一、business and businesses商业和公司

      A business,company,or firm is an organization that sells goods or services .A business may also be referred to formally as a concern.Business is the production,buying,and selling of goods and services.

　　A business may be referred to approvingly as an enterprise to emphasize its adventurous, risk-taking qualities, and business in general may be referred to in the same way, for example in combinations such as free enterprise and private enterprise.

　　Business is also referred to as commerce. This word, and its related adjective commercial, are often used to distinguish the business sphere from other areas such as government or the arts, or to distinguish it from nonmoney-making activities.

　　注释：

      Business 商业；生意；公司 Company 公司；商号

　　Firm (合伙的)商号；商行 Concern 康采恩（垄断企业形式之一）

　　Commerce 商业； 商务 Commercial 商业的；商务的；商用的

      Enterprise 企事业单位 Free Enterprise 自由企业

　　Private Enterprise 私人企业

　　二、From multinationals to small firms 从跨国公司到小型企业

      Large companies are referred to as corporations, especially in the United States. Corporate is used to describe things relating to a corporation, or to corporations in general, in expressions like the ones in the next exercise. Large companies operating in many countries are multinationals.

　　Big business can refer to large business organizations or to any business activity that makes a lot of money. Small companies are referred to as small businesses or small firms.

　　Unlike some languages, English does not have an everyday term for small and medium-sized companies, apart from this rather clumsy expression.

　　注释：

      Corporation 大公司；股份有限公司 Corporate 法人；团体

　　Multinational 跨国的；多国的 Big business 大型企业；大公司

　　Small and medium sized companies中小规模的公司

      Small business 小公司 Small firm 小公司

三、Industries and sectors 工业及其部门

      Businesses may be classified according to which industry they are in: for example construction, oil, banking, food.

　　Sector is sometimes used to mean industry in the same way, particularly by specialists such as financial journalists, but it is more often used to talk about different parts of the economy in combinations such as public sector and private sector, or about types of business in expressions like service sector and manufacturing sector.

　　注释：

      Industry 工业；产业 Sector 部门；部分

      Public sector 公共部门 Private sector 私营部门

      manufacturing sector 制造部门 Service sector 服务部门

　　四、Public sector and private 公共部门和私营部门

      When a private company is bought by the state and brought into the public sector, it is nationalized in a process of nationalization. A nationalized company is state-owned. When the state returns a company to the private sector in a sell-off, it is privatized. This is privatization.

　　The first to be sold off in a privatization program are often the companies responsible for the public supply of electricity, water and gas: the utilities.

　　注释：

      Nationalized 国有化的 Nationalization 国有化

　　Privatized 私有化的 Privatization 私有化

　　State-owned 国有的 Sell off 廉价出清

      Utilities 公用事业；公用事业部门

      五、Stakes 份额；股份

      If Company A owns shares or equity in Company B, A has or holds a stake, holding or shareholding in B. If A owns less than half the shares in B, it has a minority stake in B.

　　If A owns more than half the shares in B, it has a majority stake or controlling stake in B. If you have shares in a company you are a shareholder.

　　注释：

      Shares/stake 份额；股份 Equity 股份；产权；普通股票

　　Holding 持有；股票额 Shareholding 持有股票数

　　Shareholder 股东 Hold a stake 持有份额

　　Majority stake 大股东（50%以上） Controlling stake 大股东

　　Minority stake 小股东