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Money mountains
That is over twice what the global venture-capital industry spends each year. It is 51 times the annual cash burned up by Netflix, Uber and Tesla, three firms famous for being cash hungry. And it is 37 times the average annual amount of cash the five firms have in total spent on acquisitions to gain new technologies and products, such as Facebook’s $19bn purchase of WhatsApp, a messaging service in2014, or Google’s $3.1bn acquisition of DoubleClick, an advertising firm, in 2007.
burn up If something burns up or if fire burns it up, it is completely destroyed by fire or strong heat烧毁；烧光；If something burns up fuel or energy, it uses it消耗；耗费
*Fires have burned up 180,000 acres of timber.大火烧光了18万英亩的木材。
*Brisk walking burns up more calories than slow jogging.快走比慢跑能消耗更多的热量。
这是全球风投行业每年投资额的两倍还多，是Netflix、优步和特斯拉这三家出了名缺钱的公司每年所烧掉现金的51倍，同时也是这五强为获得新技术和新产品平均每年在收购方面支出的37倍，比如Facebook在2014年以190亿美元收购了通讯应用WhatsApp，谷歌于2007年以31亿美元收购了广告公司DoubleClick。
Might these firms hoard cash just because they are run by megalomaniacs who are too rich and odd to obey any rules? That seems glib and out of date. Apple and Microsoft are no longer controlled by their founders. Those behind Alphabet were pragmatic enough in 2015 to appoint Ruth Porat, the former finance boss of Morgan Stanley, as its chief financial officer, to instil more discipline. Jeff Bezos’s interest is arguably for Amazon to pay a dividend—in the absence of one he is selling $1bn of his shares every year to raise cash to finance his space-rocket firm.
megalomaniac If you describe someone as a megalomaniac, you are criticizing them because they enjoy being powerful, or because they believe that they are more powerful or important than they really are有自大狂的人;妄自尊大的人
pragmatic solving problems in a practical and sensible way rather than by having fixed ideas or theories实用的；讲求实效的；务实的
*a pragmatic approach to management problems 对管理问题采取的务实做法
这些公司囤积大量现金，会不会只是因为它们的管理者都是些超级有钱又脾气古怪、不屑遵守任何规则的自大狂？这样的想法似乎太过肤浅，而且也过时了。苹果和微软已不再由创始人控制，Alphabet的掌管者也都非常务实：在2015年任命摩根士丹利前财务负责人露丝·波拉特（Ruth Porat）为首席财务官，以加强财务纪律。杰夫·贝佐斯可以说是想让亚马逊分红的——在没有分红的情况下，他每年出售自己10亿美元的股票来募集资金，资助他的太空火箭公司。
Maybe if the tax code is reformed the great cash build up will end. The most mature firms, Apple and Microsoft, would make a large one-off return of cash to shareholders. Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook would adopt sensible frameworks for returning cash to shareholders as their profits soar.
sensible able to make good judgements based on reason and experience rather than emotion; practical明智的；理智的；合理的；切合实际的；aware of sth意识到；认识到
*I think the sensible thing would be to take a taxi home.我想还是坐出租车回去的好。
也许，如果进行税务改革，庞大的现金积累就会结束。苹果和微软这两家最成熟的公司将一次性给股东大量的现金回报。随着利润飙升，亚马逊、Alphabet和Facebook也将采取合理的方案向股东返还现金。
But perhaps these firms love their giant insurance policy. Imperious on the outside, inside they may worry about obsolescence and regulation. Anti-trust authorities are getting hostile. Only five years ago Facebook and Google were struggling with the shift from desktops to devices. Both depend on advertising for over 85% of sales. Apple’s health depends on its latest iPhone, Amazon has thin margins and Microsoft’s profits have yet to rise.
Imperious expecting people to obey you and treating them as if they are not as important as you专横的；蛮横的；盛气凌人的
*an imperious gesture / voice / command 盛气凌人的姿势 / 语调 / 命令
obsolescence the state of becoming old-fashioned and no longer useful (= becoming obsolete)过时；陈旧；淘汰
*The aircraft was nearing obsolescence by early 1942.这种飞机在1942年年初就濒临淘汰了。
hostile very unfriendly or aggressive and ready to argue or fight敌意的；敌对的；strongly rejecting sth坚决否定；强烈反对；making it difficult for sth to happen or to be achieved有阻碍的；不利的；belonging to a military enemy敌军的；敌人的
但也许这些公司就是喜欢有大量现金护身。它们外表看起来不可一世，内里可能还是会担心遭到淘汰或遭遇监管问题。反垄断机构态度也越来越不友善。仅在五年前，Facebook和谷歌还在为从台式机向移动设备转移而苦苦挣扎。这两家公司的销售额中有85%以上都来自广告；苹果的健康取决于最新的iPhone；亚马逊的利润空间微薄；微软的利润还有待上升。
If earnings do soar as forecast, the big-five tech firms could be plotting giant acquisitions of media, car or hardware firms, to diversify away from their core business. But they may simply be uneasy that profits will not rise as high as Wall Street now expects. Either way, the $330bn safety blanket that lets Silicon Valley sleep at night should lead investors to keep one eye open.
diversify to develop a wider range of products, interests, skills, etc. in order to be more successful or reduce risk增加…的品种；从事多种经营；扩大业务范围；to change or to make sth change so that there is greater variety (使)多样化，变化，不同
*Farmers are being encouraged to diversify into new crops. 目前正鼓励农民兼种新的农作物。
keep one's eyes open 留心，留神；提防，戒备，时刻警惕；警觉；密切注视
如果收益真如预期那般飙升，那么五大科技公司可能正在计划大规模收购媒体、汽车或硬件企业，在核心业务之外实现多元化。但它们可能仅仅只是对于利润不会攀爬到华尔街现在预期的高度而感到不安。无论如何，这张让硅谷在夜晚安眠的3300亿美元的安全毯都应该让投资者保持警觉。
■一句一练■
Apple’s health depends on its latest iPhone,……
这一句难点在于health这个单词，许多都翻译为健康二字，但健康是指一个人在身体、精神和社会等方面都处于良好的状态。翻翻字典，发现还有其他意思The health of something such as an organization or a system is its success and the fact that it is working well。这句话可以翻译为：苹果公司的兴旺取决于最新版的iPhone，……。
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