Step by Step 3000 第1册 Unit8:Trends in Economics(3)

 　　Part 3. Bulls and bears.

　　Keywords. stock exchange, brokers², companies, investors³, value, the big board,

　　a bull market, a bear market, prices, profit, go belly⁴ up, windfall.

　　Vocabulary. broker¹, decrease, duck, dispute, belly, windfall.

　　A. Now you are going to hear a passage about some American expressions that are commonly used in business.

　　Listen carefully and explain in norm form the following words and expressions with the information you get from the story.

　　Today we tell about some American expressions that commonly used in business.

　　Bell sound, lighted messages appear, men and women work at computers, they talk on the telephone, at times they shout and run around, this noisy place is a stock exchange.

　　Here experts salespeople⁵ called brokers, buy and sell shares of companies.

　　The shares are known as stocks.

　　People who own stock in a company own part of that company.

　　People pay brokers to buy and sell stocks for them.

　　If a company earns money, its stock increases in value.

　　If the company does not earn money, this stock decrease in value.

　　Brokers and investors carefully watch for any changes on the big board.

　　That is the name given to a list of stocks sold on the New York Stock Exchange.

　　The first written use of the word with that meaning was in the newspaper in Illinois in 1837.

　　It said "the sales on the board were 1700 dollars in American gold."

　　Investors and brokers watch the big board to see if the stock market is a bull market or a bear market.

　　In a bear market, prices go down. In a bull market, prices go up.

　　Investors in a bear market promise to sell a stock in the future at a set price, but the investors does not own the stock yet.

　　He or she waits to buy it when the price ducks.

　　The meaning of a bear market is thought to come from an old story about a man who sold the skin of a bear before he caught the bear.

　　At English Dictionary of the 1600's said "to sell a bear is to sell what one has not."

　　Word experts dispute the beginning of the word "bull" in the stock market.

　　But some say it came from the long connection of the two animals "bulls" and "bears" in sports that were popular years ago in England.

　　Investors are always concerned about the possibility of a company falling.

　　In the modern world, a company that does not earn enough profit is said to go belly up.

　　A company that goes belly up dies like a fish.

　　Fish turn over on their backs when they die, so they're stomach or belly up.

　　Stock market investors do not want that to happen to a company, they want the company whose stock they own to earn more profit than expected.

　　This would sharply increase the value of the stock.

　　Investors are hoping for a windfall.

　　The word "windfall" comes from England of centuries ago, there poor people were banned from cutting trees in forests owned by rich landowners.

　　But if the wind blew down a tree, the poor person could take the wood for fuel.

　　So a windfall is something wonderful that happens unexpectedly.

　　B. Now listen to the passage again, then briefly⁶ answer the questions.

1 broker   

n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排

参考例句：

• He baited the broker by promises of higher commissions.他答应给更高的佣金来引诱那位经纪人。
• I'm a real estate broker.我是不动产经纪人。

2 brokers   

n.（股票、外币等）经纪人( broker的名词复数 )；中间人；代理商；（订合同的）中人v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的第三人称单数 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排…

参考例句：

• The firm in question was Alsbery & Co., whiskey brokers. 那家公司叫阿尔斯伯里公司，经销威士忌。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• From time to time a telephone would ring in the brokers' offices. 那两排经纪人房间里不时响着叮令的电话。 来自子夜部分

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 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

5 salespeople   

n.售货员，店员；售货员( salesperson的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The shop usually employs additional salespeople for the Christmas toy trade. 这家商店通常雇一些临时售货员来做圣诞节玩具生意。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Under our new system, salespeople sit down with each of our dealers. 根据新的制度，销售人员应逐个地同承销商洽商。 来自辞典例句

6 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。