英美报刊节选翻译练习(十四)

From < In tandem¹ (at last) > 摘自《经济学人》 Mar² 30th 2006

It was a spectacular binge; it was also a flop³. The company's share price plumbed⁴ new depths even as Germany's stockmarket boomed. Mr Reuter's successor, Jürgen Schrempp, started dismantling⁵ the empire bit by bit, selling the trains and the planes and the computer-software interests.（1）There was less talk of “integration” and more about what to do to bolster⁶ the car company at the core of the group.

Pretty soon Mr Schrempp was building an empire of his own. A former car mechanic, who had risen through the ranks running the Mercedes business in South Africa, he wanted to turn Mercedes from a European regional maker⁷ of premium⁸ saloons into a truly global carmaker with a big presence in America. In 1998 he took over Chrysler to convert Mercedes into a global heavyweight with a wide range of products and markets. （2）His reasoning was that, as competition became tougher, even premium brands such as Mercedes needed greater volume to support the increasingly expensive technological⁹ development required to stay ahead. Strategically, it was the right step to take. Rivals such as the head of BMW lauded¹⁰ his courage and admired the strategy. Ford¹¹ Motor's boss never forgave Mr Schrempp for not tying the knot with him instead. The only problem with the Schrempp strategy was getting it to work.

new words

bolster     n./v. 支持
They bolstered¹² their morale¹³ by singing.
他们以唱歌来鼓舞士气。
reasoning    n. 推论，推理，论证