VOA标准英语2013--Immigrant's Success in US Creates Great Opportunities for Many

 

Immigrant's Success in US Creates Great Opportunities for Many

What you’re looking at is the 'American Dream.' Ali Saifi left Iran nearly 40 years ago to start a life in the United States.  

“It’s a most interesting country because it allows you to do what you want to do,” he said.

What he wanted to do was open a restaurant. So in 1981 he did just that, acquiring a Subway franchise¹ in Greenville, South Carolina.

“This is the very first Subway that we opened in Greenville 30 years ago,” said Saifi as he shows the store.

Today he has more than 400 stores.  

“400 restaurants employ nearly 4,000 people.”

The payroll² for those 4,000 people is an estimated $40 million. And the taxes they pay on that money are about $6 million.

“Then there’s a significant amount of non-direct employees. The food distributor. The truck driver. The packers. All of these people that we buy products from and they deliver to us,” said Saifi.

That’s the other part of the American Dream. The dream that one man’s success can help others realize their dreams, too.

“This store is a lot more to me than just my job. It’s kind of part of my life,” said Lakim Campbell, who manages one of the Subway restaurants for Saifi.

She joined Subway a couple of years ago as an employee earning the minimum wage.

“Three months after starting I became pregnant, and I was out three weeks and I came back. I started right back where I left off,” she said.

Campbell worked her way up to a manager's job.

And with management, came benefits like paid vacations, paid sick days, and healthcare.  

“It was really great for me. To be able to get insurance, to be able to go to the doctor whenever I need to, and not whenever I could afford to,” she said.

And not just for Campbell, but health benefits for her newborn child, and a roof over both of their heads. Now, multiply that by 4,000, and that’s the type of impact this one man has had.  

But not every shop Saifi opens is a financial success.

“He was willing to take a chance on a restaurant that perhaps profits were going to take a second place to people,” said Crystal Hardesty. She’s the regional marketing³ director for Goodwill⁴ Industries. It's a non-profit organization that trains people for low paying, entry level jobs.

Saifi helped Goodwill open a Subway restaurant within the store to prepare people for jobs in the food service industry.

“A lot of us see a job as something simple. Perhaps we take it for granted. But for a lot of people that really is something that they perhaps thought was unattainable, and, when they have that, it really changes their whole outlook on life,” said Hardesty.

“They train people less fortunate than the rest of us… the people that you and I would typically not hire. With a checkered⁵ past or maybe abused, battered⁶ women. This is an entity⁷ that gives you a hand up, not a handout,” said Saifi.

During its 2012 fiscal⁸ year, the Greenville Goodwill helped find jobs for nearly 7,300 people - people who otherwise might have depended on taxpayer-funded assistance programs. Instead, they collectively earned more than $75 million. All because of help from one man who came to the United States chasing his own dream. 

1 franchise   

n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权

参考例句：

• Catering in the schools is run on a franchise basis.学校餐饮服务以特许权经营。
• The United States granted the franchise to women in 1920.美国于1920年给妇女以参政权。

2 payroll   

n.工资表，在职人员名单，工薪总额

参考例句：

• His yearly payroll is $1.2 million.他的年薪是120万美元。
• I can't wait to get my payroll check.我真等不及拿到我的工资单了。

3 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

4 goodwill   

n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉

参考例句：

• His heart is full of goodwill to all men.他心里对所有人都充满着爱心。
• We paid ￡10,000 for the shop,and ￡2000 for its goodwill.我们用一万英镑买下了这家商店，两千英镑买下了它的信誉。

5 checkered   

adj.有方格图案的

参考例句：

• The ground under the trees was checkered with sunlight and shade.林地光影交错。
• He’d had a checkered past in the government.他过去在政界浮沉。

6 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

7 entity   

n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物

参考例句：

• The country is no longer one political entity.这个国家不再是一个统一的政治实体了。
• As a separate legal entity,the corporation must pay taxes.作为一个独立的法律实体，公司必须纳税。

8 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。