我们将跟随Janet对英国的中央银行加以最初步的了解，稍后在language and culture中，大家可以对它有进一步的认识。

Conversation 1 is a conversation between Janet and Andy on a few matters while they are waiting to meet someone. In the end, you can find out the meeting is postponed. Complete Exercise 1 before you listen for the first time.

Exercise : Look at the lines from Conversation 1. Decide who says them, Janet or Andy?  

Clue: 运用逻辑推理, 根据我们在inside view中对Janet和Andy的认识和了解, 并结合Unit 3中inside view的内容, 在听之前, 来进行预测。

Language and culture (1):  the Duke of York is a pub in Victoria Street, London. It is doing a booming trade with local workers and passing tourists, as well as the pre-theatre crowd. It's got big televisions for those sporting events and pub food if you fancy a pre-theatre snack or the restaurant upstairs if you're after something more formal. It's a good place to meet near Victoria Station.

Language and culture (2):  The City refers to The City of London, a local government district that contains the historic centre of London and the Britain’s financial services industry. The City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, about 2.6 km² in size.  伦敦金融城

Listen to the following audio clip and learn more about it.

conversation 2

Language and culture (1): The Bank of England is the state-owned central bank(中央银行)of the UK and acts as the banker for the UK government. It is in the City of London.  

(central bank is a national bank that does business with the government and other banks, and issues the country's coins and paper money. A central bank is distinguished from a normal commercial bank because it has a monopoly on creating the currency of that nation. Its primary function is to provide the nation’s money supply. It may also have supervisory powers.) (Can you name the Central Bank of China and the US?)

Language and culture (2): credit crunch is a period of economic difficulty when it is difficult to borrow money from banks. Here the most recent credit crunch in 2008 badly affected the world economy due to globalization.

Listen to the following audio clip about credit crunch. 

Question： If you won a million dollars, what are the two things that you would do? Complete Exercise 1 on Page 48 before listening.

Language and culture: 

Part 1

A con artist is a person who lies in order to make people give them money（说）. A scam artist is very similar to a con, but it includes getting either money or goods from people by tricking them（做）. A fraud is also similar but the term is used for crimes relating to tax, insurance or getting money from a government agency（经济诈骗）.

Texas is an economically rich state in south central USA, the second largest American state, known as a centre for the cattle industry and for its oil.

Dallas is a city and large metropolitan area in Texas. Its prominence arose from its historical importance as a centre for the oil and cotton industries and its position along many railroad lines.

More Than Money is one of a number of American companies that give advice to those who have recently inherited or won large amounts of money.

Part 2

Infiniti is the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Nissan since 1989. The marketing network for Infiniti-branded vehicles includes dealers in over 50 countries. 

A Rolls-Royce is a world-famous hand-built luxury car, known for its smoothness and comfort. The company began in 1906. After various owners, it has been owned by BMW since 2003.

Talk部分习题没有题干, 因此听之前对四个问题的分析及推理，对于我们预测将要听到的主要内容及降低做题难度，是非常必要的。我们可以分析选项的异同，大致判断问题是针对文章的主旨还是某个细节，是问原因还是问结果，并运用逻辑推理猜测题目。比如:

question1中四个选项是四组相对的概念, 文中肯定会提及到某一组或几组进行对比, 大家要特别留意文中提及的概念, 尤其是进行对比的;

question 2四个选项都是from开始的描述, 分析其内容尤其是选项b可以发现, from后面的描述类似于什么结果的来源或起因; 

question 3四个选项都是todo sth., 因此我们要留意文中提及谁要做什么; 

question 4中四个选项的句子没有内容的相似，涉及全然不同的细节方面，题目应该是要判断正误，同学们听的过程中需留意每个句子是否被提及，句中细节正确或错误都要立刻在该处做好标记或修订。

而且从四个问题的选项中出现的词可以判断,本文谈及的, 是比较大范畴的涉及社会、国家层面的宏观经济问题。

Language and culture: Thomas Piketty

Thomas Piketty is a French economist, as well as the author of numerous articles and books, whose work focuses on wealth and income inequality. He is a professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, associate chair at the Paris School of Economics.

His 2014 book, Capital in the Twenty-first Century, caused a sensation upon publication. Thomas Piketty analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the 18th century, shows that the main driver of inequality—the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth—today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values.

Language and culture: 

1. Lydia: An ancient country of west-central Asia Minor[小亚细亚] on the Aegean Sea in present-day northwest Turkey.  It was one of the first cultures in the world to make coins. The earliest coins were thought to have been made in around 700 BC. The coins of varying denominations (面额) were a mixture of gold and silver and were stamped with a lion's head decorated with a sun, which was the king's symbol.

2. A promissory note is a financial instrument that contains a written promise by one party (the note's issuer or maker) to pay another party (the note's payee) a definite sum of money, either on demand or at a specified future date. A promissory note typically contains all the terms pertaining to the indebtedness, such as the principal amount, interest rate, maturity date, date and place of issuance, and issuer's signature.

3. The gold standard was a monetary system where a country's currency or paper money has a value directly linked to gold. This meant that money could be converted into gold at the fixed price. That fixed price is used to determine the value of the currency. The UK formally adopted the gold standard in 1821, but the system was abandoned in the 1930s as it could not retain sufficient gold reserves equivalent to the amount of money in circulation. Nowadays, the money in use does not have any intrinsic value; its value goes up and down based on market forces.

Language and culture: eBay

eBay Inc. is an American multinational e-commerce corporation based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in the autumn of 1995, and became a notable success story of the dot-com bubble. The website is free to use for buyers, but sellers are charged fees for listing items after a limited number of free listings, and again when those items are sold.