疯狂英语阅读：MarketsReopenAfterSeptember11

文章作者 100test 发表时间 2007:06:07 12:45:08
来源 100Test.Com百考试题网

The 1)twin towers were not just symbols of American finance, the people who worked there were at the very heart of it, like the small investment banking firm of Sandler-O’Neil. Its 2)headquarters were on the 104th floor of tower two, but its roots were in the very heart of America. Its business was providing financial 3)expertise and services to small and medium size banks, and savings and loans all across the country. Of Sandler-O’Neil’s 171 employees, 83 reported for work at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. Only 17 made it out alive.

For the people of Sandler-O’Neil, continuing their business is every bit as important and 4)symbolic as the act that almost ended it. Sandler-O’Neil’s strongest 5)asset had always been its people and the experience that comes with highly trained employees who understood the company’s business and had personal relationships with its customers. But as each day passed, it had become apparent that much of that 6)intellectual and human capital had been 7)depleted.

Just four days after the attack, the survivors at Sandler-O’Neil had already moved into 8)temporary quarters given to them by Bank of America. Brokerage houses and investment banks, competitors in what had been the cutthroat world of Wall Street finance offered equipment, people and services, whatever Sandler-O’Neil needed to stay alive.

By Monday morning with the market set to reopen, they were moved in and ready to go in spite of the fact that most of their stock traders were among the missing. Terry Maltese who had run another division of the company moved in and took charge.

Terry Maltese: This has been a horrible week as everybody knows. And it’s amazing what’s happened and it’s amazing everything we’ve had to do, and I’m very proud of everything we have done here. I’m more sad about everything we’ve lost and that we had to do this. Talking to the families was the worst thing. We’ve got a lot of 9)distraught families, a lot of people that are very upset. People don’t know what they’re going to do and a lot of kids and wives missing their husbands. A few days ago, we started collecting DNA here. These are things I never thought any of us would do. We’ve done them. We’re going to continue to do every single thing we can do for the families for as long as it takes. But in order to do that, one of the things we need to do is we need to be in business. So today, we’re in business and it is gonna to work. We have no choice. Ok, we’re going to do this and we’re going to do it because not doing it is not going to be an 10)option. And people want to do business with us. We’ve got several firms that are working for us for free. I spoke to Trident yesterday and asked them if they could do something for us where we would split 11)commissions with business we route through them. They said the only way they would do it is if the split is zero for them and all for us. Everybody wants to help us. So we can’t not do this and we will do this. At nine o’clock last Tuesday morning, Frankie and Bruce were standing at their desk waiting for the market to open, so they could trade. The market never opened and they never got to make those trades. The market is going to open today and we’re going to make those trades. Yes, our friends are gone, their desk is gone. We’re here and make no mistake Bruce and Frankie are here and they’re watching us and we’re not going to disappoint’em. And Herman’s watching us, and Herman, he knows we can do this. So very simply we’re going to do this!

There was a rumor afoot on Wall Street 12)mistakenly reported that Sandler-O’Neil had suspended operations so Jimmy Donne, who had never done an interview before, went live on CNBC to let his clients and the financial 13)community know that Sandler-O’Neil was up and running and here to stay.

Jimmy Donne: We don’t, you know, write songs, we don’t write novels. We’re Wall Street people who are going to respond as we know how.

And respond they did.