2016年商務英語BEC中級考試閱讀資料整合版

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2016年商務英語BEC中級考試閱讀資料(1)

貝爾斯登(Bear Stearns)與中國最大券商中信證券(Citic Securities)正在就去年達成的股份互換協議重新展開談判，以更好地反映協議達成後雙方股價的下跌。

Bear Stearns and Citic Securities, China’s largest securities firm, are renegotiating the share swap agreement they reached last year to better reflect a subsequent fall in their stock prices.

一位知情人士稱，兩家公司的高管正在討論一項“對等調整”，這將增加雙方最終持有的對方股份。

Senior executives from both firms are discussing a “reciprocal adjustment” that would increase the amount they eventually hold in each other, according to a person familiar with the matter.

根據去年10月達成的交易條款，中信證券同意支付10億美元購入最終將轉換爲貝爾斯登約6%股份的證券，而美國投行貝爾斯登最終將支付同等金額，購得中信證券約2%股份。

Under the terms of the deal struck last October, Citic agreed to pay $1bn for securities that would convert to about 6 per cent of Bear Stearns and the US investment bank would eventually pay the same amount for about 2 per cent of Citic.

這宗交易仍需獲得中國監管機構批准，若交易成功，作爲中國國務院控制的中國中信集團(Citic Group)旗下證券交易子公司的中信證券將成爲貝爾斯登的最大單一股東。

The deal still needs regulatory approval in China, but if successful, Citic Securities, the brokerage arm of China Citic Group, which is controlled by China’s cabinet, would BECome the biggest single shareholder of the US investment bank.

由外國投資者持有一家美國銀行如此大規模的股份，可能會在美國引發批評。美國某些議員已對亞洲和中東主權財富基金的直接投資感到不安。

Such a large stake by a foreign investor in a US bank could attract criticism in the US, where some lawmakers have been unnerved by direct investments by sovereign wealth funds from Asia and the Middle East.

美國聯合經濟委員會(Joint Economic Committee)主席、參議員查爾斯?舒默(Charles Schumer)本週暗示，可能會推動對此類投資實行更嚴格的監管。

Senator Charles Schumer, chairman of the joint economic committee, this week signalled a possible push for greater regulation of such investments.

根據中國官方新華社的報道，中信證券在貝爾斯登的持股比例可能增至9.9%，而貝爾斯登所持中信證券的股份最終可能增至7.5%。

Citic’s stake is likely to be increased to 9.9 per cent of Bear Stearns. The US investment bank’s stake in Citic could eventually be lifted to as much as 7.5 per cent, according to a report from China’s official Xinhua news agency.

10億美元的投資規模將保持不變，只是仍需得到中國監管機構的批准。

The $1bn investment scale will remain the same, subject to approval from Chinese regulators.

自去年10月達成交易以來，貝爾斯登的股價已從當時的大約120美元跌至約80美元。中信證券的股價已下滑40%，至大約71元人民幣。

Bear’s shares have fallen from about $120 when the deal was signed in October to about $80 now. Citic’s shares have dropped 40 per cent to about Rmb71.

據知情人士介紹，去年11月，在貝爾斯登股價出現驟跌後，中信證券首先提出重新討論它將在這家美國投行持有的股份。

Citic first broached the subject of renegotiating the stake it would take in Bear last November following a precipitous drop in the US bank’s shares, according to people familiar with the matter.

中信一位發言人表示，他不知道有任何談判正在進行。記者無法聯繫上貝爾斯登駐日本的一位發言人置評。

A Citic spokesman said he had no knowledge of any ongoing negotiations and a Bear spokeswoman in Japan could not be reached for comment.

一名瞭解談判情況的人士稱，雙方增持對方股份是“合理的”，反映了雙方股價的下跌。 For the two sides to take larger shares in each other was “reasonable” and reflected their lower share prices, according to one person close to the negotiations.

另一位知情人士則持更爲懷疑的態度。他表示：“這些都是猜測，是我們的競爭引起監管機構擔憂造成的。雙方的股價都下跌了，但這並不意味着需要重新談判，除非這麼做符合雙方股東的利益。”

2016年商務英語BEC中級考試閱讀資料(2)

Read the following text.

? Choose the best sentence from the list on page 52 to fill each of the gaps.

? For each gap 8 – 12 mark one letter A – I on your Answer Sheet.

? Do not mark any letter twice.

The Cash-free Society

Imagine a society in which cash no longer exists, Instead, “ cash ” is electronic, as in bank-card Systems. Currency and coin are abandoned.

____ example ____ . Theft of cash would BECome impossible. Bank robberies and cash-register robberies would simply cease to occur ____ ( 8 ) ____ . Purse snatchings would become a thing of the past. Urban streets would become safer ____ ( 9 ) ____ . Security costs and insurance rates would fall. Property values would rise. Neighbourhoods would improve.

Drug traffickers and their clients, burglars and receives of stolen property, arsonists for hire, and bribe-takers would no longer have the advantage of using untraceable currency. ____ ( 10 ) ____ These prosecutions, in turn, would inhibit further crimes.

In a society devoid of physical money, a change from cash to recorded electronic money would be accompanied by a flow of previously unpaid income-tax revenues running in the tens of billions of dollars. ____ (11) ____

Cash has been the root of much social and economic evil. ____ (12)____ Eighty percent of Americans regularly use credit cards. The development of a federal system to handle the country’s 300 billion annual cash transactions in the United States electronically is within reach.

Example: H.

A. A national electronic-money system would operate as a debit-card system.

B. Retail shops in once dangerous areas could operate in safety.

C. As a result, income tax rates could be lowered or the national debt reduced.

D. The use of cash has diminished substantially since World War II.

E. Attacks on shopkeepers, taxi drivers, and cashiers would all end.

F. The emergence of electronic funds-transfer technology makes it possible to change the nature of money and to divorce it from evil.

G. Almost every present-day cash transaction can be duplicated electronically.

H. The immediate benefits would be profound and fundamental.

I. Electronic “money” would leave incriminating trails of data, resulting in more arrests and convictions.

答案：Questions 8 – 12: E, B, I, C, F

2016年商務英語BEC中級考試閱讀資料(3)

Owning a cat can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes by more than a third, researchers have found.

Scientists said that having a cat helped to relieve stress and anxiety, which is known to help protect against heart disease by lowering blood pressure and reducing the heart rate.

The 10-year study looked at 4,435 adults aged between 30 and 75, about half of whom owned a cat.

The findings, presented at a stroke conference in America, showed that 3.4 per cent of the cat owners died from a heart attack over 10 years. Among the group who had never owned a cat the rate was 5.8 per cent.

Cat owners still had a much reduced chance of developing strokes or heart attacks when researchers took account of other factors known to trigger heart disease, including high cholesterol levels, smoking and diabetes.

Prof Adnan Qureshi, from the Minnesota University, who carried out the study, said he was surprised by the strength of the effect that owning a cat appeared to have.

"The logical explanation may be that cat ownership relieves stress and anxiety and subsequently reduces the risk of heart disease."

He believes one reason could be that stroking the pet could cut the level of stress-related hormones in the blood. Reducing stress is known to help protect against heart disease by lowering blood pressure and reducing the heart rate.

But Prof Qureshi added that the type of person who owned a cat was usually already fairly stress-free and at low risk of heart disease.

研?a href="">咳嗽狽⑾鄭蓯夠?a href="">心臟病和中風的風險降低三分之一以上。

科研人員稱，養貓有助於緩解壓力、減輕焦慮，而減輕壓力可以降低血壓和心律，因此有助於預防心臟病。

研究人員對4435名年齡在30歲至75歲之間的成年人進行了爲期十年的調查，其中有一半的人養貓。

研究結果顯示，在這十年中，僅有3.4%的養貓人士死於心臟病，而從未養過貓的人死於心臟病的比例爲5.8%。該結果在美國召開的一箇中風研討會上公佈。

研究人員還綜合考慮了高膽固醇、吸菸和糖尿病等可能引發心臟病的其它一些因素，結果發現，養貓人士患中風或心臟病的機率還是要小很多。

開展該研究的明尼蘇達大學教授阿德南?庫勒什說，他很驚訝養貓有這麼大的好處。

“合理的解釋應該是，養貓能夠緩解壓力和焦慮，從而降低患心臟病的風險。”

他認爲其中一個原因是，愛撫小貓能夠降低血液中的應激激素水平。而減輕壓力則能夠降低血壓和心率，從而有助於預防心臟病。

但庫勒什教授說，喜歡養貓的人往往自身就沒什麼壓力，患心臟病的機率也較小。