时间:2019-01-30 作者:英语课 分类:健康与经济


英语课

ECONOMICS REPORT - Apple Computer
By Mario Ritter


Broadcast: Friday, April 23, 2004


This is Bob Doughty 1 with the VOA Special English Economics Report.


 
Early Macintosh
One of the most powerful tools ever developed is the P.C., the personal computer. One of the companies important to the history of the P.C. is Apple Computer. Apple is based in Cupertino, California.


Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs started the company in nineteen-seventy-six. Mister Wozniak designed an early personal computer, the Apple One. At that time, people who wanted to work with computers often built their own, or used larger systems.


Early personal computers had limited uses. Users had to write commands. This was true of the Apple One. But other Apple computers operated with a system known as a graphical user interface 2. Users chose from little pictures called icons 3. Researchers at Xerox 4 designed such a system. But Apple was the first to make it popular. Today most personal computers use icons.


Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs tried to sell their ideas to other companies. They were rejected. But soon they found investors 5. Apple began to sell shares to the public in nineteen-eighty. The company became worth more than one-thousand-million dollars.


 
The brains of the Apple 1: Steve Wozniak, left, and Steve Jobs.
In nineteen-eighty-one, International Business Machines began to sell a personal computer that many people bought. I.B.M. was the biggest computer company in the world. But Apple was known for its creativity. In nineteen-eighty-four, it released the first Macintosh. These computers were simple to use.


Over the years, Apple gained a following of loyal users. But then lower-priced computers appeared. These used the Windows operating system made by Microsoft. Most personal computers today use Windows.


Apple does not compete with makers 6 of low-cost computers. Many of its computers are designed for special uses like video and music production.


The brain of a computer is the processor. For years, Apple used processors made by Motorola. In two-thousand-three, Apple joined with I.B.M. to create a faster processor. But Apple still has only a small share of the computer market.


Now, one of its most popular products is the iPod. This is a small music player. It can store up to one-thousand songs. Apple says it sold more than eight-hundred-thousand iPods in the three months ending in March.


Apple reported a profit of forty-six million dollars for the period. It says the iPod greatly helped sales.


This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty.



adj.勇猛的,坚强的
  • Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质:脾气倔强,性格刚强。
  • The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。
n.接合部位,分界面;v.(使)互相联系
  • My computer has a network interface,which allows me to get to other computers.我的计算机有网络接口可以与其它计算机连在一起。
  • This program has perspicuous interface and extensive application. 该程序界面明了,适用范围广。
n.偶像( icon的名词复数 );(计算机屏幕上表示命令、程序的)符号,图像
  • Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons. 用图标来区分重要的文本项。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
  • Daemonic icons should only be employed persistently if they provide continuous, useful status information. 只有会连续地提供有用状态信息的情况下,后台应用程序才应该一直使用图标。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
n./v.施乐复印机,静电复印
  • Xerox and Lucent are two more high-tech companies run by women.施乐和朗讯是另外两家由女性经营的大科技公司。
  • You cannot take it home,but you can xerox it.你不能把它带回家,但可以复印。
n.投资者,出资者( investor的名词复数 )
  • a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
  • a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会
n.制造者,制造商(maker的复数形式)
  • The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
  • The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》
学英语单词
active wire
advanced capitalist country
agardhii
altitude-tint legend
american maidenhair ferns
anionic fixed site
arab countries
argyrin
asphalt brick former
astatizes
azuki bean
ballcarriers
beselve
Betim
bit blank
bore spine
canalizing selection(waddington 1940)
Coelacanthiformes
comens
decimalists
decomposing
disparate paindts
diuturnal
Edwards
eliminate wasteful practices
empoldering
enripen
environmental economist
eudyalite (eudialyte)
eusporangiate
factory ship
family lucanidaes
flip-ins
foot-steps
garden dahlia
genus Calocarpum
good for delivery
guarnaschelli
gustofacial
hematoclastic
hurry-skurry
ichidai toshiyori
Igneada
in assessing terms
indigenal
invigorating the spleen to benefit the lung
irregular blast-furnace performance
jumbled speech
keep step
klystron hall
large ballast
lending ratio
lent segregation
marplots
match-joint
mattadore
mind-style
Mordant Black T
neutron sensitive coating
Nodus lymphaticus malaris
non-embrittling sulfur black dyes
nosepiec
Olia Chain
pachysandra
partial ordered set
physical destructive effect
plus seed stand
polar coordinate robot
polymouphous
probability density function
pseudo-conic projection
rabbette
rayed arc
re-used
red daikons
redolent of
rooming-in care
rubber-cup massage
Saf-T-Coil
scaled up
scope of repair course
sediment-hosted
Sforza, Lodovico
silapentanes
sizarships
slipage
solute concentration difference
sonepiprazole
stack capability
steady source
stereo tissue
submerged decompression chamber
surfacegauge
sylvyne (sylvinte)
Taeryanghwa
the interior
time correction circuit
trityl group
vampirize
Weberian ossicles
word select instruction
zosteroid