三角洲通讯公司老板John Smith到银行申请贷款，接待他的是银行负责人Ted Johnson。
Ted Johnson: Hello, Mr. Smith. Thanks for stopping by.
Smith: Hello, and call me John.
Ted: Sure...but only if you call me Ted.
J: Done.
T: So you are the CEO of Delta Communications. What exactly does your firm make?
J: We are the leading supplier of walkie-talkie radios and other shortwave communication devices.
John Smith和Ted Johnson相互问候，彼此坚持要对方用first name称呼自己，以便拉近距离，不会显得太客气。史密斯是三角洲通讯公司的CEO, Chief Executive Officer，首席执行官，这家公司主要生产对讲机等短波通讯工具。walkie-talkie，是中文里说的对讲机。
T: Ah...I see. How's business these days?
J: Actually, not bad. We landed a couple of major contracts in Southeast Asia recently and in spite of the recession, we're humming along quite nicely.
T: That's good to hear. It's been a rough couple of years. I've had to deny hundreds of loan applications and we've had to take legal action to recover loans as well.
史密斯说，他们公司的业务没有受到经济危机的影响，刚在东南亚签了几个重要合同。We're humming along quite nicely，生意蒸蒸日上，hum is spelled h-u-m, hum，有忙忙碌碌的意思。Ted则抱怨说，最近两年贷款很不好做It's been a rough couple of years，rough, r-o-u-g-h, rough，在这里是困难的意思。不仅很多贷款申请不符合标准被退回，而且还不得不采取法律手段追缴贷款。
J: That sounds tough.
T: It is! No one wants to be the bad guy and people have a stereotype of bankers as unfeeling and cruel. But contracts are contracts and I have to run my business, right?
J: Yeah. You know what they say: business is business—it's not personal.
T: Well, I do sympathize with people's difficulties. But there's really nothing I can do.
Ted说，No one wants to be the bad guy，谁都不想当恶人，大家对银行家有成见，成见stereotype is spelled s-t-e-r-e-o-t-y-p-e, stereotype，普遍认为银行家冷血，不尽人情unfeeling and cruel，但是做生意是为了赚钱，contracts are contracts合同就是合同，或者说，business is business. It's not personal. 这是做生意，不是针对任何人。Ted同时也表示，他很理解和同情大家的难处，但又没有办法。这里用的sympathize is spelled s-y-m-p-a-t-h-i-z-e, sympathize，是同情。 |