经济学人双语精读TE-2023-05-25期考研英语
Reserve currencies：Heavy lies the crown
The dollar’s dominance is not under threat today. But there are limits to the greenback’s power
【1】Every so often an appetite surges for an alternative reserve currency to the dollar—and a market booms in predictions of the greenback’s imminent demise. For nearly three-quarters of a century the dollar has at a global scale dominated trade, finance and the rainy-day reserve portfoliosof central banks. Yet high inflation, fractious geopolitics and the sanctions imposed by America and its allies on countries such as Russia have lately caused dollar-doubters to become vocal once again.
【2】Often these episodes are fuelled by a world leader’s spasm of anger towards the dollar. In 1965 Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, then France’s finance minister, raged against the “exorbitant privilege” the greenback conferred on America. This time it was Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, who on a recent visit to China called for emerging markets to trade using their own currencies. At the same time, a surging gold price and a fall in the dollar’s share of global reserves has roused other doubters, who can also point to this month’s admission by Janet Yellen, America’s treasurysecretary, that over time using sanctions “could undermine the hegemony” of the currency. It does not help that America could soon face a fiscalcrisis if Congress fails to raise the ceiling that limits how much the government can borrow.
【3】Yet the doubters’ excitement has become detached from reality. The greenback exerts an almighty gravitational pull on the world economy that has not materially weakened—even if America has recently found that there are real obstacles to exploiting its currency’s pre-eminence.
【4】The starting advantage of the dollar is immense. Between a third and a half of global trade is invoiced in dollars, a share that has been relativelystable over the long term. It is involved in nearly 90% of foreign-exchange transactions; such is the liquidity of the greenback that if you want to swapeuros for Swiss francs, it can be cheaper to trade via dollars than to do so directly. About half of cross-border debt is dollar-denominated. And although the dollar’s share of central-bank reserves has fallen over the long term, it still accounts for about 60% of them. There is no sign of a dramatic recent change, save that which has been caused mechanically by central banks revaluing their portfolios to take account of exchange-rate movements and higher interest rates in America.
【5】No other currency is close to matching this ecosystem’s size, or its fundamental appeal: the supply of safe assets available to dollar investors. The euro zone is fragile and its sovereign-debt market is mostly fragmented between its member states. China cannot possibly satisfy global demand for safe assets so long as it both tightly controls flows of capital and runs current-account surpluses (meaning it is, on net, accumulating financial claims on the rest of the world rather than vice versa). And the dollar, as the dominant currency, benefits from network effects. People want to use the currency everyone else is using.
【6】What is increasingly clear, though, is that individual countries can circumvent the dominant system if they really want to. Though Russia’s war economy has been wounded by sanctions, it has not been crippled, in part because 16% of its exports are now paid for in yuan, up from almost none before it invaded Ukraine.
【7】China’s alternative to the SWIFT interbank-messaging system has been growing rapidly. It has also been switching more of its bilateral trade towards settlement in renminbi—an easier task than replacing the dollar in trade flows between other countries. Even many firms in the West now use renminbi for trade with China. New digital-payments technologies and central-bank digital currencies could yet make it easier to move money around the world without involving America.
【8】Balance of power
Moreover, Ms Yellen is right that using the dollar to push countries around is no way to make or keep friends. America has not placed secondary sanctions on countries like India which still trade with Russia, because it fears the backlash that would result. Although a shift to a multipolar system of currencies is not imminent, it could occur later this century as America’s share of the world economy shrinks. Such a system would be inherently less stable than one centred on the dollar—so it would be in the interests of neither America nor the world to hasten the shift.
①短语：
1. 原文：The dollar’s dominance is not under threat today
词典：under threat 受到威胁
例句：The new edition of the dictionary carries 7,000 additions to the language, which purists say is under threat.
新版词典为该语种增加了7000个词条，纯粹派说该语种正受到威胁。
2. 原文：and a market booms in predictions of the greenback’s imminent demise.
词典： in predictions of 预测
例句：The model is better working in forecasting of the westerly belt circulation than in prediction of the subtropical circulation.
模式对西风带大型环流形势的预报能力优于对副热带系统的预报能力。.
3. 原文：Often these episodes are fuelled by a world leader’s spasm of anger towards the dollar.
词典：spasm of 痉挛（➕情绪）
例句：For the first time, a spasm of fear flitted across Quirrell"s face.
奇洛的脸上第一次闪过一丝恐惧的震颤。
4.原文：raged against the “exorbitant privilege” the greenback conferred on America.
词典：confer on 授予
例句：Honorary degrees are often conferred on non-academic leaders in the arts, business, and politics.
荣誉学位通常授予艺术、商业和政治领域的非学术领袖。
5.原文：Yet the doubters’ excitement has become detached from reality.
词典：detach from 从...脱离
例句：He tries to remain emotionally detached from the prisoners, but fails.
他想尽力保持对囚犯们不掺杂个人感情，却做不到。
6.原文：There is no sign of a dramatic recent change, save that which has been caused mechanically
词典：save that 除了...之外
例句：They found out nothing more save that she had borne a child.
他们只查明她生过一个孩子，其他情况一无所获。
7.原文：by central banks revaluing their portfolios to take account of exchange-rate movements and higher interest rates in America.
词典：take account of 考虑到；顾及
例句：The essence of consultation is to listen to, and take account of, the views of those consulted.
咨询的本质是倾听并把那些被咨询者的观点考虑进来。
8. 原文：meaning it is, on net, accumulating financial claims on the rest of the world rather than vice versa)
词典：claim on 索赔；对...有要求；声称
例句：They claim on their website that they have 38.
他们在他们的网站上声称他们拥有38只。
9. 原文：Ms Yellen is right that using the dollar to push countries around is no way to make or keep friends.
词典：push around 把...推来推去；摆布
例句：If you don"t have boundaries, you will easily be pushed around by the people in your environment.
如果你没有界限感，你会很容易被周围环境的人影响。
10.原文：so it would be in the interests of neither America nor the world to hasten the shift.
词典： in the interests of 为了...利益起见
例句：So in the interest of long-term health, it"s not a great habit to hold your pee.
为了长期健康的考虑，憋尿不是好习惯。
②长难句
1.原文：Yet high inflation, fractious geopolitics and the sanctions imposed by America and its allies on countries such as Russia have lately caused dollar-doubters to become vocal once again.
2. 分析：本句的结构是主谓宾，主语是high inflation, fractious geopolitics and the sanctions，谓语是 have lately caused ，宾语是dollar-doubters ；
to become vocal once again
是宾补。
imposed修饰几个主语名词，为过去分词
by
America and its allies 为imposed动作的发出者
过去分词作
后置定语，修饰
sanctions
，on countries such as Russia为动作接受者。
3.译文：然而，高通胀、
动荡
棘手的地缘政治，以及美国和其盟友对俄罗斯等国实施的制裁，
最近让美元怀疑论者再次发声。
最近再次引起对美元持怀疑态度的人再次发声。
1. 原文： At the same time, a surging gold price and a fall in the dollar’s share of global reserves has roused other doubters, who can also point to this month’s admission by Janet Yellen, America’s treasury secretary, that over time using sanctions “could undermine the hegemony” of the currency.
2. 分析：本句结构是主谓宾，主语较长为a surging gold price and a fall in the dollar’s share of global reserves，谓语为has roused，宾语other doubters；who修饰other doubters,引导定语从句，定从主语为other doubters，谓语为can also point to，宾语为this month’s admission；后面的America’s treasury secretary为Janet Yellen的同位语；that引导宾语从句，其实是has roused that，从句主语为over time using sanctions，谓语是could undermine；宾语为the hegemony” of the currency.
3.译文：与此同时，金价的飙升和美元在全球储备中所占份额的下降也引起了其他怀疑者的注意，他们还指出，本月美国财政部长珍妮特•耶伦（Janet Yellen）承认，随着时间的推移，不断采取制裁政策“可能会破坏美元的支配地位”。
③写作技巧:
Often these episodes are fuelled by a world leader’s spasm of anger towards the dollar。
这些事件往往是由一位世界领导人对美元的愤怒所造成的。
表达： be fuelled by 加速；推动，写作时表示“原因、由...造成的”时，可以使用该表达。
例句：The development seems irreversible, and is fuelled by the flourishing industry of Manaus.
马瑙斯繁荣的工业推动了这一发展，似乎是不可逆转的。
④背景知识：
SWIFT（银行结算系统）：SWIFT又称:"环球同业银行金融电讯协会"，它是国际银行同业间的国际合作组织，成立于一九七三年，全球大多数国家大多数银行已使用SWIFT系统。SWIFT的使用，使银行的结算提供了安全、可靠、快捷、标准化、自动化的通讯业务，从而大大提高了银行的结算速度。由于SWIFT的格式具有标准化，信用证的格式主要都是用SWIFT电文。
⑤段落大意：
【1】美元的主导地位再次引发怀疑
【2】引发怀疑的原因
【3】美元的地位仍不可撼动
【4】&【5】美元的巨大优势
【6】越来越多西方公司以人民币为结算方式
【7】多极货币体系或许不稳定
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