英语翻译COMMUNICATING GAAP I consider two ways in which standard

英语翻译
COMMUNICATING GAAP
I consider two ways in which standards can increase their communication accuracy:(1) standards can include precise,ìbright linei thresholds,and (2) standards can use a larger number of rules.
Quantitative and Qualitative Thresholds
Standards often use ‘bright line’ criteria to distinguish between broad classes of transactions that have different accounting treatments.3 For example,SFAS No.13 requires capital-lease treatment when the lease term is equal to 75 percent or more of the estimated economic life of the property.As an alternative,SFAS No.13 could have required capital-lease treatment if the lease term constituted most of the estimated economic life of the property,but the meaning of ‘most’ is less clear than the meaning of ‘75 percent.’ Given that practitioners can calculate the amounts that are compared to the precise threshold,bright line descriptions of quantity communicate accurately,and appear throughout the financial accounting standards,as illustrated by FASB Concepts Statement No.2 (1980,Table 1).
Less precise expressions are often used to communicate other types of thresholds.For example,SFAS No.5 (FASB 1975) requires accruing a loss contingency when the loss can be reasonably estimated and it is probable that a liability has been incurred or an asset impaired.One concern about the use of such imprecise expressions is that practitioners will interpret them differently,leading to low consensus among practitioners and potential lack of comparability between financial reports.Several studies that elicit numerical interpretations of the SFAS No.5 probability expressions from experienced auditors support this concern.For example,Amer et al.(1994) find relatively high variance in audit managers' interpretations of probability expressions,suggesting that these expressions sometimes are interpreted differently than standard setters intended when applied in a given context.Amer et al.(1995) also provide evidence that audit managers' interpretations of ‘probable’ vary predictably between contexts in which SFAS No.5 is applied,in a manner that was not intended by the FASB members who promulgated SFAS No.5.

表达通用会计原则
我认为标准可以从两种方法增加表达的准确性:(1)标准包括精密而又界限清晰的临界值(2)标准能够使用较多的规则.
定量和定性的临界值
标准常常使用“明线”标准来区分有具有不同的会计处理方法的广泛类别的交易.比如说,当租期等于或超过财产预计经济寿命的75%时,财务会计准则公告13号（SFAS No. 13） 就要求使用资金租赁方法处理. 换言之,当租期占用了财产预计寿命值的大部分时间时,财务会计准则公告13号就可能要求使用资金租赁方法处理. 但“大部分”这个概念没有75%的意义明确 .财务会计标准委员会概念声明2号文件 (1980, 表 1)表明：假如从业者通过与精确临界值的对比可以计算出数量,那么描述数量的明线就能很精确,并贯穿于整个财务会计准则的始终 .
精确性较为次之的表达式一般用来表达其他类型的临界值.例如,财务会计准则公告5号要求当损失可以合理估算时,要产生一个损失意外开支,这可能是一个责任已经发生或资产受损.对于使用这些不精确的表达式的一种担心就是：从业者对于他们的理解是不同的.这就导致了他们意见一致性以及潜在的财政报告的相似性的降低. 有几项研究引出了经验丰富的审计员对于财务会计准则公告5号各种不同的理解,这就说明了这种担心的必要性.例如,美国经济评论Amer et al(1994) 发现审计经理人对于可能性表达式的理解相去甚远,这表明,这些表达式有时被理解成与规则制定者在最初将它应用到某个文件时所要表达的意思完全不同的意思.审计经理人在财务会计准则公告5号应用的不同文件中,对他的理解也是不同的,他们理解的方式是制定财务会计准则公告5号的财务会计标准委员会的成员们所未曾打算的,Amer et al. (1995) 也为此提供了证据.