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VOA标准英语2012--White House: Consumer Spending Will Decline Unless Congress Averts Fiscal

时间：2012-11-27 08:40:30

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White House: Consumer Spending Will Decline Unless Congress Averts1 Fiscal2  

A new poll shows a whopping 247 million shoppers visited stores and websites over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Black Friday - the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season - easily exceeded expectations, living up to its name as the day retailers4 finally get out of the red and start making a profit.

The National Retail3 Federation5 says holiday shoppers spent about $423 per person, pushing the haul for the 4-day shopping weekend to nearly $60 billion - up nearly 13 percent for the same time last year.

Retail analyst6 Marshal Cohen calls it a good start.

"Black Friday ,good or bad, isn't the indication of how retail will fare for the whole year, but it is a good sign that the consumer has shown up," said Cohen. 

Consumer spending is critical to the U.S. economy, accounting7 for about 70 percent of total economic activity.

But Monday, the White House warned that failure by Congress to reach a budget deal by the end of the year could put a serious crimp on consumer spending. 

Key indexes on the New York Stock Exchange fell sharply.

Ryan Alexander at Taxpayers8 for Common Sense explains. "The markets are jittery9 because they don't see a way forward. The economy is fragile because we're still in a recovery period and it's time for the President and the speaker and all of Congress to kind of step up, make some difficult choices and step back from the cliff," said Alexander.

Without a deal, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says the combination of automatic year-end tax increases and spending cuts which constitute the fiscal cliff - could nudge the U.S. economy back into recession.

Budget expert and former Republican Congressman10 Bill Frenzel says time is running out.

"The president's going to have to give a little, the Senate's going to have to give a little, the House is going to have to give a little bit more. And I believe that because the consequences are so bad, they are going to come to agreement," said Franzel.

The White House says failure by Congress to reach a budget deal could reduce consumer spending by nearly $200 billion next year and cut economic growth by 1.5 percent. 


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1 averts a218737f35494965cdfad1f8028e5174     
防止，避免( avert的第三人称单数 )； 转移
参考例句：
  • Cautious speech averts eavesdropping. Cautious behavior arrests gossip. 若欲杜人之口，莫若自己谨言；若欲塞人之耳，莫若自己慎行。
  • A gift in secret averts anger; and a concealed bribe in the bosom, strong wrath. 暗中送的礼物，挽回怒气；怀中搋的贿赂，止息暴怒。
2 fiscal agbzf     
adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的
参考例句：
  • The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
  • The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。
3 retail VWoxC     
v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格
参考例句：
  • In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
  • These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。
4 retailers 08ff8df43efeef1abfd3410ef6661c95     
零售商，零售店( retailer的名词复数 )
参考例句：
  • High street retailers reported a marked increase in sales before Christmas. 商业街的零售商报告说圣诞节前销售量显著提高。
  • Retailers have a statutory duty to provide goods suitable for their purpose. 零售商有为他们提供符合要求的货品的法定义务。
5 federation htCzMS     
n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会
参考例句：
  • It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
  • Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。
6 analyst gw7zn     
n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家
参考例句：
  • What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
  • The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。
7 accounting nzSzsY     
n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表
参考例句：
  • A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
  • There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。
8 taxpayers 8fa061caeafce8edc9456e95d19c84b4     
纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )
参考例句：
  • Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
  • She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。
9 jittery jittery     
adj. 神经过敏的, 战战兢兢的
参考例句：
  • However, nothing happened though he continued to feel jittery. 可是，自从拉上这辆车，并没有出什么错儿，虽然他心中嘀嘀咕咕的不安。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
  • The thirty-six Enterprise divebombers were being squandered in a jittery shot from the hip. 这三十六架“企业号”上的俯冲轰炸机正被孤注一掷。
10 Congressman TvMzt7     
n.（美）国会议员
参考例句：
  • He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
  • The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

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