VOA标准英语2010年-Russian President to Visit Silicon Val

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev uses a touch screen during a video-link at the Gorki presidential residence outside Moscow, 07 Jun 2010

US Defense¹ Department Backs Quick Ratification² of New START Treaty with Russia
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev will be in the United States in the next few days.  His visit will focus on economic and trade matters.

 

The high point of President Medvedev's stay in the United States will be his visit to Silicon³ Valley - an area in northern California known for its high-tech⁴ companies, venture capitalists and forward-looking entrepreneurs.

Experts, such as Robert Legvold from Columbia University, say Mr. Medvedev is trying to generate interest in his plan to create a Russian Silicon Valley in the suburbs of Moscow known as the Skolkova Innovation Initiative.

"That area of Skolkova, where the Skolkova School of Business and Management is located, has a fair amount of acreage," he said. "So when Medvedev committed himself to the idea of creating a Silicon Valley, and there were a number of parts, different cities in Russia that vied for its location, it was decided⁵ to put it in this park.  I think the notion is that there will be some link between the businesses and research centers that are created and the school."

David Kramer, former senior State Department official in the George W. Bush administration, says the Russian president will be in northern California to try and form business partnerships⁶ and to learn how Silicon Valley got started.

"He's looking for investment.  He's looking for expertise⁷ and know-how," he said. "He's looking to form consortiums and alliances with the private sector⁸, with the universities." 

"And the question is how much interest there really will be and how much money there might be, at least from the outside.  There's money in Russia that can be provided to fund some of this, but how much money from the West is there in supporting this kind of initiative?  Those are questions that don't have answers yet," he added.

Skolkova initiative

Analysts⁹ say President Medvedev's idea of creating a Russian Silicon Valley is tied to his broader plan to modernize¹⁰ the country's economy.

"There is a realization¹¹ at the end of the day that despite all the profits that Russia got from its sale of oil and gas over the last 10 years, that unless it modernizes¹² its economy and reforms it, it will be a declining power," said John Parker [expressing his own, personal views] with the National Defense University.  "So there is what seems to be a growing body of opinion in Russia among leadership circles that Russia has to start investing in its own technology sector."

For that to work, Parker says the Skolkova initiative must be copied throughout Russia. "The danger is that it would just be a very confined experiment," he said. "You really need system-wide Skolkovas - Silicon Valley - otherwise it ends up just like under Catherine the Great when they imported a lot of German tradesmen and planted them in various settlements - but they were fairly self-contained.  To really do the trick, Skolkova can't be self-contained.  Its rules have to apply to all of Russian society, to all of Russia's economy."

After visiting Silicon Valley, President Medvedev comes to Washington for a brief summit with President Barack Obama.

Bilateral¹³ relations

Experts such as David Kramer say relations between the two countries are good.  "The Obama administration touts¹⁴ the U.S.-Russian relationship as one of its major foreign policy successes," he said. "I wonder whether that says more about the rest of its foreign policy than about the U.S.-Russian relationship." 

"But having said that, relations are certainly better than they were at the end of 2008, when there were significant tensions between Moscow and Washington in the aftermath of the Russia-Georgia war.  And so the tone and environment are much better than they were," he continued.

Experts say the two sides also will discuss a host of other issues, including arms control after the recent signing of the New START Treaty, what to do about Iran following tougher United Nations sanctions, as well as trade and economic questions.

 

1 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

2 ratification   

n.批准，认可

参考例句：

• The treaty is awaiting ratification.条约正等待批准。
• The treaty is subject to ratification.此条约经批准后才能生效。

3 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

4 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

7 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

8 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

9 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

10 modernize   

vt.使现代化，使适应现代的需要

参考例句：

• It was their manifest failure to modernize the country's industries.他们使国家进行工业现代化，明显失败了。
• There is a pressing need to modernise our electoral system.我们的选举制度迫切需要现代化。

11 realization   

n.实现；认识到，深刻了解

参考例句：

• We shall gladly lend every effort in our power toward its realization.我们将乐意为它的实现而竭尽全力。
• He came to the realization that he would never make a good teacher.他逐渐认识到自己永远不会成为好老师。

12 modernizes   

现代化事物( modernize的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It modernizes the game while lowering the learning curve for newer players. 它让游戏更为现代化，降低了对新手的入门要求。
• In time to come, as a society modernizes, people's rights and responsibilities should be balanced. 从发展的角度看，一个社会越是具有现代性，它的公民的权利和义务就越是平衡。

13 bilateral   

adj.双方的，两边的，两侧的

参考例句：

• They have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal.他们一直在商谈一项双边贸易协定。
• There was a wide gap between the views of the two statesmen on the bilateral cooperation.对双方合作的问题，两位政治家各自所持的看法差距甚大。

14 touts   

n.招徕( tout的名词复数 )；（音乐会、体育比赛等的）卖高价票的人；侦查者；探听赛马的情报v.兜售( tout的第三人称单数 )；招揽；侦查；探听赛马情报

参考例句：

• Many vouchers are returned for cash, allowing touts and middle men to make a healthy margin. 许多月饼券都被兑换成现金，这让券贩子和中间商赚取了不蜚的利润。 来自互联网
• Spotting prey, the customary crowd of hustlers and touts swarmed around, jostling for my business. 照例有大群的拉客黄牛在寻觅猎物，他们争相过来抢我的生意。 来自互联网