- 注释版
- 纯净版
美国硅谷成功孕育了无数世界顶级高科技公司，不懈创新源自包容甚至鼓励失败的文化传统。风投公司可以忍受超过7成的所投创业公司失败，因为只要投到一个独角兽，就能为基金赚回动辄十倍乃至百倍回报。
但深究在硅谷不怕失败的本质，一方面，创业失败后在硅谷仍旧可以找到工作，甚至更好的出路，这种安全网保护人们去从事高风险的创业创新；另一方面，失败是成功之母的真谛，是真正从失败中吸取教训，不再跌倒在同一块石头上，只有那些善于从失败中学习的创业者才能真正走向成功。
Although Silicon Valley is a glittering, high-tech icon of accomplishment, its success story comes with a surprising twist.
[1] Silicon Valley is the US’ geographic golden child. A glittering, high-tech icon of accomplishment against all odds; a magnet for the innovative and the restless.
硅谷是高风险的高科技企业摘取成功的闪耀标榜，磁铁般吸引着勇于创新和不甘平凡的创业者们。这里没有直译，而是意译，就是打乱了英文原句顺序，按照中文的逻辑习惯，讲清楚意思。
Glitter vi. n. 闪烁，闪光；眼睛（流露出某种情感）；奢华
· The river glittered in the sunlight. 注意阳光下，介词要用in而不是under。
· His blue eyes glittered with anger.
· The glamour and glitter of London was not for him.
· Glittery adj./ glittering
Odds n.胜算，不平等
· Great/ impossible odds 困难重重
· Against all odds 尽管困难重重
· The odds 可能性
· The odds against a plane crash are a million to one.
· What are the odds of finding a pink dolphin?
· Be at odds (with) 意见不一致，有分歧
· Tom found himself at odds with his colleagues.
Magnet n.磁铁
Restless adj. 焦躁不安的；得不到满足的 (more, most)
· A restless night 不眠之夜
· Restlessly adv.
· Restlessness n.
[2] Yet this success story comes with a twist: Silicon Valley tolerates failure, celebrates it even. The former orchard groves south of San Francisco are as much an ode to catastrophe and crushing disappointment as they are to achievement.
第一句句尾的even是副词用法，表示甚至。Even通常放在单词或短语之前，强调令人吃惊的“更甚”。
· 如果even和动词连用，如果有助动词，要放在第一个助动词后面。比如I have even offered to pay for everything.
· Even不可以直接引导从句，需要用even if，even though或者even when，但这时候主句中不可以再出现but或yet，可以用still替代。比如Even though we’re completely different, we still love each other.
Twist v. n. 扭伤，意外转折
· Write stories with a twist 剧情反转
· Twist(s) and turn(s) 迂回曲折
[3] A culture – some might say a fetish – of failure permeates every open-floor office plan and shiny new Tesla in the Valley. You aren’t considered a bona fide success in Silicon Valley unless you have failed – ideally, multiple times and in spectacular fashion.
Fetish n. 恋物癖
· A fetish of failure/ a failure fetish
· Have a fetish about (doing) sth.
Permeate v.渗透，弥漫
Bona fide adj. adv. 善意的（地）；真实的（地）；真诚的（地）
[4] There’s even an annual Failcon conference, where people celebrate their failures – and, presumably, learn from them. (Failure, apparently, is contagious; there are now Failcon conferences in Tel Aviv, Bangalore, Barcelona and elsewhere.)
Failcon conference n. 失败者大会
Presumably adv. 大概，想必（表示推测、假定）
第一句破折号前是描述年度失败者大会这个事实，and, presumably, learn from them是作者自己加上的评论，presumably表示作者的推测，可以翻译成“想必”。口语中，甚至可以直接说Well, presumably. 好了，想必如此吧，表示主观推测。
Contagious adj. 传染的
[5] Yes, failure is the engine that drives Silicon Valley; it’s an integral part of the region’s creative ecology – but not for the reasons that are so often touted.
Ecology n.（社会）生态学
Creative ecology，创新生态，现在互联网思维特别流行说生态，比如乐视贾布斯的各种生态，ecology这个词就比较常用了
Tout v.吹捧，兜售，招徕顾客 n. 兜售者
· Be touted as sth. 被吹捧为
· Tout (for) business
硅谷包容失败的传统和风投的支持
[6] Silicon Valley’s failure fetish traces back to its beginnings, and is intertwined with its geography. It’s no coincidence that the world’s premier technology hub sprouted not in establishment East Coast cities like New York and Boston, but in the far West. California was – and to an extent still is – a place one flees to, a refuge for jilted lovers, bankrupt businessmen, lost souls. As one of the region’s high-tech pioneers, William Forrester of Stratus Computer, put it, “If you fail in Silicon Valley, your family won’t know and your neighbors won’t care.”
Trace back to 追溯
Wind v. 缠绕，上发条
· Wind sth. up 摇动把手启动机器，摇上车窗
Twine v. 缠绕，交织
· Susan twined her arms round her son.
Intertwine v. 纠缠
Intertwined adj. 缠绕的，错综复杂的
· Their destinies are intertwined.
· Her fate intertwined with his.
Incidence n. 发生率
· Reduce the high incidence of cancer
Coincidence n.巧合，一致，同时发生
· By coincidence 凑巧
· What a coincidence! 太巧了！
· Not a/ more than coincidence 并非巧合
· It’s no coincidence that
[7] And the Valley is, at least in part, a child of the 1960s counter-culture movement, an era when failure, or at least contrariness, was a way of life.
In part 在某种程度上
Contrariness n. 反对
· Contrary adj. adv. 相反的（地）；n.矛盾，对立面
· Contrarian n. 逆向投资者，持相反意见者
[8] Today, the entire venture capital industry is built around failure. The financiers work on the assumption that the vast majority of their investments, at least 70%, will fail. They’re looking for the unicorns, the blockbuster success that will compensate for all those losses
Unicorn n. 独角兽
Blockbuster n. 轰动，爆款，一鸣惊人者
· Hollywood blockbuster 好莱坞大片
Home run n. 全垒打
[9] Vanity Fair recently compiled a slideshow of 14 of the region’s most spectacular failures, including Theranos, the scandal-plagued biotech company currently under federal investigation. House-cleaning business Homejoy, and RDIO, a music streaming service, came and went so quickly they barely registered. The Valley buries its dead quickly and quietly.
Spectacular adj.壮观的，公开展示的
[10] It’s no wonder I have such a hard time finding evidence of the Valley’s past failures – or, for that matter, its successes. Silicon Valley doesn’t do history. History is, at best, an afterthought in a region that has its gaze firmly fixed on the future. Its roots are there, though, provided you are willing to dig a bit.
It’s no wonder that 不奇怪
At best 最多，充其量
Provided (always) that 如果，条件是，倘若
[11] Determined history pilgrims typically head straight for 367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto. It’s not the house that interests them but what’s behind it: a small garage with a green door. Here, in 1938, two young Stanford graduates, Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett, spent hours experimenting. They were tinkering. They tried everything: a motor controller for a telescope, a bowling alley device that chirped when someone crossed the foul line, and more – all of them were failures. About a year later, the duo finally happened on a winning invention, an audio oscillator used to test sound equipment, but not until they churned out a series of epic failures.
Pilgrim n. 朝圣者 vi. 朝圣
（泛读练习示例）首先分析整个段落结构。第一句就提纲挈领地提到信徒都会到Palo Alto的Addison大街367号朝圣。吸引他们的不是房子而是后面的车库。1938年，斯坦福大学的两名毕业生在这里搞各种实验。到第三句基本交代清楚这段的基本信息了，后面关于他们做了哪些实验，哪些成功，哪些失败都不重要，如果你是在英语阅读考试中，这段读到这里就可以往下看了。因为我们一开始就分析整篇文章结构，就明白关于具体做了哪些实验都不过是为了证明失败是成功之母。当然，这两位斯坦福毕业生有这么多信徒看来是牛人，可以去百度他们两个人的名字。如果在考试，你还可以猜，看这两个人的姓Hewlett和Packard，虽然Jenny老师是文科生，但也可以联想到是哪家科技公司，对，就是惠普，HP就是把两位创始人的姓氏放在一起。
讨论硅谷包容失败文化的本质
Chuck主要有两个观点：第一，不怕风险是因为有安全网，在硅谷创业失败说不定还能找到更好的工作；第二，失败是成功之母是有前提条件的，必须从失败中吸取教训，不再犯同样错误。
[12] I sat down one afternoon at a coffee shop in Mountain View, home to Google and boundless optimism. As I sipped my handcrafted, artisanal Ethiopian dark roast, driverless cars glided by silently, sharing road space with the Teslas. My companion was Chuck Darrah, an anthropologist who has spent most of his career studying the strange customs of the Valley inhabitants. Chuck is more observer than participant: skeptical of the Valley’s evangelical belief in the power of technology to improve the world, he doesn’t even own a mobile phone.
[13] One of the biggest myths about Silicon Valley, Chuck told me, is that people here take risks. It is a myth that is simultaneously true and untrue. Silicon Valley celebrates risk, yet at the same time “it has some of the best mechanisms for avoiding the consequences of risk in the world.”
Have mechanism(s) for (doing) sth.
· Mechanism n. 机制，途径，技巧
[14] “Such as?” I asked.
[15] “Just think about it. These entrepreneurs, we’re told, deserve their money because of the risk they take. But you don’t see people jumping off the tops of buildings here. They tend to land on their feet. They tend to land in places like this, drinking cappuccinos, because the risk is a peculiar kind of risk. Most of the people in high tech will admit if they lost their job, they would find another one. They might even find a better one.”
Tend to (do) sth. 倾向于
Peculiar adj. 特殊的，罕见的；n. 特权
· Be peculiar to sb./ sth. 为某人/某物所特有
[16] “So they’re working with a net?”
[17] “Yes. A huge net. It’s easier to take risk when you are insulated from it.”
Insulate vt. 隔离，使孤立；使绝缘
· Insulate A from/ against B
take risk，敢于冒风险
· 在投资分析中经常会用到，光分析潜在风险还不够，要思考有什么办法规避风险，mitigate risk/ risk mitigation
[18] Chuck was equally quick to dismiss the old bromide about how the key to success is to embrace failure. The real questions is: what is the difference between failure that leads to innovation, and failure that leads to… more failure?
Equally dismiss the old bromide，呼应了提出第一个观点是驳斥硅谷流行观点的结构。看到这样的结构，就应该判断出这是提出第二个观点了。
Dismiss v. 解散，开除；不予理会，否定
Dismiss criticism
Bromide n. 陈词滥调
[19] The answer, researchers now believe, lies not in the failure itself, but how we recall it – or, more precisely, how we store it. Successful failures are those people who remember exactly where and how they failed, so when they encounter the same problem again, even if in a different guise, they are able to retrieve these “failure indices” quickly and efficiently. They are willing to backtrack.
In/ under the guise (of sth.) 伪装
Retrieve v. n. 恢复，重新得到
· Golden retriever 金毛犬
Backtrack v.回溯，追踪
[20] As we finished our coffee, the California sunlight softening to a golden glow, Chuck Darrah explained that the real symbol of Silicon Valley is not the open-plan office or the ping-pong table, but, rather, the moving van. I had spotted one earlier in the day, parked outside a nondescript office block in Mountain View. The movers were busily carting off ergonomic chairs and Danish desks, no doubt discarding the carcass of some failed venture and making room for the next. In Silicon Valley, there is always a next.
Nondescript adj. n. 平凡没特色，难区分或形容的（人或物）
单词总结
- Glitter vi. n. 闪烁；眼睛（流露某种情感）；奢华
- Restless adj. 焦躁不安；得不到满足的
- Twist v. n. 扭伤，转折
- Fetish n. 恋物癖
- Permeate v. 弥漫，渗透
- Tout v. n. 吹捧，兜售
- Unicorn n. 独角兽
- Blockbuster n. 轰动，爆款，一鸣惊人者
- Peculiar adj. 特殊；n.特权
- Nondescript adj. n. 平凡没特色的，难以区别的
短语总结
- Against all odds
- Well, presumably. 想必如此
- Trace back to
- Be intertwined with
- It’s no coincidence that
- Provided that 如果，条件是，倘若
- Tend to do sth. 倾向
- Insulate A from/ against B
- Embrace failure
- In/ under the guise (of sth.) 伪装
美国硅谷成功孕育了无数世界顶级高科技公司，不懈创新源自包容甚至鼓励失败的文化传统。风投公司可以忍受超过7成的所投创业公司失败，因为只要投到一个独角兽，就能为基金赚回动辄十倍乃至百倍回报。
但深究在硅谷不怕失败的本质，一方面，创业失败后在硅谷仍旧可以找到工作，甚至更好的出路，这种安全网保护人们去从事高风险的创业创新；另一方面，失败是成功之母的真谛，是真正从失败中吸取教训，不再跌倒在同一块石头上，只有那些善于从失败中学习的创业者才能真正走向成功。
Although Silicon Valley is a glittering, high-tech icon of accomplishment, its success story comes with a surprising twist.
[1] Silicon Valley is the US’ geographic golden child. A glittering, high-tech icon of accomplishment against all odds; a magnet for the innovative and the restless.
[2] Yet this success story comes with a twist: Silicon Valley tolerates failure, celebrates it even. The former orchard groves south of San Francisco are as much an ode to catastrophe and crushing disappointment as they are to achievement.
[3] A culture – some might say a fetish – of failure permeates every open-floor office plan and shiny new Tesla in the Valley. You aren’t considered a bona fide success in Silicon Valley unless you have failed – ideally, multiple times and in spectacular fashion.
[4] There’s even an annual Failcon conference, where people celebrate their failures – and, presumably, learn from them. (Failure, apparently, is contagious; there are now Failcon conferences in Tel Aviv, Bangalore, Barcelona and elsewhere.)
[5] Yes, failure is the engine that drives Silicon Valley; it’s an integral part of the region’s creative ecology – but not for the reasons that are so often touted.
硅谷包容失败的传统和风投的支持
[6] Silicon Valley’s failure fetish traces back to its beginnings, and is intertwined with its geography. It’s no coincidence that the world’s premier technology hub sprouted not in establishment East Coast cities like New York and Boston, but in the far West. California was – and to an extent still is – a place one flees to, a refuge for jilted lovers, bankrupt businessmen, lost souls. As one of the region’s high-tech pioneers, William Forrester of Stratus Computer, put it, “If you fail in Silicon Valley, your family won’t know and your neighbors won’t care.”
[7] And the Valley is, at least in part, a child of the 1960s counter-culture movement, an era when failure, or at least contrariness, was a way of life.
[8] Today, the entire venture capital industry is built around failure. The financiers work on the assumption that the vast majority of their investments, at least 70%, will fail. They’re looking for the unicorns, the blockbuster success that will compensate for all those losses
[9] Vanity Fair recently compiled a slideshow of 14 of the region’s most spectacular failures, including Theranos, the scandal-plagued biotech company currently under federal investigation. House-cleaning business Homejoy, and RDIO, a music streaming service, came and went so quickly they barely registered. The Valley buries its dead quickly and quietly.
[10] It’s no wonder I have such a hard time finding evidence of the Valley’s past failures – or, for that matter, its successes. Silicon Valley doesn’t do history. History is, at best, an afterthought in a region that has its gaze firmly fixed on the future. Its roots are there, though, provided you are willing to dig a bit.
[11] Determined history pilgrims typically head straight for 367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto. It’s not the house that interests them but what’s behind it: a small garage with a green door. Here, in 1938, two young Stanford graduates, Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett, spent hours experimenting. They were tinkering. They tried everything: a motor controller for a telescope, a bowling alley device that chirped when someone crossed the foul line, and more – all of them were failures. About a year later, the duo finally happened on a winning invention, an audio oscillator used to test sound equipment, but not until they churned out a series of epic failures.
讨论硅谷包容失败文化的本质
[12] I sat down one afternoon at a coffee shop in Mountain View, home to Google and boundless optimism. As I sipped my handcrafted, artisanal Ethiopian dark roast, driverless cars glided by silently, sharing road space with the Teslas. My companion was Chuck Darrah, an anthropologist who has spent most of his career studying the strange customs of the Valley inhabitants. Chuck is more observer than participant: skeptical of the Valley’s evangelical belief in the power of technology to improve the world, he doesn’t even own a mobile phone.
[13] One of the biggest myths about Silicon Valley, Chuck told me, is that people here take risks. It is a myth that is simultaneously true and untrue. Silicon Valley celebrates risk, yet at the same time “it has some of the best mechanisms for avoiding the consequences of risk in the world.”
[14] “Such as?” I asked.
[15] “Just think about it. These entrepreneurs, we’re told, deserve their money because of the risk they take. But you don’t see people jumping off the tops of buildings here. They tend to land on their feet. They tend to land in places like this, drinking cappuccinos, because the risk is a peculiar kind of risk. Most of the people in high tech will admit if they lost their job, they would find another one. They might even find a better one.”
[16] “So they’re working with a net?”
[17] “Yes. A huge net. It’s easier to take risk when you are insulated from it.”
[18] Chuck was equally quick to dismiss the old bromide about how the key to success is to embrace failure. The real questions is: what is the difference between failure that leads to innovation, and failure that leads to… more failure?
[19] The answer, researchers now believe, lies not in the failure itself, but how we recall it – or, more precisely, how we store it. Successful failures are those people who remember exactly where and how they failed, so when they encounter the same problem again, even if in a different guise, they are able to retrieve these “failure indices” quickly and efficiently. They are willing to backtrack.
[20] As we finished our coffee, the California sunlight softening to a golden glow, Chuck Darrah explained that the real symbol of Silicon Valley is not the open-plan office or the ping-pong table, but, rather, the moving van. I had spotted one earlier in the day, parked outside a nondescript office block in Mountain View. The movers were busily carting off ergonomic chairs and Danish desks, no doubt discarding the carcass of some failed venture and making room for the next. In Silicon Valley, there is always a next.