VOA慢速英语2012 Economics Report - European Ministers Agree to Loan Greece Another $172 Billion

Economics Report - European Ministers Agree to Loan Greece Another $172 Billion

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
European finance ministers agreed to loan Greece about one hundred seventy-two billion dollars this week at a meeting in Brussels. Luxembourg's Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, announced the agreement on Tuesday.
JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER: “After a meeting of at least, I think, thirteen or fourteen hours, we have reached a far-reaching agreement on Greece’s new program and private sector¹ involvement that will lead to a very significant debt reduction for Greece.”
Under the plan, Greece’s private creditors² will lose more than half of the face value of their investments. The agreement also means the country will receive its second financial rescue in less than two years.
The new loans will likely let the Greek government make a nineteen billion dollar payment on its debt by March twentieth.
Now, Greece must negotiate the terms of its loans with individual banks and other investors³. But these creditors will have to hurry. Greece can dictate⁴ its own terms once it reaches agreement with two thirds of its creditors.
Not everyone believes Greece will be able to repay its loans. The Fitch financial services company cut the credit rating of Greece on Wednesday. Fitch said, it remains⁵ "highly likely" the country will fail to meet its financial responsibilities.
The Greek parliament has agreed to the idea of spending and job cuts demanded by the European Union and the International Monetary⁶ Fund. Parliament must now pass all seventy-nine measures included in a reform plan before getting the rescue loans. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has said his country has a lot of work to do before it can receive new aid.
At the same time, protests continue in Greece over budget-cutting measures. Many Greeks say they have sacrificed enough.
But Greece’s EU neighbors are unlikely to release new loans until the budget cuts are in place. The head of the EU delegation⁷ to the United States, Ambassador Joao Vale de Almeida, told VOA that the EU has learned a lot from the crisis.
JOAO VALE DE ALMEIDA: “I think we learned a lot about the means that we need to have to deal with emergency situations. We didn't have them before. We created, we developed them to deal with the cases like Greece and a few other countries. Secondly⁸, we learned that our governance system was not yet at the right level of sophistication, and we are in fact changing a lot; if not, there is a small revolution going on inside the euro area in the way we deal with what we call the economic governance. There is a lot being changed.”
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. To read and hear more health news for people learning English, and for transcripts⁹, MP3s and now PDFs of our programs for e-readers, go to voanews.cn. I'm Mario Ritter.
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Contributing: Mil Arcega

1 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。

2 creditors   

n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 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

4 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？

5 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。

6 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

7 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

8 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

9 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句