谷歌公司
2023復習正是強化復習階段,在考研英語中占了40分,所以考研英語閱讀是英語科目中重要的一項。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強烈推薦了雜志《經濟學人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認真閱讀,快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 Google 谷歌公司 The new GE: Google, everywhere 新時代的通用電氣:無處不在的谷歌 With a string of deals the internet giant haspositioned itself to become a big inventor, andreinventor, of hardware. 經過一系列收購,這家互聯網巨頭已經使自己站在了超級革新者的位置上,硬件行業的徹底革新者。 AT GOOGLE they call it the toothbrush test. 在谷歌,他們把這叫做牙刷測試。 Shortly after returning to being the firm s chief executive in 2011, Larry Page said he wantedit to develop more services that everyone would use at least twice a day, like a toothbrush. 在2011年重新掌舵公司后不久,Larry Page曾說他希望公司開發更多的服務,這些服務能夠讓所有用戶在一天內至少使用兩次,就像牙刷一樣。 Its search engine and its Androidoperating system for mobile devices pass that test. 該公司的搜索引擎和安卓手機操作系統就通過了這個測試。 Now, with a string of recent acquisitions, Google seems to be planning to become as big inhardware as it is in software, developing toothbrush products in a variety of areas fromrobots to cars to domestic-heating controls. 通過近期一系列的并購,如今的谷歌看似正計劃著成為硬件行業的微軟,準備在從機器人到汽車再到室內加熱控制設備等眾多領域中開發牙刷級別的產品。 Its latest purchase is Nest Labs, a maker of sophisticated thermostats and smokedetectors: on January 13th Google said it would pay 3.2 billion in cash for the firm. 它的最近一次收購是精密恒溫控制器和煙霧探測器制造商Nest Labs:1月13號,Google宣布用32億美元現金將該公司買下。 Google s biggest move into hardware so far is its 12.5 billion bid for Motorola Mobility, ahandset-maker, in 2011. 目前為止,谷歌轉向硬件行業的最大動作是在2011年以125億美元收購手機制造商摩托羅拉移動公司。 In recent months it has been mopping up robotics firms, most notably Boston Dynamics,which makes two- and four-legged machines with names like BigDog and Cheetah that canwalk and run. 近幾個月,它則買下了不少機器人公司,其中值得注意的是波士頓動力,一家制作名為大狗或者獵豹的雙足和四足機器人的公司,這些機器人能夠行走和跑動。 Google s in-house engineers have also been busy working on driverless cars and wearablegadgets such as Google Glass. 谷歌自己的工程師們也在忙著研發無人駕駛汽車和可穿戴裝置比如谷歌眼鏡。 Nest takes Google into the home-appliance business, which is how another, much olderAmerican conglomerate got started. Nest則將谷歌帶入了家用裝置業務,從這項業務中走出過一家年長得多的美國巨頭公司。 General Electric produced its first electric fans in the 1890s and then went on to develop a fullline of domestic heating and cooking devices in 1907, before expanding into the industrialand financial behemoth that is still going strong today. 通用電氣在19世紀90年代就制造了它的第一批電風扇,接著又在1907年發展出一整套室內加熱和烹飪設備生產線,隨后逐漸壯大成為了現今仍然迅猛發展著的工業和金融怪獸。 The common factor shared by GE s early products was electricity, something businesseswere then just learning to exploit. 通用電氣早期產品的所共有的一個元素是電,當時的業界剛剛開始學著利用它。 With Google s collection of hardware businesses, the common factor is data: 而谷歌一系列硬件業務的共有元素則是數據: gathering and crunching them, to make physical devices more intelligent. 收集和分析它們來使物理設備變得更加智能。 Even so, the question is whether Google can knit the diverse businesses it is developing andacquiring into an even more profitable engineering colossusor whether it is in danger ofsquandering billions. Concern that the firm could make overpriced acquisitions has grownalong with the size of its cash pile, now around 57 billion. 盡管如此,谷歌的問題在于能否有效的整合它發展和探索出的多種業務,使之成為一個甚至能帶來更多利潤的工程產業,否則它就是浪費了這數十億美元。 Eyebrows were raised this week when the price for Nest was revealed. 對于該公司在并購時出價過高及其現金規模的擔憂正逐漸增加。 Morgan Stanley, a bank, reckons it represents ten times Nest s estimated annual revenue. 本周,Nest的收購價一經披露就令人大跌眼鏡。據摩根斯坦利估算,這是Nest預計年利潤的10倍。 Why fork out so much for a startup that makes such banal things as thermostats? 為什么對這家生產恒溫控制器這種老掉牙產品的年輕公司出手如此大方? Paul Saffo of Discern Analytics, a research firm, argues that Google is already adept atprofiting from the data people generate in the form of search queries, e-mails and otherthings they enter into computers. 研究公司Discern Analytics的Paul Saffo認為谷歌在通過數據掙錢上已經是熟門熟路,這些數據是在用戶們搜索查詢、收發郵件以及在電腦上進行其他操作時產生的。 It has been sucking in data from smartphones and tablet computers thanks to the success ofAndroid, and apps such as Google Maps. 安卓系統以及谷歌地圖這類應用軟件的成功使得谷歌還能從智能手機和平板電腦中汲取數據。 To keep growing, and thus to justify its shares lofty price-earnings ratio of 33, it must findever more devices to feed its hunger for data. 為了保證持續增長以及保持高達33的股票市盈率,它甚至還會尋找更多設備來滿足其對于數據的渴望。 Packed with sensors and software that can, say, detect that the house is empty and turndown the heating, Nest s connected thermostats generate plenty of data, which the firmcaptures. 比方說,Nest連接型的恒溫控制器利用房子中遍布的傳感器和軟件探測到房屋是空的,于是調低了加熱系統的。 Tony Fadell, Nest s boss, has often talked about how Nest is well-positioned to profit from theinternet of thingsa world in which all kinds of devices use a combination of software,sensors and wireless connectivity to talk to their owners and one another. 這個過程中就會產生很多的數據,并被谷歌收入囊中。Nest老板Tony Fadell時常提及Nest怎樣對自己準確定位來從物聯網中獲利。在物聯網的世界中,各個設備通過軟件、傳感器以及無線連接的結合來接受用戶以及其他設備的信息。 Other big technology firms are also joining the battle to dominate the connected home. 其他大型技術公司也在加入爭奪聯網家居統治權的戰斗。 This month Samsung announced a new smart-home computing platform that will letpeople control washing machines, televisions and other devices it makes from a single app. 這個月,三星宣布了一個新型智能家居處理平臺,讓人們只用一個應用軟件就能控制三星生產的洗衣機、電視和其他設備。 Microsoft, Apple and Amazon were also tipped to take a lead there, but Google was until nowseen as something of a laggard. 微軟、蘋果和亞馬遜也躍躍欲試,想引領這一潮流。不過在此之前,谷歌都被視作落后者。 I don t think Google realised how fast the internet of things would develop, says Tim Bajarinof Creative Strategies, a consultancy. 我不認為谷歌意識到了物聯網的迅猛發展,咨詢公司Creative Strategies的Tim Bajarin這樣說道。 Buying Nest will allow it to leapfrog much of the opposition. 買下Nest使得谷歌一躍超過了很多對手,同時也帶來了一些人才。 It also brings Google some stellar talent.Mr Fadell, who led the team that created the iPodwhile at Apple, has a knack for breathing new life into stale products. 在蘋果公司帶隊開發了iPod的Fadell很擅長給舊產品注入新鮮生命。 His skills and those of fellow Apple alumni at Nest could be helpful in other Google hardwarebusinesses, such as Motorola Mobility. 他和Nest的那些前蘋果雇員們的才能對于谷歌的硬件業務很有幫助,比如說摩托羅拉手機。 Google has said little about its plans for its new robotics businesses. 谷歌很少提及它在機器人業務上的計劃, But it is likely to do what it did with driverless cars: take a technology financed by militarycontracts and adapt it for the consumer market. 但是這很可能會和它的無人駕駛車一樣:和軍方簽訂協議,由其提供資助來開發技術,再將這些技術為消費市場進行調整。 In future, personal Googlebots could buzz around the house, talking constantly to a Nesthome-automation platform. 在未來,你的家中可能會充斥各種通過Nest家用自動化平臺相互溝通的家用谷歌機器人。 The challenge for Mr Page will be to ensure that these new businesses make the most ofGoogle s impressive infrastructure without being stifled by the bureaucracy of anorganisation that now has 46,000 employees. Page先生將面臨的一個挑戰是,確保這些新業務充分利用谷歌出色的基礎設施而不是被這個如今擁有46,000雇員的龐大組織的官僚主義所扼殺。 Google has had to overcome sclerosis before. Soon after returning as boss, Mr Page axedvarious projects and streamlined the management. 谷歌之前就曾遇上必須克服內部僵化的問題。回歸就任老板后不久,Page就砍掉了許多項目并改進了管理體系。 Nest is being allowed to keep its separate identity and offices, with Mr Fadell reportingdirectly to Mr Page. Nest被允許保留自己的獨立身份和自己的辦公室,Fadell也只需直接向Page進行報告。 Google has also protected its in-house hardware projects, such as Google Glass andself-driving cars, from succumbing to corporate inertia by nurturing them in its secretiveGoogle X development lab. 谷歌之前就通過在秘密的Google X研發實驗室單獨運行的方式來保證谷歌眼鏡和無人駕駛汽車這類自己的硬件項目免受企業惰性的影響。 It has also given its most important projects high-profile bosses with the clout to championthem internally. 同時它還會讓很有影響力的上層來領導最為重要的項目,以從內部提供足夠的支持。 The new head of Google s robotics business is Andy Rubin, who led the successfuldevelopment of Android. 谷歌機器人項目的負責人是成功領導了安卓系統開發的Andy Rubin。 Such tactics are good ways to avoid the pitfalls of conglomeration. 這種策略能夠避免過度聚集的誤區。 But to ensure success, Google will need to avoid another misstep. 但要確保成功,谷歌還需避免犯下另一錯誤。 Its chequered record on data-privacy issues means that Nest and other divisions will besubject to intense scrutiny by privacy activists and regulators. 它過去的多次數據隱私問題意味著Nest和其他分公司都會遭到隱私維權人士和立法者的嚴格監管。 Provided it can retain the confidence of its users on this, Google should be able to findplenty of new opportunities in both software and hardware that pass the toothbrush test andkeep a bright smile on its shareholders faces. 假如能夠保留用戶們對此的信心,谷歌就能在軟件業和硬件業中都找到足夠多能通過牙刷測試的機會,還能讓其股票持有人的臉上常駐燦爛笑容。 詞語解釋 1.seem to 似乎 Financial markets seem to agree. 金融市場似乎也證實了這一點。 Investors seem to have noticed. 投資者似乎也注意到了。 2.bid for 出價 International oil companies routinely team up with state-owned national oil companies to bidfor undeveloped assets. 國際石油公司通常會與國有的國家石油公司聯合收購未開發資產。 A large american defence contractor could bid for bae. 一家大型的美國國防承包商可以競購bae。 3.work on 從事于,致力于 Heisenberg continued to work on it. 海森堡也在繼續這個工作。 Looking for a creative outlet where you can work on your own? 你想要找一個有創意的直銷店來獨立工作? 4.such as 例如;譬如;諸如 What about future steps such as euro bonds? 諸如歐元聯盟之類的未來計劃怎樣? Imaginary problems such as these are usually hiding real ones. 像這樣的臆想的問題通常隱藏真實性的。
2023復習正是強化復習階段,在考研英語中占了40分,所以考研英語閱讀是英語科目中重要的一項。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強烈推薦了雜志《經濟學人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認真閱讀,快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 Google 谷歌公司 The new GE: Google, everywhere 新時代的通用電氣:無處不在的谷歌 With a string of deals the internet giant haspositioned itself to become a big inventor, andreinventor, of hardware. 經過一系列收購,這家互聯網巨頭已經使自己站在了超級革新者的位置上,硬件行業的徹底革新者。 AT GOOGLE they call it the toothbrush test. 在谷歌,他們把這叫做牙刷測試。 Shortly after returning to being the firm s chief executive in 2011, Larry Page said he wantedit to develop more services that everyone would use at least twice a day, like a toothbrush. 在2011年重新掌舵公司后不久,Larry Page曾說他希望公司開發更多的服務,這些服務能夠讓所有用戶在一天內至少使用兩次,就像牙刷一樣。 Its search engine and its Androidoperating system for mobile devices pass that test. 該公司的搜索引擎和安卓手機操作系統就通過了這個測試。 Now, with a string of recent acquisitions, Google seems to be planning to become as big inhardware as it is in software, developing toothbrush products in a variety of areas fromrobots to cars to domestic-heating controls. 通過近期一系列的并購,如今的谷歌看似正計劃著成為硬件行業的微軟,準備在從機器人到汽車再到室內加熱控制設備等眾多領域中開發牙刷級別的產品。 Its latest purchase is Nest Labs, a maker of sophisticated thermostats and smokedetectors: on January 13th Google said it would pay 3.2 billion in cash for the firm. 它的最近一次收購是精密恒溫控制器和煙霧探測器制造商Nest Labs:1月13號,Google宣布用32億美元現金將該公司買下。 Google s biggest move into hardware so far is its 12.5 billion bid for Motorola Mobility, ahandset-maker, in 2011. 目前為止,谷歌轉向硬件行業的最大動作是在2011年以125億美元收購手機制造商摩托羅拉移動公司。 In recent months it has been mopping up robotics firms, most notably Boston Dynamics,which makes two- and four-legged machines with names like BigDog and Cheetah that canwalk and run. 近幾個月,它則買下了不少機器人公司,其中值得注意的是波士頓動力,一家制作名為大狗或者獵豹的雙足和四足機器人的公司,這些機器人能夠行走和跑動。 Google s in-house engineers have also been busy working on driverless cars and wearablegadgets such as Google Glass. 谷歌自己的工程師們也在忙著研發無人駕駛汽車和可穿戴裝置比如谷歌眼鏡。 Nest takes Google into the home-appliance business, which is how another, much olderAmerican conglomerate got started. Nest則將谷歌帶入了家用裝置業務,從這項業務中走出過一家年長得多的美國巨頭公司。 General Electric produced its first electric fans in the 1890s and then went on to develop a fullline of domestic heating and cooking devices in 1907, before expanding into the industrialand financial behemoth that is still going strong today. 通用電氣在19世紀90年代就制造了它的第一批電風扇,接著又在1907年發展出一整套室內加熱和烹飪設備生產線,隨后逐漸壯大成為了現今仍然迅猛發展著的工業和金融怪獸。 The common factor shared by GE s early products was electricity, something businesseswere then just learning to exploit. 通用電氣早期產品的所共有的一個元素是電,當時的業界剛剛開始學著利用它。 With Google s collection of hardware businesses, the common factor is data: 而谷歌一系列硬件業務的共有元素則是數據: gathering and crunching them, to make physical devices more intelligent. 收集和分析它們來使物理設備變得更加智能。 Even so, the question is whether Google can knit the diverse businesses it is developing andacquiring into an even more profitable engineering colossusor whether it is in danger ofsquandering billions. Concern that the firm could make overpriced acquisitions has grownalong with the size of its cash pile, now around 57 billion. 盡管如此,谷歌的問題在于能否有效的整合它發展和探索出的多種業務,使之成為一個甚至能帶來更多利潤的工程產業,否則它就是浪費了這數十億美元。 Eyebrows were raised this week when the price for Nest was revealed. 對于該公司在并購時出價過高及其現金規模的擔憂正逐漸增加。 Morgan Stanley, a bank, reckons it represents ten times Nest s estimated annual revenue. 本周,Nest的收購價一經披露就令人大跌眼鏡。據摩根斯坦利估算,這是Nest預計年利潤的10倍。 Why fork out so much for a startup that makes such banal things as thermostats? 為什么對這家生產恒溫控制器這種老掉牙產品的年輕公司出手如此大方? Paul Saffo of Discern Analytics, a research firm, argues that Google is already adept atprofiting from the data people generate in the form of search queries, e-mails and otherthings they enter into computers. 研究公司Discern Analytics的Paul Saffo認為谷歌在通過數據掙錢上已經是熟門熟路,這些數據是在用戶們搜索查詢、收發郵件以及在電腦上進行其他操作時產生的。 It has been sucking in data from smartphones and tablet computers thanks to the success ofAndroid, and apps such as Google Maps. 安卓系統以及谷歌地圖這類應用軟件的成功使得谷歌還能從智能手機和平板電腦中汲取數據。 To keep growing, and thus to justify its shares lofty price-earnings ratio of 33, it must findever more devices to feed its hunger for data. 為了保證持續增長以及保持高達33的股票市盈率,它甚至還會尋找更多設備來滿足其對于數據的渴望。 Packed with sensors and software that can, say, detect that the house is empty and turndown the heating, Nest s connected thermostats generate plenty of data, which the firmcaptures. 比方說,Nest連接型的恒溫控制器利用房子中遍布的傳感器和軟件探測到房屋是空的,于是調低了加熱系統的。 Tony Fadell, Nest s boss, has often talked about how Nest is well-positioned to profit from theinternet of thingsa world in which all kinds of devices use a combination of software,sensors and wireless connectivity to talk to their owners and one another. 這個過程中就會產生很多的數據,并被谷歌收入囊中。Nest老板Tony Fadell時常提及Nest怎樣對自己準確定位來從物聯網中獲利。在物聯網的世界中,各個設備通過軟件、傳感器以及無線連接的結合來接受用戶以及其他設備的信息。 Other big technology firms are also joining the battle to dominate the connected home. 其他大型技術公司也在加入爭奪聯網家居統治權的戰斗。 This month Samsung announced a new smart-home computing platform that will letpeople control washing machines, televisions and other devices it makes from a single app. 這個月,三星宣布了一個新型智能家居處理平臺,讓人們只用一個應用軟件就能控制三星生產的洗衣機、電視和其他設備。 Microsoft, Apple and Amazon were also tipped to take a lead there, but Google was until nowseen as something of a laggard. 微軟、蘋果和亞馬遜也躍躍欲試,想引領這一潮流。不過在此之前,谷歌都被視作落后者。 I don t think Google realised how fast the internet of things would develop, says Tim Bajarinof Creative Strategies, a consultancy. 我不認為谷歌意識到了物聯網的迅猛發展,咨詢公司Creative Strategies的Tim Bajarin這樣說道。 Buying Nest will allow it to leapfrog much of the opposition. 買下Nest使得谷歌一躍超過了很多對手,同時也帶來了一些人才。 It also brings Google some stellar talent.Mr Fadell, who led the team that created the iPodwhile at Apple, has a knack for breathing new life into stale products. 在蘋果公司帶隊開發了iPod的Fadell很擅長給舊產品注入新鮮生命。 His skills and those of fellow Apple alumni at Nest could be helpful in other Google hardwarebusinesses, such as Motorola Mobility. 他和Nest的那些前蘋果雇員們的才能對于谷歌的硬件業務很有幫助,比如說摩托羅拉手機。 Google has said little about its plans for its new robotics businesses. 谷歌很少提及它在機器人業務上的計劃, But it is likely to do what it did with driverless cars: take a technology financed by militarycontracts and adapt it for the consumer market. 但是這很可能會和它的無人駕駛車一樣:和軍方簽訂協議,由其提供資助來開發技術,再將這些技術為消費市場進行調整。 In future, personal Googlebots could buzz around the house, talking constantly to a Nesthome-automation platform. 在未來,你的家中可能會充斥各種通過Nest家用自動化平臺相互溝通的家用谷歌機器人。 The challenge for Mr Page will be to ensure that these new businesses make the most ofGoogle s impressive infrastructure without being stifled by the bureaucracy of anorganisation that now has 46,000 employees. Page先生將面臨的一個挑戰是,確保這些新業務充分利用谷歌出色的基礎設施而不是被這個如今擁有46,000雇員的龐大組織的官僚主義所扼殺。 Google has had to overcome sclerosis before. Soon after returning as boss, Mr Page axedvarious projects and streamlined the management. 谷歌之前就曾遇上必須克服內部僵化的問題。回歸就任老板后不久,Page就砍掉了許多項目并改進了管理體系。 Nest is being allowed to keep its separate identity and offices, with Mr Fadell reportingdirectly to Mr Page. Nest被允許保留自己的獨立身份和自己的辦公室,Fadell也只需直接向Page進行報告。 Google has also protected its in-house hardware projects, such as Google Glass andself-driving cars, from succumbing to corporate inertia by nurturing them in its secretiveGoogle X development lab. 谷歌之前就通過在秘密的Google X研發實驗室單獨運行的方式來保證谷歌眼鏡和無人駕駛汽車這類自己的硬件項目免受企業惰性的影響。 It has also given its most important projects high-profile bosses with the clout to championthem internally. 同時它還會讓很有影響力的上層來領導最為重要的項目,以從內部提供足夠的支持。 The new head of Google s robotics business is Andy Rubin, who led the successfuldevelopment of Android. 谷歌機器人項目的負責人是成功領導了安卓系統開發的Andy Rubin。 Such tactics are good ways to avoid the pitfalls of conglomeration. 這種策略能夠避免過度聚集的誤區。 But to ensure success, Google will need to avoid another misstep. 但要確保成功,谷歌還需避免犯下另一錯誤。 Its chequered record on data-privacy issues means that Nest and other divisions will besubject to intense scrutiny by privacy activists and regulators. 它過去的多次數據隱私問題意味著Nest和其他分公司都會遭到隱私維權人士和立法者的嚴格監管。 Provided it can retain the confidence of its users on this, Google should be able to findplenty of new opportunities in both software and hardware that pass the toothbrush test andkeep a bright smile on its shareholders faces. 假如能夠保留用戶們對此的信心,谷歌就能在軟件業和硬件業中都找到足夠多能通過牙刷測試的機會,還能讓其股票持有人的臉上常駐燦爛笑容。 詞語解釋 1.seem to 似乎 Financial markets seem to agree. 金融市場似乎也證實了這一點。 Investors seem to have noticed. 投資者似乎也注意到了。 2.bid for 出價 International oil companies routinely team up with state-owned national oil companies to bidfor undeveloped assets. 國際石油公司通常會與國有的國家石油公司聯合收購未開發資產。 A large american defence contractor could bid for bae. 一家大型的美國國防承包商可以競購bae。 3.work on 從事于,致力于 Heisenberg continued to work on it. 海森堡也在繼續這個工作。 Looking for a creative outlet where you can work on your own? 你想要找一個有創意的直銷店來獨立工作? 4.such as 例如;譬如;諸如 What about future steps such as euro bonds? 諸如歐元聯盟之類的未來計劃怎樣? Imaginary problems such as these are usually hiding real ones. 像這樣的臆想的問題通常隱藏真實性的。