|
考研英语阅读理解提分没有捷径,只有通过多阅读多做题才能够提高阅读速度和把握做题的技巧。新东方在线编辑奉上考研英语报刊文章阅读及剖析,希望备战2015年的考生能够不断拓展知识面,理论结合实践,提升阅读理解能力。
考研英语报刊文章阅读及剖析(15)
A battle between two energy exchanges
OPEN-OUTCRY trading is supposed to be a quaint, outdated practice, rapidly
being replaced by sleeker, cheaper electronic systems. Try telling that to the
New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the world's largest commodities exchange.
On November 1st the NYMEX opened an open-outcry pit in Dublin to handle Brent
crude futures, the benchmark contract for pricing two-thirds of the world's
oil.
The NYMEX is trying to snatch liquidity from London's International
Petroleum Exchange (IPE), which trades the most Brent contracts; the New York
exchange has hitherto concentrated on West Texas Intermediate, an American
benchmark grade. The new pit is a response to the IPE's efforts to modernise. On
the same day as NYMEX traders started shouting Brent prices in Dublin, the IPE
did away with its morning open-outcry session: now such trades must be
electronic, or done in the pit after lunch.
The New York exchange claims that customers, such as hedge funds or energy
companies, prefer open-outcry because it allows for more liquidity. Although
most other exchanges are heading in the opposite direction, in commodity markets
such as the NYMEX, pressure from "locals"--self-employed traders--is helping to
prop up open-outcry, although some reckon that customers pay up to five times as
much as with electronic systems. Even the IPE has no plans to abolish its floor.
Only last month it signed a lease, lasting until 2011, for its trading floor in
London.
Dublin's new pit is "showing promise", says Rob Laughlin, a trader with Man
Financial, despite a few technical glitches. On its first day it handled 5,726
lots of Brent (each lot, or contract, is 1,000 barrels), over a third of the
volume in the IPE's new morning electronic session. By the year's end, predicts
Mr Laughlin, it should be clear whether the venture will be viable. It would
stand a better chance if it moved to London. It may yet: it started in Ireland
because regulatory approval could be obtained faster there than in Britain.
Ultimately, having both exchanges offering similar contracts will be
unsustainable. Stealing liquidity from an established market leader, as the
NYMEX is trying to do, is a hard task. Eurex, Europe's largest futures exchange,
set up shop in Chicago this year, intending to grab American Treasury-bond
contracts from the Chicago Board of Trade. It has made little headway. And the
NYMEX has dabbled in Brent contracts before, without success.
Given the importance of liquidity in exchanges, why do the IPE and the
NYMEX not band together? There have been merger talks before, and something
might yet happen. Some say that the freewheeling NYMEX and the more staid IPE
could never mix. For now, in any case, the two exchanges will slug it
out--across the Irish Sea as well as across the Atlantic.
注(1):本文选自Economist;11/6/2004, p78-78, 1/2p, 1c;
注(2):本文习题命题模仿2001年真题text 2第1题(1),text 4第2题(2),text 1第2题(4),2002年真题text
2第2题(3),text 3第4题(5);
1.The NYMEX and IPE are___________.
[A] both using open outcry trading as a major trading form
[B] partners that are reciprocal in their business activities
[C] rivals that are competing in the oil trading market
[D] both taking efforts to modernize their trading practice
2. According to the author, one of the reasons that the NYMEX takes
open-outcry trading
is__________.
[A] the preference of its customers
[B] the standard practice of energy exchange
[C] the long tradition of this trading practice
[D] the nostalgic feeling it arouses
3.The word “glitches” (Line 2, Paragraph 4) most probably
means_________.
[A] backwardness
[B] disappointments
[C] engineers
[D] problems
4.From Paragraph 4 we can infer that_________.
[A] trading volume in the IPE's new morning electronic session is
falling
[B] London is a better business location for energy exchanges than
Dublin
[C] Britain’s regulators are less efficient than those of Ireland
[D] the Dublin pit of the NYMEX will be more prosperous next year
5.We can draw a conclusion from the text that___________.
[A] it’s very unlikely that the NYMEX and the IPE could combine their
businesses
[B] the NYMEX will fail in Ireland as many precedents have shown
[C] the two energy exchanges will figure out a way to cooperate with each
other
[D] the market environment for both energy exchanges is getting better
答案:C A D B A
|
|