2014年MBA英语阅读理解(精读精解)(23)

　　Jim Clark, 55, is the first person ever to start three companies that each grew to be worth more than $1 billion--an achievement celebrated in Michael Lewis' best-selling book, The New New Thing. Clark saw in primitive computer graphics chips the potential for powerful new workstations built by Silicon Graphics. He looked at a simple interface for websites, and turned it into the Netscape Web browser. And he most recently has exploited the potential of the Web for dispensing medical information through a company called Healtheon. Each of these ideas has netted Clark a cool billion or so. Shouldn't such a visionary come up with a similarly new way of giving those bucks away?

　　Well, no. Clark has bestowed his money the old-fashioned way--by attaching his name to a building at Stanford University, his alma mater. His $150 million grant, establishing the Jim C. Clark Center for Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, reflects his belief that just as computer technology has been driving today's economy, biotech will power it over the next 40 years. "Some people say you should give where the need is greatest," he says, shrugging. "But that's the job for government. For me, with only a few billion, I have more impact targeting a specific priority."

　　Clark also wanted to reward Stanford, whose labs he used while engineering the chip for his Silicon Graphics workstations. And this was the sort of philanthropic gesture that would still leave him time to have fun running companies, building yachts and flying helicopters. Clark has a personal insight into why some tech multimillionaires postpone serious charitable giving. At one point in 1998, he watched the value of his Netscape stock erode from $2 billion to $200 million. And other wealthy techies have seen similar wild swings in their personal fortunes. Explains Clark: "When you see your net worth drop like that, you think, 'If this keeps going, I'm going to have to sell my airplane.'"

　　Clark is critical of some of his Silicon Valley brethren who haven't been as generous, despite their multibillion-dollar net worth. He hopes his gift will spur other tech billionaires to action, particularly Yahoo founders Jerry Yang and David Filo, who don't discuss specifics of any giving they may have done--and who Clark believes have been too frugal. "These guys actually ran the Yahoo servers out of Stanford," says Clark. "They should be giving something back. These guys are young, but they've got more money than me. Or take Larry Ellison; he should be doing more."

　　But Clark remains optimistic: "These new-money guys, first they have to get a couple of houses, the plane. At that point they'll think about, How can I do something more impacting?"

　　Time; 07/24/2000, Vol. 156 Issue 4, p59, 2/3p, 1 chart, 1 diagram, 1c

　　1. The author begins his article with Clark’s experience to _________.

　　[A]show the great achievements of Clark

　　[B]show the richness of Clark

　　[C]show the payback of Clark’s brilliant ideas

　　[D]show his desire to get fortunes

　　2.Clark believes that the bestowal of the money _________.

　　[A]should be done in an old way

　　[B]should take the form of generosity

　　[C]should be given in limited field

　　[D]should involve all rich men

　　3. The founders of Yahoo are mentioned to show ________.

　　[A]their way of saving money

　　[B]their ungenerosity and less interest in donating

　　[C]Clark’s contempt of the new money

　　[D]their difficulty in getting rich

　　4.Clark’s attitude toward his Silicon Valley brethren is _________.

　　[A]strong disapproval

　　[B] reserved consent

　　[C]slight contempt

　　[D]enthusiastic support

　　5. From the text we learn that Larry Ellison is _________.

　　[A]a Yuppie

　　[B]Clark’s competitor

　　[C]a successful techie

　　[D]a young tech billionaire

　　答案：ABBAD

　　难句突破

　　本文是一篇记叙文。主要记述了一位成功开办了三家大公司的电脑专家克拉克本人的捐赠方式以及他对同行富豪们捐赠的态度。第一段指出克拉克所取得的成就;第二段指出克拉克的捐赠方式及其原因;第三段、四段和五段指出克拉克对他的同行富豪们在捐赠方面的态度的看法。

　　词汇注释

　　techie [teki]:‘Tech’是‘technology’的缩略形式，它的结尾为 ‘-ie’，表示人。这个词是上个世纪80年代早期计算机变得越来越普及的时候出现了出现的，意思是高电脑技术的技师，或对计算机技术很熟悉的人，尤指计算机编程人员或迷恋计算机技术的人;电脑迷，电脑专家,电脑高手。

　　硅谷图形(Silicon Graphics)公司

　　网景(Netscape)公司

　　健康保险网络(Healtheon)公司

　　net vt. 净赚，净得，赢利

　　cool (价格)实价的;(数额)不打折扣的，整整的

　　visionary n. 幻想家; 空想家，梦想者

　　attach one’s name to 在...上签名

　　engineer vt. 设计, 修建;监督(工程等);操纵, 指挥;图谋, 策划

　　philanthropic adj.慈善事业的;博爱的

　　charitable adj. 心慈的;仁慈的;慈善的;大慈大悲的

　　have an insight into adv. 有对...的了解，有对...的洞察力

　　postpone vt. 使延期, 推迟, 搁置(until, till, to, for);把...放在次要地位(to)

　　erode vt. 侵蚀掉，腐蚀掉，像磨蚀、侵蚀那样使…减少、减弱或消失

　　swing n. 巨大的改变，巨大的变迁

　　net worth 资本净值

　　critical adj. 有判断力的;批评的;批判的

　　be critical of sth. 对某事表示谴责

　　brethren n. 兄弟;会友，教友;同业人士，同行

　　frugal adj. 节俭的;俭朴的

　　new money 暴发户，新贵

　　注释：

　　1. Jim Clark (吉姆·克拉克): 硅谷图形(Silicon Graphics)公司、网景(Netscape)公司、健康保险网络(Healtheon)公司的创始人、董事长，资产：25亿美元，财富积累时间：17年;格言：“最初的几百万最难赚。”，他不但开创了许多偶发事件，他本身就是一个偶发事件。国际畅销书作家刘易斯花了18个月的时间，贴身采访这位硅谷传奇人物，让世人得以一窥硅谷之所以成为硅谷，并不在于制造新电脑来致富，而是设计新事物让电脑来执行;也就是永远不满足现状，不断寻求突破，比新还要更新。

　　2. The New New Thing (新新事物)：经济学家罗莫提出的“新增长理论”强调科技在经济成长过程扮演的重要角色，等于强调新新事物(The New New Thing) 的重要。不过，他也提出另一个更深入的理由，说明科技为什么会日新月异，千变万化。“一旦认定现实生活还有精益求精的空间，就是认定现有成就外还有更大的可能，只要稍有变动，已知的世界将截然不同。我们不得不接受一个事实：如今已知的世界，只是一长串偶发事件的结果。”

　　3. Michael Lewis (迈克尔·刘易斯)：出生于新奥尔良，毕业于美国普林斯顿大学和英国伦敦经济学院，曾任所罗门兄弟公司的债券交易员，后来为《纽约时报》撰稿和英国《观察家周刊》的美国版编辑，目前是加州大学柏克莱校区新闻学院的客座研究员。他的成名之作《说谎者的扑克牌》被公认是描写80年代华尔街文化的经典名作，至今仍然在亚马逊书店热销，其中的精彩片段被各种媒体广为引用。他80年代的成名作「说谎者的扑克牌」及2000年的《一个想法一千万》是对变革的两个时代最真实细腻的写照，对美国商业文化产生了重大的影响。在福布斯2001年评选的20年来最伟大的20本商业书籍中，他的两本著作全部入选。