VOA慢速英语20060106a

ECONOMICS REPORT - Gold Prices Reach Their Highest Levels in YearsBy Mario Ritter

Broadcast: Friday, January 06, 2006

I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Gold has long been valued, and not just for its beauty. The metal is also valuable for its resistance to chemical reactions, and for its electrical qualities. But some people have always valued gold most as an investment, even without any guarantee of growth in its value.


Gold

For years, gold prices fell. Now gold is in the news because prices have risen to their highest levels since the early nineteen eighties. Gold is trading above five hundred dollars a troy ounce, about thirty-one grams.

There seems to be no simple explanation for the increase in gold prices. Experts say investments in precious metals have increased in general. This is true even without the economic warning signs that have traditionally led many investors¹ to buy gold.

In any case, the common belief in the security of gold has a long history.

From nineteen hundred to nineteen thirty-three, United States money was fully² based on gold. In fact, under the gold standard, anyone who wanted could exchange paper money for gold coins.

But President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress began to cut the link between gold and money. Congress passed the Legal Tender Act of nineteen thirty-three. All United States money, paper or metal, became acceptable as payment for all debts, public and private.

In nineteen thirty-four, the Gold Reserve Act made it illegal to use gold as a form of currency within the United States.

But the gold standard remained important to international trade.

In nineteen forty-four, the United Nations held a meeting at a hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The Bretton Woods conference established a new international monetary³ system. Other currencies were linked to the value of the American dollar, and the dollar remained linked to the value of gold.

The official price of gold was controlled. It stayed at about thirty-five dollars an ounce until the late nineteen sixties.

In nineteen seventy-one, the gold standard ended in the United States. By nineteen seventy-six, the International Monetary Fund agreed to a new system of exchange rates. But the process did not go smoothly⁴. Gold prices reached record levels in the early eighties, at a time when inflation also jumped.

Today, gold remains⁵ important to the wealth of nations. But money supplies and gold supplies no longer have the relationship they had in the past.

This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at www.unsv.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

4 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。