Level 5 Reading 12A

Reading 12A

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GOLD FEVER From an open mine in an Indonesian rain forest to an elaborate wedding ceremony in southern India, writer Brook Larmer follows the path of humanity's most desired commodity. AS A GIRL GROWING UP on the remote Indonesian island of Sumbawa, Nur Piah heard tales about vast quantities of gold buried beneath the mountain rain forests. They were legends—until geologists from a U.S.company, Newmont Mining Corporation, discovered a curious green rock near a dormant volcano about 13 kilometers from her home. The rock's mossy color meant it contained copper, an occasional companion to gold, and it wasn't long before Newmont began setting up a mine named Batu Hijau, meaning " green rock." Nur Piah, then 24, replied to a Newmont ad seeking "operators," thinking that she might be able to get a job answering phones. When she arrived for training, her boss showed her a different kind of operating booth— the cab of a Caterpillar 793, one of the world's largest trucks. Standing 6 meters tall and 13 meters long, the truck was bigger than her family home. Its wheels alone were double her height. "The truck terrified me," Nur Piah recalls. Another shock soon followed when she saw the mine itself. "They had peeled the skin off the Earth!" she says . "I thought, whatever force can do that must be very powerful." Ten years later, Nur Piah, the daughter of a Muslim cleric, is part of that force herself. Pulling a pink head scarf close around her face, she smiles demurely as she starts up the Caterpillar's engine and heads into the pit at Batu Hijau. Her vehicle is part of a fleet of more than a hundred trucks that removes close to a hundred million tons of rock from the ground every year. For millions of years, a 550-meter volcano stood here; and the space the volcano once occupied has been turned into a pit that is 1.6 kilometers wide and reaches more than a hundred meters below sea level. By the time the gold supplies at Batu Hijau have been depleted, the pit will be about 450 meters below sea level. The environmental impact doesn't concern Nur Piah anymore. "I only think about getting my salary," she says.

淘金热 从印尼雨林中的露天矿场到印度南部精心设计的婚礼， 作家布鲁克·拉默沿着人类最渴望的商品的道路前进。 当一个女孩在印度尼西亚偏远的松巴哇岛长大时， Nur Piah听说了山上雨林下埋藏着大量黄金的故事。 他们是传奇人物，直到美国纽蒙特矿业公司的地质学家， 在距离她家约13公里的一座休眠火山附近发现了一块奇怪的绿色岩石。 这块岩石长满苔藓的颜色意味着它含有铜，偶尔会伴随着黄金， 不久，纽蒙特开始建立一个名为Batu Hijau的矿山，意思是“绿色岩石” 24岁的Nur Piah回复了纽蒙特的一则招聘“运营商”的广告 我想她也许能找到一份接电话的工作。 当她来培训时，她的老板给她看了一个不同类型的手术室-- 世界上最大的卡车之一卡特彼勒793的驾驶室。 这辆卡车高6米，长13米，比她家还大。 它的轮子是她的两倍高。 Nur Piah回忆道：“卡车把我吓坏了。”。 当她看到矿井本身时，很快又感到震惊。 “他们剥掉了地球的皮！”她说。 “我想，无论力量能做什么，都必须非常强大。” 十年后，一位穆斯林神职人员的女儿Nur Piah也加入了这股力量。 她把一条粉红色的头巾紧紧地围在脸上， 她端庄地微笑着，启动卡特彼勒的发动机，朝巴图海久的矿坑走去。 她的车辆是100多辆卡车车队的一部分，每年从地面上清除近一亿吨岩石。 数百万年来，这里矗立着一座550米高的火山； 火山曾经占据的空间已经变成了一个坑 它宽1.6公里，达到海平面以下100多米。 当Batu Hijau的黄金供应耗尽时，该矿坑将位于海平面以下约450米处。 环境影响不再与Nur Piah有关。 她说：“我只想着拿工资。”。

THERE IS ONE THING, however, that Nur Piah finds curious: In a decade at Batu Hijau, she has never seen a speck of the gold she has helped mine. The engineers monitoring the process track its presence in the copper compounds that are extracted. And since the gold is shipped out to smelters overseas, nobody on Sumbawa ever sees the hidden treasure that has transformed their island. Newmont is one of several giant mining corporations that are pursuing gold to the ends of the Earth, from the lowlands of Ghana to the mountaintops of Peru. Part of the challenge of mining for gold is that there is so little of it: In all of history, only about 190,000 tons of gold have been mined, barely enough to fill two Olympic-size swimming pools. More than two-thirds of that has been extracted since 1950. Now the world's richest deposits—particularly those in the United States, South Africa,and Australia— are fast being depleted, and new discoveries are rare. In recent years, attracted by the benefits of operating in the developing world— lower costs, higher yields, fewer regulations— Newmont has generated tens of thousands of jobs in poorer regions of the world. But it has also come under attack from conservationists, who have filed complaints about unrestrained ecological destruction and the forced relocation of villagers. At Batu Hijau, where Newmont is responsible for the mine's operation, the company has responded by spending more on its community development and environmental programs—and by dismissing its critics. "Why is it that activists thousands of miles away are yelling, but nobody around the mine complains?" asks Malik Salim, Batu Hijau's former senior external relations manager. "Gold is what drives everybody crazy." GOLD HAS BEEN DRIVING people crazy for millennia. The desire to possess gold has driven people to extremes, fueling wars and conquests, boosting empires and currencies, leveling mountains and forests. Gold is not vital to human existence; it has, in fact, relatively few practical uses. Yet its chief attractions— its unusual density and malleability, along with its imperishable shine— have made it one of the world's most desired commodities, a symbol of beauty, wealth, and immortality. From pharaohs (who chose to be buried in what they called the "flesh of the gods") to financiers (who, following Sir Isaac Newton's advice, made it the foundation of the global economy), nearly every society has invested gold with an almost mythological status. Humankind's feverish attachment to gold shouldn't have survived the modern world. Few cultures still believe that gold can give eternal life, and every country in the world—the United States was last, in 1971— has done away with the gold standard, which the economist John Maynard Keynes famously called "a barbarous relic." But gold's appeal not only endures; fueled by global uncertainty, it grows stronger. Aside from extravagance, gold is also reprising its role as a safe haven in financially unstable times. Gold's recent surges have been amplified by concerns over a looming global recession. In 2007, demand exceeded mine production by 59 percent. "Gold has always had this kind of magic," says Peter L. Bernstein, author of The Power of Gold, "but it's never been clear if we have gold—or gold has us." While investors flock to gold-backed funds, jewelry still accounts for two-thirds of the demand, generating a record 53.5 billion in worldwide sales in 2007. In the United States, an activist-driven "No Dirty Gold" campaign

然而，有一件事Nur Piah觉得很奇怪： 在Batu Hijau的十年里，她从未见过她帮助开采的一点金子。 监控该过程的工程师跟踪其在提取的铜化合物中的存在。 由于黄金被运往海外冶炼厂， 松巴哇岛上没有人见过改变他们岛屿的隐藏宝藏。 纽蒙特是几家将黄金开采到天涯海角的大型矿业公司之一， 从加纳的低地到秘鲁的山顶。 开采黄金的部分挑战在于黄金的数量很少： 在整个历史上，只有大约19万吨黄金被开采出来，几乎不足以填满两个奥运会规模的游泳池。 其中三分之二以上是1950年以来提取的。 现在世界上最富有的矿藏，尤其是美国、南非和澳大利亚的矿藏-- 正在迅速枯竭，新发现很少。 近年来，被在发展中国家经营的好处所吸引-- 成本更低，产量更高，监管更少-- 纽蒙特在世界较贫穷地区创造了数万个就业机会。 但它也受到了环保主义者的攻击， 他们对肆意破坏生态和强迫村民搬迁提出了投诉。 在Newmont负责矿山运营的Batu Hijau， 作为回应，该公司在社区发展和环境项目上投入了更多资金，并驳斥了批评者。 “为什么数千英里外的活动人士都在大喊大叫，但矿场周围却没有人抱怨？” 巴图·希贾的前高级对外关系经理马利克·萨利姆问道。 “黄金是让每个人都疯狂的东西。” 几千年来，黄金一直让人们疯狂。 拥有黄金的欲望驱使人们走向极端， 助长战争和征服，促进帝国和货币的发展，夷平山脉和森林。 黄金对人类生存并不重要；事实上，它的实际用途相对较少。 然而，它的主要吸引力在于其不同寻常的密度和延展性，以及其永恒的光泽-- 使其成为世界上最受欢迎的商品之一，是美丽、财富和不朽的象征。 来自法老（他们选择埋葬在他们所谓的“众神之肉”中） 金融家们（遵循艾萨克·牛顿爵士的建议，将其作为全球经济的基础）， 几乎每个社会都以近乎神话般的地位投资黄金。 人类对黄金的狂热依恋不应该在现代世界幸存下来。 很少有文化仍然相信黄金可以带来永生， 世界上每个国家——美国是最后一个，在1971年-- 废除了金本位制， 经济学家约翰·梅纳德·凯恩斯曾将其称为“野蛮的遗迹” 但黄金的吸引力不仅持久；在全球不确定性的推动下，它变得更加强大。 除了奢侈之外，黄金还在金融不稳定时期重新扮演着避风港的角色。 对全球经济衰退的担忧加剧了黄金最近的飙升。 2007年，需求超过矿山产量59%。 《黄金的力量》一书的作者彼得·L·伯恩斯坦说：“黄金一直都有这种魔力。”， “但一直不清楚我们是否有黄金，或者黄金是否有我们。” 虽然投资者涌向黄金支持的基金，但珠宝仍占需求的三分之二， 2007年全球销售额创纪录地达到535亿美元。 在美国，一场由活动家推动的“无肮脏黄金”运动

has persuaded many top jewelry retailers to stop selling gold from mines that cause severe social or environmental damage. But such concerns have little impact on the biggest consumer nations, namely China and India, which together account for over half the world's gold jewelry sales. NOWHERE IS THE GOLD OBSESSION more culturally entrenched than in India. Per capita income in this country of 1.3 billion people is 2,700 dollars, but it has been a world leader in gold demand for several decades. In 2017,India consumed 737 tons of gold, about 20 percent of the world gold market, just behind China (955 tons). India produces very little gold of its own, but its citizens have hoarded up to 24,000 tons of the yellow metal— 40 times the amount held in the country's central bank. India's obsession stems not simply from a love of extravagance, or the rising prosperity of an emerging middle class. For Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians alike, gold plays a central role at nearly every turning point in life—most of all when a couple marries. There are some ten million weddings in India every year, and in all but a few, gold is crucial both to the spectacular event itself and to the transaction between families and generations. "It's written into our DNA," says K.A. Babu, a manager at the Alapatt jewelry store in the southwestern city of Kochi. "Gold equals good fortune." The importance of gold is most obvious during the springtime festival of Akshaya Tritiya, considered the most auspicious day to buy gold according to the Hindu calendar. The quantity of gold jewelry Indians purchase on this day—over 20 tons in 2018— so exceeds the amount bought on any other day of the year throughout the world that it often pushes gold prices higher. "We grow up in an atmosphere of gold," says Renjith Leen, a magazine editor based in Kerala, a relatively prosperous state on India's southern tip that claims just 3 percent of the country population but 7 to 8 percent of its gold market. When a baby is born, a grandmother rubs a gold coin in honey and places a drop of the liquid on the child's tongue for good luck. When the child is three years old, a learned family member takes a gold coin and traces words on the child's tongue to give the gift of eloquence. A sign from its cultural significance, gold is also the bedrock of the Indian economy. "Gold is the basis of our financial system," says K.A. Babu. "People see it as the best form of security, and nothing else lets you get cash as quickly." Hoarding gold as an intergenerational family nest egg is an ancient tradition in India. So, too, is pawning gold jewelry for emergency loans—and then buying it back. As the price of the metal goes up, however, poor Indian families are having a harder time raising the gold they need for dowries. Rajam Chidambaram, a 59-year-old widow living in a slum on the outskirts of Kochi, recently found a young man to marry her only daughter, aged 27. The groom's family, however, demanded a dowry far out of her reach: 25 sovereigns, or 200 grams of gold (worth approximately 8,500 dollars today). Chidambaram, a cleaning woman, has only the two earrings she wears; the gold necklace she once owned went to pay off her deceased husband's hospital bills. "I had to agree to the groom's demand," Chidambaram says, wiping away tears. "If I refuse, my daughter will stay home forever." In the end, local financiers advanced a loan for her daughter's dowry. Her daughter may now be married, but Chidambaram is now faced with a debt that she may spend the rest of her life trying to repay. FOUR THOUSAND KILOMETERS AWAY, in her new house in the village of Jereweh, Nur Piah is focused more on the present than the future. "So many people depend on me," she says. Her husband makes some money as a timber trader, but Nur Piah's salary—about 650 dollars a month—paid for their two-story concrete home. As if in tribute, she has hung a large painting of the yellow Caterpillar 793 on her wall. Nur Piah's job is not without its hardships. Maneuvering the enormous truck over a 12-hour shift is especially stressful, she says, when the pit's graded roads are slicked by torrential rains. But now, after a long day, she smiles contentedly as her child, age six, falls asleep on her lap. The girl's middle name is Higrid, the Indonesian approximation of "high-grade," the best ore in the mine. A GOLDEN WEDDING The gold ornaments come out of the velvet boxes one after another. They are family treasures that Nagavi, a 23-year-old Indian bridle, always knew she would wear on her wedding day. The eldest caughter of a coffee plantation owner in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, Nagavi grew up marveling at the weddings that mark the merger of two wealthy Indian families. However, it's not until the morning of her own arranged wedding to the only son of another coffee plantation family that she understands just how beautiful the golden tradition can be. By the time Nagavi is ready for her wedding, the university graduate has been transformed into an Indian princess, covered in gold. An elaborately crafted hairpiece is so heavy—two and a half kilograms—that it pulls her head back. She is also wearing three gold necklaces. Those, and a dozen other pieces of jewelry, act as effective counterweights. As the family members convene, Nagavi walks slowly out of her home, trying to keep her balance as she tosses rice over her head in a traditional gesture of farewell. The gold treasures Nagavi wears are not a traditional dowry. In this circle of coffee growers around the town of Chikmagalur— unlike in many poorer parts of the country— it is considered inappropriate for a groom's family to make explicit demands. "This is seen as my 'share' of the family wealth," says Nagavi, gazing at the millions of dollars of gold jewelry. As with any Indian wedding, the gold also serves to display the value she brings to the union. "With daughters, you have to start saving gold from the day they are born," says Nagavi's father, C.P. Ravi Shankar. "It's important to marry them off well."

已说服许多顶级珠宝零售商停止销售矿山黄金 造成严重的社会或环境破坏。 但这些担忧对最大的消费国，即中国和印度，影响不大， 它们加起来占世界黄金首饰销售额的一半以上。 在印度，对黄金的痴迷在文化上最为根深蒂固。 这个13亿人口的国家的人均收入是2700美元， 但几十年来，中国一直是全球黄金需求的领导者。 2017年，印度消耗了737吨黄金，约占世界黄金市场的20%，仅次于中国（955吨）。 印度自己生产的黄金很少，但其公民已经囤积了高达24000吨的黄金-- 是该国央行持有金额的40倍。 印度的痴迷不仅仅源于对奢侈的热爱，也源于新兴中产阶级日益繁荣。 对于穆斯林、印度教徒、锡克教徒和基督徒来说， 黄金几乎在人生的每一个转折点都起着核心作用，尤其是当一对夫妇结婚时。 印度每年约有一千万场婚礼，除了少数几场， 黄金对这一壮观的活动本身以及家庭和代际之间的交易都至关重要。 西南部城市高知市Alapatt珠宝店的经理K.A.Babu说：“这已经写进了我们的DNA。”。 “黄金等于好运。” 黄金的重要性在Akshaya Tritiya的春节期间最为明显， 根据印度教历法，这被认为是购买黄金的最吉祥的一天。 印度人在这一天购买的黄金首饰数量——2018年超过20吨-- 这超过了世界各地一年中任何其他一天的购买量，因此经常推高金价。 “我们在黄金的氛围中长大。” 喀拉拉邦的杂志编辑Renjith Leen说， 印度南端一个相对繁荣的州，仅占该国人口的3%，但占其黄金市场的7%至8%。 当婴儿出生时，祖母会用蜂蜜摩擦一枚金币，并将一滴液体放在孩子的舌头上以祈求好运。 当孩子三岁时，一个有学识的家庭成员会拿走一枚金币 并在孩子的舌头上描绘单词，以赋予他口才的天赋。 从其文化意义来看，黄金也是印度经济的基石。 K.A.Babu说：“黄金是我们金融体系的基础。”。 “人们认为这是最好的安全形式，没有什么能让你更快地拿到现金。” 在印度，将黄金作为代际家庭的积蓄是一项古老的传统。 同样，将黄金首饰典当以获得紧急贷款，然后回购也是如此。 然而随着金属价格的上涨， 贫穷的印度家庭在筹集嫁妆所需的黄金方面遇到了困难。 59岁的寡妇Rajam Chidambaram住在高知郊区的一个贫民窟里， 最近找到一个年轻人娶了她唯一的女儿，27岁。 然而，新郎的家人要求她支付一笔遥不可及的嫁妆： 25个主权国家，或200克黄金（目前价值约8500美元）。 Chidambaram是一名清洁女工，她只戴着两个耳环； 她曾经拥有的金项链用来支付她已故丈夫的住院费。 奇丹巴拉姆擦着眼泪说：“我不得不同意新郎的要求。”。 “如果我拒绝，我女儿将永远呆在家里。” 最后，当地金融家为女儿的嫁妆提供了贷款。 她的女儿现在可能结婚了， 但奇丹巴拉姆现在面临着一笔债务，她可能会用余生来偿还这笔债务。 四千公里外，在她位于耶肋韦村的新房子里， Nur Piah更关注现在而不是未来。 “这么多人依赖我，”她说。 她的丈夫做木材商人赚了一些钱， 但Nur Piah的工资——每月约650美元——支付了他们两层混凝土房子的费用。 仿佛在致敬，她在墙上挂了一幅黄色卡特彼勒793的巨幅画。 努尔·皮亚的工作并非没有艰辛。 她说，在12小时的轮班中操纵这辆巨大的卡车尤其有压力， 当矿坑的分级道路被暴雨刮得光滑时。 但现在，经过漫长的一天，当她六岁的孩子在她腿上睡着时，她心满意足地微笑着。 这个女孩的中间名是Higrid， 印尼近似“高品位”，是该矿最好的矿石。 金婚 金饰品一个接一个地从天鹅绒盒子里出来。 它们是23岁的印度人纳加维（Nagavi）的家庭珍宝， 她总是知道她会在结婚那天穿。 印度南部卡纳塔克邦一位咖啡种植园主的长女， Nagavi从小就对标志着两个富有的印度家庭合并的婚礼感到惊讶。 然而，直到她与另一个咖啡种植园家庭的独子举行婚礼的那天早上 她知道黄金传统是多么美丽。 当Nagavi准备好参加婚礼时， 这位大学毕业生已经变成了一位身披黄金的印度公主。 一个精心制作的假发太重了——两公斤半——把她的头往后拉。 她还戴着三条金项链。 这些珠宝和其他十几件珠宝可以作为有效的平衡物。 当家人聚在一起时，Nagavi慢慢走出家门， 她试图保持平衡，用传统的告别姿势把米饭扔到头上。 Nagavi佩戴的黄金珍宝不是传统的嫁妆。 在Chikmagalur镇周围的咖啡种植者圈子里-- 与该国许多较贫穷的地区不同-- 新郎的家人提出明确要求被认为是不合适的。 Nagavi说：“这被视为我在家庭财富中的‘份额’。”， 凝视着价值数百万美元的黄金首饰。 与任何印度婚礼一样，黄金也用来展示她为婚姻带来的价值。 Nagavi的父亲C.P.Ravi Shankar说：“有了女儿，你必须从她们出生的那一天起就开始储存黄金。”。 “把他们嫁出去很重要。”

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