新概念第四册课文翻译及学习笔记：Lesson12

First listen and then answer the following question.

　　听录音，然后回答以下问题。

　　Why is there no risk to the customer when a bank prints the customer's name on his cheques?

　　When anyone opens a current account at a bank, he is lending the bank money, repayment of which he may demand at any time, either in cash or by drawing a cheque in favour of another person. Primarily, the banker-customer relationship is that of debtor and creditor -- who is which depending on whether the customer's account is in credit or is overdrawn. But, in addition to that basically simple concept, the bank and its customer owe a large number of obligations to one another. Many of these obligations can give rise to problems and complications but a bank customer, unlike, say, a buyer of goods, cannot complain that the law is loaded against him.

　　The bank must obey its customer's instructions, and not those of anyone else. When, for example, a customer first opens an account, he instructs the bank to debit his account only in respect of cheques drawn by himself. He gives the bank specimens of his signature, and there is a very firm rule that the bank has no right or authority to pay out a customer's money on a cheque on which its customer's signature has been forged. It makes no difference that the forgery may have been a very skilful one: the bank must recognize its customer's signature. For this reason there is no risk to the customer in the practice, adopted by banks, of printing the customer's name on his cheques. If this facilitates forgery, it is the bank which will lose, not the customer.

　　GORDON BARRIE and AUBREY L. DLAMOND The Consumer Society and the Law

　　【New words and expressions 生词和短语】

　　current adj. 通用的，流行的

　　account n. 账户

　　cash n. 现金

　　cheque n. 支票

　　debtor n. 借方

　　creditor n. 贷方

　　obligation n. 义务

　　complication n. 纠纷

　　debit v. 把...记入借方

　　specimen n. 样本

　　forge v. 伪造

　　forgery n. 伪造(文件，签名等)

　　adopt v. 采用

　　facilitate v. 使便利

　　【课文注释】

　　1. open a current account，开一个活期账号。

　　①current作名词，(水、气)流;电流

　　例句：The swimmer was swept away by the current.

　　那个游泳的人被激流卷走了。

　　例句：This button switches the current on.

　　这个电钮接通电流。

　　②current作形容词，当下的，现在的

　　例句：This word is no longer in current use.

　　这个词现在已经不再使用。

　　current account=checking account，活期账户

　　③currency作名词，货币

　　例句：The president proclaimed that a new currency would be issued.

　　总统宣布将发行新货币。

　　2. draw a cheque in favor of...，开一张以……为收款人的支票。

　　in favor of表示赞成，支持，有利于：If you are in favor of something, you support it and think that it is a good thing.

　　例句：Public opinion was moving strongly in favor of disarmament.

　　公众舆论正在强烈支持裁军。

　　3. who is which depending on...is overdrawn，这是现在分词短语depending on...is overdrawn的独立主格结构。who is which是分词短语意思上的主语，which代表debtor or creditor。

　　4.owe to欠人钱;归功于……。

　　①If you owe money to someone, they have lent it to you and you have not yet paid it back. 欠某人钱(或货物)。

　　例句：The company owes money to more than 60 banks.

　　这家公司欠了60几家银行的钱。

　　②owe sth to...将某事物归因﹑ 归源或归功于……。

　　例句：He owes his success more to luck than to ability.

　　他认为他的成功是靠运气而不是因为自己有能力。

　　5.give rise to，引起，导致。

　　和cause/ result in意思相近，但give rise to后面加名词。

　　例句:The man's furtive manner gave rise to the suspicion of the theft among the policemen.　　那个男人鬼鬼祟祟的样子，引起警察怀疑盗窃案是他作的案。

　　6.be loaded against...，于……不利。

　　load the dice against sb (通常用于被动语态)：使某人处不利地位。

　　例句：Having lost both his parents when he was a child, he always felt that the dice were loaded against him.

　　他因自小失去双亲，总觉得处处受人欺负。

　　7.in respect of关于，就……而言。

　　例句：The book is admirable in respect of style.

　　这本书风格极佳。

　　respected 被人尊敬的

　　respectable 值得尊敬的

　　respectful 尊敬他人的

　　respective 分别的，各自的

　　8.facilitate使更容易发生。

　　To facilitate an action or process, especially one that you would like to happen, means to make it easier or more likely to happen.

　　例句：It would facilitate matters if you were more co-operative.

　　要是你再合作些就省事了。

　　【参考译文】

　　任何人在银行开一个活期账户，就等于把钱借给了银行。这笔钱他可以随时提取，提取的方式可以是取现金，也可以是开一张以他人为收款人的支票。银行与储户的关系主要是债务人和债权人的关系。究竟谁是债务人谁是债权人，要看储户是有结余还是透支。除了这一基本的简单的概念外，银行和储户彼此还需承担大量义务。其中许多义务往往引起问题和纠纷。但是储户不能像货物的买主那样来抱怨法律对自己不利。

　　银行必须遵照储户的嘱托办事，不能听从其他人的指令。比如，储户首次在银行开户时，嘱咐银行他的存款只能凭本世人签字的支票来提取。他把自己签名的样本交给银行，对此有一条非常严格的规定：银行没有任何权利或理由把储户的钱让伪造储户的支票取走。即使伪造得很巧妙，也不能付款，因为银行有责任辨认出其储户的签名。因此，某些银行已采用把储户印在支票上的作法。这种做法对储户毫无风险。如果因这种作法出现了伪造的话，受损失的将不是储户，而是银行。新概念英语