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經濟學人雙語精讀TE-2023-05-01期考研英語雜志英文外刊|萬物皆有芯(PDF版+Word版+音頻)
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5.01每日一篇|英語外刊社|366外刊社
Chips in everything
Gordon Moore,formulatorof the law that drove the digital revolution, died on March24th, aged94
【1】MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHERS once wondered how many angels could dance on the head of apin. Gordon Moore, who with hislinkingfor pad, pencil, and a quiet,solitarydesk often lookedphilosophical, wondered how manytransistorscould beetchedon one silicon wafer to make anintegratedcircuit. The firsttransistorshe had everencountered, in1954at alectureby the man who had co-invented them, William Shockley, were as big aspeanuts. But they wereshrinkingfast. The more you could pack together, the more these tiny marvels could do, until they could probably change the world.
【2】In1965, in Electronics magazine, he laid out his thinkingplainly. In the past decade, the number ofcomponentsin eachintegratedcircuithad roughly doubled every year. In the next decade, therefore, they would probably do the same. Devicescontainingsuchcircuitswould become moreefficient, more popular, and less expensive, all at anexponentialrate. They would power "such wonders" as home computers,automaticcontrols for cars, and "personalportablecommunicationsequipment", Even wristwatches could have them. And though he went no further into hiscrystalball than1975, he saw no reason why thisextraordinarygrowth should not go on for a long, long time.
【3】The article caused asensation. What seemed to him justblindextrapolationwas seized on as a Great Truth, "Moore's law". From that time on,semiconductorcompanies took it as a given that the processing power of their product ought to double every year. If it didn't, they would lose their edge. In1975Dr. Moorereviewedit and thought the rate of doubling should be every two years even though, in theprecedingdecade, it had in fact doubled in nine of the ten years. Thisrefinementhardly made a difference. The points the industry took away from him were, first, to makesemiconductorsas tiny as possible, and second, to do it fast. Or fall behind, probably never to recover.
【4】He was surprised to have given his name to any law, and more so to be called a revolutionary. The silicon revolution was a fact, but he himself was arooted,reversedsort offellowwho had hardly ever lived outside thefoggycountry south of San Franciso, and whose greatest love, beyond his work and his wife, wasfishing. The closest he had come to revolution was when, as a boy, he madeexplosiveswith a homechemistryset, and somewhere in his well-stuffedbookshelveshe still had his acid-scorchedprimeron the nature ofnitroglycerine. But when it came toforgingthe digital age he was simply, he thought, in the right place at the right time. He got intosemiconductorsat the very start, and that was a great piece of luck.
【5】He also drove thetransformation, though, and not just with his law. At Shockley Laboratories, where he went in1965, his job wasfundamental: to create a cheaptransistorbased on silicon, of which the world had plenty. At Fairchildsemiconductor, founded by "thetraitorouseight" who broke from Shockley in1957, he developed asmoothsilicon-dioxidesurfaceon which to print the electriccircuitsandpioneeredthe use ofaluminumwiresto connect thetransistors. When he founded Inter with Robert Noyce in1968he worked on self-isolatingtransistors, which could be packed more closely, as well asdevisinga better dip to clean the siliconsurfacebefore thealuminumwent on. The single change increased chip production more thantenfold.
【6】He called himself anaccidentalentrepreneur, but there were not manyaccidentsabout it. He left Shockley mostly because the man had no interest in getting the product to market. At Fairchild, in which each founder hadinvested$500, they were making chipscommerciallyin less than a year and hadovertakenboth Texas Instruments and Bell Labs inmilitaryapplications. But Fairchild became too slow for him. His business plan for Intel, Vague as it looked to make interesting things with silicon-wasspurredby hisburningbeliefin chips in everything. By the1990s, Intel microprocessors were in80% of all the computers made in the world.
【7】Moore's law stated that asmicrochipsinvadedappliances, sales wouldsoarand prices would fall, but set up to make them was costly. He, therefore,strivedto save money. Hefittedout Fairchild's firstpremiseswith cheap kitchen units andblewhis own glass tubes tomanipulategases, as he had done for Shockley. At Intel he watched every cent, down torubbergloveswhich he found for $1a pair, rather than $2.50. This was habit. Unit1961he had kept aledgerof all householdincomingand outgoings, including anickelfound in his wife Betty's pocket and a dime spent on a pencil "red". After1961, he no longer needed to; his monthly salary, aschartedin theledger, was rising assteeplyas the number oftransistorson each chip. By2014his net worth was $7bn.
【8】Typically, though, his wealth did not change him. He liked to wear well-worn khakis and go out in hisricketyoldfishingboat until it becameunsafe. He liked things as they were. When he became rich he and Betty gave more than half of it away. They weremotivatedby seeing theirfishinghaunts in Baja California smothered by development, and theirpreciouswild places disappearing. He did not think small. Hisfoundation'sgrantswent not just to Caltech and the Bay Area but were also earmarked to save two-thirds of the Amazonbasinand the whole arc of salmon rivers that curved from northern California, through Alaska, to Russia's east.
【9】He hoped that might be hispermanentlegacy. Instead hislegacy,inevitably, was Moore's law, which could not last forever. He had never said it would;exponentialgrowth always burned itself out. By2020its end waspredictedwithin a decade in America. The Taiwanese were doing well but, even so,transistorscould not endlessly be made smaller. In2021one was achieved thatmeasuredno more than ananometre, abillionthof ameter, almost the size of an atom. Already billions oftransistorscould be squeezed into one silicon chip. Naturally, he accepted the laws of physics. As achemist, though, he could not help hoping that some newmaterial, some new process, might yet make room for more.
1、短語
1)原文:In 1965, in Electronics magazine, he laid outhis thinking plainly.
詞典:lay out 展示,提出
例句:I'd like to lay out my reasoning.
我想陳述一下我的理由。
2)原文:The article caused a sensation. What seemed to him just blind extrapolation was seized onas a Great Truth, "Moore's law".
詞典:seize on抓住
例句:We'll seize on this chance.
我們要抓住這個機會。
3)原文:When he founded Inter with Robert Noyce in 1968 he worked onself-isolating transistors, which could be packed more closely, as well as devising a better dip to clean the silicon surface before the aluminum went on..
詞典:work on從事、致力于
例句:I need to work on my swing.
我需要改進我的揮桿動作。
4)原文:He, therefore, strived tosave money..
詞典:strive to努力
例句:Newspaper editors all strive to be first with a story.
報紙編輯都力爭率先報道。
2、長難句
1、
1)原文:
The first transistors he had ever encountered,in 1954at a lectureby the manwho had co-invented them,William Shockley, were as big as peanuts.
2)分析:
l紅色部分是主句,是主系表結構。綠色部分是定語從句,修飾先行詞first transistors。藍色部分是時間狀語和地點狀語。
l紫色部分是介詞短語做后置定語,修飾lecture。橙色部分是who引導的定語從句,修飾the man。棕色部分是同位語。
3)譯文:1954年,他在威廉·肖克(William Shockley)——晶體管發明者之一——的講座上,第一次接觸到了晶體管,當時晶體管和花生一樣大。
2、
1)原文:The silicon revolution was a fact, but he himself was a rooted, reversed sort of fellow who had hardly ever lived outside the foggy countrysouth of San Franciso, and whose greatest love, beyond his work and his wife, was fishing.
2)分析:
l紅色部分是主句,有兩個分句組成。藍色部分分別是who和whose引導的兩個定語從句,均修飾先行詞fellow。
l綠色部分是后置定語,修飾country。紫色部分是插入語,起到補充說明的作用,對love進行進一步修飾。
3)譯文:硅谷革命是事實,但摩爾本人卻是一個扎根家鄉、為人低調的人,他幾乎從沒有離開過那個位于舊金山南部的多霧的農村。除了工作和陪妻子之外,他最大的愛好就是釣魚。
3、寫作技巧
1)原文:
His business plan for Intel, vagueasit looked to make interesting things with silicon-was spurred by his burning belief in chips in everything.
他為英特爾公司制定的商業計劃,即用硅造些有趣的東西,盡管看起來并不清晰,卻是出自他的堅定信念——萬物皆可有芯。
2)技巧分析:
例句中出現了as引導讓步狀語從句的用法:
lMuch as l like you, l couldn’t live with you.我盡管很喜歡你,卻不能和你在一起生活。
此外,as還可以引導其他狀語從句。
l時間狀語從句:As time goes on, he will understand what l said.隨著時間的推移,他會理解我所講的話。
l定語從句:l never heard such stories as he told.我從未聽過他所講的那樣的故事。
l原因狀語從句:As the weather is so bad, we have to delay our journey.因為天氣太糟糕,我們不得不推遲旅行。
l方式狀語從句:Do as the Romans do when in Rome.入鄉隨俗。
4、背景分析
2023年3月24日,根據英特爾公司官網和“戈登與貝蒂·摩爾基金會”宣布,公司聯合創始人戈登·摩爾去世,享年94歲。
1929年,摩爾出生在舊金山南部的沿海小鎮。11歲時,他和父母一起去鄰居家做客時,無意中看到的一套化學實驗設備,這成了打開摩爾科學之門的鑰匙。
為了圓自己的科學夢想,他通過刻苦學習順利考入了加州大學伯克利分校學習化學,并于1950年取得了化學學位,后來又在加州理工學院獲得了物理化學博士學位。而這一切經歷都成為了摩爾今后在半導體行業一展身手的財富。在此之后,摩爾深入到半導體行業不斷實踐,并對這一領域的發展趨勢有了深刻的認知。頗具化學與物理天賦的他,以敏銳的行業眼光,對產業的發展進行了大膽預測,并在1965年4月19日,在《電子》雜志上發表了相關文章,提出了“摩爾定律”。
2005年,摩爾在接受采訪時曾說:“我很幸運參與了半導體行業的起步階段,有機會同行業一起成長。我們經歷了從不能制造單個硅晶體管,到把17億硅晶體管放在一塊芯片上的時代,這是一次非凡的旅程。”
段落大意:
【1】戈登·摩爾思考能在一個硅片上蝕刻多少晶體管來制成一個集成電路,他開創了晶體管的新時代。
【2】1965年,他清楚地闡述了自己的想法。即每個集成電路上面的元件數量會每年翻一番。
【3】這篇文章引起轟動,摩爾的這一推測也被稱為”摩爾定律“。
【4】摩爾是一個非常樸實低調的人,他從沒想過自己的名字會和一個定律聯系起來。
【5】除了摩爾定律之外,摩爾還對硅表面和晶體管進行了改進。
【6】他稱自己成為企業家只是偶然,但取得成功卻不是,他堅信芯片可以用在萬事萬物上。
【7】摩爾用各種方式努力節省成本,后來其月薪飛速升高,到了2014年,他的凈資產已經達到了70億美元。
【8】摩爾和妻子致力于慈善事業。
【9】摩爾定律或許會失效,但摩爾依舊希望能出現一些新材料、新工藝,創造新的突破。
考研英語雜志經濟學人英文外刊|2022年經濟學人英文雜志(2022年經濟學人周刊英雜志已更新完畢)
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