Bài 5

Global Markets Rise on Hopes of Tension Easing in Ukraine

PARIS — Global markets calmed on Tuesday amid hopes of a cooling of the tension
between Russia and Ukraine, helping stocks to recover some of their losses from a
sell-off on Monday.

A day after global markets were in turmoil amid fears that the conflict over the
Crimea might spiral out of control, stocks in Hong Kong, Japan and Europe turned
higher, and oil and natural gas prices eased. The Russian market benchmark, the
Micex index, gained 5 percent after a 10.8 percent decline on Monday, while the ruble
clawed back a 0.5 percent gain against the dollar.

It appeared on Tuesday that Russia was backing away from extreme action, with
President Vladimir V. Putin calling an end to the surprise military exercise he ordered
last week. Mr. Putin said in a televised news conference Tuesday that he saw no need
to use force at the moment, but he warned that Russia was ready to use “all options”
in the conflict. Investor sentiment had been somewhat anxious even before the
Ukrainian crisis because of concerns about emerging markets. Confidence remains
fragile, investors said, and the calm could quickly dissipate.

WORD STUDY

(1) global market: thị trường toàn cầu (ở đây muốn nói thị trường chứng khoán toàn
cầu)
(2) sell-off; bán tháo, bán đổ
(3) turmoil: chao đảo, rối loạn, hỗn loạn
(4) to spiral: gia tăng (theo đường xoắn ốc)
(5) benchmark: chuẩn mực để so sánh
(6) to back away: rút lại, xuống thang
(7) options: chọn lựa, phương án
(8) emerging markets: các thị trường mới nổi, chỉ các thị trường chuyển tiếp từ các
nền kinh tế kế hoạch hóa tập trung sang nền kinh tế thị trường, như Trung Quốc ,
Việt Nam, Nga và các quốc gia Đông Âu thuộc Liên Sô cũ.
(9) Concern: quan tâm, quan ngại, lo lắng
 Bài 6

Income Gap, Meet the Longevity Gap

By ANNIE LOWREY

Fairfax County, Va., and McDowell County, W.Va., are separated by 350 miles,
about a half-day’s drive. Traveling west from Fairfax County, the gated communities and
bland architecture of military contractors give way to exurbs, then to farmland and
eventually to McDowell’s coal mines and the forested slopes of the Appalachians.
Perhaps the greatest distance between the two counties is this: Fairfax is a place of the
haves, and McDowell of the have-nots. Just outside of Washington, fat government
contracts and a growing technology sector buoy the median household income in Fairfax
County up to $107,000, one of the highest in the nation. McDowell, with the decline of
coal, has little in the way of industry. Unemployment is high. Drug abuse is rampant.
Median household income is about one-fifth that of Fairfax.
One of the starkest consequences of that divide is seen in the life expectancies of the
people there. Residents of Fairfax County are among the longest-lived in the country:
Men have an average life expectancy of 82 years and women, 85, about the same as in
Sweden. In McDowell, the averages are 64 and 73, about the same as in Iraq.
There have long been stark economic differences between Fairfax County and
McDowell. But as their fortunes have diverged even further over the past generation,
their life expectancies have diverged, too. In McDowell, women’s life expectancy has
actually fallen by two years since 1985; it grew five years in Fairfax.
“Poverty is a thief,” said Michael Reisch, a professor of social justice at the
University of Maryland, testifying before a Senate panel on the issue. “Poverty not only
diminishes a person’s life chances, it steals years from one’s life.”
That reality is playing out across the country. For the upper half of the income
spectrum, men who reach the age of 65 are living about six years longer than they did in
the late 1970s. Men in the lower half are living just 1.3 years longer.
This life-expectancy gap has started to surface in discussions among researchers,
public health officials and Washington policy makers. The general trend is for Americans
to live longer, and as lawmakers contemplate changes to government programs — like
nudging up the Social Security retirement age or changing its cost-of-living adjustment
— they are confronted with the potential unfairness to those who die considerably earlier.

WORD STUDY

(1) gated: có cổng chào đón. Chẳng hạn, cổng đề “Welcome to…”
(2) bland: nhạt nhẻo, nhạt phèo
(3) forrested slopes: dốc đồi núi có rừng
(4) has little in the way: nhận rất ít về
(5) stark: ảm đạm, thê thảm
(6) to diverge: phân hóa, chuyển hướng, phân kỳ
(7) life expectancy: tuổi thọ
(8) divide (n): sự chia rẻ, phân hóa
(9) social justice: sự công bằng xã hội
(10) to testify: điều trần
(11) to surface: nổi lên, xuất hiện
(12) to confront: đối mặt, đương đầu