大学英语综合教程 第二册 unit 2A

[00:00.00]Does being rich mean you live a completely different life.from ordinary people?Not,it seems,if your name is Sam Walton.
[00:10.71]THE RICHEST MAN IN AMERICA,DOWN HOME by Art Harris
[00:16.90]He put on a dinner jacket to serve as a wainter at the birthday party of The Richest Man in America.
[00:24.45]He imagined what surely awaited:mallsion
[00:29.68]a"Rolls-Royce for every day of the week,"dogs with diamond collars.Servants everywhere．
[00:37.83]Then he was off to the house,wheeling past the sleepy town square in Bentonville，a remote Arkansas town of 9,920,
[00:50.10]where Sam Walton started with a lttle dime store that grew into a $6 billion discount chain called Wal-Mart．
[01:00.26]He drove down a country road,
[01:03.48]turned at a mailbox marked"Sam and Helen Walton."and jumped out at a house in the woods．
[01:11.16]It was nice，but no palace．The furniture appeared a little worn.
[01:17.95]An old pickup truck sat in the garage and a muddy bird dog ran about the yard．He never spotted any servants．
[01:27.59]It was a real disappointment.sighs waiter Jamie Beaufieu．
[01:33.81]Only in America can a billionaire carry on like plain folks and get away with it．
[01:40.96]And the67-year-old discount king Sam Moore Walton still travels these windy back roads
[01:48.62]in his 1979 Ford pickup，red and white,bird dogs by his side,and come shooting season,
[01:57.66]waits in line like everyone else to buy shells at the local Wal-Mart．
[02:03.17]"He doesn't want any special treatment,"says night manager Johnny Baker,
[02:09.41]who struggles to call the boss by his first name as a recent corporate memo commands.Few here think of his billions：
[02:18.92]they call him"Mr.Sam" and accept his folksy ways."He's the same man
[02:26.65]who opened his dime store on the square and worked 18 hours a day for his dream,"says Mayor Richard Hoback．
[02:35.82]By all accounts，he's friendly,cheerful,a fine neighbor who does his best to blend in
[02:42.93]never flashy,never throwing his weight around．
[02:47.31]No matter how big a time he had on Saturday night,you can find him in church on Sunday．
[02:55.28]Surely in a reserved seat，right? "We don't have reserved seats，"says Gordon GarlingtonⅢ,pastor 0f the local church．
[03:05.65]So where does The Richest Man in America sit?Wherever he finds a seat."Look，he's just not that way．
[03:15.19]He doesn't have a set place.At a church supper the other night,he and his wife were in back washing dishes,"
[03:24.90]For 19 years,he's used the same barber.John Mayhall finds him waiting when he opens up at 7a．m．
[03:33.94]He chats about me national news,or reads in his chair，perhaps the Benton  County Daily Democrat,
[03:42.01]another Walton property that keeps him off the front page．It buried the Forbes list at the bottom of page2．
[03:51.97]"He's just not a front-page person,"a newspaper employee explains.
[03:57.95]But one recent morning.The Richest Manin America did something that would have made headlines anywhere in the world:
[04:06.39]He forgot his money."I said,'Forget it，take care of it next time,'"says barber Mayhall．
[04:15.16]"But he said,'No，I'1l get it,'and he went home for his wallet．"
[04:21.12]Wasn't that，well，a little strange?"No sir"says Mayhall，"the only thing strange about Sam Walton is that he isn't strange."
[04:32.51]But just how long Walton can hold firm to his folksy habits with celebrity hunters keeping following him
[04:41.57]wherever he goes is anyone's guess．Ever since Forber magazine pronounced him America's richest man，
[04:52.00]with$2.8billion in Wal-Mart stock，he's been a rich man on the run,steering clear of reporters,dreamers,and schemers．
[05:02.55]"He may be the richest by Forbes rankings,"says corporate affairs director Jim Von Gremp,
[05:10.39]"but he doesn't know whether he is or not-and he doesn't care．He doesn't spend much．
[05:19.06]He owns stock,but he's always I left it in the company so it could grow．