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1、考研英语阅读词汇：经济学人(The Economist) 2023年3月4日Passage 1Eat, inject, repeatNew drugs could spell an end to the worlds obesity epidemicAnew type of drug is generating excitement among the rich and the beautiful. Just a jab a week, and the weight falls off. Elon Musk swears by it; influencers sing its praises
2、on TikTok; suddenly slimmer Hollywood starlets deny they have taken it. But the latest weight-loss drugs are no mere cosmetic enhancements. Their biggest beneficiaries will be not celebrities in Los Angeles or Miami but billions of ordinary people around the world whose weight has made them unhealth
3、y.Treatments for weight loss have long ranged from the well- meaning and ineffective to the downright dodgy. The new class of drugs, called glp-i receptor agonists, seems actually to work. Semaglutidc, developed by Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical firm, has been shown in clinical trials to lead
4、 to weight loss of about 15%. It is already being sold under the brand name We- govy in America, Denmark and Norway and will soon be available in other countries; Ozempic, a lower-dose version, is a diabetes drug that is also being used off label for weight loss. A rival glp-i drug, made by Eli Lill
5、y, an American firm, is due to come on sale later this year and is more effective still. Analysts think the market for glp-i drugs could reach $isobn by 2031, not far off the market for cancer drugs today. Some think they could become as common as beta blockers or statins.The drugs could not have ar
6、rived at a better time. In 2020 two-fifths of the worlds population were overweight or obese. By 2035, says the World Obesity Federation, an ngo, that figure could swell to more than half, with a staggering 4bn people overweight or obese. People everywhere arc getting fatter. The populations putting
7、 on pounds the fastest are not in the rich West but in countries like Egypt, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.These trends are alarming because obesity causes a host of health problems, including diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, as well as dozens of illnesses such as stroke, gout and various
8、cancers. Carrying extra weight made people more likely to die of covid-19. And then there is the misery that comes from the stigma associated with being fat, which affects children in schools and playgrounds most cruelly of all.The consequences of obesity for the public purse and the wider economy a
9、re large. According to modelling by academics the annual cost to the world economy of excess weight could reach $4trn by 2035 (2.9% of global gdp, up from 2.2% in 2019). That includes both spending on health care and working time lost to illness and premature deaths tied to obesity.The world s expan
10、ding waistlines are not a sign of the moral failure of the billions who are overweight, but the result of biology. The genes that were vital to helping humans survive winters and famine still help the body cling on to its weight today. The superabundance of hard-to-resist processed foods in recent d
11、ecades has brought greater convenience and lower costs, but also triggered overeating just as lifestyles became more sedentary. Once the fat is on, the body fights any attempt to diet away more than a little of its total weight. Despite the $25obn that consumers around rhe world spent on dieting and
12、 weight loss last year, the battle to get slim was largely being lost.The new obesity drugs arrived by serendipity, after treatments meant for diabetics were observed to cause weight loss. Semaglutide mimics the release of hormones that stimulate a feeling of fullness and reduce the appetite (see Br
13、iefing). They also switch off the powerful urge to eat that lurks inside the brain, waiting to ambush even the keenest dieter.With the jabs already in high demand, investors arc nearly as giddy as newly slim users. The market capitalisation of Novo Nordisk, the firm at the front of the gold rush, ha
14、s doubled in two years, to $?26bn, making it the second-most-valuable listed drugmaker in the world (see Schumpeter). Analysts expect half of obese Americans who seek help to be on glp-i drugs by the turn of the decade. But, as with any new medicine that holds so much promise for so many, there are
15、uncertainties. Two big ones will be safety and affordability.Consider safety first. The newness of these drugs means that their long-term consequences arc not yet known. For the lower- dose forms prescribed for diabetes, the side-effects, such as vomiting and diarrhoea, have been mild. But others co
16、uld crop up as the drugs are used more widely and at higher doses. Animal studies have shown a higher incidence of thyroid cancer, and semaglutide is associated with a rare pancreatitis. Little is known about the effects of using them during or just before pregnancy. All this will require careful an
17、alysis through controlled longitudinal studies.Understanding these risks will be important, because many patients who take the drugs may need them for the rest of their lives. As with ditching a diet, stopping a high dose of semaglutide is associated with much of the lost weight piling back on. Some
18、 people even gain more weight than they lost in the first place.Another preoccupation for policymakers is cost. In America the bill for Wcgovy runs at around $1,300 a month; for Ozcmpic about $900. Judged by such prices, lifelong prescriptions look forbiddingly expensive. The longer view, however, i
19、s more encouraging. In time, companies may strike deals with governments and health providers to cover the whole population, ensuring high volumes in return for low prices. The prospect of profits is already luring competition and spurring innovation. Amgen, AstraZeneca and Pfizer are all working on
20、 rival drugs; Novo Nordisk has a full pipeline of follow-on drugs. Further ahead still, patents will expire, enabling the development of lower-priced generics.The shape of things to comeWhat to do in the meantime? Governments must ensure that those who most need the drugs get them, leaving those tak
21、ing them for cosmetic purposes to pay out of their own pockets. The long-term effects must be carefully studied. States should keep pressing other anti-obesity measures, such as exercise, healthy eating and better food labelling, which may help prevent people from getting fat in the first place. But
22、 spare a moment to celebrate, too. These new drugs mean that the worlds fight against flab may eventually be won. Passage 2Back to its rootsA slump is encouraging venture capital to rediscover old waysUntil last year, venture capital (vc) had been riding high.With interest rates close to zero and li
23、ttle yield to be found elsewhere, large companies, hedge funds and sovereign-wealth investors began ploughing cash into startups, sending valuations upwards. In 2021 alone the amount of money flowing to startups doubled to nearly $64obn. Then soaring inflation and surging interest rates brought the
24、market crashing down. Last year the investments made in startups worldwide sank by a third. Between the final quarter of 2021 and the same period in 2022, the valuations of private startups tumbled by 56%.The downturn inevitably draws comparisons to the dotcom crash of 2000-01, when deep winter set
25、in and vc investments froze. Luckily for both founders and their backers, conditions are not so frosty today. Startups* balance-sheets are stronger than they were 20 years ago; valuations are not quite so detached from revenues. In America alone, venture capitalists have about $3oobn in dry powder.
26、Nonetheless, the industry that is emerging from the tech slump and into an era of dearer money looks different from the one that went into it (see Business section). In many respects, vc is returning to the ways of decades past.One change is a focus on small, profitable firms. This is a habit ventur
27、e investing sometimes forgot in the boom years, when rapid growth and the hope of big profits tomorrow were prized over profits today. Many backers who were in search of a quick return piled into older, late-stageM startups, which would probably go public soon and seemed assured of heady valuations.
28、Today, however, stockmarkets are volatile, making it hard for venture investors to gauge the value of late-stage startups. As interest rates have risen, lossmakers have fallen out of favoui: according to an index compiled by Goldman Sachs, the stock prices of unprofitable tech companies have fallen
29、by two-thirds since November 2021. ves, too, are telling their portfolio firms to tighten their belts and generate cash. Increasingly their new bets are on younger firms, and those which are cutting costs sharply and likely to turn a profit sooner.A second shift is a renewed emphasis on strategic fi
30、rms. Inan echo of vcs earliest days, when investors often backed semiconductor-makers that vied to win huge public contracts, many today are eyeing up firms in areas that stand to gain from governments* new fondness for industrial policy. Administrations in both America and Europe, for instance, pla
31、n to spend hundreds of billions of dollars supporting chip firms and clean tech.Venture capitalists, understandably, know how to spot an opportunity. Andreessen Horowitz, a stalwart of Silicon Valley in- h, vesting, has launched anAmerican Dynamism fund that partly invests in firms which tap support
32、 from Uncle Sam. Other venture investors, including Temasek, a Singaporean sovereignwealth fund, say they increasingly expect their investments to align with states* strategic aims.A final shift in vcs approach is an emphasis on better governance. In the boom years too much venture money chased too
33、few good investments. The mismatch gave founders the upper hand in negotiations, helping them keep oversight relatively light. After the spectacular blow up last year of ftx, a venture-backed crypto exchange, it became clear that none of ftxs big venture- and sovereign-fund investors had taken seats
34、 on the startups board, leaving Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder, and his colleagues entirely to their own devices.Now venture finance is harder to come by. Tiger Global and other funds that were previously hands-off have started to re-Passage 3treat. Other investors say they intend to take up their b
35、oard seats. That reduces the power of founders to dictate terms and should improve governance. A lack of venture dollars may also encourage startups to go public sooner, as might trustbusters greater scrutiny ofbig tech acquisitions (see Free exchange). The knowledge that they might soon face scruti
36、ny in the public markets could also discipline founders.Planting the seedThis new sobriety will not last for ever. Venture capitalists are, by nature, excitable: look at the buzz over generative artificial intelligence. Some hedge funds have left venture investing after previous downturns only to re
37、turn when valuations adjusted. In time the cycle will surely turn once more, sending vc investments to dizzying heights. For the moment, though, the old ways are back-and that marks a welcome change. Take the dealBoth the Tories and the Democratic Unionist Party should support Rishi Sunaks dealBrexi
38、t was bound to be difficult for Northern Ireland, since it has the uks only land border with the eu. All sides agreed that a hard north-south border with customs controls risked upsetting the peace process that culminated in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Yet if Britain left the eus single marke
39、t and customs union, a border had to go somewhere.Boris Johnson opted to take Great Britain out of the single market and customs union but to leave Northern Ireland, in effect, in both. That necessitated an east-west border in the Irish Sea, even if Mr Johnson pretended otherwise. When controls were
40、 duly imposed, he was characteristically quick to disavow his deal. He later brought in a parliamentary bill to let the government tear up parts of the protocol that created the border.It has fallen to Mr Johnsons successor-but- one, Rishi Sunak, to clear up this mess. He and the eu have been sensib
41、ly pragmatic. The Windsor framework he has agreed upon with Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commissions president, hugely simplifies the customs controls still needed. A system of green lanes for trusted traders will minimise checks on goods not intended to move into the eu singlemark, helped by
42、granting eu officials access to real-time trade data. And a new “Stormont brake creates an emergency guard against unwanted single-market rule changes in Northern Ireland, even if it will be hard to use (see Britain section).Because the deal eliminates many unnecessary checks, it will be welcomed by
43、 many businesses and ordinary voters in the province. Yet Brexit ideologues in the Conservative Party, along with many in the Democratic Unionist Party (dup), are unhappy because Mr Sunak has not secured significant changes to the treaty text and has conceded that the European Court of Justice, the
44、ultimate arbiter of single-market rules, will still have some jurisdiction in Northern Ireland. He is also dropping Mr Johnsons bill to rip up the protocol.Both groups of opponents should reconsider. Hardline Tory mps who dislike Mr Sunaks deal have not offered a serious alternative. Sticking with t
45、he status quo disrupts trade and could trigger renewed litigation. Persisting with the bill to allow unilateral repudiation of the protocol would break international law and envenom already poisonous relations with the eu.It is harder to satisfy the dup, which complains, accurately, that the protoco
46、l puts barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the uk. That gave the dup the excuse to boycott the province power-sharing executive. Yet it should be remembered that Brexit, which the dup backed, was rejected by a majority of Northern Irish voters. Most support a better-functioning protoco
47、l that gives Northern Ireland unfettered access to the eu and uk markets. Mr Sunak*s deal does not give the dup all it wanted. It could still be improved by a veterinary agreement with the eu that would further reduce checks on food. But if the party rejects the deal, it will not get a better one. I
48、t should accept this as the best available. And that should clear the way for its return to the power-sharing executive.Moreover, the deal is good for Britain as awhole. Armed with his protocol-busting bill, Mr Johnson believed that he could twist eu arms. In fact, the patient collaboration between
49、Mr Sunak and the commission has improved uk- eu relations more broadly. That will allow Britain to become an associate member of the eus Horizon research programme. It should bolster security and foreign-policy co-operation, something that matters more since Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine (see Charlemagne). Better relations with France could even boost bilateral co-operation to deter migrants from cro