今天看经济学人,因为水平十分有限,看得有些吃力,很多地方还不太明白,一些好词好句也没挖掘出来.

希望朋友们多多指导,一起参与.

７月３日

American carmakers
That shrinking feeling
Jul 2nd 2008
From Economist.com
High petrol prices land Detroit’s Big Three in even deeper trouble

AP/Shutterstock
THE share price of General Motors (GM), America’s biggest carmaker, fell to $10.57 on Monday June 30th, valuing the giant firm at little more than $6 billion. In 1954, the last time GM’s share price was this low, the Cadillac Eldorado had yet to grow fins and the Volkswagen Beetle was still a novelty.
通用汽车是美国最大的汽车制造商,在6月30日礼拜一那天,它的股票价格下降到10.57美圆,因此估价这个巨大的公司的市值为稍多于60亿美圆.在1954年,最近一次通用汽车的股票价格跌至这个低价时, 凯迪拉克埃尔拉多还是必须增长价格并且大众甲克虫汽车仍是个新鲜事物.
词组:
Share price 股票价格 
fell to  减少到,削减
value at 估价为
grow fins 涨价???
替换:
General Motors (GM)/ America’s biggest carmaker/ the giant firm

GM’s woes are shared by the other two members of Detroit’s Big Three. Ford has abandoned all hope of returning to profit as promised in 2009(请问下这个as是做连词省略了Ford has,还是做副词?怎么翻译) appears to be bracing itself for an even bigger loss in 2008 than last year’s $2.7 billion. And on June 26th Chrysler had to deny rumours that it was preparing to file for bankruptcy.
通用汽车的痛楚,底特律的三大汽车制造商中的另外两家也在经历.福特公司已经放弃了恢复赢利的所有希望…并且似乎正在为自己在2008年一个更大的损失做准备,这个损失多于2007年的27亿美圆.在6月26日, 克莱斯勒汽车必须否认一些传言---它正在为申请破产做准备.
Woe: n. 悲哀,悲痛
Share woes 分担悲痛
Abandon hope 放弃希望
Return to回到,恢复,重新采取
deny rumours 否认谣言
file for 申请

It was not meant to be like this. At the beginning of the year both Ford and GM were expecting the credit crisis to knock sales in the first half of the year, but they were still cautiously optimistic that they would soon reap the rewards of their expensive and painful turnaround plans. Along with Chrysler, they had just secured a big package of concessions from unions that went a long way to closing the production-cost gap with(请问with 怎么理解?)the lean, non-union North America factories operated by Asian and European rivals.
它并不意味着象这样.在这一年年初,福特和通用公司期望信用危机来削减上半年的花费,但是他们仍然谨慎地乐观,认为他们会很快收回他们的昂贵和痛苦的趋利计划的回报.随同克莱斯勒汽车,他们已经获得了来自联盟的很大的让步,这个让步非常有助于用被亚洲和欧洲竞争对手所操控的倾斜的非联盟的北美工厂来缩小生产和花费的距离???
credit crisis 信用危机
knock sales 削减花费
reap rewards 收获利益
turnaround plan 有所好转的计划
Along with 随同….,随着..
secure a big package of concessions 得到很大的让步
went a long way to+ doing 非常有益于…
close gap 缩小距离
operate factory 经营工厂

７月７日

Independent reports by J.D. Power and Harbour showed that Detroit was also fast catching up with the Japanese on quality and productivity. But the carmakers have been completely taken by surprise by the meltdown in the housing market and, above all, by the soaring cost of fuel. Falling house prices have persuaded many people to postpone buying new cars, and petrol at over $4 a gallon is radically changing the types of cars that buyers want.
JD和H发表了他们的报道，表示说底特律在汽车质量和生产能力方面赶超日本的速度也非常迅速。但是这些汽车制造商已经突然被房屋市场的萧条给完全击倒（？），且最重要的影响还是来自激增的能源花费。下跌的房价已经让一些人推迟购买新车，并且超过4美圆一加仑的汽油费正在彻底颠覆买主心中理想汽车的种类。
show report 发表报道
catch up with 赶超
meltdown融化       
by surprise ad. 突然(冷不防,出其不意地)
soaring cost 激增的花费
Falling prices 下跌的价格
Persuade sb to do sth 说服某人做某事
Postpone doing sth 推迟做某事
Radically ad. 根本地,完全地
chang the types 改变种类
sth at $ 价值。。。钱的某物

Detroit is still stuck with model ranges heavily biased towards the big, thirsty sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and pick-up trucks that raked in the profits when petrol cost half of today’s price, so this is wreaking havoc.
底特律仍然陷入一系列型号汽车的生产中，它对大型耗油的城市越野和轻型卡车存在偏见。当是目前油价花费的一半时，这些汽车都需要花费很多，因此油价是个罪魁祸首。
Be stuck with 被卡住。。？？
model range 系列型号
biased toward  对。。有偏见
sport-utility vehicles 城市越野
pick-up truck 轻型卡车
rake in the profits 集聚钱财
wreak havoc  造成破坏？？？

顶一下啊，下载下来细看呢
wreak havoc  造成破坏？？？ 、突然瞄到一个，呵呵我记得好像是造成影响的意思，出现在中国雪灾这篇文里面的。wreak havoc on/take  heavy toll on

谢谢小G,wreak havoc on/take  heavy toll on 又学到了两个很好的表达
欢迎多过来指导和交流,我会持续更新的

Bush to Meet Putin on Summit Sidelines
第一段：
promote a missile defense shield 　　建立导弹防御系统
promote the spread 　　发起一个宣传
meet with 　会晤
complicate his sideline    使他的边线变复杂？？？
irritated    已经很恼火的
join us live with  the details    带给我们详细的现场报道
motorcade arrive    车队到达
make a speech    发表演讲
due to    据说，预期

第二段：
Talk about 谈论
The freedom agenda 自由议程
Spread sth around the world 将。。扩展到世界每个角落
,as you know clearly, 正如大家所知
Work out 解决，达到
Take a lot of international heat for  成为国际热点问题
Given the back and forth between  正如某某之间的你来我往
In recent days 近期
Spark heated debate  引起激烈的争论
At the four front of  局于。。之首
Earth sb  困扰某人？？
Set up 建立
Protect sb from 保护某人免于
Attack from 来自。。的攻击
Turn around 转变
Relation to 与。。的关系
Back slide on 。。的倒退
Democratic reform 民主改革
Criticism on sb 批评某人
Move towards  对。。的努力
Plus sth    与。。一起

第三段：
，not likely to, 不太可能
Calm the troubled waters  淌这躺混水
Provoke war 引发冷战
See over rhetoric  看见言语攻防
The past few days  前一段时间
If anything 如果有什么的话


第四段：
Calm down  平静下来
Annoy sb  困扰某人
Bilateral meeting 双边会晤
Cool the rudder  缓和矛盾？？ 
Take the extraordinary step  采取特别的措施
A follow up meeting 一个后续会议
Open up the family home to sb  对某人开放家庭
The urgency of this mission  这个任务的紧急性

学习中

gap with(请问with 怎么理解?)the lean, non-union North America factories operated by Asian and European rivals.
互相交流
with 是做gap 的补语吧。和后面的non-union 。。。。同是with 宾语吧。

后面的没有引文，楼主去哪个网站看的呀。

毅力够强呀，楼主！佩服～～～

俺是看不下去了～～～