今日听力丨650万美元的名校梦

五一节后，国内股市周一大幅低开，沪深300指数下跌5.84%，创下自2016年2月26日以来逾三年最大跌幅。

China’s stocks logged their worst declines in more than three years when trading resumed Monday after a long break for the May Day holiday.

This came after U.S. President Donald Trump said talks for a trade deal with China were moving too slowly.

He also threatened to impose new tariffs on Chinese goods come Friday.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index shed 5.6 percent, while the Shenzhen index was down an even larger 7.6 percent.

Shares haven't dropped by those kinds of levels on a single trading day since early 2016.

The declines wiped out some of the strong gains that had pushed China into bull market territory since the start of this year.

在4月坚定辟谣定向降准后，5月的第一个交易日，央行罕见地在股市开盘前宣布，将对县域农商行执行与农村信用社相同档次的存款准备金率，约降低2到3个百分点。

China’s central bank said on Monday it’ll cut the amount of cash banks must keep in reserve for some small and midsize locally focused lenders from May 15.

The move would unleash 280 billion yuan, equivalent to 41.5 billion dollars, in long- term funds into the market.

The central bank said in a statement, quote, “All the funds will be loaned to private and small companies.”

About a thousand rural commercial banks that focus on serving their local economies will benefit from the “lower favorable reserve requirement ratio” of 8 percent, the central bank said, without specifying the margin of the cut.

5月6日公布的4月财新中国通用服务业经营活动指数（服务业PMI）录得54.5，较3月上升0.1个百分点，为2012年6月以来次高，显示服务业经营活动进一步扩张。

Services activity in China expanded at the fastest pace in 15 months in April, a Caixin survey showed Monday.

A Caixin index measuring business activities in the services sector edged up to 54.5 in April from 54.4 in the previous month.

The reading marks its highest point since January last year and the second highest since May 2012.

The services sector includes finance, real estate services, marketing, transportation and retailing.

截至4月30日，至少已有28个省份出台了调整方案，其中27个省份决定将现行费率降至16%；广东由于现行费率低于16%，出台过渡方案，计划五年内将费率提升至16%。

At least 27 provincial-level regions have reduced their local companies’ pension contribution rate to 16 percent from the previous maximum of 20 percent.

Premier Li Keqiang said in March, local governments would bring down companies’ pension contribution rate to 16 percent, effective from the first day of May.

In China, employers must pay pension contributions on behalf of every employee each month, the amount being a percentage of an employee’s salary or of a region’s average salary.

光大控股5月3日公告称，现年52岁的陈爽因工作安排原因，辞任公司执行董事及首席执行官职务，辞任CEO是陈爽主动提出，未来他将不再负责光控行政事务，专心负责筹备和大湾区投资有关的基金。

Veteran financier Chen Shuang has resigned from a subsidiary of China Everbright Group to lead the launch of a fund that targets investments in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Chen’s resignation coincides with China’s broader effort to grow the Greater Bay Area into a financial and technological powerhouse.

The new fund plans to raise money from subsidiaries of large state-owned enterprises, including Everbright Group.

Chen’s tasks include designing the fund’s structure and raising money from investors.

美国名校招生舞弊案在中国国内持续发酵。中国学生赵雨思被指通过中介，以650万美元代价伪造简历进入名校斯坦福。但该名学生律师称，这笔费用是在学生被录取后向基金会的捐款，当事人也是受害者。

A Chinese family alleged to have paid 6.5 million dollars to get their daughter into Stanford University says the financial contribution was a charitable donation, and that they are victims in a widening admissions scandal.

Zhao Yusi, the daughter of the chairman of a Chinese pharmaceutical company, is suspected of entering the prestigious school using a fake sports resume.

The allegedly fraudulent documents were reportedly procured by the man at the center of the scandal — William “Rick” Singer.

Singer has already pleaded guilty to a number of crimes relating to the dozens of students he fraudulently helped get into elite schools.

No one from Zhao’s family has yet been charged. But 33 other parents have, for allegedly paying $15,000 to $75,000 per student for falsified entrance exams, and $100,000 to $400,000 for athletics-related scams.

If Zhao’s family were indeed complicit in the fraud, the amount they paid would dwarf the amount others had paid.

The only other student caught up in the scandal who allegedly paid over a $1 million is also Chinese. Sherry Guo got into Yale also through Singers’ dealings.

The Guo family claims that language and cultural barriers prevented them from fully realizing the illicit nature of Singers’ activities. No one from Guo’s family has yet been charged with a crime.