书城外语英语PARTY——笑对人生
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第22章 调侃(1)

A Bill Gates Story

比尔·盖茨的故事

A guy was in a bar in the Seattle airport. He was waiting for an important business client that he wanted to impress. He looked around the room and to his great surprise, he saw Bill Gates sitting by the window. He went over to him and said, “Excuse me, mister Gates, I,m a huge fan of yours. I wonder if you could do me a favor?”

西雅图机场酒吧里有个年轻人。他正在等一个想让对方留下深刻印象的重要客户。他四处打量着房间,然后十分惊讶的发现比尔·盖茨坐在窗边。他走向他说:“您好,盖茨先生,我是你的超级拥护者。您能否帮我一个忙呢?”

Bill Gates said, “Maybe. What do you want me to do?”

比尔·盖茨问:“行吧。你要我做什么?”

The man replied, “In a few minutes, a very important client of mine will arrive. When she arrives, could you walk over to us and say hello to me? My name is George. If she thinks that you and I are good friends she,ll be really impressed.”

这个人答道:“几分钟后,我的一个十分重要的客户将会来到。当她来的时候,您能否走过来同我打个招呼呢?我的名字是乔治。如果她认为你和我是好朋友的话,她就会对我印象深刻了。”

Bill Gates said, “Well, OK. When she arrives I,ll walk over to you guys and say hello.”

比尔·盖茨说:“好的,可以。当她到的时候我会走向你们并打个招呼。”

Five minutes later the client arrived and sat down beside the man. They chatted for a few minutes. Then, Bill Gates walked over, tapped the man on the shoulder, and said in a loud voice, “Hey, George. It,s good to see you. How are you doing?”

五分钟后,这个客户到了,并坐在年轻人的身边。他们聊了一会,然后,比尔·盖茨走过来了,拍了拍年轻人的肩膀,很大声的说:“嘿!乔治,很高兴见到你。你在干吗?”

The man looked at Bill Gates and in an angry voice said, “Listen, Gates, can,t you see I,m busy? I,m talking to an important customer. Get out of here.”

这个人看着比尔·盖茨,很生气的说道:“听着,盖茨,你没看到我在忙吗?我在和一位很重要的顾客谈话,走开些。”

Language Chip

语言芯片

I find numerous reasons to support development of language chips to be planted into human brains. It saves a lot of money and a great deal of efforts in language learning. It enhances communication across the cultures. It is perhaps the only medicine for our educational system diagnosed as only second to cancer. The cost of language chip development is nothing compared with its potential market value.

开发语言芯片植入人脑的理由多多,可省无数银子,可免语言学习的无限痛苦,可增进跨文化交流。也许是我们这个被诊断为仅次于癌症的教育体系的唯一一剂良药。与潜在的市场价值相比,语言芯片的开发费用可以忽略不计。

A language chip will save millions and millions of RMB for the education system suffering from shortage of funding. Do you know that the Chinese government spent about 203 billion yuan for education in 1998?And that in the same year, 330 million people, or about 27%of our population, are engaged in education? I suppose students will have to learn English from about the 3rd grade or the 5th,while some from the very beginning in the kindergarten. And all teachers will have to pass some English tests for promotion.So, it is safe to say about 25%of the Chinese population has to learn a foreign language. We save about 330million yuan, if we just save one yuan per person per year, and 3.3 billion yuan if 10 yuan per person, and 33 billion if 100 yuan per person, and 330 billion yuan if 1,000 per person.Remember, some language courses cost you several thousands a month! Many people on jobs other than teaching will also have to learn a foreign language. We save much more. So we could support another education system of the same size when this money is saved.

语言芯片可以为经费缺口巨大的教育系统节省无数人民币。你知道吗,1998年中国政府为教育花费了2030亿?同年,我国教育人口是3.3亿,约占总人口的27%。所有的学生3年级或者5年级就开始学英文,有的一进幼儿园就学了。所有的老师都必须通过英文考试方能提职称。所以,说我国有25%的人口要学一门外语不会错吧。以每人每年语言学习节省1元计,可以节约3.3亿元,每人10元就是33亿,每人100元就是330亿,每人1000元就是3300亿!别忘了!有些语言课程一个月就要好几千块!还有不当教师的那么多人也要学外语。节约的就更多了。省下这笔钱,再支撑一个相同规模的教育体系是轻而易举的事情。