Teachers, I’m reading an article and please answer my questions❤

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Hi, teachers.

Below is an article that I’m reading and I have five questions on it.

Could you please answer them, teacher? ??????

Oil prices tumble as lockdowns stoke recession fears

Updated 1048 GMT (1848 HKT) November 2, 2020

London (CNN Business)

Oil prices fell sharply on Monday as new lockdowns across Europe and record coronavirus cases in the United States slammed the outlook for energy demand.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell (1??)as much as 5% (2??)in early morning trading in Asia, touching levels last seen in May, (3??)before paring losses to trade 2% lower at $37.13 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, was down 2.49% at $34.90 a barrel.

(4??)Decisions by European governments to impose another round of severe coronavirus restrictions is weighing on sentiment. France, Germany and Belgium are going back into nationwide lockdowns, shutting restaurants and non-essential businesses for several weeks and restricting travel. In the United Kingdom, authorities are introducing a lockdown in England that is scheduled to (5??)run through December 2.

These four countries consume the equivalent of a little over 6% of global consumption, "so no surprise that we are seeing the market reacting this morning," ING's head of commodities strategy Warren Patterson and senior commodities strategist Wenyu Yao wrote in a research note on Monday.

Economists fear that Europe's economy could contract in the fourth quarter, raising fears of another recession. Despite record GDP growth in the third quarter, the EU economy remains about 4% smaller than it was at the end of September last year.

There are also worries that governments elsewhere will be forced to reimpose restrictions heading into the holiday season. The United States recorded 81,493 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, after reporting 99,321 on Friday, the highest single day number of cases for any country, according to Johns Hopkins University. The US death toll from Covid-19 now stands at more than 230,995, the highest number of fatalities worldwide.

"Fresh worries that politicians worldwide will be pressured to lock down Christmas this year is hitting the oil markets like a ton of bricks," Stephen Innes, chief global markets strategist at Axi said in a research note. "The alarmingly high level of angst in the markets makes it easy for the oil roller coaster to crest rally peaks and head downhill at alarmingly quick speeds," he added.

(1??) Why does the author of this article add “as much as”? Isn’t the sentence enough without the phrase?

(2??) Isn’t “in the early morning” the right expression, teacher?

(3??) I don’t understand this part. Would you explain what this part means?

(4??)

European countries will put stricter restrictions to curb the pandemic, which makes the outlook for oil prices darker.

Please check my sentence, teacher??

(5??)

I look “run through” up in a dictionary, but couldn’t find the meaning that matches the context. What does “run through” mean here, teacher?

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

I wish you would not "decorate" the text. It is distracting.

ANNE202(1??) Why does the author of this article add “as much as”? Isn’t the sentence enough without the phrase?

Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell as much as 5% in early morning trading in Asia

Have you seen plots of commodity prices? It goes up and down. When they say "as much as 5%" it means that at one point in time during the morning, the price had declined to a minimum point which was 5% down from the opening price.

ANNE202(2??) Isn’t “in the early morning” the right expression, teacher?

No. The text is correct.

ANNE202, touching levels last seen in May, (3??)before paring losses to trade 2% lower at $37.13 a barrel.

The price went down 5%. That was the lowest price since May.

The price rose again, so that the ending price was only 2% lower than at the beginning.

Anonymous · Answer

ANNE202(1??) Why does the author of this article add “as much as”? Isn’t the sentence enough without the phrase?

Yes, you could say that, but he wanted to stress that five percent is a lot, and that the price dipped to other rather low levels before and after it hit five percent down.

ANNE202(2??) Isn’t “in the early morning” the right expression, teacher?

That is not what you are seeing. The phrase is "early morning trading", where "early morning" is adjectival. Trading that occurs in the early morning can be called early morning trading. I might have put a hyphen in there, "early-morning trading".

ANNE202(3??) I don’t understand this part. Would you explain what this part means?

The price moves up and down throughout the day. You see the word "pare" used this way, as if they are cutting away at the drop in price, making it climb back up. The price had fallen to as much as five percent down, and they slowly drove it back up to only two percent down by the end of trading.

ANNE202(4??)Decisions by European governments to impose another round of severe coronavirus restrictions is weighing on sentiment.

"European countries will put stricter restrictions to curb the pandemic, which makes the outlook for oil prices darker."

"Put" needs help. Either "European countries will put stricter restrictions in place to curb the pandemic …" or "European countries will apply stricter restrictions to curb the pandemic …".

ANNE202(5??) I look “run through” up in a dictionary, but couldn’t find the meaning that matches the context. What does “run through” mean here, teacher?

You are not seeing "run through". It's just "run". The lockdown is scheduled to remain in place through December 2. In other words, it will run (continue) until December 2, including December 2. This is a special use of "through".

AlpheccaStars · Answer

ANNE202I look “run through” up in a dictionary, but couldn’t find the meaning that matches the context. What does “run through” mean here, teacher?

In the United Kingdom, authorities are introducing a lockdown in England that is scheduled to (5??)run through December 2.

See entry #33.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/run

see entry #11

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/through

The lockdown will be in force from now until December 2.

Teachers, I’m reading an article and please answer my questions❤

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