英语角

Germany warns on global inflation after crisis

The world could face high inflation and a "crisis after the crisis" when the global economy recovers, Peer Steinbrück, German finance minister, has warned.

The comments, are the latest sign of concern from Germany at the extra-loose monetary policies conducted by central banks around the world and the ever-larger fiscal stimuli being unveiled by governments.

"I am concerned that the countermeasures we are seeing around the world, financed by enormous amounts of debts, could be paving the road to the next crisis."Mr Steinbrück said.

"So much money is being pumped into the market that capital markets could easily become overwhelmed, resulting in a global period of inflation in the recovery."

Mr Steinbrück's warning comes after Angela Merkel, chancellor, told that pumping too much money into reviving global growth would create an unstable recovery.□

Class, lass and ass

Professor Tom was going to meet his students on the next day, so he wrote some words on the blackboard which read as follows: "Professor Tom will meet the class tomorrow."

A student, seeing his chance to display his sense of humor after reading the notice, walked up and erased the "c" in the word "class." The Professor noticing the laughter, wheeled around, walked back, looked at the student, then at the notice with the "c" erased. He calmly walked up and erased the "l" in "lass", looked at the flabbergasted student and proceeded on his way.□

An episode in the train

Michael and Derek are good friends, but they like to pull each other's leg sometimes. One day during the holidays they decided to go to London together. They went to the station and bought their tickets. When the train came in, Michael boarded it first and, without knowing it, dropped his ticket on the platform as he got into the carriage. Derek, who was close behind, saw the ticket fall and quickly picked it up. Without a word to his friend, Derek put it in his pocket.

After they had been in the train a little while, they heard the ticket inspector coming down the corridor, shouting "Ticket, please!" Michael looked for his ticket and of course couldn't find it.

"Oh dear, I can't find my ticket, Derek." Michael said.

"Have another look, Michael. It must be somewhere." said Derek.

"I can't find my ticket anywhere. Whatever shall I do?"

"Perhaps you had better hide under the seat. Then the inspector won't know you are here."

So Michael crawled under the seat as far as he could and lay perfectly still. Presently the door opened, and in came the inspector. "Tickets, please." The inspector said.

Derek handed the inspector two tickets, and said, "This is mine. The other belongs to my friend, who prefers to travel under the seat."□