题目内容
As an investment banker specializing in mergers and acquisitions, Francois yon Hurter spent a lot of time in airport lounges, where he'd often set aside the latest deal calculations in favor Of a good mystery fiction read. So when he retired in 1998 after 25 years as a dealmaker, instead of joining legions of ex-bankers on extended vacations in exotic locales, yon Hurter committed himself and some hard-earned capital to his next business venture: He launched London-based Bitter Lemon Press, a publishing company Specializing in reprinting in English mystery novels he'd grown to love.
These are not the usual hard-boiled Raymond Chandler imitations found in some bookstores and at airport lounges. The works, written originally in German, French, Spanish and Italian, offer social criticism and a slice of culture with the who-done-it, according to Von Hurter, who likened some of Bitter Lemon's titles to travel fiction. The books, translated into English for the first time, take readers to locales like Mexico City, Munich and Havana. "I'd always go to bookstores in countries where I can read" the language, 58-year old yon Hurter told Reuters while in New York this month to promote the company. In fact, he admits to making sure that, whenever possible, his U.S. flights went through Minneapolis, which has one of his favorite second-hand bookstores.
Von Hurter, born and raised in Geneva, Switzerland, and a graduate of University of Pennsylvania's Wharton business school, is not the only Wall Street veteran financing Bitter Lemon Press. His brother Frederic yon Hurter, a former commodities trader at Cargill, the Minneapolis food giant, and Laurence Colchester, a former economist at Citibank, are partners. Though the trio speaks French, Greek, German and Italian, they employ translators to bring the books to life in English.
Francois von Hurter would not detail how much of the groups's own money they put into Bitter Lemon. Bitter Lemon has published six books in Britain and has plans for five titles in the next six months or so as part of its launch in the United States. One such title, "Thumbprint", is a mystery written by Friedrich Glauser, who was born in Vienna in 1896 and has been referred to as a Swiss Simenon--a reference to the noted Belgian mystery writer known for his French detective Maigret. "Thumbprint", translated from German, has been one of the Bitter Lemon's most popular books, selling 5,000 copies. Other Bitter Lemon titles include Gunter Ohnemus' "The Russian Passenger", the story of a cab driver who gets entangled with the Russian Mafia that has been translated from German, and "The Snowman" by Jorg Fauser, a German author born in 1944 who died in 1987. "Fauser was one of the romantic heroes of post-war German literature, a friend of Charles Bukowski ... he is now being rediscovered," news magazine Der Spiegel noted in July, responding to a biography of Fauser published this summer.
As a banker for First Boston, known today as Credit Suisse First Boston, and Morgan Stanley, Francois von Hurter worked not only in New York but London and Saudi Arabia. Among other deals, he had a hand in Seagram Co Ltd.'s purchase of MCA Inc. and Coca-Cola Co.'s purchase of Columbia Pictures. And white the players are different, book publishing has some similarities to Wall Street's merger business. Like a company put up for sale, a book needs a specific market and needs to have potential for growth. "You have to put together a business plan ... negotiate with suppliers like printers, a sales force and distributors. You need to apply the same marketing savvy to decide how to position the book," he said.
What is different about this latest venture, though, is that the hours spent in the office seem to race by much more rapidly. "In a way, the hardest part of the second career, is that it creates such enthusiasm that you tend never to turn off," he said. "The line be
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听力原文： ALAKMED by the non-stop reduction in the amount of total arable land, the ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture have jointly issued a notice to protect basic farmland.
The notice issued last week repuires the governments at different levels, especially those at county and village levels, to include the farmland as stipulated by the regulations in their respective basic arable-land protection zones.
The arable land along highways and railroads, and on the outskirts of the cities, villages and townships should all be taken into account in the establishment of basic farmland protection zones, according to the notice.
Cases of illegally occupying and destroying farmland will be strictly checked and the responsible persons and units should be punished severely, the notice said.
China has had a legal system to protect its basic farmland since 1994, according to Tang Mingcai, director of the Farmland Protection Department of the Ministry of Land and Resoures.
The land administrations are in charge of protecting the quantity of basic farmland, while the agricultural administrations are responsible for conserving the quality.
The newly revised State Land Administration Law and the National Regulations on protecting the Basic Farmland, which tank effect earlier this year, have put 80 percent of the country's farmland under strict protection.
The national overall plan on land use says the country's basic arable land under protection amounts to 108,562 million hectares in total area.
Nearly 397,000 hectares of the farmland have been lost to economic expansion and severe natural disasters in the past two years, according to statistics from the Ministry of Land and Resources.
In 1998, 261,300 hectares of farmland were lost because of floods.
The grass-roots governments are largely responsible for approving farmland for other use, thus reducing the amount of land available for growing crops, according to the Ministry of Land and Resources.
The notice issued by the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry Agriculture requires that ______.
What does the sentence imply: "As Robert Hanssen has learned, intelligence is hardly a sure thing."？
听力原文： A New Mexico church plans to burn Harry Potter books because they are "an abomination to God," the church pastor said on Wednesday.
Pastor Jack Brock said he would have a "holy bonfire" on Sunday at the Christ Community Church in Alamogordo in southern New Mexico to torch books about the fictional teen-age wizard who is wildly popular with young people.
"These books encourage our youth to learn more about witches, warlocks, and sorcerers, and those things are an abomination to God and to me," Brock, 74, told Reuters.
"Harry Potter books are going to destroy the lives of many young people."
The books, written by British author J.K. Rowling, have been runaway bestsellers and a movie, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," is currently a blockbuster hit.
Brock, who said his Christmas Eve sermon was titled "The Baby Jesus or Harry Potter," described the book burning as part of an effort .to encourage Christians to remove everything from their homes that prevents them from communicating with God.
The books have come under fire in a few U. S communities for supposedly encouraging devilish thoughts among the young, but Rowling in an earlier statement issued by her publisher Bloomsbury called the criticisms absurd.
"I have met thousands of children now, and not even one time has a child come up to me and said, 'Ms. Rowling, I'm so glad I've read these books because now I want to be a witch', "she said.
The reasons why the church wanted to burn Harry Potter books didn't include that ______.
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.
Now listen to the interview.
听力原文：Mr. W.: Good morning, Mr. Pitt. Do sit down.
Mr. Pitt: Thank you.
Mr. W.: First of all, Mr. Pitt, I'd like you to tell me a bit about what you've been doing.
Mr. P.: Well, I left school after I'd done my A-levels.
Mr. W.: Ah, yes, A-levels. What subjects did you take？
Mr. P.: I took four subjects: French, German, chemistry and, uh, art. Chemistry wasn't my cup of tea but art has always been.
Mr. W.: Art？
Mr. P.: Well, I really wanted to study Art. It didn't turn out like that because a friend of my father's offered me a job--he's an accountant in London. A quite big firm, you know.
Mr. W.: I see. A firm of accountants. Interesting! In your application, you say that you only spent nine months with this firm of accountants. Why was that？
Mr. R: It was nearly a year actually. Well, to be quite honest, I didn't like it. I just couldn't seem to get interested in the job although there were fairly good prospects. So I got a place at the Art College to do a three-year diploma course.
Mr. W.: I see. Now, Mr. Pitt, what about hobbies and interests？ Uh, what do you do in your spare time？
Mr. P.: I like jazz, traditional and folk music. I don't play, of course, but I go to quite a lot of concerts, and I go to the theatre occasionally and act a bit myself. I'm in the local dramatic society. I read quite a lot and I've done a bit of photography. Also, I've travelled a lot-hitchhiked all over Europe--last year, that was.
Mr. W.: Very interesting, Mr. Pitt. I think that's all I wanted to ask about your background. Now, let's talk about the management trainee scheme. What exactly do you think a manager does？
Mr. R: I don't know a great deal about the work.
Mr W.: But have you got any ideas about it？ You must have thought about it.
Mr. R: Well, er, I suppose he has a lot of, er, what is called, policy-making to do. And, mm, he'd have to know how to work with people and all about the company.
Mr. W.: Mmm.
Mr. R: Yes, I, I, er, should think a manager must know, er, something about all the aspects of the work.
Mr. W.: Yes, that's right. We like our executive staff to undergo a thorough training. Young men on our trainee scheme have to work through every branch in the company.
Mr. P.: Oh？
Mr. W.: And one of them is accountancy. Presumably you wouldn't like that.
Mr. P.: Well, if I had to do it, I suppose. But I was thinking that my French and German would mean that I could specialise in overseas work. I'd like to be some sort of an export salesman and travel abroad.
Mr. W.: You know the glamour of travelling abroad disappears when you've got a hard job of work to do. It not all fun and game.
Mr. P.: Oh, yes, I realise that. It's just that my knowledge of languages would be useful.
Mr. W.: Now, Mr. Pitt, is there anything you want to ask me？
Mr. P.: Well, there's one or two things. I'd like to know if I'd have to sign a contract and what the salary and prospects are.
Mr. W.: With our scheme, Mr. Pitt, there is no contract involved. Your progress is kept under constant review. If we, at any time, decide we don't like you, then that's that! We reserve the right to dismiss you.
Mr. P.: I see.
Mr. W.: Of course, you have the same choice about us.
Mr. P.: Fair enough. And what about the salary？
Mr. W.: As for the salary, you'd be on our fixed scale starting at 870 pounds. For the successful trainee, the prospects are very good.
Mr. P.: I see. Thank you very much.
Mr. W.: That's all, Mr. Pitt. You should hear from us in a couple of weeks, one way or the other, or we may ask you to come back for another chat. Thank you.
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