商业报道:财经新闻杂志

Script:

We have seen some big swings on Wall Street in the last week or so, today, no different. Stephanie Elam is in New York to tell us about a down day for the market.

Disappointing earnings¹ from the Lights of DuPont and American Express dragged the Dow Industrials sharply lower, and the housing market continues to worry investors² as the CEO of the nation’s largest mortgage lender says he doesn’t think the sector³ will recover until 2009. Put all of that together, and you have a lot of red arrows.

The Dow Industrials tumbled 226 points to close at 13720, the third biggest drop of the year. Then NASDAQ and S&P500 both slid nearly 2%. And this was the broad-based sell-off with declining issues swamping gainers by a seven to one margin⁴.

Among stocks on the move, Apple tumbled 6%. Iphone activations by AT&T came in weaker than expected during the first few days the Iphone went on sale. Investors fear it’s a sign Iphone sales may be disappointing as well.

Let’s continue to talk about gadgets⁵. TIVO is debuting⁶ a more wallet friendly version of its HD digital video recorder. TIVO pioneered DVR technology, but cable providers have moved in ever since. And that had forced TIVO to make products which are more cost effective. The new machine costs about 300 dollars. That’s a significant price difference from the company’s other high-def machine. It costs 800 dollars. The new offering comes as TIVO tries to win over customers from the cable companies, which allow subscribers to rent DVR boxes on a monthly basis instead of paying an upfront fee. The new box provides 20 hours of HD recording⁷ time. And unlike the cable boxes, TIVO’s new HD DVR is capable of downloading movies from Amazon.com.

But DVRs aren’t the only boxes in our entertainment centers these days, game consoles are filling our shelves as well. Whether it's Sony’s PS3, Microsoft’s X-BOX360 or Nintendo’s Wii. Gaming is big business. A new report bears this out. The market research firm NPD says sales of game consoles jumped 44% in the first half of the year to more than 6 billion dollars. But the consoles aren’t much used without the games. And game sales are up as well, they claim, climbed 24% to nearly 3 billion dollars. The big winner in all of this, Nintendo. Its Wii product / came out at the same time as the PS3. It costs far less than a PS3, but seems to have won the hearts of gamers who have embraced the concept of active gaming where your motions dictate⁸ the action on the screen. The same study we pointed⁹ to earlier says the Wii is the top home console and Nintendo’s DS is the best selling hand-held console. Running out a success, Nintendo’s games now dominate the market as well. In June, the top four game titles were all made by Nintendo. The most popular was Mario party 8. Can say I have played that one? That’s the latest business news from New York, I am Stephanie Elam.

Notes:

Mario: Mario is a video game character created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto and is the official mascot¹⁰ of Nintendo.

Console: A video game console is an interactive¹¹ entertainment computer or electronic device that manipulates the video display signal of a display device (a television, monitor, etc.) to display a game.

1 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%。

2 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

3 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

4 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

5 gadgets   

n.小机械，小器具（ gadget的名词复数 ）

参考例句：

• Certainly. The idea is not to have a house full of gadgets. 当然。设想是房屋不再充满小配件。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• This meant more gadgets and more experiments. 这意味着要设计出更多的装置，做更多的实验。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

6 debuting   

初次表演，初次登台（debut的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• New debuting analog thermostat welding machine, easy to operate. 新登场模拟式调温电焊台，操作简单。
• With the new tablet device that is debuting next week, Apple Inc. 苹果公司的新型平板电脑将于下周发布。

7 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

8 dictate   

v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令

参考例句：

• It took him a long time to dictate this letter.口述这封信花了他很长时间。
• What right have you to dictate to others?你有什么资格向别人发号施令？

9 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

10 mascot   

n.福神，吉祥的东西

参考例句：

• The football team's mascot is a goat.足球队的吉祥物是山羊。
• We had a panda as our mascot.我们把熊猫作为吉详物。

11 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。