Part Ⅰ E-C: You will hear a passage about packaged-food price.
Producers of packaged-foods are making your lunch more expensive.
The market for packaged foods is a competitive one, where price rises by one firm risk pushing shoppers into the arms of rivals.
Companies in the industry deal with soaring costs by hedging against spikes in commodity markets using forward contracts, reformulating products so they contain less of the pricier foodstuffs or, failing that, surreptitiously making packages a bit smaller while keeping the ticket price the same.
Amid pandemic-related supply-chain bottlenecks, labour shortages and crop failures, food firms have repeatedly done all that. Even so, they have had to raise prices, often less judiciously than is ideal.
The invasion of Ukraine, known as Europe's breadbasket thanks to its rich soil, by Russia, the world's top exporter of wheat, is forcing their hand once again. Together the two countries account for 29% of international wheat sales and nearly 80% of sales of sunflower oil.
Disruptions to those critical supplies are pushing up food companies’ costs just as energy costs are also sky-high as a result of the war.
It will be harder for European food companies to pass price rises to consumers than for American firms. Supermarkets in Europe are more concentrated than in America, and drive a harder bargain with suppliers.
(210 words)
参考译文:
包装食品生产商正在让你的午餐变得更贵。
包装食品市场竞争激烈,一家公司就可能会将消费者推入竞争对手的怀抱。
业内公司应对成本飞涨的方法是,使用期货合约对冲大宗商品市场的飙升,调整产品配方,减少其中高价食物原料的含量,或者,如果这样做不行的话,就在保持价格不变的基础上减少份量。
在疫情带来的供应链瓶颈、劳动力短缺和农作物歉收的影响下,食品公司一再采取上述举措。
即便如此,他们还是不得不提高价格,但往往不够明智。
俄罗斯对乌克兰的入侵又一次迫使他们这样做。乌克兰因其肥沃的土壤而被称为欧洲粮仓,而俄罗斯是世界上最大的小麦出口国。这两个国家加起来占了全球小麦销量的29%,葵花籽油销量的近80%。
这些关键食材的断供导致食品公司成本不断攀升,正如战争导致能源成本暴涨。
与美国公司相比,欧洲的食品公司更难将成本上涨转嫁给消费者。欧洲的超市比美国的更加集中,与供应商讨价还价的难度更大。
PART Ⅱ C-E: 下面你将听到一段关于旅游的的短文。
旅游可以影响一个人的生活,它使人们有机会去见识自己向往的生活,提高人们的思想追求, 同时它也可以让人们去接触更多新鲜事物,对未知的世界进行探索。自古以来,中国的许多文人大家就有旅游的传统,他们在旅游的过程中也贡献出了无数的文学作品。“初唐四杰”之一的文人王勃就在途径江西南昌时写出了传唱千年的诗篇《滕王阁序》。
旅游对于区域发展可以说是至关重要。首先它是新的经济增长点。过去五年,作为第三产业的代表性产业之一,旅游行业对经济的贡献度高达39.72%,年投资额上升了42.83%,带动了许多相关产业的发展,包括文创产品设计、餐饮业等等,总体而言对地方经济的发展有着非常积极的促进作用。
第二点是旅游业也符合现在大众创业、万众创新的趋势。2015-2020年旅游业创造的就业岗位高达392.6万个,同比增长了15.16%。我们也将通过提供职业培训及出台激励政策等措施以确保能有更多人加入到这个行业中来。
第三点是旅游业是对外交往的桥梁。旅游是人与人之间最自然也是最直接的交往方式。我们希望能与更多的城市和地区合作,在旅游方面进行更加深入的交流,举办更多丰富多彩的活动,能让民众参与到其中,建立更加深厚的友谊。
(473字)
参考译文:
Tourism can affect one’s life. It enables people to see the life they yearn for and enrich people’s spiritual world. At the same time, it opens a way to the new and the unknown world. Traveling has been a long-held tradition among literati in the Chinese culture. In fact, many masterpieces of writing have been produced as a result of such travels. Wang Bo, one of the four outstanding scholars of the early Tang Dynasty, wrote the poem Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion, which has been sung for thousands of years, when he came to Nanchang, Jiangxi Province.
Tourism is of great significance to regional development. First, tourism is a new driver of growth. In the past five years, as one of the representative industries of the tertiary industry, the contribution of tourism industry to the economy has reached 39.72%, and the annual investment has increased by 42.83%, driving the development of many related industries, including cultural and creative product design, catering industry, etc. Generally speaking, it plays a very positive role in promoting the development of local economy.
The second point is that tourism is also in line with the current trend of mass entrepreneurship and innovation. From 2015 to 2020, the number of jobs created by tourism reached 3.926 million, an increase of 15.16% year-on-year. We will also provide vocational training and introduce incentive policies to ensure that more people can join the industry.
The third point is that tourism is a bridge between regions. Tourism is the most natural and direct way of communication between people. We hope to cooperate with more cities and regions, carry out more in-depth exchanges in tourism, hold more colorful activities, enable people to participate in them and establish deeper friendship.