英语二级笔译完型填空真题

完型填空

Banks are not ordinarily prepared to pay out all accounts; they rely on depositors notto demand payment all at the same time. If depositors should come to fear that a bankis not safe, that it cannot pay off all its depositors, then that fear might use allthe depositors to appear on the same day. If they did, the bank could not pay allaccounts. However, if they did not all appear at once, then there would always beenough money to pay those who wanted their money when they wanted it. Mrs. ElsieVaught has told us of a terrifying bank run that she experienced. One day in Decemberof 1925 several banks failed to open in a city where Mrs.

Vaught lived. The other banks expected a run the next day, and so the officers of thebank in which Mrs. Vaught worked as a teller had enough money on hand to pay off theirdepositors. The officers simply told the tellers to pay on demand. The next morning acrowd gathered in the bank and on the sidewalk outside. The length of the line mademany think that the bank could not possibly pay off everyone. People began to push andthen to fight for places near the tellers’ windows, The power of the panic atmospherewas such that two tellers, though they knew that the bank was quite all right andcould pay all depositors, drew their own money from the bank. Mrs. Vaught says thatshe had difficulty keeping herself from doing the same.