Infrastructure Privatization托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

Infrastructure Privatization托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

一、Infrastructure Privatization 托福听力原文：

NARRATOR: Listen to part of a lecture in a United States government class.

FEMALE PROFESSOR: We've been talking about the basic services and facilities that an economy needs to function—roads, bridges, rail systems, water supplies, power grids, and so forth. What we call infrastructure.

Now, traditionally, much of a society’s infrastructure—particularly the transportation infrastructure—has been owned and operated by states, by governments. But lately, local and state governments have started to consider, and sometimes actually enter into various deals to privatize parts of their infrastructure, particularly in the transportation sector.

And why is this privatization happening?

Well, as you may know, in the 1950s and sixties, there was a tremendous highway-building boom. Governments created a huge interlocking network of highways with associated bridges and tunnels. But these facilities are getting old now, and they're becoming more and more expensive to maintain, very expensive, actually. Tolls and tax revenues don't often cover all the needed repairs.

MALE STUDENT: So, why don't the governments just raise tolls and taxes?

FEMALE PROFESSOR: Well, that’s not so simple. Government officials are elected by voters, and voters get upset when their taxes go up. And, as for highway tolls, commuters, especially, don’t like paying higher tolls. Merely proposing increases can damage political careers.

So there’s tremendous pressure on governments to find other ways to maintain infrastructure assets. One solution is to sell or lease a part of the infrastructure—a toll bridge, a tunnel, something like that—to a private company, usually a company that specializes in this sorta thing. The idea is that the company that buys or leases a bridge or a highway, or whatever, will find it easier to keep it in good repair.

MALE STUDENT: That would make commuters happy.

FEMALE PROFESSOR: Right. There could be better service. Since they're not government entities, private companies face less political resistance, say, to raising tolls in order to provide that better service. But besides that, there’s another reason governments like these deals. States often have trouble paying their bills, and they can use money they get from selling or leasing a piece of infrastructure to balance their budgets.

MALE STUDENT: That all sounds good to me.

FEMALE PROFESSOR: It does sound good, but a lotta people are very wary of privatizing pieces of infrastructure, and rightly so. For instance, in almost every case thus far, the first thing private companies do is drastically raise user fees because, they say: “Oh, we must do critical maintenance that's gone undone for years and years! And, because we're a private company, we can’t use tax money to do it; our only option is raising tolls.”

But what’s the impact on people who use a toll road to get to work? What if a private owner doubles or triples the toll overnight?

FEMALE STUDENT: Uh…users would hafta spend a higher percentage of their income on commuting.

FEMALE PROFESSOR: And depending on their income, that percentage could be significant.

FEMALE STUDENT: But if tolls went up…me, I'd just avoid the toll road and take smaller back roads where there aren’t any tolls.

FEMALE PROFESSOR: That’s a good point. Secondary roads would become attractive to lots of other people, too. And private companies know this. They also know that dramatic reductions in traffic would hurt their bottom line. So market forces do play a role in keeping private companies from raising their tolls too much. But the mere prospect of astronomical toll hikes is still alarming to governments when they think about selling or leasing parts of an infrastructure.

Now, from a business standpoint, infrastructure purchases can be great investments. If a company buys or gets a long-term lease on a toll bridge from the government, it's got an almost guaranteed steady source of revenue for years and years. Which means that if the company decides it wants to sell the bridge to another company, say, ten years from now, it'll have no problem finding a buyer.

FEMALE STUDENT: But, what if that buyer, this new owner continues to charge a high toll but doesn't do the same amount of maintenance because they wanna squeeze more money out of the asset?

FEMALE PROFESSOR: In that case, could the government buy the asset back? Well, to do that, it would have to raise money either by raising taxes or by selling bonds, both of which are politically sensitive. So it's unclear, in a practical sense, whether these deals are truly reversible.

二、Infrastructure Privatization 托福听力中文翻译：

旁白：在美国政府课堂上听一部分演讲。

女教授：我们一直在讨论一个经济体需要的基本服务和设施，以实现道路、桥梁、铁路系统、供水、电网等功能。我们称之为基础设施。

现在，传统上，一个社会的大部分基础设施，尤其是交通基础设施，都是由国家和政府拥有和运营的。但最近，地方和州政府开始考虑，有时甚至实际达成各种协议，将其部分基础设施私有化，特别是在运输部门。

为什么要进行私有化？

你可能知道，在20世纪五六十年代，公路建设出现了巨大的热潮。各国政府建立了一个庞大的高速公路联锁网络，并修建了相关桥梁和隧道。但这些设施现在已经很旧了，维护费用也越来越高，实际上非常昂贵。通行费和税收通常不能覆盖所有需要的维修。

男学生：那么，为什么政府不提高通行费和税收呢？

女教授：嗯，这可不是那么简单。政府官员是由选民选举产生的，当他们的税收增加时，选民会感到不安。而且，对于高速公路通行费，通勤者尤其不喜欢支付更高的通行费。仅仅提出加薪可能会损害政治生涯。

因此，政府面临着巨大的压力，需要找到其他方式来维护基础设施资产。一种解决方案是将基础设施的一部分——收费桥、隧道等——出售或租赁给私人公司，通常是专门从事这类业务的公司。这样做的目的是，购买或租赁桥梁或高速公路或其他任何东西的公司会发现更容易保持良好的维修状态。

男学生：那会让通勤者高兴的。

女教授：对。可能会有更好的服务。由于它们不是政府实体，私营公司面临的政治阻力较小，比如，为了提供更好的服务而提高通行费。但除此之外，政府喜欢这些交易还有另一个原因。各州经常难以支付账单，他们可以利用出售或租赁基础设施所获得的资金来平衡预算。

男学生：听起来不错。

女教授：听起来不错，但很多人对基础设施的私有化非常谨慎，这是正确的。例如，到目前为止，在几乎所有情况下，私营公司做的第一件事就是大幅提高用户费用，因为他们说：“哦，我们必须做多年来一直没有完成的关键维护！而且，因为我们是私营公司，我们不能用税收来做这件事；我们唯一的选择是提高通行费。”

但对使用收费公路上班的人有什么影响？如果一个私人业主一夜之间将通行费增加一倍或三倍呢？

女学生：嗯……用户会花更多的收入用于通勤。

女教授：根据他们的收入，这个比例可能会很大。

女学生：但是如果通行费上涨了……我，我会避开收费公路，走没有通行费的小径。

女教授：这是一个很好的观点。二级公路也会吸引很多其他人。私营公司也知道这一点。他们也知道，流量的大幅减少会损害他们的底线。因此，市场力量确实在阻止私营公司过度加价方面发挥了作用。但是，当政府考虑出售或租赁部分基础设施时，仅仅是大幅提高收费的前景仍然让他们感到担忧。

现在，从商业角度来看，购买基础设施可能是一项巨大的投资。如果一家公司从政府那里购买或获得一座收费桥的长期租赁，那么多年来它几乎可以保证稳定的收入来源。这意味着，如果该公司决定将桥梁出售给另一家公司，比如说，十年后，它将很容易找到买家。

女学生：但是，如果买主，这个新主人继续收取高额费用，但不做同样数量的维护，因为他们想从资产中榨取更多的钱，那该怎么办？

女教授：那样的话，政府能买回资产吗？要做到这一点，它必须通过增税或出售债券来筹集资金，这两种方式都是政治敏感的。因此，从实际意义上讲，尚不清楚这些交易是否真的是可逆的。

三、Infrastructure Privatization 托福听力问题：

Q1:1.What issue does the professor mainly discuss?

A. Government purchases of private property to expand transportation routes

B. The rising cost of public transportation in the United States

C. The transfer of certain public assets to for-profit companies

D. Whether voters can be persuaded to approve toll increases

Q2:2.Why does the professor mention highway construction that took place during the 1950s and 1960s?

A. To point out changes in voter attitudes toward toll and tax increases

B. To suggest that mistakes were made when the highway system was built

C. To explain why traffic congestion is not as bad as it used to be

D. To make a point about the current need for infrastructure repairs

Q3:3.According to the professor, why do governments consider selling or leasing pieces of infrastructure? [Click on 2 answers.]

A. Governments often have difficulty balancing their general budgets.

B. The money that governments receive from user fees has gone down in recent years.

C. Political considerations limit governments' ability to raise money for maintenance.

D. Private companies are better able to estimate the cost of infrastructure repairs.

Q4:4.What does the professor imply about some people' s concerns over privatizing parts of an infrastructure?

A. Their concerns are likely to diminish in the future.

B. Their concerns are completely justified.

C. Their concerns suggest that voters need better information.

D. Their concerns have mostly been disregarded by governments.

Q5:5.What does the professor imply about secondary roads?

A. Their availability tends to limit toll increases on major highways.

B. They can be more expensive to repair than major highways are.

C. Increasing numbers of them are becoming toll roads.

D. Commuters are attracted to them for their scenic qualities.

Q6:6.According to the professor, what is likely to happen when a bridge provides steady revenue for a private company?

A. The bridge will be well maintained in the long term.

B. The company will not raise tolls.

C. Other companies will be interested in buying the bridge.

D. Voters will pressure the government to buy back the bridge.

四、Infrastructure Privatization 托福听力答案：

A1:正确答案：C

A2:正确答案：D

A3:正确答案：AC

A4:正确答案：B

A5:正确答案：A

A6:正确答案：C

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