时间:2019-01-11 作者:英语课 分类:VOA慢速英语2007年(五)月


英语课

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.


 
Robert Nardelli
For Robert Nardelli, two thousand seven might seem like a bad year. After all, he resigned in January as chief of the world's largest operator of home-improvement stores.


Sales and profits grew during his six years at Home Depot 1. But the stock price of the company, based in Atlanta, fell eight percent. Many shareholders 3 thought Bob Nardelli was paid too much and did not respect his investors 4 enough.


So he was forced out. But he had something to look forward to that would ease his fall. Company directors agreed to give him two hundred ten million dollars worth of payments and benefits.


An agreement like this is known as a golden parachute. These are traditional when top executives lose their jobs because of a change of ownership or control of a company. This was not the case at Home Depot, and the money only added to shareholder 2 anger.


Golden parachutes are just one issue in a larger debate in America. Executive pay is growing out of control, critics say, at a time when many Americans are feeling greater economic pressures. Last year, the average pay for a chief executive officer on the Standard & Poor's Five Hundred list of companies increased by over nine percent.


Critics say there is no relationship between pay and performance. They say company leaders get raises even if they fail to create value for shareholders.


Lawmakers are taking note. On April twentieth, the House of Representatives passed a bill to give shareholders in publicly traded companies the right to vote on executive pay.


The proposal by majority Democrats 5 now goes to the Senate. But its future is unclear. The Bush administration opposes the bill. It says Congress should not set the approval process for executive pay.


The bill would require yearly votes but these would be non-binding. In other words, companies would not have to follow shareholder wishes. Still, supporters argue that a "say on pay" vote would send a clear signal about what the owners of the company, the investors, think.


The Securities and Exchange Commission requires public companies to include executive pay information in a document called a proxy 6 statement. A proxy statement is supposed to help shareholders make informed votes on company proposals. But critics note that the way executive income is reported is often too difficult to understand.


And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.



n.仓库,储藏处;公共汽车站;火车站
  • The depot is only a few blocks from here.公共汽车站离这儿只有几个街区。
  • They leased the building as a depot.他们租用这栋大楼作仓库。
n.股东,股票持有人
  • The account department have prepare a financial statement for the shareholder.财务部为股东准备了一份财务报表。
  • A shareholder may transfer his shares in accordance with the law.股东持有的股份可以依法转让。
n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 )
  • The meeting was attended by 90% of shareholders. 90%的股东出席了会议。
  • the company's fiduciary duty to its shareholders 公司对股东负有的受托责任
n.投资者,出资者( investor的名词复数 )
  • a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
  • a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会
n.民主主义者,民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )
  • The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
  • The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n.代理权,代表权;(对代理人的)委托书;代理人
  • You may appoint a proxy to vote for you.你可以委托他人代你投票。
  • We enclose a form of proxy for use at the Annual General Meeting.我们附上委任年度大会代表的表格。
标签: voa 慢速英语
学英语单词
-s
5'-Deoxyadenosyl-B12
acid fast red
Aegerita
albumin milk
almeida pilosa
amoralists
amphoteric ion-exchangeresin
anti-impact gear
batouti
blast furnace smelting
bunss
cabinetmaker
cauliflora
CD Video
Churumuco
COBOL transaction program
collapsible keel block
corecipients
dihydropyrimidinase
direct exporttrade
draw-
drip-drying
escrowing
esterifiable
Ethydan
ethyl cyanamide
filtered signal
fire bricks
flamdoodle
Florence crystals
foam solution
folded potential
forestry production statistics
fully arisen sea
general fixed assets group of accounts
genus Hamamelis
genus irenas
Grecian nose
groaners
Guengant
Haskins
hcb
ill-humo(u)redly
in conjunction with
input/output stream control
inseminating catheter
insured risk
joint buying office
Kentish fire
lande's g factor
Lincolnshire
look-at-me signal
magon
managed economies
merphenyl
metropolitan broadband network
mobile control room
Muncimir
national switching network
network for arc welding
non-metered tap
not the done thing
nuclei cochleares
Oetinghausen
pastures newer pastures
Pelargonium limoneum
pen lid
penetration method
permeably
Ping Pong buffer
powerful radio-frequency cable
pump for sludge tank
punctuation space
Quinalspan
redalder
reduced flange
regulating error
requirement for tax exemption
self-skill
shape straighten
shelf front
ST_including-and-excluding_covering-and-adding-layers
suele
taper-reamer
taste acuity
technico-
telecommunication route
throw up one's hat
transiliac
travel card
triatic
uncountry
variation in testing temperature
vibroplatform
Villaputzu
Virtual File Allocation Table
vision distance
well-illuminated
what are we waiting for
yester-morrows
z transform inverse