英语听力精选进阶版 7944

This week's question comes from Li Bin¹ in Beijing, who has problems understanding amounts of money in English.

There are a number of different reasons why Chinese learners of English might have problems understanding amounts of money.

1) Big numbers

The counting system in English is different to Chinese. Big numbers like million and billion have no direct equivalent in Chinese so when talking about numbers like 2.2 billion (2,200,000,000) it means you might need to do a little mental arithmetic.

2) Costs and prices

In Britain costs and prices are expressed in pounds and pence. For example, a meal in a restaurant might cost ￡7.70. When this is written there is no problem, but when you hear someone say this price you might hear one of three things:

a) Seven pounds seventy pence

b) Seven pounds seventy

c) Seven seventy

Make sure you don't confuse seven seventy with 770 (seven hundred and seventy).

3) Slang

Are you familiar with these slang expressions?

A quid – one pound

A fiver – five pounds

A tenner – ten pounds

A grand – 1,000 pounds

A buck² – one dollar

Dough³, cash, moolah – all these are slang terms for money.

Glossary 词汇

million

一百万

billion

十亿

equivalent

相同（的词）

mental arithmetic

心算，默算

pound

英镑

pence

便士

slang

1 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

2 buck   

n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃

参考例句：

• The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
• The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。

3 dough   

n.生面团；钱，现款

参考例句：

• She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
• The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。