Money, Money, Money
美音、自然拼读、分级阅读与词汇复习
Table of Contents Introduction.
导言表。
4 Bartering.
4 易货.
5 Currency.
5 货币。
6 Coins.
6克币。
8 Paper Money.
8纸钱.
11 The Value of Money.
11 钱的价值。
12 Keeping Money Real.
12"保持钱真".
14 Invisible Money: Checks and Credit Cards.
14"隐形钱":支票和信用卡.
16 Conclusion.
16 结论。
19 Glossary.
19 词汇表。
20 Introduction An ordinary piece of paper isn’t worth a lot, but a piece of paper money can be worth thousands of dollars.
导言 一张普通纸并不值钱,
A check can be worth millions.
一张支票可以值上百万
Each printed bill is worth much more than the paper it’s printed on.
每张打印的钞票都比所印的纸值多得多。
But why?
为什么?
Where did money come from, and what makes money so valuable?
钱从哪里来,什么使钱如此有价值?
Money is valuable because the people who make and use it agree that it is valuable.
钱之所以有价值,是因为制作和使用钱的人一致认为钱是有价值的.
The government that issues it, the mint that strikes or prints it, the banks that hold it, and the people who buy and sell things with it all agree that money is worth something.
发行它的政府,打出或打印它的薄荷,持有它的银行,以及用它买卖东西的人都同意钱是有价值的.
The history of money is the fascinating story of how people changed from trading valuable objects to trading objects that represented their valuables.
钱的历史是一个令人着迷的故事,讲述人们如何从交易有价值物品转变为代表自己有价值物品的交易物品.
It also tells how technology creates “invisible money” that allows people to trade goods and materials around the world.
它还说明了技术如何创造“无形金钱”,使人们能够在世界各地进行商品和材料交易。
Money is worth much more than the paper it’s printed on.
钱比纸上印出的钱值多得多。
Bartering Thousands of years ago, people used to barter, or directly trade their goods with each other.
交易 几千年前,人们经常互相交换,或者直接相互交换货物.
People living near the ocean had fish and salt, which they traded with people living near the mountains who had fruits, wood, and furs.
住在海洋附近的人们有鱼和盐,他们与住在山区附近的人们交易,他们有水果,木材和毛皮.
The barter system continues today.
易货系统今天仍在继续。
If you trade an apple from your lunch for someone else’s candy bar, you are bartering.
如果你用午餐里的苹果换别人的糖果吧,
However, there are a couple of problems with bartering.
然而,在易货方面还存在一些问题.
You might want some goods or valuable objects from someone, but they might not want the goods that you have.
你也许想从某人那里得到一些货物或贵重物品,但他们也许不想得到你所拥有的货物。
Additionally, many items are heavy, hard to carry, or don’t last long.
许多物品很重、难以携带,
Currency In order to get around the problems of bartering, people invented currency, or objects that represented certain values.
货币 为了摆脱易货问题,人们发明了货币,或代表某些价值的物体.
For example, a group of people might agree that a cow was worth twenty shells and a large fish was worth two shells.
例如,一群人可能同意一头牛值20发炮弹,一头大鱼值两发炮弹。
People could trade goods for currency and vice versa.
人们可以把商品换成货币,反之亦然。
Each culture around the world chose a different item to represent the value of its goods.
世界各地的每一种文化都选择了一个不同的项目来代表其商品的价值.
The objects people used for currency were almost always light enough to carry, but rare enough that people couldn’t just pick them up off the ground.
人们用来兑换货币的物体几乎总是轻而易举,
The rarer the currency was and the more work it took to find it, the more valuable it was.
货币越是稀有,找到货币所花去的工作越多,价值就越高.
Bartering allowed people to trade for products they could not get on their own.
交易使得人们可以交易他们无法自己获得的产品。
Currency allowed people to trade objects without carrying them around.
货币允许人们在不携带物品的情况下进行交易.
Some of the items used as currency in ancient times were bright or colorful stones, shells, leaves, feathers, lumps of silver and gold, salt, spices, and gems.
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In ancient Rome, soldiers got paid with bags of salt.
在古罗马,士兵们用一袋盐得到报酬.
From Africa to Asia, people traded with rare speckled shells that were only found on a few islands in the Indian Ocean.
从非洲到亚洲,人们用罕见的斑点贝壳进行交易,这些贝壳只在印度洋的几个岛屿上被发现.
Some Native Americans used wampum, or beads made from clam shells, to trade and make treaties.
一些美洲原住民使用由蛤壳制成的 w或珠来进行贸易和订立条约.
Other Native Americans used eagle feathers.
其他美洲原住民使用鹰羽.
The Chinese used bundles of tea leaves, and European colonists in North America used tobacco leaves as their currency.
华人用一捆茶叶,北美的欧洲殖民者用烟叶为货币.
The problem with currency of this type was that it was hard to decide how much a particular object was worth.
这类货币的问题是,很难确定一个特定物体的价值。
If one shell was much larger than another shell, shouldn’t it be worth more?
如果一个外壳比另一个外壳大得多,那它是不是更值钱?
And what if you met somebody who didn’t think your shells were worth anything at all?
如果你遇到一个不认为你的炮弹值钱的人呢?
Coins One solution to the problems of using ordinary objects as currency was to make coins from precious metals.
硬币 将普通物品作为货币的问题的一个解决办法是用贵金属来制造硬币。
Precious metals are rare and valuable across cultures, and they are easily shaped and weighed.
珍贵的金属在不同的文化中是稀有和有价值的,它们很容易被塑造并被权衡.
The first coins were minted, or produced, 2,600 years ago in Lydia, which is now a part of Turkey.
最早的硬币是在2600年前被铸造出,或出产于现在为土耳其一部分的莉迪亚.
From Lydia, coins quickly spread into the neighboring countries of Greece and Persia (now known as Iran).
从莉迪亚到希腊和波斯(现名伊朗)等邻国,硬币迅速扩散.
The earliest coins were hammered out of a natural combination of gold and silver called electrum.
最早的硬币被锤出金银的自然组合而出,称为"elebrum".
These coins were very rough and crude, with no patterns on the sides or standard sizes and weights.
这些硬币非常粗糙而粗糙,两侧没有图案或标准尺寸和重量.
Later, coins were made from either pure gold or pure silver.
后来由纯金或纯银铸币.
They had standard weights, and the king’s seal was stamped on one side to confirm the coin’s quality.
他们有标准重量,国王的印章被印在一面来确认硬币的质量.
Do You Know?
你知道吗?
The biggest currency in the world is used by the Yap Islanders, who live on an equatorial island near Indonesia.
世界上最大的货币被亚普岛民所使用,他们居住在印度尼西亚附近的赤道岛上.
They make coins of giant stones that weigh as much as full-grown Asian elephants.
它们用巨大的石头来铸造硬币,其重量与完全成熟的亚洲象一样多.
The stones have holes in them, and the Yap Islanders move the stones by putting sticks through the holes and rolling the coins.
石头上有孔,雅浦岛民通过把棍子穿出孔来移动石头并滚动硬币.
These ancient coins were stamped with the king’s picture.
这些古代的硬币被印有国王的相片.
Early European coins usually had a god’s head on one side and a seal from the maker on the other.
早期的欧洲硬币通常一面有神头,一面有出自制作人的印章.
Later coins pictured the heads of kings and rulers, with elaborate symbols on the other side.
后来的硬币描绘出国王和统治者的头像,对面有精心设计的符号.
These pictures helped establish when, where, and by whom the coin was made.
这些照片有助于确定硬币的制造时间、地点和由谁制造。
Even today, you can see the faces of presidents, kings, and queens on modern coins.
即使在今天,你也可以在现代硬币上看到总统,国王,和女王的相貌.
These Greek coins had words, a picture of an owl, and a portrait of the goddess Athena.
这些希腊硬币有文字,猫头鹰相片和女神雅典娜相片.
Chinese cash could be held on a string or stick for easy carrying.
中国现金可以存放在绳子上或棍子上,便于携带.
The Chinese melted copper and poured it into molds where it hardened into coins.
中国人将铜熔化后倒入模具中被硬化成硬币.
Chinese coins had holes in their centers, so thousands could be easily carried on a ribbon or a stick.
中国硬币中心有孔,因此上千枚硬币很容易被带入丝带或棍子上.
Instead of pictures, the Chinese coins, called cash, had words telling their worth, or denomination.
而不是图片,中国的硬币,称为"现金",有文字说明其价值或面额.
Only the government could produce coins.
只有政府才能生产出硬币.
two sides on a large piece of paper.
两边一张大纸。
produce coins.
生产硬币。
five football fields.
5个足球场。
4 The blanks are heated, cooled, washed, and dried.
4个 空白被加热,冷却,冲洗,干燥.
of the coin.
硬币。
coin.
硬币。
get melted down and recycled.
被融化和回收。
banks in armored trucks.
装有装甲卡车的银行
Minting Coins Coins are harder to make than you might think.
薄荷币 硬币比你想的要难
Once the government decides to produce new coins, these are just some of the steps that must happen.
一旦政府决定生产出新的硬币,这些只是必须采取的一些步骤.
Paper Money A Chinese man named Ts’ai Lun invented paper 1,900 years ago.
纸币 一名中国人Tsai Lun在一九九年前发明了纸.
But it wasn’t used for money until 700 years later when the Chinese government ran out of copper to produce coins.
但直到700年后中国政府用出铜来生产硬币,
They switched to printing paper money.
他们转而印刷纸币。
The earliest paper money was printed by hand by pressing wooden blocks covered with ink onto uniformly sized rectangles of paper.
最早的纸币是用手将用墨水覆盖的木块压入统一大小的长方形纸上来打印.
Although coins were still available, the lighter paper money quickly became more popular.
虽然硬币仍然可用,但更轻的纸币很快就更受欢迎.
In Europe, another invention changed the shape of money.
在欧洲,另一个发明改变了钱的外形.
Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable-type printing press in the mid-1400s.
约翰内斯·古滕贝格于1400年代中期发明了可移动型印刷机.
Gutenberg’s press allowed people to print paper money by machine, rather than by hand.
古腾堡的媒体允许人们用机器而不是用手印刷纸币.
Early Chinese paper money The Value of Money Unlike gold or silver coins, paper money is worth very little by itself.
中国早期纸币 与金币或银币不同的是,纸币本身价值很小.
It costs only four cents (U.
它只花费了四分钱(U.
S.)
S.) (中文(简体) ).
to print a bill, including the cost of the paper, ink, and the printer’s pay.
打印账单,包括纸张、墨水和打印机的工资。
So why is one piece of paper worth a hundred dollars?
为什么一张纸值一百美元?
And why is another worth only one?
为什么另一个只值一个?
Because the government says so.
因为政府是这么说的
A hundred years ago, for each dollar in circulation, the government had one dollar’s worth of gold in a bank.
一百多年前,对于流通中的一美元,政府拥有一美元在银行中的黄金.
This system was called the gold standard, because it ensured that every dollar represented its face value, or the number printed on it, in gold.
这一制度被称为 " 金本位 " ,因为它确保每一美元都以黄金表示其面值或所印数字。
Back then, you could trade your dollars for the same amount of gold at the bank.
那时,你可以用你的美元 换取银行同样的黄金
Banks used to keep bars of gold that represented the sum of everyone’s money.
银行通常保留代表每个人资金总和的金条。
Most countries do not maintain the gold standard anymore.
大多数国家不再维持金本位。
There are simply too many bills in circulation.
流通的钞票太多。
They represent more wealth, goods, and valuables than there is gold in the world.
它们代表的财富、货物和贵重物品比世界上的黄金多。
Britain stopped using the gold standard in 1931, and the United States stopped forty years later.
英国于1931年停止使用金本位,美国于40年后停止使用.
Today, governments keep track of how many goods and resources there are in a country and circulate enough money to represent those goods and resources.
今天,各国政府跟踪一个国家有多少货物和资源,并流通足够的资金来代表这些货物和资源。
Depending on how many goods and resources the country produces and how successful its businesses are, the value of a country’s money can rise and fall compared to other countries’ currencies.
根据国家生产多少货物和资源以及企业的成功程度,一国货币的价值可以同其他国家的货币相提并论。
This is called a floating currency system.
这被称为浮动货币体系.
Do You Know?
你知道吗?
Travel from country to country has become so easy, and it can be a bother to change one country’s money to another country’s money every time you travel.
从国家到国家的旅行变得如此容易,每当出行时,将一个国家的钱换到另一个国家的钱都是一种麻烦.
Most of Europe’s nations have joined together to form the European Union.
欧洲大多数国家联合起来组成了欧洲联盟。
Many of them standardized their money so that the euro is worth the same amount in each nation.
他们中的许多人将其货币标准化,使欧元在每个国家的价值相同。
Each country mints euros.
每个国家的薄荷是欧元。
The tail side of the euro has a picture that symbolizes the country that made it.
欧元的尾侧有一幅象征其诞生的国家的相片.
Keeping Money Real Many agree that only the government can make currency because the government keeps track of the actual goods and resources that the currency represents.
保持资金真实 许多人同意,只有政府才能制造出货币,因为政府会跟踪货币所代表的实际货物和资源.
But what if people try to produce money on their own?
但如果人们试图自己赚钱呢?
Fake money, called counterfeit, isn’t worth anything because it isn’t backed up by goods or resources.
假钱(假币)并不值钱, 因为它没有商品或资源支撑。
Banks, stores, restaurants, and companies will not let you use counterfeit money.
银行、商店、餐馆和公司不会允许你使用伪造货币。
Worse, having counterfeit money in circulation hurts the value of everyone’s money—if there is fake money around, how do you know if your money is real or not?
更糟糕的是, 假币流通会伤害每个人的钱价值,
Try This!
试试这个!
Get a dollar bill and pieces of paper, construction paper, cloth, and tissue paper.
买一块钱的钞票和纸片、建筑纸、布和纸
Cut the pieces of paper and cloth so that they are the same size and shape as the dollar bill.
剪取出纸和布等分,使出相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相去相相去相去相去相去相去相去相相相相相
Now close your eyes and try to tell the real bill from the fake bills by touch.
现在闭上眼睛,试着用触摸来告诉真正的帐单。
Cashiers and bank tellers who handle a lot of money can tell a real bill from a counterfeit just by feeling it.
出纳员和银行出纳员处理一大笔钱,只要有感觉就能从假钞中分辨出真钞.
Could you do the same thing?
你能做同样的事情吗?
In order to defeat counterfeiters, most countries make their money using special, hard-to-copy tricks.
为了打倒假冒伪劣者,大多数国家都用特殊而难复制的花招来赚钱.
Bills are printed on paper made with a secret formula.
账单被印在纸上 用一种秘密的公式。
U.
吴.
S.
师曰.
dollars are made of a mixture of about one-quarter linen and three-quarters cotton, with some red and blue fibers sprinkled throughout.
美元是由大约四分之一的亚麻和四分之三的棉花混合而成,一些红和蓝纤维被撒入了全身.
However, the government keeps the exact formula a secret, the way Coca-Cola protects the secret recipe for their famous soda pop.
然而,政府保留了确切的配方一个秘密,可口可乐保护他们出名的汽水流行的秘密配方的方式.
A special thread below the portrait glows in ultraviolet, or “black,” light.
肖像下方的特殊线条以紫外线或“黑色”光线发光。
Banks and some stores use special pens with ink that turns from black to yellow on real money, but stays black on fake money.
银行和一些商店使用有墨水的特殊笔,用真钱从黑色变为黄色,而用假钱保持黑色.
The pictures and print on bills are designed to prevent easy copying.
账单上的图片和印刷品旨在防止容易被复制.
The portrait is large and detailed, placed slightly off-center, and made of very thin dashed lines.
肖像大而细,放出略离中心,由很薄的折线所成.
The patterns on the bill are small and complicated.
法案上的图案小而复杂.
Each bill has a serial number that shows when and where the bill was printed.
每张帐单都有序号,显示帐单印制的时间和地点.
In addition, many bills also have colored inks, magnetic inks, and inks that change color depending on the angle you look at them.
此外,许多钞票还带有有色墨,有磁墨等不同角度的变相花纹.
Some bills have holograms or watermarks that produce an image only when you hold the bill up to the light.
有些帐单有全息图或水印,只有在把帐单拉到灯光前才能产生出一幅图像.
Invisible Money: Checks and Credit Cards Most adults have checking accounts.
隐形货币:支票和信用卡 多数成年人都有检查账户。
Banks keep track of how much money a person has saved, and the person writes checks, or official notes, that stand for a certain amount.
银行跟踪一个人存了多少钱,这个人写支票或正式票据,以表示一定数额。
Checks can represent a large amount of money on one piece of paper.
支票可以在一纸上代表一大笔钱.
Many checking accounts also have debit cards that people can use to take cash from their accounts at ATMs or pay for things at shops and restaurants.
许多支票账户还设有借记卡,人们可以用来从自动取款机的账户取出现金,或在商店和餐馆支付物品.
Credit cards work like debit cards and checking accounts, except that instead of saving money in the bank, a person borrows the money from the bank.
信用卡的工作方式是借记卡和支票账户,但有人不是在银行储蓄,而是向银行借钱.
People use credit cards to buy items that cost more than they have in the bank.
人们使用信用卡来购买比银行价格高的物品.
Then, they have to pay the money back, plus a fee called interest.
然后,他们必须还钱, 外加一笔叫做利息的费用。
If someone takes a long time to pay the money back, the interest gets bigger.
如果有人花很长的时间还钱,利息就会增加.
Automatic teller machines, or ATMs, allow people to get cash from their accounts at any time.
自动出纳机,即自动取款机,允许人们随时从其账户取出现金.
Debit and credit cards are made of durable plastic.
代比特和信用卡由耐用塑料制成.
The person’s name and an individual number are stamped onto one side, along with the name of the bank where the account is.
个人姓名和个人号码加盖在一边,并加盖账户所在银行的名称。
A magnetic strip on the top has special encoded information about the person’s bank account.
上面的磁带有关于此人银行账户的特殊编码信息。
When the card is swiped through a card-reading machine, the machine electronically calls the bank to make sure that the account has enough money in it.
刷卡通过读卡机刷卡时,机器以电子方式给银行打电话,以确保账户有足够的资金.
If the money is there, the price is taken from the person’s account and moved to the store’s, restaurant’s, or company’s account.
如果钱在那里,则从个人的账户取出价格,并转到商店、餐馆或公司的账户。
It is easier to carry around one piece of plastic than it is to carry many bills.
携带一块塑料比携带许多钞票容易。
Plus, since cards have your name and information on them, the money is harder to steal than bills are.
此外,由于卡片有你的名字 和他们的信息, 钱比账单更难偷窃。
Debit and credit cards However, credit cards can be dangerous because people forget that they must pay back the money they borrowed.
扣牌和信用卡 然而,信用卡可能很危险,因为人们忘记必须偿还所借的钱.
Many people who use credit cards irresponsibly owe so much money to the banks that the banks take back, or repossess, the things the person bought.
许多使用信用卡的人不负责任地欠银行这么多钱,以致银行收回或收回他购买的东西.
Plastic cards are less visible than money, but they still buy the same goods.
塑料卡的能见度不如钱,但他们仍然购买相同的商品.
Our invisible money allows us to trade with people around the world.
我们的隐形货币使我们能够与世界各地的人进行交易。
With the help of catalogs and the Internet, you can use a credit card to buy goods from a person or company in another country.
在目录和互联网的帮助下,您可以使用信用卡从他国的个人或公司购买商品.
Your money is automatically changed into a currency the other person can use.
你的钱会自动变换成他人可以使用的货币.
Shopping online with a credit card can instantly send money across oceans.
持信用卡在网上购物,可以立刻将钱汇出海洋.
Conclusion Three thousand years ago, people bartered one good for another.
结论 三千年前,人们用一个好交换另一个好。
Today, people trade with each other using bills, coins, and even invisible money.
今天,人们用钞票,硬币,甚至无形的钱相互交易.
What sort of money do you think we’ll have in another three thousand years?
未来三千年,
At a stock market, people buy and sell stock, or pieces of companies.
在一个股票市场上,人们买卖股票,或者一些公司。
Stock costs more or less depending on the value of the company.
股票成本多少取决于公司的价值.
But until the stock is sold, the money in it is not real.
但在股票被出售之前,里面的钱不是真实的.