英语科技长篇文章品析
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英语科技长篇文章品析
乔布斯制造的Apple I拍卖 81.5万美元成交
A prototype Apple 1, a holy-grail item in electronics memorabilia, has been sold for 5,000.
近日,一台Apple I电脑的原型——可称得上是电子产品大事记中的圣杯级产品,拍出了81.5万美元。
Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built just 200 of the computers in 1976.
1976年,苹果联合创始人史蒂夫.乔布斯和史蒂夫·沃兹尼亚克组装了200台苹果电脑。
The model auctioned this week contains tell-tale signs that it is a prototype, probably made prior to its manufacturing run.
本周拍卖的这一台,有迹象显示是一台原型机,很可能是在大量生产前的试行版本。
One computer historian says it is "one of the first, if not the first ever" Apple computer.
一位电脑史学家表示,如果这不是第一台原型机的话,那它也一定是苹果第一批原型机之一。
This "celebration edition" Apple 1 was expected to make class="main">
英语科技长篇文章品析
这台“庆典版”的苹果一代电脑预期拍卖价是100万美元,不过拍卖商Charitybuzz告诉BBC,最终成交价是81.5万美元。
That means it is not the highest-grossing Apple 1 computer - that distinction belongs to a rare working version that sold for 5,000 at a Bonhams auction in New York in October 2014.
这意味着它并未刷新苹果一代电脑的拍卖纪录——2014年10月份,在纽约Bonhams拍卖会上,一台罕见的“操作版”苹果一代电脑被拍卖出了90.5万美元。
A spokeswoman for Charitybuzz said that "about 80 bidders" had been watching the item. She denied reports that there had been a last-minute class="main">
英语科技长篇文章品析
Charitybuzz拍卖行的一位发言人表示,“大约有80人”参与竞拍。她否认有报道称在最后时刻有人出价120万美元,显然太晚而未能成交。
Ten percent of the proceeds will go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, based in New York, Charitybuzz said.
据Charitybuzz表示,此次拍卖所得资金的10%会捐献给纽约的“白血病和淋巴瘤协会”。
No more than 70 Apple 1 computers are believed to still be in existence. The machine - initially named "Apple Computer 1" - first went on sale in July 1976, and was discontinued in October of the following year when the company turned its attention to building the Apple 2.
世上现存的苹果一代据称最多不过70台。这台机器--起初的名字为“苹果电脑1”--最早于1976年上市出售。不过在次年10月,苹果公司转移注意力去开发苹果电脑2时就停产了。
经典英语科技长篇文章
模拟了一年火星生活 6位科学家终于"重返地球"
Six scientists have completed a yearlong Mars simulation in Hawaii, where they lived in a domein near isolation.
近日,六名科学家在夏威夷一个近乎完全隔绝的圆顶屋中完成了为期一年的火星模拟生活。
For the past year, the group in the dome on a Mauna Loa mountain could go outside only whilewearing spacesuits. On Sunday, the simulation ended, and the scientists emerged.
去年一整年他们都住在位于莫纳罗亚火山的圆顶屋里,要想外出只能穿着太空服。模拟于周日结束,科学家们终于“重见天日”。
Cyprien Verseux, a crew member from France, said the simulation shows a mission to Marscan succeed.
其中一名来自法国、名叫西普里安·费尔苏克斯的成员表示,这次模拟表明,去火星执行任务是可行的。
"I can give you my personal impression which is that a mission to Mars in the close future isrealistic. I think the technological and psychological obstacles can be overcome," Verseuxsaid.
费尔苏克斯说道:“就我个人来说,我认为在不远的将来,人类登上火星可以变为现实。我认为技术上和心理上的困难都是可以克服的。”
Christiane Heinicke, a crew member from Germany, said the scientists succeeded in finding theirown water in a dry climate.
来自德国的成员克里斯蒂娜·海因尼克表示,科学家们成功地在干燥的气候中找到了水源。
"Showing that it works, you can actually get water from the ground that is seemingly dry. Itwould work on Mars and the implication is that you would be able to get water on Mars fromthis little greenhouse construct," she said.
她说道:“这是可行的,你真的可以在看起来很干燥的土地中找到水。这在火星上也可行,你可以在这个小型温室建筑里获得水。”
Tristan Bassingthwaighte, a doctor of architecture candidate at University of Hawaii, served asthe crew's architect.
夏威夷大学建筑专业在读博士生特里斯坦·巴星怀特是整个团队的建筑师。
"The UH research going on up here is just super vital when it comes to picking crews, figuringout how people are going to actually work on different kinds of missions, and sort of the humanfactors element of space travel, colonization, whatever it is you are actually looking at,"Bassingthwaighte said.
巴星怀特说道:“在挑选成员的时候,夏威夷大学的研究就显得尤为重要,要挑出能够真正胜任不同任务的人,挑出适合太空旅行和定居的人,不管具有什么特质,都是我们真正在寻找的人。”
Kim Binsted, principal investigator for the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS), said the researchers are looking forward to getting in the ocean and eating freshproduce and other foods that weren't available in the dome.
夏威夷太空探索模拟与仿真任务的首席研究员金姆·宾斯特德表示,研究人员们期待着能够跑到大海里,还期待吃一些新鲜的食物,这些都是在圆顶屋里做不到的。
"HI-SEAS is an example of international collaborative research hosted and run by theUniversity of Hawaii. So it's really exciting to be able to welcome the crew back to earth andback to Hawaii after a year on Mars," Binsted said.
宾斯特德说道:“HI-SEAS是一次由夏威夷大学主导和运作的国际合作。在'火星'上待一年之后,小队成员们终于能够回到'地球'的夏威夷,想想真令人兴奋!”
关于英语科技长篇文章
欧盟裁定苹果补缴130亿欧税款
Apple has warned that future investment by multinationals in Europe could be hit after it wasordered to pay a record-breaking Euro13bn (£11bn) in back taxes to Ireland.
欧盟要求苹果公司向爱尔兰政府补缴破纪录的130亿欧元(110亿英镑)税款。苹果警告称跨国公司未来在欧洲的投资或遭受打击。
The world’s largest company was presented with the huge bill after the European commissionruled that a sweetheart tax deal between Apple and the Irish tax authorities amounted toillegal state aid.
欧盟委员会裁定苹果公司与爱尔兰税务当局达成的税收优惠协定属非法国家援助后,这家全球最大的公司面临天价税单。
The commission said the deal allowed Apple to pay a maximum tax rate of just 1%.
欧盟委员会称,该优惠协定使苹果公司的最高税率仅有1%。
In 2014, the tech firm paid tax at just 0.005%.
2014年,这家科技公司的税率仅为0.005%。
The usual rate of corporation tax in Ireland is 12.5%.
而爱尔兰企业所得税的通常税率是12.5%。
Member states cannot give tax benefits to selected companies – this is illegal under EU stateaid rules, said the European competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, whoseinvestigation of Apple’s complex tax dealings has taken three years.
欧盟竞争事务专员玛格丽特•韦斯塔格表示:成员国不得向个别公司提供税收优惠——优惠协定违反了欧盟的国家援助规定。维斯塔格对苹果公司复杂税收交易的调查已进行了三年。
Vestager’s ruling prompted an angry response from Apple and from Ireland and is likely tospark a political row between the US and the EU.
维斯塔格的裁定激起苹果和爱尔兰的强烈不满,并可能引发美国与欧盟之间的政治争论。
The US Treasury said the ruling threatened to damage the important spirit of economicpartnership between the US and the EU.
美国财政部称此裁定会危害美国和欧盟之间重要的经济合作精神。
In a letter to customers, Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, claimed the ruling could deal a blowto big companies investing in Europe: Beyond the obvious targeting of Apple, the mostprofound and harmful effect of this ruling will be on investment and job creation in Europe.
苹果首席执行官蒂姆•库克在致客户的信中称,该裁定会对投资欧洲的大型企业造成打击:这一裁定除明显针对苹果外,还将对欧洲的投资和就业产生深远的负面影响。
Using the commission’s theory, every company in Ireland and across Europe is suddenly at riskof being subjected to taxes under laws that never existed.
按欧盟委员会的理论,爱尔兰和欧洲的任何一家公司突然都要根据从未存在的法律来缴纳税款了。
The commission said Ireland’s tax arrangements with Apple between 1991 and 2015 hadallowed the US company to attribute sales to a head office that only existed on paper andcould not have generated such profits.
欧盟委员会表示,爱尔兰与苹果1991至2015年间的税收协议容许了苹果将销售额归入一家总部名下,而这一总部实际并不存在,也不能产生巨额利润。
The result was that Apple avoided tax on almost all the profit generated from its multi-billioneuro sales of iPhones and other products across the EU’s single market.
由此,苹果在欧盟单一市场销售亿万欧元的iPhone和其他产品,所得利润几乎都得以避税。
It booked the profits in Ireland rather than the country in which the product was sold.
公司将盈利计入爱尔兰的业务部门,而非产品的实际销售国。
Apple and Ireland said they intend to appeal against the ruling.
苹果公司和爱尔兰表示,他们将就这一裁决提出上诉。
The figure of Euro13bn plus interest is 40 times the previous record for such a case and theequivalent of the annual budget for Ireland’s health service.
130亿欧元再加上利息,补税额已达此前同类裁决中最高金额的40倍,与爱尔兰公共医疗卫生服务的年度预算相当。
Irish campaigners called for the windfall to be invested in public housing.
爱尔兰的活动家们号召将这笔意外之财用于公共住房项目。
The taxable profits of Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe did notcorrespond to economic reality, the commission said.
欧盟委员会称,苹果国际销售公司和苹果欧洲运营公司的应纳税利润与其实际盈利不符。
Vestager said: The commission’s investigation concluded that Ireland granted illegal taxbenefits to Apple, which enabled it to pay substantially less tax than other businesses overmany years.
维斯塔格说:委员会的调查发现,爱尔兰给予苹果公司的非法税收优惠,使苹果多年来比其他公司少缴纳了许多税金。
Vestager suggested other countries, including the US, might now examine how Apple didbusiness within their borders. These other jurisdictions might then claim a share of the unpaidtax from Apple for the same period.
维斯塔格表示,现在,包括美国在内的其他国家或可审查苹果在其境内的业务,或许也能追收苹果该时期内少缴的税款。
This would reduce the bill owed to Ireland.
那么苹果补缴给爱尔兰的金额则会减少。
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said the commission was rewriting Apple’s record inIreland, overriding Irish law and disrupting the international tax system.
苹果掌门人库克称,欧盟委员会正在改写苹果在爱尔兰的历史,它凌驾于爱尔兰法律之上并扰乱了国际税收制度。
He said Apple chose the Irish city of Cork as its European base 30 years ago and had expandedfrom 60 workers to almost 6,000 in Ireland.
他说,苹果公司30年前选择了爱尔兰的科克作为其欧洲总部,在爱尔兰的员工数量也从60人发展至近6000人。
He said Apple would appeal and that he was confident of winning.
他表示苹果将会上诉且有信心获胜。
Cook said: We never asked for, nor did we receive, any special deals.
库克说:我们从未要求,也从未接受过任何特殊协议。
We now find ourselves in the unusual position of being ordered to retroactively pay additionaltaxes to a government that says we don’t owe them any more than we’ve already paid.
现在却发现自己陷入异乎寻常的处境,被要求向政府补缴额外税款。而政府说,我们税金已缴,什么也不欠他们。
The commission’s decision is a rebuff to US efforts to persuade it to drop the case afterwarnings of retaliation from Washington.
美国此前已发出报复警告,试图让欧盟不去追究苹果纳税一案,而欧盟委员会的这一裁定是对美国诉求的有力回绝。
Apple, which changed its tax arrangements with Ireland in 2015, should easily be able to paythe huge tax bill because it has a cash mountain of more than 0bn (£176bn) of cash andsecurities, mostly held outside the US.
苹果于2015年修改了与爱尔兰的税收协定。鉴于其坐拥超过2300亿美元(1760亿英镑)的现金和证券,苹果支付天价税款轻而易举。
The tech group keeps the money outside the US because it would be forced to pay US taxcharges if it repatriated the money.
这家科技公司将资金储放在美国之外。因为资金一旦流回国内,就不得不承担美国的赋税。
The Euro13bn figure covers only the 10 years before the commission first requestedinformation in 2013.
欧盟委员会2013年开始对苹果进行调查,这130亿欧元只涵盖了此前10年的未缴税款。
The commission, which does not have the authority to go back any further, said it was up toIreland to collect the tax from Apple.
无权再向前追溯的委员会表示,向苹果收税一事取决于爱尔兰政府。
The Irish government, however, wants the ruling reversed because it wants to preserve itsstatus as a low-tax base for overseas companies.
然而爱尔兰政府也希望推翻裁决,保住自己低税港湾的地位以吸引海外公司。