【原版杂志阅读】24期 Day 1：Is investing in Twitter a meme too far for Elon Musk? part 1

视频版讲解

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Another Musk-have (must-have)
Is investing in Twitter a meme too far for Elon Musk?

The self-styled Technoking may be overextending himself  

WHAT WILL he do with it? That was the big question after Elon Musk let it be known on April 4th that he had amassed a stake of 9.2% in Twitter, making him the social-media firm’s largest shareholder. Will the world’s richest man buy more shares or even take Twitter private? Will the boss of Tesla take a hands-on role in Twitter’s management? Will the libertarian troll push to bring back Donald Trump, kicked off the platform after inciting an assault on the Capitol in January 2021? Speculation mounted after Twitter said a day later that Mr Musk would join its board. 

As is his wont, Mr Musk will reveal his plans in his own time and probably in his own tweets to the 80m people who follow him on the platform (not many fewer than followed Mr Trump before he got the boot). In posts published before he announced the investment, he complained that Twitter “serves as the de facto public town square” but fails “to adhere to free-speech principles”. He urged the company to open up the algorithm that decides which tweets users see. In light of his well-documented sympathies for cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology, the blockchain, he could try to turn Twitter into a decentralised service controlled by users. 

It is hard to see how that would make the company more profitable. Investors rejoiced anyway. Some may be believers in the “Elon markets hypothesis”, which holds that stocks should be valued based not on fundamentals but on their proximity to Mr Musk. Others may hope that he can really shake things up. Twitter has been a much bigger cultural success than a commercial one. Before Mr Musk’s move sent its share price up by a third, the firm’s market value had been languishing around $30bn, not much higher than where it was when it went public in 2013. By comparison, its social-media rival Meta (née Facebook), briefly became a $1trn company and its market capitalisation is up more than five-fold in the same period despite a recent tumble (it is currently worth $631bn). 

一、词汇部分

1. incite /ɪnˈsaɪt/  v.  煽动；鼓动

前缀：in-向内(ex-向外）

词根：cit- 引起（excited)

2. Wont /wəʊnt/  n. 习惯做法

词源：win

3. proximity /prɒkˈsɪmɪtɪ/ n. 接近

词根：proxim-相近（pro-向前 + xim—same)

后缀：-ity 名词后缀

4. languish /ˈlæŋɡwɪʃ/ v. (由于不努力或困难太多) 未成功

词根：langu-疲惫(langui--language)

后缀：-ish 动词后缀(finish, punish)

5. tumble /ˈtʌmbəl/ v. (价格或水平) 暴跌

对比：tumble--humble 

词源：turn

联想：t—退

二、文章讲解

1.  WHAT WILL he do with it? That was the big question after Elon Musk let it be known on April 4th that he had amassed a stake of 9.2% in Twitter, making him the social-media firm’s largest shareholder. Will the world’s richest man buy more shares or even take Twitter private? Will the boss of Tesla take a hands-on role in Twitter’s management? Will the libertarian troll push to bring back Donald Trump, kicked off the platform after inciting an assault on the Capitol in January 2021? Speculation mounted after Twitter said a day later that Mr Musk would join its board. 

1）阅读逻辑：例子—2个功能：引入（观点，主题），论证（观点和主题）

2）it —to do, 前文出现的名词/代词，that从句

3）长难句： That was the big question after Elon Musk let it be known on April 4th that he had amassed a stake of 9.2% in Twitter, making him the social-media firm’s largest shareholder.

主句： That was the big question

After 引导的时间状语从句：after Elon Musk let it be known on April 4th that he had amassed a stake of 9.2% in Twitter, making him the social-media firm’s largest shareholder.

特殊点：it指代that从句部分，做形式宾语

特殊点：非谓语动词作状语 making him the social-media firm’s largest shareholder.（making都是结果状语）

非谓语动词作状语：完整句子，doing sth

参考翻译：他会拿它来干什么？4月4日伊隆·马斯克公开表示自己已持有推特9.2%的股份，从而成为这家社交媒体公司的最大股东。人们心头升起一个大大的问号。这位世界首富会继续加持股份，甚至把推特私有化吗？这位特斯拉的老板会亲自参与推特的管理吗？这位信奉自由意志主义的嘴炮大王会推动特朗普回归推特吗——去年1月特朗普在煽动攻击国会大厦后被平台封号。4月5日，推特表示马斯克将加入其董事会，一时间猜测四起。

2. As is his wont, Mr Musk will reveal his plans in his own time and probably in his own tweets to the 80m people who follow him on the platform (not many fewer than followed Mr Trump before he got the boot). In posts published before he announced the investment, he complained that Twitter “serves as the de facto public town square” but fails “to adhere to free-speech principles”. He urged the company to open up the algorithm that decides which tweets users see. In light of his well-documented sympathies for cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology, the blockchain, he could try to turn Twitter into a decentralised service controlled by users. 

1）who 引导定语从句：人+who: who follow him on the platform

2) 后置定语：In posts published before he announced the investment （名词+过去分词，做后置定语）

3）宾语从句：that Twitter “serves as the de facto public town square” but fails “to adhere to free-speech principles”

4）定语从句： that decides which tweets users see. （名词 +that, that在从句中作主语或者宾语）

5）in light of 鉴于

6）defi —dapp

参考翻译：按马斯克惯常的做法，他会在自以为恰当的时间，并且可能是用自己的推特账号向8000万粉丝（不比特朗普被踢出推特前少多少）披露他的计划。在宣布这项投资之前，他曾发帖吐槽推特“实际上是一个公共的城市广场”，却未能“遵守言论自由原则”。他敦促推特开放决定用户能看到哪些推文的算法。鉴于他对加密货币及其底层区块链技术的支持人尽皆知，他可能会尝试把推特转变为一项由用户控制的去中心化服务。 

3.   It is hard to see how that would make the company more profitable. Investors rejoiced anyway. Some may be believers in the “Elon markets hypothesis”, which holds that stocks should be valued based not on fundamentals but on their proximity to Mr Musk. Others may hope that he can really shake things up. Twitter has been a much bigger cultural success than a commercial one. Before Mr Musk’s move sent its share price up by a third, the firm’s market value had been languishing around $30bn, not much higher than where it was when it went public in 2013. By comparison, its social-media rival Meta (née Facebook), briefly became a $1trn company and its market capitalisation is up more than five-fold in the same period despite a recent tumble (it is currently worth $631bn). 

参考翻译：很难想象这如何能提高推特的赚钱能力。但投资者仍然欢欣鼓舞。一些人可能是“伊隆市场假说”的信徒。该假说认为，股票的估值不应基于基本面，而应基于它们与马斯克的关联有多紧密。其他人可能希望他真的能扭转乾坤。推特在文化上的成功远远大于在商业上的成功。在马斯克此举将其股价推高三分之一之前，推特的市值一直徘徊在300亿美元左右，不比2013年上市时高多少。相比之下，其社交媒体竞争对手Meta（原Facebook）的市值一度高达一万亿美元，尽管目前因近期的暴跌缩水至6310亿美元，但市值还是在同一时期内增长了五倍多。

三、段落翻译

他会拿它来干什么？4月4日伊隆·马斯克公开表示自己已持有推特9.2%的股份，从而成为这家社交媒体公司的最大股东。人们心头升起一个大大的问号。这位世界首富会继续加持股份，甚至把推特私有化吗？这位特斯拉的老板会亲自参与推特的管理吗？这位信奉自由意志主义的嘴炮大王会推动特朗普回归推特吗——去年1月特朗普在煽动攻击国会大厦后被平台封号。4月5日，推特表示马斯克将加入其董事会，一时间猜测四起。

按马斯克惯常的做法，他会在自以为恰当的时间，并且可能是用自己的推特账号向8000万粉丝（不比特朗普被踢出推特前少多少）披露他的计划。在宣布这项投资之前，他曾发帖吐槽推特“实际上是一个公共的城市广场”，却未能“遵守言论自由原则”。他敦促推特开放决定用户能看到哪些推文的算法。鉴于他对加密货币及其底层区块链技术的支持人尽皆知，他可能会尝试把推特转变为一项由用户控制的去中心化服务。 

很难想象这如何能提高推特的赚钱能力。但投资者仍然欢欣鼓舞。一些人可能是“伊隆市场假说”的信徒。该假说认为，股票的估值不应基于基本面，而应基于它们与马斯克的关联有多紧密。其他人可能希望他真的能扭转乾坤。推特在文化上的成功远远大于在商业上的成功。在马斯克此举将其股价推高三分之一之前，推特的市值一直徘徊在300亿美元左右，不比2013年上市时高多少。相比之下，其社交媒体竞争对手Meta（原Facebook）的市值一度高达一万亿美元，尽管目前因近期的暴跌缩水至6310亿美元，但市值还是在同一时期内增长了五倍多。