2015考研英语阅读IBM vs 卡耐基基金会_大学英语阅读

2015考研英语阅读IBM vs 卡耐基基金会

　　At first glance, IBM and the Carnegie Corporation seem to be engaged in such differentendeavours that comparing them might seem about as sensible as comparing apple orchardsand orange groves. Making money has always been the main aim of the company formed in1911 by the merger of three small producers of mechanical accounting machines, scales andtime recorders, and renamed International Business Machines 13 years later. By contrast, theCarnegie Corporation explicitly set out to create a better world by giving away what remainedof the great fortune of its industrialist founder, Andrew Carnegie. Yet both can assert thatthey have made the world a better place during the past century, and it is far from obviouswhich claim is stronger.

　　乍一看，IBM和卡耐基基金会从事的是两种如此截然不同的事业，以至于比较它们就好像比较苹果园和橘子林一样不靠谱。1911年，三家生产会计机、磅秤和计时器的小型公司于合并成立了一间新公司，13年后改名为国际商业机器公司，赚钱一直是这家公司的主要目标。与之形成对比的是，卡耐基基金会在创立伊始就明确要通过捐赠其创始人工业家安德鲁??卡耐基巨大财富的剩余来创造一个更好的世界。但是两者都可以自称它们在过去的一个世纪中让世界变得更美好，不过还远远不清楚究竟哪一方的声明会更有力。

　　The answer matters, and not just in order to awardthe historical bragging rights. Comparing the recordsof those giants of 20th-century American capitalismor philanthrocapitalismcan shed light on aquestion that is keenly debated today: whetherphilanthropy or business is more effective atMaking the World Work Better, to borrow the titleof the book celebrating IBMs centenary.