VOA常速英语2007年-Bush Says Economy Strong Enough to Weather Prob
时间：2019-01-31 作者：英语课 分类：VOA常速英语2007年（十二月）
Washington
18 December 2007
President Bush concedes that the credit crunch 1 and mortgage problems in the United States have caused financial "storm clouds and concerns." But he maintains the nation's economic underpinnings are good. VOA's Mil Arcega reports.
Consumer confidence in the United States took another beating in November, as problems in the housing and credit markets intensified 2. A Labor 3 Department report confirms that consumer prices surged eight-tenths of a percent last month -- the largest increase since 2005.
President Bush on Monday spoke 4 about the U.S. economy in a speech in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He said Americans have reasons to be concerned, but he assured business and community leaders that the U.S. economy remains 5 fundamentally strong.
"We've had a pretty good economic run here in the country -- six years of growth. We've had 51 straight months of increased employment. It's the largest, longest period of uninterrupted job growth in the nation's history; people are working, productivity is high," he said.
The president credits his tax cuts for the growth in jobs.
But Democratic Party Senator Charles Schumer says the president's upbeat economic assessment 6 proves he is "out of touch" with reality. "The president's speech was designed to calm the markets and American fears that the economy is in a tailspin. Unfortunately, by offering nothing but the same old 'everything's OK' response, today's speech is just going to worry the markets further," Schumer said.
Investors 7, worried about a slowing U.S. economy and rising prices, extended last week's losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 175 points following the president's speech and all the major indexes lost at least one percent.
- If it comes to the crunch they'll support us.关键时刻他们是会支持我们的。
- People who crunch nuts at the movies can be very annoying.看电影时嘎吱作声地嚼干果的人会使人十分讨厌。
- Violence intensified during the night. 在夜间暴力活动加剧了。
- The drought has intensified. 旱情加剧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
- He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。
- They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
- The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
- He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
- The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
- This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
- What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？