VOA标准英语2015--Greece Teeters Towards Bankruptcy

Greece Teeters Towards Bankruptcy¹

LONDON—

Greece’s finance minister said Thursday he wished his country had never joined the euro currency — and warned international creditors² that he would refuse to sign any bailout plan that would send Greece into a "death spiral."  With a bailout agreement still seemingly a long way off, there are dangers that Athens could run out of money in the coming days.

Hundreds of former employees of Greece’s public broadcaster, ERT, stormed their old workplace earlier this week, after the government voted to re-open the 60-year-old TV station.

The previous government closed it down in 2013 and fired 2600 people — to satisfy spending cuts demanded by Greece's creditors.

Its reinstatement is part of the anti-austerity Syriza-led government’s plans to roll back spending cuts. Former ERT technician Panagiotis Hasapis had mixed feelings.

“After 23 months we enter the building of ERT again, from where the riot police took us out,” he said. “I would like to say I feel like a winner, but this homecoming has a bitter taste,” he said.

Back in recession

Greece’s crisis is far from over. The economy is back in recession. Analyst³ Raoul Ruparel of the London-based policy group Open Europe blames the prolonged debt negotiations⁴ between Athens and the EU.

“Confidence is draining out of the economy as these things drag on,” he said.

Greece made a loan repayment⁵ worth $858 million to the International Monetary⁶ Fund Monday — but only by tapping emergency reserves held at the IMF itself.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has warned that the country could run out of cash to pay its bills within the next two weeks. Speaking Thursday, he explained why Greece has rejected EU demands for deeper reforms.

He said that if he signs such a deal, he would be just another finance minister who signed a medium-term fiscal⁷ adjustment program while knowing it is not feasible. And math proves that it is not feasible.

Short of cash

Greece must find the equivalent of $2.2 billion by the end of May to pay salaries and pensions. In July and August, Greece must pay US$7.7 billion worth of bonds to the European Central Bank. The consequences of failing to pay would be dire⁸, says Raoul Ruparel.

“If it misses another payment to the IMF, it probably has a bit of leeway," he said. "If it misses some payments of wages and pensions to its citizens, there will be political fallout but maybe less economic fallout. But if it ended up missing a payment to say the ECB in July or August, or a payment on its bonds, then the market impact would certainly be much larger.”

Greeks are bracing⁹ for bad news, says Professor Ioannis Kokkoris of Queen Mary University London, who spoke¹⁰ via Skype from Athens.

“People keep withdrawing money. There have been a lot of initiatives to actually try to recapitalize the banks from deposits," he said. "It hasn’t been working so well because of this uncertainty¹¹, because we do not know what will happen next Monday and the Monday after and the Monday after that.”

Unless Greece and EU reach a last minute deal, the debt crisis could come to a head in the coming days as the cash finally starts to run out.

1 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

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 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

4 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

5 repayment   

n.偿还，偿还款；报酬

参考例句：

• I am entitled to a repayment for the damaged goods.我有权利索取货物损坏赔偿金。
• The tax authorities have been harrying her for repayment.税务局一直在催她补交税款。

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 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

8 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

9 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。