一、 business and businesses 商業和公司
a business, company, or firm is an organization that sells goods or services .a business may also be referred to formally as a concern. business is the production, buying, and selling of goods and services.
a business may be referred to approvingly as an enterprise to emphasize its adventurous, risk-taking qualities, and business in general may be referred to in the same way, for example in combinations such as free enterprise and private enterprise.
business is also referred to as commerce. this word, and its related adjective commercial, are often used to distinguish the business sphere from other areas such as government or the arts, or to distinguish it from non-money-making activities.
注釋：
business 商業；生意；公司
company 公司；商號
firm (合夥的)商號；商行
concern 康采恩（壟斷企業形式之一）
commerce 商業； 商務
commercial 商業的；商務的；商用的
enterprise 企事業單位
free enterprise 自由企業
private enterprise 私人企業
二、from multinationals to small firms 從跨國公司到小型企業
large companies are referred to as corporations, especially in the united states. corporate is used to describe things relating to a corporation, or to corporations in general, in expressions like the ones in the next exercise. large companies operating in many countries are multinationals.
big business can refer to large business organizations or to any business activity that makes a lot of money. small companies are referred to as small businesses or small firms.
unlike some languages, english does not have an everyday term for small and medium-sized companies, apart from this rather clumsy expression.
注釋：
corporation 大公司；股份有限公司
corporate 法人；團體
multinational 跨國的；多國的
big business 大型企業；大公司
small and medium sized companies中小規模的公司
small business 小公司
small firm 小公司
三、industries and sectors 工業及其部門
businesses may be classified according to which industry they are in: for example construction, oil, banking, food.
sector is sometimes used to mean industry in the same way, particularly by specialists such as financial journalists, but it is more often used to talk about different parts of the economy in combinations such as public sector and private sector, or about types of business in expressions like service sector and manufacturing sector.
注釋：
industry 工業；產業
sector 部門；部分
public sector 公共部門
private sector 私營部門
manufacturing sector 製造部門
service sector 服務部門
四、public sector and private 公共部門和私營部門
when a private company is bought by the state and brought into the public sector, it is nationalized in a process of nationalization. a nationalized company is state-owned. when the state returns a company to the private sector in a sell-off, it is privatized. this is privatization.
the first to be sold off in a privatization program are often the companies responsible for the public supply of electricity, water and gas: the utilities.
注釋：
nationalized 國有化的
nationalization 國有化
privatized 私有化的
privatization 私有化
state-owned 國有的
sell off 廉價出清
utilities 公用事業；公用事業部門
五、stakes 份額；股份
if company a owns shares or equity in company b, a has or holds a stake, holding or shareholding in b. if a owns less than half the shares in b, it has a minority stake in b.
if a owns more than half the shares in b, it has a majority stake or controlling stake in b. if you have shares in a company you are a shareholder.
注釋：
shares/stake 份額；股份
equity 股份；產權；普通股票
holding 持有；股票額
shareholding 持有股票數
shareholder 股東
hold a stake 持有份額
majority stake 大股東（50%以上）
controlling stake 大股東
minority stake 小股東