问答题
Jobs" genius for creating products and his marketing talent have long been hailed. All of that comes through in
Becoming Steve Jobs
, Schlender"s and Tetzeli"s new book.
They contend that Jobs was a far more complex and interesting man than the half-genius/ half-jerk stereotype, and a good part of their book is an attempt to craft a more rounded portrait. What makes their book important is that they also contend—persuasively, I believe—that, the stereotype notwithstanding, he was not the same man in his prime that he had been at the beginning of his career. The inexperienced, impulsive, arrogant youth who co-founded Apple was very different from the mature and thoughtful man who returned to his struggling creation and turned it into a company that made breathtaking products while becoming the dominant technology company of our time. Had he not changed, they write, he would not have succeeded.
【正确答案】
【答案解析】乔布斯创造产品的天才以及营销天赋长期以来受到赞许。所有这些都在施伦德和特策利的新书《成为乔布斯》中得到了表达。
两人认为，乔布斯远非半是天才半是混蛋的惯常形象，而是一个更复杂而有趣的人。两人的书中用了很多笔墨尝试勾画出一幅更全面的形象。他们的书之所以重要，还在于他们也提出，尽管形成了刻板印象，但巅峰时期的乔布斯和事业刚开始时的乔布斯并不是同一个人——在我看来他们的论述很有说服力。共同创立苹果的那个稚嫩、鲁莽、傲慢的年轻人，与危难之时回归苹果的那个成熟、深思熟虑的男人之间，有很大的不同。他回到自己缔造的苹果公司之后，将它转变成了一家能够造出令人叹为观止的产品的企业，这家公司已经成为我们这个时代主导的科技企业。他们写道，如果他没有转变，可能就不会成功。
[解析] (1)far mote...than...意为“远非……而是……”。half-genius/half-jerk stereotype指乔布斯留给人们的“半是天才半是混蛋”的惯常印象。
(2)an attempt为名词短语，后面接不定式短语作定语，由于定语较长，因此翻译时转译为动词“尝试(做)”。craft用作动词意为“精心制作”，这里指精心刻画人物形象。
(3)persuasively，I believe为插入语，因为contend后面的宾语较长，因此把插入语放在宾语从句后单独翻译。
(4)倒数第二句很长，要提取出主干The youth was very different from the man, man后跟了一个who引导的定语从句，里面又嵌套了一个that引导的定语从句修饰company，翻译时候要根据意思译为两句话，以符合汉语表达习惯。
(5)倒数第二句中的his struggling creation联系语境可知是指前半句的。Apple，后面turned it into a company中的it也指Apple。翻译中要注意代词以及某些抽象名词的指代作用，并将其翻译出来，明确其所指。