商務英文文章閱讀

　　由於商務英語文章涵蓋面廣,內容豐富,專業性強,學生在閱讀此類文章時可以提高英語知識水平,瞭解更多的基本的商務背景知識。下面是小編帶來的，歡迎閱讀!

　　1

　　麥當勞叔叔不會老去：你的午餐他全包

　　Some thought the brand was dead and buried. Not anymore, it seems. Your favorite pop stars are dying, but McDonald's refuses to. Like the villain at the end of an action movie, just when you think it's breathed its last it comes back up, snarly-faced and firing.

　　一些人認為麥當勞品牌已日薄西山，表面上好像是這樣。你喜愛的流行明星們不斷老去離世，但是麥當勞拒絕變老。就像很多電影結尾時的大惡棍一樣，當你以為他快斷氣的時候卻突然起死回生，猙獰著面目頑強地抵抗。

　　This time last year, the headlines were dire. McDonald's was dull, tired, unimaginative and downright dowdy. Suddenly, this isn't so. The company has just announced that sales have gone up 5 percent around the world -- in restaurants that have been open at least a year. And 5.7 percent in the U.S.

　　去年這個時候的麥當勞頭條報道令人失望。麥當勞變得單調乏味，缺乏生機和創造力，很俗氣。然而這一切突然發生了變化。麥當勞公司剛公佈訊息，全球所有營業時間超過一年的門店營業額增長5%。美國範圍內增長5.7%。

　　What could have led to this spectacular rising from the grave? I confess to being slightly shocked the other day when I walked past a McDonald's and there was the promise that its production line would make a burger any way I wanted. This seemed so strange for a brand that I thought of as more of a machine. What? They were sudden wondering whether there were better ways to eat a burger than the limited choices they traditionally offered?

　　是什麼造成了這種起死回生的現象呢?我不得不承認前幾天經過麥當勞的時候被其承諾震撼到了，麥當勞生產線承諾可以製作出我想要吃的任何漢堡包。在我印象中麥當勞是標準化產品生產機器。什麼?現在他們竟然在考慮如何為顧客提供相對於傳統選擇更好的吃漢堡包方式 ?

　　Had McDonald's management suddenly started considering that customers might want something, well, different? Where I live, it's called In-N-Out. It seems they had. Even more shocking -- and please avert your gaze if you are of a more traditional bent -- McDonald's has been experimenting with kale salads. Just one more example of the hideous Californication of America. Oddly, there's a sense that it's working. There was one more big step. The company began to offer an all-day breakfast. The reaction from some McDonald's franchisees was akin to that of Tom Brady seeing five burly men trying to knock him straight into the side of a mountain.

　　難道麥當勞管理層突然開始考慮到顧客的多樣化需求了?貌似是這樣的。如果你是觀念很傳統的人，那麼麥當勞試著推出Kale沙拉會令你更加吃驚。這只是可怕的美國加州作風的一個例子。奇怪的是，這似乎發揮作用了。麥當勞甚至還有一項更大的舉措。公司開始全天供應早餐服務。麥當勞內部各個門店的反應劇烈，就好比5個壯男把橄欖球員Tom Brady往山裡推，Tom Brady使勁抵抗那樣。

　　It was causing operational chaos, was the claim. It forced the in-store staff to do too much thinking, which isn't easy when you're still in high school and your favorite meal comes from a bong. Yet here is McDonald's quietly a joke celebrating the fact that its all-day breakfast has driven sales skyward. There is, though, one important question that needs to be asked: Why are people eating breakfast at all times of the day?

　　全天早餐供應引發了麥當勞內部營運混亂。這就等於強迫店內員工多花心思在工作上，對於那些自身吃喝還要依賴別人提供的高中生員工來說這可不是件容易事。此時麥當勞卻偷著樂，慶祝全天早餐帶來的巨大收益。有個重要的問題不得不提出來：人們為什麼整天都要吃早餐?

　　Is it because they're working harder, have no time for it in the morning, but cannot live without that glorious Egg McMuffin? Is it because they're not working so hard, so they're getting up later and believe that noon is the new 7am? Never having eaten a McDonald's breakfast at lunchtime, I took a look at the all-day menu. It includes hotcakes and sausage 510 calories, sausage biscuit with egg 520 calories and a sausage burrito 300 calories.

　　是因為他們工作比以往更努力了?沒時間早上吃早餐?但又離不開美味的麥當勞雞蛋鬆餅嗎?還是因為他們不再工作那麼努力，一睡到中午，使中午成為了新的早餐時間。我從未在午餐時候吃過麥當勞早餐，我下選單。上面有熱蛋糕和香腸510卡路里，香腸雞蛋餅乾520卡路里和一個墨西哥香腸玉米煎餅300卡路里

　　I conclude, therefore, that Americans aren't necessarily trying to lose weight. They simply in love with sausage and want to eat it all day. You, though, will also be wondering what lessons you can learn from McDonald's Lazarus act. The first is not to let your brand image go stale. McDonald's let that happen for years, believing that it could coast along with same offerings, underpinned by the naive belief that everyone was just lovin' it. The second lesson, though, is that if you introduce something new and employees complain, it might be a very good thing. The employees might themselves have become stale and lethargic. Perhaps they've been eating too much sausage for breakfast.

　　我得出的結論是美國人並不是在努力減肥。他們喜歡香腸的口味並且想著一天到晚吃。讀到這，你可能在想從麥當勞的這次變革中可以學到些什麼呢?首先是別讓你的品牌形象變得老舊。這種情況在麥當勞身上發生好幾年了，他們本以為靠著幾樣一成不變的產品就可以不斷興旺下去，人們也會一如既往喜愛麥當勞。學到的第二點就是當員工因為組織的變革而開始抱怨時，你要知道這未必是件壞事。可能員工本身已經變得思想陳腐和疲憊不堪。早餐吃太多的香腸可能是罪魁禍首

　　2

　　來試試?谷歌變態面試題，沒懵圈已是萬幸

　　Going for a job interview is nerve-racking at the best of times, but tech giant Google hasbecome notorious for asking fiendishly tough questions.

　　即使是面試的最佳時期，參加面試也是夠讓人費神的，而技術巨頭Google早就因變態的面試問題而異常出名。

　　The company used to ask head-scratching questions such as 'How many piano tuners are there in the world?' and 'How many golf balls does it take to fill a school bus?'

　　它曾提出過這樣令人撓頭的問題“世界上有多少位鋼琴調音師?”以及“要使用多少個高爾夫球才能填滿一輛校巴?”

　　But some of the riddles were so tough they have now been banned from the interview process.

　　不過有的問題實在太難了，如今已經從面試的提問列表中剔除出去了。

　　One of the tough teasers that candidates used to be asked was: 'How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?'

　　曾經一個求職者被問到的難題是：“在全世界範圍內有多少位鋼琴調音師?”

　　The riddle is known as a Fermi problem, named after the physicist Enrico Fermi who was known for his ability to make good calculations with very little information or even none.

　　這個問題被譽為費米難題，以物理學家恩里科·費米的名字命名，他因憑藉極少資訊量甚至無資訊量做出精確估量計算的能力而聞名。

　　Its purpose is to test a candidates approximation skills as well as their ability at dimensional analysis.

　　這個問題的目的在於測試求職者的近似值估算能力以及他們的空間分析能力。

　　The puzzle is solved by multiplying a series of estimates to get to the right answer. So a candidate would have to estimate factors such as how many households have a piano, how often they are tuned to figure out how many piano tunings take place a year.

　　解決這個問題的方法就得綜合一系列的估算才能得出正確答案。因此求職者可能需要估算不同的因素，比如有多少家庭家裡有鋼琴，他們給鋼琴調音的頻率，以此得出一年的鋼琴調音次數。

　　They then need to calculate the average working hours of a piano tuners and the number of jobs they carry out.

　　然後他們還得計算每位鋼琴調音師的平均工作時間以及他們所完成的工作數量。

　　The number of piano tunings that take place per year divided by the number per year per piano tuner should yield the answer.

　　每年給鋼琴調音的次數除以每年每位鋼琴調音師就能得出最終答案。

　　Google candidates going for a role as product manager also used to be asked: 'How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?

　　應聘Google產品經理的求職者也曾被問過這樣的問題：“要使用多少個高爾夫球才能填滿一輛校巴?”

　　To solve it one must calculate the volume of the average golf ball and the volume of the average school bus, taking into account factors like the seats and other fixtures taking up space.

　　要解決這個問題，必須計算出高爾夫球的平均體積，以及校巴的平均體積，還要把座位以及其他固定裝置計算在內。

　　The answer is the volume of the bus, divided by the volume of the balls.

　　答案就是，用校巴的體積除以高爾夫球的體積。

　　As well as questions involving calculation and physics, Google used to ask would-be employees to solve logic puzzles.

　　除了提到關於估量計算與物理學的問題，Google曾經讓候選員工解決邏輯謎題。

　　One of the riddles was: 'Every man in a village of 100 married couples has cheated on his wife.

　　其中有一個這樣的題目：“村子裡100對結過婚的丈夫都對妻子不忠實。”

　　'Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated but does not know when her own husband has.

　　“村子裡的每位妻子都能立即知道別人的丈夫有不忠誠的行為，但當自己丈夫不忠誠時卻渾然不知。”

　　'The village has a law that does not allow for adultery. Any wife who can prove that her husband is unfaithful must kill him that very day. “

　　”村子裡有規定，不允許任何通姦行為。任何一位能證明自己丈夫不忠的妻子必須當天就把他殺了。”

　　'The women of the village would never disobey this law. One day, the queen of the village visits and announces that at least one husband has been unfaithful. What happens?'

　　“村子裡的女人絕不敢違法規定。有一天，村裡的女頭領出來視察環境並宣佈：村子裡至少有一個丈夫出過軌。然後會發生什麼事?”

　　Although opinion varies as to the correct answer, a popular solution is to assume that all the cheating husbands will be executed 100 days after the queen's announcement.

　　雖然大家的答案都與正確答案並不相似，不過有一個支援率挺高的方法：假設所有不忠誠的丈夫們都會在女頭領宣佈命令後的100天后被處決。

　　Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated, so if there's only one unfaithful man she will know it's her husband and will kill him that day.

　　村子裡的妻子立即就會知道別人的丈夫有不忠誠的行為，因此若不忠誠的丈夫只有一人，她就會很快知道是自己的丈夫，並且在那一天把他殺了。

　　Bearing in mind that the queen has said that at least one man has cheated, there could be more than a single adulterer.

　　把女頭領說過至少有一個男人不忠誠這句話記在心裡，那麼就可能不只一個通姦者了。

　　If there are two cheaters, 98 women will know who they are. The next day when the wives who have been cheated on see that nobody has been executed they will realise the only explanation is that their husbands are the culprits, and will kill them.

　　如果有兩個通姦者，另外的98個妻子就會知道他們是誰。次日，當一直在被欺騙隱瞞的妻子們發現沒有人被處決，她們就會意識到唯一合理的解釋就是她們的丈夫就是通姦者，然後就把他們殺了。

　　By that logic, 100 cheating husbands will be executed on the 100th day, as the riddle states that every man in the village has cheated on his wife.

　　根據邏輯關係，100個不忠的丈夫就會在第100天被處決，正如題目所說的村子裡的每個丈夫都欺騙過自己的妻子。

　　A riddle about pirates sounds complicated but the answer is in fact quite simple.

　　有一個關於海盜的謎題，雖然聽起來很複雜，但答案實際上很簡單。

　　You’re the captain of a pirate ship, and your crew gets to vote on how the gold is divided up.

　　你是一艘海盜船的船長，你的船員正在投票決定如何分配收穫到的金子。

　　'If fewer than half of the pirates agree with you, you die. How do you recommend apportioning the gold in such a way that you get a good share of the booty, but still survive?

　　”如果少於半數的人支援你，你就得死。所以你會怎麼建議把金子分配得自己既能獲得很好的收益，還能倖免於難呢?”

　　The solution is to share 51 per cent of the treasure.

　　答案是分享金子的51%。

　　Another logic puzzled candidates were given to solve was: 'How many times a day do the hands of a clock overlap?'

　　另外還有一個利用邏輯解決的問題：“一天內時鐘的指標重合多少次?”

　　The hands overlap once an hour, but 11 times in 12 hours and 22 times in a day. This isbecause the overlap at 12 has already been accounted for. The overlaps occur at 12, 1.05, 2.11, 3:16, 4:22, 5:27, 6:33, 7:38, 8:44, 9:49 and 10:55 in the morning and after midday at 12, 1.05, 2:11, 3:16, 4:22, 5:27, 6:33, 7:38, 8:44, 9:49 and 10:55.

　　指標每小時重合一次，但每12小時重合11次，每天重合22次。這是因為指標在12點的重合早已計算在內了。指標會在早上12點，1點05分，2點11分，3點16分，4點22分，5點27分，6點33分，7點38分，8點44分，9點49分以及10點55分，以及午後12點，1點05分，2點11分，3點16分，4點22分，5點27分，6點33分，7點38分，8點44分，9點49分，10點55分重合。

　　9 OF GOOGLE'S TOUGHEST BANNED QUESTIONS

　　9個被否決的Google面試難題

　　1.You have to get from point A to point B. You don’t know if you can get there. What would you do?

　　1. 你必須從A點走到B點，但你不知道你能不能達到那裡，你會怎麼做?

　　2.You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?

　　2. 你的身高被縮至硬幣大小，你的體重也相應按比例減少到維持身體的原始密度。然後你被扔進了一個空的玻璃攪拌器，攪拌刀片將在60秒後開始轉動。你會怎麼做?

　　3.Imagine you have a closet full of shirts. It’s very hard to find a shirt. So what can you do to organize your shirts for easy retrieval?

　　3.想象你有一個裝滿襯衫的櫃子。你很難找到一件合適的襯衫。因此你如何整理這些襯衫以便尋找?

　　4.Explain the significance of 'dead beef'

　　4. 解釋一下“dead beef”的意義。

　　5.How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?

　　5.把西雅圖所有的窗子都洗一遍要花多少錢?

　　6.If you look at a clock and the time is 3:15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands?

　　6.如果你一下鐘錶，時間顯示3：15，那麼時針與分針之間的夾角是多少?

　　7.What is the probability of breaking a stick into 3 pieces and forming a triangle?

　　7.把一根棍子折成3份剛好能拼成一個三角形的機率是多少?

　　8.What method would you use to look up a word in a dictionary?

　　8.你會採用什麼方法在字典裡查詢一個單詞?

　　9.A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?

　　9. 一個男人把車推到酒店裡卻把財產丟了。發生了什麼事?