商业周刊:无协议脱欧后的第一天(7)

Owner Greg McDonald is perched on a silver medicine ball in the boardroom, watching a video feed of the operation.

老板格雷格·麦克唐纳坐在董事会会议室的一个健身球上，观看一段有关手术的视频。

Before the Brexit referendum, he wrote a note to his 126 employees about why leaving the EU would be bad for jobs.

在全民公决之前，他给他的126名员工写了一封信，说明离开欧盟会对工作不利的原因。

The majority ignored him, voting for it anyway. Now his staff is down to 96.

多数人并未理睬他，还是投了赞成票。现在，他的员工人数减少到96人。

Goodfish's sales have fallen 20% so far this year.

今年到目前为止，Goodfish的销售额下降了20%。

Meanwhile, the weak pound has made his remaining employees' annual holidays more expensive, and they want a raise. He hasn't been obliging.

与此同时，英镑疲软使他剩下的员工的年假变得更加昂贵，他们希望加薪，但他一直没有同意。

McDonald pulls out a MacBook Pro¹ and loads the PDF of his Brexit contingency² plan.

麦当劳拿出一台苹果笔记本，加载脱欧应急计划的PDF。

Line item 2 reads, "Push button on investment to CEE"—Central & Eastern Europe.

项目2写道，“按动中东欧投资按钮”。

Goodfish's major European customers don't want to risk a production shutdown due to a delay in parts leaving the U.K. or to bear the costs of new tariffs³.

Goodfish主要的欧洲客户不想因为零件离开英国延误或承担新关税的成本，而面临停产的风险。

He knows they're ready to shift supplier contracts to factories on the Continent and wants to preempt⁴ the loss of business.

他知道，他们已经准备好将供应商合同转移到欧洲大陆的工厂，并希望抢占业务损失的先机。

Setting up a factory in Slovakia will cost half a million euros, a major outlay⁵ when sales are falling.

在斯洛伐克建立一家工厂将花费50万欧元，这是销售下降时的一项主要支出。

McDonald closes the laptop and glances back at the monitor. He's already had to cut working hours from 48 hours a week to 40, hitting his employees' take-home pay.

麦克唐纳合上笔记本电脑，回头看了一眼显示器。他已经不得不将工作时间从每周48小时削减到40小时，这影响了他的员工的实得工资。

He wants to keep jobs in the U.K. if at all possible, but if the calls start coming from his big clients demanding action, he'll have no choice.

他希望尽可能保住英国的工作，但是如果电话是从他的大客户打来，要求他们采取行动的话，他将别无选择。

10:30 a.m., London

上午10:30，伦敦

Chi-chi Nwanoku wakes up late. In the last few days, she's played concerts in Leicester and Oxford⁶, each about an hour away, and last night she arrived home well past midnight.

音乐家Chi-chi Nwanoku很晚才起床，在过去数日，她在莱斯特和牛津分别举行了约一小时的演唱会，而昨晚则在午夜之后才回到家。

She picks up her instrument, a double bass⁷ made in 1631 by Italian master luthier Nicola Amati, and starts playing part of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's violin concerto⁸ in G minor⁹.

她拿起自己的乐器，这是意大利琴师尼古拉·阿玛提于1631年制作的一把低音提琴，开始演奏萨缪尔·科尔里奇·泰勒的小提琴协奏曲G小调的片段。

Next week, her Chineke! Orchestra, an ensemble¹⁰ of mainly black and other ethnic-minority musicians, is scheduled to perform the piece,

下周，她的Chineke! Orchestra乐团将进行演出，该乐团主要由黑人和其他少数族裔音乐家组成，

along with works by Weber and Brahms, at the Concertgebouw in Bruges, the first Continental¹¹ stop on its inaugural¹² European tour.

同时还会演奏韦伯和勃拉姆斯的作品，计划在布鲁日的阿姆斯特丹音乐厅进行演出，这是其欧洲巡回演出的第一站。

Then it's on to Amsterdam, Cologne, and Antwerp.

随后会去阿姆斯特丹、科隆和安特卫普。

1 pro   

n.赞成，赞成的意见，赞成者

参考例句：

• The two debating teams argued the question pro and con.辩论的两组从赞成与反对两方面辩这一问题。
• Are you pro or con nuclear disarmament?你是赞成还是反对核裁军？

2 contingency   

n.意外事件，可能性

参考例句：

• We should be prepared for any contingency.我们应该对任何应急情况有所准备。
• A fire in our warehouse was a contingency that we had not expected.库房的一场大火是我们始料未及的。

3 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

4 preempt   

v.先发制人；先取

参考例句：

• We arrived early at the theatre so as to preempt the front seats.我们早早来到剧院，以便捷足先登占到前排座位。
• He pre-empted any decision to sack him.他预先阻止了所有解雇他的决定。

5 outlay   

n.费用，经费，支出；v.花费

参考例句：

• There was very little outlay on new machinery.添置新机器的开支微乎其微。
• The outlay seems to bear no relation to the object aimed at.这费用似乎和预期目的完全不相称。

6 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

7 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

8 concerto   

n.协奏曲

参考例句：

• The piano concerto was well rendered.钢琴协奏曲演奏得很好。
• The concert ended with a Mozart violin concerto.音乐会在莫扎特的小提琴协奏曲中结束。

9 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

10 ensemble   

n.合奏(唱)组；全套服装；整体，总效果

参考例句：

• We should consider the buildings as an ensemble.我们应把那些建筑物视作一个整体。
• It is ensemble music for up to about ten players,with one player to a part.它是最多十人演奏的合奏音乐，每人担任一部分。

11 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

12 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。