英文早读第258篇，选自巴菲特年度信，友才翻译。
Under all circumstances we plan to operate with plenty of liquidity, with debt that is moderate in size and properly structured, and with an abundance of capital strength. Our return on equity is penalized somewhat by this conservative approach, but it is the only one with which we feel comfortable.
在各种情况下我们都计划运营时有大量的流动性，债务规模适中且结构合理，同时有充足的资金实力。我们的资本回报某种程度由于这个保守的做法会不利，但是这是唯一可以让我们感到舒适的方式。
Gene Abegg, founder of our long-owned bank in Rockfold, died on July 2, 1980 at the age of 82. As a friend, banker and citizen, he was unsurpassed.
基恩埃伯格，我们长期拥有的罗克福德银行的创始人，在1980年7月2日82岁高龄去世。作为一个朋友、银行家和公民，他是出类拔萃的。
You learn a great deal about a person when you purchase a business from him and he then stays on to run it as an employee rather than as an owner. Before the purchase the seller knows the business intimately, whereas you start from scratch. The seller has dozens of opportunities to mislead the buyer - through omissions, ambiguities, and misdirection. After the check has changed hands, subtle (and not so subtle) changes of attitude can occur and implicit understandings can evaporate. As in the courtship-marriage sequence, disappointments are not infrequent.
当你从一个人那里购买业务并且他随后待在那里继续以雇员而不是所有人的身份运营时，你会对这个人有很多深入的了解。在购买前，卖家对企业了如指掌，而买家则是从零开始。卖家有很多机会来误导买家，通过隐瞒、模棱两可和误导方向。一旦易手，敏感（和不敏感）的态度变化就会发生，心照不宣的默契就会消失。就像从恋爱到结婚，失望也并不罕见。
From the time we first met, Gene shot straight 100% of the time - the only behavior pattern he had within him. At the outset of negotiations, he laid all negative factors face up on the table; on the other hand, for years after the transaction was completed he would tell me periodically of some previously undiscussed items of value that had come with our purchase.
从我们第一次相遇，基恩就100%的坦诚，这是他唯一的行为方式。从谈判开始，他就把所有面临的劣势摆在桌上；另一方面，在交易完成后很多年，他仍时不时告诉我一些之前没有讨论的我们购买的价值点。
125.penalize：处罚；惩罚；处于不利地位
126.unsurpassed：无与伦比的；出类拔萃的
127.intimately：密切的；直接的
128.scratch：划痕；瘙痒；取消；刮出
129.omission：遗漏；疏忽；省略；免除
130.ambiguity：模棱两可；含糊不清
131.subtle：微妙的；敏锐的；不易察觉的
132.implicit：含蓄的；完全的；无疑问的；不直接言明的
133.evaporate：蒸发；消失；衰减
134.outset：开始
