用语言丈量世界

最近东奔西忙，来不及爬格子，但我们的英文课程不敢偏废。

每周的课文都是从各大报刊上选取，除了语言上的考虑，更主要是因为这些内容打动了我。

于是，我想到把我们课上的素材翻译成中文，让不学英语的朋友也可以一同分享花花世界。

两周前，我们集结起了新的翻译小分队，取名“逗比”。这是我们笑对时局的乐观，但不是我们做事的态度。

感谢众位小伙伴的给力，也期待你的荐文和反馈。

林伯虎

虎 哥 课 堂

逗比翻译组 | 出品

福布斯：30年世界富豪榜回顾

World's Billionaires 30th Anniversary: Looking Back On Three Decades Of Billionaires

来源：Forbes

Since 1987 we've been tracking the world's wealthiest people. Globalization and technology of the 1980s pulled once distant corners of the planet much closer, inspiring a list--the first of its kind--to capture a picture of world's richest in one place. "National boundaries still satisfy politicians," the 1987 introduction to the first list stated. "But they no longer contain business people."

（本段附有林伯虎老师的逐词精讲，点击文末“阅读原文”免费收听）

自1987年以来，我们一直在追踪世界上最富有的人。二十世纪八十年代的全球化和技术进步让地球上天涯若比邻，激发了我们首开业内先河，将全球最有钱的人放进同一张榜单。“国与国的界限虽让政治家们心安理得，但却挡不住商人们的进取”，1987年首次富豪榜发刊语如是说。

Our inaugural edition counted only 140 billionaire individuals and families from just 24 countries. At the time, Japan was home to both the world's richest man, real estate tycoon Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, and more billionaires than any other country besides the U.S. This year? We have a record 2,043 billionaires from 71 countries and territories. The U.S. still holds the most, but now China comes in second, and Bill Gates has held the title of World's Richest Man for 18 of the last 23 years.

我们的首期全球富豪榜只涵盖了来自24个国家的140位亿万富豪及其家族。当时，日本不仅拥有世界第一富豪——房地产大亨堤义明，还是除美国外亿万富豪数最多的国家。而时至今日，我们录得的数据囊括了2043名亿万富翁，来自全球71个国家和地区。美国依然是拥有顶级富豪最多的国家，而中国已经追至第二。比尔·盖茨则在过去的23年间， 18次登上全球首富宝座。

Each year's list has served as a time capsule for the wealthiest capitalists. Their fortunes have ebbed and flowed with global economic forces. Over decades, Asia’s century gave way to the Asia crisis; the internet boom created unprecedented wealth that years later still hasn’t been replicated. The 2008 financial crisis wreaked havoc on hundreds. For others, wealth has been only fleeting, less so because of global turbulence and more due to specific miscalculations. James Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, founders of Research in Motion, which makes BlackBerry cellphones, joined as billionaires in 2007, but dropped off by 2012. Elizabeth Holmes was featured as world's youngest self-made female billionaire in 2015, thanks to a venture round she raised at a sky high valuation. She fell off this year, amid allegations that the global blood-testing company Theranos' products didn't work as advertised. Then there is the spectacular fall of Eike Batista, once the 7th richest person in the world. His fortune plummeted from $30 billion to $300 million in 2014 after his Brazilian oil exploration firm declared bankruptcy.

每年的榜单像一枚时间胶囊，封存了最富有的资本家名册。这些顶级富豪的财富随着全球经济形势的变化潮起潮落。几十年间，“亚洲世纪”让位于亚洲危机；互联网繁荣创造了前所未有的财富，至今无法复制。2008年金融危机让榜单上的数百人损失巨大。而对另一些上榜人士来说，相较于全球动荡的影响，他们财富的昙花一现更多是由于自身的决策失误。黑莓手机制造商RIM公司的创始人詹姆斯·贝尔斯利（James Balsillie）和迈克·拉扎里迪斯（Mike Lazaridis）在2007年以亿万身价入选了榜单，但他们在2012年跌出榜单。2015年时，伊丽莎白·霍尔姆斯（Elizabeth Holmes）凭借获得天价估值的风险轮融资，在成为全世界最年轻的白手起家女性亿万富豪。但今年她已跌出榜单，她创立的全球血液检测公司Theranos的据指夸大宣传了自家产品的功效。骤然陨落的的还有巨富埃克·巴蒂斯塔（Eike Batista）——曾经的世界第七富豪。2014年，他经营的巴西石油勘测公司宣告破产，其资产由300亿美元巨幅缩水至3亿美元。

Still there are those whose fortunes have stood the test of time: 19 super billionaires debuted on the 1987 list who are still alive today and still securely in the ranks. That includes legendary businesspeople with huge staying power and enormous influence like Warren Buffett and Li Ka-shing. David Rockefeller was among this group until his death in March 2017.

Thirty years later, a comment from our inaugural issue continues to hold true: "How someone managed to make or hold a billion dollars is likely to tell you something about how the world works."

尽管如此，还是有人经受住了时间的考验: 1987年首期榜单中，19名超级富豪至今依旧健在，并仍牢牢地在榜单中仍占据一席之地。这其中包括拥有耐力持久和影响力巨大的商界传奇人物，如沃伦.巴菲特和李嘉诚。直到2017年3月去世前，大卫洛克菲勒也是这些传奇中的一员。

三十年后的今天，创刊号上的那句话依然可以奉为真理：看懂一个人如何赚到并守住十亿美元，就能看懂这是个怎样的世界。

注释

▸ entrepreneur /ˌɔntrəprəˈnəː / n. 企业家; 主办人

someone who starts a new business or arranges business deals in order to make money, often in a way that involves financial risks

▸ boundary /ˈbaundəri/ n. 边界,分界线;界限,范围

the real or imaginary line that marks the edge of a state, country etc, or the edge of an area of land that belongs to someone

▸ inaugural /ɪˈnɔːgjʊrəl/ adj. 就任的,开始的, 就职的

an inaugural speech is the first given by someone who is starting an important job

▸ capsule /ˈkæpsjuːl / n. 胶囊

a small plastic container with a substance or liquid inside

▸ ebb /eb/ n. 退潮, 衰退

the flow of the sea away from the shore, when the tide goes out

▸ unprecedented /ʌnˈpresɪdentɪd/ adj. 空前的

never having happened before, or never having happened so much

▸ replicate /ˈreplɪkeɪt/ v. 折叠; 复制

if you replicate someone's work, a scientific study etc, you do it again, or try to get the same result again

▸ turbulence /ˈtəːbjʊləns/ n. 喧嚣,骚乱,狂暴

irregular and violent movements of air or water that are caused by the wind/a political or emotional situation that is very confused

▸ amid /əˈmɪd/ prep. 在...之间; 被...包围; 在...之中

while noisy, busy, or confused events are happening

词汇注释 | Stone

文章释义 | Ewen、欣、caojingya、老徐、Ines、Nancy

释义编辑 | 林伯虎、海源

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