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Money mountains

That is over twice what the global venture-capital industry spends each year. It is 51 times the annual cash burned up by Netflix, Uber and Tesla, three firms famous for being cash hungry. And it is 37 times the average annual amount of cash the five firms have in total spent on acquisitions to gain new technologies and products, such as Facebook’s $19bn purchase of WhatsApp, a messaging service in2014, or Google’s $3.1bn acquisition of DoubleClick, an advertising firm, in 2007.

burn up If something burns up or if fire burns it up, it is completely destroyed by fire or strong heat燒毀屹徘；燒光；If something burns up fuel or energy, it uses it消耗；耗費(fèi)

*Fires have burned up 180,000 acres of timber.大火燒光了18萬英畝的木材肠阱。

*Brisk walking burns up more calories than slow jogging.快走比慢跑能消耗更多的熱量痘番。

這是全球風(fēng)投行業(yè)每年投資額的兩倍還多驮配，是Netflix琅锻、優(yōu)步和特斯拉這三家出了名缺錢的公司每年所燒掉現(xiàn)金的51倍，同時也是這五強(qiáng)為獲得新技術(shù)和新產(chǎn)品平均每年在收購方面支出的37倍弦悉，比如Facebook在2014年以190億美元收購了通訊應(yīng)用WhatsApp，谷歌于2007年以31億美元收購了廣告公司DoubleClick蟆炊。

Might these firms hoard cash just because they are run by megalomaniacs who are too rich and odd to obey any rules? That seems glib and out of date. Apple and Microsoft are no longer controlled by their founders. Those behind Alphabet were pragmatic enough in 2015 to appoint Ruth Porat, the former finance boss of Morgan Stanley, as its chief financial officer, to instil more discipline. Jeff Bezos’s interest is arguably for Amazon to pay a dividend—in the absence of one he is selling $1bn of his shares every year to raise cash to finance his space-rocket firm.

megalomaniac If you describe someone as a megalomaniac, you are criticizing them because they enjoy being powerful, or because they believe that they are more powerful or important than they really are有自大狂的人;妄自尊大的人

pragmatic solving problems in a practical and sensible way rather than by having fixed ideas or theories實(shí)用的稽莉；講求實(shí)效的；務(wù)實(shí)的

*a pragmatic approach to management problems 對管理問題采取的務(wù)實(shí)做法

這些公司囤積大量現(xiàn)金盅称，會不會只是因?yàn)樗鼈兊墓芾碚叨际切┏売绣X又脾氣古怪肩祥、不屑遵守任何規(guī)則的自大狂？這樣的想法似乎太過膚淺缩膝，而且也過時了混狠。蘋果和微軟已不再由創(chuàng)始人控制，Alphabet的掌管者也都非常務(wù)實(shí)：在2015年任命摩根士丹利前財務(wù)負(fù)責(zé)人露絲·波拉特（Ruth Porat）為首席財務(wù)官疾层，以加強(qiáng)財務(wù)紀(jì)律将饺。杰夫·貝佐斯可以說是想讓亞馬遜分紅的——在沒有分紅的情況下，他每年出售自己10億美元的股票來募集資金痛黎，資助他的太空火箭公司予弧。

Maybe if the tax code is reformed the great cash build up will end. The most mature firms, Apple and Microsoft, would make a large one-off return of cash to shareholders. Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook would adopt sensible frameworks for returning cash to shareholders as their profits soar.

sensible able to make good judgements based on reason and experience rather than emotion; practical明智的；理智的湖饱；合理的掖蛤；切合實(shí)際的；aware of sth意識到井厌；認(rèn)識到

*I think the sensible thing would be to take a taxi home.我想還是坐出租車回去的好蚓庭。

也許，如果進(jìn)行稅務(wù)改革仅仆，龐大的現(xiàn)金積累就會結(jié)束器赞。蘋果和微軟這兩家最成熟的公司將一次性給股東大量的現(xiàn)金回報。隨著利潤飆升港柜，亞馬遜夏醉、Alphabet和Facebook也將采取合理的方案向股東返還現(xiàn)金救恨。

But perhaps these firms love their giant insurance policy. Imperious on the outside, inside they may worry about obsolescence and regulation. Anti-trust authorities are getting hostile. Only five years ago Facebook and Google were struggling with the shift from desktops to devices. Both depend on advertising for over 85% of sales. Apple’s health depends on its latest iPhone, Amazon has thin margins and Microsoft’s profits have yet to rise.

Imperious expecting people to obey you and treating them as if they are not as important as you專橫的奢啥；蠻橫的桩盲；盛氣凌人的

*an imperious gesture / voice / command 盛氣凌人的姿勢 / 語調(diào) / 命令

obsolescence the state of becoming old-fashioned and no longer useful (= becoming obsolete)過時捞蛋；陳舊；淘汰

*The aircraft was nearing obsolescence by early 1942.這種飛機(jī)在1942年年初就瀕臨淘汰了搬设。

hostile very unfriendly or aggressive and ready to argue or fight敵意的忧风；敵對的狮腿；strongly rejecting sth堅(jiān)決否定；強(qiáng)烈反對；making it difficult for sth to happen or to be achieved有阻礙的拖刃；不利的兑牡；belonging to a military enemy敵軍的；敵人的

但也許這些公司就是喜歡有大量現(xiàn)金護(hù)身苞也。它們外表看起來不可一世占键，內(nèi)里可能還是會擔(dān)心遭到淘汰或遭遇監(jiān)管問題蘑秽。反壟斷機(jī)構(gòu)態(tài)度也越來越不友善玲销。僅在五年前议慰，F(xiàn)acebook和谷歌還在為從臺式機(jī)向移動設(shè)備轉(zhuǎn)移而苦苦掙扎草讶。這兩家公司的銷售額中有85%以上都來自廣告；蘋果的健康取決于最新的iPhone炉菲；亞馬遜的利潤空間微倍檎健；微軟的利潤還有待上升拍霜。

If earnings do soar as forecast, the big-five tech firms could be plotting giant acquisitions of media, car or hardware firms, to diversify away from their core business. But they may simply be uneasy that profits will not rise as high as Wall Street now expects. Either way, the $330bn safety blanket that lets Silicon Valley sleep at night should lead investors to keep one eye open.

diversify to develop a wider range of products, interests, skills, etc. in order to be more successful or reduce risk增加…的品種嘱丢；從事多種經(jīng)營；擴(kuò)大業(yè)務(wù)范圍祠饺；to change or to make sth change so that there is greater variety (使)多樣化越驻，變化，不同

*Farmers are being encouraged to diversify into new crops. 目前正鼓勵農(nóng)民兼種新的農(nóng)作物。

keep one's eyes open 留心缀旁，留神记劈；提防，戒備并巍，時刻警惕目木；警覺；密切注視

如果收益真如預(yù)期那般飆升懊渡，那么五大科技公司可能正在計劃大規(guī)模收購媒體刽射、汽車或硬件企業(yè)，在核心業(yè)務(wù)之外實(shí)現(xiàn)多元化距贷。但它們可能僅僅只是對于利潤不會攀爬到華爾街現(xiàn)在預(yù)期的高度而感到不安柄冲。無論如何，這張讓硅谷在夜晚安眠的3300億美元的安全毯都應(yīng)該讓投資者保持警覺忠蝗。

■一句一練■

Apple’s health depends on its latest iPhone,……

這一句難點(diǎn)在于health這個單詞现横，許多都翻譯為健康二字，但健康是指一個人在身體阁最、精神和社會等方面都處于良好的狀態(tài)戒祠。翻翻字典，發(fā)現(xiàn)還有其他意思The health of something such as an organization or a system is its success and the fact that it is working well速种。這句話可以翻譯為：蘋果公司的興旺取決于最新版的iPhone姜盈，……。