1、Pre-Reading TaskWhile-Reading TaskAfter-Reading Task,Unit 3: Text B,Pre-reading Task,Text-related InformationPre-reading Activity,Thomas L. Friedman Dov Seidman Credit-default swaps Derivatives,Text-related Information,Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer
2、 for The New York Times. He became the papers foreign-affairs columnist in 1995. Previously, he served as chief economic correspondent in the Washington bureau and beforethat he was the chief White House correspondent. In 2005, Mr. Friedman was elected as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board.,Text-r
3、elated Information,Thomas L. Friedman:,Thomas L. Friedman,Mr. Friedmans book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, was released in April 2005 and won the inaugural Goldman Sachs / Financial Times Business Book of the Year award. In 2004, he was awarded the Overseas Press Club Awar
4、d for lifetime achievement and the honorary title, Order of the British Empire (OBE), by Queen Elizabeth II. His book, From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989), won the National Book Award for non-fiction in 1989 and The Lexus and the Olive Tree (2000) won the 2000 Overseas Press Club award for best nonficti
5、on book on foreign policy and has been published in 27 languages. Mr. Friedman also wrote Longitudes and Attitudes: The World in the Age of Terrorism (2002) and the text accompanying Micha Bar-Ams book, Israel: A Photobiography.,Text-related Information,Dov Seidman is the founder, chairman and chief
6、 executive officer of LRN, a company that helps businesses develop ethical corporate cultures and inspire principled performance, and the author of HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everythingin Business (and in Life).,Text-related Information,Dov Seidman:,Dov Seidman,Text-related Information,Credit
7、-default swaps:,A credit default swap (CDS) is a swap contract in which the buyer of the CDS makes a series of payments to the seller and, in exchange, receives a payoff if a credit instrument typically a bond or loan goes into default (fails to pay). Less commonly, the credit event that triggers th
8、e payoff can be a company undergoing restructuring, bankruptcy or even just having its credit rating downgraded.,Text-related Information,Credit-default swaps:,CDS contracts have been compared with insurance, because the buyer pays a premium and, in return, receives a sum of money if one of the even
9、ts specified in the contract occurs.,A Derivative is a financial instrument that is derived from some other asset, index, event, value or condition (known as the underlying). Rather than trade or exchange the underlying itself, derivative traders enter into an agreement to exchange cash or assets ov
10、er time based on the underlying. A simple example is a future contract: an agreement to exchange the underlying asset at a future date. Derivatives are often leveraged, such that a small movement in the underlying value can cause a large difference in the value of the derivative,Text-related Informa
11、tion,Derivatives:,Text-related Information,Derivatives:,Derivatives can be used by investors to speculate and make a profit if the value of the underlying moves the way they expect (e.g. moves in a given direction, stays in or out of a specified range, reaches a certain level). Alternatively, trader
12、s can use derivatives to hedge or mitigate risk in the underlying, by entering into a derivative contract whose value moves in the opposite direction to their underlying position and cancels part or all of it out.,1. Some people say that in the 21st century, how we do is more important than what we
13、do. Do you agree? Why or why not? 2. When mentioning the financial services meltdown, the author of the passage says, “We got away from the basics from the fundamentals . We got away from the hows.” Do you agree? Why or why not?Now compare your answers with your neighbours.,Pre-reading Task,Exercise
14、 1 Answer the following questions before readingthe passage.,Text BDetailed Study of the Text,While-Reading Task,Text B Why How Matters1 I have a friend who regularly reminds me that if you jump off the top of an 80-story building, for 79 stories you can actually think youre flying. Its the sudden s
15、top at the end that always gets you.,While-Reading Task,2 When I think of the financial-services boom, bubble and bust that America has just gone through, I often think about that image. We thought we were flying. Well, we just met the sudden stop at the end. The laws of gravity, it turns out, still
16、 apply. You cannot tell tens of thousands of people that they can have the American dream a home, for no money down and nothing to pay for two years without that eventually catching up to you. The Puritan ethic of hard work and saving still matters. I just hate the idea that such an ethic is more al
17、ive today in China than in America.,While-Reading Task,3 Our financial bubble, like all bubbles, has many complex strands feeding into it called derivatives and credit-default swaps but at heart, it is really very simple. We got away from the basics from the fundamentals of prudent lending and borro
18、wing, where the lender and borrower maintain some kind of personal responsibility for, and personal interest in, whether the person receiving the money can actually pay it back. Instead, we fell into what some people call Y.B.G. and I.B.G. lending: “youll be gone and Ill be gone” before the bill com
19、es due.,While-Reading Task,While-Reading Task,4 Yes, this bubble is about us not all of us, many Americans were way too poor to play. But it is about enough of us to say it is about America. And we will not get out of this without going back to some basics, which is why I find myself re-reading a va
20、luable book that I wrote about once before, called How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything . in Business (and in Life). Its author, Dov Seidman, is the C.E.O. of LRN, which helps companies build ethical corporate cultures.,5 Seidman argues that in our hyperconnected and transparent world, how y
21、ou do things matters more than ever, because so many more people can now see how you do things, be affected by how you do things and tell others how you do things on the Internet anytime, for no cost and without restraint. 6 “In a connected world,” Seidman said to me, “countries, governments and com
22、panies also have character, and their character how they do what they do, how they keep promises, how they make decisions, how things really happen inside, how they connect and collaborate, how they engender trust, how they relate to their customers, to the environment and to the communities in whic
23、h they operate is now their fate.”,While-Reading Task,7 We got away from these hows. We became more connected than ever in recent years, but the connections were actually very loose. That is, we went away from a world in which, if you wanted a mortgage to buy a home, you needed to show real income a
24、nd a credit record into a world where a banker could sell you a mortgage and make gobs of money upfront and then offload your mortgage to a bundler who put a whole bunch together, chopped them into bonds and sold some to banks as far afield as Iceland.,While-Reading Task,8 The bank writing the mortg
25、age got away from how because it was just passing you along to a bundler. And the investment bank bundling these mortgages got away from how because it didnt know you, but it knew it was lucrative to bundle your mortgage with others. And the credit-rating agency got away from “how” because there was
26、 just so much money to be made in giving good ratings to these bonds, why delve too deeply? And the bank in Iceland got away from how because, hey, everyone else was buying the stuff and returns were great so why not?,While-Reading Task,9 “UBS banks motto is: You and us. But the world we created was
27、 actually You and nobody nobody was really connected in value terms,” said Seidman. “Parts of Wall Street got disconnected from investing in human endeavor helping business to scale and take up new ideas.” Instead, they started to just engineer money from money. “So some of the smartest C.E.O.s did
28、not know what some of their smartest people were doing.”,While-Reading Task,While-Reading Task,10 Charles Mackay wrote a classic history of financial crises called Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, first published in London in 1841. “Money. has often been a cause of the delu
29、sion of multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper. To trace the history of the most prominent of these delusions is the object of the present pages. Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be
30、seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”,While-Reading Task,11 And so it must be with us. We need to get back to collaborating the old-fashioned way. That is, people making decisions based on business judgment, experience, prudence, clarity of com
31、munications and thinking about how not just how much., One of my friends often tells me that if you jump from the top of an 80-story building, for 79 stories you can have a feeling that you are flying. Its the sudden stop when you teach the ground that kills you.,I have a friend who regularly remind
32、s me that if you jump off the top of an 80-story building, for 79 stories you can actually think youre flying. Its the sudden stop at the end that always gets you., that America has just experienced, that America has just gone through,e.g.When youre going through a crisis, it often helps to talk to
33、someone.Hes going through a divorce at the moment.,go through: to experience a difficult or unpleasant situation, feeling, etc., It is discovered that the laws of gravity still have an effect. You cannot tell tens of thousands of Americans that you can have a home, you dont have to made a down payme
34、nt, dont have to pay any money for two years, and you wont end up in bankruptcy.,The laws of gravity, it turns out, still apply. You cannot tell tens of thousands of people that they can have the American dream a home, for no money down and nothing to pay for two years without that eventually catchi
35、ng up to you.,e.g. It turned out that she was a friend of my brother.The job turned out to be harder than we thought.,turn out: to be discovered to be; prove to be, I dont like the idea that such an ethic is more popular in China than in America.,I just hate the idea that such an ethic is more alive
36、 today in China than in America., Like any other bubbles, our financial bubble has within itself many very complicated elements / parts, which are called derivatives and credit-default swaps, but basically it is really very simple.,Our financial bubble, like all bubbles, has many complex strands fee
37、ding into it called derivatives and credit-default swaps but at heart, it is really very simple.,e.g. There had been two strands to his tactics.Hes trying to bring together various strands of radical philosophic thought.There are many different strands within feminist thought.,strand: v. one of diff
38、erent aspects of something,e.g. He was a very gentle boy at heart.Im really a country person at heart.,at heart: used for saying what someones basic character is (in the above sentence, it is used figuratively), We stopped sticking to the most important principle of lending and borrowing money caref
39、ully. By this principle, both the lender and borrower should be responsible for and care about whether the person who borrows the money can actually repay it / give it back.,We got away from the basics from the fundamentals of prudent lending and borrowing, where the lender and borrower maintain som
40、e kind of personal responsibility for, and personal interest in, whether the person receiving the money can actually pay it back.,e.g. Its important for children to be taught the fundamentals of science.This course provides an opportunity to learn more about the fundamentals of film-making.Police ha
41、ve launched a campaign to educate children about the fundamentals of traffic safety.,fundamentals: n. the most basic and important aspects of something,e.g. Its always prudent to read a contract properly before signing it.Being a prudent and cautious person, you realize that the problem must be reso
42、lved.,prudent: a. sensible and careful, especially by trying to avoid unnecessary risks, Yes, this bubble involves us, although not all of us because many Americans were very poor and they were prudent enough not to spend and borrow excessively.The word way is American English, used as adverb, meani
43、ng very.e.g. I think shes way cool, man.,Yes, this bubble is about us not all of us, many Americans were way too poor to play., But it involves so many of us that we can say it involves America.,But it is about enough of us to say it is about America., And if we want to get out of this situation, we
44、 will have to return to the principle of prudent lending and borrowing instead of spending and borrowing excessively,And we will not get out of this without going back to some basics ,e.g. Unless we get back to basics in teaching, the standard of literacy will fall.They need to get back to the basic
45、s and learn how to run a wireless company. This means focusing more on the present rather than the future.,go / get back basics:to think about the simple or most important ideas within a subject or an activity instead of new ideas or complicated details,Seidman argues that in our hyperconnected and
46、transparent world, how you do things matters more than ever, because so many more people can now see how you do things, be affected by how you do things and tell others how you do things on the Internet anytime, for no cost and without restraint., Seidman argues that in our highly connected and open
47、 world, the way you do things is more important than ever before, because so many more people can see the way you do things, be affected by it and tell other people about it on the Internet anytime easily and paying no money at all.,e.g. Citizens are asking for a more transparent democratic governme
48、nt.,transparent: a. 1) a transparent process, activity or organization does not try to keep anything secret,e.g. I think we should try to make the instructions more transparent.The way the system works will be transparent to the user.,transparent: a. 2) simple, clear and easy to understand,e.g. The
49、box has a transparent plastic lid so you can see whats inside.,transparent: a. 3) able to be seen through; clear,e.g. They have called for restraints on public spending.The government has imposed restraints on corporate mergers.,restraint: n. 1) a rule or principle that limits what people can do,e.g.The police were praised for their restraint in handling the demonstrators.He urged the millions of protesters to exercise restraint.,
