乔布斯传 第60期:奇迹从车库开始(1)

 Garage Band

车库工厂

The Jobs house in Los Altos became the assembly point for the fifty Apple I boards

乔布斯一家位于洛斯阿尔托斯的房子，成为了这50块AppleI主板的组装工厂。

that had to be delivered to the Byte Shop within thirty days, when the payment for the parts would come due.

主板必须在30天内送到ByteShop，因为零件的付款期限就是30天。

All available hands were enlisted²:

所有人都加入了：

Jobs and Wozniak, plus Daniel Kottke, his ex-girlfriend Elizabeth Holmes (who had broken away from the cult³ she'd joined),

乔布斯和沃兹，还有丹尼尔·科特基和他的前女友伊丽莎白·霍姆斯（她已经脱离了之前加入的邪教组织），

and Jobs's pregnant sister, Patty.

以及乔布斯怀孕了的妹妹帕蒂。

Her vacated bedroom as well as the kitchen table and garage were commandeered as work space.

帕蒂空出来的卧室，以及厨房的桌子，还有车库都变成了工作地点。

Holmes, who had taken jewelry⁴ classes, was given the task of soldering⁵ chips.

霍姆斯曾经上过珠宝课程，所以她被安排焊接芯片。

"Most I did well, but I got flux⁶ on a few of them," she recalled.

"大多数我都做得不错，可是有几个被我滴上了助焊剂。"她说。

This didn't please Jobs.

这让乔布斯很不高兴，

"We don't have a chip to spare," he railed, correctly.

他埋怨道："我们可没有多余的芯片。"事实的确如此。

He shifted her to bookkeeping and paperwork at the kitchen table, and he did the soldering himself.

他把霍姆斯调到了厨房桌子上去负责记账和文书工作，他自己负责焊接。

When they completed a board, they would hand it off to Wozniak.

他们做完一块电路板后，就交到沃兹尼亚克手中。

"I would plug each assembled board into the TV and keyboard to test it to see if it worked," he said.

"我会把装好的主板连接上电视机和键盘进行测试，看看能不能工作，"他说，

"If it did, I put it in a box.

"如果能工作了，我就把它装进盒子里，

If it didn't, I'd figure what pin hadn't gotten into the socket⁷ right."

如果不能的话，我还要找出哪只管脚没插好。"

Paul Jobs suspended his sideline of repairing old cars so that the Apple team could have the whole garage.

保罗·乔布斯也停下了自己修理汽车的副业，这样一来苹果公司的一帮人就能占用整个车库了。

He put in a long old workbench, hung a schematic of the computer on the new plasterboard wall he built,

他在车库里放了一张长长的旧工作台，在他刚弄好的石膏板墙上挂了一张电脑示意图，

and set up rows of labeled drawers for the components⁸.

还装了一排贴好标签的抽屉用来放零件。

He also built a burn box bathed in heat lamps so the computer boards could be tested by running overnight at high temperatures.

他还用好几台加热灯搭了一个高温箱，这样就可以测试主板在高温下连夜运转的状态。

When there was the occasional eruption⁹ of temper, an occurrence not uncommon¹⁰ around his son,

每当他的儿子脾气爆发的时候（这是很常见的现象），

Paul would impart some of his calm.

保罗·乔布斯就会把自己的冷静传输给他一些。

"What's the matter?" he would say.

"怎么啦？"他会说，

"You got a feather up your ass¹?"

"火烧屁股了？"

In return he occasionally asked to borrow back the TV set so he could watch the end of a football game.

作为交换，他偶尔会把电视机借走，因为这是家中唯一的一台，他要看橄榄球比赛的终场。

During some of these breaks, Jobs and Kottke would go outside and play guitar on the lawn.

这时候，乔布斯和科特基就会到外面的草坪上弹吉他。

Clara Jobs didn't mind losing most of her house to piles of parts and houseguests,

乔布斯的母亲并不介意自己的家被一大堆零件和客人占领，

but she was frustrated¹¹ by her son's increasingly quirky diets.

但是儿子越来越怪异的饮食习惯让她很受挫。

"She would roll her eyes at his latest eating obsessions," recalled Holmes.

乔布斯的饮食强迫症总是招来她的白眼，"霍姆斯回忆说，

"She just wanted him to be healthy, and he would be making weird¹² pronouncements like,

"她只想要儿子健康，而乔布斯却会发表一些奇怪的宣言，比如：

'I'm a fruitarian and I will only eat leaves picked by virgins¹³ in the moonlight.'"

'我是个果食主义者，我只吃由处女在月光下采摘的叶子。'"

重点讲解：

1.deliver to 交付；传达

例句：We are ready to deliver death to the enemy.

我们已就绪，随时将死亡送给敌军。

2.come due 到期

例句：Current liabilities are the company's liabilities which will come due, or must be paid, within one year.

流动负债是一年内到期或必须支付的公司债务。

3.hand it off 交付

例句：Make sure that you don't have any synthetic¹⁴ font styles in your publication when you hand it off to your commercial printer .

请确保出版物在交付给专业印刷机构时不包含任何综合字形。

4.roll one's eyes 不以为然；瞪白眼

例句：He gave me roll my eyes, you sit there like a ghost, but the wicked to complain.

他朝我翻白眼，你自己坐在那里像个鬼似的，还恶人先告状。

1 ass   

n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人

参考例句：

• He is not an ass as they make him.他不象大家猜想的那样笨。
• An ass endures his burden but not more than his burden.驴能负重但不能超过它能力所负担的。

2 enlisted   

adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持）

参考例句：

• enlisted men and women 男兵和女兵
• He enlisted with the air force to fight against the enemy. 他应募加入空军对敌作战。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 cult   

n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜

参考例句：

• Her books aren't bestsellers,but they have a certain cult following.她的书算不上畅销书，但有一定的崇拜者。
• The cult of sun worship is probably the most primitive one.太阳崇拜仪式或许是最为原始的一种。

4 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

5 soldering   

n.软焊；锡焊；低温焊接；热焊接v.（使）焊接，焊合( solder的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Care must be exercised in attaching the lead wires to the soldering tabs. 在往接线片上焊导线时必须非常小心。 来自辞典例句
• I suggest posing me with a soldering wand over my head like a sword. 我想让自己这样像把剑一样把电焊杆举过头顶。 来自电影对白

6 flux   

n.流动；不断的改变

参考例句：

• The market is in a constant state of flux.市场行情在不断变化。
• In most reactors,there is a significant flux of fast neutrons.在大部分反应堆中都有一定强度的快中子流。

7 socket   

n.窝，穴，孔，插座，插口

参考例句：

• He put the electric plug into the socket.他把电插头插入插座。
• The battery charger plugs into any mains socket.这个电池充电器可以插入任何类型的电源插座。

8 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

9 eruption   

n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作

参考例句：

• The temple was destroyed in the violent eruption of 1470 BC.庙宇在公元前1470年猛烈的火山爆发中摧毁了。
• The eruption of a volcano is spontaneous.火山的爆发是自发的。

10 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。

11 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

13 virgins   

处女，童男( virgin的名词复数 )； 童贞玛利亚（耶稣之母）

参考例句：

• They were both virgins when they met and married. 他们从相识到结婚前都未曾经历男女之事。
• Men want virgins as concubines. 人家买姨太太的要整货。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子

14 synthetic   

adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品

参考例句：

• We felt the salesman's synthetic friendliness.我们感觉到那位销售员的虚情假意。
• It's a synthetic diamond.这是人造钻石。