英语听力：澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2013-12-25

 The Australian sharemarket is following Wall Street higher in a shortened day of likely verylight trade. The All Ordinaries Index is currently 0.4 of a per cent higher, asis the ASX 200 index. And the sharemarket all closed at 2:30 Australian eastern standard daylight time. Construction group Forge is up 18 percent. Virgin¹ Australia among the worst performers today. Westpac is best of the big four banks and Telstra is a little lower. Wall Street ended at another record high.The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up half a percent. The S&P 500 Index ended trade ahead by the same margin².

 

Spot gold prices are a little higher in the Asian session. Crude oil is weaker. And the Australian dollar has been holding steady against the greenback, buying 89.25 US cents.

 

The corporate³ watchdog has penalised National Australia Bank and International Bank,UBS for potential market misconduct.Under a deal reached with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission,NAB will donate two million dollars to fund public financial literacy programs.ASIC is investigating the conduct of a sharemarket trading contractor⁴ hired by NAB which may have led to a spike⁵ in some share prices in October. Meanwhile, ASIC has found UBS traders tried to manipulate the rate of interests at which the banks lend cash to each other. So, the Australian arm of the Swiss Bank the UBS will donate one million dollars to the financial literacy fund.

1 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

2 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

3 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

4 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

5 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。