The more I see of the Internet, the more enthusiastic I am. We"re living through a period of dynamic change. America is ahead just now, with over 50 percent of the population online; Britain is next, then Scandinavia and Japan, with the rest of Europe lagging surprisingly behind. But it won"t be long before everyone catches up. In the third world especially, the Internet will be a liberating force that will power democracy and economic growth.
(46)
The lightning speed of American decision-making in today"s business world is embedded in the technology. In the 1980s, American companies, desperate to fend off Japan and Germany, shed their bureaucratic aspects and returned to the knife-edge of the market.
Companies began to be ran much more aggressively in the interests of shareholders, and that powered the adoption of new technology. The pay of CEOs was tied to stock market performance and businessmen got rich in a way they never previously imagined. The power of greed has always been one of our American lessons for the world.
(47)
On the knife-edge of the market some are going to bleed. One big innovation here is "frictionless selling" for cars-buying online rather than through a big talking salesman at a car dealership.
I just bought my new car through Autobytel, which normally sells at 2 percent above what the dealer pays. Arranged finance and got just what I wanted—colour; interior, engine size—in half an hour. That"s great for me. (48)
But there are 25,000—mostly family owned car dealerships in the United States, and in the next century most will die. It"s a transition that will surely be replicated many times over.
If there are losers who need protecting, there are also winners on a grand scale, many of them from ethnic minorities. New technology attracts smart people who want to get rich from all over the world.
(49)
Lots of cubicles at Microsoft headquarters hold an Asian or Latino millionaire. And Yahoo was founded by Jerry Yang, who started by putting together a guide to cool websites as a bored graduate student at Stanford. He was under 30, was born in Taiwan, came to America with nothing, and his company is now worth tens of billions of dollars.
(50)
Telecom costs are falling towards zero, and computer costs aren"t far behind; by next year we"ll be able to store a terabyte of data for $10,000—and not long ago the entire Internet was held to be a terabyte.
The growth of the Internet in Africa, Asia and the Far. East is putting these tools in everyone"s hands. And I"m confident that if people get the chance to connect, they will quickly create wealth and opportunities across seven continents.
【答案解析】解析：这里主要运用了增译法。这两句的结构都比较简单，因此，难点主要体现在某些词汇的理解以及如何组织语言上。第二句中，难点词汇是be embedded in，意为"使…嵌入"，由于和technology搭配，可意译为："扎根于技术"。第二句中，难点词组有be desperate to do something，意为"急于干某事"；fend off，意为"挡开，避开"。这里为了使语言流畅，增译了"攻势"一词，同时，aspects转译为"作风"，而knife-edge也取其比喻意义，意译为"前沿"。
【答案解析】解析：这里主要运用了词序调整法。这两句话的语法结构也比较简单，难点在于某些词汇要正确翻译。第一句中，knife edge没有象上句那样意译，而直接译为"刀锋"，好与"bleed"相对应。此外，第二句中的innovation没有译作"革新"，而译为"新生事物"，使译文更流畅；big talking也转译为"夸夸其谈的"，在组织语言时，根据汉语的表达习惯，调整了词序，将状语for cars和at a car dealership放到前面来翻译。
【答案解析】解析：主要使用了词序调整法和分译法。第一句的难点是如何译好hold一词，这里不能直译为"装着"，而意译为"坐着"。在译定语从句时，我们有两种做法：一是提前到所修饰词前来译，二是分译为一个句子。这里采取了第二种方法，将who started by putting together a guide to cool websites as a bored graduate student at Stanford分译为一个句子。这里应注意graduate相当于postgraduate，意为"研究生"，"本科生"的英语表达是"undergraduate"；guide在计算机用语中意为"搜索引擎"。