英语听力精选进阶版 15527（在线收听）

Bitcoin: 21 Dec 2013

Sat, 21 Dec 13

Bye-bye to Bitcoin?; Gender-blender insurance; World's most expensive moneybox Bitcoin is the oldest and best known of these virtual payment systems that are outside the banking system and free from state control or backing. That leaves the currency open to wild market fluctuations rising like a rocket then falling like a stick. So is virtuality the future of currency? Or is Bitcoin about to bite the dust? A year ago insurers were banned from using sex (or, as they prefer to call it, 'gender') when fixing insurance rates despite the fact that men and women differ in many insurable traits - including road accidents.. Filling in your self-assessment tax return and paying your tax may not be fun but at least the online process itself is free. So how can firms get away with charging people from ￡100 to ￡1000 for letting them do it? A moneybox can be anything from a house to a pig to a complex mechanical device.So Money Box looks at moneyboxes.