VOA慢速英语20061229a

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

This week, we look back at a few of the year's biggest economic stories.


A house for sale in September in New York

In recent years, home building and buying have increased, helping¹ expand the American economy. But this year, the housing market has cooled. New home building dropped by more than twenty-five percent since last November.

Many experts blame the housing market for the slow economic growth of two percent in the three-month period ending in October. In response, the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged. Banks followed the Federal Reserve's decisions on interest rates.

While housing declined, giving money to good causes increased. Businessman Warren Buffett announced a gift of about thirty-seven billion dollars to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mister Buffett, an investor², is chief of Berkshire Hathaway. He is the world's second richest man.

Bill Gates is the richest. Mister Gates helped start and remains³ the top shareholder⁴ of Microsoft, the world's biggest computer software maker⁵. He started his foundation with his wife in two thousand. It gives money to health and educational causes around the world.

Mister Buffett's gift to the Gates Foundation was one and one half billion dollars this year. And finally, the United States lost two influential⁶ economic thinkers this year. They were on opposite sides of most economic arguments.

John Kenneth Galbraith died in April at age ninety-seven. He not only influenced economists⁷, but was a political force. He advised President John F. Kennedy in the nineteen sixties. And he opposed President Lyndon Johnson on the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War.

The Harvard professor considered economics to be moral as well as mathematical. He thought government must intervene in the economy to guarantee fairness in society.

Milton Friedman did not trust government to solve problems of joblessness or high prices. But he did believe it should control the money supply to fight inflation.

Mister Friedman advised President Richard Nixon and President Ronald Reagan in the nineteen seventies and eighties. He played a part in pulling the United States out of a period of high unemployment and inflation in the nineteen seventies.

For his work, he received the Nobel Prize in Economics in nineteen seventy-six. He died in November at age ninety-four.

And that's the VOA Special English ECONOMICS REPORT. I'm Mario Ritter.

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

3 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。

4 shareholder   

n.股东，股票持有人

参考例句：

• The account department have prepare a financial statement for the shareholder.财务部为股东准备了一份财务报表。
• A shareholder may transfer his shares in accordance with the law.股东持有的股份可以依法转让。

5 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。

6 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

7 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》