【英语趣味课堂】经济-The Economy

Fanny: Hey, Brian, you know, recently I heard that the Canadian dollar is very strong.

Brian: It is. It's been amazingly strong in the last few months.

 

Fanny: What happened? I mean, how come?

 

Brian: It went up. The reasons behind why the Canadian dollar is strong...

 

Fanny: Yeah.

 

Brian: Very good question. Without getting too complicated, my understanding is the Canadian dollar is linked to a lot of primary industries, so things like, say like, oil or mining or timber¹ from like forests and right now I think there's a high demand for those kind of products, so because of that it's pushed the Canadian dollar up. But also I think many other currencies have gone down a bit, like the American dollar has dropped a lot.

 

Fanny: Really. OK.

 

Brian: I don't follow the currency markets too closely.

 

Fanny: OK, I see.

 

Brian: But I think because the American dollar has gone down as well, that means that, you know, it doesn't take as much Canadian money to equal the American money now, so I think those are probably two of the reasons why it's been strong.

 

Fanny: I see. I know that Canada is a country which is really rich in the natural resources, but are there still a lot of natural resources left now.

 

Brian: That's another good question. I think that there are still quite a lot of resources.

 

Fanny: Oh, nice.

 

Brian: Which is, you know, is good but some of them are decreasing quite a bit.

 

Fanny: I think so, because of consumption².

 

Brian: It's too...

 

Fanny: Too big.

 

Brian: Right.

 

Fanny: Yeah.

 

Brian: And we export a lot of our resources too, so, you know, the Unites States is always taking a lot of our resources so that's like a huge market right there, but I think there's still lots of oil but maybe the... some of the trees, you know, they cut them down pretty fast and they take a long time to grow back, so you have to watch out there.

 

Fanny: OK, I think that's a very reason for the strong Canadian dollar.

 

Brian: It could be but you probably should ask an economist³. Maybe they can tell you a bit more informed insight⁴ than I can.

1 timber   

n.木材，原木，大木料，栋木

参考例句：

• These trees need more time to grow into useful timber.这些树不够年头，还没成材呢。
• The timber is graded according to its thickness.木材按厚度分级。

2 consumption   

n.消费，消耗，消费额，消耗量，结核病

参考例句：

• Consumption of oil has declined in recent years.石油消耗量在最近几年下降了。
• The meat was condemned as unfit for human consumption.这种肉已被宣布不适宜人们食用。

3 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

4 insight   

n.洞察力，洞悉，深刻的见解

参考例句：

• Good teachers have insight into the problems of students.好的教师能洞察学生的问题。
• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms.这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。