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TEXT D If the bidding frenzy over Safeway were any indication, you’d think that big grocery stores had become luxury collectibles. Every one of Britain’s top retailers—Tesco, Wal-Mart owned Asda, Morrisons and Sainsburys--are making a play for Safeway, which became a takeover target when sales started lagging at its 480 stores. But the real appeal of Safeway has little to do with the value of its stores: it’s about the land they sit on. There’s now so little property available for commercial development in Britain, or in Western Europe, that buying old stores is the fastest way to find space for new ones. This explains why European retail is one of the few industries anywhere on the globe that have been generating a steady stream of dealmaking buzz. At a time when global mergers and acquisitions have fallen 81 percent from a 2,000 peak of $ 3.4 trillion, the Safeway deal has been generating headlines since January. The bids, which started at ￡22.9 billion, are now under review by Britain’s Competition Commission, the national trustbuster. Its recommendation could decide the winner. The commercial-land shortage is largely a result of the campaign to prevent the Wal-Martification of Europe. In recent years authorities have imposed stiff limits on the growth of superstores, effectively blocking the opening of new ones in countries from Britain to France, Germany and the Netherlands. Safeway has become a particularly hot commodity in part because many of its stores have the combination of size and location that big-box retailers crave. "There are Safeway stores in this portfolio that will have directors of the other companies salivating," says David Southwel, spokesman for the British Retail Consortium trade group. Gone are the days of the ’70s and ’80s,when lax zoning laws made it easy to build new stores in Britain, and towns generally welcomed the tax revenue and jobs. According to IGD, a food and-grocery-industry think tank, the number of superstores in Britain shot up from 403 in 1985 to 990 in 1995 but slowed the next year, after passage of new development rules. Designed to protect the economic vitality of town centers, the 1996 rules require developers to demonstrate that a superstore is needed outside town, and there are no available alternatives in the center. "Most of the zoning legislation has got the retailers by the throat," says Haley Meyers, head of European retail research at London based Mintel Research. In the early 1990s Tesco foresaw the end of the building binge, and began snatching up land already approved for retail development. By "land banking" in this way, says Safeway spokesman Kevin Hawkins, big retailers could keep building through the 1990s and sidesiep the red tape. But when land banks run dry, there is little choice but to buy other chains. Last October, Fretail giant Carrefour acquired a further 20 percent stake in Spain’s largest retailer, Centro Commerciale Carrefour, for 1 billion. "The food and general retail sector has recently seen a good degree more merger activity than other sectors," says Tim Atten, retail analyst at BNP Paribas. "It’s difficult for these players to expand in many countries in Western Europe without buying other stores." It’s even more difficult on the Continent than in Britain. German law essentially prohibits stores larger than 1,200 square meters if local authorities object. French law requires strict reviews of stores larger than 300 square meters, and states that preserving the nation’s economy, lifestyle and culture must be weighed against any new project. "It’s virtually impossible to open a hypermarket in France," says Johanna Water-ous, director at McRinsey Consulting. "The planning laws in France make the ones in the U. K. look like the American Midwest." The real megastore action is moving outside Western Europe. Tesco is now "placing emphasis on other parts of the world, "says a spokesman. Carrefour is heading in the same direction: in 2002, it opened one hypermarket in France and four in Poland.(暂缺第26题) According to the passage, the author
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Originally introduced by Netscape Communications, (1) are a general mechanism which HTTP Server side applications, such as CGI (2) , can use to both store and retrieve information on the HTTP (2) side of the connection. Basically, Cookies can be used to compensate for the (4) nature of HTTP. The addition of a simple, persistent, client-side state significantly extends the capabilities of WWW-based (5) .
对于心的境界，我所能够给出的最高赞语就是：丰富的单纯。我所知道的一切精神上的伟人，他们的心灵世界无不具有这个特征，其核心始终是单纯的，却又能够包容丰富的情感、体验和思想。 我相信，每一个精神上的伟人在本质上都是直接面对宇宙的。一方面，他知道自己只是宇宙的儿童，这种认识深藏于他的心灵的核心之中，从根本上使他的心灵永葆儿童的单纯。另一方面，他对宇宙的永恒本质充满精神渴望，在这种渴望的支配下，他本能地为一切精神事物所吸引，使他的心灵变得越来越丰富。与此相反的境界是贫乏的复杂。这是那些平庸的心灵，它们被各种人际关系和利害算计占据着，所以复杂；可是完全缺乏精神的内涵，所以又是一种贫乏的复杂。
Originally introduced by Netscape Communications, (1) are a general mechanism which HTTP Server side applications, such as CGI (2) , can use to both store and retrieve information on the HTTP (2) side of the connection. Basically, Cookies can be used to compensate for the (4) nature of HTTP. The addition of a simple, persistent, client-side state significantly extends the capabilities of WWW-based (5) .
TEXT B The romantic image of the trusty postman, delivering letters to the farthest-flung corners of the land, makes the reform of postal services a sensitive subject. This is especially true when the impetus for reform comes from the European Union. This month the European Parliament starts work on a directive, drawn up by the European Commission, to remove the last monopolies in postal markets by 2009--the final stage in a slow and laborious liberalisation that began in 1992. Directives in 1997 and 2002 chipped away at the centuries-old monopolies enjoyed by national operators, and the proposed new law will open the whole market to competition by abolishing the "reserved area" on mail weighing less than 50 grams. But although the legislative wheels are in motion, some countries are as sceptical as ever. The commission says it has deliberately pursued postal liberalisation at a slower pace than other market openings. This is partly due to its technical complexity. Unlike in telecoms, post has no physical network to share. Many countries had to create independent regulators from scratch in order to monitor mar ket access and prices. The size of the heavily unionised postal industry also prompted caution. It employs some 5m people directly and indirectly, and its turnover is roughly 1% of Europe’s combined GDP. But arguably the biggest drag on liberalisation is old-fashioned resistance to open markets, plus a dash of reverence for letter writing. One opponent of the 2009 deadline talks of "a noble industry that we want to protect" and lauds the virtues of pen and paper. All postal operators recognise, however, that the epistolary habit has taken a hit from the Internet. With deadening pragmatism, the commission says liberalisation will improve quality and choice and reduce state subsidies. Countries that have already opened their markets, such as Sweden and Britain, agree. Since Sweden’s Posten AB was privatised in 1993, prices for business customers have fallen by 30%, though they have risen for consumers. The postal network has been extended, with new outlets in supermarkets and longer opening hours. Proponents of reform argue that Sweden, which has one of the lowest population densities in the EU, disproves the argument that rural countries cannot both have open markets and provide a standard service for everyone. But France, Spain, Italy and other countries worry that abolishing the "reserved area" will damage this universal-service obligation. Last month Francois Loos, France’s industry minister, said 2009 was "an indicative date" for competition rather than a firm deadline. A spokesman for PostEurop, a lobby group representing European postal operators, says several countries would prefer a deadline of 2012 at the earliest, with the wholly implausible argument that more time is needed to research the impact of liberalisation. The commission knows a delaying tactic when it sees one. Operators have had years to prepare for liberalisation. But some countries, such as Greece and Luxembourg, seem to want to protect their national monopolies at any cost. The attitudes of central European countries are more difficult to predict. Their governments supported the liberal services directive, which favoured their mobile, comparatively cheap workforces, but have expressed doubts about opening protected home markets to competition. Incumbents may have less to fear from competition than they think, however. In countries with open markets, the former monopolists have remained dominant. In Britain the Royal Mail has 96.5% of the market; in Sweden Posten AB has 91.5%. Regulators do not expect big changes in either country. Indeed, some advocates of liberalisation worry that open postal markets will fail to attract new entrants and that eliminating the reserved area will not guarantee competition. The debate over market opening is an opportunity to find out what people really want from their postal services and a chance to rethink how they work, says Michael Critelli, the boss of Pitney Bowes, a company that makes postal equipment and software. Some people might, for example, choose to have domestic mail delivered to their offices on weekdays, he suggests. But such innovations will happen only if national governments can be discouraged from stamping the commission’s proposals "return to sender". Innovations in postal services might appear when
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