在线英语听力室_免费在线英语听力学习网站

The Brightest Heaven of Invention

最璀璨的创新天堂

The saga¹ of Steve Jobs is the Silicon² Valley creation myth writ³ large: launching a startup in his parents，garage and building it into the world's most valuable company. He didn't invent many things outright⁴, but he was a master at putting together ideas, art, and technology in ways that invented the future. He designed the Mac after appreciating the power of graphical interfaces⁵ in a way that Xerox⁶ was unable to do, and he created the iPod after grasping the joy of having a thousand songs in your pocket in a way that Sony, which had all the assets and heritage, never could accomplish. Some leaders push innovations by being good at the big picture. Others do so by mastering details. Jobs did both, relentlessly⁷. As a result he launched a series of products over three decades that transformed whole industries:

史蒂夫·乔布斯的传奇壮大了硅谷的创新神话，他在父母的车库里开始创业，建立了苹果公司，继而将之发展成世界上最有价值的公司。他没有发明很多东西，但他是一个将概念、艺术和技术融为一体，开创未来的大师。意识到图形界面具有的强大力量，他设计了麦金塔电脑，而这是施乐公司无法做到的。能将一千首歌曲置入囊中的欣喜又使他创造了MP3播放器iPod,即使是拥有雄厚资产和悠久传统的索尼公司也绝不可能实现。为了推动创新，一些领导者从大处着眼，一些则着重落实细节，而乔布斯坚持不懈地要两者兼顾。结果，在30年的时间里，他推出了一系列产品，改变了整个产业：

The Apple II，which took Wozniak's circuit board and turned it into the first personal computer that was not just for hobbyists.

苹果Ⅱ,这是借助沃兹尼亚克的电路板创造而成的首款不是仅面向电脑爱好者的个人电脑。

The Macintosh, which begat the home computer revolution and popularized graphical user interfaces.

麦金塔电脑，带来了家庭电脑的革命，使图形用户界面普及化。

Toy Story and other Pixar blockbusters, which opened up the miracle of digital imagination.

玩具总动员》和其他皮克斯动画电影，开启了数码想象的奇迹。

Apple stores, which reinvented the role of a store in defining a brand.

苹果商店，创新地确立了商店对建立品牌的作用。

The iPod, which changed the way we consume music.

MP3播放器iPod,改变了我们消费音乐的方式。

The iTunes Store, which saved the music industry.

iTunes音乐商店，挽救了音乐产业。

The iPhone, which turned mobile phones into music, photography, video, email, and web devices.

iPhone,使手机集音乐、摄影、视频、电子邮件和网络设备为一体。

The App Store, which spawned⁸ a new content-creation industry.

App应用商店，催生了一个新的内容创作产业。

The iPad, which launched tablet computing⁹ and offered a platform for digital newspapers, magazines, books, and videos.

Pad平板电脑，提供了一个数字报纸、杂志、书籍和视频的平台。

iCloud, which demoted the computer from its central role in managing our content and let all of our devices sync seamlessly.

iCloud云端服务，计算机不再是管理内容的核心设备，而是让我们的所有设备实现同步无缝对接。

And Apple itself, which Jobs considered his greatest creation, a place where imagination was nurtured，applied, and executed in ways so creative that it became the most valuable company on earth.

以及苹果公司本身，乔布斯认为这是他最伟大的创造，这是一个培育、应用和施展想象力的场所，瑰丽的想象和奇特的创意使它成为世界上最具价值的公司。

Was he smart? No, not exceptionally. Instead, he was a genius. His imaginative leaps were instinctive¹⁰, unexpected, and at times magical. He was, indeed, an example of what the mathematician¹¹ Mark Kac called a magician genius, someone whose insights come out of the blue and require intuition more than mere¹² mental processing power. Like a pathfinder, he could absorb information, sniff¹³ the winds, and sense what lay ahead.

他聪明吗？不，不是格外聪明。然而，他却是个天才。他富于想象力的跳跃都是本能的、不可预见的，有时是充满魔力的。他真是数学家马克·卡克所说的那种魔术师天才，他的洞见会不期而至，更多地依靠直觉而非大脑的处理能力。他像个探路者一样，可以吸收信息，嗅到风中的气味，对未来先知先觉。

Steve Jobs thus became the greatest business executive of our era, the one most certain to be remembered a century from now. History will place him in the pantheon right next to Edison and Ford¹⁴. More than anyone else of his time, he made products that were completely innovative¹⁵, combining the power of poetry and processors. With a ferocity that could make working with him as unsettling as it was inspiring, he also built the world's most creative company. And he was able to infuse into its DNA¹⁶ the design sensibilities，perfectionism, and imagination that make it likely to be, even decades from now, the company that thrives best at the intersection¹⁷ of artistry and technology.

史蒂夫·乔布斯就这样成为我们这个时代最伟大的商业决策者，一个世纪以后他也一定能被世人记得。在历史的万神殿里，他的位置就在爱迪生和福特的身旁。在他的时代，他超越众人，创造了极具创新性的产品，把诗歌和处理器的力量完美结合。他的粗暴使得和他共事既让人不安又令人振奋，而他借此打造了世界上最具创造力的公司。他能够在苹果的DNA中融入设计的敏感、完美主义和想象力，使之很可能，甚至此后几十年，都是在艺术与科技的交汇处成长得最茁壮的公司。

课堂笔记
1.娃谷(Silicon Valley)地处美国加州北部旧金山湾以南，早期以硅芯片的设计与制造著称，因而得名。后来其他高技术产业也蓬勃发展，娃谷的名称现泛指所有高技术产业。
2.麦金塔电脑（Macintosh,简称Mac),于1984年1月24日面世，首次将图形用户界面广泛应用到个人电脑之上。
3.施乐公司（Xerox)是复印技术发明公司，是全球最大的数字与信息技术产品生产商。目前其在复印机市场的占有率，特别是彩色机器的市场占有率，占据全球第一的位置。
4.这是用于修饰“way”的定语从句，从句中还包括由关系代词which引导的非限制性定语从句，用于修饰“Sony”。索尼公司是一家全球知名的电子产品制造商，为横跨数码、生活用品、娱乐领域的世界巨擘，创立于1946年，总部设在日本东京。
5.沃兹尼亚克（Wozniak)，美国电脑工程师，与史蒂夫·乔布斯合伙创立了苹果电脑公司。在20世纪70年代中期，他创造了苹果一号和苹果二号。
6.《玩具总动员》是皮克斯的动画系列电影，是首部完全使用电脑动画技术的动画长篇，乔布斯参与了其中的制作。
7.“which”引导的非限制性定语从句用于修饰“Apple”，“a place”作“Apple”的同位语，由关系代词“where”引导的定语从句用于修饰先行词“place”。从句中“so creative that it became the most valuable company on earth” (如此具有创造力，以至于它成长为世界上最有价值的公司）用作“ways”的定语。
8.“come out of the blue”是一个英语成语，表示“突然”之意，同义词组还有“come out of a clear blue sky”。
9.爱迪生（Thomas Alva Edison, 1847-1931 ),美国发明家与企业家，他拥有2000余项发明，包括对世界影响极大的留声机、电影摄影机和钨丝灯泡等，他是有史以来最伟大的发明家。1892年创立通用电气公司。
10.福特（Henry Ford, 1863—1947 )，美国汽车工程师与企业家，福特汽车公司的建立者。他也是世界上第一位使用流水线大批量生产汽车的人。他的生产方式使汽车成为一种大众产品，不但革命了工业生产方式，而且对现代社会和文化产生了巨大的影响。
11.此句是用于修饰“ferocity”的定语从句，从句中谓语动词的宾语是“working with him”，连词“as”引导的从句中的代词“it”指代“working with him”。
12.但搭配“infiise A into B”表示“把A融入B中”，句中动词“infuse”的宾语是“the design sensibilities, perfectionism，and imagination”，其后的 “that” 从句用作定语，修饰宾语。此定语从句中的代词“it”指代“Apple”，名词“company”后的“that”从句为定语从句修饰 “company”。