VOA慢速英语2010年-Economics Report - The Rise and Fall o

Mark Hurd got credit for building Hewlett-Packard into the world's largest technology company. H-P is the top seller of personal computers and printers. It had sales last year of almost one hundred fifteen billion dollars.

Mr. Hurd became chief executive officer five years ago after H-P ousted¹ Carly Fiorina. Later he also became chairman. Under his leadership H-P stock doubled in price.

So the news out of Palo Alto, California, last Friday came to many as a shock. Mark Hurd was out.

Investigators² said he had falsified expense records to hide spending on a woman who worked with H-P. Reports said the amount was about twenty thousand dollars. Mr. Hurd is married. He earned twenty-four million dollars last year.

In June the former marketing³ contractor⁴, Jodie Fisher, accused Mr. Hurd of sexual harassment⁵. Through her lawyer, she said she was "surprised and saddened" that he lost his job. She said they had settled her claim privately⁶. The sometime actress also said they never had an "intimate sexual relationship."

File photo of Mark Hurd

H-P and private investigators found no violation⁷ of the sexual harassment policy at the company. But they did find that Mr. Hurd violated H-P's Standards of Business Conduct. These suggest that before employees make a decision, they should "consider how it would look in a news story."

Sexual harassment is one of the areas of job discrimination investigated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The federal agency received almost thirteen thousand harassment claims last year. That was down from over fifteen thousand ten years ago. Men now make close to one-fifth of the complaints. The agency finds reasonable cause in about half of all sexual harassment claims.

H-P is paying Mark Hurd twelve million dollars plus millions more in stock options to leave. But his resignation was not the only exit from a job that was in the news this week.

A flight attendant became an overnight folk hero on the Internet.

Steven Slater apparently⁸ argued with a passenger over baggage in the overhead bin⁹ and got hit on the head. Once the flight landed in New York he deployed¹⁰ the emergency slide and left the plane.

Soon there was a new expression: to "hit the slide," to leave a job in a memorable¹¹ way. But Steven Slater is in a lot of legal trouble and details of exactly what happened on that JetBlue flight and how he acted are still up in the air.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember.

 

1 ousted   

驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• He was ousted as chairman. 他的主席职务被革除了。
• He may be ousted by a military takeover. 他可能在一场军事接管中被赶下台。

2 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

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 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

5 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

6 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

7 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

8 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

9 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

10 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

11 memorable   

adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的

参考例句：

• This was indeed the most memorable day of my life.这的确是我一生中最值得怀念的日子。
• The veteran soldier has fought many memorable battles.这个老兵参加过许多难忘的战斗。