英语双语阅读
Why hasn't Tim Cook taken Apple private?
网友爆笑解答：为什么库克不买下苹果
“With such amazing and innovative products, strong executive team and labor force, loyal customer base, significant capacity for debt, $109 billion of cash in marketable securities, it is surprising that Tim Cook has not already initiated a leveraged management buyout of the company.”
“苹果公司有着绝佳的创新性产品、强有力的高管团队和劳动力、忠诚的客户群以及超强的负债能力，同时还坐拥价值1090亿美元的畅销有价证券。这么好的条件，蒂姆?库克竟然还没有启动对苹果的管理层杠杆收购，真是令人吃惊。”
So writes Marwaan Karame of IDG Capital Group in a provocative Seeking Alpha article backed with eleven spreadsheets, seven graphs and two Monte Carlo simulations.
在给美国财经资讯网站Seeking Alpha撰写的一篇挑衅性文章中，IDG Capital Group的玛万?喀拉密写下了上面这段话。喀拉密在文中用了11个电子表格、7个图表和两个统计试验法模拟来佐证自己的观点。
You can read his analysis at Apple’s Leveraged Management Buyout Potential. But don’t miss the lively back and forth in the comment stream.
各位可以在《苹果公司管理层杠杆收购的潜在可能》（Apple’s Leveraged Management Buyout Potential）一文中看到喀拉密的分析。但是，千万别错过评论区精彩的唇枪舌战。
A sample:
部分神回复摘录如下：
–alistairt: One of the best examples I’ve seen to date of someone mindlessly applying a LBO model without consideration of the underlying business reality.
- alistairt：这是我迄今见过的生搬硬套杠杆收购模型，而丝毫不考虑根本商业现实的最好例子。
–relayer75: Not going to happen. The largest LBO in history was RJR
Nabisco, at $31 billion. This would be 18x that amount.
- relayer75：根本不可能。历史上最大的杠杆收购案例是美国雷诺兹-纳贝斯克公司（RJR Nabisco），收购价为310亿美元。假如苹果被收购，规模将是雷诺兹-纳贝斯克收购案的18倍。
–rroo: Cook is a level-headed guy, more like Gates or Buffet. LBO (money and power) are for those infected with megalomania.
- rroo：库克头脑冷静，这一点有些像盖茨或巴菲特。而只有自大狂才会对杠杆收购（金钱和权力）念念不忘。
– rsbduff: This is the same attitude that has ruined many a company. They buy them…load them up with debt…rape them…then dump them on stupid investors…once again
- rsbduff：这种态度已经毁掉了许多公司。他们将公司买下来……欠下一屁股债……把公司搜刮的干干净净……然后又让傻呼呼的投资者来接盘
–Timmiesregular: There are some benefits to being public —especially if you are profitable. Going private is only done when the company needs to be out of the public eye – like Dell.
- Timmiesregular：上市公司能享受到不少好处——特别是如果公司盈利的话更是如此。公司私有化通常是公司需要淡出公众视线时的权宜之计，戴尔就是一个很好的例子。
– Hank890: An AAPL LBO would be a major GIFT to any I-bank tasked with handling it. But it is not clear that the customers or employees would get much out of it. Just because an LBO is possible does not mean it is advisable. - Hank890：如果苹果被杠杆收购，那负责这笔交易的投行就赚大了。但客户或公司员工不见得有太大的好处。杠杆收购有可能不代表就是明智之举。
– wdchil: An LBO might have almost have made sense when Apple was below $400 but it certainly doesn’t now. The debt would be in the “sketchy junk” arena.
- wdchil：苹果股价低于400美元的时候，杠杆收购似乎讲得通，但现在绝对不合适。假如此时苹果进行杠杆收购，它的债务将基本等同于垃圾债。
– petergrayhill: This latest surge from high 400′s to 635 will end badly for the millions of mom’n’pop retail investors as well —head fake to trade. LBO is a certainty within 5 years.
- petergrayhill：苹果股价从400多美元一路上涨到635美元的最新一波上涨行情
最后会死得很难看，数百万散户投资者也将没有好果子吃——交易的障眼法。杠杆收购5年内一定会发生。
– alexkeywest: An LBO of this company is delusional at best.
- alexkeywest：苹果将被杠杆收购简直是痴人说梦。
–doc: “Its a wonder that Tim Cook has not pursued a leveraged management buyout already” He doesn't live in a theoretical world with too much time on his hands.
- doc:“蒂姆?库克没有寻求进行管理层杠杆收购，实在是令人吃惊。”因为库克没那么闲，没工夫在那儿纸上谈兵。
– brittlerock: Does SA pay people to write this junk?
- brittlerock：Seeking Alpha花钱请人写这种垃圾文章？
To answer brittlerock: Seeking Alpha’s rates are $0.01 per page view. Authors of PRO articles receive a minimum guaranteed payment of $150-500.
回复brittlerock：Seeking Alpha的稿费费率是，页面点击量的单价为0.01美元。专业文章的作者每篇文章保证能获得150-500美元的保底收入。
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leveraged['lev?rid?d]video
adj. 杠杆的；杠杆作用的v. （美）杠杆式投机，举债经营（leverage的过去分词形式）
initiate[i'ni?ieit, i'ni?i?t, -eit]video
vt. 开始，创始；发起；使初步了解n. 开始；新加入者，接受初步知识者adj. 新加入的；接受初步知识的innovative['in?uveitiv]video
adj. 革新的，创新的
executive[iɡ'zekjutiv]video
adj. 行政的；经营的；执行的，经营管理的n. 经理；执行委员会；执行者；经理主管人员
significant[sig'nifik?nt]video
adj. 重大的；有效的；有意义的；值得注意的；意味深长的n. 象征；有意义的事物
capacity[k?'p?s?ti]video
n. 能力；容量；资格，地位；生产力
Different sleeping position for different personality
睡姿揭示不同性格
Sleeping like a log: More than half of us in the UK sleep curled up in the foetal position, left, suggesting we are a nation of worriers, while the second most common position is the log, right, which indicates a rigid personality
睡得香：在英国有超过一半的人是胎儿型睡姿，睡觉时会蜷成一团，如左图，这说明我们是一个焦虑者的国度，第二常见的睡姿是像树干一样的睡姿，如右图，这体现出刚强的个性。
Do you sleep like a log? Or are you more of a yearner, a freefaller or a foetal?
你是树干型睡姿吗？还是渴望型、自由落体型或是胎儿型？
More than half of people in the UK curl into the foetal position as they sleep - a sign they are seeking comfort - according to new research.
根据最新的一项调查，超过一半的英国人睡觉时会蜷成一团，像婴儿一样——表示他们在寻求安慰。
The "log” is the second most common position, adopted by those with rigid personalities, according to the study by a body language expert.
“树干型”是其次普遍的睡姿，根据一个肢体语言专家所做的研究，采用这种睡姿的多为个性刚强的人。
'Yearners', who sleep with arms outstreched, account for the 25% of the population who are longing to chase their dreams. 17% of those surveyed adopt the 'freefall' position, suggesting they feel a lack of control over their lives.
“渴望型”指的是双臂向前伸展的睡姿，占人群中的25%，他们大都渴望追求梦想。17%的被调查者睡觉时的姿势是“自由落体型”，暗示他们觉得自己无法掌控自己的生活。
The position you choose while sleeping reveals a startling amount about your personality, according to body language expert Robert Phipps.
身体语言专家罗伯特·菲普斯告诉我们，人在睡眠时选择的睡姿惊人地反映出了这个人的个性。
Mr Phipps has identified four positions and says the foetal – most favoured by worriers – is by far the most common.
菲普斯表示在四种睡姿中胎儿型是焦虑者最喜欢的——也是目前最常见的一种睡姿。
More than half of us (58 per cent) adopt it and sleep with knees up and head down. The more we curl up, the more comfort we’re seeking, he says. The second most common position is the log (28 per cent).
超过一半的人（58%）会采取胎儿型睡姿，膝盖卷起，低着头。菲普斯解释道：我们蜷缩地越厉害，也就是我们渴望的舒适越多。第二常见的睡姿是树干型（28%）。
A straight body, with arms and legs by the side, apparently indicates stubbornness and they can wake up stiffer than when they went to sleep, says Mr Phipps.
菲普斯表示，笔直的身体而且胳膊和腿放一边，这样的睡姿明显反映出固执的性格，他们醒来时会比入睡时更僵硬。
Nap-time: 'Yearners' sleep with their arms outstreched, left, while 'freefallers' sleep on their stomachs with their arms at right-angles, right.
小憩时间：“渴望型”的人会伸长胳膊，如左图；而“自由落体型”的人会趴着睡，胳膊成直角弯曲。
The 25 per cent of us that are a yearner – arms stretched out in front – are either chasing a dream or being chased.
有25%的人是渴望型睡姿，手臂向前伸出去，这样的睡姿要么是在追求梦想，要么是在被人追赶。
Yearners are their own worst critics says Mr Phipps, always expecting great results. They wake up eager to face the challenges of the day.
菲普斯说渴望型的人会最爱批评自己，他们总是期待很好的结果。他们醒来时带着对新一天挑战的渴望。
Freefallers – face down, arms outstretched – make up 17 per cent and feel they have little control over their life. Physically this is the least comfortable position.
拥有脸朝下、手臂张开的自由落体型睡姿的人占了17%，这一类人对于自己的人生少有控制。从生理角度而言，这是最不舒服的睡姿。
Mr Phipps’s survey asked people to record their most common sleeping positions, with some naming more than one. He said: ‘A good night’s sleep sets you up for the following day and our sleeping positions can determine
how we feel when we wake.’
菲普斯通过调查了解并记录人们最常见的睡姿，有的人常用的睡姿不止一个。他说：“一个良好的夜间睡眠决定了你的第二天，我们的睡姿决定了我们醒来时会是什么感觉。”
startle['stɑ:tl]video
vt. 使吓一跳；使惊奇vi. 惊吓；惊跳；惊奇n. 惊愕；惊恐
critic['kritik]video
n. 批评家，评论家；爱挑剔的人
freefall[]video
n. 自由下坠，自由下落
reveal[ri'vi:l]video
vt. 显示；透露；揭露；泄露n. 揭露；暴露；门侧，窗侧
adopt[?'d?pt]video
vt. 采取；接受；收养；正式通过vi. 采取；过继
curl[k?:l]video
vt. 使…卷曲；使卷起来vi. 卷曲；盘绕n. 卷曲；卷发；螺旋状物
stretch[stret?]video
vt. 伸展，张开；vi. 伸展；adj. 可伸缩的；n. 伸展，延伸
rigid['rid?id]video
adj. 严格的；僵硬的，死板的；坚硬的；精确的
stiffer[]video
adj. 更硬的（sniff的比较级）
apparently[?'p?r?ntli]video
adv. 显然地；似乎，表面上
stiff[stif]video
adj. 呆板的；坚硬的；严厉的；拘谨的；拘谨的adv. 僵硬地；彻底地n. 死尸；令人讨厌者；流通票据；劳动者vt. 亏待侍者等vi. 在商业上惨败
foetal[f?utl]video
adj. 胎儿的；似胎儿的
rigid['rid?id]video
adj. 严格的；僵硬的，死板的；坚硬的；精确的
personality[,p?:s?'n?l?ti]video
n. 个性；品格；名人
curl[k?:l]video
vt. 使…卷曲；使卷起来vi. 卷曲；盘绕n. 卷曲；卷发；螺旋状物
sign[sain]video
n. 迹象；符号；记号；手势vi. 签署；签名vt. 签署；示意
Why Are Handsome Men Such Jerks?
为什么帅哥都那么混蛋？
Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending is a good novel. We know it's a good novel because lots of people like it, and because it won the Man Booker, one of the biggest prizes in English-language literature. But here’s the funny thing. After the book won the prize, people didn't like it as much! Its rating on the site Goodreads took a sudden plunge. And it wasn't the only book to suffer that fate. A recent paper by sociologists Balázs Kovács and Amanda J. Sharkey studied a group of 32 English-language novels that won major literary awards. After the prize, their ratings on Goodreads dropped from an average of just under 4 to about 3.75. A group of comparably rated novels that were short-listed for prizes, but didn't win, showed no such diminution.
朱利安·巴恩斯的小说The Sense of an Ending不错。很多人都喜欢这部小说，并且它还获得了布克奖——英语文学的重量级奖项之一。但是奇怪的事儿来了。在获奖之后，人们没有从前那么喜欢这部小说了。它在Goodreads上的排名骤然下滑，而且它并不是唯一遭此厄运的小说。最近社会学家巴拉兹·卡瓦茨和阿曼达·J·莎克里发表了一篇论文，其中研究了一组共32部英语小说，它们都曾获得过重要的文学奖项。在获奖之后，它们在Goodreads上的排名平均下滑3.75到4个位次。另外一组研究对象则是入围但是最终并未获奖的小说，它们跟获奖小说的水平相当，但是却未出现如此现象。
When a book wins a Booker, that ought to make us think it’s good. Every sociologist—OK, every human being over the age of 12—knows we like things more when we hear that other people like them. So what explains the Booker backlash?
如果一本书能够获得布克奖，我们会理所当然的认为它是本好书。每一位社会学家，好吧，每一个12岁以上的人，都知道如果我们听说有其他人也跟我们一样喜欢一样东西，那我们会更加喜欢它。那又如何来解释“布克反弹”现象呢？
At least in part, it’s a quirk of statistics called Berkson's fallacy. If you know one thing about correlation, it’s that correlation is not the same as causation. Two variables, like height and math scores in school kids, may be correlated, even though being good at math doesn’t make you taller, or vice versa. What’s going on is that older kids are both taller and better at math. Correlation can arise from a common cause that drives both variables in the same direction.
从某种程度来说，它是一种被称之为伯克逊谬误的统计失真。如果你对相关性略知一二，你会知道相关并不代表因果关系。比如两个变量，学生的身高和数学成绩，它们可能具有相关性。虽然数学成绩好并不能让你长高，同样的，你再长得高点，也不能提高你的数学成绩。事实是，年龄大一点的孩子通常个子高一些，同时他们的数学成绩也会好一些。基于一个共同的原因，使得两个变量朝着相同的方向发展，由此两者之间产生了相关性。
But that's not the only way misleading correlations can pop up. Joseph Berkson, the longtime head of the medical statistics division at the Mayo Clinic, observed in 1938 that correlations can also arise from a common effect. Berkson's research was about medical data in hospitals, but it’s easier to explain the phenomenon in terms of the Great Square of Men.
但是这并不是误导相关产生的唯一原因。约瑟夫·伯克逊，长期担任Mayo诊所的医学统计部领导，他在1938年发现共同的影响也可以导致相关性。伯克逊的研究是基于医院的医学数据，但是我们可以通过“大方块中的男人”这个例子，来更容易的解释这个现象。
Suppose you’re a person who dates men. You may have noticed that, among the men in your dating pool, the handsome ones tend not to be nice, and the nice ones tend not to be handsome. Is that because having a symmetrical face makes you cruel? Does it mean that being nice to people makes you ugly? Well, it could be. But it doesn't have to be.
假设你在和男人约会。你可能会注意到，在你的候选人员中，那些帅哥的脾气更加不好，而那些友好的男人又往往更丑些。这是否意味着对人友好会把人变丑？好吧，也许是的。不过不是非得这样。
Behold the Great Square of Men. (And I'd like to note that you can find more stunning hand-drawn illustrations just like this one in How Not to Be Wrong.)
让我们回到“大方块中的男人”。(而且我想提醒你，在How Not to Be Wrong.中你会找到比下图更惊人的手绘插图)
Now, let’s take as a working hypothesis that men are in fact equidistributed all over this square. In particular, there are nice handsome ones, nice ugly ones, mean handsome ones, and mean ugly ones, in roughly equal numbers.
现在，让我们做一个有效的假设，即方块中的男人实际上是等分布的。更具体点说，我们把这些男人分为4类，既友好又长得帅的，友好但是长得丑的，不友好但长得帅的和不友好又长得丑的，每一类的人数都差不多。
But niceness and handsomeness have a common effect: They put these men in the group of people that you notice. Be honest—the mean uglies are the ones you never even consider. So inside the Great Square is a Smaller Triangle of Acceptable Men:
但是友好和帅气具有一个共同的效应：只有这些人你才会注意到。说实话，那些脾气又臭长得又丑的男人根本不在你的考虑范围之内。因此在这个大方块中，只有一个小三角才是你的选择范围。
Now the source of the phenomenon is clear. The handsomest men in your triangle, over on the far right, run the gamut of personalities, from kindest to (almost) cruelest. On average, they are about as nice as the average person in the whole population, which, let’s face it, is not that nice. And by the same token, the nicest men are only averagely handsome. The ugly guys you like, though—they make up a tiny corner of the triangle, and they are pretty darn nice. They have to be, or they wouldn't be visible to you at all. The negative correlation between looks and personality in your dating pool is absolutely real. But the relation isn't causal. If you try to improve your boyfriend’s complexion by training him to act mean, you've fallen victim to Berkson's fallacy.
至此，这个现象产生的根源已经很清楚了，在你的三角中，最帅的人位于最右边的线上，它几乎囊括了人的所有品性，从最宽厚的到(几乎)最残忍的。平均而言，他们的友好程度跟全体男人的平均友好水平差不多，但是，我们必须正视，这个友好程度并不十分友好。同理可得，最友好的男人的相貌也只达到全体男人的平均水平。而那些你能看上的丑男们，他们可真是友好的不像话啊，虽然他们只占了三角中的一个很小的角落。不过他们必须得是这样的，否则怎么入得了你的法眼。约会对象的相貌和品性之间具有负相关性，这是绝对真实的。但是这种相关性并不具备因果关系。千万别想着通过训练男友行为卑劣，就能使他们的相貌增色几分，否则你就沦为伯克逊谬误的牺牲品了。
The fallacy works, too, as a driver of literary snobbery. Why are popular novels so terrible? It’s not because the masses don’t appreciate quality. It’s because the novels you read are the ones in the Acceptable Triangle, which are either popular or good. So within that group, the good ones are less likely to be popular, for the same reason the handsomer men are bigger jerks. If you force yourself to read unpopular novels chosen essentially at random—I've been on a jury for a literary prize, so I've actually done this—you find that most of them, just like the popular ones, are pretty bad. And I imagine if you dated men chosen completely at random from OkCupid, you’d find that the less attractive men were just as jerky as the chiseled hunks. But that’s an experiment I can’t recommend, not even for the sake of mathematical enlightenment.
此谬误也是文学上的势力现象产生的驱动力之一。为什么流行小说评价如此糟糕？并非是大众不懂得欣赏，而是因为每个人读的小说只在自己能接受的三角范围内，它们要么流行，要么很好。在这个范围内，好的小说更可能不那么流行，就好比那些比较帅气的男人更可能是个大混蛋！如果你强迫自己读一些完全随机选择的非流行小说(我曾经当过一个文学奖的评委，所以我确实这么干过)，你会发现它们中的大多数，都非常的糟糕，就跟流行小说的表现一样。而且我能想像，
如果你从OkCupid上完全随机的选择约会对象，你会发现那些不怎么具有吸引力的男人和俊朗的帅哥一样混蛋。不过我可不推荐这个实验，即便是打着数学启蒙的旗号。
And now what happened to Julian Barnes is pretty clear. There are two reasons you might have read The Sense of an Ending and rated it on Goodreads. It might be because it’s exactly the kind of novel you’re apt to like. Or it might be because it won the Booker Prize. When a book wins a prize, then its audience expands beyond the core group of fans already predisposed to love it. That’s what every author dreams of, but more frequently read inevitably means less universally liked.
至此，朱利安·巴恩斯的遭遇已经相当明了。你可能已经读过The Sense of an Ending，并且在Goodreads上给它打了分。这其中的原因可能有两个，一个是因为它恰好就是你会喜欢的那类小说，另一个是因为它获得了布克奖。如果一本书获了奖，那么它的读者就不仅仅是那些之前就已经很热爱它的核心粉丝群体了。获奖是每一个作家梦寐以求的事情，但是一本书被读到的越频繁，喜欢它的读者的比例就越低。
fallacy['f?leisi]video
n. 谬论，谬误
quirk[kw?:k]video
n. 怪癖；急转；借口
backlash['b?k,l??]video
n. 后座；反斜线；后冲
diminution[,dimi'nju:??n]video
n. 减少，降低；缩小
novel['n?v?l]video
adj. 新奇的；异常的n. 小说
plunge[pl?nd?]video
n. 投入；跳进vi. 投入；陷入；跳进vt. 使陷入；使投入；使插入
suffer['s?f?]video
vt. 遭受；忍受；经历vi. 遭受，忍受；受痛苦；经验；受损害
comparably['k?mp?r?bli]video
The Chinese art of mythmaking
中国式造谣
An outsider's perspective is valuable. But even in this age of instant information the outsider could become a poster boy made malleable by preconceived perceptions and a thirst for contrast.
旁观者的观点通常是有益的。但是在这个即时通信的时代，旁观者很可能会成为受先入为主观念和反差欲影响的典型例子。
In the minds of most Chinese, the word "Harvard" is synonymous with educational excellence - to the point of overshadowing other equally top-notch Western institutions of higher education except maybe Oxford and Cambridge.
在很多中国人的心里，“哈佛”就是优秀教育的同义词——甚至超过了除牛津和剑桥之外的同等级西方高校。
However, the Harvard in the Chinese imagination is not the Harvard by the Charles River in Boston. It is a myth shrouded in layers of cultural misperception. When I was a kid, a friend of my father's, one of the very few who had been to other provinces of the country, described Harvard as a school with very high walls, where students were not allowed to go outside during the four years of their study, not even when their parents died. They had to memorize tons of text from early morning until late at night.
然而，中国人想象中的哈佛大学却远远不是波士顿查尔斯河畔的哈佛大学真实的一面。中国人脑海里的哈佛，只是由于文化误解而导致的错误的看法。当我还是一个孩子的时候，我父亲的一个朋友是当时少有的去过其他省份的人。他描述的哈佛大学有着高高的围墙，学生在四年学习中不允许外出，就算父母去世也不行。这些学生必须从早到晚记忆背诵着无数的东西。
Now that I recall it, the Harvard believed in by this relatively well-informed person (for that era) was a cross between an ancient Chinese school and a prison. Had he been shown the movie Love Story, which was made around the same time and was about a Harvard student, he would have been devastated: "What? A student could date and get married while in school?"
现在，当我回忆起这件事的时候，这位相对来说在那个年代还比较有学问的人，他脑海里的哈佛只是古代中国私塾和监狱的融合罢了。有一部名为《爱情故事》的电影拍摄的就是那个时候的哈佛和哈佛学子。如果他看了这部电影的话，一定会大吃一惊：“什么？学生在学校可以约会，还可以结婚？”
Even with China's opening up and with the growing exchange of information, some Chinese people simply cannot resist the temptation of molding China's favorite foreign university in our own image, which is essentially a school staffed by thousands of tiger moms. Thus were born the rumors about the 20 statements plastered on the walls of Harvard's library. The statements were
said to include: "If you sleep now, you will have a dream, but if you study now, you will realize a dream"; "Even though happiness is not based on a person's performance records, success is the likely result"; and "If you study one more hour, you will have a better husband."
就算中国改革开放，与外界的信息交流不断增加，一些中国人还是抵抗不了这些一直以来都是中国人心中最好的国外大学的吸引力，认为那里充满了千千万万个虎妈。有谣言说哈佛图书馆的墙上有20条训言，包括“此刻打盹，你将做梦；此刻学习，你将圆梦”；“幸福或许不排名次，但成功必排名次”；“多学习一个小时，你会找到更好的丈夫”。
In 2012, The Wall Street Journal carried an article that quoted Professor Robert Darnton, who stated unequivocally: "As the university librarian, I can attest that no such writings exist on any of the walls at Harvard's 73 libraries." 2012年，《华尔街日报》刊登了一篇文章，援引了罗伯特·达恩顿教授的一句话，他清楚明白地说：“作为一名大学图书管理员，我敢保证，哈佛73家图书馆的墙上，都没有这样的训言。”
The professor may not know that he has many phantom colleagues who have penned Chinese best-sellers.
这位教授可能不知道，他有许多“虚幻的”同事写的书是中国畅销书。
There is a special section in China's publishing industry, usually operated underground and with retail outlets on sidewalks, that churn out many inspirational and how-to books.
中国出版业有一块特殊领域，会大量生产劣质励志和指导书籍，通常秘密印刷，然后在路边摊销售。
They tend to have extremely catchy titles, such as Executive Power, which was supposedly authored by a certain Professor Paul Thomas, who is on the Harvard Business School faculty. After selling 2 million copies, this volume of inspiration, which was said to be President Lincoln's favorite book, was found to be totally phony. There was no English original and Paul Thomas was a name the publisher created out of the blue. Harvard Mottos is another such book, but its author seems to have more flesh and blood than Paul Thomas of Executive Power. Danny Feng is reported to be a Beijinger who has studied in the United States. After the scam was exposed, Feng said he based his book on an online post by expanding on each of the 20 mottos. It was a fly-by-night operation, taking only two months from the book's conception to hitting store shelves.
这些书通常都会有搏人眼球的书名，例如《执行力》，是所谓哈佛商学院教授保
罗·托马斯写的。在售出200万册后，这本据说是林肯总统最喜爱的励志书被发现是假冒伪劣产品。这本书并没有英文原版，保罗·托马斯这个名字也是出版社凭空捏造的。《哈佛训言》也是如此，但是它的作者听起来比保罗·托马斯更有血有肉。丹尼·冯是曾经在美国读书的北京人。在骗局被揭穿之后，冯说他根据网上的20条格言，扩展为一本书。这个不可靠的把戏，使得这本书从发行到畅销只用了2个月的时间。
The trend can be traced back to 2000 when Liu Yiting, the Harvard Girl was published. Liu's mother, Liu Weihua, wrote a book chronicling her methodology of teaching her daughter that ended up with the younger Liu being admitted into Harvard's undergraduate program. The book sold a cumulative 2 million copies and spawned another book of rebuttal.
这种风气可以追溯到2000年《哈佛女孩刘亦婷》的出版。刘亦婷的母亲刘卫华在这本书中记录了她对女儿的教育方法，一直记录到刘亦婷考上哈佛的本科生。这本书累计销量为200万册，还引起了另外一本书的反驳。
In Truth, Xiao Yu wrote that the way Liu was trained, as described in her mother's book, is traditionally Chinese rather than Western. He adds: "The reason the myth has held up is the word Harvard. Most in China do not know the real Harvard and they placed a halo of admiration around it."
事实上，萧愚在书中写道，正如刘亦婷母亲书中所写的，她对刘亦婷的训练是传统的中式的，而非西式的。而且，他说，“这种错误的观念甚嚣尘上的原因是哈佛这个词，许多中国人并不知道真正的哈佛是怎样的，他们在哈佛头上强加了荣誉的光环。”
At least Liu Yiting is a real person who really got into Harvard and her mother really wrote that book.
但是至少刘亦婷是一个真实存在的人物，并且确实进入了哈佛，而且她母亲也确实写了那本书。
Most of those responsible for the Harvard-related success stories may not even have a college diploma. Many of those inspirational books were hack jobs by those with marketing savvy and whose writing consists mostly of copying and pasting from online sources.
许多写了与哈佛相关的成功学书籍的人甚至都没有大学文凭。许多励志书都是由那些洞察市场的人，从网上复制粘贴而搞出来的平庸至极的东西。
My parents did not write books. But they instinctively used comparison as a means of motivating me while I was young. "That kid next door is studying from 5 am to 10 pm, " or, "He's got all As, but what have you got?"
我的父母不写书，但是在我小的时候他们会本能地用对比来激励我。“隔壁孩子
每天从早上5点学到晚上10点”，或是“人家都得了优秀，你看你得了什么？”
It dawned on me that my next-door neighbor was actually serving as a kind of miniature Harvard in my parents' pedagogy. But as a real person he posed many inconveniences, especially when he started to flunk his courses. But Harvard is always there, so remote and so impersonal that it can be whatever you need it to be.
我认识到在我父母的教育法中，邻居家孩子只是哈佛的一个缩小版。但是他作为一个真实存在的人，自己有很多麻烦，特别是不及格的时候。而哈佛永远在那里，那么遥远，无情无欲的，你想让它是什么样子，它就可以是什么样子。
Chinese websites are overflowing with feel-good pieces of factoids and dubious information.
中国网站上充斥着许许多多的看似真实实则虚假的消息。
People who are eager to share but are totally ignorant of such concepts as "check and verify" will resend a piece they feel important, which could instantly reach millions, usually depending on how catchy the title is. By the time experts come out to clarify, the damage is done. The clarification piece would at best make a small dent in the colossal machine of myth-making.
那些热衷于分享，却又没有查证意识的人经常会转发一些他们认为重要的东西，只要有一个搏人眼球的标题，转发经常会立马达到数百万人次。等到专家出来澄清的时候，危害已经酿就。这些澄清最多能在庞大的造谣机器表面，造成小小的凹陷而已。
Misinformation flourishes with issues closest to the hearts of the Chinese people. Education is one. Because many in China are frustrated with the education system, stories from the US are needed as a contrast. Meanwhile, Chinese parents will use the "next-door kid" approach to justify their method of discipline. Likewise, Chinese show their displeasure at official corruption by spreading stories in which foreign bureaucrats were sacked for taking laughably small favors.
虚假信息经常和中国人的生活密切相关，教育就是其中之一。因为很多中国人对教育制度不满，这样，关于美国的教育故事刚好可以拿来做对比。同时，许多中国父母经常会用“别人家孩子”来证明他们的教育方法。相似的，中国人经常会对通过传播一些国外官员因为收取小恩小惠，而被罢免的故事，来表达他们对于中国官员腐败的不满。
Mind you, not all of these stories are fabricated a la the Harvard professors' books. Some are true stories distributed by bona fide news organizations. Others have a modicum of truth, but got embellished as they went around. However, they provide a partial picture if not a distorted one.
提醒一下，并不是所有类似哈佛教授的书都是瞎编乱造的。一些就是由真实的新闻组织发布的真信息。还有一些只有一小部分是真实的，但是随着广泛的传播，不断地被添油加醋。然而，这至少不算完全扭曲事实，只是片面的反映了现实。
If housing prices in China are obscenely high, those in other countries must be affordable, as attested by comparative photos with prices attached. Never mind that it's ludicrous in the first place to compare an apartment within Beijing's Third Ring Road with a house in Montana.
如果在一组标有价格的对照图片中，中国的房价高的吓人，而外国的房价还在人们的承受范围之内，那么不要惊讶，这一定是在可笑地将蒙大拿的房子和北京三环的公寓所比较。
Many people are impatient with stories with context because the subtleties and nuances confuse them, depriving them of the pleasure of drawing simple conclusions. If you say Chinese education has certain advantages that the American way does not, and vice versa, as I have sometimes done, you'll offend both the pro-Chinese-education camp and the opposing camp. Both sides will see you as an enemy.
许多人都没有耐心看带有文字的东西，因为那些细微的差别会把他们搞糊涂，使得他们丧失了简单下结论的快感。我曾经这样试过，如果你说中国教育有一些美国教育没有的优点，反之亦然，那么你将会把中国教育的支持派和反对派都得罪，双方都会把你当成敌人。
The third party as contrast is a natural development of an earlier trend, which is the third party as confirmation. We used to love this approach, citing foreigners' customary congratulations as testament of the high quality of our artistic works.
从将第三方当作证实者，到将第三方当作对比，这是自然发展的结果。我们曾经热爱这种方法，将外国人的按惯例的祝贺当作对我们高质量艺术作品的证明。
Just at the turning point when many Chinese awoke to this pitfall, along came Wolfgang Kubin, a German Sinologist who categorically branded Chinese literature as "trash". He grew to be the voice for Chinese discontent with our own literary scene.
在这个中国人意识到问题的转折点，沃尔夫冈·顾彬，这位德国汉学家，认为中国文学非常“拙劣”。他逐渐成为表达对中国文学现象不满的人。
I suspect that even when he stops critiquing Chinese literature people will make up quotes and attribute to him. If I come up with "20 reasons I hate Chinese literature" and put down Kubin's name, I can guarantee the piece will hit every website in China within a day.
我怀疑，当他停止批评中国文学的时候，又会出现很多他的名人名言。如果我想出“我讨厌中国文学的20个理由”，然后标上顾彬的名字，我敢保证，这将会在一天之内成为各大论坛的热点。
conception[k?n'sep??n]video
n. 怀孕；概念；设想；开始
inspiration[,insp?'rei??n]video
n. 灵感；鼓舞；吸气；妙计
plaster['plɑ:st?, 'pl?s-]video
n. 石膏；灰泥；膏药vt. 减轻；粘贴；涂以灰泥；敷以膏药；使平服
cite[sait]video
vt. 引用；传讯；想起；表彰
offend[?'fend]video
vt. 冒犯；使…不愉快vi. 违反；进攻；引起不舒服
educational[,edju:'kei??n?l]video
adj. 教育的；有教育意义的
staff[stɑ:f, st?f]video
n. 职员；参谋；棒；支撑adj. 职员的；行政工作的vt. 供给人员；给…配备职员vi. 雇用工作人员
myth[miθ]video
n. 神话；虚构的人，虚构的事
artistic[ɑ:'tistik]video
adj. 艺术的；风雅的；有美感的
context['k?ntekst]video
n. 环境；上下文；来龙去脉
Graduation ends campus romance
毕业季，还是分手季？
Li Yi felt his heart breaking into pieces. The 25-year-old traffic engineering major at Beijing Jiaotong University stared at the text message from his girlfriend, who had just broken up with him. It made his already bittersweet graduation even more painful.
25岁的李毅（音译）就读于北京交通大学交通运输工程系，当他看着女友发来的分手短信时，感觉自己心碎一地，这给他本已喜忧参半的毕业季又平添了几许凄凉。
Many students experience great difficulties in their relationship when they graduate from college. Experts say it is a result of their impatience in overcoming love-related problems and a lack of planning in their love life.
很多大学生在毕业时都会面临情感危机，专家表示，这往往是因为大学生在处理情感问题上缺乏耐心，在情感生活中没有规划。
Painful parting
甜蜜开始伤心分离
Having been together for seven years, Li and his girlfriend always tried to make their relationship work. But their biggest challenge came when Li got a job at a State-owned company, which promised him a Beijing hukou (household registration).
李毅和女友已经在一起七年时间了，他们努力维持着彼此的感情。但是当李毅签约一家可以解决北京户口的国企时，感情危机爆发了。
His girlfriend, however, hadn’t found a job offering her such an opportunity, so she decided to return to her hometown in Jiangsu province.
他的女友并未找到这样可以解决户口的工作，因此她决定回江苏老家发展。
“My chance of getting a Beijing hukou was a burden on our relationship, ”Li says. “My girlfriend told me that a hukou means a stable and promising future for me, but without it she has to go her separate way.”
李毅说:“北京户口竟成了我们感情的负担，我女朋友说北京户口意味着我可以有一个稳定光明的前程，而没有北京户口的她只能另走他路”。
Zhang Danyu also broke up with her boyfriend recently. The 22-year-old accounting student at Shanghai University did so because her boyfriend is going to study abroad for two years.
22岁的张丹语（音译）就读于上海大学会计学专业，她最近也遭遇恋情告吹，原因是男友将要出国留学两年。
“I don’t know whether I can bare the loneliness of a long-distance relationship, especially when he is in a different county, ” she says.
张丹语说:“我不确定我能否忍受异地恋的孤单寂寞，特别是这样一段跨国恋。”
Besides, she’s afraid that his overseas experience will grant him a different view of the world than her. “If that’s the case, we can no longer communicate smoothly as we did in the past, ” she says.
此外，她也担心海外求学的经历令男友的视野更广阔，从而拉开他们之间的距离。“如果那样的话，我们就不能像以前那样顺畅地沟通了。”她说。
Easy way out
最简单的方式最痛苦的选择
According to Xia Xueluan, professor of sociology at Peking University, students break up because it’s the easiest choice.
北京大学社会学系教授夏学鸾认为，大学生之所以会选择分手，是因为那是一条最简单的解决办法。
“In graduation season, couples often face two problems: They will go to different places, and they will cultivate different world views due to their different social and work experiences, ”he says. “Both problems are difficult for students to overcome. Therefore, breaking up is regarded as the easiest option.”
他说:“情侣们在毕业季时往往会面临两个难题:一是他们要各奔东西，二是由于不同的工作经验与社会阅历，他们的世界观也各异。而面对这两大难题，学生们往往束手无策，因此分手就成了最简单的解决方式”。
Zhang Jiarui, a relationship expert at https://www.360docs.net/doc/2017938365.html,, believes that students’tendency to break up in graduation season is also the result of a lack of planning in their love life.
来自世纪佳缘交友网的情感专家张佳芮（音译）认为，大学生之所以容易在毕业季时选择分手，也是感情生活缺乏规划所致。
“Most of them rarely think about marriage. Even worse, they don’t yet have an idea of who their ideal spouse is, ” she says. “Under these circumstances they show little responsibility toward their college relationship.”
她说:“大多数大学生在谈恋爱时很少考虑结婚的问题，更糟糕的是，他们甚至都不清楚自己的理想伴侣是什么样子的，在这种情况下，他们对于自己的大学恋情几乎没有什么责任感。”
But Lei Wuming, professor of psychology at Wuhan University of Technology, says students should not avoid college relationships just because they may fail. “The purpose of being in a relationship is not merely getting married, but learning to communicate with people of the opposite sex. No matter how their college relationship ends, students will have learned important skills, ”he says.
然而武汉科技大学心理学教授雷五明则认为，大学生不能因为恋爱可能告吹就对
大学恋情避之不及。他说:“谈恋爱的目的不仅仅是为了结婚，也是为了学习如何与异性相处。不管大学恋情以何种方式结束，学生们都能从中获得重要的经验”。
loneliness['l?unlinis]video
n. 寂寞，孤独
tendency['tend?nsi]video
n. 倾向，趋势；癖好
psychology[psai'k?l?d?i]video
n. 心理学；心理状态
registration[,red?i'strei??n]video
n. 登记；注册；挂号
circumstance['s?:k?mst?ns]video
n. 环境，情况；事件；境遇
burden['b?:d?n]video
n. 负担；责任；船的载货量vt. 使负担；烦扰；装货于
sociology[,s?usi'?l?d?i, -?i-]video
n. 社会学；群体生态学
spouse[spaus]video
n. 配偶vt. 和…结婚
cultivate['k?ltiveit]video
vt. 培养；陶冶；耕作
biggest[bigist]video
adj. 最大的（big的最高级）
8 family-owned Fortune 500 companies
美国500强中的8大家族
Wal-Mart
沃尔玛
Sam Walton opened the very first Wal-Mart WMT -0.07% in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. The Walton family, said to be worth $150 billion, still controls more than 50% of Wal-Mart. Sam Walton’s son Rob serves as company chairman. 1962年，山姆?沃顿在阿肯色州的罗杰斯开了第一家沃尔玛（Wal-Mart）。据称
沃顿家族拥有的财富价值1,500亿美元，目前依然控制沃尔玛超过50%的股份。山姆?沃顿的儿子罗伯现任公司董事长。
Ford
福特
Henry Ford founded his namesake auto company more than 110 years ago with a dream of selling cars that the workingman could afford. Today, fourth- and fifth-generation Fords help run the company, where they still control 40% of the voting power through a special class of stock. Henry Ford’s great-grandson William Ford, Jr. serves as executive chairman.
110多年前，亨利?福特成立了用自己的名字命名的汽车公司——福特汽车公司（Ford），他的梦想是销售工人们能买得起的汽车。目前，福特家族的第四代与第五代均参与公司的运营。福特家族通过特殊类别股票，依旧控制公司40%的投票权。亨利?福特的曾孙小威廉?福特担任着公司执行董事长。
Comcast
康卡斯特
After a stint in the belt and suspender business, Ralph Roberts launched Comcast in 1963 when he bought American Cable Systems, then a 1,200-subscriber service in Tupelo, Miss. Robert’s son Brian now heads Comcast as CEO and controls 33% of the voting shares of the company.
曾涉足腰带与吊裤带业务的拉尔夫?罗伯茨1963年收购美国有线系统公司（American Cable Systems）后成立了康卡斯特（Comcast）。当时的美国有线系统公司在密西西比州的图珀洛仅有1,200名用户。罗伯茨的儿子布莱恩目前担任康卡斯特公司的CEO，并持有公司33%的投票股权。
21st Century Fox
二十一世纪福克斯
Twenty-First Century Fox was born when Rupert Murdoch split News Corp in two, separating the publishing properties, now known as the new News Corp, from its broadcasting and film assets. Earlier this year, Murdoch, who serves as chairman and CEO of Twenty-First Century Fox and owns 39.4% of the company’s class B voting common stock, named his son James co-chief operating officer.
鲁伯特?默多克将旧的新闻集团（News Corp）拆分成两部分，出版业务成为新的新闻集团，而广播与影视资产则成为二十一世纪福克斯（Twenty-First Century Fox）。默多克目前担任二十一世纪福克斯的董事长兼CEO，拥有公司39.4%有