[00:00.00] Does being rich mean you live a completely different life.from ordinary people?Not,it seems,if your name is Sam Walton.
[00:10.71]THE RICHEST MAN IN AMERICA,DOWN HOME by Art Harris
[00:16.90]He put on a dinner jacket to serve as a wainter at the birthday party of The Richest Man in America.
[00:24.45]He imagined what surely awaited:mallsion
[00:29.68]a"Rolls-Royce for every day of the week,"dogs with diamond collars.Servants everywhere.
[00:37.83]Then he was off to the house,wheeling past the sleepy town square in Bentonville，a remote Arkansas town of 9,920,
[00:50.10]where Sam Walton started with a lttle dime store that grew into a $6 billion discount chain called Wal-Mart.
[01:00.26]He drove down a country road,
[01:03.48]turned at a mailbox marked"Sam and Helen Walton."and jumped out at a house in the woods.
[01:11.16]It was nice，but no palace.The furniture appeared a little worn.
[01:17.95]An old pickup truck sat in the garage and a muddy bird dog ran about the yard.He never spotted any servants.
[01:27.59]It was a real disappointment.sighs waiter Jamie Beaufieu.
[01:33.81]Only in America can a billionaire carry on like plain folks and get away with it.
[01:40.96]And the67-year-old discount king Sam Moore Walton still travels these windy back roads
[01:48.62]in his 1979 Ford pickup，red and white,bird dogs by his side,and come shooting season,
[01:57.66]waits in line like everyone else to buy shells at the local Wal-Mart.
[02:03.17]"He doesn't want any special treatment,"says night manager Johnny Baker,
[02:09.41]who struggles to call the boss by his first name as a recent corporate memo commands.Few here think of his billions：
[02:18.92]they call him"Mr.Sam" and accept his folksy ways."He's the same man
[02:26.65]who opened his dime store on the square and worked 18 hours a day for his dream,"says Mayor Richard Hoback.
[02:35.82]By all accounts，he's friendly,cheerful,a fine neighbor who does his best to blend in
[02:42.93]never flashy,never throwing his weight around.
[02:47.31]No matter how big a time he had on Saturday night,you can find him in church on Sunday.
[02:55.28]Surely in a reserved seat，right? "We don't have reserved seats，"says Gordon GarlingtonⅢ,pastor 0f the local church.
[03:05.65]So where does The Richest Man in America sit?Wherever he finds a seat."Look，he's just not that way.
[03:15.19]He doesn't have a set place.At a church supper the other night,he and his wife were in back washing dishes,"
[03:24.90]For 19 years,he's used the same barber.John Mayhall finds him waiting when he opens up at 7a.m.
[03:33.94]He chats about me national news,or reads in his chair，perhaps the Benton County Daily Democrat,
[03:42.01]another Walton property that keeps him off the front page.It buried the Forbes list at the bottom of page2.
[03:51.97]"He's just not a front-page person,"a newspaper employee explains.
[03:57.95]But one recent morning.The Richest Manin America did something that would have made headlines anywhere in the world:
[04:06.39]He forgot his money."I said,'Forget it，take care of it next time,'"says barber Mayhall.
[04:15.16]"But he said,'No，I'1l get it,'and he went home for his wallet."
[04:21.12]Wasn't that，well，a little strange?"No sir"says Mayhall，"the only thing strange about Sam Walton is that he isn't strange."
[04:32.51]But just how long Walton can hold firm to his folksy habits with celebrity hunters keeping following him
[04:41.57]wherever he goes is anyone's guess.Ever since Forber magazine pronounced him America's richest man，
[04:52.00]with$2.8billion in Wal-Mart stock，he's been a rich man on the run,steering clear of reporters,dreamers,and schemers.
[05:02.55]"He may be the richest by Forbes rankings,"says corporate affairs director Jim Von Gremp,
[05:10.39]"but he doesn't know whether he is or not-and he doesn't care.He doesn't spend much.
[05:19.06]He owns stock,but he's always I left it in the company so it could grow.
[05:26.48]But the real story in his mind is the I success achieved by the 100,000 people who make up the Wal-Martteam."
[05:36.09]He's usually back home for Friday sales meetings，or the executive pep rally Saturday morning at7a-m.,
[05:44.11]when Walton,as he does at new store I openings,is liable to jump up on a chair and lead everyone in the Wal-Mart cheer:
[05:54.87]"Give me a W!Give me an A!Give me an L!Louder!"
[06:00.75]And louder they yell.No one admits to feeling the least bit silly.It's all part of the Wal-Mart way of life as laid down by sam：
[06:11.64]loyalty,hardwork,long hours;get ideas into the system from the bottom up，
[06:18.20]Japanese-style;treat your people right;cut prices and margins to the bone and sleep well at night.
[06:26.85]Employees with one year on board qualify for stock options,and are urged to buy all they can.
[06:34.16]After the pep rally，there's bird hunting，or tennis on his backyard court.But his stores are always on his mind.
[06:44.58]One tennis guest managed to put him off his game by asking why a can of balls cost more in one Wal-Mart than another.
[06:54.35]It turned out to be untrue.but the move worked.Walton lost four straight games.
[07:02.14]Walton set up a college scholarship fund for employees'children.
[07:07.26]a disaster relief fund to rebuild employee homes damaged by fires，floods tornadoes.and the like.
[07:14.60]He believed in cultivating idens and rewarding suecess.
[07:19.98]"He'd say,'That fellow worked hard，let's give him a 1ittle extra，"recalls retired president Fer01d F
[07:30.12]Arend，who was stunned at such generosity after the stingy employer
[07:37.48]he left to join Wal-Mart."I had to change my way of thinking when I came aboard."
[07:44.82]"The reason for our success,"says Walton,in a company handout，
[07:50.36]"is our people and the way they're treated and the way they feel about their company.
[07:56.94]They believe things are different here，but they deserve the credit."
[08:03.06]Adds company lawyer Jim Hendren：
[08:07.13]"I've never seen anyone yet who worked for him or was around him for any length of time who wash't better off.
[08:16.25]And Idon't mean just financially,although a lot of people are.
[08:21.29]It's just something about him-coming into contact with Sam Walton just makes you a better person."
[08:29.15]Language Sense Enhancement
[08:32.81]Read aloud the following poem
[08:36.55]I'm nobody!Who are you? by Emily Dickinson
[08:42.58]I'm nobody!Who are you?Are you nobody,too?
[08:48.64]Then there's a pair of us-don't tell! They'd advertise-you know!
[08:54.13]How dreary to be somebody! How public like a frog To tell one's name the livelong day To an admiring bog!
[09:05.62]Read the following quotations.Learn them by heart if you can.You might need to look up new words in a dictionary.
[09:15.70]One should eat to live, not live to eat. Benjamin Franklin
[09:22.55]That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. Henry David Thoreau
[09:31.74]If money is your hope for independence you will never have it.
[09:38.40]The only real security that a man will have in.this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience,and ability Henry Ford
[09:51.99]To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labor.
[10:03.90]4Read the following humorous story for fun.You might need to look up to new words in a dictionary
[10:12.15]The elderly gamekeeper of a Scottish estate suffered from fading eyesight,
[10:19.21]and the lord of the manor offered to send him to London to see an eye specialist. Before he left,
[10:27.75]however, he was given strict instructions to spend his money thriftily and to live as he would at home.
[10:36.58]When the keeper returned a week latel,
[10:40.29]he presented the lord with a bill for more than$1000. Shocked,
[10:47.94]the lord asked what he had been living on in London.
