新概念英语85年上外美音版第四册 第15课

（单词翻译）

　　Lesson 15 The Consumer Society and the Law消费者社会和法律
When anyone opens a current account at a bank, he is lending the bank money, repayment¹ of which he may demand at any time, either in cash or by drawing a cheque in favour of another person. Primarily, the banker-customer relationship is that of debtor² and creditor--who is which depending on whether the customer's account is in credit or is overdrawn³. But, in addition to that basically simple concept, the bank and its customer owe a large number of obligations to one another. Many of these obligations can give rise to problems and complications but a bank customer, unlike, say, a buyer of goods, cannot complain that the law is loaded against him.
The bank must obey its customer's instructions, and not those of anyone else. When, for example, a customer first opens an account, he instructs the bank to debit⁵ his account only in respect of cheques drawn⁴ by himself.He gives the bank specimens⁶ of his signature, and there is a very firm rule that the bank has no right or authority to pay out a customer's money on a cheque on which its customer's signature has been forged.It makes no difference that the forgery⁷ may have been a very skilful⁸ one: the bank must recognize its customer's signature. For this reason there is no risk to the customer in the modern practice, adoptedby some banks, of printing the customer's name on his cheques. If this facilitates forgery it is the bank which will lose, not the customer.