乔布斯传 第250期:NeXT发布会(4)

 　　One of Jobs's management philosophies was that it is crucial,

　　乔布斯的管理理念之一就是，

　　every now and then, to roll the dice¹ and "bet the company" on some new idea or technology.

　　不时地孤注一掷，“把公司压在”一些新点子或技术上，这样做至关重要。

　　At the NeXT launch, he boasted of an example that, as it turned out, would not be a wise gamble:

　　NeXT发布时，他炫耀了一个例子，后来，事实证明这是一场不明智的赌博。

　　having a high-capacity (but slow) optical read/write disk and no floppy² disk as a backup.

　　采用高容量（但速度慢）的读写光盘，而不是用软盘来备份数据。

　　"Two years ago we made a decision," he said.

　　“两年前，我们作出了一个决定，”乔布斯说道，

　　"We saw some new technology and we made a decision to risk our company."

　　“我们见识到一些新的技术，并决定赌一赌。”

　　乔布斯传

　　Then he turned to a feature that would prove more prescient.

　　接着，他开始介绍另一个功能--能更好地证明乔布斯的先见之明。

　　"What we've done is made the first real digital books," he said,

　　“我们做出了第一批真正的电子书。”他说，

　　noting the inclusion of the Oxford³ edition of Shakespeare and other tomes.

　　并提到电脑里包含了牛津版的莎士比亚和其他大部头，

　　"There has not been an advancement⁴ in the state of the art of printed book technology since Gutenberg."

　　“自古腾堡以来，印刷书本的技术还未出现过进步。”

　　At times he could be amusingly aware of his own foibles,

　　有时，乔布斯会幽默地展示自己的自知之明，

　　and he used the electronic book demonstration⁵ to poke⁶ fun at himself.

　　他用电子书演示来取笑自己。

　　"A word that's sometimes used to describe me is 'mercurial⁷,'" he said, then paused.

　　“有一个词有时会被用来形容我，'mercuriar。”他说道，然后顿了顿。

　　The audience laughed knowingly, especially those in the front rows,

　　观众们会意地笑了，尤其是那些坐在前排的人，

　　which were filled with NeXT employees and former members of the Macintosh team.

　　多是NeXT的雇员和原麦金塔团队的成员。

　　Then he pulled up the word in the computer's dictionary and read the first definition:

　　接着，他把这个词输进了电脑的词典，读出了第一条释义。

　　"Of or relating to, or born under the planet Mercury."

　　“水星的，与水星有关的或来自水星的。”

　　Scrolling⁹ down, he said, "I think the third one is the one they mean: 'Characterized by unpredictable changeableness of mood.'"

　　他边把页面往下拉边说，“我想他们说的应该是第三种意思：'情绪多变'。”

　　There was a bit more laughter. "If we scroll⁸ down the thesaurus, though, we see that the antonym¹⁰ is 'saturnine¹¹.'

　　笑声更多了。“如果我们继续往下拉，就能看到它的反义词'saturnine'。

　　Well what's that? By simply double-clicking on it,

　　这个词又是什么意思呢？只要双击一下这个词，

　　we immediately look that up in the dictionary, and here it is: 'Cold and steady in moods.

　　我们就能马上查到它，来看看：'情绪冷淡稳定。

　　Slow to act or change. Of a gloomy or surly disposition¹².'"

　　行动或改变迟缓。阴郁或阴沉的性格。'”

　　A little smile came across his face as he waited for the ripple¹³ of laughter.

　　在等待观众的笑声平息之时，乔布斯脸上出现了一点儿笑容。

　　"Well," he concluded, "I don't think 'mercurial' is so bad after all."

　　“好吧，”他总结道，“这么看来，我觉得'mercurial'这个词也不是那么糟。”

1 dice   

n.骰子；vt.把（食物）切成小方块，冒险

参考例句：

• They were playing dice.他们在玩掷骰子游戏。
• A dice is a cube.骰子是立方体。

2 floppy   

adj.松软的，衰弱的

参考例句：

• She was wearing a big floppy hat.她戴了顶松软的大帽子。
• Can you copy those files onto this floppy disk?你能把那些文件复制到这张软盘上吗？

3 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

4 advancement   

n.前进，促进，提升

参考例句：

• His new contribution to the advancement of physiology was well appreciated.他对生理学发展的新贡献获得高度赞赏。
• The aim of a university should be the advancement of learning.大学的目标应是促进学术。

5 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

6 poke   

n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• We never thought she would poke her nose into this.想不到她会插上一手。
• Don't poke fun at me.别拿我凑趣儿。

7 mercurial   

adj.善变的，活泼的

参考例句：

• He was of a mercurial temperament and therefore unpredictable.他是个反复无常的人，因此对他的行为无法预言。
• Our desires and aversions are mercurial rulers.我们的欲望与嫌恶是变化无常的统治者。

8 scroll   

n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡

参考例句：

• As I opened the scroll,a panorama of the Yellow River unfolded.我打开卷轴时，黄河的景象展现在眼前。
• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements.他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。

9 scrolling   

n.卷[滚]动法，上下换行v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的现在分词 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕

参考例句：

• Another important detail required by auto-scrolling is a time delay. 自动滚屏需要的另一个重要细节是时间延迟。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• In 2D visualization and drawing applications, vertical and horizontal scrolling are common. 在二维的可视化及绘图应用中，垂直和水平滚动非常普遍。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

10 antonym   

n.反义词

参考例句：

• "Long" is the antonym of "short".“长”是“短”的反义词。
• Give the synonym and antonym of this word.给出这个词的同义词和反义词。

11 saturnine   

adj.忧郁的，沉默寡言的，阴沉的，感染铅毒的

参考例句：

• The saturnine faces of the judges.法官们那阴沉的脸色。
• He had a rather forbidding,saturnine manner.他的举止相当乖戾阴郁。

12 disposition   

n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署

参考例句：

• He has made a good disposition of his property.他已对财产作了妥善处理。
• He has a cheerful disposition.他性情开朗。

13 ripple   

n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进

参考例句：

• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。
• The small ripple split upon the beach.小小的涟漪卷来，碎在沙滩上。