-
2006
年
12
p>
月
一、
In
a
purely
biological
sense,
fear
begins
with
the
body's
system
for
reacting
to
things
that
can
harm us -- the so-called fight-or-
flight response.
从纯生物角度来说,恐惧始于人体系统对会伤害我
们的事情的反应
----
即所谓的“战斗或逃
< br>脱”反应。
An animal that
can't detect danger can't stay
alive,
evolved with an elaborate
mechanism for about potential threats.
“不能觉察到危险的动物无法生存”
Jeseph
LeDoux
。像动物一样,人类进化过程中形成了
一个精巧的机制,以处理潜在威胁的信息。
At its
core is a cluster of neurons
(
神经元
) deep in the brain
known as the amygdala (
扁桃核
).
该机制的核心是大脑内部的一束被称为扁桃核的神经元。
LeDoux
studies
the
way
animals
and
humans
respond
to
threats
to
understand
how
we
form
memories of significant
events in our lives.
Ledoux
研究了动物和人类对危险的反应方式,以理解我们对于生活中重要事件是如何形成
记忆的。
The
amygdala
receives
input
from
many
parts
of
the
brain,
including
regions
responsible
for
retrieving memories.
扁桃核从大脑的很多部位中接受输入的信息,包括负责回收记
忆的部位。
Using this
information, the amygdala appraises a situation -
I think this charging dog wants to bite
me - and triggers a response by
radiating nerve signals throughout the body.
使用该信息,
扁桃核对情景进行分析
---
我觉得这只充满攻击性的狗想咬我
---
进而
通过体内神
经信号的辐射启动效应。
These signals produce the familiar
signs of distress: trembling, perspiration and
fast-moving feet,
just to name three. <
/p>
这些信号产生与危险相似的信号:颤抖、流汗和快步逃跑,这仅是其中的三种反应。
This fear mechanism is
critical to the survival of all animals, but no
one can say for sure whether
beasts
other than humans know they're afraid.
恐惧机制对所有动物的生存都是至关重要的,
但是没有人敢肯定
地说除了人以外,
动物是否
感受到了恐惧。
That is, as LeDoux says,
the feeling of fear.
正如
Ledoux
所言:
“如果你把该机制放进一个有知
觉的大脑中,你就会有恐惧的感觉”
Humans,
says Edward M. Hallowell, have the ability to call
up images of bad things that happened
in the past and to anticipate future
events.
Edward ell
说人类拥有回忆过去发生的不好事情的图像和预测未来的能力。
Combine
these
higher
thought
processes
with
our
hardwired
danger-detection
systems,
and
you
get a
near-universal human phenomenon: worry.
把这些高级思维过程与我们固有的危险探测系统结合在一起,
你将会获得一个几乎是人
类所
共有的现象:担忧。
1
That's not
necessarily a bad thing, says Hallowell,
device,
Hallowell
说,这未必是件坏事。
“如果使用恰当,担忧式中难以置信的设
计”他说。
After all, a little
healthy worrying is okay if it leads to
constructive action -- like having a doctor
look at that weird spot on your back. <
/p>
毕竟,稍许健康的担忧是未尝不可的,如果担忧可以带来建设性的行为
----
如让医生检查一
下你背上奇怪的斑点。
Hallowell insists, though, that
there's a right way to worry.
但是
Hallowell
坚持认为,担忧存在着一种正确的模式。
< br>
“永远不要只是担忧,要获取事实,然后指定计划”他说。
Most of us have survived a recession,
so we're familiar with the belt-tightening
strategies needed
to survive a slump. <
/p>
我们中的大多数都有从衰退中熬过来的精力,所以我们都熟知度过低潮所需要的节约政策。
Unfortunately, few of us
have much experience dealing with the threat of
terrorism, so it's been
difficult to
get facts about how we should respond.
不幸的是,
我们中仅有少数人有处理恐怖主义危险的经验,
p>
所以要获取我们应该如何应对的
信息变得十分困难。
That's why Hallowell believes it
was okay for people to indulge some extreme
worries last fall by
asking doctors for
Cipro (
抗炭疽菌的药物
) and buying
gas masks.
这就是为什么
Hallowell
p>
认为在去年秋天的时候,人们向医生获取抗炭疽菌的药物和购买防
毒
面具并由此深陷于某种极度担忧中的行为是可以理解的。
二、
Amitai Etzioni is not surprised by the
latest headings about scheming corporate crooks
(
骗子
).
Amitai Etzi
oni
并没有对最新的关于行骗团伙的阴谋的报纸标题感到惊奇。
As a visiting professor at the
Harvard Business School in 1989, he ended his work
there disgusted
with his
students
’
overwhelming lost for money.
作为
1989
年哈佛大学商学院的访问学者,他在结束工作时对于他的学生对金钱的绝大欲望
感到厌
恶。
“
They
’
re taught that profit is all that
matters,
”
he
says.
“
Many schools
don
’
t even offer ethics
(
伦理学
) courses at
all.
”
“他们被教育金钱就是一
切。他说
,
“很对学校甚至不提供任何伦理学的课程。
”
Etzioni expressed
his frustration about the interests of his
graduate students.
Etzioni
说他
对他的研究生们的兴趣所在感到沮丧。
“
By and large, I clearly had
not found a way to help classes full of MBAs see
that there is more
to life than money,
power, fame and self-
interest.
”
He
wrote
at
the
time.
Today
he
still
takes
the
blame
for
not
educating
these
“
business-
leaders-to-be.
”
“
I really like I failed
them,
”
he says.
“
If I was a better teacher
maybe
I could have
reached t
hem.
”
“很长时间,很明显我找不到一个方法让一个
MBA
班的学员认
2
识生活不但是金钱,
全力,名声和私立”
他那时候写道。
现在她仍然自
责当初没有好好教导
这群
“未来的商业领袖”
< br>“我真的觉得我让他们失望了”
他说:
“如果我当初是个
更好的老师,
或许就能够影响他们”
Etzioni was a respected ethics expert
when he arrived at Harvard.
初到哈佛的时候,
Etzioni
是一位受人尊敬的伦理学专
家。
He hoped his work at the
university would give him insight into how
questions of morality could
be applied
to places where self-interest flourished.
他希望他在哈佛的工作可以帮他弄明白如何让道德问题应用于
充满私立的地方。
What he found
wasn
’
t encouraging.
他的研究结果很难让人兴奋。
Those would be executives had, says
Etzioni, little interest in concepts of ethics and
morality in
the
boardroom
—
and their
professor was met with blank stares when he urged
his students to see
business in new and
different ways.
Etzioni
说,那些未
来的经理们对于董事会里的伦理和道德概念没有什么兴趣
------
< br>当他尝试
促使他的学生用一种新的,不同的方式看待商业的时候,教授看到的是空
洞的眼神。
Etzioni
sees
the
experience
at
Harvard
as
an
eye-opening
one
and
says
there
’
s
much
about
business schools that
he
’
d like to change.
Etzioni
把在哈佛的经历看作
开了一次眼界,并称他觉得商学院需要作出很多改变。
“
A lot of the faculty
teaching business are bad news
themselves,
”
Etzioni says. From offering
classes that teach students how to
legally manipulate contracts, to reinforcing the
notion of profit
over community
interests, Etzioni has seen a lot
that
’
s left him shaking his
head.
“很多教商业的教职人员本身就是坏消息”
p>
Etzioni
说。从提供教授学生如何合法操作合同,
到强化利润高于公众利益的观念。
Etzioni
看到了很多让他摇头叹息的事情。
And because
of what he
’
s seen taught in
business schools, he
’
s not
surprised by the latest rash of
corporate scandals.
由于他目睹了商学院所教授的内容,
所以在看到公司一连串最新的丑闻时,
p>
他一点也不觉得
奇怪。
“
In many ways things have
got a lot worse at business schools, I
suspect,
”
says
Etzioni.
“从很多方面来说,我怀疑商学院里的情形变的更糟了”
Etzioni
说。
Etzioni
is
still
teaching
the
sociology
of
right
and
wrong
and
still
calling
for
ethical
business
leadership.
Etzioni
仍然在教授关于是与
非的社会学,仍然在奔走号召复合伦理的商业领导学。
“
People with poor motives
will always exist.
”
He says.
“
Sometimes environments
constrain
those people and sometimes
environments give those people
opportunity.
”
p>
“怀有不良动机的人总会存在”他说。
“有时候环境限制了那些人,
有时候环境给那些人创
造了生命”
Etzioni says the booming economy of the
last decade enabled those individuals with poor
motives
to get rich before getting in
trouble.
Etzioni
说,最近十年经济的高速发展让那些心怀不轨的人在遇上麻烦之前发了财。
His
hope
now:
that
the
cries
for
reform
will
provide
more
fertile
soil
for
his
long-standing
messages about business ethics.
他现在希望:对改革的呼吁会让他一直提出的商业伦理的信息可以得到肥沃的土壤。
3
200
7
年
6
月
一、
Google is a
world-famous company, with its headquarters in
Mountain View, California.
Google(
谷歌)是一家享誉世界的公司,其总部位于加州山景区。
It was set up in a Silicon Valley
garage in 1998, and inflated
(
膨胀
) with the Internet
bubble.
1998
年始建于硅谷的一间车房里,随着互
联网泡沫的膨胀发展。
Even
when everything around it collapsed the company
kept on inflating.
即使当与互联网相关的一切开始破裂的时候,它仍然飞速发展。
Google’s search engine is so widespread
across the world that search became Google, and
google
became a verb.
的搜索引擎在全球范围内流传,
以至
于
Google
成了搜索的代名词,
而
google
也成为
一个动词。
The world fell in love with
the effective, fascinatingly fast technology.
世界爱上了这项迷人而快捷的技术。
Google owes much of its success to the
brilliance of S. Brin and L. Page, but also to a
series of
fortunate events.
Google
的成功很大程度上归功于
和
的才华,但同时也是一连串幸运事件
的结
果。
It
was
Page
who,
at
Stanford
in
1996,
initiated
the
academic
project
that
eventually
became
Google’s search engine.
1996
年,
Page
在斯坦福大学作一个学术项目,最终成为
google
的搜索
引擎。
Brin, who had met Page
at a student orientation a year earlier, joined
the project early on.
Brin<
/p>
在之前的一年的新生介绍会上认识了
Page
,随后加入了
Google
搜索引擎的项目。
They were both Ph.D. candidates
when they devised the search engine which was
better than the
rest and, without any
marketing, spread by word of mouth from early
adopters to, eventually, your
grandmother.
当时他们都是博士研究生,
但他们设计的搜索引擎要优于其他的,
而且没有做任何市场推广,
p>
仅靠交口相传,就从最初的使用者最终传到了你祖母的耳中。
Their breakthrough, simply put, was
that when their search engine crawled the Web, it
did more
than just look for word
matches, it also tallied
(
统计
) and ranked a host of
other critical factors
like how
websites link to one another.
< br>简单来说,
他们的突破发生在搜索引擎在网络上慢慢传播的时候,
引擎提供的不仅仅是找寻
匹配的词语,还可以根据一些关键指标如网页如何相连
对主页进行统计和排序。
That delivered
far better results than anything else.
引擎得到的结果比其他的都好。
Brin
and
Page
meant
to
name
their
creation
Googol
(the
mathematical
term
for
the
number
1
followed by 100 zeroes),
but someone misspelled the word so it stuck as
Google.
Brin
和
Page
用
googol(
< br>数学术语,指前面有
100
个零的数字)命名他们的作品
,但是有人把
这个单词错拼成了
Google
< br>。
4
They raised money from
prescient (
有先见之明的
)
professors and venture capitalists, and moved
off campus to turn Google into
business.
他们从有先见之明的教授和风险投资者
那里筹集资金,让
google
从校园走向商业化。
Perhaps their biggest stroke of
luck came early on when they tried to sell their
technology to other
search engines, but
no one met their price, and they built it up on
their own.
或许他们最大的运气是在早期,
那是他
们尝试出售自己的技术给其他引擎公司,
但没有人能
够满足他们
的价位,于是他们决定自己创业。
The
next
breakthrough
came
in
2000,
when
Google
figured
out
how
to
make
money
with
its
invention.
第二次突破是在
2000
年,当时
google
提出
如何利用发明盈利。
It had
lots of users, but almost no one was paying.
Google
有众多用户,但几乎没
有人付费。
The solution turned
out to be advertising, and it’s not an
exaggeration to say that Google is now
essentially an advertising company,
given that that’s the source of nearly all its
revenue.
最终的解决方法是做广告,毫不夸张的说
,
Gooogle
现在实际上就是一家广告公司,因为几
乎其所有的收入都是源于广告。
Today
it is a giant advertising company, worth $$100
billion
现在
Google
是
一家巨型广告公司,其市值达到一千亿美元。
二、
You
hear
the
refrain
all
the
time:
the
U.S.
economy
looks
good
statistically,
but
it
doesn’t
feel
good.
你一直重复听到:美国的经济从数据上看很不错,
但实际上并不觉得很好。
Why
doesn’t ever
-greater wealth promote
ever-greater happiness?
为什么不断增加的财富却没有促进不断提高的幸福程度呢?
It is a question that dates at least to
the appearance in 1958 of The
Affluent(
富裕的
) Societyby
John Kenneth Galbraith, who died
recently at 97.
这个问题最早要追溯到
19
58
年《富足社会》一书的出现,其作者
John
Kenneth Galbraith
最
近去世了,享年
97
岁。
The
Affluent Society is a modern classic because it
helped define a new moment in the human
condition.
《富足社会
》是一本现代名著,因为书中定义了人类境况的一个新时期。
For most of history, “hunger, sickness,
and cold” threatened nearly everyone, Galbraith
wrote.
在历史上的大多数时期,
“饥寒交迫和疾病”几乎威胁了每一个人。
Galbraith
写道:
“Poverty was found
everywhere in that world. Obviously it is not of
ours.”
“贫穷出现在那个世界的任何角落。但这显然与我们无关”
After World War II, the dread of
another Great Depression gave way to an economic
boom. In the
1930s unemployment had
averaged 18.2 percent; in the 1950s it was 4.5
percent.
“二战”后,对于新的一次大衰退的恐惧让位于一次经济繁荣。在二
十世纪三十年代,
失业
率高达
18.2
%
,而在二十世纪五十年代,失业率为
4.5%
。
To Galbraith,
materialism had gone mad and would breed
discontent.
对于
Ga
lbraith
而言,物质主义已经疯狂,并且会滋生不满。
Through advertising,
com
panies conditioned consumers to buy
things they didn’t really want or
need.
5
公司通过广告让消费者购买他们不需要或者不想要的东西。
Because so much spending
was artificial, it would be unfulfilling.
如此多的花费是虚假的,所以肯定会有不满
Meanwhile,
government
spending
that
would
make
everyone
better
off
was
being
cut
down
because
people instinctively
—
and
wrongly
—labeled government only as “a
necessary evil.”
同时,
< br>能让每个人生活得更好的政府开销却减少了,
因为人们本能地、
< br>错误地为政府贴上了
“必要的恶魔”的标签。
It’s often said that only the rich are
getting ahead; everyone else is standing still or
fal
ling behind.
人们常说只有富人在前行,其他人都停留在原地或者落在后面。
Well, there are many undeserving
rich
—
overpaid chief
executives, for instance.
例如,是有很多人不应富有的人
But over any meaningful period, most
people’s incomes are increasing.
工资过高的首席执行官。但是在经历了很多重要时期之后,大多数人的收入在上升。
From 1995 to 2004, inflation-
adjusted average family income rose 14.3 percent,
to $$43,200.
从
199
5
年到
2004
年,针对通货膨胀进行
调整的普通家庭收入上升了
14.3%
,达到了
43
,
200
美元。
P
eople
feel
“squeezed”
because
their
rising
incomes
often
don’t
satisfy
their
rising
wants—
for
bigger homes, more health care, more
education, faster Internet connections.
人们觉得“被压榨”
,是因为他们增加的收入不能满足他们上升的欲望
----
更大的房子,更多
医疗保健,更多教育,更快
的网络连接。
The other great
frustration is that it has not eliminated
insecurity.
另外一大沮丧是不安全感并没有被消除。
People regard job stability as part of
their standard of living.
人们把工作的稳定性看成生活标准的一部分。
As corporate layoffs increased, that
part has eroded.
随着公司裁员的增加了,这部分被腐蚀了。
More workers fear they’ve
become “the disposable American,” as
Louis Uchitelle puts it in his
book by
the same name.
更过的员工害怕自己会成为
“
被处理的美国人”
,
这一说法来自于
L
ouisUchtelle
的同名著作。
Because
so
much
previous
suffering
and
social
conflict
stemmed
from
poverty,
the
arrival
of
widespread affluence suggested utopian
(
乌托邦式的
) possibilities.
因为前面提到的痛苦和社会冲突都来源于贫穷,大范围富裕的
来临暗示了乌托邦式的可能。
Up to a point,
affluence succeeds. There is much les physical
misery than before. People are better
off. Unfortunately, affluence also
creates new complaints and contradictions.
从某种意义来说,富裕成功了。比起以前,身体上的痛苦大大减少。人们比以前更富于了。
不幸的是,富足同样创造了新的抱怨和矛盾。
Advanced societies need economic growth
to satisfy the multiplying wants of their
citizens.
现金的社会需要经济增长,以满足市民日益多样化的需要。
But the quest for growth lets loose new
anxieties and economic conflicts that disturb the
social
order.
但是对增长的追求却产生了新的
焦虑和经济冲突,扰乱了社会秩序。
Affluence
liberates
the
individual,
promising
that
everyone
can
choose
a
unique
way
to
6
self-
fulfillment.
富裕解放了个人,承诺每个人可以选择独特方式来达成自己
的愿望。
But
the
promise
is
so
extravagant
that
it
predestines
many
disappointments
and
sometimes
inspires choices
that have anti-social consequences, including
family breakdown and obesity
(
肥
胖症
).
但是承诺是如此的奢侈,
以至于注定会有失望,
有时还会引起
带来反社会的选择,
包括家庭
破裂和肥胖症。
< br>
Statistical indicators
of happiness have not risen with incomes.
数据表明,幸福并没有随着收入的增长而增长。
Should we be surprised? Not really.
We’ve simply reaffirmed an old truth: the pursuit
of affluence
does not always end with
happiness.
我们是不是应该感到惊讶?不必。
我们
仅是重新印证了一句老话:
对富裕的追求并不会总是
以幸福为结
局。
200
7
年
12
月
一、
Like most
people, I’ve long understood that I will be judged
by my occupation, that my profession
is
a gauge people use to see how smart or talented I
am.
像大多数人一样,
我早就知道我的职业将左右别人对我
的判断,
我的工作室人们可以用来衡
量我的聪明和材质的标准。
Recently,
however, I was disappointed to see that it also
decides how I’m treated as a person.
但是最近,我非常失望地发现工作也决定了别人怎样对待我。
Last year I left a professional
position as a small-town reporter and took a job
waiting tables.
去年我辞去了小镇记者的工作,该做了一名侍者。
As someone paid to serve food to
people. I had customers say and do things to me I
suspect they’d
never say or do to their
most casual acquaintances.
在这份为人们提供食物的工作中,
我遇到的一些顾客对我说了一些话、
< br>做了一些事情,
这些
话和是我认为他们从来不会向哪怕是
他们最熟悉的人去说或做的。
One night a
man talking on his cell phone waved me away, then
beckoned (
示意
) me back with
his finger a minute later, complaining
he was ready to order and asking where I’d
been.
有一天晚上,
一个正在打
电话的男人先是打手势把我赶走,
一分钟后又用他的手指示我回来,
对我抱怨说他正在准备点菜,问我究竟去了哪里。
I
had waited tables during summers in college and
was treated like a peon(
勤杂工
)
by plenty of
people.
上大学期间,在暑假我就做过侍者,但是就被很多人当勤杂工。
But at 19 years old. I believed I
deserved inferior treatment from professional
adults.
但是那时
19
岁的我
认为那些职场中的成年人对我差一点也理所当然。
7
Besides,
people responded to me differently after I told
them I was in college.
此外,当我告诉他们我在读大学时,我得到的对待又有所不同。
Customers would joke that
one day I’d be sitting at their table, waiting to
be served.
顾客们开玩笑说,总有一天我会坐在他们的位置上,等候服务。
Once I graduated I took a job at a
community newspaper.
毕业之后我在社区的报社找到一份工作。
From my first day, I heard
a respectful tone from everyone who called me. I
assumed this was the
way the
professional world worked-cordially.
从工
作的第一天开始,
其他人就用充满敬意的语气称呼我。
我以为这
就是职场的方式
--
亲切。
I
soon found out differently, I sat several feet
away from an advertising sales representative with
a
similar name.
我很快发现并不是这样。我坐的位置和我的名字相似的广告部销售代表只有几英尺远。
Our
calls
would
often
get
mixed
up
and
someone
asking
for
Kristen
would
be
transferred
to
Christie.
我们的电话经
常会被弄混,有人要找克里斯滕会被转到克里斯蒂这里来。
The mistake was immediately evident.
这是明显的错误。
Perhaps it was because money was
involved, but people used a tone with Kristen that
they never
used with me.
或许是
包含了金钱的因素,但是人们对克里斯滕的语气是从来不会用在我身上的。
My job title made people treat me with
courtesy.
我的共组头衔让很多人礼貌地对待我。
So it was a shock to return to the
restaurant industry.
所以回到饭店行业之后我真的很受打击。
It’s no secret that there’s a lot to
put up with when waiting tables, and fortunately,
much of it can
be easily forgotten when
you pocket the tips.
当侍者忍受很
多,这早已不是什么秘密。
但幸运的是,当收到小费的时候,
大
部分的不快都
可以轻易忘掉。
The
service industry, by definition, exists to cater
to others’ needs.
服务业的定义就是满足他人的需要。
Still, it seemed that many of my
customers didn’t get the difference between server
and servant.
但是,我的很多顾客四壶分辨不清侍者和侍从的区别。
I’m
now
applying
to
graduate
school,
which
means
someday
I’ll
return
to
a
profession
where
people need to be nice
to me in order to get what they want.
我现在在申请研究生,
这就意味着将来有一天我会回到那种职位
,
那时别人为乐得到他们想
要的东西就必须对我礼貌一点。
p>
I think I’ll take them to
dinner first, and see how they treat someone whose
only job
is to serve
them. <
/p>
我想我会把他们带去吃顿饭,看一下他们是怎么对待那些专职为他们服务的人的。
二、
What’s hot for
2007 among the very rich? A S7.3 million diamond
ring. A trip to Tanzania to hunt
8
wild animals.
Oh. and income inequality.
2007
< br>年,对于富豪来说什么事最热门的?价值
730
万美元的
钻戒。去坦桑尼亚狩猎。噢,
还有收入不均衡。
Sure, some leftish billionaires like
George Soros have been railing against income
inequality for
years.
当然左翼百万
符文乔治
-
索罗斯多年以来一直反对收入不均衡。
But increasingly, centrist and
right-wing billionaires are starting to worry
about income inequality
and the fate of
the middle class.
但是越来越多的中间派和右翼亿万富翁都开始担
心收入不均衡和中产阶级的命运了。
In
December. Mortimer Zuckerman wrote a column in U.S
News & World Report, which he owns.
p>
在
12
月,莫蒂默
-
朱克曼在他旗下的《美国新闻和世界报道》上写上了一篇专栏文章。
< br>
“Our
nation’s
core
bargain
with
the
middle
class
is
disintegrating,”
lamented
(
哀叹
)
the
117th-
richest
man in America. “Most of our economic gains have
gone to people at the very top of
the
income ladder.
“我们国家的中产阶级的核
心竞争力正在瓦解,
”
这位在美国排名第
117
位的富豪这样哀叹。
“我们大部分的经济效益都归于收
入阶梯最上层的人了。
Average income
for a household of people of working age, by
contrast, has fallen five years in a
row.” He noted that “Tens of millions
of Americans live in fear that a major health
problem can
reduce them to
bankruptcy.”
相比之下,工薪阶层的平均收入却
连续五年下降。
”他注意到“数以千万计的美国人害怕一
个重要
的健康问题就会导致他们破产。
”
Wilbur Ross Jr. has echoed Zuckerman’s
a
nger over the bitter struggles faced
by middle-class
Americans.
小威尔伯
-
罗斯回应了朱克曼杜宇美国
中产阶级的痛苦挣扎感到的愤怒。
“It’s
an
outrage
that
any
American’s
life
expectancy
should
be
shortened
simply
because
the
company
they
worked
for
went
bankrupt
and
ended
health-care
covera
ge,”
said
the
former
chairman of the International Steel
Group.
“这应该让我们愤怒,
所有美国人的平均寿命都
被缩短了,
仅仅是因为他们所供职的公司破
产了,健康保险被终
止了”这位国际钢铁集团的前任主席说。
What’s
happening? The very rich are just as trendy as you
and I, and can be so when it comes to
politics and policy.
发生了什么?巨富们当谈到政治和政策的时候就像你我一样适应潮流。
Given
the
recent
change
of
control
in
Congress,
popularity
of
measures
like
increasing
the
minimum wage, and efforts by
California’ governor to offer universal health
care, these guys don’t
need their own
personal weathermen to know which way the wind
blows.
只要看一下国会最近的全力变更,
像提高最低工
资等政策的受欢迎程度,
以及加州州长所致
力于的全民保健项目
,这些人不需要私人天气预报员就可以知道风向如何了”
It’s
possible
that
plutocrats(
有
钱有势的人
)
are
expressing
solidarity
with
the
struggling
middle
class as part of an effort to insulate
themselves from confiscatory
(
没收性的
) tax policies.
这群有钱有势的人可能是通过表达对中产阶级的挣扎的同情,进而逃避没收性税务政策。
But
the
prospect
that
income
inequality
will
lead
to
higher
taxes
on
the
wealthy
doesn’t
keep
plutocrats up at night. They can live
with that.
但是收入不均衡会导致对富人征收更多税款的期望并不会让有钱
有势的人晚上难以入眠。
他
们承受得了。
9
No,
what
they
fear
was
that
the
political
challenges
of
sustaining
support
for
global
economic
integration
will
be
more
difficult
in
the
United
States
because
of
what
has
happened
to
the
distribution of income
and economic insecurity.
不,
他
们真正害怕的是由于在收入分配和经济安全方面出现的问题,
美国持续支持全球经济
p>
一体化所带来的政治挑战。
In
other
words,
if
middle-class
Americans
continue
to
struggle
financially
as
the
ultrawealthy
grow ever
wealthier, it will be increasingly difficult to
maintain political support for the free flow
of goods, services, and capital across
borders.
换句话说,
如果
美国的中产阶级持续在财政上陷入困境,
同时巨富们变得越来越富有,
< br>那么
要获得政治上持续支持产品、服务和资金的跨国性自由流动将会日益困难。<
/p>
And when the United States
places obstacles in the way of foreign investors
and foreign goods,
it’s likely to
encourage reciprocal action abroad.
p>
当美国对其他国家的投资者和商品设置障碍时,也在刺激其他国家采取相应的措施。
For people who buy and sell
companies, or who allocate capital to markets all
around the world,
that’s the real
nightmare.
对于在全球买卖公司或调动资金的人来说,这才是真正的噩梦。
2008
年
6
月
一、
Imagine waking up and finding the value
of your assets has been halved.
想象你一觉醒来,发现自己的资产减半。
No, you’re not an investor in one of
those hedge funds that failed completely.
不,你并不是其中一支彻底失败的基金的投资者。
With
the
dollar
slumping
to
a
26-year
low
against
the
pound,
already-expensive
London
has
become
quite unaffordable.
随着美元兑英镑跌至
26
年来的最低值,物价本就偏高的伦敦变得更让人难以承受。
A coffee at Starbucks,
just as unavoidable in England as it is in the
United States, runs about $$8.
一杯星巴克的咖啡在
英国不得不买到
8
美元,同在美国如出一辙。
< br>
The once all-
powerful
dollar isn’t doing a Titanic against just the
pound.
无所不能的美元在兑换英镑时,不再是庞然大物。
It is sitting at a record low against
the euro and at a 30-year low against the Canadian
dollar.
美元兑欧元的汇率创下新低,并在与加元的汇兑中处于
30
年来的最低值。
Even the Argentine peso and Brazilian
real are thriving against the dollar.
就连阿根廷闭锁和巴西雷亚尔都比美元有活力。
The weak dollar is a so
urce
of humiliation, for a nation’s
self
-esteem rests in part on the
strength
of its currency.
疲软
的美元带来了屈辱,因为一个国家的尊严部分来源于本国货币的强度。
It’s
also
a
potential
economic
problem,
since
a
declining
dollar
makes
imported
food
more
expensive and exerts
upward pressure on interest rates.
这也是一个潜在的经济问题,因为编制的美元使得进口食品价格上扬,并施加加息的压力。
p>
And
yet
there
are
substantial
sectors
of
the
vast
U.S.
economy-from
giant
companies
like
Coca-Cola
to
mom-and-pop
restaurant
operators
in
Miami-for
which
the
weak
dollar
is
most
excellent
news.
但对于庞大美国经济体中大量的产业部门
----
-
从可口可乐这样的大公司到迈阿密的夫妻餐
10
厅经营者
----
美元疲软的消息对他们来说可是再好不过了。
Many
Europeans
may
view
the
U.S.
as
an
arrogant
superpower
that
has
become
hostile
to
foreigners.
一些欧洲
人视美国为一个傲慢的超级大国,并且认为美国对外国人怀有敌意。
But nothing makes people think more
warmly of the U.S. than a weak dollar.
但当人们想起美国时,没有什么比疲软的美元更带劲的了。
Through April, the total number of
visitors from abroadwas up 6.8 percent from last
year. Should
the trend continue, the
number of tourists this year will finally top the
2000 peak.
整个
4
月的游
客总数比去年同期增加了
6.8%
,如果这种趋势延续下去,今
天游客的人数将
最终比
2000
年的峰
值还多。
Many Europeans now
apparently view the U.S. the way many Americans
view Mexico-as a cheap
place to
vacation, shop and party, all while ignoring the
fact that the poorer locals can’t afford to
join the merrymaking.
一些欧洲人现
在看待美国的方式恰似美国人看待墨西哥一样
-----
一个廉
价的度假、购物和举
行派对的场所,他们都忽略了那些更贫穷的本土居民不能承担这种寻
欢作乐的费用。
The money tourists
spend helps decrease our chronic trade deficit. So
do exports, which thanks in
part to the
weak dollar, soared 11 percent between May 2006
and May 2007. For first five months
of
2007, the trade deficit actually fell 7 percent
from 2006.
游客的消费帮助减缓了我们长期以来的贸易赤字。
出口也是如此,
部分由于疲软的美国,
2006
p>
年
5
月
----2
007
年
5
月的出口额飙升了
11%
。与
2006
年
相比,
2007
年前
5
个月的贸易赤字
居然下降了
7%
。
If you own shares in
large American corporations, you’re a winner in
the weak
-dollar gamble.
如果你持有美国大公司的股票,那么你会是疲软美元投机中的赢家。
Last week Coca-
Cola’s stick
bubbled to a five
-year high after it
reported a fantastic quarter.
< br>上周可口可乐发布了令人振奋的一季数据后,其股价攀升至五年来的新高。
Foreign sales accounted for 65 percent
of Coke’s beverage business.
Other American
companies
profiting from this trend include McDonald’s and
IBM.
海外销售占据可口可乐
65
%
的饮料业务。
其他美国企业,包括
麦当劳和
IBM
在这种趋势下也赢得了利润。
< br>
American tourists, however,
shouldn’t expect any relief soon.
然而,美国游客不应该期望任何迅速的改善。
The dollar lost strength the way many
marriaqe:break up- slowly, and then all at once.
美元疲软的过程就如同婚姻破裂的过程
----
都是缓慢的,然后才是快速的。
And currencies don’t turn on a
dime.
货币不会立即升值。
So if you want to avoid the
pain inflicted by the increasingly pathetic
dollar, cancel that summer
vacation to
England and look to New England.
因此如果你想避免不断惨淡的美元带来的痛苦,
那就取消去英格兰的暑期度
假计划,
该去新
英格兰州吧。
There, the dollar is still treated with
a little respect.
在那儿,美元还是有点尊严的。
11
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