business sentiment 商业景气指数 immediate outlook 近期前景 sales tax 销售税 convertible bonds 可转换 债券 stock options 股票期权 a preset price 预订价格 annual growth 年增长（率） lending rates 借款利率 monetary tightening 货币紧缩政策 fixed assets 固定资产
3.2.1.4 Using Vivid Verbs
Financial news generally reports serious financial events to common readers. To be more accessible, financial news tends to use some vivid verbs to add flavor to the dull statements. For example:
1. Many Americans have abandoned their love of getting behind the wheel during the last year, and opted to hop on buses instead. (China Daily, 11-26, 2008)
The use of the underlined words makes the news very vivid and draws a lively picture of how Americans replace cars with buses.
2. London restaurant has come up with a novel idea to drum up customers in the economic downturn: letting customers decide how much money they want to pay for their meal. (China Daily, 11-20, 2008)
The use of the verb phrase come up with and drum up gives readers a urgent sense and helps to show the bleak business in the restaurants which are affected by the recent financial crisis.
3.2.1.5 Abbreviation
Financial news is supposed to report the latest news at the quickest speed, and it is for this reason, it tends to use many abbreviate words to save time as well as room,
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e.g., WTO, GDP, US, UK, EU, SWOT (机遇与挑战分析), ASEAN (东南亚国家联盟), CIF (到岸价), CIFC（到岸价加佣金）, COD（到岸付款）, FOB（离岸价）, FMCG（快速消费品）, SOHO (小型办公室和家庭办公室）, S＆P（标准普尔指数）, SEC（证券交易委员会）, IPO (首次上市股票).
3.2.2 Features of Sentences
3.2.2.1 Using Extended Simple Sentences
English financial news tends to use extended simple sentences. It applies modifiers (such as attribute, adverbial, and appositive, etc) to extend simple sentences so that much information can be stated in one simple sentence and save more space at the same time. These modifiers are generally prepositional phrase, participle phrase and infinitive, etc.
Example1: The boards of Banca Intesa, based in Milan, and sanpolo IMI, with headquarters in nearby Turin, will meet separately Saturday to discuss the tie-up, which would be Italy‘s biggest domestic merger. (International Herald Tribune, 8-24, 2006)
The structure of this sentence is ―subject+verb‖, and its subject is ―the boards of Banca Intesa and sanpolo IMI‖, the verb is ―will meet‖.
Example2: Oil price ,which neared ＄80a barrel during the Israel-Lebanon war before falling back ,are another danger for the European economy.(International Herald Tribune, 8-14, 2006)
The sentence structure is ―subject+verb+predicative‖ and subject, verb, predicative are respectively ―oil price‖, ―are‖ and ―another danger‖.
Similarly:
Example3: The European Commission took a defiant Spain the highest EU court Wednesday for interfering in the ￠42.3billion bid by the German utility E.ON for Endesa. ((International Herald Tribune, 8-16, 2006)
Example4: Iran‘s disagreement with the United Nations Security Council over its 24
uranium enrichment program has raised concerns about a cut in oil supplies. (Reuters, 3-15, 2005)
3.2.2.2 Using Contrastive Sentences
The economy and markets are not stable for they are changing from time to time, and the task of financial news is to report the latest news. Therefore it is unavoidable for financial news to reflect such changes. In order to give the readers a more specific knowledge about the changes, financial news tends to use many contrastive sentences to make the changes more obvious.
They dropped by more than ＄100billion between the third quarter of the 2000 and the third quarter of 2002,when the dollar was at or near its most recent peak. (The Associated Press, 2003)
This paragraph uses ―more than‖ and ―the most peak‖ to make a contrast between the export amount of money in U.S. (which is dropped) and exchange rate of Dollars (which is in a record height).
Similarly: The average loss was＄2,332,03(about 1,630,79 pounds),about 500 more than in 2007.The amounts may seem paltry compared with what accused Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff‘s investors lost but still were serious for those taken by in the scams. (China Daily, 4-12, 2009)
In the news the use of contrastive sentences emphasizes the losses people suffered in face of dire economic conditions.
In a word, the use of contrastive sentences can make the news more specific and give the readers a more concrete feeling about the changes of economic events. They make the reports more persuasive. Therefore the use of contrastive sentences is an important sentence character of financial news.
3.2.2.3 Using Quotations
To make the financial news more objective, the reporters usually use large quantities of quotations of some related persons. These persons are usually
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high-ranking official of the governments, CEO of the enterprises, president of some economic organizations, and so on. Generally, their comments do not represent themselves, but a certain collective. Some of these comments are in a very formal way.
Example1: Economists said the pace of industrial output growth was still healthy, indicating little risks of a sharp downturn in the Chinese economy. (Reuters, 8-15, 2006)
Example2: The federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry said that the plan would have such a harmful impact on possible future investigations and on EU-China relations that it could not be allowed to go ahead. (New York Times, 8-4, 2006)
From the two examples, we can find that the formal quotations tend to use some formal words and standard grammars to show the opinions on some serious topics.
In financial news, some of the quotations are in a formal way, but there are also situations in which a certain person is on an interview, and he/she is more likely to give the answer in an informal way to make the explanation of a certain economic phenomenon more accessible. They tend to give the explanation in oral English, in vivid, fresh and informal language. Financial news seizes this opportunity and employs these informal speaking to make itself more persuasive and intelligible. For example:
Ong Keng Yong, the ASEAN secretary general, said: ―Competition is for real now. More and more attractive investment locations are coming up, not only in China and India but elsewhere in the world. If we want to be in the marathon race, we cannot stop for too long and say‘ time out, we need a massage on our feeble legs.‘ We‘ve got to keep on pushing.‖ (The Associated Press, 8-20, 2006)
This quotation uses many oral words and even a humorous sentence (the sentence underlined) to make the news more accessible. It is a good way to attract the readers‘ attentions.
In a word, the use of quotations is very common in financial news, these quotations can make the reports more credible and valuable, the use of the formal
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quotations is a good way to strengthen the facts while the informal quotations can help to make the news more vivid and interesting.
3.2.3 Features of Language
If a headline is the ―head‖ of financial news, and its function is to attract the readers‘ attentions, then a body will be the ―body‖ which provides readers with financial information. If the content of the body is the ―soul‖, then the language of the body will be the ―flesh and blood‖. The contents of financial news is fixed, it is something related to financial policies, events and so on. However, the language of financial news is very complex and it shoulders the task of satisfying the readers‘ expectations and needs. In order to present the financial contents in a more persuasive and vivid way, financial news tends to enrich its language in several ways. So financial news has some special language features. In this chapter we would like to skim over them.
3.2.3.1 Serious and Humorous Language Features
Financial news which belongs to hard news requires the reports to be correct, accurate and objective, because it covers some important financial events: from the economic policies to the business actions. These things are rather objective and some of them even have profound influences. So the professional responsibility requires the writers to make the reports faithful, serious and objective.
Example1: In a sign of the Commission‘s poor bargaining position, it granted Germany an extra year to bring its deficit below the 3 percent threshold, the same waiver it recently gave France. (傅伟良，2008)
Example2: Investor often use convertible bonds as a way of buying stock options when the market is volatile, accepting lower interest rates than on conventional bonds in return for stock when it rises to a preset price. (,傅伟良，2008)
From the two examples above, especially the underlined expressions, we may find that the financial news uses many very formal expressions and serious languages
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