A Comic Book About Business Finance
2012年07月20日 未分類.
Read and understand the article. If you may have any difficult words to pronounce and words you cannot understand, always ask your teacher.
*Teachers will divide the article into 2-3 paragraphs to help you understand and check the pronunciation of the difficult words.
Vocabulary
*Read the words carefully.
- Struggle (-ing) /ˈstrəgəl/ (v.) to work hard at something difficult
- Concept /ˈkänˌsept/ (n.) a plan or intention; a general idea
- Paperbacks /ˈpāpərˌbak/ (a.) a book bound with flexible paper covers; softcover
- Entrepreneur /ˌäntrəprəˈnoor/ /-ˈnər/ (n.) a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so
- Formerly /ˈfôrmərlē/ (adv.) at some time in the past; previously; once; before
Article
A Comic Book About Business Finance
* Read the text below
MP3 Download (right-click or option-click and save)
(1) You probably have heard of comic book heroes like Superman, Batman and Spiderman. But what about Tom the motorcycle shop owner, Joe Knight and Karen Berman?
(2) Tom, Joe and Karen all appear in a comic book called “Financial Intelligence.” But Mr. Knight and Ms. Berman are real people. In two thousand six, they wrote a book called “Financial Intelligence: A Manager’s Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean.” It was written for people who need to learn quickly about accounting. The book explains, in simple ways, often-complex methods of keeping financial information. It became a best-seller.
(3) This month, publisher SmarterComics released a comic book that provides the same information in easy-to-understand, picture form. The new book is a combination of a textbook and a graphic novel. It tells the story of Tom, a mechanic who must quickly learn how to direct the motorcycle repair shop his father founded. Tom has no experience with finance, and is struggling with the business. Joe Knight and Karen Berman help him. Artist Dave Wachter made illustrations for the comic book.
(4) Franco Arda is the founder and head of SmarterComics. He formerly worked as an investment banker. He started the company almost three years ago with his own money. He wanted to create educational comics that increase understanding.
(5) FRANCO ARDA: “I think almost everybody understands the phrase that ‘a picture says a thousand words,’ so, I mean, mentally, probably ninety percent of us grew up with comics and they understand that comics or illustrations help learning a concept much quicker than just text alone.”
(6) Franco Arda says “Financial Intelligence” will help readers quickly understand many of the major areas of accounting.
(7) FRANCO ARDA: “Within an hour, you kind of get the idea of accounting, very quickly and not in a boring way. So you get these illustrations, you get the basics of accounting and you get some balance sheets and cash-flow statements.”
(8) The new comic book is available in paperback. There will also be versions for iPad and iPhone users.
(9) The website Entrepreneur.com named SmarterComics to its list of 100 Brilliant Companies of 2012. The company has created comic book versions of more than ten other books. These include “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, “The Prince” by Niccolo Machiavelli and “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu. Later this year, SmarterComics plans to release a comic book by rapper 50Cent.
(10) You can see some pages from the “Financial Intelligence” comic book on our website, voaspecialenglish.com. And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Chris Cruise. I’m Mario Ritter.
Discussion
*Let's talk about the article base on the questions below
- Do you like numbers? Are you good in it?
- Have you read the same kind of comic book like this in your country?
- Do you agree that reading a book with picture is much easier to understand than plain text?
Read and understand the article. If you may have any difficult words to pronounce and words you cannot understand, always ask your teacher.