【文章预读】

Schumpeter
Chinese tech v American tech
Which of the world’s two superpowers has the most powerful technology industry?

AMERICANS, and friends of America, often reassure themselves about its relative decline in the following way. Even if the roads, airports and schools continue to slide, it will retain its lead in the most sophisticated fields for decades. They include defence, elite universities, and, in the business world, technology. Uncle Sam may have ceded the top spot to China in exports in 2007, and manufacturing in 2011, and be on track to lose its lead in absolute GDP by about 2030. But Silicon Valley, the argument goes, is still where the best ideas, smartest money and hungriest entrepreneurs combine with a bang nowhere else can match.

Or is it? American attitudes towards Chinese tech have passed through several stages of denial in the past 20 years. First it was an irrelevance, then Chinese firms were sometimes seen as copycats or as industrial spies, and more recently China has been viewed as a tech Galapagos, where unique species grow that would never make it beyond its shores. Now a fourth stage has begun, marked by fear that China is reaching parity. American tech’s age of “imperial arrogance” is ending, says one Silicon Valley figure.

【文章精讲】

AMERICANS, and friends of America, often reassure themselves about its relative decline in the following way. Even if the roads, airports and schools continue to slide, it will retain its lead in the most sophisticated fields for decades. They include defence, elite universities, and, in the business world, technology. Uncle Sam may have ceded the top spot to China in exports in 2007, and manufacturing in 2011, and be on track to lose its lead in absolute GDP by about 2030. But Silicon Valley, the argument goes, is still where the best ideas, smartest money and hungriest entrepreneurs combine with a bang nowhere else can match.
面对美国的相对衰落，美国人以及美国的支持者通常以这种思路聊以自慰：虽然美国的道路、机场和学校状况持续变差，但它在高精尖领域的领先优势还会保持几十年。他们认为美国在国防和精英大学方面会继续占优，在商业领域则有科技这张王牌。虽说山姆大叔在2007年将世界第一出口国的宝座拱手让与中国，2011年制造业第一大国的地位也被中国取代，绝对GDP的领先地位也有可能在2030年前后失去，但这些人相信，硅谷仍旧集中了最优秀的创意、最明智的投资和最有抱负的企业家，成果之丰硕没有一个地方能与之匹敌。

reassure v.使安心
- ensure v.确保（某事）
- assure v.（向某人）确保
relative adj.比较而言的
decline n./v.衰退下降
slide v.下滑
retain v.保持
sophisticated adj.资深有经验的
decade n.十年
defence n.防御
elite adj./n.精英
Uncle Sam 山姆大叔
cede v.割舍，放弃
spot n.地点位置
manufacturing n.制造业
be on track to 准备/计划/期待要做某事
- Everyone is on track to meet the sales quotas.
entrepreneur n.创业者
bang n.猛击

Or is it? American attitudes towards Chinese tech have passed through several stages of denial in the past 20 years. First it was an irrelevance, then Chinese firms were sometimes seen as copycats or as industrial spies, and more recently China has been viewed as a tech Galapagos, where unique species grow that would never make it beyond its shores. Now a fourth stage has begun, marked by fear that China is reaching parity. American tech’s age of “imperial arrogance” is ending, says one Silicon Valley figure.
真是这样吗？过去20年里，美国对中国科技产业拒不认可，这种态度经历了若干阶段的变化：先是认为它不值一提，之后有时会将中国公司视作山寨企业或产业间谍，再后来，美国眼中的中国成了科技领域的加拉帕戈斯群岛，独特的物种在其中生长，但却永远无法跨越海岸。如今又开始了第四个阶段：美国担心中国快要追上自己了。一位硅谷人士说，美国科技界充满“帝国式傲慢”的时代行将结束。

denial n.否认
irrelevance n.不相关
copycat n.盗版
spy n.间谍
beyond its shores 在国外
parity n.平等
- Women have fought for parity with men in the workplace.
imperial adj.帝国的
arrogance n.傲慢
figure n.人物


【推荐句式表达】

1.be on track to…
2. the argument goes