公司总裁Tim召集部门经理开会,讨论节能措施。

F: I know it might sound like an old-fashioned idea, but what about some kind of a carpooling program?

T: You know, that just might work for a few of our departments. I know a few of the marketing guys live pretty close to each other.

H: Ah! But now we come to a problem. How do we convince people to sign up for a program that will – at least mildly – inconvenience them?

D: I have to confess, if you asked me to volunteer, I’d turn you down.

H: Sure. So would I. So we can’t rely on the kindness of people’s hearts. We’re not bad people, we’re just busy people.

Faith提议,可以考虑拼车计划,carpooling program。 Henry指出,拼车会给大家带来不便, inconvenience them, 问题是如何说服大家加入。 Sign up for something,是报名参加的意思。

T: I think I get your point. You’re talking about a fundamental motivator. What Henry’s saying is that people need an incentive.

H: Bingo! For the past few years, several companies have been experimenting with paying employees a tiny fee to carpool, use public transport or cycle. One organization in Florida pays twenty cents a mile.

D: Huh. I’d consider riding my bicycle if I was getting paid. That’s like getting paid to work out!

总裁Tim说, I get your point. 我明白你的意思了。 Henry是说要给大家一些好处,incentive 。 Henry说, Bingo! 这在口语里很常用,意思是没错!对了!

H: Yeah! The company has to consider the fee as an investment in carbon reduction and in workers’ health. Less driving means less stress.

T: It’s a very interesting idea. But I think you’re right….without an incentive, it’s doomed to failure.

H: It might seem like a lot of hassle and in the end you might only get a few people to change their commuting habits, but just to put it into perspective, here’s a fact from planetgreen.com: If every commuter car in the U.S. carried just one more person, the nation would save 8 billion gallons of gas.

T: It really adds up, doesn’t it? Thanks for the tips, Henry. I think we got a lot of food for thought today.

公司要把这笔钱看成是减少废气排放,促进员工健康的投资。总裁Tim表示赞同。 Henry说,虽然听上去好象挺麻烦,但如果美国每辆上班用的车里都多坐一个人的话,美国就能节省80亿加仑的汽油, It really adds up.