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下半年BEC中级阅读冲刺练习
下半年商务英语中级考试将开考，大家准备好了吗?下面是yjbys网小编提供给大家关于BEC中级阅读冲刺练习，希望对大家的备考有所帮助。
篇一：欧佩克担忧美元贬值
石油输出国组织(OPEC，简称欧佩克)将进一步研究美元不断贬值对其经济体的影响。此前，有成员国呼吁欧佩克以美元以外的货币为石油定价。
Opec is to study further the effect of the falling US dollar on its economies following calls for it to price oil in currencies other than the greenback.
此举出现在欧佩克领导人在利雅得举行的峰会上，其目的是弥合该组织内部在如何应对美元贬值方面的分歧。此前，伊朗和委内瑞拉敦促欧佩克改变以美元为石油定价的做法，但遭到此次峰会主办国沙特阿拉伯的强烈反对。
The move, which emerged at the summit of cartel leaders in Riyadh, was an attempt to bridge the divide within the group over how to respond to the dollar’s decline. Iran and Venezuela had pushed for Opec to move away from the dollar in the face of strong opposition from the summit’s host, Saudi Arabia.
伊朗总统马哈茂德·艾哈迈迪-内贾德(Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad)在领导人峰会后表示，美元不断贬值意味着，石油生产国正在为美国政府及其人民提供补贴。
Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran’s president, said after the leaders’ meeting that the falling dollar meant oil producers were subsidising the US government and people.
“他们得到我们的石油，却给我们一张毫无价值的纸，”他表示。“我们都知道美元没有经济价值。”
“They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper,” he said. “We all know that the US dollar has no economic value.”
今年美元兑一篮子主要货币已下跌16%，并且自欧佩克于2000年在委内瑞拉的加拉加斯举行上一届峰会以来，美元兑欧元汇率已累计下跌44%。伊朗官员表示，今年迄今为止，他们每桶石油的平均价格是63美元，较2006年同期仅高出2美元。如果折算为欧元，今年的油价比去年更便宜。
The dollar has dropped 16 per cent this year against a basket of major currencies, and 44 per cent against the euro since the last Opec summit in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2000. Iranian officials have said that the average price of a barrel of their oil so far this year is, at $63, only $2 higher than for the same period of 2006. Priced in euros, oil has been cheaper this year than last year.
欧佩克成员国的财长和外长计划数周后在阿布扎比举行会议，讨论美元的影响。欧佩克在此次峰会的闭幕宣言中间接地暗示了这一点。
Finance and foreign ministers from Opec countries are to meet in Abu Dhabi in the next few weeks to discuss the effect of the dollar, a move hinted at in an oblique reference in the summit’s closing declaration.
沙特阿拉伯外交大臣沙特·费萨尔亲王(Prince Saud Al-Faisal)上周五警告称，如果在该宣言中提及美元，美元可能“被套”。
On Friday, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, warned that the dollar could “collapse” if the US currency was mentioned in the declaration.
他本该是在闭门的部长级会议上发表的这番言论，却不小心通过话筒被记者听到。
His remarks – made in what was supposed to be a closed ministerial meeting – were accidentally broadcast to reporters.
在峰会之后，费萨尔亲王淡化了部长们进一步研究美元问题的重要性。他表示，此举不具有任何“隐藏含义”，只是反映出欧佩克成员国“实现其资源回报最大化”的责任。
After the summit, Prince Saud played down the significance of the ministers’ further examination of the dollar problem, saying it did not have any “hidden implications” and reflected Opec members’ duty ”to maximise the return from their resources”.
篇二：
对经济学家来说，幸运的是，eBay不仅提出了问题，也给出了解决办法。由于每天都有数不胜数的拍卖开拍，这个拍卖网站提供了大量数据。如果可以公开获得的数据不够用，还可以很容易地进行"现场"实验，在出价方的自然生活环境中研究他们。
Fortunately for economists, eBay offers solutions as well as problems. With hundreds of thousands of auctions starting every day, the auction site provides masses of data. And if the publicly available data isn't enough, it's also easy to conduct an experiment "in the field", studying bidders in their natural habitat.
亚利桑那大学(University of Arizona)经济学家戴维·赖利(David Reiley)自eBay出现之前就一直在研究网上拍卖。在最近与拉玛·卡特卡尔(Rama Katkar)合著的一篇论文中，他对eBay拍卖中的保留价格应该公开还是保密的问题进行了研究。
David Reiley, an economist at the University of Arizona, has been studying online auctions since before eBay existed. In a recent paper with Rama Katkar, he investigated whether reserve prices in eBay auctions should be open or secret.
拍卖理论提出一种看法，认为保留价格保密更好。保留价格保密可以让出价方看到彼此逐渐攀升的出价，从而激起他们的信心，让他们相信自己不是唯一欣赏这件物品的人。即便出价太低、达不到保留价的水平，它们也能达到一个重要目的--安抚出价方，让他们知道其他人也感兴趣。在eBay上公开保留价格就不可能起到这种安抚作用了;任何人都不能提交低于公开保留价格的出价，而没有任何来自其他出价方的信心信号，就可能出现没有人出价高出保留价的危险。
Auction theory offers an argument that a secret reserve price is better. A secret reserve price allows bidders to see each others' gradually ascending bids and thus draw confidence that they are not alone in prizing the item. Even though the bids are too low to beat the reserve, they serve an important purpose of reassuring bidders that others are also interested. An open reserve price on eBay makes that reassurance impossible; nobody can submit a bid below the open reserve, and lacking any signs of confidence from other bidders, there is a danger that nobody may submit a bid above it either.
要判断这种理论观点在实践中是否真的有价值，有太多不可精确估量的因素。因此，卡特卡尔和赖利通过拍卖50对匹配的收藏卡片对这个理论进行了检验。他们的方法是，在保留价相同的情况下，一半公开保留价，一半保密保留价。他们的结论与这种理论观点截然相反：保密的保留价达不到预期目的。它们不是激发出价方的兴趣，反而似乎是让他们退却，这也许是因为他们担心，保留价之所以保密，是因为它高得离谱。由于不想浪费自己的时间，许多出价方就会点击浏览器上的 "返回"键，再找别的地方出价。
There are too many imponderables to tell whether this theoretical argument is what really counts in practice. So Katkar and Reiley put the theory to the test by simply selling 50 matched pairs of collectible cards, half with an open reserve price and half with a secret reserve price of the same level. Their conclusion, contrary to the theoretic argument, is that secret reserve prices are counterproductive. Far from stimulating interest they seem to put off bidders,who perhaps fear that a secret reserve is secret because it is far too high. Not wishing to waste their time, many of them just click "back" on their browsers and find somewhere else to bid.
这个结论也许不会撼动世界，但方法非常重要。戴维·赖利是最早发现互联网正在生成大量可研究数据的经济学家之一。如今，eBay、亚马逊(Amazon)到Match.com等众多网站提供的这种数据，正在丰富经济学研究。它可能也会让少数eBay拍卖方富起来。
The conclusion may not shake the world but the method is important. David Reiley was one of the first economists to realise that the internet was generating vast amounts of researchable data. Now that data, from sites ranging from eBay and Amazon to Match.com, is enriching the study of economics. It may enrich a few eBay sellers, too.
蒂姆·哈福德的著作《卧底经济学家》(The Undercover Economist)(小布郎出版社(Little, Brown))目前已经出版平装本。
Tim Harford's book "The Undercover Economist" (Little, Brown) is out now in paperback.
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