2007考研英语时文阅读(13)(1)

韩国浦项拟求助日本新日铁 以防敌意收购

2006年3月9日 星期四

Posco considers seeking help from Nippon Steel

韩国浦项拟求助日本新日铁 以防敌意收购

South Korea’s Posco said yesterday it might ask Japan’s Nippon Steel to buy more of its shares to help fend off any potential hostile takeover attempts.

韩国浦项制铁(Posco)昨日表示，可能要求日本新日铁(Nippon Steel)购入其更多股份，以防止任何潜在的敌意收购企图。【您现在阅读的文章来自“中国学习考试网”，请记住我们的永久域名：www.stu88.com 】

Any move by Nippon Steel to increase its holding in Posco would be unprecedented in South Korea, where no foreign investor has acted as a white knight for a large Korean company against a hostile bid.

一旦新日铁增持浦项制铁的股份，将在韩国开创一个先例。在韩国，尚没有外国投资者充当 “白衣骑士”(white knight)、帮助一家韩国大型企业抵御敌意收购的前例。

Nippon Steel, Asia’s leading steelmaker, is Posco’s strategic partner through cross-shareholdings. Posco has a 2.2 per cent stake in Nippon Steel and the Japanese steelmaker has 3.32 per cent of Posco.

亚洲领先钢铁制造商新日铁通过交叉持股成为浦项制铁的战略伙伴。浦项制铁持有新日铁2.2%的股权，而新日铁在浦项制铁的持股比例为3.32%。

The Japanese company, which yesterday declined to comment on Posco’s remarks, formed a strategic alliance with the South Korean company in August 2000 to co-operate on technology, the purchase of raw materials and IT.

新日铁与浦项制铁于2000年8月组成战略联盟，在技术、原材料采购和IT方面进行合作。新日铁昨日拒绝就浦项制铁的说法置评。

注释：

fend off 挡开

knight n.(欧洲中世纪的)骑士, 爵士, 武士

stake v.以……冒险

raw material 原料

2006年3月10日 星期五

BoJ says decade of deflation has ended

日本央行：10年通缩结束

Japan’s decade of deflation was officially declared over yesterday when its central bank ended five years of ultra-loose monetary policy and moved to a regime of managing interest rates.

日本央行(BoJ)昨天终止了长达5年的极度宽松货币政策，并采用利率管理体系，从而正式宣布长达10年的通缩结束。

The Bank of Japan decision, which came a month earlier than many had expected, marks a decisive statement by the bank that the world’s second-biggest economy has returned to normality after 15 years in post-bubble doldrums. The move was also an assertion of the central bank’s independence following intense pressure from politicians not to tighten prematurely and risk choking off Japan’s most promising recovery in years.

日本央行的这一决定比许多人预期的要早一个月，这一决定标志着央行的一个明确宣示，表明日本这个全球第二大经济体在经历了泡沫破裂后15年的低迷时期后，已回归常态。央行的这一行动也宣示了它的独立地位，而此前央行面临政界人士的巨大压力，他们要求央行不要过早采取升息行动，以免扼杀日本多年来最有希望的一次经济复苏。

But the bank sought to avoid unsettling Japanese and global financial markets. It said the new target, the uncollateralised overnight call rate, would be kept at “effectively zero per cent” for several months.

但日本央行试图避免使日本乃至全球金融市场不安。央行表示，新的目标，即无担保隔夜拆款利率，将在数月内保持在“百分之零的实际水平上”。

The Bank of Japan’s ultra-loose policy was brought in five years ago to avoid the risk of financial meltdown. Banks were suffocating under a mountain of non-performing loans, which Glenn Hubbard, former White House economist, estimated in 2002 at 20 times the relative size of the US savings and loan crisis.

日本央行5年前开始实行极度宽松的货币政策，以避免金融崩溃的风险。日本的各家银行在堆积如山的不良贷款重压下喘不过气来。前白宫经济学家格伦•哈巴德(Glenn Hubbard)2002年估计，日本的不良贷款危机，是美国储蓄和贷款机构危机相对规模的20倍。

The financial crisis left conventional monetary policy impotent and obliged the government to issue huge amounts of debt, much of it bought by the BoJ, to ensure the economy did not sink into depression.

这场金融危机使传统货币政策失效，并迫使政府发行巨额债务，其中大量被日本央行购买，以确保经济不陷入大萧条。

Deflation made the debt problem worse by increasing the size of past loans in comparison with falling earnings and a gross domestic product that has fallen, in nominal terms, for most of the past decade.

通货紧缩使负债问题更加糟糕，因为相对于过去10年多数时间里日益下降的收入和名义国内生产总值，以前债务的金额因通货紧缩而上升了。

Japan’s economic revival was finally sparked by demand from China and the US. Unlike in the 1990s, a decade dominated by anaemic growth, this revival has not been snuffed out by policy errors or external shocks.

最终，中国和美国的需求引发了日本的经济复苏。20世纪90年代这10年，日本经济增长乏力，但与那时不一样的是，这次复苏没有被政策错误或外部冲击所扼杀。

The BoJ shift means the big three central banks are now tightening in unison, although Goldman Sachs said keeping Japanese rates at zero while inflation gathered momentum actually constituted a loosening.

日本央行的政策转变意味着，全球三大央行现正联手紧缩。但高盛(Goldman Sachs)表示，日本在保持零利率的同时让通胀趋势得以巩固，实际上等于放松了货币政策。

注释：

doldrums n.赤道无风带

choke off 把...闷死, 勒死, 绞死

unsettling a.使人不安的

uncollateralised a.无担保的

meltdown n.彻底垮台

suffocating adj.令人窒息的, 憋气的

sink into 使沉入

demand from 向...要求

anaemic adj.[医]贫血的

snuff out 扼杀, 消灭, 死掉

in unison 一致地

美国土安全部长：国会安全神经过敏

2006年3月13日 星期一

US focus on risk ‘poses threat to economy’

美国土安全部长：国会安全神经过敏

Michael Chertoff, the US homeland security secretary, has warned that emotional responses by Congress to security issues, such as the recent flare-up over ports, threaten to damage the nation’s economy.

美国国土安全部部长迈克尔•切尔托夫(Michael Chertoff)警告说，美国国会对安全问题的情绪化反应，比如近期在港口问题上的激烈反应，有破坏国家经济的危险。

“We do not want a regime in which we are so focused on risk to the exclusion of all else that we lock everything down and we destroy our country,” Mr Chertoff told the FT. In his first interview since congressional opposition forced Dubai Ports World to divest the five US terminals it obtained through its acquisition of Britain’s P&O, Mr Chertoff said Congress underestimated the progress made by the Bush administration in promoting port security.

“我们不想要如此关注风险、排斥一切的制度，这样我们会使一切停顿，毁掉我们的国家，”切尔托夫先生对《金融时报》表示。迪拜港口世界(Dubai Ports World)通过收购英国的铁行港口(P&O)，获得了5座美国港口终端，但美国国会的反对迫使它放弃。切尔托夫先生在自此以来接受的首次采访中表示，国会低估了布什(Bush)政府在推动港口安全上取得的进展。

While conceding that more work was needed, he stressed that the administration had to focus on “intelligent security” in a way that “doesn’t burn down the village in order to save it”.

他承认还需要做更多的工作，但同时也强调，政府必须把注意力集中在“智能安全”上，“不能为了拯救一个村庄而烧毁整个村庄”。

In the wake of the ports controversy, some lawmakers have argued that all cargo containers entering the US should be inspected. But Mr Chertoff said such a move would be “tantamount to shutting the ports down”.

紧接着港口争议之后，部分立法者声称，所有进入美国的货物集装箱都应接受检查。但切尔托夫先生表示，此举“等于关闭港口”。

Mr Chertoff said he was surprised the US business community had not been more vocal on the ports dispute and other homeland security issues that could hurt their companies.

切尔托夫先生表示，他感到意外的是，在港口争议和其它国土安全问题上，美国商界未表达更多意见，这些问题都可能损害它们的企业。【您现在阅读的文章来自“中国学习考试网”，请记住我们的永久域名：www.stu88.com 】

Asked whether the administration should shoulder the blame for the congressional backlash over the ports deal, the security chief replied: “There are times when, if we were quicker in explaining what we do, we might avert a certain amount of heartburn.” Sometimes the hard thing to anticipate was “when the reaction is not based on the facts necessarily, but based upon some emotional reaction”.

当被问及政府是否应承担国会反对港口交易的过失时，这位安全首长回答道：“有时候，假如我们能更快地解释我们的行为，我们可能会避免一定程度的不满。”有时难以预见的事，是“反应未必建立在事实上，而是建立在某些情绪化反应上”。

On whether the administration’s constant warnings about terrorism were making the public overly sensitive to security risks, Mr Chertoff said: “We have to have alertness and care but not hysteria or anxiety…We don’t want to build a system that smothers us as a society, whether it is civil liberties or our economy.”

关于政府在恐怖主义问题上的持续警告是否让公众对安全风险变得过于敏感，切尔托夫先生表示：“我们必须警惕小心，但不该歇斯底里和焦虑……我们不想建立一个扼杀我们社会的制度，无论是公民自由还是我们的经济。”

注释：

flare-up 怒气(或疾病)的发作

to the exclusion of 排斥着

divest v.剥夺

In the wake of 尾随, 紧跟, 仿效

tantamount adj.等价

backlash n.反斜线(), 后座, 后冲

heartburn n.心痛, 妒忌

smother v.窒息

日本就业增势居全球首位”

2006年3月14日 星期二

Japan leads the pack in global job growth

“日本就业增势居全球首位”

Japan’s economic recovery is generating job growth “like a pressure cooker letting off steam”, according to a report published today.

今日发表的一份报告显示，日本经济复苏正推动就业增长，“就像高压锅释放蒸汽一样”。

Hiring activity in Japan’s peak second quarter season is expected to be vigorous, notably in the financial and insurance sectors, says the latest global outlook from Manpower, the employment-services group.

人力资源公司万宝盛华(Manpower)发表的最新全球就业展望报告显示，预计日本第二季度的招聘活动将相当活跃，尤其是在金融和保险领域。第二季度通常是日本招聘活动的高峰期。

The survey evidence will feed into the debate over Japan’s economic recovery, with bond markets pricing in an early rise in interest rates following last week’s signal from the Bank of Japan that it was ending five years of ultra-loose economic policy.

这项调查将为有关日本经济复苏的辩论增添更多话题。上周，日本央行(BoJ)暗示将结束历时5年的超宽松经济政策之后，债市行情反映了央行将较快加息的预期。

Manpower’s survey of hiring trends in 24 countries shows Japan to have the most robust pipeline in the global economy. The country’s net employment outlook – the percentage of employers anticipating an increase, less the percentage expecting a decrease – climbed to 43 in the second quarter, compared with 35 a year earlier.

万宝盛华对24个国家就业趋势进行的调查显示，在全球经济体中，日本的就业增势最为强劲。该国第二季度的净就业展望指数(net employment outlook)从去年同期的35攀升至43。该指数的计算方法，是以预期增员的雇主比例，减去预期裁员的雇主比例。

“Japan really has its sea legs,” said Jeff Joerres, Manpower’s chairman and chief executive.

万宝盛华董事长兼首席执行官杰夫•约雷斯(Jeff Joerres)称：“日本已确实能够驾驭风浪。”

He said job growth was breaking through the cautious hiring pattern displayed by employers in recent months. “They just can’t hold it down any more. It is something of a pressure cooker letting off steam environment,” he added.

他表示，就业增长正打破近几个月来雇主们展现的谨慎雇佣模式。他补充称：“他们简直无法再压制雇佣需要了。这就像一个正在释放蒸汽的高压锅。”

The regular quarterly outlook predicts positive net hiring in 23 of the 24 countries surveyed – Italy is the exception – with Japan and Germany generating the most optimistic outlooks since the exercise was launched in 2003. Chinese employers said they would reduce hiring activity compared with the same time last year.

该公司的季度展望报告预期，在其调查的24个国家中，有23个国家的净就业展望指数为正数，惟有意大利为负数。而日本和德国的净就业展望指数是2003年展开这项调查以来最为乐观的。中国雇主表示，与去年同期相比，他们的招聘活动将有所减少。

The seasonally adjusted net employment outlook for the US rose marginally to 21 from 20 in the prior quarter, with a ninth consecutive quarter of “healthy hiring”.

对美国而言，经季节因素调整后的净就业展望指数，较前一季度有略微增长，从20增至21，连续第9个季度实现“健康就业”。

注释：

pressure cooker 高压锅

bond market 债券市场

robust adj.精力充沛的

pipeline n.管道, 传递途径