Mock exam, April 23, 2004

Translation:  Translate the following into clear, correct English.

Während mindestens eine Milliarde Menschen täglich mit einem Dollar oder weniger auskommen müssen, hat sich der Reichtum mehr als je zuvor in den Händen einer dünnen Oberschicht konzentriert. Das Forbes -Magazin nennt in seiner neuen Ausgabe die Rekordzahl von 587 Individuen oder Familien, die eine Milliarde Dollar oder mehr besitzen, gegenüber 476 Milliardären im Jahr 2003. Die Summe aller Privatvermögen der diesjährigen Milliardäre erreicht ebenfalls Rekordhöhen - nämlich atemberaubende 1,9 Billionen Dollar (1,54 Billionen Euro). Diese Zunahme um 500 Milliarden Dollar in nur einem Jahr ist auf das erneute Ansteigen der Aktienkurse in den letzten zwölf Monaten zurückzuführen. Der Reichtum dieser wenigen Hundert Menschen übersteigt das gesamte Bruttosozialprodukt der 170 ärmsten Länder der Welt und beträgt fast vier Prozent des Gegenwerts der globalen Jahresproduktion.

Ganz oben auf der Liste steht - wie jedes Mal in den letzten zehn Jahren -Bill Gates, der Mitbegründer von Microsoftt, mit 46,6 Milliarden Dollar. Sein Vermögen hat sich im letzten Jahr um 14,5 Prozent erhöht, aber seinen Spitzenwert von 90 Milliarden Dollar im Jahr 1999, kurz vor dem Platzen der Börsenblase am Computermarkt, hat er bei weitem nicht wieder erreicht. Außer seinen Anteilen an Microsoft besitzt Gates beträchtliche Anteile an den Kabelfirmen Comcast und Cox, der kanadischen staatlichen Eisenbahn und dem Müllentsorgungskonzern Republic Services.

Essay:  Write an essay of 400-600 words agreeing or disagreeing with some point in this text.  Make sure your thesis (main point) and supporting points are clear and easy to follow.

Depressing News on Depression

New York Times, April 23, 2004

Antidepressant drugs are being widely administered to children and adolescents despite increasing concern that the benefits have been oversold and some potentially dangerous side effects minimized. The jury is still out on whether the modest benefits of some of these drugs outweigh the small risks they impose. But the escalating debate makes us wonder, uneasily, whether doctors have been dispensing the pills far too cavalierly despite a dearth of evidence to support their value.

The issue that has dominated recent discussion is whether the most commonly prescribed antidepressants increase the risk of suicide in children and adolescents. British health authorities have cautioned against using most of them in children under 18, and a top expert at the United States Food and Drug Administration considers most of the drugs too risky. But the F.D.A. as a whole is not yet convinced that the risks outweigh the potential benefits.

Not a single participant in trials of the drug has actually committed suicide, and there is uncertainty as to whether all the events classified as suicide attempts or suicidal thoughts were really what they seemed. The F.D.A. has contracted for an evaluation of the evidence by outside experts. For now, the agency is simply urging doctors to monitor their patients closely and is seeking stronger warning labels for 10 antidepressant drugs.

It is extraordinarily important to get the final judgment right. Depression, left untreated, is a major cause of suicide, and there is ample testimony from many young people and their doctors that the pills are vital for their well-being even if the overall evidence of effectiveness is weak. It remains to be determined whether, on balance, it is riskier to give the drugs or to withhold them.

What seems most astonishing is the skimpy evidence that these drugs work at all in most young patients. All the antidepressant drugs were approved for marketing based on clinical trials in adults, but once they were on the market, doctors were free to prescribe them for any patients and any purpose. Under a federal law that was drawn up to coax drug companies into studying the effects of their drugs in young people in exchange for an extension of patent rights, the major manufacturers studied their antidepressants in patients under 18. So far, only Prozac has shown enough evidence of effectiveness and safety to win approval from the F.D.A. and British health authorities. The discouraging results underscore the need to test all drugs in children that will be used in children because the effects are often different from those found in adults.

Many leading psychiatrists are convinced that the drugs have value in young people, based on what they deem positive results from some studies. But a critical evaluation by Australian researchers in a recent British Medical Journal article concludes that the authors of the largest published studies "have exaggerated the benefits, downplayed the harms, or both," possibly because of financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Clearly, the companies and medical experts who believe that antidepressants can help young patients have a lot more work to do to make their case. The issue would seem important enough for the government, perhaps through the National Institute of Mental Health, to finance a large and well-designed study to get a definitive answer.

Translation

 

While at least one billion people have to live of one dollar a day, the wealth is concentrated more than ever in the hands of a thin upper class. The Forbes magazin reports in it’s newest edition about the record number of 587 individuals or families, who own one billion dollar or more, in comparision to 476 billionairs in the year 2003. The sum of all privet riches of this years billionairs reaches record hights – namely breathtaking 1.9 trillion dollars (1.54 euros). This increase of 500 billion dollars in just one year is the result of the latest increase of the stock prices of the last twelfe month.

The wealth of such few hundrets of people goes beyond the total gross national product of the 170 poorest countries of the world and is nearly four percent of the equivalent of the global annual production.

On the top of the list is – like every time the last ten years – Bill Gates, the co- founder of microsoft, with 46,6 billion dollars. During the last year his fortune gained 14.5 percent, but he never reached his top level of 90 billion dollars, shortly before the break down of the computer stock market in the year1999, ever again. Next to his shares of microsoft, Gates owns great shares of the cable company Comcast and Cox, the Canadian public railways and the waste disposal company Republic Services.

 

Correction

 

Translation	Original
While at least one billion people have to live of one dollar a day, the wealth is concentrated more than ever in the hands of a thin upper class. The Forbes magazin reports in it’s newest edition about the record number of 587 individuals or families, who own one billion dollar or more, in comparision to 476 billionairs in the year 2003. The sum of all privet riches of this years billionairs reaches record hights – namely breathtaking 1.9 trillion dollars (1.54 euros). This increase of 500 billion dollars in just one year is the result of the latest increase of the stock prices of the last twelfe month.	While at least a billion people on the planet subsist on the equivalent of a dollar a day or less, the concentration of wealth among a handful of people at the top has set new records. In its current issue, Forbes magazine lists a record 587 individuals and family units worth $1 billion or more, an increase from 476 in 2003. The combined wealth of this year’s billionaires also reached record levels—a staggering $1.9 trillion, an increase of $500 billion in just one year, due largely to resurging stock prices over the last 12 months.
The wealth of such few hundrets of people goes beyond the total gross national product of the 170 poorest countries of the world and is nearly four percent of the equivalent of the global annual production.	The wealth of these few hundred people exceeds the gross domestic product of the world’s 170 poorest countries combined, and equals nearly 4 percent of the annual production of the entire world.
On the top of the list is – like every time the last ten years – Bill Gates, the co- founder of microsoft, with 46,6 billion dollars. During the last year his fortune gained 14.5 percent, but he never reached his top level of 90 billion dollars, shortly before the break down of the computer stock market in the year1999, ever again. Next to his shares of microsoft, Gates owns great shares of the cable company Comcast and Cox, the Canadian public railways and the waste disposal company Republic Services.	Leading the pack, as he has the last 10 years, is Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates at $46.6 billion. His wealth is up 14.5 percent over last year, but still well off his 1999 peak of $90 billion, before the dot.com bubble burst. Besides his interest in Microsoft, Gates owns substantial pieces of Comcast and Cox cable companies, Canadian National Railway, and the waste disposal giant Republic Services.

 

Essay

 

Many TV shows like “Seventh heaven” show the viewer a happy family that solves their problems together. In reality many parents have to work full time and have not much time for their children. To seem like the perfect TV family many parents cover problems up. If their child is depressed and has problems many parents give them pills, so that they not have to deal with it. But pills do not solve the problem. There are better ways like talking about feelings, trying to find the reason of a problem together or getting professional help, instead of taking drugs, that are no long term solutions to help a depressed child.

 

A child needs to know if it is just normally sad or if there is more about it. As a parent you need to talk about feelings with your children. They need to learn to deal with normal human feelings like sadness. To know your own feelings helps you deal better with bad times in your life. If a child gets a pill to change the feelings it gets disturbed in its natural development of emotional behavior.

 

Before giving a depressed child a pill, the parents should take some time to talk with their child about the problem. Parents should try to find the reason for the depression. The next step then is to find a solution together. Sometimes it helps when parents show their children that they are not alone and that the parents support their children.

 

If no solution can be found as a family, parents should get some professional help. For example there are family therapies that can be joined. It is good to have professional help to find a way for a solution. Sometimes professional help is a need to help the child and keep the parents healthy, because often parents think that it is their fault, that their child is unhappy and get depressed themselves. A professional can show a family the right way for a solution.

 

There are many ways of helping a depressed child instead of giving just a pill. The pill should be the very last help. Before that parents should talk to their children about feelings, as a prevention. Then parents should take time for their depressed child and try to understand and help it. Also there many ways of professional help to help the child without drugs. If there is no other way than to give a child a pill, the parents should make sure that the pill is approved for children and that it has no bad effects on the child. 

Correction

Many TV shows, like “Seventh heavenHeaven,” show the viewer a happy family that solves their problems together. In reality many parents have to work full time and do not have not much time for their children. To seem like the perfect TV family, many parents cover problems up. If their children is are depressed and has problems, many parents give them pills, so that they do not have to deal with itthe children's problems. But pills do not solve the problem. There are better ways, like talking about feelings, trying to find the reason of for a problem together, or and getting professional help, instead of taking drugs, that which are not a long long-term solutions to help a depressed childdepression.

 

A child needsChildren need to know if it they is are just normally sad, or if there is more about to it. As a parent, you need to talk about feelings with your children. They need to learn to deal with normal human feelings like sadness. To knowKnowing your own feelings helps you deal better with bad times in your life. If a childchildren gets a pills to change their feelings, it getstheir natural emotional disturbed in its natural development of emotional behaviorwill be disturbed.

 

Before giving a depressed child a pill, the parents should take some time to talk with their child about the problem. Parents should try to find the reason for the depression. The next step, then, is to find a solution together. Sometimes it helps when parents show their children that they support them and will not leave them are not alone and that the parents support their children.

 

If no solution can be found as a family, parents should get some professional help. For example, there are family therapies therapy groups that can be joined. It is good to have professional help to find a way for a solution. Sometimes professional help is a needed to help the child and also keep the parents healthy, because often parents think that it is their fault, that their child is unhappy and get depressed themselves. A professional can show help in such casesa family the right way for a solution.

 

There are many ways of helping a depressed children instead ofother than just giving just athem a pill. The pill should be the very last helpresort. Before that, the parents should talk to their children about their feelings, as a prevention. Then parents they should take time for their depressed child and try to understand and help ithim or her. Also tThere many also many ways of to get professional help to help the child without drugs. If there is no other way than to give a the child a pill, the parents should make sure that the pill is approved for children and that it has will have no bad effects on the child.