专业英语期末考试
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—南昌大学考试试卷—【适用时间：20 14 ～20 15 学年第一学期试卷类型：[ A ]卷】Pricing, Water水的价值An acquaintance once said that "every water faucet in New York City leaks." She was exaggerating, of course, but her point was that New Yorkers do not take the time or spend the money to repair leaks. Why? Most residents of the city pay a flat fee for their water. For a fixed monthly charge, residents can use as much water as they want. Marginal cost is zero. Hence, the wasted water costs them nothing, aside from the annoyance of listening to the drip.But why should anyone worry about the cost of water?一位熟人曾说;纽约的每一个水龙头都漏水。
当然她有些夸张，但是她想说的重点是纽约人不花费时间或金钱去修。
为什么呢？因为这个城市的大部分居民付的公寓费用中包含了水费。
每月付固定的费用，居民可以无限量用水。
边际成本为零。
因此，除了厌烦听滴水声之外，浪费的水不花他们一分钱。
The figure shows recent prices of an additional 1,000 gallons per month in several U.S. cities in 2001, ranging from $1.25 to nearly $3.00. (Water rates in other countries often are considerably higher.) For most Americans, this is a very small part of their budgets. Even so, study after study has shown that most water users will indeed respond to a higher price by fixing leaks, using a broom instead of a hose to clean the driveway, and otherwise conserving water. Imposing a quantity charge, or raising it, forces users to rethink, even if only informally, their marginal benefit/marginal cost computations and adjust consumption accordingly.这份数据显示2001年在美国的若干个城市每个月额外1000加仑水的价格的范围在1.25美元到接近3美元。
（其他城市的水费经常高出很多。
）对于大多数美国人来说，这只是他们预算的一小部分。
即便如此，一项又一项的研究显示了大多数用户真的将付更多的钱去修水龙头，用扫帚而不是水管清理车道，亦或是储水。
计量收费，或是提高价格，会使用户重新思考他们的边际效益或是边际成本，并相应地调整消费，即使只是随便想想。
What is Water's True Cost?什么是水的实际成本？Even when water utilities use a quantity charge instead of a fixed fee, they often set the quantity charge too low. Typical public water utilities design their rates to coverout-of-pocket costs, but such costs often fall short of the true economic value of extracting and distributing water.即便用水采用计量收费取代了固定费用，他们经常把收费设得很低。
通常公共用水设置的价格会覆盖实付成本，但是这样的成本经常达不到取水和运水的实际经济效益。
Subsidies.资助First, governments often subsidize water infrastructure . Developers often must contribute ready-to-use water systems to the utility. These subsidies do not come directly from the utility company and hence do not show up in their accounting records.首先，政府经常资助水利基层建设。
开发者必须经常为公共设施贡献现成的供水系统。
这些资助不是直接来源于公共事业公司，因此并不是要炫耀他们的会计记录。
Capital Equipment.资本设备（固定设备）Second, capital equipment—pumps, water mains, buildings, and so on—is a major element of total water cost and tends to last for several decades. Replacing a water main built, for example, 40 years ago would cost almost six times the original cost because of inflation alone. Yet few if any utilities update the value of aging capital equipment when they add up costs.其次，在过去的几十年中固定设备是自来水成本的关键因素-----水泵、自来水总管道、建筑物等等，例如由于通货膨胀本身导致更换修建主管道的成本是四十年前的六倍，然而当固定成本叠加的时，没有任何实用方法更新设备老化Scarcity Value.货缺价值Third, water in the ground or in a stream is valuable because it is scarce. The right to divert water from a stream or to pump it from an aquifer is an asset of growing value to utility companies But again is often ignored in standard accounting practice. One study estimated scarcity value to be at least as large as all other conventionally reckoned costs together. Similarly, any environmental costs incurred in providing public water supplies should be added to water rates.最后，地表水和小溪非常有价值在于他们稀缺，南水北调工程的从流或用水泵引水的权利是一项资产的价值增长给公共事业公司，但又常常被忽略的标准会计实务。
一项研究估计要在一起至少和其他常规的计算费用一样大的稀缺价值。
同样地，在提供公共供水系统的任何环境的费用应添加到水费。
Pricing as a Conservation Incentive作为保护激励定价For the reasons outlined above, water rate schedules based on the utility's out-of-pocket costs leave consumers paying less than they should. And since consumers pay too little, they use too much.基于上面列举的原因，基于实用程序的自付费用的水率计划使得消费者支付的少于他们应该交的。
而且因为消费者支付太少，他们使用太多。
However, an increasing number of water utilities have recognized the potential of pricing to provide an incentive for their customers to conserve water. Some (Seattle, Washington and southern California, for example) have refined the notion, charging higher rates during droughts or in dry seasons or for unexpectedly large quantities.然而，越来越多的自来水公司已经承认定价为他们的客户可以节约用水提供了一个潜在诱因，一些地方自来水公司像华盛顿州、西雅图市和南部的加利福尼亚州重新定价，在干旱期间或在干旱季节或没有大批量订货收取更高利率But if water is priced at its full economic cost, what about the poor? Several major cities have taken at least tentative steps toward establishing what is called an "inclined-block" water rate schedule, as shown here:但是但如果水价在其充分的经济成本，穷人呢？几个主要城市已采取了至少初步步骤建立阶梯价格的水率附表，如下所示：Ideally, customers under this system would pay a low rate for the first few thousand gallons used, but the rate would rise until they pay the full marginal cost for the last thousand gallons. The criterion of marginal benefits equals marginal costs would be met, and yet even the poorest could afford at least a basic amount.理想情况下，在这个阶梯价格体系下的客户只需支付低速率就可以使用几千加仑水，但速率会上升，直到他们为最后几千加支付全部的全边际成本，标准的边际效益的等于边际费用，然而，让即使最穷的用户能至少一个基本自来水的使用量。
