《新概念英语》第四册 Lesson 12 Banks and their customers
Lesson 12 Banks and their customers
When anyone opens a current account at a bank, he is lending the bank money, repayment of which he may demand at any time, either in cash or by drawing a cheque in favour of another person. Primarily, the banker-customer relationship is that of debtor and creditor -- who is which depending on whether the customer's account is in credit or is overdrawn. But, in addition to that basically simple concept, the bank and its customer owe a large number of obligations to one another. Many of these obligations can give in to problems and complications but a bank customer, unlike, say, a buyer of goods, cannot complain that the law is loaded against him.
The bank must obey its customer's instructions, and not those of anyone else. When, for example, a customer first opens an account, he instructs the bank to debit his account only in respect of cheques draw by himself. He gives the bank specimens of his signature, and there is a very firm rule that the bank has no right or authority to pay out a customer's money on a cheques on which its customer's signature has been forged. It makes no difference that the forgery may have been a very skilful one: the bank must recognize its customer's signature. For this reason there is no risk to the customer in the practice, adopted by banks, of printing the customer's name on his cheques. If this facilitates forgery, it is the bank which will lose, not the customer.
生词和短语
cheque [tʃek] n.支票
Having spent his rich wife's fortune, the Major ended up in a debtors' prison.
花光了他有钱老婆的财产之后，这位少校最后被关进了债务人监狱。
credit + or 名词后缀，表人
cred 相信，信任 + it 名词后缀 + or
creditor country 债权国
creditor's right 债权
恶劣的天气给我们的旅行增加了更多的困难。
deb 欠债 + it → 借方；借项
speci 外观；种类 + men 表实物名词 → 作为某一种类的样品 → 标本
参考译文
任何人在银行开一个活期账户，就等于把钱借给了银行。这笔钱他可以随时提取，提取的方式可以是取现金，也可以是开一张以他人为收款人的支票。银行与储户的关系主要是债务人和债权人的关系。究竟谁是债务人谁是债权人，要看储户是有结余还是透支。除了这一基本的简单的概念外，银行和储户彼此还需承担大量义务。其中许多义务往往引起问题和纠纷。但是储户不能像货物的买主那样来抱怨法律对自己不利。
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