2015复习正是强化复习阶段，在考研英语中占了40分，所以考研英语阅读是英语科目中重要的一项。名师老师曾建议过考研生需要坚持每天泛读10-15分钟的英文原刊。强烈推荐了杂志《经济学人》.杂志中的文章也是考研英语的主要材料来源.希望考研考生认真阅读，快速提高考研英语阅读水平。 Frontier markets 前沿市场 Wedge beyond the edge 出险招，赚大钱 Money is leaving emerging markets for riskier betsat the investment frontier 资本正从新兴市场流向前沿市场，追逐更具风险投资 MANY of Africa s roads are scarred with potholes, sothe fresh tarmac on the drive between Ndola and Kitwe, two cities in Zambia s copper belt, issomething of a treat. The country s road building is financed by a $750m Eurobond issued in September 2012. The timing was perfect.The Federal Reserve had an open-ended commitment to buy Treasuries to keep yields low.Investors in America and Europe were hungry to buy dollar-denominated debt offering juicyyields. Zambia drew $12 billion of orders for a ten-year bond paying only 5.4%. Spain couldnot borrow as cheaply at the time. 赞比亚铜带上，恩多拉和基德伟两座城市之间，新近铺上了崭新的柏油马路。这在大部分道路都坑坑洼洼的非洲可算奢侈。2012年9月，赞比亚获得7.5亿美元的欧洲债券用作道路建设。当时时机可谓完美。美联储已承诺无限量购买美国国债以压低收益。欧美投资者争相购买美元计价的高收益债券。赞比亚以5.4%的低利率获得120亿美元的十年期国债订单。当时，西班牙尚无法获得如此低的利率。 Zambia s debut Eurobond showed how rich-world funds were looking beyond their hometerritory, past even emerging markets to frontier markets at the farthest edge of theinvestment universe. Even as the prospect of the end of the Fed s bond-buying causedwobbles in emerging markets last year, African nations were able to tap funds. Nigeria andGhana sold Eurobonds in July. Mozambique raised $850m in September. Gabon issued asecond Eurobond in December. 赞比亚的第一批欧洲债券如此抢手，显示了发达国家资金正舍弃国内市场甚至是新兴市场，涌向最边缘的投资领域前沿市场。去年，新兴市场由于担心美联储停止购债而发生动荡。即便如此，非洲国家仍获得大量投资。尼日利亚和加纳在七月售出欧洲债券。莫桑比克于九月筹得8.5亿美金。十二月，加蓬发行第二批欧洲债券。 Frontier markets are generally small, illiquid and risky, so it is a surprise that recent tremorsin emerging markets have not shaken them more. Exotix, a broker, calculates an averageinterest-rate spread of Eurobonds from 50 frontier markets .The spread on its index has narrowed to 395 basis points. The gap between the Exotixmeasure and J.P. Morgan s benchmark Emerging-Market Bond Index reached anall-time low of 68 basis points this week . Nor has investors interest beenconfined to bonds. The MSCI frontier equity index lagged behind its emerging-marketcousin after the global financial crisis but recently has been catching up. 前沿市场通常规模小，风险大，缺乏流动性。最近的新兴市场震动并未冲击到前沿市场，实在是令人吃惊。经纪公司Exotix计算出50个前沿市场的欧洲债券的平均利差，已缩减至395个基点。本周，Exotix指数与摩根大通的新兴市场债券指数的差距降至68个基点，为历史最低点。投资者也不只对债券感兴趣。金融危机之后，MSCI的前沿市场股票指数一直落后于新兴市场，但最近差距正逐渐缩小。 Frontier markets might once have been dismissed as a side bet for emerging-market fundslooking to pep up returns. They are now seen as an asset class in their own right, saysAndrew Brudenell, who runs $700m of frontier equity funds at HSBC. Pension-fund trusteesand consultants now ask how much money they should allocate to the frontier. The risinginterest is in part because GDP growth in China, Brazil and India has diminished. The thingsthat made emerging markets exciting in the 1990s are now found in frontier markets, saysCharlie Robertson of Renaissance Capital, an investment bank. 过去，新兴市场资金可能只在想获得额外收益时，会到前沿市场多赌一把。然而按照安德鲁?布鲁德奈尔的说法，前沿市场如今已是一个名正言顺的资本类别了。安德鲁?布鲁德奈尔现在在汇丰银行管理着7亿美元的前沿市场股票基金。养老金托管人和咨询师已经开始考虑，该放多少钱在前沿市场。对前沿市场的重视，一部分是由于中国、巴西和印度的GDP增速开始放缓。复兴资本的查理?罗伯逊称，上世纪九十年代促成新兴市场大发展的因素，现在都转移到了前沿市场。 There is much debate about where the frontier starts and ends. If the definition is amarket that is neither developed nor emerging, then 23 of the 25 fastest-growing economiesover the past decade are in the frontier category. But many of these frontier economiesdo not have stockmarkets and only Qatar is in the MSCI frontier-market index, an industrybenchmark. To qualify, a stockmarket must have at least two stocks that meet specificthresholds for size and liquidity. It must also be accessible: this is harder to quantify butwhat matters is openness to foreign ownership, the ease with which capital can flow acrossborders and the stockmarket s functioning. Only 24 markets across eastern Europe, theMiddle East, Africa and Asia make the cut. Their combined market capitalisation is $146 billionor so. By comparison the 21 stock markets in MSCI s emerging-market index are worth$4 trillion. 对于前沿市场的定义，至今仍充满争议。如果将其定义为既不是发达市场也不是新兴市场，那过去十年里25个发展最快速经济体中有23个会被归为前沿市场。但这些前沿经济体当中有一大批没有股票市场，并且只有卡塔尔被纳入MSCI前沿市场指数这一基准指数当中。一个合格的股票市场，必须至少拥有两支规模和流动性达到标准的股票，并且足够开放。后者较难以量化，但最重要的是是否向外资开放，资本跨境流通是否便利，股市是否有效运作。横跨东欧、中东、非洲及亚洲，只有24个市场达到该标准, 总市值达1460亿美元。与之相对的是MSCI新兴市场指数中的21个股票市场，总市值达4万亿美元。 A familiar grumble about these sorts of indices, which are weighted by the market value ofstocks, is that they have a skew that is unfavourable to bargain-hunters. Investors in indextrackers spend more on stocks that have gone up in price. It is an acute problem forfrontier markets. More than half of the MSCI index is accounted for by stocks from threeoil-rich Gulf states: Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait . 这类市值加权指数常被认为有失偏颇，对欲低价买入股票的投机商不利。那些追踪股票指数的投资人会在已增值的股票上花更多的钱。这一问题在前沿市场尤为突出。MSCI指数中有一半以上的股票来自海湾地区的三个石油大国：卡塔尔，阿联酋和科威特。 The purist sort of frontiersman sees the job as investing in poorer countries with the greatestpotential. Purists give more room in their portfolios to stocks from poor, populous andfast-growing markets, such as Nigeria or Pakistan. As countries like these become richer,their middle classes will grow and spending on infrastructure will increase. The so-called BBCstocks are one way to play these investmentthemes. Zenith Bank, Nigerian Breweries and Dangote Cement are popular stocks. Nestlhas a subsidiary that is listed in Lagos. In Pakistan there is Bank Alfalah and DG Khan, acement company. 纯粹的前沿市场投资者认为，前沿市场相对较贫穷，但潜力最大。这些投资者的资产组合当中，贫穷、人口众多、快速发展市场的股票占了更大的比例，像尼日利亚和巴基斯坦。在财富增长的同时，这些国家的中产阶级日益壮大，基础设施投资也将增加。所谓的BBC股票就是前沿市场常见的投资标的之一。詹尼斯银行、尼日利亚啤酒厂和丹格特水泥都是抢手的股票。雀巢的一家分公司在拉各斯上市。巴基斯坦较热门的股票有阿法拉银行和德拉加齐汗水泥厂。 Specialist funds wanting to spread their bets may look at markets and stocks that are not inthe main index. Saudi Arabia is a liquid market but tricky for foreigners to invest in. Itsstockmarket sports SADAFCO, a dairy producer. Cambodia is another off-index bet. It hasNagacorp, a casino. Often the only way to buy exposure is through bonds. Angola is Africa sthird-biggest economy, after South Africa and Nigeria. It has no stockmarket but it does havea Eurobond. Mozambique s Eurobond was ostensibly for a state-backed fishing venture.Investors bought it anyway, with one eye on the country s fast-growing economy and theother on its offshore gas reserves. 希望分摊风险的专业基金有时会考虑主要指数之外的市场和股票。沙特阿拉伯具有充分流动性，但对外国投资者来说，却是一个难以捉摸的市场。沙特股市中最亮眼的是沙特乳制品及食品公司。柬埔寨也是主要指数之外的一个投资热点，拥有博彩公司金界控股。通常进行风险投资唯一的途径就是购买债券。安哥拉是继南非和尼日利亚之后非洲第三大经济体，没有股市，但有欧洲债券。赞比亚的欧洲债券名义上是为一家政府支持的渔业公司筹资，但投资者还是争相购买，一方面是考虑到赞比亚快速发展的经济，另一方面是看中了赞比亚丰富的近海天然气储备。 Greater demand should spur the supply of stocks, through sales of private stakes orprivatisations. Deeper equity markets would be welcome. Access to debt markets is more ofa mixed blessing for some. Ghana issued its first Eurobond in 2007. Within a few years itsbudget deficit blew out to 12% of GDP after a large public-sector pay rise. Mozambiqueshows worrying signs of similar trouble. 需求增加，能刺激股票的供应，包括出售私人股份或私有化。更具深度的股票市场将受到欢迎。对一些国家来说，接触到债券市场有好亦有坏。加纳于2007年第一次发行欧洲债券。在大幅增加公有部门薪酬后，几年时间内预算赤字飙升至GDP的20%。莫桑比克也开始出现类似问题的苗头，令人担忧。 Zambia meant to use its proceeds wisely. The money was to go on targeted projects. Newroads in the copperbelt make sense since so much cargo is sent by truck. But easy moneyleads to lax discipline. The state s wage bill has become bloated. The budget deficit maybe as high as 8% of GDP this year. To help fill the gap, Zambia is said to be plotting anotherEurobond. 赞比亚原本想用好这笔钱，把钱花在重点项目上。在铜带上筑路是颇明智的选择，因为大量的货物都是通过卡车运送的。但钱来得容易，花得也就随意了。赞比亚政府部门薪酬已然过高。今年的预算赤字可能达到GDP的8%。据说为了弥补空缺，赞比亚已经在筹划发放新一轮欧洲债券。 词语解释 1.scare with 吓唬 He wanted to scare us with this. 他想用这个恐吓我们。 Fasttony why do you scare us with doomsday stuff? 你为什么用世界末日的谎言来吓唬大家呢? 2.able to 能;会 He was even able to build his own home. 他现在甚至能建一所自己的房子。 Have you been able to support yourself translating? 靠做翻译，你能维持自己的生活吗? 3.confine to 限于之内 To confine us to our current path. 把我们限制在现在的道路上。 The treatment to pulsar signal only confine to the adding of the pulsar signal by cycles atpresent. 目前对脉冲星信号的处理仅局限于对脉冲星信号不同周期的迭加。 4.catch up 追上;吹起 Someday china s software will catch up with its hardware. 有一天，中国的软实力终将会赶上它的硬实力。 Some are just getting started reading the comics while others are at different issues, trying tocatch up. 有些刚刚才开始读漫画，而有些人已经在别的章节了，想追上现在的进度。