Is Business Ready for a Flu Epidemic? 公司准备好对抗流感疫情了吗？
- 详细资料
- 创建于 2006年5月24日
- 最后更新于 2023年12月18日
- 发布于 2011年10月19日
- 作者：Mike Lee
- 点击数：432
課文朗讀
課文中英文講解
Is Business Ready for a Flu Epidemic? 公司准备好对抗流感疫情了吗？
In today’s world economy, most businesses would be drastically affected by an influenza epidemic. Should it happen the international workforce would decline. This would do great damage to the world economy. In recent surveys, a good number of companies reported that they were little prepared. A few companies, however, are scrambling to deal with the threat of an outbreak. Their plans include measures allowing employees to work at home and dividing a workplace into several smaller ones. While for most companies little has been done, everyone agrees that when it comes to business, an influenza epidemic is nothing to sneeze at.
在今日的世界经济中，许多商业活动将可能受到流行性感冒的巨幅影响。万一真的发生，全球劳动力将衰退，严重破坏世界经济。最近几项调查中，有为数不少的公司回报，他们仅有些许准备。然而，有些公司正仓促地处理疫情爆发的威胁。他们的计划包括准许员工在家工作，以及将一个工作场所划分成几个较小的区域。虽然对大部份的公司来说，已做的防御措施并不多，不过大家都同意，当一提到商业问题时，流行性感冒可不是件能轻忽的事。
Tackling Bad Debt 解决卡债
For many years, Taiwan has been trying to cope with the problem of so-called “card slaves.” They are people who have maxed out their credit cards and who are unable to pay them back. As of January this year, the total credit card and cash card debts in Taiwan were NT$493.4 billion and NT$298.2 billion respectively. The delinquency ratio, though not as high as the 2002 figure of 12% is currently at 7%. The government is taking steps to solve Taiwan’s serious consumer debt problem. Changing bankruptcy law and cutting by half the annual interest rate are some of the options that are being considered.
多年来，台湾一直试着处理所谓的「卡奴」问题。这些人超支信用卡额度且无力偿还。到今年一月为止，台湾的信用卡和现金卡总债款分别是4千9百34亿与2千9百82亿。目前的债务拖欠率虽已不像2002年时达到最高峰的12%，但仍约在7%左右。台湾政府正采取措施以解决严重的消费者负债问题。破产法的修正，以及降低一半的年利率是几项考虑中的选择。
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Vocabulary
epidemic [͵ɛpɪˋdɛmɪk] n. 流行病，时疫
drastically [ˋdræstɪk!ɪ] adv. 激烈地; 大大地；彻底地
scramble [ˋskræmb!] v. 仓促行动; 争夺，抢夺
tackle [ˋtæk!] v. 着手对付（或处理）
respectively [rɪˋspɛktɪvlɪ] adv. 分别地，各自地
More Information
influenza [͵ɪnflʊˋɛnzə] n. 流行性感冒
nothing to sneeze at: 不是件能轻忽的事 something that deserves serious attention
max out: 达到最高极限，刷爆（信用卡）reach a maximum
as of 自…起，从…时起
delinquency [dɪˋlɪŋkwənsɪ] n. 行为不良,错失; 懈怠
take steps 采取行动