Hungarian exports have almost trebled since 1993, over 60% going to EU buyers. Especially to these two, foreign investment is pouring in. Poland is a worrying exception; its GDP is barely rising and unemployment is near 20%.

All the candidates hope that actual membership will give a further boost. But they also worry about the costs of EU social and environmental rules, and wonder how their farmers will cope with competition from more-subsidised West European producers. Still, well-educated and low-paid labour should help all these countries to go on doing better than their new partners—as they must, if EU enlargement is to fulfil its central promise of closing the gap in living standards.

In Brussels the main concern is about the impact of the newcomers on the Union. Some are logistical: how long will EU meetings go on, if 25 countries have to say their piece; can the translation system cope? Officials are already dreading the negotiations over the next EU budget, as the newcomers struggle to improve what many see as the rotten financial deals of their entry terms, while current members fight to hold on to the loot.

As for policies, for “budget” read, notably, farm policy as such, a big issue for the newcomers; and, no less, the sundry EU efforts to help poor members catch up with rich ones. The newcomers will also affect the EU's fledgling foreign policy. They are likely to be more pro-American than some current members. George Bush recently got loud cheers when he gave a speech outdoors in Lithuania; he could barely risk such an event in parts of Western Europe.

The biggest foreign-policy issue for the new EU will be how to deal with the queue of further applicants. Six months after the new members join, the EU of 25 will be called upon to judge whether Turkey is fit to begin negotiations. Cyprus could prove troublesome. Hopes that talks in Copenhagen outside the summit could lead toward a deal to reunite the island came to little, but Cyprus was accepted anyway. Might its (Greek-)Cypriot government try to block Turkey's entry, as the Turks fear? Meanwhile, Romania and Bulgaria are already at the door, and others will surely come. The historic enlargement agreed at Copenhagen will not be the last.

 

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2. Найдите, где в тексте говорится о следующем:

 

- встреча будущих членов была теплой;

- турецкий премьер-министр был в очень неловком положении;

- ситуация с Польшей;

- восточно-европейские государства развиваются очень быстро;

- указаны страны, экспорт которых возрос в три раза;

- возникают опасения о бюджете ЕС;

- вопрос о толпе «жаждущих вступить».

 

3. Переведите на русский язык некоторые, по-вашему, интересные тезисы в разных частях текста. Попросите одногруппника найти их в тексте по-английски.

 

4. Выпишите необходимый набор лексики для кратчайшего тезисного изложения текста.

 

 

UNIT 12

 

Тематика: международное право, политика

 

Текст: Китай лжет трижды

 

China's Three Lies

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

November19, 2002

Words and phrases

to launch one’s rule – запустить в ход свое правление

scoff – посмеиваться

tough-minded – «упертый», крайне настойчивый

discarded nib of a pen – сломанное перо авторучки

to serve in prison – отбывать срок в тюрьме

crackdown – крушение

pressure is irresistible – давление превосходит сопротивление

inevitable – неизбежный

thrilling transformation – потрясающее изменение

timid apparatchiks – боязливые аппаратчики

authorized way of thinking – узаконенный способ мышления

twisted state – перевернутое положение

heart of the challenges – суть предстоящих трудностей

to suppress opposition – подавить оппозицию

to stagnate economically – застаиваться экономически

to breed a middle class – вскормить средний класс

flexible enough – достаточно гибкий

cautious followers – предупредительные последователи

to tinker with the system – пытаться кое-как подправить систему

boldness – смелось, дерзость

to lack smth – не хватать чего-либо

urban skylines – городские очертания

 

BEIJING With the new Chinese Communist leaders launching their rule this week, I dropped by to get the perspective of the bravest man I've ever met.

They won't change the dictatorship, scoffed Ren Wanding, the pioneer of China's human rights movement. They'll change economically to a capitalist society, but not politically.

Mr. Ren is so tough-minded that during the time he was imprisoned, from 1979 to 1983, for pressing his human rights campaign, he wrote a four-volume book on democracy with the only material he could find: toilet paper and the discarded nib of a pen. After his release he began campaigning for human rights again, and served seven more years in prison after the Tiananmen crackdown.

The authorities put him under a loose house arrest during last week's Communist Party Congress, but he says the pressure for democracy is irresistible. At some point, he believes — maybe 10 years from now — the party will have to accept it.

For now, though, the Communist leaders are doing a pretty good job of resisting the inevitable. In a country that has undergone a thrilling transformation in so many ways, where people live far better than ever before, it's deeply depressing to see a new leadership team composed of timid apparatchiks. China now has 196 million cellphones — but only one authorized way of thinking.

To consider the twisted state of Chinese politics, consider the very first phrase of this column — for it contains three lies. These three Chinese lies go to the heart of the challenges that the country faces in the coming years.

The first lie is the reference to China's Communists, who are not Communists at all in any meaningful sense. Chinese leaders are not so much Communists as fascists, for they aim to preside over a capitalist economic system with a large state-controlled sector, while using military power to suppress opposition.

Calling them fascists actually puts them in good company. Communist countries stagnated economically and eventually collapsed, while fascist countries (Spain, Taiwan, South Korea, Chile) flourished economically, bred a middle class and eventually proved flexible enough to evolve into greater democracy.

The second lie is that China installed new leaders. Hu Jintao and his pals aren't leaders but cautious followers, and their records suggest that they excel only at sycophancy toward their predecessors in power. Mr. Hu, the new party general secretary, ran two poor regions of China, Guizhou and Tibet, but left no mark in either. In Guizhou all he did was go around saying things like "Respect the aged and work with the young," according to a Chinese who travels in senior circles. He didn't actually do anything at all.

The third lie is that China's new rulers are beginning to govern this week. In fact the outgoing leader, Jiang Zemin, will continue to be a power center for years to come, controlling the levers of power through his stooges.

The upshot is that bold moves are difficult to imagine in the next few years. China faces immense challenges, particularly the risks of a banking crisis and of unrest from laid-off workers, but the government will tinker with the system rather than provide far-reaching reforms. The Politburo is made up of smart but cautious technocrats who operate by consensus — a recipe for gridlock.

Another way of looking at it is that for most of the last 4,000 years China was ruled by an emperor of one kind or another. Beginning this week, it's ruled by a committee.

Paradoxically, the man to watch is not Mr. Hu but rather No. 5 in the hierarchy, Zeng Qinghong. Mr. Zeng is a masterful politician with more self-confidence and boldness than others in the leadership. "China's New Rulers," a fascinating new book based on top-secret party documents, says that Mr. Zeng has told friends that he favors a more independent press, elections at the county level or higher, and an end to the ban on opposition parties.

China is progressing, even on the political front. Mr. Ren is out of prison, risking further imprisonment by meeting foreigners and boldly handing out a delightful pink name card that proudly displays his counterrevolutionary writings and prison experience. But China's new leaders lack even a fraction of his boldness, and so it may be quite a while before China's political scene catches up to the vibrancy of its urban skylines.

Copyright The New York Times Company

 

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2. Найдите, где в тексте говорится о следующем:

- о китайском «пионере» борьбы за права человека;

- он подвергся тюремному заключению за свою борьбу;

- новые лидеры сопротивляются неизбежному;

- мобильных телефонов много, но есть лишь одна форма общественного сознания;

- перечисляется, в чем же именно лжет Китай;

- назвать их фашистами слишком лестно для них;

- перечисляются заслуги фашистских режимов;

- новый лидер партии ничем себя не проявил на «старой» работе;

- практически никакой смены правительства не происходит;

- Китаю грозит банковский кризис;

- прогресс в Китае всё же есть.

 

3. Переведите на русский язык некоторые, по-вашему, интересные тезисы в разных частях текста. Попросите одногруппника найти их в тексте по-английски.

 

4. Выпишите необходимый набор лексики для кратчайшего тезисного изложения текста.

 

 

UNIT 13

 

Тематика: политика и культурная жизнь

 

Текст: Красавицы едут в Лондон

 

Miss World Pageant Moves to London

November 23, 2002, b y THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Words and phrases

pageant - конкурс красоты;

for the sake of the nation – ради блага нации

to give a precise death toll – установить точное число погибших

airspace permission – разрешение на взлет

under heavy guard – под усиленной охраной

were not available for comment – избегали давать комментарии

most populous nation – наиболее многочисленная нация

pageant’s cancellation – отмена конкурса красоты

to be unaware of the fighting – не знать о столкновениях

holy month of Ramadan – священный месяц Рамадан

to take refuge = to find a shelter - укрыться

 

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- Miss World contestants in bright summer dresses and tank tops left Nigeria for London on Sunday after four days of sectarian violence left more than 100 people dead and forced the pageant to move.

Organizers decided to move the contest from Nigeria to London ``for the sake of the nation,'' pageant publicist Stella Din said. ``Even though we believe this violence is not connected to us... we didn't want any more bloodshed.''

Red Cross workers have recovered ``well over 100'' bodies in Kaduna, a northern city of several million people with a history of Muslim-Christian violence. Nigerian Red Cross president Emmanuel Ijewere declined to give a precise death toll for fear of ``inflaming the situation further.'' He also said 400 people were being treated in hospitals for injuries.

Dozens of beauty queens, some wearing business suits with high heels, smiled and waved as they lugged suitcases and shopping bags onto a chartered Cameroon Airlines <ORG value="BA" idsrc="NYSE">Boeing</ORG> 747, which took off -- some 12 hours behind schedule -- at 3:45 a.m.

The delay was caused by difficulties obtaining airspace permission, organizers said.

Several contestants hugged policewomen as they exited the plush Abuja Nicon Hilton, Nigeria's fanciest hotel, where they had stayed under heavy guard during the violence.

The London show was set for Dec. 7, the same day it was planned for Nigeria. Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

Julia Morley, Miss World president, told journalists the pageant was forced to abandon Nigeria because of media coverage linking the contest to the violence.

``There are many things wrong with Nigeria, just as we know across the world many things go wrong. If we considered violence around the world, I wouldn't even be in England. We have Northern Ireland and yet no one minds going to England,'' she said.

Morley accused foreign journalists, particularly, of jeopardizing the future of Miss World, which competes for global television coverage with the rival Miss Universe contest.

``You're my bread and butter. And I need you,'' she told journalists at the hotel. ``But you're trying to kill me and I hate this. You're trying to kill my business.''

Ethnic and religious fighting is common in Africa's most populous nation. Previous riots in Kaduna escalated into religious battles that killed hundreds after civilian government replaced military rule in 1999.

The latest bloodshed started Wednesday in Kaduna and spread Friday to the capital, Abuja, where the beauty contest was to have been held.

Mobs of Christians attacked Muslims in southern neighborhoods of Kaduna ``with new bitterness'' Saturday because they viewed the pageant's cancellation as a ``Muslim victory,'' Nigerian Red Cross president Emmanuel Ijewere said.

The homes of at least 4,000 people were destroyed, he said.

Through the violence, the more than 80 Miss World contestants remained under Nigerian police and army guard.

At least one beauty queen, Miss Canada Lynsey Bennet, left her hotel room on Friday evening before organizers canceled the pageant, Din said. Bennet was believed to have flown Saturday morning to London, Western diplomats said on condition of anonymity.

Miss South Korea also left early, Morley said.

Miss Puerto Rico, Casandra Polo Berrios, told The Associated Press she was ``sad to be leaving'' Nigeria. She said she was unaware of the fighting until her mother called Friday to make sure she was safe.

The mother of Miss Scotland said her daughter, Paula, told her over the phone that she planned to discontinue her involvement with the pageant.

``And she also said, `If I got the title it would mean nothing to me because it would always be linked to killings and I couldn't handle that,''' Josephine Murphy said from Stirling, Scotland.

Islamic groups have complained for months that the beauty pageant promotes promiscuity. But organizers insisted the women never intended to offend anyone.

The situation worsened after ThisDay newspaper published an article Nov. 16 suggesting the prophet Muhammad would have approved of the pageant.

``What would Muhammad think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them,'' Isioma Daniel wrote.

After Muslims called the article offensive, the newspaper published a brief front-page apology Monday and lengthier retractions Thursday and Friday.

Isolated pockets of fighting were reported Saturday in Kaduna. In the Trikania neighborhood, Muslim and Christian mobs pursued each other with sticks and knives. As police tried to disperse the rioters with tear gas, gunshots also were heard.

The Red Cross president said the conflict caught the Nigerian security forces by surprise because they had not expected violence during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

In many some parts of Kaduna, however, an uneasy calm returned. Some residents who took refuge in police stations and army bases began venturing back to sift through the smoking ruins of their homes for belongings.

Copyright The Associated Press </NYT_TEXT>

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2. Найдите, где в тексте говорится о следующем:

- об острой межрелигиозной борьбе, на фоне которой проводился конкурс;

- число жертв не называется, чтобы не разжигать столкновения;

- вылет задерживался по причине получения разрешения на взлёт;

- средства массовой информации косвенно разжигали насилие, используя тему конкурса красоты;

- столкновения переместились в столицу;

- причина обострения нападений христиан;

- одна из участниц сочла неэтичным принимать титул в обстановке вооруженной борьбы;

- приводится тезис, оскорбивший мусульман;

- говорится о том, что конкурсы красоты провоцируют супружескую неверность.

 

3. Переведите на русский язык некоторые, по-вашему, интересные тезисы в разных частях текста. Попросите одногруппника найти их в тексте по-английски.

 

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UNIT 14

 

Тематика: культурная жизнь

 

Текст: Для вас, девчонки!

 

It’s a Girl Thing

 

Are pageants good for young women, or do they send the wrong message?

 

By Jayne Keedle, TEEN NEWSWEEK

 

Words and phrases

a glittering crown – сверкающая корона

brain – мозги

to recall – вспоминать

makeup – макияж, косметика

swimsuit competition – состязание в купальном костюме

insignificant – незначительный

straightforward – непосредственно

scholarships for winners – стипендии (фонды) для победивших

bathing beauty – прекрасная купальщица

dyed hair – крашеные волосы

mother-daughter bonding experience – мероприятие, опыт, сближающий маму и дочь

In 1998, Kate Shindle wore the glittering crown of Miss America. But she found the experience to be less than dazzling. In a recent column for Newsweek, she described her frustration at being a beauty queen.

 

“THOUGH I WAS a dean’s list student at Northwestern, suddenly people assumed I didn’t have a brain,” she wrote. As Miss America, Shindle used her position to educate people about AIDS. She helped raise about $20 million for AIDS organizations. But she recalls that once, when she arrived to speak to a group on the topic, the person who greeted her picked up her heaviest case and asked, “Is this the one that holds all the makeup?”

“I didn’t bother to explain that it held my files on AIDS research,” she wrote.

For Shindle, being Miss America raised a lot of questions.

“We’re told it’s about scholarship. We’re told it’s about leadership,” Shindle wrote. “If it’s also about looks, then organizers should admit it, instead of capitalizing on the swimsuit competition while swearing that it is an insignificant part of the show.”

Miss America, which began in 1921, and similar pageants were originally straightforward beauty contests. There were no interviews, no talent competitions, and no scholarships for winners. Young women competed in swimsuits and were known as bathing beauties.

Things began to change in the 1960s and ’70s, after feminists protested that beauty pageants were sexist and demeaning to women. The pageant emphasis then shifted to scholarships. Contestants began to be judged on what they were like on the inside, too, and not just what they looked like on the outside.

But are today’s pageants really different? Or is physical beauty still the bottom line? And even if it is, is there anything wrong with that?

 

PAGEANTS ARE JUST SKIN DEEP

“We should keep reminding people that women should not be judged principally on looks,” Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation said during a CNN Crossfire debate on pageants.

Child pageants are even more controversial. Some young women have been competing almost since birth. Children as young as 2 or 3 parade in makeup, dyed hair, and adult-style clothes. Critics worry that all that teaches girls to value appearance over substance, and may lead to body image worries as the girls grow up.

“If you grow up in an environment were people are always looking at you, it’s going to affect you,” says Laurel Ward, who placed second in Illinois’s Little Miss Peanut pageant 1976 when she was 6.

“I’d have thought it was inevitably the start of eating disorders,” Ward says. “If you’re winning prizes for being small and cute, it’s going to encourage you to try to stay thin. All that pageants do is reinforce the idea that being beautiful is everything. And why would you want to say that to a child?”

 

NOT JUST PRETTY FACES

Pageant supporters see it differently. They view children’s pageants not as child exploitation, but as mother-daughter bonding experiences. Supporters say pageants help build self-esteem in girls. They encourage young women to develop poise and public speaking abilities.

“I try to be understanding of this stereotype, ‘Oh, you’re a beauty queen,’” says Katie Horn, who won the Miss Five Boroughs pageant in New York City. “The pageant has helped me focus on talent and scholarship, and be able to speak and know what I stand for.”

The scholarships and prizes are important, too. The Miss America Organization provides more scholarships for women than any other organization in the United States. “Today, the scholarship money is really important,” says Amy Balderston, a teen who competed in the 2001 North Carolina Spot Festival Pageant.

What do you think about beauty pageants? Let us know.

Letters@teennewsweek.com

 

© 2002 Newsweek, Inc.

 

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2. Найдите, где в тексте говорится о следующем:

- весь багаж состоял из литературы по борьбе со СПИДом;

- говорится об истории конкурсов красоты;

- описываются детские конкурсы красоты;

- участие в конкурсе красоты вырабатывает в девочках самоуважение;

- приз в наше время – вещь хорошая.

 

3. Переведите на русский язык некоторые, по-вашему, интересные тезисы в разных частях текста. Попросите одногруппника найти их в тексте по-английски.

 

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UNIT 15

 

Тематика: бизнес, экономика, психология, культура

 

Текст: Такая многоликая Барби

 

Life in plastic

 

Dec 19th 2002, From The Economist print edition

 

Words and phrases

might – мощь

secular temple – светский, мирской храм

Rapunzel – (бот.) растение фитеума; популярная видеоигра

toy giant – гигант производства игрушек

the Barby sorority – сестричество Барби

innate girlish desire – врожденное стремление девочек

arched feet – вытянутый носок ступни

bicentennial time capsule – двухсотлетняя капсула времени

forceps – пинцет

contemporary selfhood – современная самость

by accident – случайно

eternal youth – вечная молодость

dyed – окрашенный

vet = veterinarian

to embody – воплощать

pepper – перец; to pepper – обильно пересыпать

weight anxiety – озабоченность своим весом

irate [ai’reit] – гневный

swapped the voice boxes – микросхемы с записью речи

ferocity – свирепость

No amount of human willpower can defy the might of the pink princess
Just visit one of the secular temples to Barbie that has opened in recent times. Behind the plate-glass façade of the gleaming Toys “R” Us store in New York's Times Square, which opened last year, some 4,000 square feet are dedicated to the pint-sized princess. There, the latest Rapunzel Barbie (plus handsome prince) nestles beside old favourites such as Malibu Barbie, not to mention the Barbie lunch box, jewellery box, cruisin' car, mustang convertible, horse-and-carriage, or “Make-me-pretty talking styling head” play set.

American sweetheart

To date, over 1 billion Barbie dolls have been sold. The average American girl aged between three and 11 owns a staggering ten Barbie dolls, according to Mattel, the American toy giant that manufactures her. An Italian or British girl owns seven; a French or German girl, five. The Barbie brand is worth some $2 billion—a little ahead of Armani, just behind the Wall Street Journal —making it the most valuable toy brand in the world, according to Interbrand, a consultancy. How is it that this impossibly proportioned, charmless toy has endured in an industry notorious for whimsical fad and fickle fashion?

Part of Barbie's appeal is that she has become, according to Christopher Varaste, a historian of Barbie, “the face of the American dream”. Barbie is not a mere toy, nor product category: she is an icon. Quite how she became one is hotly debated among the Barbie sorority. Some think she answers an innate girlish desire for fantasy, role-playing and dressing-up. Others that Mattel has simply manipulated girls' aspirations to that end.

Either way, wrapped up in her pouting lips and improbable figure—buxom breasts, wafer-thin waist and permanently arched feet waiting to slip into a pair of high heels—is an apparently enduring statement of aspiration and western aesthetic. She is, according to M.G. Lord, who has written a biography of Barbie, “the most potent icon of American popular culture in the late twentieth century.”

Officialdom has recognised Barbie's iconic status. The Americans included a Barbie doll in the 1976 bicentennial time capsule. Earlier this year, the American government buried her in a “women's health” time capsule, alongside a pair of forceps and a girdle.

An exhibition in London earlier this year displayed “Suicide Bomber Barbie” by Simon Tyszko, a British artist. Her hair was blonde, her hair ribbon red, and around her slender waist was wrapped a belt of explosives, attached to a detonator held daintily in her hand.

An industry has even grown up to deconstruct the meaning of this pint-sized piece of pink plastic. Students can enroll on sociology courses in America with such titles as “From Barbie to Superman: images of gender in popular culture”. There are shelfloads of books and essays about the toy doll, full of insights such as this:

Barbie represents the sort of contemporary selfhood some see as embattled and others see as liberated. Hers is a mutable, protean, impression-managing, context-bound self whose demeanour shifts from situation to situation and role to role... Her personality is inchoate, even ethereal; her morals and values are more implicit than expressed or affirmed; her intimate life—her dreams, her passions, her abiding attachments—remains a mystery.

Barbie has not colonised girls' imaginations by accident. Mattel has dedicated itself to promoting Barbie as “a lifestyle, not just a toy”. In addition to selling the dolls, Mattel licenses Barbie in 30 different product categories, from furniture to make-up. A girl can sleep in Barbie pyjamas, under a Barbie duvet-cover, her head on a Barbie pillow-case, surrounded by Barbie wall-paper, and on, and on. There are Barbie conventions, fan clubs, web sites, magazines and collectors' events. “She's so much more than a character brand,” enthuses a Mattel publicity person, “she's a fashion statement, a way of life.”

Most fashion statements made by a 43-year-old woman might be met with scorn. But the secret of Barbie's eternal youth is reinvention. “The brilliance of the brand is that she's a reflection of society as it changes,” says Adrienne Fontanella, head of Mattel's girl division. “From a fashion perspective, she's always right there with the latest trend.” Every year, Mattel devises about 150 different Barbie dolls, and designs some 120 new outfits. She acquired a mod look in the 1960s, and tie-dyed clothes and a hippie headband in the 1970s. Over the years, she has worn her hair in a ponytail, bubble cut, page boy, swirl and side-part flip. “It is a business-school case study in innovation,” says Dan Jansen, at the Boston Consulting Group.

From her early days as a teenage fashion model, Barbie has appeared as an astronaut, surgeon, Olympic athlete, downhill skier, aerobics instructor, TV news reporter, vet, rock star, doctor, army officer, air force pilot, summit diplomat, rap musician, presidential candidate (party undefined), baseball player, scuba diver, lifeguard, fire-fighter, engineer, dentist, and many (many) more. “Barbie as Rapunzel”, a computer-animated video, was tipped as one of the top-selling toys this Christmas.

 

Vinyl vamp

If Barbie appeals because she embodies an American ideal, however, it is the nature of that ideal that so exasperates her critics. The first group blames Barbie for promoting rampant consumerism and Americanisation. Naomi Klein, author of “No Logo”, lumps Barbie in with MTV, Coca-Cola and Disney as perpetrators-in-chief of American corporate expansionism. Like all toy makers, Mattel has also received its share of complaints about its third-world factories (it has no plants in America). Fair-trade activists have in the past protested about the conditions in such places—and secured improvements to them.

The second lot of critics deplore Barbie for preaching the supremacy of appearance. Girls, they urge, should be out climbing trees and riding bikes, not plaiting Barbie's hair. Mattel thrives on girls' desire for endless new costumes for their dolls. For all the astronaut and army outfits, it is the silky stuff they love. Words like “elegant”, “glamorous”, “romantic” and “beautiful” pepper Mattel's marketing literature. Dressing and undressing, brushing and grooming, is what Barbie is all about.

More than this, Barbie has joined the gallery of rogues—alongside supermodels, women's magazines and the advertising industry—held responsible for teenagers' weight anxiety, and women's body complexes. The doll, says Mary Rogers, a professor of sociology at the University of West Florida and author of a book on Barbie, “belongs to that chorus of voices extolling not only slimness but also beauty and youthfulness as requisites of feminine success.” Naomi Wolf, author of “The Beauty Myth”, argues that Barbie shares the blame for the fact that girls are raised with a clear expectation of what a sexually successful woman should look like. The “official breast”, Ms Wolf once said, was “Barbie's breast”—and shame on any girl who failed to possess or acquire one.

The doll was modelled by Ruth Handler, who founded Mattel along with her husband, Elliot, on a German toy for adult men called Lilli. Mrs Handler discovered this 11½-inch plastic doll while visiting Germany, and named her adapted version after her daughter, Barbara.

Naturally, there are periodic uprisings against Barbie. In the early 1990s, Mattel released a series of talking Barbies, one of which cheeped “Math class is tough”. Feminists were irate. A New York group calling itself the Barbie Liberation Organisation swapped the voice boxes inside such dolls with those from GI Joe, a male doll made by Hasbro, a rival toymaker, and slipped them back on the toy-shop shelves. The re-educated Barbies bellowed muscular lines such as “Vengeance is mine!”, while the boy dolls chirped “Let's go shopping!”

Other detractors turn to art. There is a whole world of anti-Barbies, devised for reasons of protest and humour. Among the exhibits that have gone on display are Exorcist Barbie, Drag-queen Barbie and Sweatshop Barbie—much to the exasperation of Mattel, which guards its creation's image with ferocity.

When Aqua, a one-time Danish pop group, released a song in 1997 called “Barbie Girl”, for example, Mattel promptly took the band to court. Lines included “Life in plastic, it's fantastic” and “I'm a blonde bimbo girl, in a fantasy world.” Earlier this year, a judge in San Francisco ruled against Mattel, upholding the group's right to freedom of expression. Nobody, added the judge, would have assumed that Mattel had authorised the lyrics: “Nor, upon hearing Janis Joplin croon ‘Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz', would we suspect that she and the car maker had entered into a joint venture.”

Pint-sized, pink and plastic

But is Barbie as bad for girls as her critics imply? When Barbie first burst into the toy shops, just as the 1960s were breaking, the doll market consisted mostly of babies, designed for girls to cradle, rock and feed. Such toy babies had swept aside the finely dressed Victorian adult dolls, which were still popular into the early 20th century, and had dominated the doll market since.

 

Barbie, by contrast, was a go-getting, independent young woman. By creating a doll with adult features, insisted Mrs Handler, Barbie's creator, Mattel enabled girls to become “anything they want”. A child of the liberated times, she was an astronaut in 1965, a surgeon by 1973, a presidential candidate in 1992. Barbie, claims Mattel, “has opened new dreams for girls that were not as accessible in the early 1960s.” So Barbie empowers girls after all?

The research, such as it is, does not tell whether Barbie fans turn into brain surgeons, but it does seem to reject at least the idea that Barbie squashes the imagination. One study observed that four-year-old girls snatched and bickered more while playing with toy babies than they did with Barbie dolls. Barbie, this study concluded, promoted dramatic play and language development. A separate set of interviews with adults who played with Barbies in childhood concluded that what mattered to them in retrospect was “opportunity” and “human connection”, not concern about looks.

With her skimpy zebra-striped swimsuit, Barbie caused a stir at her launch in the late-1950s. Many condemned the doll as sleazy and provocative. Yet Barbie and her boyfriend Ken, who joined her in 1961, remain curiously sexless. Barbie has no nipples; Ken's anatomy consists of a bump between his legs. There is, asserts the University of West Florida's indefatigable Ms Rogers, “the possibility that Barbie may not be heterosexual. Indeed, she may not even be a woman. Barbie may be a drag queen.”

Barbie also seems to have turned into something of a gay icon. Barbie attracts a huge following among adults, for whom collecting is a serious business (a vintage Barbie can fetch nearly $10,000). Steven Dubin, a sociologist, claims that many of these male collectors are gay. He describes their two-step coming out: “First they disclose their sexuality. They later profess their love for Barbie.” A study by an American psychiatrist into homosexuality suggested that all the boys he classified as “feminine” played with Barbie, according to their parents; for nearly a fifth of them, she was their favourite toy. Only two-fifths of the “masculine” boys were reported as playing with Barbie even occasionally.

Fashion queen

Whatever sociologists say about the diminutive diva, however, Mattel's concerns lie primarily elsewhere. Last year, global sales of Barbie, which supplies nearly a third of Mattel's revenue, fell by 3%, to $1.6 billion, from a peak in 1997 of $1.8 billion. The main trouble is what is known in the industry as “age compression” or “KGOY”: kids getting older younger. Girls now grow out of traditional play patterns, such as playing with dolls, earlier than they did in the past.

In many ways, it is fitting that Barbie is venturing out to the edgy fringes of the fashion industry. For the entire toy industry is driven by fashion these days. Toys are swept from the shop shelves one year, only to be forgotten by the next, discarded in the recesses of the toy box. Barbie just remakes fashion.

Copyright © 2002 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group

Задания к тексту

 

1. Проработайте лексику, данную перед текстом. Прочитайте текст, не пользуясь «Англо-русским словарем».

 

2. Найдите, где в тексте говорится о следующем:

- описывается помещение «храма торговли», отведенное Барби;

- в каких странах сколько в среднем у девочек кукол Барби;

- Барби – лицо американской мечты;

- описывается костюм «Барби-шахидка»;

- приводится пример «научного» исследования Барби;

- кукла может быть образом жизни для ребенка;

- перечисляются «профессии» Барби;

- об игрушке «Барби, изгоняющая дьявола». (Какие еще наборы «анти-Барби» указываются?).

 

3. Переведите на русский язык некоторые, по-вашему, интересные тезисы в разных частях текста. Попросите одногруппника найти их в тексте по-английски.

 

4. Выпишите необходимый набор лексики для кратчайшего тезисного изложения текста.

 

 

UNIT 16

 

Тематика: здравоохранение, социальная политика

 

Текст: Афганское материнство