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精读金融时报-NOKIA前CEO拒弃奖金_1

沪江小编:对于商界精英们来说,阅读《金融时报》(Financial Times)几乎成了每天的必修课。FT文章以分析为主,逻辑严密,经常被各类考试用作考题。非常适合学习BEC、TOEIC、GRE、GMAT的考生来阅读、练习。沪江小编精选FT上的双语文章,配上独家的学习指南,从词汇、短语、句式、文化、翻译等多方面来解读,长期坚持,相信会对英语学习有所帮助。

原文阅读:诺基亚前CEO拒绝放弃奖金

Nokia’s chairman asked Stephen Elop, the Finnish group’s former chief executive, if he would forgo part or all of his €18.8m pay-off several days ago as the furore over it grew.

People close to Nokia said that as pressure mounted over the weekend from Finnish politicians, including the prime minister, Risto Siilasmaa enquired whether Mr Elop would return some of the money.

Mr Elop declined. According to one person familiar with the matter and the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, he told Mr Siilasmaa he could not do so as he was in the middle of divorcing his wife. Nokia said it had no comment on the matter.

It is the latest twist in a week-long drama that has brought Nokia, its board and Mr Elop under scrutiny. Criticism of Mr Elop’s pay-off peaked on Saturday when Jyrki Katainen, Finland’s prime minister, called it “quite outrageous”.

Mr Siilasmaa, who had defended the pay-off on Friday in a brief statement, was forced to admit this week that he had given misleading information and that Mr Elop in fact had a more lucrative contract than his predecessors.

Speaking to the Financial Times on Wednesday, Mr Siilasmaa sought to draw a line under the pay-off saga. He started by apologising for the lack of clarity in Nokia’s disclosure of the pay-off in proxy materials on Thursday for its November shareholder meeting.

“It is first of all a very complicated set of contracts. There has been a very emotional discussion in the last few days and I understand it is very difficult to understand [the proxy material]. It is not very clear,” he said.

But Mr Siilasmaa defended the payout, under which Microsoft – which is buying Nokia’s mobile phone business for €5.44bn and which is Mr Elop’s past and future employer – is paying 70 per cent of the cash. “I was very happy because I felt I was saving quite a lot of shareholders’ money.”

He explained why Nokia had amended Mr Elop’s contract at the same time as the Microsoft deal, saying that otherwise Mr Elop had the right to “call a breach if we change[d] his role considerably”.

Despite changing the contract to ensure Mr Elop did not have to resign to trigger his pay-off, Mr Siilasmaa said there had never been any question of the former chief executive resigning: “Stephen has been very constructive throughout the process.”

He added that Mr Elop had waived his right to call his demotion from chief executive a breach. “The net outcome to Stephen is only negative. From our shareholders’ point of view the big difference is if he had called it a breach we would have had to pay all the compensation,” Mr Siilasmaa said.

学习指南:

1.Word of the day

scrutiny:careful and thorough examination of someone or something.仔细而彻底的检查

e.g:We must subject all the applications to careful scrutiny.
例句:我们必须对所有的申请进行认真仔细的审查。

2.Phrase of the day

draw a line under: if you draw a line under something, it is finished and you do not think about it again.划清界限

小编注:这个词组有两种解释,第一种就是望文生义,在XXX下面划一条线,表示强调、重点;另一种就是例句中的用法,和XXX划清界限、结束某事。

e.g:Downing St insiders say Mr Cameron is determined to draw a line under the affair as quickly as possible.
例句:唐宁街内部人士称,卡梅伦决心尽快对这件事做个了断。

3.Sentence of the day

But Mr Siilasmaa defended the payout, under which Microsoft – which is buying Nokia’s mobile phone business for €5.44bn and which is Mr Elop’s past and future employer – is paying 70 per cent of the cash.
但斯拉斯玛为这笔奖励辩护,称微软将支付这笔奖励的70%。微软将以54.4欧元的价格收购诺基亚手机业务,微软既是埃洛普过去的东家,也是他未来的东家。

小编注:这句话的难点在于破折号中间的部分如何正确理解。其实,破折号中间的这两句从句都是用来修饰Microsoft的,第一句从句说明微软收购了诺基亚,第二句从句表示微软是埃洛普的老东家以及即将成为新东家。理解了破折号中间的补充成分后,这整句话就可以拆分翻译了,先撇开破折号内的内容,将主句翻译出来,再翻译破折号内的补充成分。

4.Cultural point of the day

People close to Nokia said that as pressure mounted over the weekend from Finnish politicians, including the prime minister, Risto Siilasmaa enquired whether Mr Elop would return some of the money. Mr Elop declined.
知情人士表示,包括总理在内的芬兰政界人士周末期间相继向诺基亚施压,斯拉斯玛于是询问埃洛普能否归还部分奖金。埃洛普予以回绝。

小编注:按照我们一般的想法,总理出面要求你返还部分奖金,作为一个“无建树”“导致公司被合并”的CEO应该乖乖还钱,然后“隐退江湖”,但是埃洛普却毅然决然地拒绝了退还奖金的要求,连总理的面子都不给。这其实不是一个面子的问题,而是一个制度的问题。合同规定Mr Elop had the right to “call a breach if we change[d] his role considerably”.法大于人,总理的要求也不能大于法律的规定。这就是西方国家的商业文化。

5.Translation of the day

It is the latest twist in a week-long drama that has brought Nokia, its board and Mr Elop under scrutiny.
这是这起戏剧性事件的最新变化。这起持续了一周之久的事件使诺基亚、诺基亚董事会以及埃洛普都受到了密切关注。

小编注:这句句子看似简单,实在不然。It is...that是一个强调句式,强调的是the latest twist。如果去掉强调句式的话,就会看得更清楚一些,即The latest twist in a week-long drama has brought Nokia, its board and Mr Elop under scrutiny.按照成分拆分的话,即为twist has brought A, B and C under scrutiny的简单句。因此,这里为了突出强调的部分,使用了拆分法来翻译,把强调的部分单独拿出来翻译,再补充解释。这种对于强调句式的翻译方法,大家可以学习一下,会使翻译更加通顺和地道。

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