He was a sharpshooter who could supposedly split a bullet on the edge of a dime at 20 paces. He was said to have once killed ten men in a single fight. But, as a new biography suggests, the truth was a fungible commodity in the Wild West
Just spoke to gathering of human-resource professionals, several of whom told me afterwards they were angry and frustrated with the financial types in their firms who “think only about the short-term bottom line” and don’t consider the long-term well-being of the company and its employees. When I asked them how pay was determined, they said they’re instructed to benchmark what competitors pay their top executives and recommend pay at or above the top of the range, so their firm gets the best. But they’re also instructed to recommend below-average pay for lower-level managers and employees, on the theory those jobs are fungible. The director of HR for one of America’s biggest corporations told me “this can’t go on. A revolution is coming.” Really?
An Onset of Woes Raises Questions on Obama Vision By PETER BAKER
The Obama administration controversies of recent days have
reinforced fears of an overreaching government and called into question
Mr. Obama's ability to master his own presidency.
| |
By JONATHAN WEISMAN
The Obama administration stepped up pressure on the Internal Revenue
Service and sought to insulate itself from the outcry over the agency's
special scrutiny of conservative groups.
|
sharpshooter 神槍手
Definition of insulate
verb
island
n.
To make into or as if into an island; insulate: a secluded mansion, islanded by shrubbery and fences.
- (Abbr. Isl. or Is. or I.) A land mass, especially one smaller than a continent, entirely surrounded by water.
- Something resembling an island, especially in being isolated or surrounded, as:
- An unattached kitchen counter providing easy access from all sides.
- A raised curbed area, often used to delineate rows of parking spaces or lanes of traffic.
- The superstructure of a ship, especially an aircraft carrier.
- Anatomy. A cluster of cells differing in structure or function from the cells constituting the surrounding tissue.
To make into or as if into an island; insulate: a secluded mansion, islanded by shrubbery and fences.
[Alteration (influenced by ISLE) of Middle English ilond, from Old English īegland : īg, īeg + land, land.]
WORD HISTORY It may seem hard to believe, but Latin aqua, "water," is related to island, which originally meant "watery land." Aqua comes almost unchanged from Indo-European *akwā-, "water." *Akwā- became *ahwō- in Germanic by Grimm's Law and other sound changes. To this was built the adjective *ahwjō-, "watery." This then evolved to *awwjō- or *auwi-, which in pre-English became *ēaj-, and finally ēg or īeg in Old English. Island, spelled iland, first appears in Old English in King Alfred's translation of Boethius about A.D. 888; the spellings igland and ealond appear in contemporary documents. The s inisland is due to a mistaken etymology, confusing the etymologically correct English iland with French isle. Isle comes ultimately from Latin īnsula "island," a component of paenīnsula, "almost-island," whence our peninsula.
1 島（▼形容詞はinsular）；島に似（て孤立し）た場所, 周囲とは異なった地域
a desert island
無人島
無人島
a cultural island
文化の孤島.
文化の孤島.
2 （大草原の中の）森林地帯；孤立した丘.
3 （路上の）安全地帯(safety island)；《鉄道》島式ホーム（両側に線路がある）.
4 《解剖学》島：周りの組織と異なった部分.
5 （航空母艦の）アイランド：艦橋・マスト・司令塔などがある部分.
the Island of Saints
聖人島.▼アイルランドの別称.
━━[動] (他)
1 …を島にする；…を島に置く；…を孤立させる, 隔離する.
2 …を島のように点在させる.
［古英語īgland （īg島＋land土地）. さらに, 古英語ēaland （ēa水＋land＝水にかこまれた土地）と一体化. いまのつづりにある-s-はISLE（島）の影響で入れられた］
General Mills targets China for yoghurt growth
yoghurt 中國:酸乳
蒜蓉麵包具有可替换性吗？
Dear Economist: Is garlic bread really fungible?
亲爱的经济学家：
Having bought identical garlic breads for my wife and myself, I proposed that we should equally share one immediately and equally share the second later. She was unhappy with this, proposing that she eat half of hers and that I eat half of mine. When I suggested that half garlic breads should be fungible, she accused me of making the word up. Assuming that garlic breads could be exactly shared equally, had I been correctly using established economic terminology? Hungry Chris, Teesside
我给我妻子和我自己买了两个一模一样的蒜蓉面包。买回来后，我提议说，我们应该先平分其中的一个，晚些时候再平分剩下的那个。她不满意这么做，而是提议 说，她吃她自己那个面包的一半，我吃我自己面包的一半。当我指出两个半块蒜蓉面包具有可替换性时，她指责我杜撰词汇。假设蒜蓉面包可以被精确地分成两等 份，那么，我对“可替换性”这一既定经济学术语的使用正确吗？
饥饿的克里斯(Hungry Chris)，英国提兹赛德
fungible
(fŭn'jə-bəl)
adj.
- Law. Returnable or negotiable in kind or by substitution, as a quantity of grain for an equal amount of the same kind of grain.
- Interchangeable.
Something that is exchangeable or substitutable. Often used in the plural.
[Medieval Latin fungibilis, from Latin fungī (vice), to perform (in place of).]
fungibility fun'gi·bil'i·ty n.
adj.
- Law. Returnable or negotiable in kind or by substitution, as a quantity of grain for an equal amount of the same kind of grain.
- Interchangeable.
[形]《法律》〈動産が〉代替可能の, 代替性のある.
━━[名]代替可能なもの（金銭・穀物など）.
Something that is exchangeable or substitutable. Often used in the plural.
[Medieval Latin fungibilis, from Latin fungī (vice), to perform (in place of).]
fungibility fun'gi·bil'i·ty n.Dear Hungry Chris, “Fungible” is an inherently amusing word but you did not invent it and you have used it correctly, assuming – as you claim – that the tasty loaves were indeed identical. Fungibility is usually used of commodities such as Brent crude or 24 carat gold, or currencies. All these are fungible because a reasonable person wouldn’t care which particular barrel of Brent crude or which ounce of gold they received. A new idea of fungibility has emerged in recent years, which concerns monetary transfers such as foreign aid or politicians’ expenses. If an MP claims £10,000 in expenses for something he was planning to buy anyway, it doesn’t matter whether he sends in receipts for secretarial expenses, a train season ticket or a duck island. All we know is that he is £10,000 better off when his expense claim is approved. In short, expenses are fungible. But your story raises a deeper question than that of terminology: one of marital bliss. In the classic analysis, “Love and Spaghetti”, economist Ted Bergstrom modelled two lovers who both enjoyed Italian food but also loved to watch the joy in each other’s faces as they shared spaghetti. You and your wife, in contrast, are behaving like a pair of bond traders. Your grasp of economic terminology is quite secure. I am not so sure about your marriage.
亲爱的饥饿的克里斯，
“可替换”这个词本来就惹人发笑，但你并没有胡编乱造，而且，如果——正如你所宣称的——那两个美味的面包的确一模一样，那么，你对这个词的使用也是正确的。可替换性通常被用于大宗商品，比如，布伦特原油、24K金或者货币。所有这些都是可相互替换的，因为一个理性的人不会在意自己拿到的是哪一桶布伦特原油、或者哪一盎司的黄金。
近些年，一个有关可替换性的新思想逐渐形成，主要与对外援助或政府官员们开支等货币转移相关。如果一位下院议员为他无论如何都要计划购买的东西申请1万英镑的开支报销，那么，他提交的收据是秘书费、火车季票费还是鸭舍费，根本无关紧要。我们只知道，当他的支出报销单被批准时，他比以前多了1万英镑。简言之，支出是具有可替换性的。
但你的故事提出了一个比术语问题更深刻的问题：那就婚姻幸福。在经典分析“爱与意大利面”(Love and Spaghetti)中，经济学家泰德•伯格斯特龙(Ted Bergstrom)建立了下述模型：一对爱人都既喜欢意大利食物，也喜欢观察双方在分享意大利面时，脸上显露出的快乐表情。相比之下，你和你妻子的行为，更像一对债券交易员。
你对经济学术语掌握得相当扎实。但你对你的婚姻是否有把握，我就不那么肯定了。
译者/何黎
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