CNN 2010-02-04

So, the debt limit is how much money a country can borrow. Yesterday, the Senate voted to increase it. This doesn't mean the debt limit is definitely going up, though; it still has to get through the House of Representatives. But let's look at the numbers here. The Senate vote would've raise the country's debt limit by $1.9 trillion. Right now, the limit is around $12.4 trillion, and we're about there. So, the increase would move it up to about $14.3 trillion. The reason we have this limit in the first place is because if the country ever borrows more than it's allowed to, it means the U.S. would be in what's called default. And that could have serious consequences for investors¹ and for the economy.

 

Ben Bernanke, whom you see right here, is the chairman of the Federal Reserve, the country's central bank. And thanks to another vote by the Senate, he will keep that title for a while longer. Yesterday, he was confirmed for a second term. The final tally² was 70 to 30, which may not sound close, but it's actually one of the smallest margins³ of all time for a Fed chairman. The reason why: the recession. Some lawmakers say Bernanke deserves the blame for it. Others believe his decisions kept it from getting even worse.

 

The U.S. auto⁴ industry was hit hard by the recession. But one carmaker has good news: Ford⁵ reported that it earned a profit last year for the first time since 2005. The company lost more than $7 billion in 2008, last year, it earned $2.7 billion. And, Ford executives expect to make a profit again in 2010.

 

Meantime, Toyota, expanding its recall of vehicles whose gas pedals may be malfunctioning⁶. The announcement affects more than 5 million cars in the U.S. and Europe. Toyota says it's working on a solution and could have a new pedal design ready soon. CNN's Ali Velshi talked with the chairman of Ford about his take on Toyota's situation. Take a listen.

 

1 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

2 tally   

n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致

参考例句：

• Don't forget to keep a careful tally of what you spend.别忘了仔细记下你的开支账目。
• The facts mentioned in the report tally to every detail.报告中所提到的事实都丝毫不差。

3 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

4 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

5 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

6 malfunctioning   

出故障

参考例句：

• But something was malfunctioning in the equipment due to human error. 但由于人为的错误，设备发生故障了。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• Choke coils are useful for prevention of malfunctioning electronic equipment. 扼流圈对于防止电器设备的故障很有帮助。 来自互联网