Passage 3 Plain and
simple, stock is a share in the ownership of a company. Stock represents a claim
on the company’s assets and earnings. As you acquire more stock, your ownership
stake in the company becomes greater. Whether you say shares, equity, or stock,
it all means the same thing. Holding a company’s stock means
that you are one of the many owners (shareholders) of a company, and, as such,
you have a claim (albeit usually very small) to everything the company owns.
Yes, this means that technically you own a tiny sliver of every piece of
furniture, every trademark, and every contract of the company. As an owner, you
are entitled to your share of the company’s earnings as well as any voting
rights attached to the stock. A stock is represented by a stock
certificate. This is a fancy piece of paper that is proof of your A. buy B. claim C. get known D. get together
[单项选择]{{B}}Passage Three{{/B}}
To finance the national debt, the
government issues a variety of debt securities. The most widely held
liquid security is the Treasury bill, which is commonly issued by the ministry
of finance. However, some Treasury bills, like the Treasury bill of the U.S.
government, do not actually pay interest. Instead they are issued at a discount
from par ( their value at maturity) . The investor’s yield comes from the
increase in the value of the security between the time it was purchased and the
time it matures. Treasury bills are attractive to investors
because they are backed by the government and therefore are virtually free of
default risk. Because even if the government ran out of money, it could
simply print more to pay them off when they mature. The risk of unexpected
changes in inflation is also low because of the sh
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