由于人口老齡化,年輕人和老年人對(duì)肉類的喜好不同,本是世界上人均魚(yú)類消費(fèi)量最大的國(guó)家,但2006年,日本餐桌上的肉類已超過(guò)海產(chǎn)品。
測(cè)試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識(shí):
tuna 金槍魚(yú),鮪魚(yú)['tju?n?]
sashimi 生魚(yú)片['s???m?]
capita 頭數(shù)(尤指牲口);總數(shù)['k?p?t?]
stagnant 停滯的;不景氣的['st?gn?nt]
commodity 貨物;日用品[k?'m?d?t?]
閱讀馬上開(kāi)始,建議您計(jì)算一下閱讀整篇文章所用的時(shí)間,對(duì)照下方的參考值就可以評(píng)估出您的英文閱讀水平。
3分19秒 母語(yǔ)為英語(yǔ)者的朗讀速度 140
1分58秒 母語(yǔ)為英語(yǔ)的中學(xué)生的閱讀速度 250
1分7秒 母語(yǔ)為英語(yǔ)的大學(xué)生的閱讀速度 350
0分44秒 母語(yǔ)為英語(yǔ)的速讀高手 1000
Chinese soap opera sends obscure chemical stock soaring (447words)
By Gabriel Wildau in Hong Kong
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A lossmaking Chinese chemical manufacturer has seen its stock price soar due partly to its resemblance with a fictional company that features as an acquisition target in a popular television soap opera.
Shares in Shanghai-listed Guizhou Redstar Developing Co rose by the maximum 10 per cent daily limit for a third consecutive trading session on Tuesday, a testament to the speculative zeal of Chinese retail investors. Its shares remained suspended on Wednesday and Thursday.
Retail speculators were a major force behind the boom-bust cycle that rocked China’s stock market last year, during which the main index gained 60 per cent through the first roughly five months of the year before falling by 45 per cent in the subsequent nine weeks. By some estimates, retail investors account for 80 per cent of total trading volume.
“Ode to joy”, which premiered on Shanghai-based Dragon TV last month, is something like a Chinese version of “Big Bang Theory” or “Friends”. The show centres around a group of young professional women sharing the same floor of a Shanghai apartment building. A recent storyline feature Andy, a brilliant investor who has returned to Shanghai after working on Wall Street, targeting a fictional company called Redstar Group for acquisition. “You should fully consider Redstar's technological capabilities, especially in the area of 3D multimedia,” she tells employees crafting a takeover plan in episode 37.
The real-life Redstar “primarily provides barium carbonate, strontium carbonate, barium hydroxide, strontium nitrate, strontium chloride, high purity manganese sulphate and sulphur byproducts”, according to its official business description.
Guizhou Redstar's shares have also benefited from rumours in local media that Hong Kong-listed Wanda Commercial Properties was eyeing the company for use as a shell for a backdoor listing on the mainland.
In a filing after market close on Tuesday, Guizhou Redstar, which posted a net loss of Rmb190m last year, denied those rumours, saying that neither the company nor its shareholders were in discussions with Wanda. “The company?.?.?.?reminds investors to pay attention to investment risk,” it said, noting that Redstar's price/earnings ratio had reached 434.
So-called “concept stocks” — shares linked to popular investment themes used to drive interest from retail investors — played a key role in last year’s bubble and have a long history in China.
Small-cap companies are favoured targets for speculators because a relatively small amount of investment can produce sharp price movements. Some 53m shares of Redstar changed hands on Tuesday, the biggest day since the stock debuted in 2001. On November 7 2012, following US President Barack Obama’s re-election, shares in refrigerator manufacturer Aucma Co, whose Chinese name resembles the official transliteration of “Obama”, saw its shares spike 4 per cent in afternoon trade.
請(qǐng)根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容,完成以下自測(cè)題目:
1. What kind of food fell 3 per cent last year by FAO?
A. raw and frozen tuna
B. raw and frozen salmon
C. shrimp
D. semi-finished tuna
2. Which one is not mentioned as the reason of the fall in tuna imports in Japan?
A. younger generation opt for meat
B. the weaker yen
C. pollution of the sea
D. competition from salmon
3. Which country is the leading consumer of fish per capita now?
A. Korea
B. Singapore
C. Portugal
D. Japan
4. Which country’s food import ban affected the salmon market as the FAO said?
A. China
B. Brazil
C. Russia
D. Japan
[1] 答案 A. raw and frozen tuna
解釋:去年,日本生的和冷凍的金槍魚(yú)的上市量(進(jìn)口和本國(guó)漁民打撈的金槍魚(yú)數(shù)量)下降了3%。
[2] 答案 C. pollution of the sea
解釋:文章并沒(méi)有提到海洋污染。
[3] 答案 D. Japan
解釋:漁業(yè)機(jī)構(gòu)的數(shù)據(jù)顯示,日本仍是世界上人均魚(yú)類消費(fèi)量最大的國(guó)家,但2006年,餐桌上的肉類已超過(guò)海產(chǎn)品。
[4] 答案 C. Russia
解釋:文章后兩段提到,是俄羅斯政府實(shí)施的食品進(jìn)口禁令。