(全文共419個詞)
Command and control
命令與控制
China’s tech founders mostly keep an iron grip over their firms
中國科技公司的創始人大多會牢牢地掌控自己的公司
Jack Ma’s graceful exit from Alibaba is unusual
馬雲優雅地離開阿里巴巴非同尋常
A wry joke has been circulating on China’s internet.
在中國的網際網路上流傳一則反諷笑話。
The foundersof the country’s three most prominent technology firms—Jack Ma of Alibaba, PonyMa of Tencent and Robin Li of Baidu—go for a stroll.
中國最知名的三家科技公司的創始人（阿里巴巴的馬雲、騰訊的馬化騰以及百度的李彥宏）一起去散步。
One drowns. How wouldtheir stocks react?
如果其中的一個人溺水了，他們各自公司的股票將有何反應？
If it were Mr Ma of Alibaba, its shares would fall.
如果是阿里巴巴的馬雲，股票將會下跌。
If it were Mr Ma of Tencent (no relation), they would remain unchanged.
如果是騰訊的馬化騰（沒關係），股票將沒有變化。
And if itwere Mr Li of Baidu, they would rise.
如果是百度的李彥宏，股票將會上漲。
The joke is one small indication of how China’sentrepreneurs-turned-billionaires, symbols of the rise of its internet, engross citizens.
這個笑話只是一個小小的跡象，它表明了標誌著中國網際網路興起的企業家出身的億萬富翁們多麼受公民的關注。
They publish collections of their speeches and pen books, such as「Intelligence Revolution」 by Mr Li and 「China At Your Fingertips」 by Tencent’sMr Ma, and their various pronouncements on how to succeed are memorialised asquotes.
他們出版的演說集和個人著作，例如李彥宏的《智能革命》、馬化騰的《指尖上的中國》以及各種成功方法論被奉為圭臬。
Lately China’s corporate superstars have given social-media crowdsplenty more to parse.
最近，中國的企業超級明星們給了社交媒體更多需要分析的東西。
The joke proved partially correct about Jack Ma: a report that he would abruptly retire, later clarified by the companyto explain that Mr Ma would be stepping down as chairman in a year’s time,prompted a decline of 3.7% in Alibaba’s share price.
對於馬雲來說，這個笑話在一定程度上言中了：一份報告聲稱馬雲將突然退休，隨後公司明確宣布馬雲將在一年後卸任董事長，這導致阿里巴巴的股價下跌了3.7％。
But mostly investors tookthe news in their stride.
但大多數投資者面對這個新聞都表現得很淡定。
To focus on his philanthropic foundation, he willhand over to Daniel Zhang—who lacks Mr Ma’s star quality, certainly, but whohas been an adroit chief executive for Alibaba since 2015.
為了專注於慈善基金會，馬雲將把公司交給張勇，他雖然缺乏馬雲的明星氣質，但他為人幹練，自2015年以來，一直擔任阿里巴巴的執行長。
All of which makes for a striking contrast with events at JD.com,Alibaba’s arch-rival in e-commerce.
所有這些都與阿里巴巴在電子商務領域的宿敵京東所遭遇的事件形成了鮮明的對比。
Early this month it emerged that RichardLiu, JD.com’s founder and boss, had been briefly arrested in the American stateof Minnesota on a rape allegation.
本月初，京東的創始人兼總裁劉強東在美國明尼蘇達州因涉嫌強姦而短暫地被逮捕。
His mugshot circulated and Chinese internetusers swapped information on details of America’s legal process.
網上流傳著他被警方拍攝的面部照片，中國網民交流著有關美國司法程序細節的信息。
In two days oftrading JD.com’s shares fell by 16%, their biggest drop since listing onAmerica’s Nasdaq in 2014, losing $7.2bn of market value.
京東的股價在兩個交易日內下跌了16%，創下了公司自2014年在美國納斯達克上市以來的最大跌幅，損失了約72億美元的市值。
The policeinvestigation is ongoing (Mr Liu has denied any wrongdoing, through hislawyers).
警方仍在調查此案（劉強東通過他的律師否認有任何不當行為）。
The two events have concentrated minds on a thorny, long-standingproblem in Chinese corporate governance: 「key-man risk」.
這兩起事件突顯了中國企業管理中存在的一個棘手的、長期存在的問題：「關鍵人風險」。
Over-mighty technologybosses are a problem elsewhere, but in China opaque legal processes make itmuch worse, says Jamie Allen of the Asian Corporate Governance Association,based in Hong Kong.
來自香港的亞洲公司治理協會的艾哲明表示，其他國家也存在科技總裁過於強大的問題，但在中國，不透明的司法程序使情況變得更加嚴重。
China’s global champions employ control structures, builtto ensure the founder’s hold is ironclad, that attract criticism at home andabroad.
中國的全球企業通過控股結構來確保創始人對公司的掌控牢不可破，從而飽受國內外的詬病。
(紅色標註詞為重難點詞彙)
重難點詞彙：
engross [ɪn'ɡros]vt. 使全神貫注；用大字體書寫；正式寫成（決議等）；獨佔；吸引
philanthropic [,fɪlən'θrɑpɪk]adj. 博愛的；仁慈的
arrest [ə'rɛst] vt. 逮捕；阻止；吸引 n. 逮捕；監禁
swap [swɑp] n.交換；交換之物 vt. 與...交換；以...作交換 vi. 交換；交易
opaque [o'pek] adj. 不透明的；不傳熱的；遲鈍的 n. 不透明物 vt. 使不透明；使不反光
ironclad ['aɪɚnklæd] adj. 裝甲的；打不破的；堅固的 n. 裝甲艦
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