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第263期：主餐一道：泛聽練習
以下段落是摘自新聞里的一些重要信息,并不是一個段落的聽寫。空內信息可在本新聞中全部找到,大家可以根據這些信息復述新聞。
一、泛聽建議：
1、完整聽一遍，掌握大意。
2、繼續聽，特別注意關鍵信息。遇到相似的詞，寫下來。
Bank of America will pay $400 million to mortgage giant Freddie Mac to settle claims over bad home mortgages. NPR's Chris Arnold reports it's part of a series of settlements _1_ many of the nation's big banks.
美國銀行將向抵押貸款巨頭房利美支付4億美元，以了結不良住房抵押貸款引發的索賠問題。據NPR新聞的克里斯·阿諾德報道，這起和解是涉及眾多美國大銀行的和解案之一。
These cases essentially involved banks allegedly selling garbage home loans to investors after first telling them the loans were good. This was back during the housing bubble when this took place. The government-controlled mortgage firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bought or _2_ tens of billions of dollars worth of these loans that went bad. And this latest settlement $400 million is actually smaller potatoes. Bank of America earlier this agreed to pay $3.6 billion in a similar settlement with Fannie Mae. And JPMorgan Chase recently struck a deal with both Fannie and Freddie to pay them about $5 billion for selling loans that _3_ quality than the bank said they were. Chris Arnold, NPR News.
基本來說，這些涉及銀行的案件都是在告知投資者貸款安全之后卻向他們出售不良住房貸款。這些案件發生在房地產泡沫時期。政府控制的抵押貸款公司房地美和房利美購買或擔保了價值數百億美元的不良貸款。最新達成的這筆價值4億美元的和解協議實際上只是一件小案子。美國銀行早前同意支付36億美元與房地美達成和解。近期摩根大通銀行也與房地美和房利美達成和解協議，將為出售低于所承諾質量的貸款支付兩房50億美元。NPR新聞，克里斯·阿諾德報道。
Huddled with Black Friday, Small Business Saturday in the host of other _4_ retail holidays were bombarded with, well, like another one on the list today, Cyber Monday. Most analysts expect upwards of 2 billion in sales today.
黑色星期五之后，“小企業星期六”迎來了所謂的零售業假期，同時“網購星期一”也掀起了購物熱潮。大部分分析人士預計今天的銷售量將超過20億美元。
Stocks closed lower, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 77 points; the NASDAQ lost 14 points today.
今天股市收盤走低，道瓊斯工業平均指數下降77點；納斯達克綜合指數下降14點。
This is NPR.
這里是NPR新聞。
詞匯解析：
1. small potato
小人物，不重要的事；
eg. I can do nothing. I am just a small potato here.
我干不了什么事，我在這里不過是個小卒子而已。
eg. I was working for small potatoes until I went into business for myself.
在我自己創業之前，我一直賺的是小錢。
2. be bombarded wtih
連珠炮似的質問（或批評）；使大量面對；
eg. The spokesman was bombarded with questions on the press conference.
新聞發布會上那位發言人遭到了連珠炮般的發問。
eg. We have been bombarded with letters of complaint.
我們接二連三收到了大批的投訴信件。
3. upwards of
…以上；多于…；
eg. It costs upward of $40,000 a year to keep some prisoners in prison.
關押某些犯人一年的成本超過4萬美元。
eg. There were upwards of a hundred people at the meeting.
有一百多人參加了這次會議。
