计划常规发布Economist或者New Yorker文章的赏析，重点学习它的写作方法。我的水平远远做不到『教』人，所以请更多地把这个栏目看成是我的『请教』。
今天学习的是Economist 7月25日刊封面文章，Inside Silicon Valley: Empire of the geeks。
1 词
insularity
n. the state of being isolated or detached, sometimes the meaning is extended to mean being narrow-minded.
原句：Sillicon Valley should be celebrated. But its insularity risks a backlash.
具体的用法和翻译方式，我们可以从以下几个句子来揣摩。
用来描述地理的，本义
The discovery of the insularity of Greenland might again give rise to the argument as to the distinction between island and continent.
Others again cite the old-established power and productivity of Crete; the immense advantage it derived from insularity……
用来描述人的，可否译为“岛民心态”“固步自封”“与世隔绝”？
Maine warned his countrymen against the insularity which results from ignorance of all law and institutions save one's own; his example has shown the benefit of the contrary habit.
Briefly, they are to be found in the conditions of the time; the increasing insularity of the English barons, now no longer the holders of estates in Normandy;
用来描述人的，此处可否取“偏狭”义？
He has, indeed, a true love of England, sometimes not without a suspicion of insularity, but always fresh and ingenuous.
而关于本文，ECO中文网译为“一意孤行”，差可拟之？
embroil
原句：Uber is the firm most embroiled in controversy.
字典告诉我们embroil 的意思是
is defined as to involve someone in an argument or confusion
所以用来和controversy搭配是非常精确的。embroil还可以是及物动词，表示
to draw into a conflict or fight; involve in trouble。
2 句
原句：Wall Street used to be the place to seek fortunes and make deals; now **it is increasingly **the Valley.
副词修饰be动词的例子，比如it is exactly; it is really 不过increasingly这么用我还是第一次见……还是我孤陋寡闻？
原句：The enormous, disruptive creativity of Silicon Valley** is unlike anything since** the genius of the great 19th-century inventors.
一个值得学习的用法是disruptive creativity，颠覆性、破坏性的创造力。比如uber，比如airbnb。这篇文章结尾又出现了类似的说法: iconoclastic freedom and creativity，iconoclastic意为
Characterized by attack on established and accepted beliefs, customs, or insitutions;
一个是unlike anything since...，很想翻译成自……以后不世出的……
原句：**Tapping **wealthy investors means risk is borne by people who can afford to take losses.
tap此处的意思个人认为应该取
to draw upon; make use of: to tap new resources
当然它还有一个slang义
to borrow or get money from
个人认为它是正式用法，但是倾向slang的含义
这句还有一个有意思的就是三个词bear, afford, take，丛中文来看都有“承受”“负担”的意思，但是搭配不同, bear risks/afford to do/take losses。
原句：Staying private allows entrepreneurs to avoid the headaches of being quoted: the nuisance of activist investors,** the drugery of compliance**, the vision-crushing ritua****l of quarterly reporting.
第一处是headaches of being quoted, 个人认为ECO中文网这句翻译的不错：被人拿来说事儿的烦恼。
第二处是the drugery of compliance，也不错，译为：俯首听命的苦差事。
第三处不好翻译，何为vision-crushing? 我的理解是"令人大跌眼镜的"。至于ritual在此是取了a practice, service, or procedure done as a rite, especially at regular intervals的意义，好吧我没查字典以前还以为是作者打的比喻呢~（孤陋寡闻……）
原句：European regulators are also scruitinising firms like Facebook and Google for everything from antitrust concerns to data protection.
只学一个非常简单的用法，everything from……to……
原句：Many denizens of the Valley believe that tech is the solution to all ills and that government is just an annoyance that still lacks an algorithm.
后一句的geek风太浓哈哈~~
原句：Yet cracking open established industries inevitably results in conflict.
其实crack open和established都不是什么新鲜用法了，然而我们自己写作时未必会去使用，所以多看几个例子：
crack open 本义：敲开，砸开，各种暴力开 引申义：揭露（不好的事）
而用法又有两种，一种是crack sth (wide) open
An incredible eruption cracked the volcano wide open.
The newspaper story cracked the trouble at city hallwide open.
另一种直接就是crack open,应该翻译成“裂开了”
The egg cracked open and a chick worked its way out.
但是我们能看到此处的用法，是顶着第二种的形式，用着第一种的意思。
established这个不用举例，上文阐述iconoclastic的含义时就出现了，这两个词大可以放在一起去记忆，后者是对前者的一种打破。
原句：It would be a terrible shame if it became an unpopular and remote manifestation of elitism.
unpopular and remote manifestation of elitism，用来概括硅谷菁英，还真是很精辟呢~unpopular和remote呼应前面的insularity。
3 语料
network effects
原句: Just as the big platform like Google, Facebook and Apple benefit from "network effects", because each new user makes the service more valuable for all the others, so the Valley's success as a venue to launch, fund, staff and sell a technology firm is feeding on itself.
网络效应，从原句中应该很容易理解把，某种产品对一名用户的价值取决于使用该产品的其他用户的数量。硅谷的成功也是源自它产生的科技公司的反哺。
Uber & Airbnb
本文以uber和airbnb为例的句子很多，作为共享经济的代表，写作举例时经常会用得到
原句：Airbnb, a seven-year-old firm that helps people turn their homes into hotels, operates in 34,000 towns and cities around the world.
"On-demand" firms like Uber are changing what it means to be an employee.
Uber is the firm most embroiled in controversy, whether facing licensed taxi-drivers on the streets or demands from its own drivers in the courts.
dotcom crash
90年代的互联网泡沫~
原句：The 1990s saw a financial bubble that ended in a spectacular bust.
The Amercian economy would be hit hard by a repeat of the financial shock that followed the dotcom crash in 2000.
This is because tech company nowadays not only have more robust business models than their dotcom predecessors, but they also rely on a smaller group of financial backers.
tax-hailing apps
眼下风风火火的打车软件~
原句：Consumers enjoy their taxi-hailing apps,music streaming and voice-recognition software.
4 对比：我们会怎么写？
原句：Silicon Valley's entrepreneurs and innovators, technologists and moneymen...
如果我们来写，我们会用technologists and moneymen么？前一个估计会用expert或者technician, 后一个会用investor这样，然而——
expert不一定是技术的，意思不到位；而technician的解释是
a person whose job or training involves a specific technical process, or is someone skilled or trained in a specific art or craft. 如果用中文来翻译，更偏向“技工”。
technologist的解释是
An associate of a scientist or an engineer who specializes in a particular technology, or who uses technology in a particular field,更加偏向“技术人员”。（档次不一样啊）
moneyman指的是
a person who provides financial backing for a venture，而investor可以指一般投资者。（依然是档次不一样……）
原句：If the perception takes root that enormous profits from exploiting data and and avoiding taxes arecrystallised in the fortunes of a few people living on a patch of ground near San Francisco...
我最多只能写到are accumulated in the hand of a few people……
然而原文用crystallise秒杀了我,释义如下，从“结晶”引申而来。
vt. To give a definite, precise, and usually permanent form to
一个词写清了从利润到财富的转变过程。
原句：……but if tech firms fall short of their promises, ordinary investors are less likely to see their wealth destroyed.
我大概只会用cannot realize/fulfil their promises...
原句：So far the public's relationship with the tech titans has been mostly harmonious.
我比较习惯用tech giants，titans什么的可以学着用起来。❖
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