考满分 toefl

1 .<-NARRATOR:->Listen to part of a discussion in a business management class.

旁白：听一段商业管理课的讨论。

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Last week we were talking about innovation in business. Remember the graph I showed you?

教授：上周我们讲了商业中的创新。还记得我给你们看的图表吗？

1 .<-FEMALE STUDENT:->The curve that looked sorta like the letter S?

学生：那条看起来有点像字母S的曲线？

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Right, Kathy. Let's take another look. Do you recall, Kathy, how this S-curve represents the life cycle of innovation?

教授：对的，凯蒂。我们再来看一看。凯蒂。你还记得这条S曲线是怎么代表创新的生命周期吗？

1 .<-FEMALE STUDENT:->Sure. Starting on the left, the new innovation … let’s say it’s a new product … almost nobody has heard of it—or at least nobody takes it seriously.

学生：当然了。从左端开始，新型创新，就说这是个新产品吧，几乎没人听说过，或至少没人把它当真。

2 .Then its popularity increases, slowly at first, till sales really start accelerating quickly—there where the line goes up steeply in the middle—as more and more people get excited about the product and they go out and buy it.

接着它受欢迎程度开始缓慢增长，一开始不明显，直到该产品的销售额开始迅速上涨，在中间部分上涨非常地迅猛，随着越来越多的人对该产品感到兴奋，人们走出家门购买产品，这也就是在中间曲线陡直往上的地方。

3 .But eventually, moving over to the right side there, interest begins to fade and the growth in sales levels off.

但最终，移到右边，利润开始下降，增幅和销售额开始趋于平稳。

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->At which point, the market has matured for that product.

教授：这一点就表示该产品的市场已经成熟。

2 .We can still sell it, and even marginally improve it. But it’s not new anymore—it no longer offers exciting growth opportunities.

我们仍旧可以销售该产品，甚至稍微改良一下，但这已经不是新产品了，它再也不能带来令人兴奋的增长机会。

3 .So a business leader might face a choice—Either stick with this old, safe, proven idea … or move on to the next big idea, a fresh innovation.

所以，一个企业领导可能会面临一次抉择：要么安守着这个过时的，安全的，已经被证实了的理念，或继续（开发）下一个构想，一个新的创意。

4 .But innovations are risky—they may succeed, or they may not.

但创新有风险，它们可能会成功，也可能不会。

5 .[Pivoting to take a new angle] OK, a case study—George, I’ve heard your Thursday night program on the campus radio station. You like jazz, right?

案例研究。乔治，我听说了你在学校广播站的周四晚间节目。你喜欢爵士对吧？

1 .<-MALE STUDENT:->[Startled] Huh? Uh,yeah, sure.But what — [interrupted]

学生：对，当然！但……

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->[interrupting] OK, stay with me here. On your program last week, I heard an old Miles Davis album. Tell us about that.

教授：好，留心听我说这里。上周你的节目里，我听到了一张迈尔斯·戴维斯的旧唱片，跟我们说说这个吧。

1 .<-MALE STUDENT:->Uh ­ Miles Davis, trumpet. I played a CD of a jazz classic he recorded in the 1950s, called Kind of Blue.

学生：迈尔斯·戴维斯。小号。我播了一张爵士乐唱片，是他在20世纪50年代录的，叫《Kind of Blue》。

2 .It's my all-time favorite jazz recording.

这是我一直最爱的爵士唱片。

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Mine too. Would you call that recording innovative -for its time?

教授：我也是。你认为在那个时候来说，这个唱片是创新性的吗？

1 .<-MALE STUDENT:->Absolutely. Nothing at all like what he’d recorded up till then—I mean, before that, Miles Davis played things so complex that … well, nobody could touch him.

学生：绝对是！在那之前，没有和他的唱片一样的音乐。我是说，在那之前，迈尔斯·戴维斯弹奏的曲子都太复杂了， 没人听得懂。

2 .But this was something totally new.

但这个（唱片）是全新的。

3 .Suddenly his playing sounded so ­amazingly simple.

突然间，他演奏的音乐听起来是如此惊人地简单。

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->And how did people react to this new sound of Miles Davis?

教授：人们当时对迈尔斯·戴维斯的新作有什么反应？

1 .<-MALE STUDENT:->Well, some were disappointed...­ even angry ...­ that he'd abandoned his old style.

学生：一些人很失望，甚至很生气，因为他抛弃了过去了风格。

2 .But soon, most of his fans came around, and this new style appealed to a whole new group of jazz listeners.

但很快大多数粉丝改变了态度，这个新风格还吸引了一大批新的爵士乐听众。

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->I guess so!

教授：我想也是。

2 .Kind of Blue became the most commercially successful album in the history of jazz.

《Kind of Blue》变成了爵士乐史上最成功的专辑（从商业角度来说）。

3 .So is there a lesson here, anyone? Think of that S-curve I showed you.

大家能学到些什么吗？想想我展示给你们看的S曲线。

1 .<-FEMALE STUDENT:->Oh, so his old style of jazz was actually a kind of product, one that’d been developed pretty thoroughly… and he’d taken it about as far as he could.

学生：哦！所以迈尔斯旧的爵士风格其实是某种产品，已经开发得很彻底了，他也将之发展到力所能及的极致了。

2 .So he decided to take a big risk and try something totally new.

所以他决定冒个大风险，尝试些全新的东西。

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Exactly. Something completely fresh and "cool" ...­ and people couldn't get enough of it.

教授：对！完全新鲜的，酷毙了的事物。人们怎么听都听不够。

2 .It was a brand new beginning that left lots of room for further development, artistically.

这是一个全新的开始，从艺术角度来说，还有很多进一步发展的空间。

3 .And, as a market analyst, you could say that with Kind of Blue, he was jumping to the beginning of a brand new S-curve, with all that potential for profitable development still ahead of him.

作为市场分析师，你可以说，有了《Kind of Blue》，他跳到了一个全新S曲线的开端， 以后还有巨大的利润增长潜力。

4 .But let me ask you something else.

让我问些别的问题。

5 .This isn't just the music of a single performer,[downspeak] is it, George?

这不仅仅是一位演奏家的音乐，对吧，乔治？

1 .<-MALE STUDENT:->Hardly. More like a group of all-stars.

学生：不算是。更像全明星团体。

2 .Along with Miles Davis on trumpet, there's Bill Evans on piano, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone。

迈尔斯·戴维斯的小号之外，还有比尔·埃文斯弹钢琴， 约翰·柯川吹次中音萨克斯…

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->[Interrupting] Individually, perhaps the best in the business.

教授：就他们个人来说，都是业内最顶尖的。

2 .But thinking of Miles Davis as the leader of this group, how did he organize and manage all this incredible talent?

但把迈尔斯·戴维斯当作这个团队的领导者来看，他是怎么组织和管理这些顶尖人才的？

1 .<-MALE STUDENT:->Well, he’d lay out the general outline, the theme, and then give each of these star performers, one by one, the creative freedom to really show what they could do with it on their own instrument … to improvise and add something new, but always within the same general theme.

学生：他列出总体大纲和主题， 然后给每一位明星演奏家（每一个）创作的自由， 让他们展示他们能用自己的乐器表演出什么，来即兴创作和增加新元素，但总是要保持同一个总主题。

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->So Miles Davis gets credit for recruiting the best jazz talent anywhere....and getting them to collaborate on a fantastic musical product.

教授：所以，迈尔斯·戴维斯因招募到了最棒的爵士音乐人才而受到广泛好评，他让他们合作做出了一个极佳的音乐产品。

2 .Everyone see the business parallels here?

大家都能看见商业中的相似之处了吗？

3 .And give each of these musicians credit for seizing the opportunity and creating great individual performances.

这些音乐家也因自己把握住了机会，创造了精彩的个人表演而受到表扬。

4 .But good jazz is more than just outstanding individual performances, isn't it?

但好的爵士乐不仅仅是杰出的个人表演，对吗？

1 .<-MALE STUDENT:->Definitely. Jazz musicians need to listen to each other and go with the flow.

学生：当然。爵士音乐家需要互相聆听，顺势而弹。

2 .Like, one time, somebody goofed and came in a little early.

比如，有一次某人出错了，（加入演奏时）弹早了一些。

3 .But everyone else adjusted and went right along with it, as if nothing were wrong, and this mistake came out like just another … unexpected creative interpretation.

但其他人都随之调整，顺着错误来弹奏，仿佛没有出任何差错。这个错误就变成了另一种...出乎意料的创新演绎了。

1 .<-FEMALE PROFESSOR:->Thanks, George. Great insights... ones that would certainly apply to what we're studying here.

教授：谢谢，乔治。你的见解很棒，这个可以适用到我们这里所学的。