澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2015-12-20

It was a rocky day on the Australian share market as investors¹ re-evaluated the fallout from the first US interest rate rise in near a decade. By the close, the All Ordinaries Index managed to gain of about 0.1% as did the ASX 200 Index. The major miners were down as commodity prices kept falling. Kapcharge dropped nearly 5% as fund managers sold out the company. Seven West Media was among the best performers. Across the region, it is a negative session after Japan's Central Bank kept interest rates on hold. Spot gold prices are pushing higher. Crude oil prices slipped another 1.9% in the US overnight. And a surging the US dollar overnight sent other major currencies lower including the Australian dollar. But it is recovering a little now to 71.37 US cents. Australians are paying substantially less income tax than a decade ago even as bracket creep gradually erodes³ previous cuts. Economists⁴ at Canberra University's NATSEM unit found that households are around 31.5 billion dollars better off since 2004 and 2005 due to tax cuts that they would have been if tax brackets were simply index to inflation. The findings show that the effects of bracket creep have been more than erased⁵ by the income tax cuts over the past decade. The report also shows the bracket creep is unlikely to erode² these gains over the next four years.

1 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

2 erode   

v.侵蚀，腐蚀，使...减少、减弱或消失

参考例句：

• Once exposed,soil is quickly eroded by wind and rain.一旦暴露在外，土壤很快就会被风雨侵蚀。
• Competition in the financial marketplace has eroded profits.金融市场的竞争降低了利润。

3 erodes   

侵蚀，腐蚀( erode的第三人称单数 )； 逐渐毁坏，削弱，损害

参考例句：

• The sea erodes the rock. 海水侵蚀岩石。
• The sea erodes the land. 海洋侵蚀陆地。

4 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 erased   

v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；清除

参考例句：

• He erased the wrong answer and wrote in the right one. 他擦去了错误答案，写上了正确答案。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He removed the dogmatism from politics; he erased the party line. 他根除了政治中的教条主义，消除了政党界限。 来自《简明英汉词典》