要是我有个水晶球能窥见未来，我会怎么样呢？ 许多人一遇到障碍就打退堂鼓，但我不会这样。 我一旦有了目标，就必然锲而不舍，全力以赴。 我相信人生中充满机会，但我们往往不懂得把握。

How a Simple Idea Became a Huge Business

我怎样白手起家

By Howard Schultz 霍华德·舒尔茨 .

[4]Most people would be satisfied with all this. But I was getting antsy『热锅上蚂蚁般的；坐立不安的』. I wanted to be in charge of my own destiny 『命运』. It was around this time, in the early 1980s, that I became aware of a strange phenomenon. A little retailer『零售商』in Seattle was placing large orders for a drip coffee maker: a simple plastic cone 『圆锥体』set on a thermos『保温瓶』. The company, Starbucks Coffee and Tea, had only four small stores, yet it was buying our product in quantities larger than Macy's was. Why was Seattle so taken with this coffee maker when the rest of the country was using electric coffee makers?

[4]一般人有了如此成就，也许会志得意满，我却还想更上一层楼，决意要主宰自己的命运。就在这个时候（80年代初期），一个奇特现象引起了我的注意。西雅图有家经营零售业的小公司向我们订购滴滤式咖啡壶。这家公司名叫"明星咖啡连锁公司"，只有4家小店，向我们买这种产品的数量却超过百货业巨擘梅西公司。当时美国各地普通使用电气咖啡壶。何以此器具在西雅图那么受欢迎？

【额外知识】 Seattle：美国西北部华盛顿州首府。濒临太平洋，著名的波音（Boeing）飞机制造公司坐落于此。 Macy's：即R. H. Macy & Co.梅西公司。美国资格最老、最著名的百货公司，总部设在纽约。

[5]I had to find out, so I went to Seattle.

[5]为了查明原委，我前往西雅图。

[6]Starbucks's flagship store was modest『朴素的』but full of character. The minute the door opened, a heady『刺鼻的；浓烈的』aroma『芳香』of coffee drew me in. Behind a wooden counter stood bins containing coffees from all over: Sumatra, Kenya, Ethiopia, Costa Rica. Along one wall was a shelf full of coffee-related merchandise『商品；货物』, including our thermos-and-cone coffee maker.

[6]明星咖啡连锁公司的总店朴实无华，却别具风格。我一推开店门，浓郁醉人的咖啡香气便扑鼻而来。木柜台后面有一列箱子，分别装盛从苏门答腊、肯尼亚、埃塞俄比亚和哥斯达黎加世界各地进口的咖啡。靠着墙的货架上摆满各种咖啡用具，包括我们生产的滴滤式咖啡壶。

学习外语就是训练口腔肌肉，使之轻松地发出陌生的外国声音，变以成灵活的国际肌肉；学习外语就是苦练脱口而出！只有这样才是真正地拥有语言！请大家用三最口腔肌肉训练法！用最大声、最清晰、最快速的办法反复操练这些小短文直至脱口而出！只要你能脱口而出，必定一鸣惊人！！

>>>未完待续