Paragraph 9 👇
1⃣️ It is the third danger that has most bite: that family offices might have privileged access to information, deals and tax schemes, allowing them to outperform ordinary investors. 2⃣️ So far there is little evidence for this. 3⃣️ The average family office returned 16% in 2017 and 7% in 2016, according to Campden Wealth, a research firm, slightly lagging behind world stockmarkets. 4⃣️ Nonetheless, tycoons are well connected. 5⃣️ Family offices are becoming more complex—a third have at least two branches—making tax wheezes easier. 6⃣️ Hungry brokers and banks are rolling out the red carpet and pitching deals with unlisted firms that are not available to ordinary investors. 7⃣️ If all this did lead to an entrenched, unfair advantage, the effect, when compounded over decades, would make wealth inequality disastrously worse.
(一)段落大意
本段讲了家庭办公室带来的第三个问题,也是本文提到的三个问题中最有影响力的一个--他们能个接触到我们普通人接触不到的信息、交易和税收计划。虽然现在还没有任何迹象,但是如果真是这样,几十年后,财富不平等的问题将会是灾难性的。
(二)词句精析
1⃣️ It is the third danger that has most bite: that family offices might have privileged access to information, deals and tax schemes, allowing them to outperform ordinary investors.
👉 have the most bite,bite我们比较熟悉的是他的动词“咬”的含义,但是在这里bite是个名词,意思是“影响力;感染力”。“毫无感染力”,我们就可以说“have no bite”
👉 have access to 查阅或使用的机会或权利。在我们的“每日一词” 中出现过。e.g. Student must have access to good resources.
👉 privileged privilege名词作为“特权”这层含义我们比较熟悉,但是还有一层含义是“荣幸”,e.g. It was a great privilege to hear her sing. (听她唱歌真是三生有幸。)作为形容词也是分为这两层含义,本文中是“有特权的”这层含义。值得注意的是,形容词作为“荣幸”这层含义时,不能用在名词前做修饰。通过例句来看下用法:e.g. We are privileged to welcome you as our speaker this evening. (今晚我们很荣幸请到您来演讲。)
👉 outperform “每日一词”当中出现过“outlive”这个词,是“比...活得长”的意思,那么类似的outperform是“比...做得好,胜过...”的意思。类似的词还有outplay“战胜,击败”,outpace“比...快”,outwit“智力上胜过...”,outweigh“重于...”,outnumber“在数量少压倒...”,以此记住“out-”这一前缀的含义。
3⃣️ The average family office returned 16% in 2017 and 7% in 2016, according to Campden Wealth, a research firm, slightly lagging behind world stockmarkets.
👉 return 我们比较熟悉的含义是“返回”“归还”的含义,而这里是“带来,产生(利润或损失)”之意。e.g. Last year the company returned a loss of $157 million. (去年,公司亏损达1.57亿美元。)
👉 lag behind sb/sth “落后于...” 这个用法比较简单。这里想拓展一下lag作为名词的两个常见用法:
① time lag,“(两件相关的事件的)时间间隔,时滞” e.g. There is a time lag between theoretical research and practical applications. (理论研究与实际应用之间是有时间差的。)
② jet lag,“时差反应”,e.g. For those of us who fly more than a couple of time zones from home, jet lag can be a serious challenge. (对于经常飞越时区的人来说,时差综合症可能成是个大问题。)我们常常说“倒时差”,就是这个词啦,可不要用“time difference”哦,我们可以说“get over jet lag”。“time difference”只是“时间差”的意思,e.g. What is the time difference between Beijing and New York? (北京和纽约的时差是多少?)
5⃣️ Family offices are becoming more complex—a third have at least two branches—making tax wheezes easier.
这句话是说家庭办公室越来越复杂,其中三分之一有至少两个分支,这让避税更容易。
wheeze 这里是名词,意思是a clever trick or plan“花招,计谋”,所以tax wheezes就是指一些避税的招数。
6⃣️ Hungry brokers and banks are rolling out the red carpet and pitching deals with unlisted firms that are not available to ordinary investors.
👉 roll out the red carpet “roll out”是“铺开”的意思,从一个管子状铺成平的,比如文中的“铺开地毯(roll out the carpet)”,“铺开海报(roll out a poster)”,我们包饺子,擀饺子皮的时候也可以用到“roll out dough wrappers”。 “roll out the red carpet”字面意思是“铺开红地毯”,引申为“隆重欢迎,热烈欢迎的意思”。
👉 pitch 本意是“投,抛”,这里的意思是“推销,争取生意” e.g. Representatives went to Japan to pitch the company's newest product.
👉 unlisted firms 指“非上市公司”
👉 available 这个词很好用,如果一个东西available,就是说这个东西“is able to be used or can easily be bought or found”,如果说一个人available,那么有两种含义,一个是这个人"不忙,有空",还有一个是说这个人是单身。
7⃣️ If all this did lead to an entrenched, unfair advantage, the effect, when compounded over decades, would make wealth inequality disastrously worse.
did是表示强调,如果这些“确实”能够导致一种根深蒂固的不平等优势,when compounded over decades, 是插入语,“经过几十年的恶化”,这将会导致灾难性的财富不均。跟前文说Bill Gates一样,整句是个虚拟语气,是个假设的情况。
👉 compound 这个词我之前只知道他的名词“复合物;复合词”的意思/ ˈkɒmpaʊnd/,而这里是动词“使恶化、使加重”的意思/kəmˈpaʊnd/. e.g. Helmut's problems were compounded by his lack of concentration.
👉 disastrously 用来形容worse的词可以记一下,不要只会用much/a lot哦!considerably, dramatically, infinitely, a sight, significantly
Paragraph 10 👇
The rich discover do-it-yourself
1⃣️ The answer is vigilance and light. 2⃣️ Most regulators, treasuries and tax authorities are beginners when it comes to dealing with family offices, but they need to ensure that rules on insider trading, the equal servicing of clients by dealers and parity of tax treatment are observed. 3⃣️ And they should prod family offices with assets of over, say, $10bn to publish accounts detailing their workings. 4⃣️ In a world that is suspicious of privilege, big family offices have an interest in boosting transparency. 5⃣️ In return, they should be free to operate unmolested. 6⃣️ They may even have something to teach hordes of flailing asset managers who serve ordinary investors, many of whom may look at their monthly fees and wish that they, too, could ditch the middlemen.
(一)段落大意
本段交代了能够解决家庭办公室可能带来的这三个问题的方法,即始终保持警惕,让信息透明。
(二)词句精析
1⃣️ The answer is vigilance and light.
👉 light 本意是“光亮”,这里引申为信息透明,跟后文说的transparency同义。在这层含义下,拓展两个词组:bring sth to light “披露,揭露” e.g. These facts have only just been brought to light. come to light “为人所知,变得众所周知” e.g. New evidence has recently come to light.
2⃣️ Most regulators, treasuries and tax authorities are beginners when it comes to dealing with family offices, but they need to ensure that rules on insider trading, the equal servicing of clients by dealers and parity of tax treatment are observed.
👉 when it comes to 当谈到...的时候,就...而论 e.g. When it comes to diet and exercise, we know what to do, but we don't do what we know.
3⃣️ And they should prod family offices with assets of over, say, $10bn to publish accounts detailing their workings.
👉 prod 基本含义是“戳,捅”,经常跟它的同义词poke一起用,形成头韵。比如《哈利波特》里有一句“He was looking at her closely through his half-moon spectacles, his long fingers gently prodding and poking.他透过半月形的眼镜片仔细端详着她,修长的手指轻轻地这里戳戳,那里捅捅。” 在本文中是引申含义“ 催促;督促”,可以用urge,push来替换。
👉 say 这里的say不是“说”的意思哦,而是“比方说,假设”,可以用 for example替换,在口语中非常常见。 e.g. Let's take any writer, say, Dickens... 我们随便举一个作家为例,比方说狄更斯...
👉 working the way that an organization, a machine or a system operates 运作方式,通常都是复数形式。
6⃣️ They may even have something to teach hordes of flailing asset managers who serve ordinary investors, many of whom may look at their monthly fees and wish that they, too, could ditch the middlemen.
👉 hordes of “一大群”,最近还看到一个类似的表达“scores of” 可以放在一起记忆。
👉 flail 是“胡乱摆动”的意思,这里用来形容一般投资者的投资经理“狮子大开口”的要价,所以后文说那也一般投资者,也想要甩掉中间人。
👉 ditch 这里是“抛弃;甩掉”的意思,可以用dump,get rid of等来替换 I can't bring myself to ditch him and start again. 我不忍心蹬掉他再觅新欢。












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