【趣谈英语】关于推特-Twitter Was Born from a Hackathon

Pre-Listening Vocabulary

hack¹: a smart solution to a difficult problem (hackathon: a set period where people try to think of ideas to solve a problem)

podcast: a series of online audio recordings² that one can subscribe³ to

passionate⁴: having great interest

investor⁵: a person who lends money in exchange for future profits

microblog: a platform in which people publish short updates regularly

prototype: an example of a future product in the form of a model

 

Twitter Was Born from a Hackathon 

Did you know that the creators of Twitter once worked at Google? In 2005, Biz Stone and his co-worker Evan Williams left Google to start a podcasting business called Odeo. A lot of investors⁶ were interested in their business. Unfortunately, Biz and Evan weren’t passionate about it. They knew they couldn’t work on a project that didn’t interest them, so they decided⁷ to have a hackathon. For two weeks, the small group of Odeo employees worked in pair,s and tried to think of a new idea for a business. Biz Stone and Jack⁸ Dorsey came up with an idea for a microblogging service. They thought it would be fun to have an online service that let you see a short, simple status update of what your friends were doing. They built a prototype and presented it to the Odeo team. The team wasn’t that excited, but after a while they decided that it was the best idea. They began to work together on building Twitter.

1 hack   

n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳

参考例句：

• He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
• Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。

2 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

3 subscribe   

vi.(to)订阅，订购；同意；vt.捐助，赞助

参考例句：

• I heartily subscribe to that sentiment.我十分赞同那个观点。
• The magazine is trying to get more readers to subscribe.该杂志正大力发展新订户。

4 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

5 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

6 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。