Mary認(rèn)為訴諸法律途徑，根本無濟(jì)于事；她堅(jiān)信掃除仿冒最好的方法就是自己經(jīng)營當(dāng)?shù)氐氖袌?，加入競爭的行列。但Dave和
Bob則持不同看法。面臨意見沖突的場面，免不了要使用表示存疑和回避問題的方式。
Mary: We all agree that Wang has
been doing a good job for us making our watches, right?
大家都同意Wang替我們制造的表，品質(zhì)不錯(cuò)，不是嗎？
Others: Right.
沒錯(cuò)。
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 to
keep their heads above water.
他們所仿造的商品并沒有在我們的市場上販賣，而是賣給那些想要同樣品牌、品質(zhì)與款式，但價(jià)格便宜的人。所以Wang僅以稍高的價(jià)格賣出手表，好讓自己生存下去。
Bob: That's right. But we already know that, Mary. I'm not sure what you're
saying has any relevance here.
沒錯(cuò)，Mary，不過這些我們都已經(jīng)知道了。我不知道你說的跟現(xiàn)在所要討論的問題有什么關(guān)系？
Mary: The answer is sitting 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。如果我們要Wang替我們銷售那些低價(jià)的手表，如此一來，就沒有所謂的仿冒品了；而且我們還可以從中分得利潤。
Dave: How can we sell our watches with two different prices?
可是，我們怎么能給同樣的手表賣兩個(gè)價(jià)錢呢？
Mary: People who buy the fake watches never buy the expensive ones. People
who buy the expensive ones don't buy the fake ones.
買假表的人永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)買貴的，而買高級手表的人也不會(huì)去買低廉的假表。
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're pulling the wool over their eyes?
但是如果我們的老客戶發(fā)現(xiàn)我們以低價(jià)賣同樣的表，他們難道不會(huì)生氣？他們會(huì)不知道我們在騙他們嗎？
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?
如果我們使用聽起來相近，實(shí)際上卻不相同的品牌名稱，再將款式稍作改變，就沒有人會(huì)知道了。Dave，十年前不是有家德國公司就曾經(jīng)這么做嗎？
Dave: Hm. I can't really recall; I'll have to get back to you on that.
嗯。我不太記得了，我得查一下才能告訴你。
Mary: OK. Would anyone like to add anything to what I've
said?
好，那還有沒有人要補(bǔ)充我剛才所說的？
Notes:
1. keep (one's) head above water 僅足以自保；不至于
這個(gè)詞組的原意是指"某人奮力使頭部勉強(qiáng)浮出水面，不至于溺斃"；現(xiàn)在用來比喻商業(yè)上財(cái)務(wù)狀況維持平衡邊緣，免于破產(chǎn)。
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.
今年的銷售量到目前為止實(shí)在很差，只有兒童用品的銷路好，讓我們得以勉強(qiáng)維持。
2. sitting right under
(one's) nose 就在眼前
Right在這里是副詞，意思是"正在"。這個(gè)詞組字面的意思是"正在某人的鼻子下面"，也就是"近在眼前"的意思。說這句話時(shí)，可憑語氣輕重傳達(dá)"答案找到了"或"你真笨，連這么簡單的事都不知道"兩種不同程度的信息。
The answer to our company's money problems is sitting right under our noses;
we can sell shares to our employees.
解決公司財(cái)務(wù)問題的答案就在眼前，我們可以賣股票給員工呀。
3.
pull the wool over (someone's) eyes 欺騙
這個(gè)詞組源自古歐洲，當(dāng)時(shí)用刑的時(shí)候，常為犯人戴上半毛制的頭罩遮住眼睛，以防犯人認(rèn)出行刑者而施加報(bào)復(fù)；引申為"蓄意欺騙"。
The government tried to pull the wool over our eyes with this report, but we
know the results are based on wrong
information.
政府當(dāng)局想用這份報(bào)告欺騙我們，但是我們知道報(bào)告所使用的資料都是錯(cuò)的。
（改編自：《國際商務(wù)英語教程》上海理工大學(xué)通訊員何旖文供稿 英語點(diǎn)津 Annabel 編輯））
