[下册]研究生英语精读教程 Five.ppt

1、研究生英语精读教程(第三版下),中国人民大学出版社,Unit Five,The Apple of Your Ear,1. Text,2. Exercise,3. Supplementary Reading,The Apple of Your Ear,Lev Grossman,Menu,Translation,cool adj. very fashionable, stylish 时尚的 metropolitan adj. of a chief city 大都市的,Menu,1 The iPhone started out the way a lot of cool* things do: as

2、 something completely different. A few years ago, Steve Jobs noticed how many development dollars were being spent particularly in the greater Seattle metropolitan* areaon what are called tablet PCs: flat portable computers that work with a touch screen instead of a mouse and keyboard.,Jobs, being J

3、obs, was curious. He had some Apple1 engineers noodle around* with a touch screen. When they showed him what they came up with, he got excited. So excited he forgot all about tablet computers. He had bigger game to hunt.,noodle v. play an instrument at will 随意弹奏乐器noodle around study 研究,Menu,Translat

4、ion,2 Jobs had just led Apple on a triumphant rampage* through a new market sector, portable digital-music players, and he was looking around for more technology to conquer. He found the ideal target sitting on his hip*. Consumers bought nearly a billion cell phones last year, 10 times the number of

5、 iPods in circulation.,rampage n. excited and violent behavior 狂暴地乱冲乱闯的行为 hip n. the fleshy part of either side of the human body above the legs 臀, 股 adj. of or favoring the latest fashions; modern 新潮的,Menu,Apples new iPhone, which will be available in June, could do to the cell-phone market what th

6、e iPod did to the portable-musicplayer market: crush it pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority. This is unfortunate for anybody else who makes cell phones, but its good news for those of us who use them.,Translation,Menu,3 The game is a little different this time. With the iPod, Jobs e

7、ssentially created a whole new product category. The cell-phone turf* is already held by entrenched* armies of phonemakers and service providers.,turf n. the surface of the soil with the grass growing in it 草地；势力范围 entrench v. to dig a long deep ditch in the ground to protect a place or an army 挖壕沟防

8、护；确立,Menu,They may not be as hip or innovative as Apple, but they will shred* one another for nickels*, and there are a lot of nickels on the ground. “We already have cell phones and smart phones, so the marketplace is already very competitive,” says industry analyst Jeff Kagan. “We have not seen Ap

9、ple compete in the insanely* intense, competitive wireless marketplace.”,shred v. to cut or tear into small pieces 撕成碎片；拼杀 nickel n. 美 the coin of the US and Canada worth 5 cents 五分镍币 insanely adv. madly 疯狂地,Menu,Translation,4 But it wasnt just the money. Cell phones interested Jobs because even tho

10、ugh they do all kinds of stuffcalling, text messaging, Web browsing*, contact management, music playback, photos and videothey do it very badly, by forcing you to press lots of tiny buttons and navigate* diverse heterogeneous* interfaces and squint* at a tiny screen.,browse v. to read here and there

11、 in books for enjoyment 浏览 navigate v. to go by sea , air, etc. 驾驶船只等, 浏览 heterogeneous adj. of different kinds 不同的, 异类的 squint v. to look with almost closed eyes 眯眼而看,Menu,“Everybody hates their phone,” Jobs says, “and thats not a good thing. And theres an opportunity there.” To Jobs perfectionist

12、eyes, phones are broken. Jobs likes things that are broken. It means he can make something that isnt and sell it to you at a premium* price.,premium adj. worth more than usual 特佳的, 特级的,Menu,Translation,5 That was why, 2.5 years ago, Jobs sicced* his wrecking* crew of designers and engineers on the c

13、ell phone as we knowand hateit. They began by melting the face off a video iPod.No clickwheel*, no keypad*.,sic v. order to attack 命令攻击 wrecking adj. rescuing 救援 clickwheel n. 导航键盘 keypad n. 字母键盘,Menu,They sheared* off the entire front and replaced it with a huge, bright, vivid screenthat touch scre

14、en Jobs got so excited about a few paragraphs ago. When you need to dial, it shows you a keypad; when you need other buttons, the screen serves them up. When you want to watch a video, the buttons disappear. Suddenly, the interface isnt fixed and rigid, its fluid and molten. Software replaces hardwa

15、re.,shear v. to cut off wool from 修剪 shear off: to break in two 折断,Menu,Translation,6 Into that iPod they stuffed a working version of Apples operating system, OSX, so that the phone could handle real, nontoy* applications like Web browsers and e-mail clients*.,nontoy adj. real 真正的 client n. 客户端,Men

16、u,hey put in a cell antenna and two more antennas for wi-fi* and Bluetooth*, plus a bunch of sensors, so that the phone knows how bright its screen should be and whether it should display vertically or horizontally, and when it should turn off the touch screen so that you dont accidentally operate i

17、t with your ear.,wi-fi and Blue-tooth: wi-fi 是无线保真技术 Wireless Fidelity 的缩写, 它与蓝牙（Blue-tooth ）技术一样, 属于在办公室和家庭中使用的短距离无线通信技术。 Blue-tooth 蓝牙技术,Menu,Translation,7 Then Jonathan Ive, Apples head of designthe Englishman who shaped the iMac and the iPodsquashed* the case to less than half an inch thick and

18、widened it to what looks like a bar of expensive chocolate wrapped in aluminum and stainless steel.,squash v. to force into a flat shape; crush 压扁,Menu,The iPhone is a typical piece of Ive design: an austere*, abstract, Platonic*-looking form that somehow also manages to feel warm and organic and er

19、gonomic*.,Menu,Translation,austere adj. lacking comfort; hard 朴素的, 无装饰的 Platonic adj. 柏拉图式的 ergonomic adj. referring to the way in which people work most effectively with machines 人性化的,8 O. K. , so its pretty. Now pick it up and make a call. A big friendly icon appears on that huge screen. Say a sec

20、ond call comes in while youre talking. Another icon appears. Tap that second icon*, and you switch to the second call. Tap the “merge calls” icon, and youve got a three-way conference call. Its ridiculously simple.,icon n. 图标,Translation,Menu,9 The fact is, the iPhone shatters two basic axioms* of c

21、onsumer technology. One, when you take an application and put it on a phone, that application must be reduced to a crippled* and annoying version of itself.,Menu,axiom n. a statement that is generally accepted as true and doesnt need to be proved 公理 crippled adj. a person hurt or wounded in such a w

22、ay that the use of one or more of the limbs is made difficult or impossible 跛足的,Two, when you take two devicessuch as an iPod and a phoneand squish them into one, both devices must necessarily become lamer* versions of themselves.,Menu,Translation,lame adj. not able to walk easily or properly 跛足的,Th

23、e iPhone is a phone, an iPod and a mini-Internet computer all at once, and they allcontrary to basic physicsoccupy the same space at the same time, but without taking a hit in performance. In a way, iPhone is the wrong name for it. (Indeed, Cisco is suing Apple, claiming it owns the trademark. ) Its

24、 a handheld computing platform that just happens to contain a phone.,Translation,Menu,10 Why is Apple able to do things most other companies cant? Partly by charging for it: the iPhone will cost $499 for a 4-GB model, $599 for 8-GB. And partly because unlike most companies, Apple does its own hardwa

25、re, its own software and its own industrial design. When it all takes place under one roof, you get a kind of collaborative synergy* that makes unusual things happen.,synergy n. joint effects 共同作用,Menu,Translation,11 Apple also places an unusual emphasis on interface design. It sweats* the cosmetic*

26、 details that dont seem very important until you really sweat them. “I actually have a photographers loupe* that I use to make sure every pixel* is right,” says Scott Forstall, Apples vice president of Platform Experience.,Menu,sweat v. care about, mind 在意 cosmetic adj. related to or causing increas

27、ed beauty of the skin or hair 化妆用的；表面的 loupe n. 放大镜 pixel n. 像素,“We will argue over literally a single pixel.” As a result, when you swipe* your finger across the screen to unlock the iPhone, youre not just accessing a system of nested menus, youre entering a tiny universe in which data exist as bou

28、ncy*, gemlike* objects.,Menu,swipe v. to hit violently 挥臂重击 bouncy adj. full of life and eager 有弹性的；有活力的 gemlike adj. 宝石般的,You can actually pinch an image with two fingers and make it smaller. Because theres no mouse or keyboard, just that touch screen, theres a powerful illusion that youre physical

29、ly handling data.,Translation,Menu,12 Of course, Apples other secret weapon is the controlling hand of Steve Jobs, 51, for whom this is an almost mystically significant year. It has been five years since the iPod launched, 30 years since Jobs co-founded Apple (with Stephen Wozniak) and 10 since he r

30、eturned there after having been fired.,Menu,In that decade, Apples stock has gone up more than 1,500%. Neither age nor successnor cancer surgery in 2004has significantly mellowed* him, although some of the silver in his beard is creeping* up into his hair.,mellow v. to become ripe 使成熟 creep v. to mo

31、ve or advance slowly and quietly 不知不觉来临,Menu,All technologists believe their products are better than other peoples, or at least they say they do, but Jobs believes it a little more than most. He calls the iPhone “the most important product Apple has ever announced, with the possible exception of th

32、e Apple and the Macintosh. Its also going to be an incredible revolution for the whole industry.”,Menu,Translation,13 Jobs zeal for product developmentand enforcing his personal visionremains as relentless as ever. He keeps Apples management structure unusually flat for a 20,000-person company, so t

33、hat he can see whats happening at ground level. There is just one committee in the whole of Apple, to establish prices. If the motto for Apples consumers is “Think different,” the motto for Apple employees is “Think like Steve.”,Translation,Menu,14 The same goes for Apples partners. The last time Ap

34、ple experimented with a phone, the largely unsuccessful ROKR, Jobs let Motorola make it. “What we learned was that we wouldnt be satisfied with glomming* iTunes onto a regular phone,” Jobs says. “We realized through that experience that for us to be happy, for us to be proud, we were going to have t

35、o do it all.”,glom v. to seize, grab 抓住，捉住,Menu,Translation,15 Apples superiority complex can inspire resentment*, which is one reason for some of the Silicon Valley schadenfreude* over Jobs current stock-options woes3 . An internal investigation has cleared Jobs, but a federal investigation and a s

36、hareholder lawsuit are still going forward. (Jobs declines to talk about the options issue. ),resentment n. the feeling of being angry or bitter as the result of bad treatment 愤恨 schadenfreude n. 德 take pleasure in others misfortune 幸灾乐祸,Menu,Taking pleasure in seeing a special person knocked down t

37、o size is a great American pastime. But theres no point in pretending that Jobs isnt special. A college dropout whose biological parents gave him up for adoption, Jobs has presided over four major game-changing product launches: the Apple , the Macintosh, the iPod and the iPhone; five if you count t

38、he release of Pixars Toy Story4, which Im inclined to.,Menu,Translation,16 The iPhone wouldnt have happened without Apples “were special” attitude. One reason theres limited innovation in cell phones generally is that the cell carriers have stiff guidelines that the manufacturers have to follow. Car

39、riers demand that all their handsets work the same way.,Menu,“A lot of times, to be honest, theres some hubris*, where they think they know better,” Jobs says. “They dictate whats on the phone. That just wouldnt work for us because we want to innovate. Unless we could do that, it wasnt worth doing.”

40、 Jobs demanded special treatment from his phone-service partner, Cingular, and he got it.,Menu,hubris n. a feeling of pride in oneself often resulting in rudeness to others 过分的骄傲自信,He even forced Cingular to re-engineer its technical infrastructure* to handle the iPhones unique voice-mail scheme. “T

41、hey broke all their typical process rules to make it happen,” says Tony Fadell, who heads Apples iPod division. “They were infected by this product, and they were like, Weve gotta do this!”,infrastructure n. the system which supports the operation of an organization 基础；基础设施,Translation,Menu,17 Now t

42、hat the precedent has been set, it will be interesting to see if other cell-phone makers start demanding Apple-style treatment from wireless carriers. Stanley Sigman, Cingulars president and CEO, committed his company to the iPhone two years ago sight-unseen, but he appears understandably eager to p

43、lay down the uniqueness of Apples deal. “I think the interesting aspect of it is our willingness and ability to work together, to allow Cingular to be Cingular and Apple to be Apple,” he says.,Menu,“We have great relationships with other manufacturers. But hes clearly brought a product to market tha

44、ts years ahead of anybody else.” It will also be worth watching to see how successful competitors will be in knocking off the iPhones all-screen form factor, which will be tricky without Apples touch-screen technology. Apple has filed for around 200 patents associated with the iPhone, building an im

45、posing legal wall.,Translation,Menu,18 Will the iPhone succeed? Well, whats success? Apple will break the 100 million mark with iPods this year (it also passed 2 billion songs sold on iTunes). Jobs says he wants to move 10 million iPhones by the end of next year. That number is well in character as

46、far as its ambition goes. The iPhone is exclusive to Cingular for now, and Cingular has only 58 million customers. Jobs hopes to launch in Europe late this year and Asia in 2008. The iPhone is too beautiful and too brilliant not to be a moneymaker.,Menu,Translation,19 Perhaps its not quite right to

47、call the iPhone revolutionary. It wont create a new market or change the entertainment industry the way the iPod did. When you get right down to it, the device doesnt even have that many new featuresits not like Jobs invented voice mail, or text messaging, or conference calling or mobile Web browsin

48、g. He just noticed that they were broken, and he fixed them.,Menu,Translation,20 But thats the most important. (slightly abridged by the editor ),Menu,Translation,Exercise,. Comprehension,. Vocabulary,. Close,. Translation (English to Chinese),. Translation (Chinese to English),. Writing,Menu,. Comp

49、rehension,Answer the following questions or complete the following statements by choosing the best alternative A, B, C, or D under each.,1. How did the iPhone start its history? It was the result of several years hard research work. It was made on the basis of iPod. It was only a strange combination

50、 of circumstances. It was a natural development of Apple II.,Menu,Answers,. Comprehension,2. An iPod is _. a portable digital-music player a tablet computer a video tape recorder a video disk 3. The news of iPhones being available in the market is _. unfortunate to the cell-phone makers good news fo

51、r the cell-phone users a good thing to everybody Both A and B,Menu,Answers,. Comprehension,4. What draws Jobs attention most? A. money B. victory C. perfectionism D. position 5. Apple can do things most other companies cant because _ it has good partners it has good engineers its products charge for

52、 less it does its own hardware, software and industrial design,Menu,Answers,. Comprehension,6. What do you know about Steve Jobs? He is a person suffering from cancer. He co-founded Apple 30 years ago. Once he was fired. All the above,Menu,Answers,. Comprehension,7. _is the trouble of Jobs? Some of

53、the Silicon Valley schadenfreude The cancer surgery His parents gave him up for adoption His current stock-options woes,Menu,Answers,. Comprehension,8. _ is the precedent Apple has set? That the cell carriers follow the guidelines of the manufacturers That the manufacturers follow the guidelines of

54、the cell carriers That both of the carriers and the manufacturers should meet the demand of the market All the above,Menu,Answers,. Comprehension,9. Jobs has promoted over _ major game-changing products. A. 4 B. 5 C. many D. none,Menu,Answers,. Vocabulary,A. Identify one of the four choices A, B, C,

55、 or D which would keep the meaning of the underlined word or phrase.,1. He couldnt come up with an answer when I asked him why he was late. A. cope with B. think of C. have D. hand in 2. He refused the bribe, an action entirely in character. A. like his character B. out of character C. like his usua

56、l nature D. just like himself,Menu,Answers,. Vocabulary,A. Identify one of the four choices A, B, C, or D which would keep the meaning of the underlined word or phrase.,3. He could not lie still, but rampaged up and down his bedroom. A. rushed about wildly and angrily B. walked C. ran D. went 4. He

57、likes to brows among the books in the library. A. find something B. pick up something C. read here and there D. look for some thing,Answers,Menu,. Vocabulary,A. Identify one of the four choices A, B, C, or D which would keep the meaning of the underlined word or phrase.,5. The fruit will squash if i

58、ts badly packed. A. crush B. squeeze C. force D. press 6. Machines, at their best, are lame counterfeits of living organisms. A. good B. better C. bad D. awkward,Menu,Answers,. Vocabulary,A. Identify one of the four choices A, B, C, or D which would keep the meaning of the underlined word or phrase.

59、,7. Apples mellow after they have been picked. A. ripe B. go bad C. are pressed D. squash 8. They dictated terms to the defeated enemy. A. gave B. produced C. stated with the power to enforce D. handed in,Answers,Menu,. Vocabulary,A. Identify one of the four choices A, B, C, or D which would keep the meaning of the underlined word or phrase.,9. He worked a whole night and solved a tricky problem in mathematics. A. difficult to handle B. big C. hard D. interesting,Menu,Answers,. Vocabular