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We're going to the moon and beyond this Wednesday as a worldwide space race heats up.
本周三，随着全球太空竞赛的升温，我们将前往月球及更远的地方。
But we begin with something else that's been heating up, a U.S. inflation rate that some economists say is out of control.
但是我们先来看看其他正在升温的问题，即一些经济学家认为已经失控的美国通货膨胀率。
Not since December of 1981 has the United States seen prices increase by so much over a one-year period.
自1981年12月以来，美国还从未见过价格在一年内上涨这么多。
The U.S. government says between March of 2021 and March of this year, the consumer price index also referred to as the inflation rate rose by eight and a half percent.
美国政府表示，从2021年3月到今年3月，消费者价格指数(也就是通货膨胀率)上升了8.5%。
That's higher than the 8.4 percent that economists had predicted, and it means that for every hundred dollars Americans spent on commonly bought goods last March, they had to spend an extra eight and a half dollars on them this March.
这高于经济学家预测的8.4%, 这意味着，美国人去年3月在通常购买的商品上每花费100美元，今年3月他们就必须在这些商品上额外花费8.5美元。
That adds up as it spread out over things like gas, groceries, housing, medical care, car insurance, furniture and airline tickets.
这是随着汽油、杂货、住房、医疗、汽车保险、家具和机票等支出的增加而增加的。
It was last year that America started seeing its highest price rises in decades.
去年，美国开始出现几十年来最高的价格上涨。
In May, they jumped to a level that was 5 percent higher than they were in May of 2020, but by December, that percentage had risen to 7 percent over the previous year.
今年5月，这一比例跃升至比2020年5月高出5%的水平，但到12月，这一比例已升至前一年的7%。
And these rises have only gotten worse in 2022.
而这种增长在2022年只会变得更糟。
Is there a silver lining to this?
这还有一线希望吗?
Well, some economists are hopeful that inflation will soon hit its peak, its highest rate of this period, if it hasn't done that already.
嗯，一些经济学家希望，如果通货膨胀率还没有达到峰值，那么它将会很快达到峰值，即这一时期的最高水平。
That would at least mean that the price increases would stop climbing higher.
这至少意味着价格上涨将停止攀升得更高。
But even if that happened in March and no one knows if it did, it could take months or longer before inflation rates come back down to manageable levels.
但即使3月份通胀停止(没人知道是否会发生)，也可能需要数月甚至更长时间，通胀率才会回落到可控水平。
Eight and a half percent is dramatically higher than the two percent target that America's Central Bank has for inflation rates.
8.5%大大高于美国中央银行设定的2%的通货膨胀率目标。
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