商业报道:行情看好的以色列经济

What do song lyrics¹, chickens, and high-tech² have in common? They are all indicators³ of a recovering Israeli economy, one of the few economies to have survived the global recession relatively⁴ unscathed, some at the recent high-tech conference in Tel Aviv allowed themselves some optimism.

Most people in Israel didn't invest in the, all the investment bubbles outside Israel, but they got into this bubble burst.

Seven months ago, this chicken factory in the Galilee lay idle. Employees thought their jobs were gone. The managers were nowhere to be seen. Today the machines are back in action and the chickens are back on the supermarket shelves. In a report released Sunday, the Bank of Israel said the economy has recovered faster than expected. The local currency the shekel is strong. GDP next year is expected to grow by 2.5 per cent. And in August, the Bank of Israel became the first leading central bank to raise interest rates to head off inflation amid signs of an economic recovery.

It isn't over yet. We still have a very high unemployment. We don't absolutely know what's gonna happen in the rest of the world. So we'd better not be declaring victory too soon. We made terrific progress. We've got to keep it up.

This man is one of Israel's success stories. Rani Cohen has taken the concept of media player to another level, adding lyrics to the songs you listen to, and the chance to connect to others listening to the same song.

We are making the social media player social.

Cohen received funding in November 2007. And he knows he launched his company just in time.

Many very good ideas just couldn't make it in the last six months. While before venture capitalists, when they saw a good idea and a good team, they would finance it. Now they are expecting them to reach to the point where there is a market adoption⁵.

Cohen also attributes Israel's better business survival rate to an entrepreneurial spirit.

Glossary

head off: to prevent sth from happening, esp sth bad

market adoption: 市场应用

1 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

2 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

3 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

4 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

5 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。