PART 1 Expressions

1. Carmakers looking to put a modicum of effort into their ads have been hawking the exact same things for decades: a car with a bit more room, a few extra miles per gallon, better handling, or an extra cup holder.

a modicum of:  [ˈmɒdɪkəm] a small amount of sth, especially a good quality

a modicum of common sense

hawk: (vt.) to try to sell goods, usually by going from place to place and trying to persuade people to buy them

2. Those that can’t find anything interesting at all to tout about their cars turn to scantily clad women, men with British accents, and, when necessary, dancing mice in tuxedos to try and convince people that their products are better than the rest.

tout : [taʊt]

1. to praise sth or sb in order to persuade people that they are important or worth a lot

Nell is being touted as the next big thing in Hollywood.

2. to try to persuade people to buy goods or service you are offering

tout for business/ custom = look for customers

scanty: not enough; scanty clothes are small and do not cover much of your body

clad: (a.) wearing a particular kind of clothing

warmly/ suitably/ scantily clad = dressed warmly/ suitably/ scantily

3. There were massive touch-screens where people could calculate how much they might save on fuel costs by moving to an all-electric car, and where they could configure the look and add-ons for their future Model S.

1. a product that is designed to be used with another product

2. something extra that is added to an existing plan, agreement, law etc

We bought legal protect as an add-on to our home insurance policy.

4. In the e-mail, Musk said that four hundred customers who had already placed their orders for a Roadster but not yet received them would bear the brunt of the price change and need to cough up the extra cash.

brunt: 冲击；撞击

bear/ take/ suffer etc the brunt of sth: to receive the worst part of an attack, criticism, bad situation etc

an industry that bore the brunt of the recession

The car took the full brunt of the explosion.

5. He tried to assuage Tesla’s customer base by arguing that the company had no choice but to raise prices.

assuage: SYN relieve, to make an unpleasant feeling less painful or severe

Nothing could assuage his guilt.

base: the people, money, groups etc that form the main part of sth

By broadening the tax base(= all the people who pay taxes), he could raise more revenues.

an attempt to strengthen the city's economic base(= things that produce jobs and money)

The country's manufacturing base(=all the factories, companies etc that produce goods in a country) has shrunk by 20%.

6. Ever since, Musk has tried to turn any snafu with a Tesla into an excuse to show off the company’s attention to service and dedication to pleasing the customer.

snafu: [snæˈfu:]  informal, a situation in which a plan does not happen in the way it should

(军语) 军中老鸟骂菜鸟的话 situation normal, all fucked up

There were no major snafus.

7. It must have been excruciating for Eberhard to agree to put that in writing and the very existence of that statement points to Musk’s skills and tactics as a hard-line negotiator.

excruciate: (v.) 使受酷刑；折磨

excruciating: [ɪkˈskru:ʃieɪtɪŋ] extremely painful or unpleasant

When I bend my arm, the pain is excruciating.

His poetry is excruciatingly bad.

8. There would be no Tesla to talk about today were it not for Musk’s money, marketing savvy, chicanery, engineering smarts, and indomitable spirit.

chicanery: [ʃɪˈkeɪnəri] (n.) 诡计；欺诈

Clearly there is some chicanery going on.

indomitable: having great determination or courage and thus incapable of being subdued

Alice was a woman of indomitable spirit/ will/ courage.

9. As difficult as birthing the Roadster had been, the adventure had whetted Musk’s appetite for what he could accomplish in the automotive industry with a clean slate.

whet one's appetite for sth: increase one's desire for sth (whet 本意是在石头上磨刀)

clean slate/ sheet: a record of sb's work, behavior, performance etc that shows they have not done anything wrong or made any mistakes

Jed looked forward to starting life again with a clean slate/ sheet.

Lewis has kept a clean sheet in every game (= not let the other team score).

clean hands: do sth in a fair or legal way

Neither side is coming to the negotiation table with completely clean hands.

10. Los Angeles has long adored its cars, with the climate lending itself to all manner of vehicles from convertibles to surfboard-toting vans.

lend itself to sth: to be suitable for being used in a particular way

None of her books really lends itself to being made into a film.

lend (your) support to sth: to support or help

The government has now lent its support to the campaign.

lend your name to sth: to announce publicly that you support sth that sb is trying to do

The French prime minister has now lent his name to the protest.

11. Musk instantly saw von Holzhausen, with his bouffant, trendy clothes and laid-back attitude, as a free-spirited, creative complement and wooed him with vigor.

laid-back: (a.) relaxed and seeming not to be worried about sth

I don't know how you can be so laid-back about your exams.

laid-back attitude/ manner/ approach etc

12. Musk’s presence added to the energy and gave von Holzhausen confidence that Tesla actually could outflank much, much larger competitors.

outflank: (v.) 1. 从侧翼包抄; 2. to gain an advantage over an opponent, especially in politics

The Tories found themselves outflanked by Labor on the issue of law and order.

Tesla

PART 2 Thoughts

Musk had set out to make an electric car that did not suffer from any compromises. He did that. Then, using a form of entrepreneurial judo, he upended the decades of criticisms against electric cars. The Model S was not just the best electric car; it was best car, period, and the car people desired. ... Musk had never run a car factory before and was considered arrogant and amateurish by Detroit. ... Elon Musk had built the automotive equivalent of the iPhone. And car executives in Detroit, Japan, and Germany had only their crappy ads to watch as they pondered how such a thing had occurred.

读到过这样一个故事：把一个会跳的小虫子放在瓶子里，它明明可以跳得很高，但把盖子盖上以后，虫子碰到顶盖掉下来了，它反复条跳跃，却越跳越低。这时候再把盖子拧开，看见小虫子还在跳，但它已经永远不会跳出这个瓶子了，因为它认为，头顶上那个盖子将是不可逾越的。Tesla的成功颠覆了之前汽车行业对与电动车的判断，在Tesla之前也有具备实力的公司尝试过电动车，但是它们被自己所设定的边界给限制住了，即使很多以前存在的瓶颈已经可以跨越了，但它们还是束缚自己的手脚不敢去前进。在生活或工作中总会遇到一些人告诉我们说，这个是不可能的，那个是不现实的，但真正可怕的不是外界的嘲讽，而是那些评价被我们内化成自我判断的一种标尺， 是我们自己给自己套上了枷锁。小学里经常有老师对我说，你稿子写的很好，但你台上讲的没有你写的好。很长时间里这种评价一直束缚着我，中学到大学里我经常自愿做幕后的人，能把上台发表的机会让给别人的都让了，导致我每次独立做报告的时候都非常紧张和手足无措。但其实回过头想，并非我的性格或能力天生不适合上台演讲，而是我之前错过了很多锻炼的机会，是我自己给自己设定了那个看似无法逾越的界限。