(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Economics Report.
The head of the U.S. central bank has told Congress that the economy is improving after very slow growth in the first three-month of the year. U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's report came soon after the government announced April's employment numbers. They showed the biggest monthly gain in two years.
"Looking ahead, I expect that economic activity will expand at a somewhat faster pace this year than it did last year, that the unemployment rate will continue to decline gradually, and that inflation will begin to move up toward two percent," said Yellen.
However, the central bank chief remained concerned about employment and international tensions. She said the threat of conflict in other countries, and intensifying financial problems in some developing countries could hurt the world economy.
"Currently one prominent risk is that adverse developments abroad, such as heightened geopolitical tensions or an intensification of financial stresses in emerging market economies could undermine confidence in the global economic recovery," said Yellen.
The Federal Reserve, or Fed for short, has been cutting back its efforts to support the economy. The Fed has reduced or tapered its government bond buying activities. They went from $85 billion five months ago to about $45 billion now.
Bond buying by the central bank puts more money into the economy. And it has helped keep interest rates near historically low levels. This program called "quantitative easing" is set to end in the last three-month of this year. But Janet Yellen said borrowing rates would remain low for, in her words, a "considerable amount of time".
Earlier, the U.S. Labor Department said the economy added 288,000 jobs in April. That brought the unemployment rate to its lowest level in five years. The employment news balances the Commerce Department's announcement that economic growth was very slow in the first three-month of the year, the economy grew at a rate of one-tenth of one percent.
Experts blamed an unusually cold winter for hurting demand. However, economists say job gains were better than expected. But others are concerned about the quality of jobs.
Mark Hamrick of Bankrate.com says the jobs are not pushing up hourly wages. He says that the building, professional services and healthcare industries added jobs, but income gains were disappointing.
And that's the VOA Learning English Economics Report. Find more of our programs at learningenglish.voanews.com. I'm Mario Ritter.
文本来自51voa，译文属可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载
词汇解释
1.inflation n. 膨胀；通货膨胀；夸张；自命不凡
We are battling against inflation and unemployment.
我们正与通货膨胀和失业做斗争。
2.adverse adj. 不利的；相反的；敌对的
The police said Mr. Hadfield's decision would have no adverse effect on the progress of the investigation.
警方说哈德菲尔德先生的决定对于调查进展不会有任何不利的影响。
3.taper n. 细蜡烛，烛芯；逐渐变弱；锥形物 vi. 逐渐减少；逐渐变弱 vt. 逐渐减少；使成锥形
Unlike other trees, it doesn't taper very much. It stays fat all the way up.
不像其他树，它不是越往上越细，而是自下往上一样粗。
4.quantitative adj. 定量的；量的，数量的
He said it was only a quantitative difference.
他说这仅仅是数量上的差别。
内容解析
1.Mark Hamrick of Bankrate.com says the jobs are not pushing up hourly wages.
push up 增加；提高；向上推
Shops are no longer allowed to push up their prices whenever they want.
再不允许商店想什么时候提价就提价了。
The extension bridge is steep,so the tricyclist has to get off his tricycle and push it up.
引桥陡滑，三轮车车夫必须下车把三轮车推上桥。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。
美国央行行长告诉国会，今年前三个月经济在经历非常慢的增长后正在转好。美联储主席珍妮特·耶伦的报告是在政府宣布4月份就业人数后发布的，两者都显示经济出现两年来最快的月增长。
“着眼未来，我期待今年的经济发展比去年要快一些，希望失业率能逐渐下降，希望通胀能在2%。”
然而，央行行长仍担心就业和国际紧张局势。她说其他国家的冲突威胁，以及一些发展中国家日益加剧的财政问题都可能有损世界经济。
“目前一个突出的问题是国外不利的局面，比如新兴市场经济中加剧的地缘政治紧张或财政问题的加剧都可能挫伤全球经济复苏的信心。”
美联储已经减少了支持经济的一些努力，已经减少或削弱其政府债券的购买活动，从5个月前的850亿美元减少到现在的约450亿美元。
央行通过购买债券向经济投入更多货币，这就使得利率处于历史上最低的水平。这个名为“量化宽松”的项目将在今年第四季度结束，但珍妮特·耶伦称借款利率仍“在相当长的时间内”保持很低。
早些时候，美国劳工部称4月份增加了28.8万个就业岗位，这样失业率就达到5年来最低点。该就业消息就平衡了商务部的声明，该声明称今年前三个月的经济发展很慢，其增长率为0.1%。
专家指责不寻常的寒冬影响了需求，但经济学家称经济发展比预料的要好。但也有人担心就业岗位的质量。
Bankrate.com网站的马克·哈姆里克称这些岗位并未增加时薪。他说建筑业、专业服务和医疗行业增加了就业，但收入增加却令人失望。
这就是美国之音慢速英语经济报道，登陆learningenglish.voanews.com获得更多节目，我是马里奥·利特。
