商业报道:一万亿美元到底有多少？

How much is a trillion?

CNN's Christine Romans speaks to a math expert to break down how big a trillion dollars is.

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OK, a million dollars is a lot of money, a billion dollars is a thousand million, and a trillion is a thousand billion. Johnny Curnon is here with me.

A little gut-check, just how big a trillion dollars is? It’s got twelve zeros, that’s easy to understand. Or think of it this way. One trillion one dollar bills stacked tight would reach nearly 68,000 miles into space, one third of the way to the moon. Republicans are hardly over the moon.

“ If you’d started spending the day that Jesus was born, and you spend a million dollars every single day, you still wouldn’t have spent a trillion dollars. ”

“We checked the senator’s numbers with noted² mathematician³ John Allen Paulos. A million dollars a day for two thousand years is only about three quarters of a trillion dollars. It’s, it’s a number no matter how you slice it. ”

So let’s slice it another way.

A million seconds is about 11.5 days, a billion seconds is about 32 years, and a trillion seconds is 32,000 years. Well, people tend to lump them together perhaps because they rhyme.

Million, billion, the national debt tops 10 trillion. After a 700 billion dollar bank rescue, and proposed 800 billion dollar stimulus⁴, are we numb¹?

“Number itself can be parsed⁶ 'number' or 'numb-er' and maybe in this case the latter is a better pronunciation. ”

“One million dollars?! ”

Just like Dr. Evil discovered in the movie Austin Powers, times have changed. Back in 1993,

“Immediate package of jobs, investments of over 30 billion dollars”, he didn’t get it.

Just last year, “So the whole purpose of the stimulus package is to have something robust⁷ enough to make a difference”.

President Bush signed an emergency economic stimulus of a now paltry⁸ 168 billion dollars. And now, “A trillion, a trillion, a trillion, a trillion dollars.” Can we afford it?

“The Gross National Product is, you know, 12 trillion dollars. Whatever it is, we do have a big economy that may not be as vibrant⁹ as it was, but it’s still a powerful economic engine. So knock on wood, we’ll see what happens. ”

Knock on wood, we’ll see what happens. The stimulus probably won’t reach a trillion, but consider this, all the financial interventions¹⁰, the loans, the guarantees, the bailouts, the rescues, there’re now more than 7 trillion dollars. Johnny Curon, 7 trillion, let’s turn around, wrap our heads around that.

VOCABULARY

1. gut-check a test of one's nerve, courage, or determination

2. stack v.堆叠n.堆, 一堆, 堆栈

3. noted adj.著名的

4. lump together vt.放在一起,组合在一起

5. national debt n.国债

6. parse⁵ vt.解析n.分列

7. paltry adj.不足取的, 无价值的, 琐碎的, 下贱的

8. Gross National Product n.国民生产总值(=GNP)

9. knock on wood vi. 但愿老走这种好运 摸摸木头

10. guarantees n.抵押品

11. bailout A rescue from financial difficulties:紧急融资

 

CNN记者Christine Romans采访一位数学家，为大家解析一万亿美元到底有多少。

这里是美国早安节目，这里是早新闻。

好的，一百万美元是很多钱，十亿美元是1000个一百万，一兆是10000个亿。现在跟我在一起的是Johnny Curnon。

这是需要一点勇气的，一兆美元是多少？总共有12个零，这很容易理解。也可以这样想，如果每张是1美元，一兆美元将向太空中延伸68，000英里，相当于地球距月球距离的三分之一。共和党人不想到达地球。

“如果从耶稣出生的那天起，你每天花费100万美元，到现在为止你也还没有花完一兆美元。”

“我们与著名的数学家John Allen Paulos一起核算了这个数字，每天花费100万美元，连续花2000年，也才相当于一兆美元的四分之三。无论怎么算，都是这么大的数字。”

让我们按照另一种方式分解一下。

一百万秒大约是11.5天，十亿秒大约是32年，一兆秒就是32，000年。人们将这几个词放在一起可能因为他们押韵。

百万，十亿，国债高达十兆。经历了7000亿美元的银行援助方案和总统提出的8000亿美元刺激经济计划之后，难道我们都麻木了？

“Number这个词本身就可以理解为‘Number’或者‘Numb-er’（更加麻木）。或许在这个事件中，按照后者拼写更好。”

“100万美元？！”

就像在电影Austin Powers中Dr. Evil发现的那样，时代变了。回到1993年，“立即增加就业机会，增加超过300亿美元的投资，”但是该提议没有通过。

就在去年，“经济刺激计划的所有目的就是为了支撑经济状况有所好转。”

布什总统签署了1680万美元的紧急经济援助计划，对现在来说微不足道。现在，动不动就是“一兆美元，一兆美元，一兆美元。”我们能负担的起吗？

“你知道，我们的国民生产总值是12兆美元。不管是多少吧，我们已经不再是过去那个充满活力的巨大经济体了，但是我们仍然是一个强大的经济体。所以，希望好运继续，我们将拭目以待。”

希望好运继续，我们将拭目以待。该经济刺激计划可能不会达到一兆美元，但是想一下，所有的金融投资，贷款，抵押，援助，救市，已经超过7兆美元了。Johnny Curon，让我们转过头，再算算那是多大的数字吧！

1 numb   

adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木

参考例句：

• His fingers were numb with cold.他的手冻得发麻。
• Numb with cold,we urged the weary horses forward.我们冻得发僵，催着疲惫的马继续往前走。

2 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

3 mathematician   

n.数学家

参考例句：

• The man with his back to the camera is a mathematician.背对着照相机的人是位数学家。
• The mathematician analyzed his figures again.这位数学家再次分析研究了他的这些数字。

4 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

5 parse   

v.从语法上分析；n.从语法上分析

参考例句：

• I simply couldn't parse what you just said.我完全无法对你刚说的话作语法分析。
• It causes the parser to parse an NP.它调用分析程序分析一个名词短语。

6 parsed   

v.从语法上描述或分析（词句等）( parse的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• You should never assume any of the scripts being parsed are valid. 你绝不能假设所有的脚本都正确的解释。 来自互联网
• All text in an XML document will be parsed by the parser. XML文档中的所有文本都会被解析器解析。 来自互联网

7 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

8 paltry   

adj.无价值的，微不足道的

参考例句：

• The parents had little interest in paltry domestic concerns.那些家长对家里鸡毛蒜皮的小事没什么兴趣。
• I'm getting angry;and if you don't command that paltry spirit of yours.我要生气了，如果你不能振作你那点元气。

9 vibrant   

adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的

参考例句：

• He always uses vibrant colours in his paintings. 他在画中总是使用鲜明的色彩。
• She gave a vibrant performance in the leading role in the school play.她在学校表演中生气盎然地扮演了主角。

10 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网