Pristine
是一家專門制造高級(jí)手表、行銷國際的公司；日前發(fā)現(xiàn)受雇的越南工廠竟仿冒其產(chǎn)品非法販賣，嚴(yán)重?fù)p害他們的權(quán)益。面對這個(gè)問題，公司的主管階級(jí)有人主張?zhí)岢隹卦V，也有人持相反意見。
Dave: Wang Trading is making
knockoffs of our watches and selling them. I say we tell them
right away to stop, or we'll take them to
court. Do I have everyone's support
on this? Bob?
Wang貿(mào)易公司仿冒我們的手表并且上市銷售，我認(rèn)為我們要馬上叫他們停止，不然就告到法院去。大家贊成我的想法嗎？Bob？
Bob: You have my full backing,
Dave. If we don't show everyone that we'll hurt them when they do these things,
other companies will start to make more knockoffs later.
Dave，我完全支持你。要是我們不打擊這些仿冒我們產(chǎn)品的公司，以后其它的公司就會(huì)仿冒得更厲害。
Mary: I'm sorry, but I think that's just what we shouldn't do. We'd need to
use Vietnam's laws; we all know that the government there won't help a Taiwanese
company fight a Vietnamese company.
對不起，我認(rèn)為我們不該這么做。到時(shí)候我們得采用越南的法律，而大家都知道當(dāng)?shù)卣遣粫?huì)幫一間臺(tái)灣的公司對付他們國內(nèi)的公司。
Dave: I see your point, but we need to punish them, and let others see us
punishing them, so nobody else will ever try the same thing.
我了解你的想法，但是我們總得懲戒他們，殺雞儆猴，才不會(huì)有人跟著仿冒。
Mary: Companies have tried that many, many times before -- it never works. If
we stop this company, there will just be another company that will do the same
thing. If there is a chance for making profits, someone will try it.
許多公司以前就試過了，但是從來沒有人成功。就算我們阻止了這家公司，也會(huì)有另一家公司起而效之。只要是有利可圖，就會(huì)有人想去做。
Bob: We're cutting our own
throats if we don't do something. Are you saying we should just
do nothing? 如果我們不想想辦法，簡直是自取滅亡。你的意思是要我們坐視不管嗎？
Mary: Not at all. What I'm saying is that the knockoffs are being sold in a
market that our watches aren't sold in. If we want to stop others from selling
knockoffs, we should get into this market ourselves.
當(dāng)然不是。我的意思是這些仿冒品銷售的巿場和我們手表銷售的市場，并不相同。如果我們要阻止別人繼續(xù)販賣仿冒品，就該自己打進(jìn)這個(gè)市場。
Notes:
1. knockoff 仿冒品
knockoff為美國俚語，特指未經(jīng)許可而非法仿冒、以賤價(jià)在市場出售的物品。
Even though it's illegal, you can get cheap knockoffs of almost every kind of
high quality watch on the streets of Hong
Kong.
盡管不合法，在香港街道上，人們還是可以買到各式各樣的高級(jí)手表廉價(jià)仿冒品。
2. take (someone) to court
向法院控訴（某方）
court是"法院；法庭"；
take是"帶"的意思，表示將某人或某事提起上訴，其后可接人或事。To也可用into代替。這個(gè)詞組相當(dāng)于"haul（someone）into
court"，"haul"為"拖；拉"。
It says in our agreement you'd deliver the goods by this
Friday; if they aren't here by then, I'm taking you to
court.
約中規(guī)定你必須在周五前把貨送到；如果沒有運(yùn)到，我要向法院控告你。
3. cut one's own throat
自殺；自取滅亡
Throat 是"喉嚨"；這個(gè)詞組的字面意思是"抹脖子；自刎"，比喻自取滅亡。"cut...throat"用在其它詞組中，有不同的含意，例如：cut
one another's throats為"互相殘殺"。
Paul cut his own throat by talking about how
bad Sue is as manager, because people thought he would talk bad about them
too.
Paul老是說Sue是差勁的經(jīng)理，這簡直是自掘墳?zāi)?；因?yàn)榇蠹艺J(rèn)為他八成也會(huì)說每個(gè)人的壞話。
（來源：《國際商務(wù)英語教程》上海理工大學(xué)通訊員何旖文供稿 英語點(diǎn)津Annabel編輯）
