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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
I'm Phil Murray with Words and Their Stories, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today we tell about some American expressions that are commonly used in business.
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Bells 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 stock1 exchange. Here expert salespeople2 called brokers3 buy and sell shares of companies. The shares are known4 as stocks5. 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, the stock decreases in value.
Brokers and investors7 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 a newspaper in Illinois in eighteen thirty-seven. It said: The sales on the board were one thousand seven hundred dollars in American gold.
Investors and brokers watch the Big Board to see if the stock market is a bull8 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 investor6 does not own the stock yet. He or she waits to buy it when the price drops.
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. An English dictionary of the sixteen hundreds said, To sell a bear is to sell what one has not.
Word experts dispute9 the beginnings of the word bull in the stock market. But some say it came from the long connection of the two animals -- bulls10 and bears -- in sports that were popular years ago in England.
Investors are always concerned about the possibility of a company failing. In the modern world, a company that does not earn enough profit is said to go belly11 up. A company that goes belly up dies like a fish. Fish turn over on their backs when they die. So they are stomach, or belly, up.
Stock market investors do not want that to happen to a company. They want a company whose stock they own to earn more profit than expected. This would sharply12 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 land owners. But, if the wind blew down a tree, a poor person could take the wood for fuel. So a windfall is something wonderful that happens unexpectedly13.
(MUSIC)
This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson. This is Phil Murray.
(MUSIC)
Bells 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 stock1 exchange. Here expert salespeople2 called brokers3 buy and sell shares of companies. The shares are known4 as stocks5. 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, the stock decreases in value.
Brokers and investors7 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 a newspaper in Illinois in eighteen thirty-seven. It said: The sales on the board were one thousand seven hundred dollars in American gold.
Investors and brokers watch the Big Board to see if the stock market is a bull8 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 investor6 does not own the stock yet. He or she waits to buy it when the price drops.
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. An English dictionary of the sixteen hundreds said, To sell a bear is to sell what one has not.
Word experts dispute9 the beginnings of the word bull in the stock market. But some say it came from the long connection of the two animals -- bulls10 and bears -- in sports that were popular years ago in England.
Investors are always concerned about the possibility of a company failing. In the modern world, a company that does not earn enough profit is said to go belly11 up. A company that goes belly up dies like a fish. Fish turn over on their backs when they die. So they are stomach, or belly, up.
Stock market investors do not want that to happen to a company. They want a company whose stock they own to earn more profit than expected. This would sharply12 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 land owners. But, if the wind blew down a tree, a poor person could take the wood for fuel. So a windfall is something wonderful that happens unexpectedly13.
(MUSIC)
This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson. This is Phil Murray.
点击收听单词发音
1 stock | |
n.存货,储备;树干;血统;股份;家畜;adj.存货的;平凡的,惯用的;股票的;畜牧的;vt.进货,采购;储存;供给;vi.出新芽;进货 | |
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2 salespeople | |
n.售货员,店员;售货员( salesperson的名词复数 ) | |
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3 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… | |
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4 known | |
adj.大家知道的;知名的,已知的 | |
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5 stocks | |
n.(树木等的)干( stock的名词复数 );公债;家系;家族 | |
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6 investor | |
n.投资者,投资人 | |
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7 investors | |
n.投资者,出资者( investor的名词复数 ) | |
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8 bull | |
n.公牛,买进证券投机图利者,看涨的人 | |
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9 dispute | |
n.争端,分歧;v.争论,争吵,辩论,辩驳 | |
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10 bulls | |
n.公牛( bull的名词复数 );法令;力大如牛的人;(象、鲸等动物的)雄兽 | |
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11 belly | |
n.肚子,腹部;(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分,膛 | |
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12 sharply | |
adj.锐利地,急速;adv.严厉地,鲜明地 | |
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13 unexpectedly | |
adv.未料到地,意外地;竟;居然;骤然 | |
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