英文早读第256篇，选自巴菲特年度信，友才翻译。
Ben Rosner’s record at Associated Retail Stores continues to amaze us. In a poor retailing year, Associated’s earnings continued excellent ‐ and those earnings all were translated into cash. On March 7, 1981 Associated will celebrate its 50th birthday. Ben has run the business (along with Leo Simon, his partner from 1931 to 1966) in each of those fifty years.
本·罗斯纳在联合零售商店的业绩一直让我们惊叹不已。在零售业不景气的一年里，联合零售商店的盈利依然出色，而且这些盈利都转化为了现金。1981年3月7日，联合零售商店将迎来其50周年店庆。在这50年里，本（以及他1931年至1966年的合伙人利奥·西蒙）一直经营着这家公司。
Disposition of Illinois National Bank and Trust of Rockford On December 31, 1980 we completed the exchange of 41,086 shares of Rockford Bancorp Inc. (which owns 97.7% of Illinois National Bank) for a like number of shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
关于罗克福德伊利诺伊国民银行及信托公司的处置情况，1980年12月31日，我们完成了以41,086股罗克福德 Bancorp 公司（该公司持有伊利诺伊国民银行97.7%的股份）的股票交换同等数量的伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司股票的交易。
Our method of exchange allowed all Berkshire shareholders to maintain their proportional interest in the Bank (except for me; I was permitted 80% of my proportional share). They were thus guaranteed an ownership position identical to that they would have attained had we followed a more conventional spinoff approach. Twenty‐four shareholders (of our approximate 1300) chose this proportional exchange option.
我们的交换方式使得所有伯克希尔的股东都能保持他们在该银行的持股比例权益（我除外；我只被允许持有我按比例应得股份的80%）。因此，他们可以确保获得的持股情况与我们采用更传统的分拆方式时所能获得的完全相同。在我们大约1300名股东中，有24名股东选择了这种按比例交换的方案。
123.amaze：使惊奇；使惊愕
124.conventional：传统的；常规的
