纪录片《美国商业大亨传奇》 复仇者的崛起（7）

Unsure how to prevent a complete collapse¹,

由于不知道如何避免一场完全的崩塌

the stock exchange shuts down

股票交易所一度关闭

and stays closed for ten straight days.

而且一关就是十天

The Panic of 1873 triggered

1873年的大恐慌

the first full-blown national depression,

引发了第一次全国性的严重经济萧条

and nobody quite knew what to do about it.

没人知道怎么办

For the first time,

这是历史上第一次

large-- very large-- numbers of American workers were without jobs.

有如此巨大数量的美国工人失去工作

Workers got laid off, but the owners,

工人被解雇 但是所有者

they still lived in the style that they were accustomed to.

仍然生活在他们所习惯的方式之中

But no one was shedding any tears for John D. Rockefeller.

没人为约翰·D·洛克菲勒流泪

People were saving their tears for themselves,

大家的眼泪都留给了自己

when they found themselves out of work,

他们失去了工作

out of their homes, out of food, out of hope.

失去了居所 失去了食物 失去了希望

While many of the biggest companies

就在国内很多大公司

in the country struggle to survive,

为生存挣扎的时候

Rockefeller sees opportunity,

洛克菲勒看到了机会

his belief in the survival of the fittest kicking in.

他相信适者生存的原则

As his competition collapses²,

在对手崩溃之后

Rockefeller picks them off,

洛克菲勒出手

buying out bankrupt oil companies for next to nothing.

用几乎零成本收购了破产的石油公司

I find that I do better in bad markets.

我发现我在市场不景气时做得更好

I buy things in bad markets.

不景气时 我可以买很多东西

And, you can't do that in a great economy.

在经济形势好时 这是做不到的

You can't buy it.

你买不了

Either you're gonna buy it very expensively

就算要买也是非常高昂的价格

or not be able to buy it at all.

你可能根本负担不起

So there's a lot of opportunity, I find, in the bad times.

在不景气的时候 我能找到很多机会

By the time the depression is through,

萧条过后

Rockefeller has created the largest corporate³ empire in America.

洛克菲勒造就了美国最大的公司帝国

He was playing the game of industry,

他是在进行行业的博弈

and he was simply better at it than everybody else.

他比其他任何人都更出色

He saw the industrial marketplace

他将行业市场

as a place for the survival of the fittest,

看成是适者生存的领域

and he was fitter than anybody else,

他比其他人都更适应

therefore he survived.

因此他能生存

Not only that, therefore he deserved to survive,

而且生存是他应得的

and they didn't.

他的对手则并非如此

1 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。

2 collapses   

折叠( collapse的第三人称单数 )； 倒塌； 崩溃； （尤指工作劳累后）坐下

参考例句：

• This bridge table collapses. 这张桥牌桌子能折叠。
• Once Russia collapses, the last chance to stop Hitler will be gone. 一旦俄国垮台，抑止希特勒的最后机会就没有了。

3 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。