Letter of Complaint
Dear Sirs,
The microwave oven No. AG/5436/32, which I ordered from you, arrived on August 15.
I very much regret to inform you that the machine has been badly damaged.当我打开包装时发现微波炉的盖子已经破裂and the surface of the machine had been scratched.
Would you please let me know您是否愿意寄给我一台新的微波炉and whether I should arrange to return the damaged one to you?
In the meantime, I shall hold on to the machine you sent until I hear from you.
Many thanks.
Yours faithfully,
Li Ming
选择搭配题参考译文
今年美国对技术应用方面的正面和负面的新闻报道几乎没有什么令人惊奇之处。这确实让我感到奇怪。好的一面，计算机的拥有率和互联网连接率正在提高。在过去四年间，拥有计算机的家庭数量几乎翻了一倍。今天，计算机作为家电已进入了42％的美国家庭。
这些计算机越来越多地和互联网相连，在线连接仅仅在去年就超过了50％。现在，超过1/4的美国家庭能在网络空间漫游。
这种爆炸式的增长几乎是没有任何制约的。网络进入家庭和计算机拥有率的增长延伸到各类人群中――不管他们的种族、地理位置、收入及受教育程度。
我们认为这个发展趋势是有利的，因为计算机技术可以赋予一个人开拓能力。事实上，个人的发展以及美国经济的繁荣都可以看作是个人和集体技术威力的长期奖励。我个人希望这些看法是真的，同时在未来技术的发展能带来世界和平、关爱、理解这些附产品。
非常美好，是吧？现在说一些不怎么好的吧。政府的分析报告中出现了所谓的“数字化差距”。也就是说，数字化的发展速度并不是对于每个人都一样。是的，没错！我们现在进入互联网的程度比以往任何时候都要高。但是，我们当中有些人比另一些人进入互联网的速度要快得多，而且更深入。这种差距正在扩大，随着信息社会前进的步伐越来越快。
计算机拥有率和互联网连接率，按财产、种族、教育、地域的不同差别很大。数据显示，在那些富有的并且受过更高等教育的人群当中，计算机的普遍程度和互联网的连接率都要高，从根本上讲，是指那些富有的白人，拥有高中以及大学文凭而且是稳定的、双亲家庭中的一员。
收入最高的阶层，那些年薪超过75，000 美元的家庭，比起那些低收入家庭（年薪只有10，000的家庭），在互联网连接率上要超过20倍。家庭计算机的普及率在那些高收入人群中达到令人吃惊的76.56％。而在低收入人群中都只有8％。
对技术的掌握按教育水平划分，差别也很大。大学毕业的人与只受过小学教育的人中在家上网的人数相差16倍。如果在乡村来比较这些群体差异，大学毕业的人与其差距价达到26倍，占据很大优势。
作业：1. 全面总结完形和英译汉。 2. 尽快做完“复习指导”中相关各章的练习。
赠言：不吃苦中苦，那有甜中甜。
祝同学们身体健康、考研成功！
张洪兵
经济英语 （对话）
You mention that the regional trading blocs(集团) need to be consistent with GATT (关贸总协定) and multilateral(多边的) agreements in order to fit in (相处融洽). But is there any possibility that the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group (APEC), for example, could become a rival to GATT, just because of its size?
No, there isn’t. There is nobody as far as I know in APEC – if there is anybody they are in a very small minority – who has any intention of creating a situation where there are conflicting regional trading blocs because virtually everybody in APEC has a local market which they serve.
So I don’t think that the prospect of creating an exclusory bloc suits anybody’s purposes. Apart from everything else I’m sure that there is a general recognition that the two giant traders in the world, the European Union and the United States, are better kept within a global system rather than regionalized where one of them is the dominant force in a particular trading arrangement.
APEC is starting to flex its muscles(显示实力) now and it seems that it’s going to at least want to have some dealings of its own – APEC wanting to negotiate with the European Union for example. Will that come within the GATT rules as well?
APEC will have to be non-discriminatory and it will have to seek to be open rather than closed in its approach. I don’t think that anybody envisages (设想) APEC as having the same deep institutional depth as the European Union which is quite a different thing from anything I have heard envisaged for APEC.
