Directions: In this section there is a text in English. Translate the
five underlined sentences into Chinese.
Large, multinational corporations may be the companies whose
ups and downs seize headlines. (31) But to a far greater extent than most
Americans realize, the economy’s vitality depends on the fortunes of tiny shops
and restaurants, neighborhood services and factories. Small businesses,
defined as those with fewer than 100 workers, now employ 60 percent of the
workforce and are expected to generate half of all new jobs between now and the
year 2000．Some 1.2 million small firms have opened their doors over the past 6
years of economic growth, and 1989 will see an additional 200, 000 entrepreneurs
striking off on their own. Too many of these pioneers,
however, will blaze ahead unprepared. Idealists will overestimate the clamor for
their products or fail to factor in the competition. Nearly everyone will
underestimate, often fatally, the capital that success requires. (32)
Midcareer executives, forced by a takeover or a restructuring to quit the
corporation and find another way to support themselves, may savor(欣赏) the idea
of being their own boss but may forget that entrepreneurs must also, at least
for a while, be bookkeepers and receptionists, too. According to Small
Business Administration data, 24 of every 100 businesses starting out today are
likely to disappear in two years, and 27 more will have shut their doors four
years from now. By 1995, more than 60 of those 100 start-ups will have folded. A
new study of 3,000 small businesses, sponsored by American Express and the
National Federation of Independent Business, suggests slightly better odds:
three years after start-up, 77 percent of the companies surveyed were still
alive. (33) Most credited their success in large’ part to having picked a
business they already were comfortable in. Eighty percent had worked with the
same product or service in their last jobs. Thinking
through an enterprise before the launch is obviously critical. But many
entrepreneurs forget that a firm’s health in its infancy may be little
indication of how well it will age. You must tenderly monitor its pulse. In
their zeal to expand, small business owners often ignore early warning signs of
a stagnant market or of decaying profitability. (34) They hopefully pour more
and more money into the enterprise, preferring not to acknowledge eroding profit
margins that means the market for their ingenious service or product has
evaporated, or that they must cut the payroll or vacate their lavish offices.
Only when the financial well runs dry do they see the seriousness of the
illness, and by then the patient is usually too far gone to save.
Frequent checks of your firm’s vital signs will also
guide you to a sensible rate of growth. (35) To snatch opportunity, you must
spot the signals that it is time to conquer the new markets, add products or
perhaps franchise your hot ideas.