新视野大学英语视听说 Unit 7-16

Task 2: Credit Cards
Because credit cards have so many advantages, their use has become widespread. Unfortunately, however, credit cards are major sources of problems to society as a whole. First, there is the issue of fraud. Stolen credit cards add to the cost of all merchandise as companies write off these losses by adding to the cost of all goods. Second, there are the personal misfortunes. Credit card companies charge exceptionally high rates of interest (about 20%), but because the cards are so easy to use, many people but beyond their ability to repay. Also, there are often too generous limits to the amount of credit one can have; as a result, many people run up such high debts that they go bankrupt. Currently, it is easy for people to own many credit cards. When one credit card is “maxed out” they simply switch to another. Although individual credit cards have limits, the number of credit cards is not limited. People with ten credit cards, each with a $5,000 limit, have $50,000 of credit, even though they might not be able to pay all of their bills. This can easily lead to bankruptcy¹. Perhaps people should be given an absolute credit limit set as a certain percentages of their imcome.
1. F   2.F   3.F   4.T   5.T
 

1 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。