考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇【經(jīng)濟類】

考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇unit5

Unit 5
 

Open-outcry trading is supposed to be a quaint, outdated practice, rapidly being replaced by

sleeker, cheaper electronic systems. Try telling that to the New York Mercantile Exchange

(NYMEX), the world's largest commodities exchange. On November 1st the NYMEX opened an open-

outcry pit in Dublin to handle Brent crude futures, the benchmark contract for pricing two-

thirds of the world's oil.

The NYMEX is trying to snatch liquidity from London's International Petroleum Exchange (IPE),

which trades the most Brent contracts; the New York exchange has hitherto concentrated on West

Texas Intermediate, an American benchmark grade. The new pit is a response to the IPE's

efforts to modernise. On the same day as NYMEX traders started shouting Brent prices in

Dublin, the IPE did away with its morning open-outcry session: now such trades must be

electronic, or done in the pit after lunch.

The New York exchange claims that customers, such as hedge funds or energy companies, prefer

open-outcry because it allows for more liquidity. Although most other exchanges are heading in

the opposite direction, in commodity markets such as the NYMEX, pressure from "locals"--self-

employed traders--is helping to prop up open-outcry, although some reckon that customers pay

up to five times as much as with electronic systems. Even the IPE has no plans to abolish its

floor. Only last month it signed a lease, lasting until 2011, for its trading floor in London.

Dublin's new pit is "showing promise", says Rob Laughlin, a trader with Man Financial, despite

a few technical glitches. On its first day it handled 5,726 lots of Brent (each lot, or

contract, is 1,000 barrels), over a third of the volume in the IPE's new morning electronic

session. By the year's end, predicts Mr Laughlin, it should be clear whether the venture will

be viable. It would stand a better chance if it moved to London. It may yet: it started in

Ireland because regulatory approval could be obtained faster there than in Britain.

Ultimately, having both exchanges offering similar contracts will be unsustainable. Stealing

liquidity from an established market leader, as the NYMEX is trying to do, is a hard task.

Eurex, Europe's largest futures exchange, set up shop in Chicago this year, intending to grab

American Treasury-bond contracts from the Chicago Board of Trade. It has made little headway.

And the NYMEX has dabbled in Brent contracts before, without success.

Given the importance of liquidity in exchanges, why do the IPE and the NYMEX not band

together? There have been merger talks before, and something might yet happen. Some say that

the freewheeling NYMEX and the more staid IPE could never mix. For now, in any case, the two

exchanges will slug it out--across the Irish Sea as well as across the Atlantic.

注（1）：本文選自Economist；11/6/2004, p78-78, 1/2p, 1c；

注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿2001年真題text 2第1題（1），text 4第2題（2），text 1第2題（4），2002

年真題text 2第2題（3），text 3第4題（5）；

1.       The NYMEX and IPE are___________.

[A] both using open outcry trading as a major trading form 

[B] partners that are reciprocal in their business activities

[C] rivals that are competing in the oil trading market

[D] both taking efforts to modernize their trading practice

2.       According to the author, one of the reasons that the NYMEX takes open-outcry trading

is__________.

[A] the preference of its customers

[B] the standard practice of energy exchange

[C] the long tradition of this trading practice

[D] the nostalgic feeling it arouses

3.       The word “glitches” (Line 2, Paragraph 4) most probably means_________. 

[A] backwardness

[B] disappointments

[C] engineers

[D] problems

4.       From Paragraph 4 we can infer that_________.

[A] trading volume in the IPE's new morning electronic session is falling

[B] London is a better business location for energy exchanges than Dublin

[C] Britain’s regulators are less efficient than those of Ireland

[D] the Dublin pit of the NYMEX will be more prosperous next year

5.       We can draw a conclusion from the text that___________.

[A] it’s very unlikely that the NYMEX and the IPE could combine their businesses

[B] the NYMEX will fail in Ireland as many precedents have shown

[C] the two energy exchanges will figure out a way to cooperate with each other

[D] the market environment for both energy exchanges is getting better

答案：C A D B A

篇章剖析

本文介紹了兩家能源交易所之間的商戰(zhàn)。第一段介紹了紐約商品交易所在都柏林的交易所采用公開叫價的交

易形式。第二段介紹了紐約商品交易所和倫敦國際石油交易所之間的競爭。第三段介紹了紐約商品交易所采

用公開叫價交易方式的原因。第四段介紹了目前都柏林這個交易所的經(jīng)營情況。第五段對這種能源交易所之

間的競爭前景進行了簡單的分析。最后一段總結(jié)全文，兩個交易所都會在這張商戰(zhàn)中放手一搏。

詞匯注釋

open-outcry: n. 公開叫價

quaint: [kweint] adj. 古怪有趣的

sleek: [sli:k] adj. 時髦的

pit: [pit] n. 期貨交易場

Brent crude futures：北海布倫特原油期貨

benchmark: [5bentFmB:k] n. 基準(zhǔn)點；可依照做出衡量和判斷的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)

liquidity: [li5kwiditi] n. 流動資金；資產(chǎn)折現(xiàn)力

West Texas Intermediate: 西德州輕質(zhì)原油

hedge fund: 對沖基金

prop up: v. 支撐, 支持

glitch: [^litF] n. 小故障，小毛病

lot: [lCt] n. 一批（在一起）拍賣的物品

viable: [5vaiEbl] adj. 可行的；可實施的

unsustainable: [7QnsEs5teinEbl] adj. 無法維持的

treasury-bond: 國庫券

headway: [5hedwei] n. 前進；進展

dabble: [5dAbl] v. (作為興趣或愛好)隨便搞搞, 涉獵

難句突破

Although most other exchanges are heading in the opposite direction, in commodity markets such

as the NYMEX, pressure from "locals"--self-employed traders--is helping to prop up open-

outcry, although some reckon that customers pay up to five times as much as with electronic

systems.

主體句式：pressure …is helping to prop up open-outcry

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：這是一個復(fù)雜句，包含兩個由although引導(dǎo)的讓步狀語從句。prop up的意思是“支持”。

句子譯文：雖然其它絕大多數(shù)交易所正在取消這種公開叫價的交易方式，在紐約商品交易所這類商品市場里

，來自“本地人”---那些自營商---的壓力卻起到了支持公開叫價的作用，盡管一些人估計客戶為此要支付

五倍于使用電子系統(tǒng)的費用

題目分析

1. 答案為C，屬事實細節(jié)題。根據(jù)文章第二段“紐約商品交易所試圖搶走IPE的交易量”和“新開張的交易

所回應(yīng)了倫敦國際石油交易所進行的現(xiàn)代化努力”兩句來看，這兩家交易所是競爭石油交易的對手。

2. 答案為A，屬事實細節(jié)題。根據(jù)文章第三段，NYMEX聲稱“對沖基金或者能源公司這樣的客戶更喜歡公開

叫價”可知，顧客的喜好是他們考慮采用公開叫價方式的原因之一。

3. 答案為D，屬猜詞題。根據(jù)文章第四段，除了一些技術(shù)上的“glitches”之外，新交易所讓人們看到了希

望。顯然，glitches應(yīng)該是不利的方面，四個選項中，只有B的意義最符合上下文。

4. 答案為B，屬推理判斷題。根據(jù)文章第四段，如果NYMEX把在都柏林的交易所開在倫敦的話，“it would

stand a better chance”。可見，倫敦是能源交易所更好的業(yè)務(wù)場所。

5. 答案為A，屬推理判斷題。根據(jù)文章最后兩段，兩家能源交易所因為交易內(nèi)容相似，且兩家都是著名交易

所，這種市場局面最終將難以維系。作者提出了兩家能否聯(lián)手的問題，但兩個交易所一靜一動，很難合并。

參考譯文

公開叫價交易被認(rèn)為是一種奇怪而過時的做法，應(yīng)該很快被更加時髦，更加廉價的電子系統(tǒng)所取代。但紐約

商品交易所（NYMEX）這個世界上最大的商品交易所卻反其道而行。11月1日，紐約商品交易所在都柏林的期

貨交易所開張，并以公開叫價的方式交易作為世界三分之二原油的定價基準(zhǔn)的布倫特原油期貨。

大部分布倫特合約都是在倫敦國際石油交易所（IPE）進行交易的；紐約商品交易所試圖搶走IPE的交易量；

因此紐約交易所把注意力都集中在了西德州輕質(zhì)原油這個美國交易基準(zhǔn)上。新開張的交易所回應(yīng)了倫敦國際

石油交易所進行的現(xiàn)代化努力。同一天，當(dāng)紐約商品交易所的交易員開始在都柏林高喊布倫特原油期貨價格

的時候，倫敦國際石油交易所廢除了上午的公開叫價交易：現(xiàn)在這類的交易都必須實行電子化，或者在午飯

之后才能在交易所進行。

紐約商品交易所聲稱對沖基金或者能源公司這樣的客戶更喜歡公開叫價，因為這種方式照顧到了更多的流動

資金。雖然其它絕大多數(shù)交易所正在取消這種公開叫價的交易方式，在紐約商品交易所這類商品市場里，來

自“本地人”---那些自營商---的壓力卻起到了支持公開叫價的作用，盡管一些人估計客戶為此要支付五倍

于使用電子系統(tǒng)的費用。甚至倫敦國際原油交易所也沒有打算放棄其交易廳。上個月他們才剛剛簽署一項租

約，將其在倫敦交易大廳的租期延續(xù)到2011年。

曼氏金融公司的交易員羅布·拉夫林說，雖然出現(xiàn)了一些技術(shù)故障，但都柏林的這個新建交易所正在“嶄露

頭角”。在開張當(dāng)天布倫特原油的成交量就達到了5726手（每一手就是一份合約，相當(dāng)于1000桶），是倫敦

國際原油交易所當(dāng)天上午更換電子交易成交量的三分之一。拉夫林預(yù)測，這一次投機是否可行到了年底就會

見分曉。如果交易所遷到倫敦，則成功的機會更大。也許最終它會被遷到倫敦：不過它在愛爾蘭開張就是因

為那里比倫敦能更快獲得監(jiān)管部門的批準(zhǔn)。

兩家交易所交易相似期貨合同的局面最終將難以維系。紐約商品交易所想和一個老牌市場領(lǐng)袖叫板談何容易

。歐洲最大的期貨交易所歐洲期貨交易所（Eurex）今年在芝加哥設(shè)立分店，打算從芝加哥期貨交易所的美

國國庫卷交易里分一杯羹，但進展不大。紐約商品交易所以前也曾涉足布倫特原油期貨交易，但無功而返。

考慮到交易中資金折現(xiàn)力的重要性，為什么倫敦國際原油交易所和紐約商品交易所不聯(lián)合起來呢？以前有過

合并商談，不過也許時機還沒到。有人說紐約商品交易所和倫敦國際原油交易所一動一靜，水火不容�，F(xiàn)在

，無論如何，這兩家交易所都要放手一搏---戰(zhàn)場橫跨愛爾蘭海洋和大西洋。

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