美国有线新闻 CNN 负债730亿美元无力偿还 波多黎各申请破产保护

 

AZUZ: The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico has filed for bankruptcy¹. And because it owes $73 billion in debt, this is the biggest municipal bankruptcy filling in U.S. history.

Bankruptcy is a process that has to be approved by a judge. If it is, it could allow the Caribbean island to pay back creditors² less than what it owes. As things stand now, Puerto Rico has been missing payments on its debt for months.

But one downside to bankruptcy is that it could make investors³ less willing to lend money to the island, and a lack of money is the problem to begin with.

Puerto Rico has been in an economic recession for about 10 years. Its unemployment rate is more than 10 percent compared with less than 5 percent on the U.S. mainland. These are big reasons why the island's population has decreased by 350,000 people in the past 10 years. And fewer working residents means less tax revenue for the island's indebted government.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You'll feel the emptiness. You know, right now, we have this house that was built for our big family and it's only my wife and myself, and — we miss our children.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's still the emptiness.

DANIA ALEXANDRINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sadness overtakes the Calderons when they speak of their grown children. Three of whom moved to the United States in the past ten years, in search of better opportunities.

The first to leave was the middle child who had a degree in business, but was working at an airport souvenir shop in Puerto Rico. Their youngest followed, and now has his own business. The oldest left with her husband in the summer of 2014 and immediately found a job as a teacher.

Calderon owns several rental⁴ homes which provide additional income. He also runs a moving company and sees firsthand how many well-educated Puerto Ricans leave every day for mainland U.S. For example, engineering students recruited by large companies in the U.S.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I pick them, you know, three at a time. You know, these kids before they graduate, they have — big companies in the States, they have the scouts⁵ in Puerto Rico scouting⁶ these professionals and they hire them even before they graduate.

ALEXANDRINO: According to the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute, between 2013 and 2014, nearly 74,000 people migrated to the United States in search of a better life. Among them, doctors, engineers and teachers.

This is the first time Puerto Rico faces an exodus⁷. The first major migration⁸ occurred in the 1950s. But back then, it was mainly farm workers and hard laborers⁹ that moved — to put it simply, the poor class in search of economic growth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are using a lot of the professional young people. In fact, Puerto Rico is an aging society — people like myself, for example, here. And we're not going anywhere. But the young people are leaving because there are no opportunities.

ALEXANDRINO: Lack of jobs and economic recession and higher taxes have influenced the migration. For now, Puerto Rico's economic crisis is only pushing more of its citizens to seek better opportunities elsewhere.

In Puerto Rico, Dania Alexandrino, CNN.

1 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

2 creditors   

n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

4 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

5 scouts   

侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员

参考例句：

• to join the Scouts 参加童子军
• The scouts paired off and began to patrol the area. 巡逻人员两个一组，然后开始巡逻这个地区。

6 scouting   

守候活动，童子军的活动

参考例句：

• I have people scouting the hills already. 我已经让人搜过那些山了。
• Perhaps also from the Gospel it passed into the tradition of scouting. 也许又从《福音书》传入守望的传统。 来自演讲部分

7 exodus   

v.大批离去，成群外出

参考例句：

• The medical system is facing collapse because of an exodus of doctors.由于医生大批离去，医疗系统面临崩溃。
• Man's great challenge at this moment is to prevent his exodus from this planet.人在当前所遇到的最大挑战，就是要防止人从这个星球上消失。

8 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

9 laborers   

n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工

参考例句：

• Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言