[主题活动] 【习惯性GRE】1006G阅读--速度【VOA】2-10 [复制链接]

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发表于 2010-1-15 11:19:34 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

本帖最后由 lghscu 于 2010-1-15 11:59 编辑

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方法名称：一分钟VOA快速阅读
工具准备：秒表，电脑
方法使用：
0 从“以下开始计时”开始掐秒表
1以最快的速度完成浏览、扫描，争取60s解决战斗
2 不回视，不停顿，不过多思考，一口气跑到终点
3 详细记录每一篇阅读时间(每一次共五篇)，请不要自欺欺人
4 根据时间不断调整阅读速度，力求60s以内完成
5 坚持完成本期所有阅读
【习惯性GRE】1006G阅读--速度【VOA】汇总贴
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How Islamic Finance Works

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Dubai's recent debt problems have brought attention to the growth of Islamic finance. A government-owned group of companies, Dubai World, has been seeking to restructure twenty-six billion dollars of debt. About six billion of it is in Islamic bonds, including a three and a half billion dollar bond set for repayment on Monday.
The biggest difference between Western and Islamic finance involves beliefs about charging interest on borrowed money. In Islam, the basic idea is that you should not make money from money itself.
Instead of interest, lenders charge fees. Ghiyath Nakshbendi at American University in Washington is an expert on Islamic financing.
GHIYATH NAKSHBENDI: "The bank will estimate its costs based on its fixed costs, variable costs, the cost of their employees, the rent and so on and so forth. And from that they estimate how much they are going to charge."
But he points out that this system can make Islamic financing costly. The costs of the system are shared by the borrowers. The fewer the borrowers, the more each has to pay.
In many cases, Islamic financing requires the lender and borrower to share profits and losses. Ghiyath Nakshbendi explains what that means with Islamic bonds, called sukuk.
GHIYATH NAKSHBENDI: "When we talk about sukuk, we don't guarantee a certain return."
He says the bondholders are buying a share of a business or property. If business is good, then they could get back more than they expected. But if it fails, then there is no guarantee of repayment. Islamic bonds can be structured in different ways, but a major idea is shared profit and loss.
Professor Nakshbendi says Islamic lending practices are also supposed to be socially responsible.
In world banking, the total share of Islamic finance is less than one percent. But it is growing at a rate of fifteen to twenty percent a year. There is growing interest in Islamic banking in the West. London is becoming a center of Islamic finance. And France recently proposed changes in finance laws to protect Islamic bondholders.
Estimates differ, but as much as one and a half trillion dollars may be managed under Islamic rules.
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So Where Are the Jobs?

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Last year, the International Monetary Fund studied the financial security of Islamic banks. It found that their lack of complex products like futures and derivatives limits the ability to spread risk.
Professor Nakshbendi notes that Islamic finance does not appeal only to Muslims.
GHIYATH NAKSHENDI: "In Malaysia, the majority of customers in Islamic banks are non-Muslims."
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at 51voa.com. I'm Steve Ember.

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
America's economy has started to grow again. Now what about jobs?
The government says productivity jumped in July, August and September. That meant companies produced more with fewer workers. Also, new claims for unemployment aid fell last week to the lowest number since January.
But eight million jobs have disappeared since the recession began in December of two thousand seven.
Jack Strauss at Saint Louis University in Missouri says recent recoveries have been slow to create jobs.
JACK STRAUSS: "Historically, during our last two recessions in ninety-one and two thousand one it's taken twenty-three months in ninety-one and about thirty-six months, three years, in our last recession in two thousand one for the United States to regain the jobs lost in the recession."
Experts debate the reason for these so-called jobless recoveries. But Professor Strauss says a banking crisis is especially hard to recover from, because there is less money to lend to support growth. Banks have been holding bigger safety reserves.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve kept its target rate near zero for overnight loans between banks. The central bank said levels are likely to remain "exceptionally low ... for an extended period."
Low interest rates and growing federal deficits have weakened the dollar. But that also lowers the price of American exports, which could help drive job creation. Yet where exactly will future jobs come from?
Investor Warren Buffet says America's "future prosperity" depends on its rail system. On Tuesday his Berkshire Hathaway company agreed to buy the nation's second-largest railroad, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe. The forty-four billion dollar deal is Berkshire's biggest ever.
The Obama administration is also putting money into transportation to speed recovery. A program that paid Americans to buy new vehicles with higher fuel economy lifted sales for automakers. Ford just reported a profit of almost a billion dollars for July through September.
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South Africa Sends Search, Rescue Teams to Haiti

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A second government program -- a tax credit for first-time home buyers -- has helped the housing market. These two programs fueled a lot of the recent economic growth.
But economist Jack Strauss says credit conditions threaten the main engine of job growth since two thousand one -- small businesses.
This week, CIT, a lender to small and medium sized businesses, sought bankruptcy protection from its creditors so it can reorganize. Taxpayers will likely lose more than two billion dollars in federal rescue money.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, available online at 51voa.com. I'm Mario Ritter.

South Africa is sending a team of search and rescue specialists to Haiti in response to the devastating earthquake on Tuesday.  It is the first of several teams being sent by a local civic group.

The head of South Africa's Gift of the Givers Foundation, Emtiaz Sooliman, says his group is sending up to three teams of search and rescue specialists to Haiti to help victims of the earthquake and hopefully save some lives.

"These are people who have worked with building collapses, urban search and rescue and some of them have been involved in responding to previous earthquakes so they are highly skilled," he said.

Sooliman says a second team is to depart as soon as he can book a flight for it.  Flights to Haiti are difficult to obtain because of its damaged air control facilities and the large number of relief planes heading there.

Sooliman says the teams will also set up camps and see what medical facilities are available.

"Then we will send in specialized medical personnel, trauma specialists, orthopedic surgeons, trauma nurses, advanced life support paramedics, to work with other medical personnel on the ground or work on their own provided medical facilities are available," he said.

He notes that specialists in infectious diseases will also be needed because of the collapse of water and sewage systems in many areas.

Gift of the Givers is also lining up a charter plane to deliver more than 100 metric tons of supplies to the worst-hit areas.  But Sooliman warns the international community must move fast or many lives will be needlessly lost.

"There are many men, women and children there who are completely at the mercy of the elements and must be sitting in pain with no food, no medical care, with broken bones.  As a common humanity we need to move very fast to respond to the crisis of these people," he said.

Sooliman says his foundation is the largest disaster relief organization of African origin on the continent.  With support from private donors and several governments in the region, it has worked in 25 countries including Somalia, Sudan, Mozambique, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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Want to Stay Warm in Winter? Think  COLD

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Freezing weather can mean frostbite and hypothermia unless a person is prepared. Today we talk about how to stay warm, dry and safe.
Frostbite is damage that happens when skin is exposed to extreme cold for too long. It mainly happens on the hands, feet, nose and ears.
People with minor cases of frostbite that affect only the skin may not suffer any permanent damage. But if deeper tissue is affected, a person is likely to feel pain every time the area gets cold.
If blood vessels are damaged, people can suffer an infection of gangrene. Sometimes, doctors have to remove frostbitten areas like fingers and toes.
Hypothermia happens when the body cannot produce as much heat as it releases. The condition comes on slowly. Signs of hypothermia include uncontrollable shaking, very slow breathing and difficulty thinking clearly. If not treated, hypothermia can be deadly.
To avoid cold-related injuries, here is a simple way to remember four basic steps to staying warm. Think of COLD -- C.O.L.D.
The C stands for cover. Wear a hat and scarf to keep heat from escaping through the head, neck and ears. And wear mittens instead of gloves. In gloves, the fingers are separated, so the hands may not stay as warm.
The O stands for overexertion. Avoid activities that will make you sweaty. Wet clothes and cold weather are a bad mix.
L is for layers. Wearing loose, lightweight clothes, one layer on top of another, is better than wearing a single heavy layer of clothing. Also, make sure outerwear is made of material that is water resistant and tightly knit.
Can you guess what the D in COLD stands for? D is for dry. In other words, stay as dry as possible. Pay attention to the places where snow can enter, like the tops of boots, the necks of coats and the wrist areas of mittens.
And here are two other things to keep in mind, one for children and the other for adults. Eating snow might be fun but it lowers the body's temperature. And drinking alcohol might make a person feel warm. But what it really does is weaken the body's ability to hold heat.
Next week: advice from experts about what to do, and not to do, to help someone injured by extreme cold.
And that's the VOA Special English Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, along with transcripts and MP3s of our reports, go to 51voa.com. I'm Steve Ember.
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US Says Economy Grew 3.5 Percent in Third Quarter

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Early estimates show that the United States economy began to grow again in July, August and September. The three-and-a-half percent growth was the first expansion in more than a year, and the strongest in two years.
The government said increases in consumer spending and exports and improvements in business investment led the growth. So did increased federal spending and housing investments.
But high unemployment could limit growth for some time.
President Obama had this reaction to Thursday's report on the gross domestic product -- a wide measure of goods and services in the economy.
BARACK OBAMA: "This is obviously welcome news and an affirmation that this recession is abating and the steps we've taken have made a difference. But I also know that we've got a long way to go to fully restore our economy and recover from what's been the longest and deepest downturn since the Great Depression."
That downturn was partly caused by bankers and others taking irresponsible risks to earn huge payments. So say their critics. Criticism of Wall Street pay  is nothing new. But never before has the government used hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue companies that made risky investments.
In June, the Obama administration appointed lawyer Kenneth Feinberg as the "special master" on executive pay -- also known as the pay czar. Congress gave him power over compensation of the twenty-five highest-paid employees at seven companies most indebted to taxpayers.
This week, he gave lawmakers a progress report.
KENNETH FEINBERG: "We greatly reduced the amount of cash that would be made available to these senior officials. We reduced that cash by approximately ninety percent."
The seven companies are in the financial and auto industries. Now Kenneth Feinberg must consider their next seventy-five highest paid officials.
But some management experts warn that limiting pay could make it harder for taxpayers to get their money back. Edward Lawler at the University of Southern California says these companies may now have difficulty getting and keeping high-quality employees.
But he agrees that in recent years, many companies have tied pay to short-term performance, instead of their long-term health. He also says boards of directors need to do more to control pay.
EDWARD LAWLER: "We could have boards that do a much better job of designing compensation plans. If we had good boards, I think they could certainly do a better job of that than the government can."
Last week, the Federal Reserve proposed to examine pay policies at thousands of banks. The central bank would reject policies that it thought might cause bankers to take too much risk.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter.

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