grow. But the real story in his mind is the success achieved by the 100,000 people who make up the Wal-Mart team.\
“他或许是《福布斯》排行榜的首富,”公司事务主管吉姆·冯·格雷姆普说,“但他并不知道自己是不是首富——而且他也不在乎。他不怎么花钱。他是拥有股票,但他一直把股票留在公司里好让公司发展。而他脑子里真正想着的是沃尔玛十万员工共同取得的成功。”
16 He's usually back home for Friday sales meetings, or the executive pep rally Saturday morning at 7 a.m., when Walton, as he does at new store openings, is liable to jump up on a chair and lead everyone in the Wal-Mart cheer: \me an A! Give me an L! Louder!\
他通常回来参加星期五的销售会议,或是星期六早晨7点的行政人员鼓劲会,届时沃尔顿会像分店新开张时那样,跳上椅子,带领大家呼喊沃尔玛公司口号:“给我一个W!给我一个A!给我一个L!大声点!”
17 And louder they yell. No one admits to feeling the least bit silly. It's all part of the Wal-Mart way of life as laid down by Sam: loyalty, hard work, long hours; get ideas into the system from the bottom up, Japanese-style; treat your people right; cut prices and margins to the bone and sleep well at night. Employees with one year on board qualify for stock options, and are urged to buy all they can. 于是大家越喊越响。没有谁说这样做有点傻。这都是萨姆定下来的沃尔玛生活方式的一部分:忠诚,勤勉,加班加点;从公司最底层起大家集思广益,日本管理方式;善待员工;尽可能降低价格、减少利润,一夜安睡到天亮。员工进公司一年就有资格获得优先认股权,并一再鼓励他们尽能力购买。
18 After the pep rally, there's bird hunting, or tennis on his backyard court. But his stores are always on his mind. One tennis guest managed to put him off his game by asking why a can of balls cost more in one Wal-Mart than another. It turned out to be untrue, but the move worked. Walton lost four straight games.
鼓劲会之后,大家一起去打野禽,或在他家后院打网球。但他的那些商店总搁在他的心上。一位来打网球的客人为了分散他打球的注意力,故意问了一句为什么一筒网球在一家沃尔玛商店卖得比别的一家沃尔玛商店贵。此话并非实情,但这一招却真管用。沃尔顿连输四局。
19 Walton set up a college scholarship fund for employees' children, a disaster relief fund to rebuild employee homes damaged by fires, floods, tornadoes, and the like. He believed in cultivating ideas and rewarding success.
沃尔顿为员工子女设立了大学奖学基金,为房屋遭受火灾、洪水、龙卷风等破坏的员工重建家园设立了灾难救助基金。他信奉广开思路、褒奖成功。
20 \say, 'That fellow worked hard, let's give him a little extra,'\recalls retired president Ferold F. Arend, who was stunned at such generosity after the stingy employer he left to join Wal-Mart. \
aboard.\
“他会说,‘那人工作努力,奖励一下吧,’”退休的前任总裁费罗尔德·F·阿伦德回忆道。他原先供职的雇主非常吝啬,所以离开那里加入沃尔玛公司之后,他对这种慷慨行为深感震惊。“我加盟沃尔玛后,不得不改变自己的思维方式。”
21 \reason for our success,\says Walton, in a company handout, \our people and the way they're treated and the way they feel about their company. They believe things are different here, but they deserve the credit.\ “我们之所以成功,”沃尔顿在公司宣传册上写道,“是由于我们的员工,是由于他们所受到的待遇以及他们对公司的感情。他们认为这里与众不同,但是这种荣誉他们受之无愧。”
22 Adds company lawyer Jim Hendren: \for him or was around him for any length of time who wasn't better off. And I don't mean just financially, although a lot of people are. It's just something about him -- coming into contact with Sam Walton just makes you a better person.\ 公司律师吉姆· 亨德伦补充说,“我从没见过有谁为他工作或和他接触一段时间后而不受益的。我不仅仅是指钱财方面,当然许多人是更富有了。我是说他的某种内在的东西——与萨姆·沃尔顿交往会使你成为一个更健全的人。”
Making the journey from log cabin to White House is part of the American Dream. But when Jimmy Carter was defeated in his attempt to gain a second term as President of the United States he found himself suddenly thrown out of the White House and back in his log cabin. This is how he coped.
从小木屋走向白宫是美国梦的一部分。可是,当吉米·卡特连任美国总统的努力失败后,他发现自己一下子被赶出白宫,回到了自己的小木屋。本文叙述了他是如何应对的。
The Restoration of Jimmy Carter
Sara Pacher
1 Maybe it's because I, too, was born and raised in a small south Georgia town, but I found sitting down to talk to Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter as comfortable as lazing in a porch swing on a summer afternoon, sipping iced tea. Just such a swing overlooks a roaring mountain stream at the Carters' log cabin retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Along with the cabin's other furniture, the swing was designed and built by the former president, a master woodworker who selects and cuts the trees for such projects from his 160-acre farm. He then strips off the bark and shapes the wood into furniture and other items. 吉米·卡特的复元
莎拉·帕夏尔
或许因为我本人也生长在佐治亚州的一个南方小镇的缘故,我觉得跟罗莎琳和吉米·卡特夫妇坐下交谈就如同在夏日午后荡在门廊的秋千椅上呷冰茶那么舒服。坐落于蓝岭山脉的卡特夫妇幽居的原木小屋前,恰好就有这样的秋千椅,往下看去是一条咆哮的山间溪流。和小屋里别的家具一样,这秋千椅是前总统卡特设计和制作的。卡特是一位手艺高明的木工,为了制作这些家具,他从其方圆160英亩的农庄上亲自遴选并砍伐树木,而后剥去树皮,将木料制成家具及其他用品。
2 \daddy was a good man with tools,\he recalls, \learning how to use them was as natural as breathing for us. If something broke, we had to fix it ourselves. You didn't call somebody in to repair something or replace it with something new. We had these skills -- all farmers did during the Depression years.\ “我父亲擅长使用工具,”他回忆道,“因此学习使用工具对我们来说就像呼吸一样自然。要是有什么东西坏了,我们就得自己修。我们不会请人来修理或换新的。我们有这种手艺 —— 大萧条时期,农民都有这一手。”
3 Over the years, Carter has made some 50 household items, about half of which he has given away as gifts. But some pieces still sit around the family's Plains house and have been in use for over 30 years. His wife is quick to point out, however, that his skills improved as time went on. \built a sofa for the back porch. He used nails then. Now he builds everything without nails. He's studied woodworking and worked at it, and he's made really beautiful furniture for our home -- including a pencil-post bed and tables by the side.\
多年来,卡特制作了约50件居家用品,差不多有一半已作为礼物馈赠他人。但有些制品仍留在普兰斯的家里,都用了30多年了。不过,他妻子赶紧指出,他的手艺在不断提高。“1953年我们刚从海军退役回家时,他做了只放在后门廊用的沙发。那时他还用钉子。现在他做什么都不用钉子了。他研究木工工艺,下功夫制作,他给家里做的家具真的非常漂亮,包括一张细柱床和配套的床头柜。”
4 His woodworking talent served Carter well during his political campaigns, particularly when meeting factory workers. \people who work in a factory before they realize that you, yourself, have been a laborer. It may be a different kind of skill from theirs, but there's a bond, sort of like a brotherhood, among people who work with their hands.\ 卡特的木工才干在政治竞选中,尤其是在与工厂工人见面时发挥了很好的作用。“你不用跟在工厂干活的人多说,他们就会明白,原来你本人也是个劳动者。你的手艺或许跟他们不一样,但在干体力活的人之间有种天然的纽带,好似手足之情。”
5 Once he campaigned his way to the presidency, Carter occasionally managed to slip in a few hours at the carpenter's shed at Camp David, because, in his opinion, \
with one's own hands -- whether it's tilling the soil, building a house, making a piece of furniture, playing a violin or painting a painting -- is something that doesn't change with the ups and downs of life. And for me, going back to the earth or going back to the woodshop have always been opportunities to reinforce my basic skills. (2)No matter if I was involved in writing a book, conducting a political campaign, teaching at Emory University or dealing with international affairs, I could always go back -- at least for a few hours at a time -- to the woodshop. That's meant an awful lot to me. It's
a kind of therapy, but it's also a steadying force in my life -- a total rest for my mind. 卡特一路竞选当上总统之后,偶尔也设法悄悄溜到戴维营的木工场干上几个小时,因为在他看来,“我们在生活中需要一些永远不变的要素。我认为手艺 —— 不管是耕地,造房子,做家具,拉小提琴,还是画图 —— 这些东西不会因生活的起起落落而改变。至于我,回到农场种地或重返木工场一直是我增进基本技能的机会。无论我在写书,从事政治活动,在爱莫瑞大学教书,还是处理国际事务,我总会设法抽空回到木工场,每次至少呆上几个小时。这对我十分重要。这是一种理疗,同时也是我生活中的一种稳定力量 —— 是身心的完全休息。”
6 \I'm writing or the paragraph I can't complete or the ideas that don't come. I'm thinking about the design of a piece of furniture, how the wood's going to fit together, what joint I'm going to use and whether or not my hand tools are sharp.\ “在木工场的时候,”他接着说,“我不会去想正在写的章节,不会去想写不下去的段落或搁浅的思路。我考虑的是一件家具的设计,木料该如何嵌合,用什么样的榫头,还有工具是否锋利。”
7 (3)In Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's recently published book, Everything to Gain, they explain frankly how they used back-to-basics skills to confront and resolve their painful political defeat, a sudden departure from Washington and their fears of an empty future.
在吉米和罗莎琳·卡特最近出版的书名为《好处说不尽》的书中,他们直言不讳地解释了当他们遭遇痛苦的政治上的失败,突然告别华盛顿以及对茫然的未来感到惧怕时,他们是如何使用返璞归真的技能来面对和化解这些问题的。
8 \but to Plains -- for a couple of reasons. One, to show the attraction of a small town, and, second, to make it clear that the book is not just about a couple who happened to have been the First Family of the nation; it's also written for the average person who loses a job, has an unexpected career change, has to move to a place not of his or her choice, has a last child leave home. Or for a married couple who suddenly find themselves at retirement age and living together for the first time all day long -- not just at night.\ “在书里,”吉米说,“出于几种原因,我们试图将我们的生活与普兰斯而不是跟白宫联系在一起。其一,是为了展示小镇的魅力;其二是要清楚地表明,这本书写的并不仅仅是一对有幸成为美国第一家庭的夫妇的生活,它也是写给普通人看的,例如一个失去工作的人,突然遇到职业变迁的人,并非出于自己的选
择而不得不迁居的人,一个连自己最小的孩子也长大成人离家而去的人,或者是写给一对突然发现已届退休年龄、第一次得从早到晚而不仅仅是夜里厮守在一起的夫妇看的。”
9 The Carters plunged with enthusiasm into such projects as laying a sidewalk and putting a hardwood floor in their unfinished loft. Rosalynn has picked up additional carpentry skills in working with one of their favorite organizations, Habitat for Humanity. This is a housing program for the homeless, helping them to build their own houses together with the help of volunteers. 卡特夫妇热情投入了诸如铺设人行道、在尚未完工的阁楼里铺硬木地板这类工程。在与两人最喜欢的一个机构“博爱居家”的共事过程中,罗莎琳学到了不少木工手艺。“博爱居家”是一项为无家可归的人创办的住房工程,帮助他们在志愿者的协助下建造自己的家园。
10 \care of the timberlands. Sometimes we go for long walks in the woods. I may see a particular tree that I think would be suitable for four or five -- perhaps, seven or eight -- chairs or for some other piece of furniture. I usually select a tree close to home, though, since I have to carry the pieces back to the woodshop area. “我俩都在农场上花了不少时间,”卡特说,“我们护理林地。有时我们在林子里长时间散步。我或许会看到某棵我觉得适合制作四五把——也许七把、八把——椅子或别的什么家具的树。不过,我通常挑选离家近的树,因为我得自己把木料搬回到木工场地。
11 \tremendous amount of hard labor involved in that. You have to try to handle the different rates at which the wood dries, so the joints get tight and durable. It's the kind of technical problem that appeals to me,\
“我最喜欢的一件木工活是用湿材制作家具,不过这活要费很大的劲。你得处理好木料干燥后引起的不同的收缩率,以保证榫头紧固不松。我喜欢的就是这样的技术难题,”这位前核工程师说。
12 Obviously, most of today's young people don't grow up routinely learning to use their hands \an advantage his parents' generation lacked.
很显然,今天大多数的年轻人在成长过程中,不像卡特当年那样,在日常生活中得学会“像呼吸一样自然”地使用自己的双手。但他认为,年轻人还是拥有他们父辈所没有的优势。
13 \or were physically incapable of working anymore. You began work at sunrise and worked until dark. But, nowadays, you work 40 hours a week, get a couple of weeks off for vacation and then retire at 55, 60 or 65. You have so much spare time to take on additional exciting things. Sometimes they can be quite useful things; sometimes
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