新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第四册 课文 te-06a_new

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[00:00.00]喜欢hxen.net，就把hxen.net复制到QQ个人资料中！Bribery and Business Ethics
[00:-1.00]Students taking business courses
[00:-2.00]are sometimes a little surprised to find that classes on business ethics
[00:-3.00]have been included in their schedule.
[00:-4.00]They often do not realize that bribery in various forms
[00:-5.00]is on the increase in many countries and,in some,
[00:-6.00]has been a way of life for centuries.
[00:-7.00]Suppose that during a negotiation with some government officials,
[00:-8.00]the Minister of Trade makes it clear to you
[00:-9.00]that if you offer him a substantial bribe,
[00:10.00]you will find it much easier to get an import license for your goods,
[00:11.00]and you are also likely to avoid "procedural delays", as he puts it.
[00:12.00]Now,the question is:do you pay up or stand by your principles?
[00:13.00]It is easy to talk about having high moral standards but, in practice,
[00:14.00]what would one really do in such a situation?
[00:15.00]Some time ago a British car manufacturer was accused of operating a fund to pay bribes,
[00:16.00]and of other questionable practices such as paying agents
[00:17.00]and purchasers an exaggerated commission,
[00:18.00]offering additional discounts,
[00:19.00]and making payments to numbered bank accounts in Switzerland.
[00:20.00]The company rejected these charges and they were later withdrawn.
[00:21.00]Nevertheless,at that time,
[00:22.00]there were people in the motor industry in Britain
[00:23.00]who were prepared to say in private:
[00:24.00]"Look,we're in a very competitive business.
[00:25.00]Every year we're selling more than a ￡ 1,000 million worth of cars abroad.
[00:26.00]If we spend a few million pounds to keep some of the buyers happy,
[00:27.00]who's hurt? If we didn't do it,someone else would."
[00:28.00]It is difficult to resist the impression
[00:29.00]that bribery and other questionable payments are on the increase.
[00:30.00]Indeed,they seem to have become a fact of commercial life.
[00:31.00]To take just one example,the Chrysler Corporation,
[00:32.00]third largest of the U.S.car manufacturers,
[00:33.00]revealed that it made questionable payments of
[00:34.00]more than $2.5 million between 1971 and 1976.
[00:35.00]By announcing this,it joined more than 300 other U.S.companies
[00:36.00]that had admitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
[00:37.00]that they had made payments of one kind or another
[00:38.00]— bribes,extra discounts,etc.— in recent years.
[00:39.00]For discussion purposes,
[00:40.00]we can divide these payments into three broad categories.
[00:41.00]The first category consists of substantial payments
[00:42.00]made for political purposes or to secure major contracts.
[00:43.00]For example,one U.S.corporation
[00:44.00]offered a large sum of money in support of a U.S. presidential candidate
[00:45.00]at a time when the company was under investigation
[00:46.00]for possible violations of U. S. business laws.
[00:47.00]This same company,it was revealed,
[00:48.00]was ready to finance secret U.S.efforts to throw out the government of Chile.
[00:49.00]In this category,
[00:50.00]we may also include large payments made to ruling families
[00:51.00]or their close advisers in order to secure arms sales
[00:52.00]or major petroleum or construction contracts.
[00:53.00]In a court case involving an arms deal with Iran,
[00:54.00]a witness claimed that ￡ 1 million had been paid
[00:55.00]by a British company to a "negotiator" who helped close a deal
[00:56.00]for the supply of tanks and other military equipment to that country.
[00:57.00]Other countries have also been known to put pressure
[00:58.00]on foreign companies to make donations to party bank accounts.
[00:59.00]The second category covers payments
[-1:00.00]made to obtain quicker official approval of some project,
[-1:-1.00]to speed up the wheels of government.
[-1:-2.00]An interesting example of this kind of payment
[-1:-3.00]is provided by the story of a sales manager
[-1:-4.00]who had been trying for some months to sell road machinery