听美文故事记6级单词03-02

Forbes' list has new names; Gates No. 12005年福布斯富豪榜又有新变动，比尔·盖茨仍旧稳居榜首

Thanks to a surge in demand for steel, the Internet and Scandinavian sofas, there are some new names among the very richest of the world's billionaires.

Indian steel mogul Lakshmi Mittal, Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helu and Ikea founder 1 Ingvar Kamprad of Sweden knocked several Wal-Mart heirs down a few notches 2 on Forbes magazine's 2005 rankings of the world's billionaires.

The billionaires are richer and more numerous for the second straight year, but the No. 1 spot is unchanged - Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates led the list for the eleventh year in a row with a net worth of $46.5 billion, slightly less than his $46.6 billion last year.

Investor 3 Warren Buffet 4 held a close second with $44 billion, up from $42.9 billion in 2004.

Mittal - the biggest dollar gainer after quadrupling his net worth by $18.8 billion to $25 billion - climbed 59 rungs from last year to No. 3 in 2005.

Rounding out the top 10 were Microsoft's Paul Allen, German supermarket company owner Karl Albrecht, Oracle 5 Corp.'s Lawrence Ellison - returning to the top 10 after slipping to No. 12 last year - and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s S. Robson Walton.

The number of billionaires grew to a record 691 from 587 last year, and their total net worth rose by $300 billion to $2.2 trillion.

A confluence 6 of factors contributed to the increase, said Forbes associate editor Luisa Kroll, including positive performance by many stock markets around the world - for example, in Ukraine and Iceland, countries that debuted 7 on the list along with Kazakhstan and Poland - and the falling dollar.

Between February 2004 and February 2005, the 12-nation euro rose about 4 percent against the dollar, while the British pound rose about 3 percent versus 8 the U.S. currency.

"If you were a euro-based billionaire, you could've done nothing and seen a 20 percent increase" over the past two years, Kroll said.

Soaring commodities like oil and steel also helped make the rich richer, as did the overall recovery of the global economy over the past few years.

One of this year's new billionaires - and one of the list's 68 women, up from 53 last year - was Martha Stewart, whose wealth swelled 9 to $1 billion despite her conviction for lying about a stock sale and ensuing five-month prison stint 10.

由于人们对钢铁、网络和斯堪的纳维亚式沙发的需求迅速增长，全球富豪排行榜上又出现了一些新名字。

印度钢铁巨头拉克希米·米塔尔、墨西哥电信首脑卡洛斯·斯里姆·荷鲁和瑞士家居品牌“宜家”的创始人英格瓦·坎普拉德将几名沃尔玛公司的继承人从《财富》杂志2005年度的"富豪榜"上挤到了后面。

今年上榜的富豪们比去年更富有，人数也更为众多，但美国微软公司的头号交椅却无人撼动。这已经是微软创始人比尔·盖茨连续第11年高居榜首，他的公司的净财富为465亿美元，略低于去年的466亿美元。

紧跟在第二位的是投资者沃伦·巴菲特，他的资产从2004年的429亿美元上升到现在的440亿美元。

（全球最大钢铁制造商）米塔尔的净财富翻了四番，成为最大的美元收获者，目前其净资产总值为250亿美元，比去年上涨了188亿美元，在富豪榜的排名上升了59位，现居第三名。

排在前十名的还有微软的保罗·艾伦，德国经营连锁超市的富商卡尔·阿尔布莱希特，Oracle 公司的劳伦斯·埃利森（去年滑到12名的他今年重返前10），以及沃尔玛连锁超市的塞缪尔·罗伯森·沃尔顿。今年的亿万富翁的人数达到了历史性的691人，高于去年的587人，而且他们的净财富总额上升到2.2亿万美元，比去年增加了三千亿美元。

福布斯的副编辑路易莎·克罗尔说，一系列的事实共同造就了这种增长，包括世界各地的许多股票市场的积极表现，以及美元的不断贬值。提到“世界各地”的股票市场，乌克兰和冰岛两国的名字和哈萨克斯坦、波兰一起首次出现在全球富豪排行榜上。

2004年2月到2005年2月间，欧盟12国之间流通的欧元对美元的比价上升了大约4%，而英镑对美元的比价上升了3%。

“如果你是一个主要积储欧元的亿万富翁，那么在过去两年中，你可以什么都不用做，就能看到你的财富增加了20%。”克罗尔说。

过去几年来全球经济的全面恢复，以及对油类和钢铁等商品的需求激增，都使富者愈富。

今年有一位新的亿万富豪叫做玛莎·斯图尔特，她是富豪榜上的68位女性之一，去年排在第53位。她的财富上升到了10亿美元，尽管她在销售一支股票时因涉嫌欺瞒罪，被判了五个月的监禁。