【托福TPO10.1Business之繁榮與泡沫——boom and bust -英文補習

boom and bust

Professor Now when l mention the terms “boom and bust” what does that bring to mind? Student The dot com crash of the 90’s Professor Ok. The boom in the late 1990s when all those new Internet companies sprang up and were then sold for huge amounts of money．Then the bust around 2000…2001 when many of these same Internet companies went out of business。 Of course，booms aren’t always followed by busts. We’ve certainly seen times when local economies expanded rapidly for a while and then went back to a normal pace of growth. But, there’s a type of rapid expansion, what might be called the hysterical or irrational boom that pretty much always leads to a bust. See, people often create and intensify a boom when they get carried away by some new industry that seems like it will make them lots of money fast. You’d think that by the 90s, people would have learned from the past. If they did, well, look at tulips． Student Tulips? You mean like the flower? Professor Exactly. For instance, do you have any idea where tulips are from? Originally l mean. Student Well, the Netherlands, right? Professor That’s what most people think, but no. They are not native to the Netherlands, or even Europe. Tulips actually hail from an area the Chinese call the Celestial Mountains in central Asia, a very remote mountainous region． It was Turkish nomads who first discovered tulips and spread them slowly westward. Now, around the 16th century, Europeans were traveling to Istanbul and Turkey as merchants and diplomats. And the Turks often gave the Europeans tulip bulbs as gifts which they would carry home with them. For the Europeans, tulips were totally unheard of, uh…a great novelty. The first bulb to show up in the Netherlands, the merchant who received them roasted and ate them. He thought they were kind of onion. It turns out that the Netherlands was an ideal country for growing tulips. It had the right kind of sandy soil for one thing, but also, it was a wealthy nation with a growing economy, willing to spend lots of money on new exotic things. Plus, the Dutch had a history of gardening. Wealthy people would compete, spending enormous amounts of money to buy the rarest flowers for their gardens. Soon tulips were beginning to show up in different colors as growers tried to breed them specifically for colors which would make them even more valuable. But they were never completely sure what they would get. Some of the most priced tulips were white with purple streaks, or red with yellow streaks on the petals, even a dark purple tulip that was very much priced. What happened then was a craze for these specialized tulips.●原文翻譯教授提及“繁榮與泡沫”，同學們都會想起哪些經濟事件？學生 90 年代末的互聯網泡沫危機。教授是的。互聯網行業興起于二十世紀九十年代，當時諸多互聯網公司蓬勃興起，并持續以高價轉手。直到約 2001 年，許多公司都面臨破產，互聯網行業的繁榮也就宣告終結。當然，行業繁榮并不總是以泡沫而告終。在許多時期，地區經濟在高速擴張后回落，繼續以正常速率發展。然而，確實存在一種劇烈的行業擴張，被稱為超速率或非理性繁榮，它通常以產業泡沫破裂而終結。一旦某一新興產業能夠迅速帶來巨額財富，人們便忘乎所以地不斷地為膨脹的行業泡沫加砝碼，。同學們或許認為，經濟發展到九十年代人們應該學會吸取教訓，以理性的態度對待產業發展。然而事實并非如此，讓我們來回顧郁金香產業泡沫的崩潰過程。學生郁金香？您是指花卉？教授是的。同學們知道郁金香發源自何處嗎？學生應該是荷蘭，對嗎？教授許多人都這樣認為，但事實并非如此。郁金香并非原產自荷蘭或者歐洲的其他地區。郁金香初生于亞洲中部昆侖山脈這一非常遙遠的山區。土耳其游牧人最先發現了郁金香并將其逐漸帶往西方。在十六世紀左右，歐洲人不斷前往伊斯坦布爾和土耳其經商或從事政治外交活動，當地人便將郁金香球莖作為禮物贈送給歐洲人。對歐洲人而言，郁金香是聞所未聞的極為新奇的物種，最初其球莖出現在荷蘭時，當地商人甚至將其作為某種洋蔥烘烤食用。事實證明，荷蘭的氣候極其適合郁金香的種植。一方面，荷蘭當地擁有適宜郁金香生長的沙狀土，另一方面，荷蘭十分富有，經濟發展迅速，因此商人愿意投資發展這一新興產業。另外，荷蘭人生性喜愛園藝，富有階層則不遺余力地花費重金，收集最為稀有的花卉品種，。隨后，種植者開始專注于培育顏色各異的郁金香花，以進一步增加其球莖的價值，但問題在于種植者并不能保證顏色培育的成功。當時最為貴重的郁金香種類包括花瓣上帶有紫色彩帶的白色花朵、帶有黃色彩帶的紅色花朵以及深紫色花朵等。緊接著一場圍繞“特色”郁金香的產業狂潮便展開了，經濟學家稱之為“郁金香狂潮”。這篇材料你能聽出多少？點擊這里做聽寫，提高外語水平>>