【小阅读^大脑袋】0331 NO.347

Odland remembers like it was yesterday working in an expensive French restaurant in Denver. The ice cream he was serving fell onto the white dress of a rich and important woman.

Thirty years have passed, but Odland can’t get the memory out of his mind, nor the woman’s kind reaction. She was shocked, regained calmness and, in a kind voice, told the young Odland. “It’s OK. It wasn’t your fault.” When she left the restaurant, she also left the future Fortune 500 CEO with a life lesson: You can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she treats the waiter.

Odland isn’t the only CEO to have made this discovery. Rather, it seems to be one of those few laws of the land that every CEO learns on the way up. It’s hard to get a dozen CEO’s to agree about anything, but most agree with the Waiter Rule. They say how others treat the CEO says nothing. But how others treat the waiter is like a window into the soul.

Watch out for anyone who pulls out the power card to say something like, “I could but this place and fire you,” or “I know the owner and I could have you fired.” Those who say such things have shown more about their character than about their wealth and power.

The CEO who came up with it, or at least first wrote it down, is Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson. He wrote a best-selling book called Swanson’s Unwritten Rules of Management.

“A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person,” Swanson says. “I will never offer a job to the person who is sweet to the boss but turns rude to someone cleaning the tables.”
CDC
答案解析：
1. What happened after Odland dropped the ice cream onto the woman’s dress?
A. He was fired.
B. He was blamed.
C. The woman comforted him.
D. The woman left the restaurant at once.
解析：C正确
奥德兰把冰淇淋掉到那位女士的裙子上之后发生了什么？
从那位女士说话的态度和内容可以看出来她是很友好的在安慰作者

2. According to the text, most CEOs have the same opinion about ____.
A. Fortune 500 companies
B. the Management Rules
C. Swanson’s book
D. the Waiter Rule
解析：D正确
根据这篇文章，大部分的总裁对什么有一致看法？
可以找到原句It’s hard to get a dozen CEO’s to agree about anything, but most agree with the Waiter Rule.

3. From the text we can learn that ____.
A. one should be nicer to important people
B. CEOs often show their power before others
C. one should respect others no matter who they are
D. CEOs often have meals in expensive restaurants
解析：C正确
我们可以从这篇文章了解到什么？
文章主要的观点就是一个人对待地位比较低的或是职位低的人的态度能够反映出他的人品，而许多总裁也同意以“服务员定律”来辨认人品，所以作者也在告诉读者应当尊重他人。

参考译文：
那一幕仿佛昨天才发生似的，令奥德兰记忆犹新。当时他在丹佛一家高级法国餐厅工作。他不小心将冰淇淋掉到了一位身着白色长裙的有钱有地位的贵妇身上。

三十年过去了，但是这段记忆和那位女士的反应奥德兰依旧无法忘怀。她吃了一惊，不过又立刻镇静了下来。并用和善的声音对年轻的奥德兰说：“没关系。这不是你的错。”她离开餐厅时，也给这位未来成为财富500强的总裁上了人生的一课：你可以通过一个人对待侍应的态度来了解这个人。

奥德兰并不是唯一有这样的发现的总裁。相反，这似乎是每位在崛起时的总裁认识到的定理之一。要让一打总裁都同意某件事几乎是不可能的，但是大部分人必定会认同“服务员定律”。他们说别人怎么对待总裁什么都说明不了，但是他们怎么对待服务员却是他们灵魂的写照。

注意一下那些动不动就耀武扬威的人，喧嚷着：“我告诉你我现在当场就可以把你开了，”或是“我认识老板，我能让他把你开除。”说这些话的人更多的是表现了他们的人品，而不是他们的财富和权力。

第一位提出或写下这个定律的总裁是雷神公司的总裁比尔•斯旺森。他写了一本名为《不成文管理准则》的畅销书。

“一个对你很好对服务员或是别人却很粗鲁的人不是一个好人，”斯旺森说，“我不会聘用一个对上级谄媚，对清洁工粗鲁的人。”

词汇及短语：
come up with: 想出, 提出
例：I hope you can come up with a better plan than this.
我希望你们能提出一个比这个更好的计划。
best-selling：最畅销的,最红的