大学考试|英美报刊节选翻译训练(十四)

From In tandem^{1 摘自《经济学人》 Mar2 30th 2006}

It was a spectacular binge; it was also a flop^{3. The company's share price plumbed4 new depths even as Germany's stockmarket boomed. Mr Reuter's successor, Jrgen 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 maker^{7 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 bolstered^{12 their morale13 by singing.
他们以唱歌来激励士气。
reasoningn. 推论，推理，论证}