2015年经济学人 本周经济要闻

Business this week

Taiwan applied¹ to join the new Asian Infrastructure² Investment Bank, a rival to the World Bank that has been devised and will be unofficially led byChina.

More than 40 countries, includingBritain,Germany andRussia, have signed up to the AIIB, despite American misgivings³ about its openness and creditworthiness.

China was cool to the idea of admittingTaiwan: a foreign-affairs spokesman saidBeijing wants “to avoid the two Chinas…situation”.

After some delay Chinaat last announced that it would implement⁴ a deposit-insurance scheme starting on May 1st.

By setting limits to the protection of savers, this is an important advance in the government's promise to liberalise the financial system and encourage competition among banks.

The scheme will insure bank deposits of up to 500,000 yuan ($81,000), which should cover up to 98% of accounts.

Examination timetable

The Bank of England published the criteria⁵ for this year's stress tests of seven big banks,

which must demonstrate that they have adequate capital to withstand hypothetical economic shocks.

The new tests place less emphasis on how the banks would respond to an economic meltdown in Britain and more on global risks,

including a property crash in China and oil falling to $38 a barrel.

UnitedHealth, America's biggest health-care group, agreed to buy Catamaran, one of the “pharmacy-benefit managers” that mediate⁶ prices between drug companies and health insurers, in a $12.8 billion deal.

Spending on prescription⁷ drugs ballooned by 13% inAmerica last year, the largest increase since 2003.

This was mostly because of a 31% jump in disbursements on speciality medicines, according to a report from Express Scripts, another PBM.

Charter Communications announced a takeover of Bright House Networks for $10.4 billion. Charter,

which will beAmerica's second-biggest cable operator after the deal closes, had bid for Time Warner Cable last year before it was trumped⁸ by Comcast.

The legal battle between Hewlett-Packard and former executives at Autonomy rumbled⁹ on.

HP alleges¹⁰ that Autonomy provided it with misleading accounts ahead of an ill-fated $11.1 billion takeover in 2011.

For the first time HP directly sued Mike Lynch, Autonomy's founder¹¹, and Sushovan Hussain, its former chief financial officer, seeking $5 billion in damages.

Mr Lynch said he would counter-sue.

Annual profit at Huawei, a Chinese maker¹² of telecoms equipment, rose by a third, to 28 billion yuan ($4.6 billion).

Huawei's earnings¹³ were boosted in part by building some of the radio towers used in the roll-out of 4G inChina.

Its smartphone business is also thriving, with sales up by 33%. Although Huawei has come under suspicion inAmerica for links to the Chinese army,

a recent report to the national-security adviser¹⁴ inBritain concluded that it poses no threat.

Chinese hackers¹⁵ were thought to be behind a cyber-attack on GitHub, a website that is popular with software developers and used to store code.

But it also links to copies of websites that are banned inChina, including Greatfire.org,

which provides software tools that make it easier to evadeChina's internet censors¹⁶.

A negative feeling

Japan recorded zero inflation in February, according to a key measure from the Bank of Japan that excludes last year's increase in the sales tax

(overall consumer prices rose by 2% from the same month last year). The news raised fears thatJapan may slip back into deflation,

despite a formidable effort by the central bank over the past two years to break the country's deflationary spiral.

Consumer prices in the euro zone fell by 0.1% year on year in March. It was the currency bloc's fourth consecutive¹⁷ month of deflation,

though it was an improvement on February's inflation rate of -0.3% and January's -0.6%.

The British economy grew at a faster pace last year than had been thought. A second estimate found GDP expanding by 2.8% in 2014,

compared with the 2.6% that had been previously¹⁸ published.

The news was welcomed by the government in the first official week of campaigning ahead of a general election on May 7th.

1 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

2 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

3 misgivings   

n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧

参考例句：

• I had grave misgivings about making the trip. 对于这次旅行我有过极大的顾虑。
• Don't be overtaken by misgivings and fear. Just go full stream ahead! 不要瞻前顾后， 畏首畏尾。甩开膀子干吧！ 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

5 criteria   

n.标准

参考例句：

• The main criterion is value for money.主要的标准是钱要用得划算。
• There are strict criteria for inclusion in the competition.参赛的标准很严格。

6 mediate   

vi.调解，斡旋；vt.经调解解决；经斡旋促成

参考例句：

• The state must mediate the struggle for water resources.政府必须通过调解来解决对水资源的争夺。
• They may be able to mediate between parties with different interests.他们也许能在不同利益政党之间进行斡旋。

7 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

8 trumped   

v.（牌戏）出王牌赢（一牌或一墩）( trump的过去分词 )；吹号公告，吹号庆祝；吹喇叭；捏造

参考例句：

• That woman trumped up various baseless charges against him. 那个女人捏造种种毫无根据的罪名指控他。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Several of his colleagues trumped up a complaint to get him removed from the job. 他的几位同事诬告他，使他丟掉了工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 rumbled   

发出隆隆声，发出辘辘声( rumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 轰鸣着缓慢行进； 发现…的真相； 看穿（阴谋）

参考例句：

• The machine rumbled as it started up. 机器轰鸣着发动起来。
• Things rapidly became calm, though beneath the surface the argument rumbled on. 事情迅速平静下来了，然而，在这种平静的表面背后争论如隆隆雷声，持续不断。

10 alleges   

断言，宣称，辩解( allege的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The newspaper article alleges that the mayor is corrupt. 报纸上断言该市长腐败。
• Steven was tardy this morning and alleges that his bus was late. 史提芬今天早上迟到的说词是公车误点了。

11 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

12 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

13 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

14 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

15 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

16 censors   

删剪（书籍、电影等中被认为犯忌、违反道德或政治上危险的内容）( censor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The censors eviscerated the book to make it inoffensive to the President. 审查员删去了该书的精华以取悦于总统。
• The censors let out not a word. 检察官一字也不发。

17 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

18 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。