精讀金融時(shí)報(bào):NOKIA前CEO拒棄獎(jiǎng)金
滬江小編:對(duì)于商界精英們來說,閱讀《金融時(shí)報(bào)》(Financial Times)幾乎成了每天的必修課。FT文章以分析為主,邏輯嚴(yán)密,經(jīng)常被各類考試用作考題。非常適合學(xué)習(xí)BEC、TOEIC、GRE、GMAT的考生來閱讀、練習(xí)。滬江小編精選FT上的雙語文章,配上獨(dú)家的學(xué)習(xí)指南,從詞匯、短語、句式、文化、翻譯等多方面來解讀,長(zhǎng)期堅(jiān)持,相信會(huì)對(duì)英語學(xué)習(xí)有所幫助。
原文閱讀:諾基亞前CEO拒絕放棄獎(jiǎng)金
Nokia’s chairman asked Stephen Elop, the Finnish group’s former chief executive, if he would forgo part or all of his €18.8m pay-off several days ago as the furore over it grew.
People close to Nokia said that as pressure mounted over the weekend from Finnish politicians, including the prime minister, Risto Siilasmaa enquired whether Mr Elop would return some of the money.
Mr Elop declined. According to one person familiar with the matter and the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, he told Mr Siilasmaa he could not do so as he was in the middle of divorcing his wife. Nokia said it had no comment on the matter.
It is the latest twist in a week-long drama that has brought Nokia, its board and Mr Elop under scrutiny. Criticism of Mr Elop’s pay-off peaked on Saturday when Jyrki Katainen, Finland’s prime minister, called it “quite outrageous”.
Mr Siilasmaa, who had defended the pay-off on Friday in a brief statement, was forced to admit this week that he had given misleading information and that Mr Elop in fact had a more lucrative contract than his predecessors.
Speaking to the Financial Times on Wednesday, Mr Siilasmaa sought to draw a line under the pay-off saga. He started by apologising for the lack of clarity in Nokia’s disclosure of the pay-off in proxy materials on Thursday for its November shareholder meeting.
“It is first of all a very complicated set of contracts. There has been a very emotional discussion in the last few days and I understand it is very difficult to understand [the proxy material]. It is not very clear,” he said.
But Mr Siilasmaa defended the payout, under which Microsoft – which is buying Nokia’s mobile phone business for €5.44bn and which is Mr Elop’s past and future employer – is paying 70 per cent of the cash. “I was very happy because I felt I was saving quite a lot of shareholders’ money.”
He explained why Nokia had amended Mr Elop’s contract at the same time as the Microsoft deal, saying that otherwise Mr Elop had the right to “call a breach if we change[d] his role considerably”.
Despite changing the contract to ensure Mr Elop did not have to resign to trigger his pay-off, Mr Siilasmaa said there had never been any question of the former chief executive resigning: “Stephen has been very constructive throughout the process.”
He added that Mr Elop had waived his right to call his demotion from chief executive a breach. “The net outcome to Stephen is only negative. From our shareholders’ point of view the big difference is if he had called it a breach we would have had to pay all the compensation,” Mr Siilasmaa said.
學(xué)習(xí)指南:
1.Word of the day
scrutiny:careful and thorough examination of someone or something.仔細(xì)而徹底的檢查
e.g:We must subject all the applications to careful scrutiny.
例句:我們必須對(duì)所有的申請(qǐng)進(jìn)行認(rèn)真仔細(xì)的審查。
2.Phrase of the day
draw a line under:?if you draw a line under something, it is finished and you do not think about it again.劃清界限
小編注:這個(gè)詞組有兩種解釋,第一種就是望文生義,在XXX下面劃一條線,表示強(qiáng)調(diào)、重點(diǎn);另一種就是例句中的用法,和XXX劃清界限、結(jié)束某事。
e.g:Downing St insiders say Mr Cameron is determined to draw a line under the affair as quickly as possible.
例句:唐寧街內(nèi)部人士稱,卡梅倫決心盡快對(duì)這件事做個(gè)了斷。
3.Sentence of the day
But Mr Siilasmaa defended the payout, under which Microsoft – which is buying Nokia’s mobile phone business for €5.44bn and which is Mr Elop’s past and future employer – is paying 70 per cent of the cash.
但斯拉斯瑪為這筆獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)辯護(hù),稱微軟將支付這筆獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)的70%。微軟將以54.4歐元的價(jià)格收購(gòu)諾基亞手機(jī)業(yè)務(wù),微軟既是埃洛普過去的東家,也是他未來的東家。
小編注:這句話的難點(diǎn)在于破折號(hào)中間的部分如何正確理解。其實(shí),破折號(hào)中間的這兩句從句都是用來修飾Microsoft的,第一句從句說明微軟收購(gòu)了諾基亞,第二句從句表示微軟是埃洛普的老東家以及即將成為新東家。理解了破折號(hào)中間的補(bǔ)充成分后,這整句話就可以拆分翻譯了,先撇開破折號(hào)內(nèi)的內(nèi)容,將主句翻譯出來,再翻譯破折號(hào)內(nèi)的補(bǔ)充成分。
4.Cultural point of the day
People close to Nokia said that as pressure mounted over the weekend from Finnish politicians, including the prime minister, Risto Siilasmaa enquired whether Mr Elop would return some of the money. Mr Elop declined.
知情人士表示,包括總理在內(nèi)的芬蘭政界人士周末期間相繼向諾基亞施壓,斯拉斯瑪于是詢問埃洛普能否歸還部分獎(jiǎng)金。埃洛普予以回絕。
小編注:按照我們一般的想法,總理出面要求你返還部分獎(jiǎng)金,作為一個(gè)“無建樹”“導(dǎo)致公司被合并”的CEO應(yīng)該乖乖還錢,然后“隱退江湖”,但是埃洛普卻毅然決然地拒絕了退還獎(jiǎng)金的要求,連總理的面子都不給。這其實(shí)不是一個(gè)面子的問題,而是一個(gè)制度的問題。合同規(guī)定Mr Elop had the right to “call a breach if we change[d] his role considerably”.法大于人,總理的要求也不能大于法律的規(guī)定。這就是西方國(guó)家的商業(yè)文化。
5.Translation of the day
It is the latest twist in a week-long drama that has brought Nokia, its board and Mr Elop under scrutiny.
這是這起戲劇性事件的最新變化。這起持續(xù)了一周之久的事件使諾基亞、諾基亞董事會(huì)以及埃洛普都受到了密切關(guān)注。
小編注:這句句子看似簡(jiǎn)單,實(shí)在不然。It is...that是一個(gè)強(qiáng)調(diào)句式,強(qiáng)調(diào)的是the latest twist。如果去掉強(qiáng)調(diào)句式的話,就會(huì)看得更清楚一些,即The latest twist in a week-long drama has brought Nokia, its board and Mr Elop under scrutiny.按照成分拆分的話,即為twist has brought A, B and C under scrutiny的簡(jiǎn)單句。因此,這里為了突出強(qiáng)調(diào)的部分,使用了拆分法來翻譯,把強(qiáng)調(diào)的部分單獨(dú)拿出來翻譯,再補(bǔ)充解釋。這種對(duì)于強(qiáng)調(diào)句式的翻譯方法,大家可以學(xué)習(xí)一下,會(huì)使翻譯更加通順和地道。
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