三角洲通訊公司老板John Smith到銀行申請貸款,接待他的是銀行負責(zé)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相互問候,彼此堅持要對方用first name稱呼自己,以便拉近距離,不會顯得太客氣。史密斯是三角洲通訊公司的CEO, Chief Executive Officer,首席執(zhí)行官,這家公司主要生產(chǎn)對講機等短波通訊工具。walkie-talkie,是中文里說的對講機。
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.
史密斯說,他們公司的業(yè)務(wù)沒有受到經(jīng)濟危機的影響,剛在東南亞簽了幾個重要合同。 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則抱怨說,最近兩年貸款很不好做 It's been a rough couple of years,rough, r-o-u-g-h, rough,在這里是困難的意思。不僅很多貸款申請不符合標準被退回,而且還不得不采取法律手段追繳貸款。
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說,No one wants to be the bad guy,誰都不想當(dāng)惡人,大家對銀行家有成見,成見stereotype is spelled s-t-e-r-e-o-t-y-p-e, stereotype,普遍認為銀行家冷血,不盡人情unfeeling and cruel,但是做生意是為了賺錢,contracts are contracts合同就是合同,或者說,business is business. It's not personal. 這是做生意,不是針對任何人。Ted同時也表示,他很理解和同情大家的難處,但又沒有辦法。這里用的sympathize is spelled s-y-m-p-a-t-h-i-z-e, sympathize,是同情。