NUT博士考试真题.docx

1– ReadingBritains richest people have experienced the biggest-ever rise in their wealth, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. Driven by the new economy of internet and computer entrepreneurs, the wealth of those at the top of the financial tree has increased at an unprecedented rate. The 12th annual Rich List will show that the collective worth of the countrys richest 1,000 people reached nearly 146 billion by January, the cut-off point for the survey. This represented an increase of 31 billion, or 27%, in just 12 months. Since the survey was compiled, Britains richest have added billions more to their wealth, thanks to the continuing boom in technology shares on the stock market. This has pushed up the total value of the wealth of the richest 1,000 to a probable 160 billion according to Dr. Philip Beresford, Britains acknowledged expert on personal wealth who compiles the Sunday Times Rich List. The millennium boom exceeds anything in Britains economic history, including the railway boom of the 1840s and the South Sea bubble of 1720. It has made Margaret Thatchers boom seem as sluggish as Edward Heaths three-day week, said Beresford. We are seeing billions being added to the national wealth every week. William Rubinstein, professor of modern history at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, confirmed that the growth in wealth was unprecedented. Almost all of todays wealth has been created since the industrial revolution, but even by those heady standards the current boom is extraordinary, he said. There is no large-scale cultural opposition or guilt about making money. In many ways British business attitudes can now challenge the United States. Although the Britains richest are experiencing the sharpest surge in wealth, the rest of the population has also benefited from the stock market boom and rising house prices. Last year wealth rose by 16% to a record 4,267 billion, according to calculations by the investment bank Salomon Smith Barney. In real terms, wealt