大学レベルの英語

The legend of Andrew Carnegie is complex. On the one hand, the steel king is remembered as a powerful businessman — at one time the world’s richest man. On the other hand, he gave away 90 percent of his fortune, making him one of history’s greatest philanthropists.

steel：鉄鋼
philanthropist：慈善家

Carnegie was born in Scotland in 1835 into a working-class family. As machines replaced workers in the textile business, his father was laid off. Poor, yet hopeful for a better future, the family immigrated to America when Andrew was 13. It was a 50-day trip in miserable conditions.

working-class：労働者階級
replace：取って代わる
textile：織物
lay off：解雇する
immigrate：移住する
miserable：みじめな

In America, a classroom education was not an option for Andrew. He had to work to help pay the bills. But he was smart and hardworking, and he moved on to better and better jobs, from factory worker to factory master.

pay the bills：諸生活費を支払う
hardworking：勤勉な
move on to X：Xへ移る
master：雇い主

At the Pennsylvania Railroad, where Carnegie worked for 12 years, he quickly climbed the corporate ladder. He then opened his own business in 1865, building iron bridges. Later, he turned to making steel, and his riches multiplied even faster. Eventually, in 1901, Carnegie sold his steel company to J.P. Morgan for a massive profit.

climb the corporate ladder：出世の階段を昇る
multiply：倍増する
massive：大量の

But Carnegie was not only concerned with money. From his parents, he had learned to believe in the equality of all people. He also believed in the power of education. As a boy, Carnegie had a chance to use a small library, and as an adult he continued to educate himself through reading.

be concerned with X：Xを気にしている

One might say that Carnegie wanted the world to read. During his lifetime, he donated money to open more than 2,800 public libraries, including one in his hometown in Scotland. He also gave to universities and supported peace-building efforts. His largest gift, of $125 million, formed the Carnegie Corporation, which supported schools and scientific research.

lifetime：一生
donete：寄付する
Carnegie Corporation：カーネギー財団

Without question, Carnegie was a complex man. His fortune was made from modern factories and industries 一 the type that had put his father out of work. History does not look kindly on the way Carnegie treated his workers. And yet he gave and gave, supporting the common person through his generosity. For that, history remembers Andrew Carnegie fondly.

without question：疑いなく
generosity：寛大さ
fondly：愛情を込めて

If you recently went shopping at IKEA for a Billy (a bookshelf) or a Detolf (a glass cabinet), you had a lot of company. Over the last 60 years, the retail legend with unique product names has probably sold more furniture than any other company. Millions of customers worldwide have filled their homes with IKEA products, turning the Swedish chain into a multibillion-dollar giant.

turn X into Y：XがYに変わる
multibillion-dollar：数十億ドル

IKEA’s roots were far more humble. Founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, a 17-year-old Swede, the company started as a mail-order business. One might expect such a young entrepreneur to grow tired of the ins and outs of a daily business, but not Ingvar. Within four years, he went from selling pens ，watches, and other odds and ends to hiring local craftspeople to build furniture for IKEA.

humble：謙虚な、つつましい
entrepreneur：起業家、アントレプレナー
grow tired of X：Xに飽きる
ins and outs：詳細
odds and ends：さまざまなもの
craftspeople：職人

The 1950s were a momentous period for the company. Kamprad opened his first showroom in 1953. Two years later, the company started designing its own furniture. Shortly after that, IKEA began selling items in “flat packages.” That is, the products came in several pieces, packed in a box, and customers assembled the items at home. According to the company, this idea came from an IKEA employee who had to take apart a table to make it fit into a car.

momentous：重大な
assemble：組み立てる
take apart：分解する

Besides do-it-yourself furniture and “one-way” store layouts (IKEA stores are intentionally designed to make you walk through every section before arriving at the cash register), IKEA is known for its emphasis on children. It sells many products designed specifically for use by boys and girls. The company is also a big supporter of children’s rights, helping in efforts to eliminate child labor in developing countries.

do-it-yourself：DIYの
intentionally：意図的に
in an effort to X：Xしようと努力して
eliminate：排除する

With sales of $28.9 billion in 2007, IKEA is firing on all cylinders. It now has more than 250 stores in over 30 countries. As the world buys Billys and Detolfs by the thousands, Ingvar Kamprad (already one of the world’s richest people) will continue to have a reason to smile. If there isn’t an IKEA near you yet, that could change soon, as the retail legend grows and grows.

fire on all cylinders：ばく進する、全力で物事に成功する
(ref.) go home burning rubber：大急ぎで帰宅する
(ref.) grease the wheels：事を順調に進める、事をスムーズに運ぶ

Sam Walton’s story reads like a classic tale of the American dream come true. From humble beginnings on a Midwestern farm, Walton eventually built an empire that made him at one time the richest man in America. Along the way, he helped change the way the world does business.

classic：典型的な
tale：物語
humble：(身分などが)低い
empire：大企業
along the way：途中で

Sam Walton was born on March 29, 1916, in Oklahoma, a rural state. His family lived on a farm until he was five. During that time, and through the Great Depression, Walton worked at odd jobs to help make ends meet. He learned the necessity of hard work and the importance of saving.

the Great Depression：世界恐慌
odd job：臨時の仕事
make ends meet：生活の収支を合わせる
saving：倹約

In 1945, Walton started his career in retail sales. He bought one of the franchise 10 stores of a company called Ben Franklin, which sold household items. It became very successful, and Walton opened several more franchise stores for Ben Franklin, though he was allowed to use the name Walton 5&10. Eventually, in 1962, he felt it was time to start his own chain of stores. Wal-Mart was born.

household item：家庭用品
evntually：最終的に

Walton’s business philosophy was an important part of his rapid success. He made sure that the shelves were always well-stocked and clean, while emphasizing high volume sales, rock-bottom prices, and excellent customer service. Walton also made a number of innovations, like moving the checkout counters to the front of the stores and sharing profits with his employees. Later he added an advanced inventory system, to keep the shelves full and the customers happy.

well-stocked：在庫が十分ある
rock-bottom：最低の
advanced：進歩した
inventory：在庫(品)

As these methods were perfected, Wal-Mart expanded. The company grew from 24 stores in 1967 to 276 by 1979. Walton also bought out many competitors, while forcing others out of business by selling goods so cheaply that nobody could match the price.

perfect：改良する
buy out：(会社を)買い取る
while：～する一方で
so X that Y：とてもXなのでYである

Yet Walton was more than a shrewd businessman. He started college scholarship programs for local students. He also established Wal-Mart’s long involvement in local charity events.

shrewd：抜け目のない
scholarship：奨学金
involvement：関わり合い

After Sam Walton died on April 16, 1992, the empire he founded continued to grow by leaps and bounds. Indeed, Wal-Mart is now the world’s largest retailer and largest private employer, with more than two million employees. But it all started as a dream 10 on an Oklahoma farm — a dream that became reality through hard work, vision, and a total lack of mercy for the competition.

by leaps and bounds：とんとん拍子に
(ref.) without a hitch：滞りなく、問題なく
empire：(巨大な企業の)王国
private employer：民間雇用主
total lack：完全な欠如
mercy：慈悲

Drama. Murder. Father against son. Brother against brother. Gucci’s story is like an Italian opera, full of complex and violent relationships. But after hard times and horror stories, the name stands today as an icon in the world of luxury goods.

luxury：贅沢

Guccio Gucci founded the company in Florence in 1921. He soon earned as reputation for high-quality handbags and other leather goods. He himself designed some of the firm’s best-known products.

reputation：評判

Following Guccio’s death in 1953 , his two sons, Aldo and his movie-star brother Rodolfo, took the reins. Aldo took Gucci global, opening stores in New York (1953), London (1961), and Tokyo (1972). In just a short period of time, the company had 10 risen to the summit of the fashion world, with film stars proudly wearing Gucci styles.

take the reins：権力を握る、場を取り仕切る、状況を制御する
reins：手綱
risen：rise – rose – risen
summit：頂上

The Gucci brothers didn’t always see eye to eye. In fact, they fought constantly over every aspect of the business. Their children joined in the battle, and Aldo’s son managed to send his 81-year-old father to prison. By the late 1980s, the company was in financial trouble, and something had to be done. Rodolfo’s son Maurizio sold the remainder of his stake to a foreign group in 1993, taking the company completely out of the Gucci family’s hands. But its revival was about to begin.

see eye to eye：意見が一致する
aspect：側面
revival：再生
be about to X：Xしようとしている

1995 was a year of triumph and tragedy for Gucci Group (its new name). On the plus side, Tom Ford, a young American designer, became the creative director. His first clothing line was a roaring success, making Gucci hip and hot again. 1995 was also the year the company went public. That very same year, Maurizio Gucci was murdered outside the Gucci office in Milan. His ambitious ex-wife, intensely angered by his decision to remarry, was later convicted of hiring a professional killer to do the job. Now that’s drama!

triumph：勝利
tragedy：悲劇
roaring：活気のある
hip and hot：(流行の)最先端の
go public：上場する
very：まさに
ambitious：野心のある
intensely：激しく
convict：有罪判決を下す

The company grew with a series of purchases, including Yves Saint Laurent (1999) and Balenciaga (2001). In 2004, Gucci Group was bought by PPR, one of Europe’s largest companies. Tom Ford also left Gucci that year, a decade after leading the company back to glory.

purchases：商品
glory：栄光

The Gucci brand continues to shine bright, with sales of US$7.7 billion in 2007. Over 400 Gucci stores and other dealers sell the label’s watches, handbags, clothing, 10 and other fine goods. Through all the drama, the luxury legend lives on.

luxury：栄光の
live on：生き続けている

At one time or another, most of us have either owned or used a Sony product. For more than 60 years, the company has filled the world with millions of radios, cameras, and other electronic wonders. It also owns some of the world’s largest movie, music and television businesses.

At one time or another：いつの間にか
wondor(s)：素晴らしいもの

Founded in Japan in 1946 by Akio Morita (a physicist) and Masaru Ibuka (an engineer), the company was originally called Tokyo Telecommunication Engineering Corporation. (The name was changed to Sony Corporation in 1958.) The two businessmen led a team of 20 people in designing and building electric products. The first of these, a simple rice cooker, was a failure. But the team members kept their noses to the grindstone, looking for the right product that they could sell locally and abroad.

physicist：物理学者
keep one’s nose to the grindstone：あくせく働く
(ref.) grindstone：砥石
(ref.) follow one’s nose：まっすぐ行く、本能のままに行動する
(ref.) keep one’s nose clearn：ごたごたを起こさない、品行方正である
(ref.) poke one’s nose into X：Xに口出しする

The hard work paid off in the 1950s with a very popular line of pocket-sized radios. Millions of units were sold, and Sony went on to become a household name in Asia, Europe, North America, and beyond.

pay off：うまく行く
household name：よく知られているもの
beyond：より先に

As evidence of its international outlook, Sony started selling shares on the New York Stock Exchange in 1970. That made it the first Japanese company to sell its stock on the exchange. And believing that local manufacturing would be best for overseas markets, it opened factories in the U.S. in 1972 and England in 1974.

outlook：展望
shares：株
stock：株
manufacturing：製造

Over the decades, Sony continued innovating, filling store shelves with many new and exciting products. These included the Trinitron TV (1968), the Walkman (1979), the CD player (1982), and the Blu-Ray Disc (2006). A key reason for this unending stream of new products has been an emphasis on research and design. Indeed, Sony gives bonuses to engineers whose designs are made into products.

decade：10年
innovate：刷新する

Yet not every Sony product has been a success. Its most notable failure was the Betamax video-recording format. Launched in 1975, it eventually lost out in the home consumer market to the more popular VHS format. And Sony suffered badly when its stock price, which had increased rapidly in the high-tech bubble, burst in 2000. Still, setbacks like these only challenge Sony to work harder and continue pushing the envelope. With more than 180,000 employees and revenues topping US$85 billion in 10 2007, this legendary company continues to evolve and amaze.

notable：有名な
launch：始める
eventually：やがて
lose out to X：(負けて)Xに取って代わられる、Xに座を奪われる
suffer：苦しむ
setback：つまずき
push the envelope：かたくなに頑張る
legendary：有名な
envelope：進化する