纪录片《美国商业大亨传奇》 复仇者的崛起（6）

The United States of America is changing like never before.

美利坚合众国发生着前所未有的改变

In just a decade,

仅仅花了十年时间

the country has become one of the most advanced on earth,

美国就成为了全球最进步的国家之一

and darkness no longer means the end of the day.

黑暗降临不再意味着一天的结束

Two men have driven this remaking of the country.

两个男人推动了整个国家的改造

John D. Rockefeller and Cornelius Vanderbilt

约翰·D·洛克菲勒和科尼利厄斯·范德比尔特

are locked in a battle of wills.

陷入了一场意志力的战争

Commodore.

船长

Mr. Rockefeller.

洛克菲勒先生

Vanderbilt and his competitors are in drastic

范德比尔特和他的竞争对手们

search of passengers and cargo¹ to fill the trains running on their lines.

正四处寻找乘客和货物来装满各自线路上的火车

In the 1870s, the country needed to be connected via railroads,

1870年代 整个国家需要铁路来连接

and what happens then is everybody who thinks they have an edge

当时所有认为自己在铁路行业拥有优势的人

in the railroad business goes out and raises money

都开始四处筹集资金

and they start their own railroad.

开始自己的铁路生意

And what happened then is we've seen happen many of times

这同之后很多时候一样

since then, is it created a huge bubble.

创造出了巨大的泡沫

John D. Rockefeller's oil

约翰·D·洛克菲勒的油

makes up nearly forty percent of the cargo shipped on the rails.

占据了铁路运输40%的货运量

But when Vanderbilt teams with

不过就在范德比尔特

his biggest rival to push for a rate increase,

联合最大对手 试图推高运输价格时

Rockefeller takes it as a declaration of war.

洛克菲勒将这看成了对他的宣战

He builds a pipeline² in response,

作为回应 他建立起了管道

and begins to pull his shipments.

并停止使用铁路进行运输

And since the railroads have been drastically overbuilt,

而这时的铁路明显建造过度

losing cargo means losing money.

失去货物就意味着损失金钱

Stocks plummet³ as investors⁴ run scared.

投资者胆战心惊 股价垂直下落

When prices get out of control,

价格失去控制时

and smart people decide,

聪明人心想

"Wow, this thing is a bubble, I want out",

这是泡沫，我要出去

then you can get a collapse⁵ very quickly.

这时崩盘很快就会发生

By the time the Panic is through,

大恐慌过后

one-third of the country's 360 railroad companies have gone bankrupt.

全国360家铁路公司有1/3都宣告破产

Every crisis of this type,

这类危机中的任何一次

whether it's 2008,

无论是2008年

or 1873,

还是1873年

has got the same roots.

根源都一样

Namely, that it was unanticipated.

也就是 谁都不曾预料到

So a necessary condition for a crisis is nobody expects it.

没人预料到是危机暴发的必要条件

The crash is the worst America has seen in its short history.

这次崩溃是美国短暂历史中最为糟糕的一次

1 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

2 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

3 plummet   

vi.(价格、水平等)骤然下跌；n.铅坠；重压物

参考例句：

• Mengniu and Yili have seen their shares plummet since the incident broke.自事件发生以来，蒙牛和伊利的股票大幅下跌。
• Even if rice prices were to plummet,other brakes on poverty alleviation remain.就算大米价格下跌，其它阻止导致贫困的因素仍然存在。

4 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

5 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。