高级英语第一册 13.Britannia Rues the Waves

　　13.Britannia Rues the Waves
　　Andrew Neil
　　Britain's merchant navy seldom grabs the headlines these days; it is almost a forgotten industry. Yet shipping is the essential lifeline for the nation's economy. Ninety-nine percent of our trade in and out of the country goes by ship—and over half of it in British ships.
　　Shipping is also a significant British success story. It earns over ￡1000 million a year in foreign exchange earnings: without our merchant fleet, the balance of payments would be permanently in deficit, despite North Sea oil. But ,today this vital British industry is more in peril than ever before. On almost all the major sea routes of the world, the British fleet risks being elbowed out by stiff foreign competition.
　　The threat comes from two main directions: from the Russians and the Eastern bloc countries who are now in the middle of a massive expansion of their merchant navies, and carving their way into the international shipping trade by severely undercutting Western shipping compaines; and from the merchant fleets of the developing nations, who are bent on taking over the lion's share of the trade between Europe and Africa, Asia and the Far East-- routes in which Britain has a bib stake.
　　Today, the British fleet no longer dominates the high seas: our share of the world's merchant fleet has fallen from 40 per cent to around eight per cent. But, in terms of tonnage, the British merchant navy has continued to expand, it can now carry over two-thirds more than it could in 1914, and, almost alone among our traditional industries, shipping has remained a major success story.
　　Unlike the rest of British industry, ship-owners invested big. In the early 1960s, the shipping companies cashed in on government grants and tax concessions. Between 1966 and 1976, British shipping lines invested at a rate of over ￡1 million a day. By the early 1970s, it seemed that, some-where in the world, a new British ship was being launched every week. The result is that Britain has a very modern fleet: the average age of our merchant ships is only six years, and over half the fleet is under five years old. For some time now, British shipping managers have stayed ahead of the competition by investing in the most sophisticated ships.
　　The other major factor which has played a key role in the dominance of the British merchant navy is an institution invented by the British well over 100 years ago: the ‘conference'.
　　In the middle of the 19th century, competition between sailing-ships and steam-ships became out-throat, and price cutting ruined many long-established companies. So the ship owners got together to establish a more settled system, and they set up a system of price fixing. In other words, every possible type of cargo had a price, which all owners agreed to charge. It was, in fact, a cartel, though the British ship owners gave it the more dignified name of a’ conference'. The system has certainly stood the test of time. Today, there are about 300 conferences governing the trade-routes of the world, and the British still play a major role.
　　By reducing competition, shipping conferences have taken some of the risk out of the dodgy business of moving goods by sea. They make it harder, perhaps, to make a big killing in good times, because you have to share the trade with other conference members. But they make it easier to weather the bad times, because there is no mad, competitive scramble for the available trade.
　　By the early 1970s, bad times were just around the corner. The world shipbuilding boom reached its peak in 1973,but that was the year of the Arab-lsraeli war, which was followed rapidly by the quadrupling of oil prices. By 1974, the industrialised world had begun its slide into the worst depression since the 1980s, and the shipping industry had entered its long years of crisis.
　　The first to be affected were the oil-tanker fleets. As oil demand was cut back, charter rates plummeted, and the estuaries of the world became jammed with the steadily increasing numbers of moth-ball tankers. Norway and Greece suffered most. British ship owners had not become so involved in the tanker boom in the first place, so they were not so badly affected. By 1976, the slump had begun to bite into the bulk-carrier trade. Bulk carriers are ships that carry dry cargo of one particular kind, such as sugar, coal or wheat, with iron ore being by far the most important. But with the world steel industry deep in the doldrums, who needed iron ore carriers? With its big bulk-carrier fleet, the British shipping industry now began to feel the pinch.
　　Even though the slump spread fast into most shipping sectors, the British fleet was still a long way from bankruptcy. The one area which has weathered the economic storms best is that controlled by the conferences: the scheduled freight-liner services -- and that is where Britain's fleet is strongly entrenched.
　　Liner-freight vessels offer people who want to send goods by sea a regular, scheduled shipping service; they follow agreed routes, or ‘lines', and call at ports on a greed dates. For example, if I want to send a shipment of spare tractor parts from Taiwan to Bangkok, all I have to do is contact the Far East Freight Conference, and that will be able to tell me when the next liner ship will be calling at Taiwan, the exact date on which it will get to Bangkok, and the going freight rate. It is an ideal ‘parcel' service for people with cargoes that are not big enough to make it worth chartering a whole ship.
　　It is also a plus for the ship owners not to be dependent on only one customer. Liner ships carry all sorts of different cargoes -- mainly finished manufactured goods -- so, if there is a slump in one particular industry, provided there is still buoyancy in other industries, the liner fleets can still survive. That gives them a distinct advantage over oil tankers or bulk carriers, because the latter are dependent on one or two basic raw materials. That is why Britain has remained relatively strong.
　　Much of Britain's liner fleet rarely sees a British port. Our ships are extensive cross-traders; that is, they carry goods between foreign countries. British companies are big, for example, on the Japan-to-Australia run, and on the growing trade routes between the Far East and the Middle East, around the Persian Gulf. Until recently, those routes were highly profitable for the British companies, and a major source of foreign currency for Britain. They are also the routes on which the Third World and the Russians are out to make the biggest inroads.
　　Most emerging countries in the Third World are out to carry a bigger share of their trade in their own ships. Developing countries regard a merchant navy as something of a status symbol -- the next thing to go for after a national airline. Singapore has expanded their fleet by 6 000 percent in the last 15 years, India by 400 percent.
　　The challenge from the Third World has always been foreseen by our shipping companies. P & O, for example, while still out to increase the total freight it carries, is planning for a gradual reduction in its percentage share of the trade with the new shipping powers of the Third World. But P & O has no intention of throwing in the towel. The key tactic behind its strategy of holding on to the richest slice of the trade has been to move up-market -- to go where the Third World cannot follow: into high-technology investment.
　　Containers, for example, were an American invention, but it was British ship owners who put up the money to pioneer the international deep-sea container service. Containers save time, because the loading is done in the factory or warehouse, rather than on the dockside, and they are very secure against theft; except for a code number on the outside, there is no indication of what is inside the box. To cash in on the container revolution, you need a sophisticated system of roads and railways, something that most Third World countries do not have: And container ships are expensive, around ￡50 million each.
　　P & O's high-technology, high-investment strategy,however, is far from being the whole answer to the Third World threat. The developing countries are not out to compete with Western fleets by commercial means; they want to impose a set of rules which will guarantee them a major slice of the shipping trade. This demand has found official expression in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD. The UNCTAD liner code lays down that between two trading partners, 80 per cent of the freight should be split equally between their respective merchant fleets. That leaves only 20 per cent to go into the numerous cross-traders, all fighting for a share, and it is on these cross-trades that British liner companies earn 40 per cent of their revenue. Not enough countries have ratified the UNCTAD code yet to bring it into force. But if it does become universal, it could strike a severe blow to Britain's liner trade.
　　The Iron Curtain countries represent an even greater and more organised threat to the future of Britain's liner ships, and it is a threat that is much more difficult to counter.
　　Russia has expanded its cargo-liner fleet far faster than the growth in either its own trade or world trade would justify. Today, it has the largest liner fleet in the world and another one million tons should come into service before 1980. And with its policy of excessively low freight rates, the Russian merchant navy has already made major inroads into Western trade.
　　Russia now carries 95 per cent of its seaborne trade with the EEC in its own ships. More important, it is biting deeply into the major cross-trading routes of the world. Eastern bloc countries -- Russia, with Poland and East Germany- have already captured 20 per cent of the cargo traffic on the busy sea-lanes of the North Atlantic, almost 25 per cent of the trade between Europe and South America and just abou, t the same percentage of the trade between Europe and East Africa.,
　　How can the Russians afford to undercut by up to 40 percent? Well, Soviet ships are not necessarily out to make a profit, in our sense of the word. The name of the same ,for Russian ships, is hard currency. The Soviet Union is becoming more dependent on Western imports -- from grain to technology -- but the West will not accept roubles in payment. So Russia needs hard currencies, tike the dollar, the mark or the yen, even sterling, to pay for its imports. It is these currencies Russian ships earn as cross-traders. It does not matter very much if they are operating at a loss; that can be made up by the Soviet government in roubles.
　　But there is more to it than that for the Russians. The Soviet mercantile marine obviously acts as a support to the Soviet navy, very much as Western fleets used to do. But there are important differences. The Soviet merchant fleet, which has now been almost 20 years in growing, has developed the kinds of ships which would certainly expand the Soviet reach well beyond its perimeters. For example, much of the heavy equipment for the Cubans and Angolans was brought in Soviet merchant ships. So this mercantile marine capability is certainly a great advance in the Soviet ability to project their power at some distance from their own frontiers.
　　And this is also part of a general Soviet hydrographic policy to map the oceans of the world, to get to know the ports and, above all, to deepen contacts with the states with whom the Russians are developing close trading ties.
　　How can Western ship owners react to undercutting of 40 per cent that would drive them out of business if they did the same?
　　There is a limit, of course, to what any British government can do on its own. Shipping is an essentially international business, and Britain can only counter the challenges of the developing world and the Russians at an international level. But whom could we count on for support? The EEC is so divided about shipping that it is almost powerless to act .Take the challenge of the developing world. The French do not mind the UNCTAD code on liner shipping because it would help them to increase their share of the liner trade; the same is true for the Germans and the Belgians. So Britain cannot rely on concerted EEC action on that issue. As far as the Russians are concerned, Britain, along with West Germany and Denmark, has been calling for a coordinated response; the monitoring of Russian ship movements and restrictions on the number of Russian ships allowed to call at EEC ports. But, last June, the French, because of their Russian ties, blocked plans along these lines. It will be November before the question is considered again.
　　British ship owners are so far happy with the strength of the British government attempts to force the EEC into action. They believe that the Trade Department, which looks after shipping, understands their problems. But they are far less sure about other government ministers, especially those in the powerful Industry Department, which oversees shipbuilding. Ship owners fear that saving jobs in Britain's ailing shipyards comes well before saving its merchant fleet.
　　British shipyard, s are currently churning out 24 vessels for Poland. The Poles were lured to Britain by the gift of a￡28 million subsidy and the promise that British shipbuilders would raise all the credit; so while our shipping fleet is under attack from communist ships, our government is using British taxpayers' money to out their shipbuilding costs. We are doing the same for developing countries' fleets. India is now a major Third World shipping power, yet Britain is to build six ships for the Indians -- for nothing.
　　In the end, British companies could be driven out of shipping altogether. Some, such as P & O, have already moved into other fields, from house building to oil. Smaller shipping lines do not have the resources to diversify. They face extinction. And when they go, so does a huge slice of the few traditional industries worth keeping.
　　(from The Listener, August, 1978)

　　第十三课大不列颠望洋兴叹
　　安德鲁?尼尔
　　英国商船队的大名如今已很少见诸报纸上的大字标题，它已几乎被人们遗忘。然而，海运业今天依然是英国经济的主要命脉，我国的内外贸易商品99％要靠海洋运输--其中一大半是通过英国商船运输。
　　海运业在英国占有举足轻重的地位，是个兴旺发达的行业，它一年可赚取10亿多英镑的外汇。如果没有我们的商业船队，那么，就算有北海的石油，我国的收支还会是永远的赤字。然而，如今英国的这一至关重要的产业正面临着空前严重的危机。几乎在世界上所有的主要航海线上，英国商业船队都有被强劲的外国竞争对手挤开的危险。
　　威胁主要来自两个方面：其一是苏联及东欧集团各国，它们正大力扩充自己的商业船队，并通过大幅度压低价格同西方海运公司竞争的手段挤进国际海运界；其二是发展中国家的商船队，它们正努力要从对英国利害攸关的几条航线--欧洲至亚洲、亚洲至远东等航线上夺走大部分生意。
　　今天，大不列颠的商业船队再也不是海上霸王了：我们在世界商船总量中所占的比重已由原来的40％降到现在的大约8％。不过，就商业船只的总吨位而言，英国商业船队仍保持着继续扩展的势态，其装载总量比起1914年已增加2／3以上。在我国的传统产业258 中，几乎还只有海运业至今依然保持着常盛不衰的记录。
　　与英国其他各行业情形不同的是，海运业的船主们花了大本 钱投资。60年代初期，英国的海运公司利用政府资助和减税等有利条件大发其财。在1966至1976年间，英国海运业的投资率每天竟超 过100万英镑。到70年代初，几乎每个星期就有一艘新的英国船只 在世界的某个港口下水。结果是英国拥有了一支非常现代化的商 业船队：我们的船只的平均年龄只有6年，而且一半以上的船只投 入使用还不到五年。在目前这一阶段，英国海运业的经营者们在投 资建造最先进的船只这方面是走在了其他国家的竞争对手的前头。
　　英国商船队得以称雄的另一个重要因素是英国人100多年前首创的一种组织："商船协会"
　　19世纪中叶，帆船与汽船之间的竞争愈演愈烈，已到了你死我 活的程度，由竞争所带来的降价使得许多历史悠久的船运公司纷纷破产。于是，船运公司老板们联合起来，共同建立起一种比较稳定的行业秩序，并订立了一个航运价格管理制度。换言之，每一种需要运载的货物都有一个由全体船主商定的统一价格。这实际上是一种卡特尔组织，但英国船主们却给它取了"船业协会"这么一个更文雅的名称。这种制度无疑是经受住了时间的考验。今天，世界上总共大约有300多家这样的船业协会控制着全球各地的贸易运输线．但英国的船业协会依然占有着主导地位。
　　通过缓和同行业的竞争，船业协会为海上运输这种风险性极大的行业减去了一部分风险。它也许会使其成员公司在贸易景气的时候难以暴发横财，因为你得与其他成员公司分享生意机会；但在生意萧条时期，协会却能帮助其成员公司比较顺利地渡过难关，因为在现有的生意范围内不存在疯狂的、不择手段的倾轧。
　　70年代初期，贸易萧条时期已经快要到来。世界造船业的兴盛期在1973年达到顶峰，但就在这一年爆发了阿以战争，紧接着石油价格暴涨了4倍。到1974年，世界各工业化国家开始进入30年代以来最严重的一次经济大萧条时期，海运业也随之陷人了长期的危机之中
　　在危机中首当其冲的是运油船只。由于石油需求量减少，油船包租率直线下降，于是，闲置不用的油轮越来越多，塞满了世界各地的港口。受害最严重者属挪威和希腊。英国海运公司老板们起初在世界油轮发展高潮时期就没有盲目地陷身其中跟着发展油轮业，因此，他们所受的影响还不是那么严重。到1976年，经济萧条已开始影响到驳船的生意了。驳船是指装运某种干货，如糖、煤或小麦等的船只，不过最主要的还是装运铁矿。可是，世界钢铁工业已陷于严重萧条状态，谁还需要运铁矿的船只呢?拥有大量驳船的英国海运界现在开始感受到危机的影响了。
　　尽管危机迅速蔓延到海运业的大多数部门，英国商船队还远未到达破产的境地。在克服这次经济危机中表现得最为出色的部门是由船业协会控制着的定期货轮运输业务--这也是英国商船队把守得最坚固的一块阵地。
　　货运班轮为那些需要由海上运输货物的人们提供定期的货运服务。它们沿预定的航线航行，按约定好的日期抵达各港口。比方说，我若想将一批拖拉机配件从台湾运往曼谷的话，我只需与远东货船协会取得联系，他们就会告诉我最近一趟班轮何时到达台湾，告诉我其抵达曼谷的确切日期，以及现行的货运价格。对于那些需要运货，但货物又不多，不值得包租一整条船的人们来说，这是一种理想的"零担运输"业务。
　　不单依赖于某一个主顾，这对船业公司来说也是一个有利因素。货运班轮载运各种不同的货物--主要是工业制成品--因此，即使某个行业出现萧条，只要其他行业还有活力，货运班轮便依然可以维持下去。这就使货运班轮与油轮和驳船比起来具有明显的优势，因为后者要依赖于一两种基本原料。这就是英国海运业历久不衰的根源所在。
　　英国的定期班轮多半难得停靠英国港口。我们的商船是远洋国际商船，也就是说，它们往来于外国与外国之间运输货物。例如，在日本至澳大利亚航线上，在日益发展的远东与中东之间的贸易航线上，以及在波斯湾周围的贸易航线上，英国海运公司都包揽着大量的生意。直到最近，这些航线对英国海运公司来说还是非常有利可图的，也是英国赚取外汇的主要来源。然而，它们也正是第三世界国家和苏联千方百计极力想争夺的航线。
　　多数第三世界的新兴国家都在努力提高用本国商船运载货物的比例。发展中国家将商船队看成国家地位的象征--是仅次于国家航空事业的优先发展目标。在最近15年中，新加坡将自己的商船队扩大了60倍，印度也扩大了4倍。
　　我国的一些海运公司早就预见到了来自第三世界的挑战。例如，东方轮船运输公司在继续致力于扩大其货运总量的同时，正计划逐步削减其与第三世界新兴海运强国分享生意的比例。但是，该公司并不打算退出竞争，拱手认输。它为保住贸易上的这块最厚的肥肉所采取的主要策略是转向高层次市场--进入第三世界无法跟进的领域，即进行高技术投资。
　　例如，集装箱本是美国人的发明，但却是英国船主们投资首创了国际远洋集装箱海运业务。集装箱运输节省时间，因为装货作业在工厂或仓库里即可完成而不必在码头上完成。集装箱运输也非常安全可靠，有利于防盗；除箱体外面的编号外，集装箱上没有任何表明箱内所装是何货物的标记。要有效地利用集装箱这一技术革命的成果，必须拥有可与之配套的先进的公路和铁路运输系统，而这是大多数第三世界国家所不具备的条件。此外，集装箱货船造价高昂，每艘船大约为5 000万英镑。
　　东方轮船运输公司的高技术、高投资战略远远不能完全解除第三世界的威胁。发展中国家并不想通过商业途径同西方船队竞争，他们希望强制实行一套相关的法规来保证他们在海运贸易中占有可观的份额。这一要求已在联合国贸易和发展会议上正式提出。根据该组织制订的海运法规，两个贸易伙伴之间的贸易货物的80 9／6应均分给双方国家的商船队来运输。这样便只剩下20％的生意给那无数的国际远洋货轮去争抢了，而英国各航运公司总收入的40 9／6要从这些国际贸易中赚取。联合国贸易和发展会议的这一规定目前尚未生效，因为尚无足够数量的国家对它予以正式承认。可是，一旦这一规定得到各国普遍承认，那对于英国的海运业将是一个沉重打击。
　　铁幕后的国家对英国商船的前途构成更大更有组织的威胁，而且也是更难应付的威胁。
　　俄国航海货船数量发展的速度之快大大超出了其本国贸易和世界贸易发展的需要。今天，它已经拥有世界上最大的商船队，而且在1980年以前，还将有百万吨新的船只投入使用。由于它采取超低运价政策，俄国商船队已经从西方国家手中抢去了不少的生意。
　　目前，俄国与欧洲经济共同体之间的海上贸易货物已有95％是用自己的船只载运的。更严重的是，它正深深地渗透进世界各主要国际贸易航线。东欧集团国家--俄国、波兰和东德--已夺得了北大西洋繁忙的海运航线上货运生意的20％，欧洲和南美之间的海运生意的将近25％。欧洲和东非之间的货运生意亦有同样的比例被他们夺取。
　　俄国人将货运价格降低了40％，他们怎么能承担如此大幅度削价所造成的损失呢?这是因为苏联的商船不一定要努力去赚取我们所理解的那种利润。对于俄国商船来说，最重要的目标是获取硬通货。苏联现在越来越离不开西方的进口货物--从粮食到技术--但西方国家不会接受以卢布付款。因此，俄国需要像美元、德国马克或日元，甚至包括英镑这样的硬通货来支付进口货物的货款。苏联商船打入国际贸易市场就是为了赚取这些硬通货。对他们来说，即使是赔本经营也无关紧要，他们的亏空可以由苏联政府用卢布来补偿。
　　但苏联的目的还不止于此。苏联的商船队显然还充当着其海军的后备军的角色，这有点类似于从前的西方商船队，但两者之间又存在着重大的差别。苏联商船队在经过近20年来的发展壮大后现已拥有各种船只，能使苏联将其势力扩张到远远超出其国境线以外的地区。比如，提供给古巴和安哥拉的重型装备有许多就是由苏联商船运输的。因此，苏联商船队如今所具有的运输能力大大加强了苏联在本土以外进行远距离势力扩张的能力。
　　这也是苏联所执行的一项海洋地理勘测总体规划的一个组成部分，这个总体规划的内容包括勘测世界各大海洋，侦察世界各港口，而更重要的是，加深同那些与苏联有着密切的贸易关系的国家之间的联系。
　　如果西方船运公司也学苏联人那样削价40％，它们就得关门大吉。那么，面对苏联的这一做法，西方船主们能采取何种对策呢?
　　任何一届英国政府单靠自己的力量所能够发挥的作用当然都、-是有限的。海运业从本质上说来毕竟是一项国际性商务活动，英国也只有通过发动国际社会的参与来抵御第三世界和俄国方面的挑战。但我们能指望从哪儿获得支持呢?欧共体在海运问题上存在着严重分歧，几乎无力采取任何行动。就以发展中国家的挑战为例来说吧，法国人对于联合国贸易和发展会议有关海运方面的规定并不在意，因为这个规定可能还会有助于提高他们在海运生意中的分成比例。德国和比利时的情形也和法国一样。所以，英国不能指望欧共体在这个问题上采取一致的行动。在对待俄国方面，英国一直同西德和丹麦一道呼吁采取协调行动，监测俄国商船的动向，并限制停靠欧共体国家港口的俄国船只的数量。但在6月份，法国人却因其与俄国的特殊关系而阻碍这一计划的通过。而要到11月份，这一计划才能得到重新审议。
　　迄今为止，英国船主们对于英国政府在敦促欧共体采取行动方面所具有的影响力是感到满意的。他们相信主管海运事务的贸易部对于他们面临的困难是理解的，但对于政府的其他各部门，尤其是对于主管着造船业的很有实权的工业部的大臣们的态度，并无多大的信心。船主们担心这些大臣优先考虑的是拯救英国的奄奄一息的造船厂，而不是如何拯救英国的商船队。
　　英国的造船厂目前正为波兰制造着24艘轮船。波兰人之所以倾向于英国是因为受到英国为他们提供2 800万英镑的资助款这一厚赠以及英国造船商将负责为他们筹集所有的贷款这一承诺的引诱。所以，当我国商船队正受到共产党国家商船的威胁的同时，我们的政府却在用英国纳税人的钱来帮助他们降低造船成本。对于发展中国家的商船队，我们也在采取同样的做法。印度现在已经是第三世界的一个海运强国，但英国却准备无偿地为印度人打造六艘船只。
　　英国海运公司最终将有可能被完全挤出海运行业。有些海运公司，如东方远洋船运公司，业已转向从房屋建筑到石油开采等其他领域发展业务。而那些规模较小的海运公司却没有足够的财力来从事多样化经营，它们面临着破产的命运。一旦这些海运公司破产，英国有限的几个值得保留的传统产业的一大部分也会随之消亡。
　　词汇(Vocabulary)
　　Britannia ( n.) :[poetic]Great Britain or the British Islands[诗]大不列颠；不列颠群岛
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　　rue ( v.) :repent of；regret having entered into：wish nonexistent懊悔；抱憾
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　　deficit ( n.) :the amount by which a sum of money is less than the required amount亏空，亏损；赤字
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　　peril ( n.) :exposure to harm or injury；danger；jeopardy(严重的)危险；冒险
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　　undercut (v．) :sell goods more cheaply or work for smaller wages than(sb．doing the same)；sell at lower prices or work at lower wages than比以别人低的价格出售(商品)；索价低于他人
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　　tonnage ( n.) :the total amount of shipping of a country or port，calculated in tons(一国或一港口的)船舶总吨数
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　　cartel ( n.) :an association of industrialists，business firms. etc．for establishing a national or international monopoly by price fixing，ownership of controlling stock，etc．[经]卡特尔
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　　dodgy ( adj.) :[BrE]risky and possibly dangerous[英]冒险的；危险的
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　　scramble ( n.) :rough struggle；a disorderly struggle or rush争夺，抢夺
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　　quadruple ( v.) :make or become four times as much or as many；multiply by four(使)成四倍；以四乘
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　　plummet ( v.) :drop drastically垂直落下；骤然跌落
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　　estuary ( n.) :an inlet or arm of the sea；the wide mouth of a river where the tide meets the current(江河人海的)河口，港湾
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　　moth-ball ( n.) :①marble-sized balls of naphthalene. stored with clothes (esp．woolens)to repel moths；②the state of being stored，or kept in existence but not used①樟脑丸；卫生球②封存；保藏
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　　slump ( n.) :a decline in business activity，price，etc．(物价等)暴跌；(市场等)萧条
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　　doldrums ( n.) :low spirits；dull，gloomy，listless feeling情绪低落，意志消沉；忧闷，忧郁，忧愁
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　　pinch ( n.) :a painful，difficult，or straitened circumstance困苦的处境，贫困的境地
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　　entrench ( v．) :establish securely(used in passive voice or with a reflexive pronoun)确保(地位等)；确立(用于被动语态或与反身代词连用)
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　　inroad ( n.) :(usu．pl．)injurious intrusion on or into；influence of one party that undermines that of another(通常为复数)损害，侵蚀
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　　buoyancy ( n.) :the property(as of price or business activity)of maintaining a satisfactory high level(物价)上涨的趋向；(生意)兴盛的趋向
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　　rouble ( n.) :the monetary of the former Soviet Union卢布(前苏联货币单位)
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　　sterling ( n.) :British money英国货币
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　　mercantile ( adj. ) :of or characteristic of merchants or trade；commercial商人的；贸易的；商业的
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　　perimeter ( n.) :the outer boundary of a figure or area；circumference周；周边；周围
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　　hydrographic ( adj.) :of the study，description，and mapping of oceans，lakes，and rivers，esp. with reference to their navigational and commercial uses水文学的；水文测验学的；水文地理学的(尤指水道测量学)
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　　ailing (adj.) :in poor health；sickly患病的；病痛的
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　　churn ( adj.) :(used in churn out)produce a large quantity of sth．; produce in quantity without quality；produce in a regular flow without much thought or expression，usu．with some abundance(用于churn out)大量生产出；大量地粗制滥造；大量写出
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　　短语 (Expressions)
　　be bent on(doing)sth．:   be determined on(a coupe of action)决心采取(某行动)
　　例： He is bent on winning at all costs．他决心不惜一切去争取胜利。
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　　the Hon's share of sth．:   the largest or best part of sth．when it is divided最大或最好的一份
　　例： As usual，the lion's share of the budget is for defense．预算中的最大一项照例是国防费用。
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　　cash in(on sth．):   take advantage of or profit from sth．获得利益或利润
　　例： The shops are cashing in on temporary shortages by raising prices．商店趁一时缺货而提高价格，从中获利。
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　　feel the pinch:   (begin to)suffer from a lack of sth．，esp·money (开始)感到缺乏(尤其钱)
　　例： The high rate of unemployment is making many families feel the pinch．失业率很高，许多家庭感到日子不好过了。
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　　throw in the towel:   admit that one is defeated承认失败，认输
　　例： They threw in the towel without a fight．他们不战而弃。
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　　churn out:   produce sth．in large amounts大量生产某物
　　例： She chums out romantic novels．她写了很多浪漫小说。