I want to share a story about how I sold a $15 wooden display box with a $99 pearl necklace for $400.
我分享一个我如何以 400 美元的价格卖掉了一个 15 美元的木制礼盒和一条 99 美元的珍珠项链的故事。
Once upon a time, I went on a vacation. I ended up in a pawn store a few hours away.
从前,我去度假了,并且到最终到了一个有几小时车程的一家当铺.
I asked the pawnbroker what he had that was a bargain. He pulled out a lovely strand of pearl… but I could see that he had a lot of pearl strands in the desk drawer and his safe.
我问当铺老板,有没有特价的商品. 他拿出来了一串漂亮的珍珠项链……但我可以看到他的书桌抽屉和保险箱里有很多串。
He offers to sell the one strand to me at a great price. I said, "what if I buy them all?” He said there were 400 strands total. We ended up doing the deal and I loaded 400 strands of pearls in my car and drove back to the lake house.
他提出以一个优惠价把那一串珍珠项链卖给我。我说：“我可以全部买下吗？”他说总共有400串，最后我们成交了，我把400串珍珠项链装进车里，然后开车回了湖边小屋。
I paid $10 a strand for 18″ strands and up to $40 a strand for 86″ strands. Except for the large endless strands, all the rest had 14K gold clasps on them. The clasps at the time were $20 each wholesale, so I knew I couldn't go wrong with this deal.
其中18串每串我支付了10美元, 86串每串我支付了40美元. 除了特别大串的珍珠项链，其余的全都镶嵌了14K金扣子。当时的扣子批发价格是 20 美元，所以我知道这笔交易很赚.
Anyway, I was selling the pearl strands for $99 to $150 each and they were still a bargain. A VP of my bank came in to buy a strand. He liked it but wanted something “better” for his wife. I said I have just the thing for you in my office.
我以每串 99 到 150 美元的优惠价格出售了这些珍珠链。一位银行的副总裁也买了一串。他喜欢它，但想给他的妻子“更好”的东西。我说我办公室里正好有你想要的东西。
I went and put one of the same $99 necklaces in a $15 wooden box and took it out to him. I slowly opened the beautiful box in front of him. “Is this more like what you are looking for?” He LOVED the pearl strand in the box. He said, “how much is this one?” “This one is $400”, I replied. “Sold”, he said.
我去拿了一个价值15美元的木盒, 然后给他看. 这个木盒里面装的是同样的价值99美元的珍珠项链. 我缓慢地在他面前打开了这个精致的盒子. 然后跟他说“这个应该是你想要的？他喜欢盒子里的珍珠项链，他问：“这个多少钱？” 我回答说“这个是 400 美元，”。最后他以这个价格买下了.
赠音频英语小故事
#Pearl S. Buck##赛珍珠##LearnEnglish##英语#【我很早以前就学会了，不为任何事哭泣...】
“你哭过吗？“他追问。
”也许吧，“她几乎是无动于衷地说，“当我年轻，还不懂得生活的时候。”
“I have a feeling that we ought to get together today and see exactly what her circumstances are,” he said. “I’d like to have the matter settled in my mind. It is very difficult to deal with Herbert when he stands and blubbers.”
“He’s disgusting,” Elinor said vehemently. “A man in tears turns my stomach.
”William found himself moved to defense. “I suppose there are times when a man must weep also.”
“Weeping should be done in secret,” Elinor said.
It occurred to him again that indeed he had rarely seen her weep and not for years. He asked with intense diffidence and after a long moment, “Do you weep in secret, my dearest?”
She was evasive as always when he approached the depths between them, which was the Vermont in her, he supposed, or perhaps only the Winsten, so long in Vermont. “I learned long ago not to weep about anything,” she said.
“Did you once?” he pressed.
“Perhaps,” she said almost with indifference, “when I was younger, before I understood life.”
—Voices in th House by Pearl S. Buck
世界杯举行，现在很多人都在称赞卡塔尔，卡塔尔这样的中东国不是一夜之间变富了，以前就是贝都因族的牧羊人，同时采珍珠采了几百年，一直到上世纪二十年的日本人工养殖珍珠出来，卡塔尔的珍珠业就被挤垮了。
后来发现了石油，但是90年代国家又一次遇到破产危机，之后就全力转向天然气，然后利用石油财富转型为地区的交通物流金融旅游中心。
半岛电视台成功是另外一个案例，因为海湾战争，阿拉伯地区的声音没有，都是被西方媒体垄断了。卡塔尔就挖了一大批BBC记者来搞阿拉伯语的电视台，结果后来大获成功，成为西方媒体外的一个独立的声音，干脆就连英语频道都开了。
别忘记，卡塔尔是一个世袭的国家，你要说独裁，这是正儿八经的独裁国，不是西方那一套民主自由的价值体系。
西方那一套民主自由不必然是经济繁荣的前提，还是看不明白的就真的是被西方意识形态脑子洗坏了。
这次西方为什么拿卡塔尔人权问题说三道四，不就是人家没跟着西方的屁股也把经济搞起来了么。
全世界现在最好的城市，都在亚洲，无论是国内的北上广深，东南亚的新加坡，中东的多哈，迪拜。
西方人就是落后了，死鸭子嘴硬不承认就来攻击人权，也不看看欧洲人这个冬天要冻死多少人，还好意思说人权。
#Pearl S. Buck##赛珍珠##LearnEnglish##英语#【旧社会的文人】In my village there was an old scholar. Now why do I call him a scholar? He went up for the Imperial Examinations five times and after the first degree, he failed every time. Yet each time he came back more lordly than before. He could dine with no one except our landlord. The two of them went together. And when the local magistrate came to the village to examine the crops, then the three of them dined together. They were too good for the rest of us. And later when a warlord took our region, then there were four of them to dine together. And they were all too good for the rest of us, who were only the people. Scholar, landlord, magistrate, warlord—there you have the tyrants of the people. And we have them still.
——Kinfolk by Pearl S. Buck
身为台湾人
炙热的午后，
来杯大冰珍奶[草泥马]
是再也幸福不过的事了
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