英式发音 适合精听
香港——慈善纪念钞
Standard Chartered Bank is celebrating 150 years in Hong Kong. To mark the occasion, the bank has issued the world’s first $150 charity banknote. And those buying the bill can even chose their own serial number to be 1)inscribed on the 2)commemorative note.
The note comes in Standard Chartered Bank’s trademark blue and green colours. On the back of the note is a 3)sketch of Hong Kong people from different 4)eras admiring the view of Victoria Harbour from the Peak. The unique feature of the banknote is the fact that people can choose their own serial number. The first two letters of the serial number will be SC for Standard Chartered. But you can choose what the remaining six digits will be. So for example, if you choose today’s date of September 8th, 2009, your serial number would be SC090908. If more than one person chooses the same number, all the names will be placed in a hat and the winner will be drawn from there. If you choose your own serial number, a single banknote will set you back $888. If you’d like buy one banknote, but don’t need to select your own serial number, then it will only cost you $280. These non-serial notes will go on sale from October 1st and are sold on a first-come-first-served basis. A total of 730,000 banknotes will be on offer.
渣打银行正在庆祝它于香港成立150周年。为纪念这一盛事,渣打银行将发行世界首创的慈善纪念钞,面值为150港元。慈善钞的买家甚至可以自行选择印在钞票上的序列号。
慈善钞将沿用渣打银行标志性的蓝绿两色。钞票背面有来自不同时期的香港民众在山顶俯瞰欣赏维多利亚港的画面。慈善钞最与众不同之处在于其序列号的可选择性。序列号前两个字母SC固定不变,是渣打银行英文名字开头字母的缩写,但民众可以选择剩下的六个数字。例如,如果你选择今天的日期2009年9月8日,那么你的序列号就是SC090908。如果有多人选择了同一个序列号,那么这些买家就要进行幸运抽签。如果你要自己选择序列号,那么每张150元的慈善钞就要花掉你888港元。如果你不需要选择序列号,那么你只需为每张钞票支付280港元。单张慈善纪念钞将从10月1日起依据“先到先得”的原则开始发售。公开销售的慈善纪念钞共有73万张。
英国——出生率
It’s official—the economy may be 5)bust but the birth rate is booming. The latest count of Britain’s population shows that they’re the reason the country’s fuller than it’s ever been.
Roma Chappell (Statistician): 6)Fertility rates have increased in the UK since 2001, when they were at a low of 1.63. They’ve risen to 1.96 in 2008, and you have to go all the way back to 1973 to find another year when fertility rates were higher in the UK.
There were 791,000 babies born between 2007 and 2008. That means one in five of the population is under 16. But we’re also living longer; 1.3 million are now over 85.
Until now, immigration, particularly from Eastern Europe, was thought to 7)account for this baby boom. That no longer seems to be the only cause. These figures show that, largely due to more babies being born, the population is increasing, despite the fact that the number of new immigrants is falling. Record numbers from Eastern Europe left last year, and yet the number of people living here in the UK is still rising. This 8)bulging population 9)stretches services; the elderly need more care both at home and in hospital while local authorities are being forced to find more school and nursery places.
But there are warnings that this 10)surge in the 11)indigenous birth rate combined with immigration will push the population over 70 million by 2030.
这是铁板钉钉的事实了——经济萎靡不振,但人口出生率则持续飚升。最新一次英国人口统计数据显示,这就是目前这个国家比以往任何时期都要拥挤的原因。
罗马·夏普尔(统计学家):自2001年起,英国的出生率就一直上升,从当年的1.63上升到2008年的1.96。要在英国历史上找到出生率高于这个数字的,你得回溯到1973年。
79.1万婴儿在2007年至2008年期间降生。这意味着五分之一的英国人口年龄低于16岁。但人们的寿命也比以前更长了,全国如今共有130万人年龄超过85岁。
外来移民人口,尤其是来自东欧国家的移民一直被认为是造成英国人口出生率高涨的原因。但现在看来移民已不再是惟一因素了。数据显示人口增长很大程度上是因为有更多的婴儿出生,尽管与此同时新移民数量正在减少。在去年,离开英国的东欧移民数量创了新高,但英国的人口依然在增加。急剧飚升的人口数量给一些行业造成严重压力:在家以及在医院的老年人都需要更多的照顾,同时当局政府还得寻找更多的学校和托儿所安置低龄儿童。
不过,已经有人发出警告说,英国本国的人口出生率上升,加上不断攀升的移民数量,将在2030年之前使英国人口增至7000万。
