Dialogue 1

Jingjing and Mark are having lunch together.
马克和京晶在一起吃午餐
Jingjing: Mark, I'm glad we could meet again for lunch.
京晶：马克，很开心我们又聚在一起吃午餐了。
Mark: Me too. Are you busy these days?
马克：一样。最近忙吗？
Jingjing: Not too busy to eat. But my working hours are pretty full. How about you?
京晶：再忙也有吃饭的时间。但是我的工作时间排得特别满。你呢？
Mark: Well, there's a lot of work for me to do. But I don't have to spend every waking hour at work. I even have time for reading.
马克：我有很多工作要做。但我不需要每时每刻都在工作。我还有阅读的时间。
Jingjing: I saw you have a new book in your bag. What are you reading now?
京晶：我看见你包里还有一本新书。你在读什么呢？
Mark: Oh, this? It's called the 80/20 Principle. I've only read the first two chapters.
马克：这本吗？这本叫做二八定律。我刚读了开头两章。
Jingjing: What's the premise?
京晶：前提是什么？
Mark: You spend 80% of your time getting only 20% of your work done. With just 20% of your energy, you achieve 80% of your results.
马克：你花了80%的时间只完成了20%的工作。只花20%的力气，你可以达到80%的成果。
Jingjing: What kind of results is the author talking about?
京晶：作者说到的是哪种结果？
Mark: He was a business consultant and an investor. So, he's talking about 20% of a company's products driving 80% of sales, 20% of companies in any one industry controlling 80% of the market, even 20% of your stock portfolio earning 80% of your returns.
马克：他是做商业咨询的，也是一个投资人。所以他谈到了一个公司20%的产品推动了80%的销售。任何一个行业中，20%的企业控制着80%的市场占有，甚至你股票投资的20%为你挣回了80%的回报。
Jingjing: Hmm, I'm guessing the book is mostly about finding that valuable 20%, and prioritizing.
京晶：我猜，这本书主要是关于发掘20%的价值，然后择优。
Mark: Yeah. I'm hoping the best advice from this book is in the 80% I haven't read yet.
马克：我希望这本书能给出的最好的建议来自我还没读到的那80%.
Jingjing: Are you planning to read the book cover to cover?
京晶：你是打算逐字逐句地读吗？
Mark: I might not. The author points out that you needn't spend so much time reading one book. Just read the end first, then the beginning, and a few bits in the middle.
马克：也许不会。作者指出，你不需要花太多时间读一本书。先读结尾，然后开头，然后是中间一些零星的部分。
Jingjing: Yeah, that's what I often do when I read a book.
京晶：对，我经常这么读。
Mark: Well, at least there's an index on the last few pages of this one.
马克：至少这本书最后几页上还有一个索引。

New words: 习语短语

Dialogue 2

the next day 第二天
Jingjing: Hey, I've been thinking about that 80/20 principle. Is it true of people also?
京晶：嘿！我一直在想这个二八定律。在人身上也适用吗？
Mark: Yes. One out of five people in a company adds the most value to it. Two members of a ten-person team do most of the work.
马克：当然。一个公司里五个人当中有一个是为公司创造最大价值的。十个人的团队中有两个人是干活儿最多的。
Jingjing: So, just 20% of the people in a company are valuable?
京晶：所以，一个公司里只有20%的人真正有价值？
Mark: No, that's putting it too crudely. The writer of the 80/20 Principle says that it's not a matter of talent. Most people just haven't found suitable work for themselves.
马克：不是的。这样说太直白了。二八定律的作者写到，不是才能的问题。大多数人并没有找到适合自己的工作。
Jingjing: Does that mean most people ought to change jobs?
京晶：这意思是说大多数人都需要换工作吗？
Mark: Possibly. The author talks more about people getting caught up in work that they can't do effectively.
马克：也许吧。作者更多谈到了人们在不能胜任的工作中举步维艰。
Jingjing: There's a difference between what looks valuable and what really adds value to a company. I remember reading about how Microsoft lost some of its passion.
京晶：看上去有价值和真正创造价值这二者可是有区别的。我还记得读到微软是如何丢失掉一些人才的。
Mark: They were such a cutting edge company when I was in college. According to what you read, what happened?
马克：在我读大学那会儿他们还是一个非常开创先锋的公司，你读到了什么？后来怎么样了？
Jingjing: As the company got big, it became less nimble.
京晶：当一个公司变大了，就开始变得不那么灵活了。
Mark: That's a typical story.
马克：这不是很普例吗？
Jingjing: Worst of all, they had a policy called stack ranking. As a project got finished, the manager would make a report on the 10 team members—the two best, seven mediocre ones, and the very worst person on the team.
京晶：最糟糕的是，他们有一项政策叫做员工排名制。当一个项目完成后，经理会给十个团队成员出一份报告，两个最优秀的，七个表现平平的，还有一个最差的。
Mark: So, even if the manager picked the 10 most suitable people in the company for a project team, she would have to later report one of them as the worst?
马克：所以，即使经理挑选出来了十个最适合做项目的人来组成团队，她还是要报告表现最差的那一个？
Jingjing: Yes. Isn't that terrible? It's a good thing threw stack ranking out the window in 2012.
京晶：是的，可怕吗？2012年他们彻底放弃了这个员工排名制真是大快人心。
Mark: Too right! Perhaps now we can expect good news from Microsoft again.
马克：太正确了。也许现在我们又可以从微软听到更多好消息了。

New words: 习语短语

that's putting it (too) crudely 过于简单地归纳
describing something in a way that ignores important details
caught up in 被困于
stuck in, occupied by
cutting edge 先锋的 前沿的
newest, most advanced, needed by people
nimble 灵活的
able to change quickly and respond to new needs
throw (something) out the window 去除
get rid of something (especially an idea or a practice)