高级听力 Unit 13 Part 3 & Part 5

新闻，做听力略有难度，读者可以多找新闻做精听。

Business Update

F: The time six o'clock and here is Business Update with Jillian Scott.

Unemployment has risen to over three mullion for the first time in six years and analysts expect the jobless total to rise by a further 40,000 this month. Manufacturing output has meanwhile steadied, after a nought point five percent decrease last month. It is thought that today’s rise in the unemployment figures could put pressure on the Prime Minister to cut interest rates, thought the Bank of England have denied that this is likely.

Guinness, Britain’s largest drinks group, has announced plans to make 700 staff redundant at its United Distillers subsidiary in Scotland. Union officials have said the job losses are unnecessary. John Clemens reports.

M: The redundancies are part of a move by Guinness to improve productivity. But the news of the redundancies has been badly received here in Scotland. I spokes to some of the workers at a United Distillers factory. They say, “It’s unnecessary, isn’t it? Guinness are always saying we’re the world’s most profitable spirits company. We’re making a profit. We’re not making a loss.” Some even say, “It’s devastating. It will destroy entire communities.”

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Financial News

Now the morning financial news.

The pound soared to its highest level against the dollar for four years as the American currency plunged to an all-time low on the world’s financial markets.

Share prices received a shock yesterday when the government increased interest rates to 6 percent. As a result, the footsie slumped 42 points closing at 5,841, its lowest level for weeks.

Minsk Auto announced reductions in its workforce yesterday. Because of a small dip in profits, the company is in the red for the first time.

Yesterday, in a major collapse on the Tokyo stock market, Nikkei average plunge 389 point because of the failure of the powerful New York bond market.

And because of a sudden surge in profits from its overseas operations, BP is back in the black after two years of disappointing results.

Now with the evening financial news, here’s James Locke.

Well, there’s nothing like an attack of nerves on Wall Street for unsettling the world’s stock market. Already, an overnight plunge of 53.71 in the Dow Jones has had an impact in the Far East. As a result the UK market is likely to be depressed later this morning. The Dow fell almost 2% to 9,882 ending a rally that’s been going on for several weeks. The report from New York says, as the Dow Jones has risen steadily towards the 10,000 mark, there’s been a lot of uncertainty here, particularly about the economy. Dealers say that in the absence of a drop in interest rates the market is a little depressed, And a lot of people have pulled out because they felt nervous about corporate profits.

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