大學(xué)英語綜合教程學(xué)生用書 Why Nations Trade

[00:00.00] Why Nations Trade [00:04.49]International trade is the exchange of goods [00:10.24]and services produced in one country for goods [00:16.90]and services produced in another country. [00:22.15]In most cases,countries do not trade the actual goods and services. [00:29.49]Rather,they use the income,or money, [00:34.56]from the sale of their products to buy the products of another country. [00:41.20]Trade among countries allows people in each country [00:47.05]to use their energies in doing what they do best. [00:52.72]That is,it lets them specialize. [00:57.16]Trade and specialization go hand in hand and enable each of us [01:04.42]to have more products to use and more different kinds of products [01:10.37]at the lowest possible cost.Nations that for many reasons. [01:18.21]First,they trade because there are difference in natural resources [01:25.37]in different parts of the world. [01:29.13]The plants that can be grown are different. [01:33.68]The mineral resources are also different. [01:38.93]For example,Canada has nickel mines but is too cold to grow oranges. [01:46.37]The United States has only a few small nickel mines [01:51.91]but produces large crops of oranges. [01:56.77]So the United States buys nickel from Canada, [02:02.12]and Canada buys oranges from the United States. [02:07.66](We say that the United States exports oranges and imports nickel. [02:14.53]Canada exports nickel and imports oranges.) [02:20.28]The senond reason nations trade with one another [02:25.32]is that it pays to specialize. [02:29.97]Specialization makes the best use of country's productive resources [02:37.73]-its natural resources,the skill of workers,and its factories. [02:44.88]When a country specializes, [02:48.62]it can make some goods that are of better quality [02:53.87]than goods make elsewhere. [02:58.10]Carpets woven in lranand wine produced in France [03:03.88]are examples of these special goods. [03:08.71]Specilaization also enables one country [03:14.48]to produce some goods more cheaply than another country. [03:20.83]For example,the United States has factories,machine, [03:27.07]and tools for manufacturing jet planes. [03:32.32]Belgium has artisans who are skilled at making lace. [03:38.28]So the United States sells jet planes to Belgium. [03:44.24]Belgium sells lace to the United States. [03:49.49]If the Belgians built factories [03:53.93]and trained engineers for the few jets they need, [03:59.46]those jets would be very expensive. [04:03.91]If the United States began to train people to make lace, [04:10.15]that,too,would be expensive. [04:14.69]By trading,both countries get a good product from abroad [04:20.86]for less than it would cost if made at home. [04:26.19]It pays a country to specialize [04:30.84]even if it can produce everything cheaply. [04:35.67]Within each country there are some things [04:40.74]that are produced more efficiently than other things. [04:46.28]This is called comparative advantage. [04:51.24]Suppose there is a person in town [04:55.68]who is an excellent teacher and who also is a skilled carpenter. [05:01.95]Suppose,too,that there is another person in town [05:07.80]who is a skilled carpenter and who is a below-average teacher. [05:14.44]If the senond person could devote ful attention to carpentry [05:21.67]and the first person full attention to teaching, [05:27.03]then the twon would be making the best use [05:32.07]of the skills and talents it possesses. [05:37.63]If,instead,both persons taught for half the week [05:43.17]and did carpentry the other half, [05:47.82]the twon might not suffer from the quality of the carpentry. [05:53.75]But the twon would lose some of the benefits of better education, [06:00.78]because the carpenter is a person of lesser teaching skills. [06:07.02]In teacher,the carpenter does not have [06:11.67]an advantage compared to the teacher. [06:16.32]Twons,countries,and people [06:20.68]are better off when they specialize in producing [06:26.53]those things in which they have a comparative advantage. [06:33.38]Many countries get a large part of their income [06:38.42]from selling one or two primary products. [06:44.09]Primary products are the raw materials [06:49.03]from which manufactured goods are made. [06:54.28]They may be farm products,such as wool,cotton,beef,or wheat. [07:01.30]They may come from beneath the surface fo the earth, [07:06.34]as do copper,iron,coal,and crude oil. [07:12.09]Or they may come from forests,as do wood and natural rubber. [07:18.44]For example,the majority of Colombia's trade comes from selling coffee. [07:25.31]Ghana depends heavily on cocoa exports. [07:30.85]Malaysia depends on tin and rubber. [07:35.50]These countries have"all their eggs in one basket." [07:41.17]If anything happens to the sales of their primary products, [07:47.30]they are in trouble. [07:50.65]Such countries will not be able to count on stable economies [07:57.07]until they have more products to trade.

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