NPR邊聽(tīng)邊練305:美銀行向房地美公司付款

以下段落是摘自新聞里的一些重要信息,并不是一個(gè)段落的聽(tīng)寫(xiě)?？諆?nèi)信息可在本新聞中全部找到,大家可以根據(jù)這些信息復(fù)述新聞。

一、泛聽(tīng)建議：

1、完整聽(tīng)一遍，掌握大意。

2、繼續(xù)聽(tīng)，特別注意關(guān)鍵信息。遇到相似的詞，寫(xiě)下來(lái)。

Bank of America will pay $400 million to mortgage giant Freddie Mac to settle claims over bad home mortgages. NPR's Chris Arnold reports it's part of a series of settlements _1_ many of the nation's big banks.

美國(guó)銀行將向抵押貸款巨頭房利美支付4億美元，以了結(jié)不良住房抵押貸款引發(fā)的索賠問(wèn)題。據(jù)NPR新聞的克里斯·阿諾德報(bào)道，這起和解是涉及眾多美國(guó)大銀行的和解案之一。

These cases essentially involved banks allegedly selling garbage home loans to investors after first telling them the loans were good. This was back during the housing bubble when this took place. The government-controlled mortgage firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bought or _2_ tens of billions of dollars worth of these loans that went bad. And this latest settlement $400 million is actually smaller potatoes. Bank of America earlier this agreed to pay $3.6 billion in a similar settlement with Fannie Mae. And JPMorgan Chase recently struck a deal with both Fannie and Freddie to pay them about $5 billion for selling loans that _3_ quality than the bank said they were. Chris Arnold, NPR News.

基本來(lái)說(shuō)，這些涉及銀行的案件都是在告知投資者貸款安全之后卻向他們出售不良住房貸款。這些案件發(fā)生在房地產(chǎn)泡沫時(shí)期。政府控制的抵押貸款公司房地美和房利美購(gòu)買或擔(dān)保了價(jià)值數(shù)百億美元的不良貸款。最新達(dá)成的這筆價(jià)值4億美元的和解協(xié)議實(shí)際上只是一件小案子。美國(guó)銀行早前同意支付36億美元與房地美達(dá)成和解。近期摩根大通銀行也與房地美和房利美達(dá)成和解協(xié)議，將為出售低于所承諾質(zhì)量的貸款支付兩房50億美元。NPR新聞，克里斯·阿諾德報(bào)道。

Huddled with Black Friday, Small Business Saturday in the host of other _4_ retail holidays were bombarded with, well, like another one on the list today, Cyber Monday. Most analysts expect upwards of 2 billion in sales today.

黑色星期五之后，“小企業(yè)星期六”迎來(lái)了所謂的零售業(yè)假期，同時(shí)“網(wǎng)購(gòu)星期一”也掀起了購(gòu)物熱潮。大部分分析人士預(yù)計(jì)今天的銷售量將超過(guò)20億美元。

Stocks closed lower, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 77 points; the NASDAQ lost 14 points today.

今天股市收盤走低，道瓊斯工業(yè)平均指數(shù)下降77點(diǎn);納斯達(dá)克綜合指數(shù)下降14點(diǎn)。

This is NPR.

這里是NPR新聞。

詞匯解析：

1. small potato

小人物，不重要的事;

eg. I can do nothing. I am just a small potato here.

我干不了什么事，我在這里不過(guò)是個(gè)小卒子而已。

eg. I was working for small potatoes until I went into business for myself.

在我自己創(chuàng)業(yè)之前，我一直賺的是小錢。

2. be bombarded wtih

連珠炮似的質(zhì)問(wèn)(或批評(píng));使大量面對(duì);

eg. The spokesman was bombarded with questions on the press conference.

新聞發(fā)布會(huì)上那位發(fā)言人遭到了連珠炮般的發(fā)問(wèn)。

eg. We have been bombarded with letters of complaint.

我們接二連三收到了大批的投訴信件。

3. upwards of

…以上;多于…;

eg. It costs upward of $40,000 a year to keep some prisoners in prison.

關(guān)押某些犯人一年的成本超過(guò)4萬(wàn)美元。

eg. There were upwards of a hundred people at the meeting.

有一百多人參加了這次會(huì)議。

參考答案：

1、involving 2、guaranteed 3、were lower

4、so-called 5、upwards