普特英语听力材料.docVIP

普特英语听力材料 一、US Postal Service on Brink of Default 美国邮政业岌岌可危 The mail service Americans have known for generations is losing billions of dollars a year, as handwritten communication has all but disappeared - replaced by emails, text messages, and social-media - and billing and other commercial transactions are increasingly conducted over the Internet. 由于手写信件逐渐被电子邮件、短信以及社会媒体等交流方式所取代,更多的人在网上收发账单、进行商业活动,美国人世代相传的邮政业正走在“崩溃”的边缘,仅一年之内便损失数十亿美元. The changing technological landscape has left the regular mail service, what many Americans now refer to as snail mail, in dire financial straits. U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The Postal Service is at the brink of default. Without the enactment of comprehensive legislation by September 30, the Postal Service will default on a mandated $5.5 billion payment to the Treasury to pre-fund retirement retiree health benefits. Our situation is urgent. The Postal Service is seeking congressional authorization to cut costs and curtail services, including eliminating hundreds of thousands of postal jobs, changing health care and retirement programs for postal workers, consolidating post offices, and ending Saturday mail delivery across the country. US Postal Service mailboxes are seen awaiting disposal September 1, 2011, in San Jose, California. Once again, Patrick Donahoe, The Postal Service requires radical changes to its business model if it to remain viable into the future. The Postal Service is in a crisis today because it operates with a restricted business model. As a self-financing entity that depends on the sale of postage for its revenues, the Postal Service requires the ability to operate more as a business does. Fighting the proposed changes is the American Postal Workers Union, whose president, Cliff Guffey, has blasted proposed changes as a reckless assault on the Postal Service and its employees. He has also said that in his words, crushi