澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2011-11-30

 And there was more sobering economic news out of Europe overnight. Britain's Office of (口误，应为for) Budget Responsibility said the British economy will grow by less than one per cent this year. Now it predicts the growth will be just 0.7 of one per cent next year--that's well down from the 2.5 per cent forecast in March. The British chancellor¹ says the situation would be much worse if eurozone countries don't fix their debt crisis.

 

“That this central forecast assumes--in their words--that the euro area finds a way through the current crisis, and that policymakers eventually find a solution that delivers sovereign debt sustainability. If they do not, then the OBR warn that there could be a much worse outcome for Britain. I believe they are right. We hope this can be averted². But if the rest of Europe heads into recession, it may prove hard to avoid one here in the UK.”

 

George Osborne there

 

To the markets.

 

And they have closed in the US in positive territory this morning. In fact, the Dow Jones closed 35 points higher. The NASDAQ put on 11 points--in fact it dropped 11 points. The S&P 500 up seven and the FTSE in London put on 24 points.

 

Checking commodity prices. West Texas Crude is trading at 99 US dollars and 74 cents a barrel. Tapis crude’s at 118 US dollars and 34 cents a barrel. And gold’s at 1,716 US dollars 59 cents an ounce. The Australian dollar is at parity³. It's also buying 75 euro cents and 64 pence sterling⁴.

1 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

2 averted   

防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移

参考例句：

• A disaster was narrowly averted. 及时防止了一场灾难。
• Thanks to her skilful handling of the affair, the problem was averted. 多亏她对事情处理得巧妙，才避免了麻烦。

3 parity   

n.平价，等价，比价，对等

参考例句：

• The two currencies have now reached parity.这两种货币现已达到同等价值。
• Women have yet to achieve wage or occupational parity in many fields.女性在很多领域还没能争取到薪金、职位方面的平等。

4 sterling   

adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑)

参考例句：

• Could you tell me the current rate for sterling, please?能否请您告诉我现行英国货币的兑换率？
• Sterling has recently been strong,which will help to abate inflationary pressures.英国货币最近非常坚挺，这有助于减轻通胀压力。