US President Barack Obama tops Forbes' most powerful list
US President Barack Obama has been named the most powerful person in the world for a second year in a row by Forbes magazine.
The US president leads it, of course, and then there's the Pope, and Angela Merkel, and Facebook's founder, and other global rainmakers on Forbes' ranking of the world's most powerful people.
The ranking features 71 names, a figure Forbes said it set as a cutoff because there are an estimated 7.1 billion people in the world and thus the ranking works out to one very heavy hitter for every 100 million people.
For the second year in a row, US President Barack Obama led the ranking, with Forbes noting that he won the popular vote, an electoral college majority, and seven of the seven toss-up states in the November election.
Mr Obama faces challenges galore, such as a budget crisis, stubbornly high unemployment, and renewed strife in the Middle East.
"But Obama remains the commander in chief of the world's greatest military and head of the sole economic and cultural superpower - literally the leader of the free world," Forbes said.
The silver medal of power went to Mrs Merkel, the German chancellor, whom Forbes described as the backbone of the 27-member European Union and the person who carries the fate of the euro on her shoulders.
Third place went to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was re-elected to a third term "after a few years swapping posts with Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev," and "officially regains the power that no one believes he truly gave up."
Forbes said it assembled the list using four criteria: power over lots of people, financial resources controlled, whether the person has power in various spheres of life, and whether that person actively uses their power.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg - 16 on the list - fit the bill nicely because he is a politician overseeing a huge and hugely important city, and is a billionaire, a media magnate and a major philanthropist.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates was fourth, while Pope Benedict XVI, leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, ranked fifth.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was 25th. He dropped from 9th in last year's ranking because Facebook's debut this year as a listed company was a dud, Forbes said.
在福布斯杂志评出的全球最具权势人物榜上，奥巴马毫无疑问地居于首位，入榜的还有教皇、德国总理安格拉•默克尔、社交网站Facebook的创立者扎克伯格和其他具有全球影响力的风云人物。
入榜的共有71个人，福布斯称以71为界是因为全球估计有71亿人口，因此该排行榜是在每1亿人当中选出一个重量级人物。
美国总统奥巴马是连续第二年登顶这一排行榜，福布斯指出奥巴马在11月大选中赢得了普选，获得了选举团的多数票，还获得了全部七个关键“摇摆州”的支持。
奥巴马面临着大量挑战，诸如预算危机、居高不下的失业率和中东地区的新冲突等。
福布斯杂志称：“但是奥巴马依然是全球最强大军队的最高统帅，也是世界唯一经济和文化超级大国的首脑——实际上也是自由世界的领导人。”
权势榜第二名是德国总理默克尔，福布斯杂志将她称为欧盟27个成员国的主心骨、承载欧元命运的人。
位居第三的是俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔•普京。“在和总理德米特里•梅德韦杰夫互换几年职位后”普京第三次当选为总统，“正式重掌人人都认为他从未真正放弃过的权力”。
福布斯称评出这一榜单是依据四个标准：对许多人能施加权力，控制经济资源，在生活的多个领域都拥有权力，积极运用手中的权力。
排在第16位的纽约市长迈克尔•布隆伯格完美地符合这些标准，因为他作为一个政界人士，着一个非常重要的特大城市，本身又是一个亿万富翁、媒体大亨和大慈善家。
微软创立者比尔•盖茨排在第四位，领导全球12亿天主教徒的教皇本笃十六世排在第五位。
Facebook首席执行官马克•扎克伯格名列第25位。福布斯说，他相比去年排名（第9位）下降了，因为Facebook今年上市后表现不佳。
Vocabulary:
rainmaker: 神通广大的企业经理，能呼风唤雨的招财者，风云人物
toss-up: 难以定夺的事物
galore: 大量的，大量地
magnate: 巨头
debut: 首次露面
dud: 不能令人满意的，差劲的，糟糕的