公司總裁Tim召集部門經(jīng)理開會,討論節(jié)能措施。
F: I know it might sound like an old-fashioned idea, but what about some kind of a carpooling program?
T: You know, that just might work for a few of our departments. I know a few of the marketing guys live pretty close to each other.
H: Ah! But now we come to a problem. How do we convince people to sign up for a program that will - at least mildly - inconvenience them?
D: I have to confess, if you asked me to volunteer, I'd turn you down.
H: Sure. So would I. So we can't rely on the kindness of people's hearts. We're not bad people, we're just busy people.
Faith提議,可以考慮拼車計(jì)劃,carpooling program。 Henry指出,拼車會給大家?guī)聿槐悖?inconvenience them, 問題是如何說服大家加入。 Sign up for something,是報(bào)名參加的意思。
T: I think I get your point. You're talking about a fundamental motivator. What Henry's saying is that people need an incentive.
H: Bingo! For the past few years, several companies have been experimenting with paying employees a tiny fee to carpool, use public transport or cycle. One organization in Florida pays twenty cents a mile.
D: Huh. I'd consider riding my bicycle if I was getting paid. That's like getting paid to work out!
總裁Tim說, I get your point. 我明白你的意思了。 Henry是說要給大家一些好處,incentive 。 Henry說, Bingo! 這在口語里很常用,意思是沒錯!對了!
H: Yeah! The company has to consider the fee as an investment in carbon reduction and in workers' health. Less driving means less stress.
T: It's a very interesting idea. But I think you're right....without an incentive, it's doomed to failure.
H: It might seem like a lot of hassle and in the end you might only get a few people to change their commuting habits, but just to put it into perspective, here's a fact from planetgreen.com: If every commuter car in the U.S. carried just one more person, the nation would save 8 billion gallons of gas.
T: It really adds up, doesn't it? Thanks for the tips, Henry. I think we got a lot of food for thought today.
公司要把這筆錢看成是減少廢氣排放,促進(jìn)員工健康的投資??偛肨im表示贊同。 Henry說,雖然聽上去好象挺麻煩,但如果美國每輛上班用的車?yán)锒级嘧粋€(gè)人的話,美國就能節(jié)省80億加侖的汽油, It really adds up.