英文早读第160篇，选自巴菲特年度信，友才翻译。
The mechanics of Tax-Free Bonds.
**免税债券的机制。
For those who wish our help, we will arrange the purchase of bonds directly from municipal bond dealers throughout the country and have them confirm sale of the bonds directly to you. The confirmation should be saved as a basic document for tax purposes. You should not send a check to the bond dealer since he will deliver the bonds to your bank, along with a draft with the bank will pay by charging your account with them. In the case of bonds purchased in the secondary market (issues already outstanding), this settlement date will usually be about a week after confirmation date whereas, on new issues, the settlement date may be as much as a month later. The settlement date is shown plainly on the confirmation ticket (in the case of new issues this will be the second and final ticket rather the preliminary "when issued" ticket), and you should have the funds at your bank ready to pay for the bonds on the settlement date. If you presently own Treasury Bills, they can be sold on a couple of days notice by your bank upon your instructions, so you should experience no problems in having the money available on time. Interest begins to accrue to you on the settlement date, even if the bond dealer is late in getting them delivered to your bank.
对那些希望我们帮助的人，我们将会安排从遍及全国的市政债券交易商处直接购买债券，并要求他们直接和你确认债权情况。这个确认函应当被用作税务用途的基础文档被保管。你不应该寄送支票给债券交易商因为他将把债券交付给你的银行，同时银行会从你在该行的账户中直接扣款。对于债券在二级市场被购买的情况（已经发行的债券），支付日期通常在确认日期一周后，如果是新发行的，支付日期或许有一个月那么长。支付日期会清晰地显示在确认函票上（对于新发行的情况他将在第二也是最后一张票上，而不是首页的“何时发行”票上），你应该在银行准备好在支付日期支付给这些债券的资金。如果你现在持有国债，他们可以在银行基于你的指令发布后几天被出售，因此你在准时获得这些资金上不会有问题。利息将从支付日开始累积，即使债券交易商延迟了将他们交付给你的银行。
Bonds will be delivered in negotiable form (so-called "bearer" form which makes them like currency) with coupons attached. Usually the bonds are in 5,000 denominations and frequently they can be exchanged for registered bonds (sometimes at considerable expense and sometimes free-it depends upon the terms). Bonds in registered form are nonnegotiable without assignment by you, since you are the registered owner on the Transfer Agent's books. Bonds trade almost exclusively on a bearer basis and it is virtually impossible to sell registered bonds without converting them back into bearer form. Thus, unless you are going to own great physical quantities of bonds, I recommend keeping bonds in bearer form. This means keeping them in a very safe place and clipping the coupons every six months. Such coupons, when clipped, can be deposited in your bank account just like checks. If you have 250,000 in bonds, this probably means about fifty separate pieces of paper (5,000 denominations) and perhaps six or eight trips a year to the safe deposit section to cut and deposit coupons.
债券将会以可转让（所谓的“无记名”形式使它们看起来像是货币）形式交付，并附有息票。通常债券是5000美金面值，并且可以被换为注册债券（有时需要相当多的花费，有时是免费的——他取决于具体条款）。以注册形式的债券未经你允许是不能转让的，因为你已经在过户代理人账簿上成为了注册持有人。证券交易几乎唯一以“持票人”形式，几乎不可能未将注册债券转化回持票人形式而去出售。因此，除非你计划持有很多物理数量上的债券，我建议你以持票人形式保存债券。这意味着把他们保存在一个很安全的地方，然后每6个月剪一次息票。这些息票，一旦剪下来，可以像支票一样存储在你的银行账户。如果你在债券上有25万美金，这或许意味着50张独立的纸（5000面值），或许每年需要6或8次前往保险柜区域去裁剪或存储这些息票。
It is also possible to open a custody account with a bank where, for a fairly nominal cost, they will keep the bonds, collect the interest and preserve your records for you. For example, a bank will probably perform the custodial service for you for about 200 a year on a 250,000 portfolio. If you are interested in a custodial account, you should talk to a Trust Officer at your commercial bank as to the nature of their services and cost. Otherwise, you should have a safe deposit box.
也有可能去银行开立一个存储账户，仅需相当小的花费，他们就将会为你保管这些债券，代收利息和保存相关记录。例如，25万美金的债券组合，一家银行或许将会收取大约一年200美金的存储服务费。如果你对存储账户感兴趣，你应该和你的商业银行信托工作人员谈论他们的服务性质和花费。否则，你应该购买一个保险柜。
7.mechanic：技工；方法；力学；机械师
8.municipal：市政的；城市的；地方性的；地区的
9.draft：草稿；草案；汇票；草图
10.settlement：解决；支付；结算；协议；处理；移民
11.plainly：清楚地；明显地；清晰地
12.preliminary：预备性的；初步的；开始的
13.accrue：累积；增长；增加；积累
14.negotiable：可商议的；流通的；可转让的；可讨论的；可兑现的
15.bearer：持票人；持有者；送信人
16.coupon：购物券；息票；票证；配给券
17.denomination：面额；面值；教派；宗派
18.exclusively：唯一地；排他地；专有地；完全地
19.clip：夹子；修剪；（用手）猛击；抽打
20.custody：监护；（候审时的）拘留；保管
21.preserve：保存；保护；保留；保养；贮存
