跟讀練習: How the rich avoid paying taxes - 通過影片學習英語口語

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This is Warren Buffett, one of the richest people in the world, thanks to the company he runs, Berkshire Hathaway.

Basically it's a holding company that just owns a bunch of other companies — Geico,

Dairy Queen, a huge railroad — as well as a lot of stock in other companies like Apple and Coca-Cola.

So when those companies do well and their stock goes up, Berkshire Hathaway stock goes up.

When Buffett took over the company in 1965, a single share was worth $19.

Today it's worth nearly half a million dollars.

Buffett owns nearly 240,000 of these shares.

This is where his wealth is.

But as he's been known for pointing out, Warren Buffett still pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.

She pays at twice the rate I pay.

I think that's outrageous.

That's because they pay different types of taxes.

His secretary pays income taxes on her salary, but Buffett mainly pays capital gains taxes on his sold stock.

And that's taxed at nearly half the rate.

The wealthy are definitely undertaxed.

In the U.S., the disparity between the richest Americans and everyone else has been growing.

And in the last 40 years, the after-tax income of the richest has risen more than 400 percent, while middle-class income has only risen 50.

The way these people make money is very different than the way these people make money.

And they're not taxed the same.

I pay less in taxes than people that work for a living and make as much money as I do.

This is Morris.

He used to work on Wall Street.

Now he's retired and lives off his many stock market investments.

I own stock in companies like Berkshire Hathaway and Amazon and Apple.

He's a pretty typical one percenter, except that he spends his money advocating for rich people like him to be taxed more.

I want to live in a country filled with a middle

class of people who can all afford to shop in our businesses.

Most people have a normal job.

They get a paycheck and pay income tax, ranging from 10 to 37 percent.

But people like Morris, they make a lot of their income from investments, generally stocks in real estate.

These investments are taxed as capital gains.

And things like long-term stock have a maximum tax rate of just 20%.

I sold some stock recently for $400,000.

And my taxes on that is of around $50,000.

But that $50,000 is far less taxed than anyone who has a job making $400,000 a year would pay.

And most of his wealth, well, isn't even taxable.

People like Morris or Buffett are worth so much money because of the stock that they hold.

But it's not tangible, spendable, taxable money.

I can look at my stock portfolio and I can say, oh, you know, I made a million dollars this year.

But it doesn't have to pay anything in taxes

because our system is based on only paying taxes when you actually sell something.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos, the richest man in America, thanks mostly to his Amazon stock, pays almost nothing in taxes.

We value his worth here, but it's never taxed, unless it's turned into real money when he sells the stock, and it's taxed as a capital gain.

This is one way billionaires are able to be technically worth so much money, but pay so little in taxes.

Some billionaires, like Elon Musk, are able to get loans against their stocks and live off of that.

They don't even need to sell the stock to turn it into spendable money.

No sale, no taxes.

The fact is, if you're a billionaire, you don't need any income.

There's also a big loophole in capital gains taxes that the rich exploit called the stepped-up basis.

If, hypothetically, Warren Buffett were to sell his stock, he'd have to pay capital gains taxes based on his profit.

So the cost of the stock minus the original investment.

But if he holds off selling his entire life, when he dies, whoever inherits the stock,

and then sells it, would only have to pay taxes on what they earned after they inherited it, leaving all those original gains untaxed.

It's part of what's called buy, borrow, die, and it's one way the richest families avoid paying taxes.

It's this system, and the fact

that most taxable capital gains are going to the top 1%

that lawmakers see changing the capital gains tax as an easy way to tax the rich.

President Biden has proposed closing that stepped-up loophole and increasing the maximum tax rate from 20% to 39.6%,

but just for people making more than a million dollars a year.

Critics argue that it may discourage people from investing in the stock market, or that current millionaires would just sell less stock.

But it would bring in more tax revenue, from more conservative estimates of $200 billion over 10 years to double that.

It would also mean Buffett would pay a closer tax rate to his secretary.

But this pile of unrealized money still goes untaxed.

There's a lot of things we could do to make the system more fair.

We could have taxes on wealth.

We could have taxes on gains in the stock market.

Most Americans are bothered that wealthy people don't pay their fair share.

And changing capital gains taxes wouldn't be the whole solution, but advocates argue it would be an easy place to start.

Our system is making the rich get richer and richer and richer, and everyone else just not.

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本課的詞彙與口語要點

這節 B2 級別的口語課以影片“How the rich avoid paying taxes”為素材。影片中反覆出現的詞有：stock, taxes, gain, tax, Buffett。這段影片共有 69 個句子、922 個單詞可供跟讀。講話部分時長為 5:46。說話人語速自然，每分鐘約 160 個詞，接近日常對話。 83% 的單詞屬於英語最常用的 3,000 詞，其餘的詞建議在練習前先學一下。

影片中的重點詞彙

影片中最難的 15 個單詞，附發音和釋義：

單詞	發音	釋義
billionaire 名詞	/ˌbɪl.jəˈnɛɚ/	億萬富翁 /億萬富翁
loophole 名詞	/ˈluphoʊl/	漏洞
inherit 動詞	/ɪnˈhɛɹɪt/	繼承 /繼承, 繼承
discourage 動詞	/dɪsˈkɝɪd͡ʒ/	令人愁悶 /令人愁悶, 使沮喪 /使沮喪
tangible 形容詞	/ˈtæn.d͡ʒə.bəl/	可觸控的 /可觸控的
millionaire 名詞	/ˌmɪl.i.əˈnɛə(ɹ)/	百萬富翁 /百萬富翁, 鉅富
outrageous 形容詞	/aʊtˈɹeɪ.d͡ʒəs/	不像話 /不像話
exploit 名詞	/ˈɛksplɔɪt/	功勛 /功勳, 勛績 /勳績
critic 名詞	/ˈkɹɪt.ɪk/	批評家 /批評家, 評論家 /評論家
propose 動詞	/pɹəˈpəʊz/	提議 /提議
minus	/ˈmaɪ.nəs/	減 /減
borrow 動詞	/ˈbɑɹ.oʊ/	借, 貸 /貸
retire 動詞	/ɹəˈtaɪɹ/	退休, 引退
dairy 名詞	/ˈdɛə.ɹi/	乳製品 /乳製品
technically 副詞	/ˈtɛk.nɪˌkəl.i/	嚴格來說 /嚴格來說

影片中出現的短語動詞

單詞	釋義
go up 動詞	上昇 /上升, 上去
point out 動詞	指, 指出
take over 動詞	接管, 接手

影片中的語法

說話人最常用的結構，並附上影片中的原話：

結構	影片中的用法
被動語態 be + 過去分詞 — 強調發生了什麼，而不是誰做的	been known · are definitely undertaxed · be taxed
現在完成時 have/has + 過去分詞 — 過去發生但與現在仍有關聯的事	he's been known · has risen · has proposed
定語從句 who / which + 從句 — 補充說明人或事物	people who can · anyone who has

需要注意的發音

說話人用了 9 次縮略和弱讀形式，例如 don't, doesn't, he'd。請按聽到的簡短形式來說。

長單詞——注意重音位置: disparity /dɪˈspæɹɪti/, millionaire /ˌmɪl.i.əˈnɛə(ɹ)/, technically /ˈtɛk.nɪˌkəl.i/, portfolio /pɔːtˈfəʊ.liˌəʊ/

中文母語者容易讀錯的音：

詞尾子音 — 要讀清楚，後面不要加母音: inherit /ɪnˈhɛɹɪt/, paycheck /ˈpeɪ.t͡ʃɛk/, discourage /dɪsˈkɝɪd͡ʒ/, outrageous /aʊtˈɹeɪ.d͡ʒəs/, exploit /ˈɛksplɔɪt/
/æ/ — 嘴張大，不要讀成 /e/: taxable /ˈtæksəbəl/, disparity /dɪˈspæɹɪti/, tangible /ˈtæn.d͡ʒə.bəl/

如何用這段影片練習

先完整聽一遍影片，不要開口，記下不認識的單詞。
先用 0.75 倍速逐句跟讀，熟練之後再回到正常速度。
錄下自己的聲音並與原聲對比，特別注意 billionaire, loophole, inherit 這類單詞。

什麼是跟讀法？

跟讀法 (Shadowing) 是一種有科學依據的語言學習技巧，最初開發用於專業口譯員的培訓，並由多語言者Alexander Arguelles博士普及。這個方法簡單而強大：您在聽英語母語原聲的同時立即大聲重複——就像是一個延遲1-2秒緊跟說話者的影子。與被動聽力或語法練習不同，跟讀法強迫您的大腦和口腔肌肉同時處理並模模擬實的講話模式。研究表明它能顯著提高發音準確性，語調，節奏，連讀，聽力理解和口語流利度——使其成為雅思口語備考和真實英語交流最有效的方法之一。

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跟讀練習: How the rich avoid paying taxes - 通過影片學習英語口語

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