澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2015-10-07

 International Monetary¹ Fund has lowered its forecast for global economic growth. The IMF now expects growth of 3.1% this year and 3.6 in 2016. The sharpest downgrades are for Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, and Russia. US President Barack Obama says he’s confident the transpacific partnership² will be ratified³ by congress. The deal’s been a subject of fierce debate in the US with both Republicans and Democrats⁴ warning that it might / overseas. President Obama said he wouldn’t be presenting the deal to congress if it wasn’t in America’s best interests.

“So I’ve said repeatedly that I would only sign an agreement and present an agreement to congress if I could be absolutely certain it was good for American workers and good for American businesses, good for American farmers and good for American renters and good for American manufacturers. We have met that standard in this agreement.”

To the markets, and markets in the United States were mixed overnight while European markets were stronger across the border on the high price of oil. The Dow has closed marginally higher. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 were down. And in London, the FTSE gained almost 0.5% in value. Checking commodity prices, West Texas Crude is trading at 48 US dollars a barrel. Tapis is at 54 US dollars a barrel. And gold this morning is trading at nearly 1147 US dollars an ounce. The Australian dollar is buying 71.65 US cents, 64 euro cents, and 47 pence sterling⁵.

1 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

2 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

3 ratified   

v.批准，签认（合约等）( ratify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The treaty was declared invalid because it had not been ratified. 条约没有得到批准，因此被宣布无效。
• The treaty was ratified by all the member states. 这个条约得到了所有成员国的批准。

4 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 sterling   

adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑)

参考例句：

• Could you tell me the current rate for sterling, please?能否请您告诉我现行英国货币的兑换率？
• Sterling has recently been strong,which will help to abate inflationary pressures.英国货币最近非常坚挺，这有助于减轻通胀压力。