(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
I'm Mary Tillotson. And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. This week, we tell about one of the most successful American businesswomen. Mary Kay started a company in nineteen sixty-three with a five thousand dollar investment. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics is an international company worth thousands of millions of dollars.
Mary Kathlyn Wagner was born in the state of Texas in nineteen eighteen. For much of her childhood, she cared for her sick father while her mother worked long hours at a public eating place. Mary Kay married Ben Rogers when she was seventeen years old. They had three children before he left home to serve in World War Two. When he returned, their marriage ended. Mary Kay looked for a job so she could support her children.
Mary Kay began selling different kinds of products. At first, she sold books. Later, she visited peoples' homes to show how home care products such as cleaning fluids and equipment helped ease housework.
One night, Mary Kay was showing these products at the home of Ova Heath Spoonemore. Later in the evening, Missus Spoonemore began giving her guests some home made skin care products. The products were developed by her father, J.W. Heath, in Arkansas. Mary Kay tried the skin care products and found they made her skin smooth.
Mary Kay was successful selling home care products. Her supervisors praised her work. But they never increased her earnings. She left the company after a man she trained was given a more important job than she had.
Mary Kay said later that she learned from this experience. It taught her that men did not believe that a woman could succeed in business. She decided to prove them wrong. So she bought the rights to Mister Heath's skin care products and started her own company. She paid five hundred dollars for the legal rights to the products.
The Mary Kay Cosmetics company began operating in Dallas, Texas, in nineteen sixty-three. Mary Kay's twenty-year-old son Richard was the company's financial official. The idea was to sell skin care products through demonstrations in homes and offices. Nine sales representatives were chosen to sell the products.
The sales representatives were independent workers. They bought products like soaps and skin softening liquids from the company and sold them at higher prices to friends, family members and other individuals. Mary Kay decided that each representative who brought other sales women into the company would receive part of the new person's earnings. That way, experienced sales representatives would be willing to help train new ones.
Mary Kay told the women who worked for her that to be successful in life a person should put God first, family second and work third. She said women must discover how to be good wives and mothers while at the same time learning how to succeed in work.
Two years later, in nineteen sixty-five, the company was selling almost one million dollars worth of products. Mary Kay once said that success came fast because she did not have any time to waste. She was already forty-five years old when she started the company. She said a woman needs money fast as she gets older!
Now Mary Kay Cosmetics is the largest direct seller of skin care products in the United States. It develops and tests many skin care and beauty products for the face, body, hair and nails -- many more than it started selling in nineteen sixty-three. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics has sales of more than one thousand million dollars. It has more than eight hundred thousand sales representatives in thirty-seven countries around the world. You can find Mary Kay products and company sales representatives in Argentina, Brunei, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan and Singapore.
Every year since nineteen sixty-five, Mary Kay Cosmetics has held a yearly conference in Dallas for its sales representatives. The first one took place in one large room. Mary Kay cooked food for two hundred people and served it on paper plates.
As the company grew, so did the conference. Now, more than thirty-five thousand sales representatives and company officials pay to attend education meetings at the yearly conference. A special event at the three-day conference is Awards Night. That is when prizes are given to those representatives with the most sales for the year. Awards Night also includes a show in which famous singers and dancers perform.
The Awards Night winners receive special paid holidays, jewels, furs, and pink Cadillac automobiles. In Germany, winners receive a pink Mercedes Benz, and in Taiwan they are given a pink Toyota. By nineteen ninety-four, seven thousand cars had been given to sales representatives. The cars are pink because Mary Kay products come in pink containers. Mary Kay liked that color.
Mary Kay believed that recognizing good work is the best way to increase a company's sales. She said her company tried to have competitions in which everyone has a chance to win. She did not want to organize the kind of competition where someone has to hurt another person in order to win.
So the Mary Kay competitions are designed around the idea that it is best to compete with yourself. That means every individual is trying to do better then she did last week or last year.
Competition winners are rewarded well. For example, winners of one of the competitions get a gold pin called the Ladder of Success. Sales representatives earn a pin by selling a large number of products. Then they earn jewels for the pin as they increase their sales. Each jewel is placed higher on the ladder than the others. The pin of a top sales representative is covered with diamonds.
Mary Kay's third husband, Mel Ash, died of cancer in nineteen eighty. She wanted to help find a cure for the disease. At first, she helped organizations raise money for research. Later, she started the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, a non-profit group that provides money to support research about cancers affecting women. In two thousand one, the company and foundation expanded their goals in an effort to help stop violence against women.
Through the years, Mary Kay Ash received many business awards. She was named one of America's Twenty-Five Most Influential Women in nineteen eighty-five. She became a member of the National Business Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety-six.
Mary Kay Ash wrote three books. The first book, "Mary Kay," told the story of her life. More than one million copies in several languages have been sold. She described her business ideas in the book "Mary Kay on People Management." Her third book was released in nineteen ninety-five. It is called "Mary Kay--You Can Have It All." The money earned from its sales went to help fight cancer.
Mary Kay Ash continued her involvement in her business until she suffered a stroke in nineteen ninety-six. She died in November, two thousand one.
Business experts say she was an important business leader who cared about people. Mary Kay sales representatives say she developed a way for women to earn money and still spend time with their families.
One example is Valerie Yokie. She started selling Mary Kay products twenty years ago. She was an official at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., but left her job to stay home with her two small children. She became interested in the Mary Kay Cosmetics company because it was a way to get started in a business for a small amount of money. She paid less than one hundred dollars for her supplies.
After one year and one half, Missus Yokie became a director of the company and started helping other women become successful Mary Kay representatives. Soon after this, her husband lost his job. Then he developed cancer. Valerie Yokie has supported her family for twenty years through Mary Kay Cosmetics. She is an extremely successful businesswoman. She has won many prizes in Mary Kay competitions, and receives a new pink Cadillac every two years.
Valerie Yokie's story is similar to those of other Mary Kay representatives. They agree that Mary Kay Ash changed the business world. They say she opened a door for women by providing them with a way to earn money that balances work and family.
重点解析
1.investment 投资
This country needs investment in education.
这个国家需要对教育进行投资。
2.worth 值钱
His mother inherited a business worth 15,000 dollars a year.
他的母亲继承了一个每年盈利15000美元的商行。
3.ease 减轻
I gave him some brandy to ease the pain.
我给了他一些白兰地以减轻疼痛。
4.She decided to prove them wrong.
prove 证明
They hope this new evidence will prove her innocence.
他们希望这一新证据能证明她无罪。
5.The Awards Night winners receive special paid holidays, jewels, furs, and pink Cadillac automobiles.
paid holiday 带薪休假
Every worker will be entitled to four weeks 'paid holiday a year.
每位工人每年都能享受4周的带薪休假。
6.So the Mary Kay competitions are designed around the idea that it is best to compete with yourself.
compete with 与...竞争
We have no right to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.
我们没有权利干涉别国内政。
参考译文
我是玛丽·蒂洛森。我是史蒂夫·恩贝尔。这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。本周，我们将讲述美国最成功女商人之一。玫琳凯于1963年以五千美元的投资创立了一家公司。今天，玫琳凯化妆品公司已是一家身价数十亿美元的国际公司。
1918年，玫琳凯·瓦格纳出生于德克萨斯州。童年大部分时期，她都在照顾生病的父亲，而她的母亲则在一家公共餐馆里长时间工作。17岁的时候，玫琳凯嫁给了本·罗杰斯。本·罗杰斯去参加二战时，他们已经有了三个孩子。他回来后，他们的婚姻也结束了。玫琳凯出去找工作养活自己的孩子，她开始卖各种不同的产品。开始的时候，她卖书，之后，她到别人家里为他们展示如何使用这些家庭清洁产品，比如清洗液以及设备。一天晚上，玫琳凯在奥瓦·希斯·斯普那摩尔的家中展示这些产品。晚些时候，斯普那摩尔太太就开始给她的客人送一些家里自制的护肤产品。这些产品是她的父亲J.W.希斯开发的。玫琳凯用过这些产品后发现，她的皮肤变得光滑了。
玫琳凯在销售家庭产品中获得成功，她的上司称赞了她的工作。却没有增加她的薪水。一个给她培训过的男士给她介绍了一份更好的工作，她便离开了这家公司。玫琳凯说之后她从这次经历中吸取了经验。这次经历教会她男人们是不相信一个女人可以取得事业上的成功的。她决定证明那些人是错的。所以她购买了希斯先生的护肤产品权并创建了自己的公司。她支付了500美元购买这些产品的法定权益。1963年，玫琳凯化妆品公司开始在达拉斯、德克萨斯州营业。玫琳凯20岁的儿子理查德是公司的财务经理。他们的想法是通过去别人家里和办公室里进行展示来售卖这些护肤产品。他们选了九名销售代表。销售代表们都是独立的工作人员。他们从公司购买香皂和柔肤露等产品并将产品以更高价格卖给朋友、家人和其他人。玫琳凯决定，介绍其他销售人员进公司的代表们可从新人的收入中获得提成。这样，有经验的销售代表们就会愿意帮助培训新的销售人员。
玫琳凯告诉为她工作的人，要想成功，就要将上帝放在第一位，家庭放在第二位，工作第三位。她说女人应该探索如何成为好的妻子和母亲，但同时也要学习如何取得事业上的成功。两年后的1965年，公司卖出了将近百万的产品。玫琳凯曾说过，成功来的很快，因为她没有时间可以浪费。开公司的时候，她已经45岁了，她说一个女人赚钱的速度要和老去的速度一样！现在玫琳凯化妆品公司是美国最大的护肤品直销商。公司开发并测试了多款针对脸部、身体、头发和指甲的皮肤护理及美容产品—比1963年所卖的产品还要多。如今，玫琳凯化妆品公司已售十多亿美元。其在世界37个国家拥有八十多万名销售代表。在阿根廷、文莱、捷克共和国、哈萨克斯坦以及新加坡都有玫琳凯的产品的销售代表。
自1965年起，玫琳凯化妆品公司每年都会在达拉斯为其销售代表举办年会。第一次年会是在一间大房子里举行的。玫琳凯为两百人制作食物。随着公司的成长，年会也在发展。现在，每年都有三万五千多名销售代表和公司领导层花钱去参加年度会议上的教育性会议。三天会议中的特别的活动就是颁奖晚会。奖项是颁发给年度销售冠军的。颁奖晚会上还有著名歌手和舞者的表演。颁奖晚会的赢家们会有特别的带薪假期、珠宝、皮草以及粉红卡迪拉克汽车。在德国，赢家们会收到一辆粉红色的奔驰，而在台湾则是一辆粉色丰田。到1994年，有七千名销售代表收到汽车。车是粉红色的，因为玫琳凯的产品包装是粉色的。玫琳凯喜欢这个颜色。
琳凯相信认同好的工作是增加公司销售的最好方法。她说她的公司尝试为大家举办每个人都有机会赢的比赛。她并不想组织那种为了胜利而伤害别人的比赛。所以玫琳凯比赛的想法是和自己竞争。这意味着每个人都尽力做得比上一周或去年好。比赛赢家也有奖励。例如，比赛的赢家会获得一枚叫做成功阶梯的黄金别针。销售代表们通过销售大量的产品来获得这个别针。随着销量的增加，再用别针换珠宝。每件珠宝都放在阶梯的上一层。顶级销售代表的别针被一层钻石包裹。
玫琳凯的第三任丈夫梅尔·阿什于1980年死于癌症。她想帮助寻找治疗这种疾病的疗法。起初，她帮助组织为研究筹备资金。之后，她创立了玫琳凯·艾施慈善基金会，这是一个非营利团体为支持女性癌症研究提供帮助。2001年，公司和基金会将目标扩大至致力于反对对妇女进行施暴。多年来，玫琳凯·艾施获得了多个商业奖项。1985年她被命名为美国25位最具影响力女性之一。1996年，她成为名人堂一员。玫琳凯·艾施写了三本书。第一本《玫琳凯》讲述的是她的一生。书被译为几种语言，销量超过百万本。她在《玫琳凯谈人的管理》一书中描述了自己的商业理念。她的第三本书《你可以拥有一切》出版于1995年。书本销售收入用于帮助抗癌。
直到1996年中风为止，玫琳凯·艾施一直在继续她参与的事业。她于2001年去世。商业专家称，她关心人们，是一名重要的商业领袖。玫琳凯的销售代表们称她为女性开创了挣钱之路，同时还能和家人相伴。其中一个例子就是Valerie Yokie。她于20年前开始卖玫琳凯产品。她是华盛顿乔治城大学的一名高级职员，但是她辞去了工作在家中陪伴两个孩子。她对玫琳凯产品感兴趣，因为可以利用手头的小钱开创事业。她进货只花了不到100美元。一年半后，Yokie太太就成为了公司主管并开始帮助其他女性成为成功的玫琳凯销售代表。很快，她的丈夫失业了，然后便患上了癌症。二十年来，Valerie Yokie一直通过在玫琳凯化妆品公司的工作支持家庭。她是一位非常成功的女商人。在玫琳凯公司的比赛中，她获得过很多奖，而且每两年就收到一辆新的粉红凯迪拉克。Valerie Yokie的故事和其他玫琳凯代表相似。她们都认为玫琳凯·艾施改变了商业世界。她们说她为女性们打开大门，为她们提供一个能够平衡工作和家庭的赚钱方法。
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