英文早讀第三篇，選自巴菲特年度信，友才翻譯。

During the past year we have taken positions in two situations which have reached a size where we may expect to take some part in corporate decisions. One of these positions accounts for between 10% and 20% of the portfolio of the various partnerships and the other accounts for about 5%. Both of these will probably take in the neighborhood of three or five years of work but they presently appear to have potential for a high average annual rate of return with a minimum of risk. While not in the classification of work-outs, they have very little dependence on the general action of the stock market. Should the general market have a substantial rise, of course, I would expect this section of our portfolio to lag behind the action of the market.
在去年，有兩次當(dāng)我們有望實(shí)現(xiàn)可以參與運(yùn)營(yíng)決策的規(guī)模的情況時(shí)，我們就開倉(cāng)了。一次占股比例可以到10%到20%，另一次大概是5%。他們倆也許都要在接下來(lái)三到五年的工作才實(shí)現(xiàn)，但是他們眼下就似乎就具有高年均回報(bào)率和低風(fēng)險(xiǎn)的潛能。同時(shí)他們不在套利類股票類中，他們和股市大盤只有很少的相關(guān)性。當(dāng)然了額，如果股市大盤有大幅上漲，我也希望我們這些投資可以跟在大盤后面上漲。

Results for 1957
1957年的成果

In 1957 the three partnerships which we formed in 1956 did substantially better than the general market. At the beginning of the year, the Dow-Jones Industrials stood at 499 and at the end of the year it was at 435 for a loss of 64 points. If one had owned the Averages, he would received 22 points in dividends reducing the overall loss to 42 points or 8.470% for the year. This loss is roughly equivalent to what would have been achieved by investing in most investment funds and, to my knowledge, no investment fund invested in stocks showed a gain for the year.
在1957年，我們于1956年成立的三支合伙基金表現(xiàn)明顯優(yōu)于大盤。在年初，道瓊斯工業(yè)指數(shù)在499點(diǎn)位，而在年末減少了64個(gè)點(diǎn)到435。如果持有這個(gè)平均指數(shù)，他將收到22個(gè)點(diǎn)的股息并損失44個(gè)點(diǎn)，一年減少8.47%。這些損失大約等于我們通過投資基本所盈利的，同時(shí)據(jù)我所知，沒有投資股市的投資基金在這一年賺到錢。

All three of the 1956 partnerships show a gain during the year amounting to about 6.2%, 7.8% and 25% on year end 1956 net worth. Naturally a question is created as to the vastly superior performance of the last partnership, particularly in the mind of the partners of the first two. This performance emphasizes the importance of luck in the short run, particularly in regard to when funds are received. The third partnership was started the latest in 1956 when the market was at a lower level and when several securities were particularly attractive. Because of the availability of funds, large positions were taken in these issuse. Whereas the two partnerships formed earlier were already substantially invested so that they could only take relatively small positions in these issues.
所有3支1956年的合伙基金在今年都有盈利，相比于1956年底凈值增長(zhǎng)大約6.2%、7.8%和25%。很自然就會(huì)有一個(gè)問題，為什么最后一支合伙基金有極大的優(yōu)秀表現(xiàn)，尤其是前兩支基金的合伙人會(huì)這么想。這個(gè)表現(xiàn)強(qiáng)調(diào)了運(yùn)氣在短期表現(xiàn)的重要性，尤其考慮到這些資金是何時(shí)收到的。第3支合伙基金是在1956年底啟動(dòng)的，那時(shí)市場(chǎng)處于相對(duì)低位，同時(shí)幾只股票尤其有吸引力。因?yàn)楂@得了資金，我們?cè)谶@些股票獲得了較大倉(cāng)位。然而這兩只成立較早的基金已經(jīng)被大量投資了，因此他們?cè)谶@些股票上只能建相對(duì)較小的倉(cāng)位。

23.take position：采取立場(chǎng)；開倉(cāng)；就位
24.take part in：參加；參與
25.dependence：依賴；相關(guān)性；依存
26.lag behind：落后于
27.dividend：股息；股利；紅利
28.roughly：粗略；大約；凹凸不平的
29.equivalent：相等的；相值的
30.vastly：極大的；廣大的；深遠(yuǎn)的
31.whereas： 然而；但是；鑒于