商务会议上质疑别人的观点

Mary认为诉诸法律途径，根本无济于事；她坚信扫除仿冒最好的方法就是自己经营当地的市场，加入竞争的行列。但Dave和 Bob则持不同看法。面临意见冲突的场面，免不了要使用表示存疑和回避问题的方式。

Mary: We all agree that Wang has been doing a good job for us making our watches, right?
大家都同意Wang替我们制造的表，品质不错，不是吗？

Others: Right.
没错。

Mary: What they are doing is selling in a market that we don't. They are selling to people that want the same name, quality and design, but don't want such high prices. So Wang just sells the watches at high enough prices tokeep their heads above water. 他们所仿造的商品并没有在我们的市场上贩卖，而是卖给那些想要同样品牌、品质与款式，但价格便宜的人。所以Wang仅以稍高的价格卖出手表，好让自己生存下去。

Bob: That's right. But we already know that, Mary. I'm not sure what you're saying has any relevance here.
没错，Mary，不过这些我们都已经知道了。我不知道你说的跟现在所要讨论的问题有什么关系？

Mary: The answer issitting right under your nose. If we ask Wang to sell cheaper watches for us, they won't really be knockoffs anymore. We can share the profits with them.
答案就在眼前。如果我们要Wang替我们销售那些低价的手表，如此一来，就没有所谓的仿冒品了；而且我们还可以从中分得利润。

Dave: How can we sell our watches with two different prices?
可是，我们怎么能给同样的手表卖两个价钱呢？

Mary: People who buy the fake watches never buy the expensive ones. People who buy the expensive ones don't buy the fake ones.
买假表的人永远不会买贵的，而买高级手表的人也不会去买低廉的假表。

Bob: But won't our regular customers be angry if they find we're selling the same watches at much lower prices? Won't they know we'repulling the wool over their eyes?
但是如果我们的老客户发现我们以低价卖同样的表，他们难道不会生气？他们会不知道我们在骗他们吗？

Mary: We could use a different name that sounds almost the same, and change the designs a little. Umm... nobody would know. Dave, wasn't there a German company that did this, about ten years ago?
如果我们使用听起来相近，实际上却不相同的品牌名称，再将款式稍作改变，就没有人会知道了。Dave，十年前不是有家德国公司就曾经这么做吗？

Dave: Hm. I can't really recall; I'll have to get back to you on that.
嗯。我不太记得了，我得查一下才能告诉你。

Mary: OK. Would anyone like to add anything to what I've said?
好，那还有没有人要补充我刚才所说的？

Notes:

1. keep (one's) head above water 仅足以自保；不至于

这个词组的原意是指"某人奋力使头部勉强浮出水面，不至于溺毙"；现在用来比喻商业上财务状况维持平衡边缘，免于破产。

Sales have been really bad so far this year; good sales for our children's products are the only thing keeping our heads above water.
今年的销售量到目前为止实在很差，只有儿童用品的销路好，让我们得以勉强维持。

2. sitting right under (one's) nose 就在眼前

Right在这里是副词，意思是"正在"。这个词组字面的意思是"正在某人的鼻子下面"，也就是"近在眼前"的意思。说这句话时，可凭语气轻重传达"答案找到了"或"你真笨，连这么简单的事都不知道"两种不同程度的信息。

The answer to our company's money problems is sitting right under our noses; we can sell shares to our employees.
解决公司财务问题的答案就在眼前，我们可以卖股票给员工呀。

3. pull the wool over (someone's) eyes 欺骗

这个词组源自古欧洲，当时用刑的时候，常为犯人戴上半毛制的头罩遮住眼睛，以防犯人认出行刑者而施加报复；引申为"蓄意欺骗"。

The government tried to pull the wool over our eyes with this report, but we know the results are based on wrong information.
政府当局想用这份报告欺骗我们，但是我们知道报告所使用的资料都是错的。