英文早读第246篇，选自巴菲特年度信，友才翻译。
We have written in past reports about the disappointments that usually result from purchase and operation of "turnaround" businesses. Literally hundreds of turnaround possibilities in dozens of industries have been described to us over the years and, either as participants or as observers, we have tracked performance against expectations. Our conclusion is that, with few exceptions, when a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.
在过去的报告中我们写到关于通常对购买和运营有“转机”业务的失望。过去这些年确实有数百个在无数行业的转机机会表述给我们，无论是作为参与者或者作为观察者，我们追踪比较了实际业绩和预期。我们的结论是，当一位享有卓越声誉的管理者接手一家在基本经济状况方面声誉不佳的企业时，往往是这家企业原本糟糕的声誉会保持不变。
GEICO may appear to be an exception, having been turned around from the very edge of bankruptcy in 1976. It certainly is true that managerial brilliance was needed for its resuscitation, and that Jack Byrne, upon arrival in that year, supplied that ingredient in abundance.
GEICO或许似乎是个意外，他从1976年非常接近破产边缘好转了。当然确实管理智慧是复苏所必须的，杰克布莱恩，那年一加入就恰好具备了大量这样的才能。
But it also is true that the fundamental business advantage that GEICO had enjoyed - an advantage that previously had produced staggering success - was still intact within the company, although submerged in a sea of financial and operating troubles.
但同样也确实GEICO的基础业务优势仍然享有——这个优势之前带来惊人的成功——仍然在公司完好无损，尽管淹没在财务和运营泥潭中。
GEICO was designed to be the low-cost operation in an enormous marketplace (auto insurance) populated largely by companies whose marketing structures restricted adaptation. Run as designed, it could offer unusual value to its customers while earning unusual returns for itself. For decades it had been run in just this manner. Its troubles in the mid-70s were not produced by any diminution or disappearance of this essential economic advantage.
GEICO被设计成在庞大的市场（汽车保险）低成本运营，而这里大部分公司营销结构限制了他们的适应性调整。正如设计的运营，他会提供非同寻常的对顾客的价值，而利润也来自于这里。几十年来，他一直按这个方式运营。在70年代中期的麻烦不是有这个必须的经济优势减少或消失所导致的。
54.turnaround：好转；转机；起色
55.literally：字面上；按字面；真正地
56.reputation：名誉；名声
57.tackle：解决；应对；应付
58.intact：完整的；完好无损
59.bankruptcy：破产
60.resuscitation：复苏；复活；复兴
61.ingredient：因素；要素
62.abundance：大量；充裕；丰盛
63.staggering：惊人的；令人难以相信的
64.submerge：淹没；浸没
65.enormous：巨大的；庞大的；极大的
66.adaptation：适应；改编本；改写本
67.diminution：减少；降低；缩减；缩小
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