马斯克开除推特CEO和CFO

近日，马斯克完成了对Twitter的收购，并解雇了该公司CEO和CFO，一场非同寻常的企业收购战由此画上句号。

🤔️小作业：

无注释原文：

Elon Musk Twitter Deal Completed, CEO and CFO Immediately Fired

The Wall Street Journal

Elon Musk fired several Twitter Inc. executives after completing his takeover of the company, according to people familiar with the matter, capping an unusual corporate battle and setting up one of the world’s most influential social-media platforms for potentially broad change.

Mr. Musk fired Chief Executive Parag Agrawal and Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal after the deal closed, the people said. Mr. Musk also fired Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top legal and policy executive, and Sean Edgett, general counsel. Spokespeople for Twitter didn’t comment.

Hours after those actions, Mr. Musk tweeted: “the bird is freed” in a seeming reference to Twitter, which has a blue bird as its logo.

Mr. Musk first agreed to buy Twitter in April for $44 billion, then threatened to walk away from the deal, before reversing course again this month and committing to see through the acquisition. He previously indicated unhappiness with some of the top ranks at Twitter, at one point responding to a tweet from Mr. Agrawal with a poop emoji. He also used the site to mock Ms. Gadde, the top legal boss, tweeting an image overlaid with text that repeated allegations Twitter had a left-wing political bias.

It wasn’t immediately clear who would step into the top positions left vacant by Thursday’s exits. CNBC earlier reported the departures of Mr. Agrawal and Mr. Segal.

The deal, in which Twitter will again become a private company, adds to Mr. Musk’s expansive business reach, which also includes running Tesla Inc., the world’s most-valuable car company, and rocket company Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, among other endeavors. Mr. Musk, who had become Twitter’s largest individual shareholder, previously said he would pay for the acquisition mostly with cash, some contributed by co-investors, and $13 billion in debt.

There were signs this week indicating that Mr. Musk was moving closer to acquiring the social-media platform by Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline. Banks started sending money backing the deal, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Musk also has changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit,” showed himself walking into the San Francisco headquarters of the social-media platform, and issued a statement on Twitter explaining his vision for the site to advertisers.

Closing the deal ends a monthslong saga of whether Mr. Musk would or wouldn’t purchase the company. The deal also puts one of the world’s most prominent social-media platforms under the control of the world’s richest person, with implications for the future of online discourse.

A self-described free-speech absolutist, Mr. Musk has pledged to limit content moderation in favor of emphasizing free speech. However, that approach risks causing conflicts with some advertisers, politicians and users who would prefer a more moderated platform.

In a message to advertisers on Twitter on Thursday, Mr. Musk said he was buying the company to “have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.” He said Twitter “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”

Mr. Musk said the platform must be “warm and welcoming to all” and suggested Twitter could let people “choose your desired experience according to your preferences, just as you can choose, for example, to see movies or play videogames ranging from all ages to mature.”

Mr. Musk’s decision to go through with the Twitter takeover came two weeks before a trial in Delaware was set to begin over the stalled deal. The judge presiding over the legal clash agreed to pause the litigation, granting a request by Mr. Musk for more time to complete the takeover. The judge gave Mr. Musk until Oct. 28 to follow through with his offer, or said she would schedule a November trial.

Mr. Musk offered in April to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share—higher than the company was valued at the time. In the months since the deal was struck, Twitter has faced efforts by Mr. Musk to abandon the deal, a whistleblower complaint in which Twitter’s former head of security accused the company of security and privacy problems, and unsuccessful talks to negotiate a lower price with Mr. Musk.

Mr. Musk’s takeover leaves big questions over the future of the platform, including how he might revamp its business model and how he might implement changes he has proposed for the way it polices content.

Like other social-media companies, Twitter heavily relies on digital advertising and has faced headwinds in recent months due to broad economic uncertainty. It will also be saddled with billions in debt as a result of the deal, and payments on those loans will add costs for a company that has posted a loss in eight of its past 10 fiscal years.

The deal turned into a wild business drama with little precedent. Mr. Musk moved to buy Twitter in April. After signing a merger agreement, however, he accused the company of misrepresenting the prevalence of fake and spam accounts on its platform, which Twitter denied.

He formally tried to abandon the deal in July, prompting Twitter to sue him to enforce the original merger agreement. Mr. Musk countersued.

In early October, Mr. Musk suddenly abandoned his legal battle with Twitter, with little public explanation. After his reversal, he tweeted that “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” He previously suggested he could create a social-media platform named X.com if he didn’t buy Twitter.

Eric Talley, a law professor at Columbia University, said after the most recent about-face that several factors were piling up against Mr. Musk, including rulings from the court denying some of Mr. Musk’s discovery requests. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, who was overseeing the case in Delaware, had called some of his data requests “absurdly broad.”

“He has spent months with various attempts to figure out ways out of this deal,” Mr. Talley said. “All those windows had started to close and some of them closed completely.”

Mr. Musk’s specific plans for the company remain unclear. He could return Twitter to public ownership after just a few years, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

By taking Twitter private, the billionaire entrepreneur likely can take more risks to jump-start the company’s business. “It’s going to be bumpy,” said Youssef Squali, lead internet analyst at Truist Securities. “He can take it away for a couple of years, really kind of re-engineer the whole thing,” Mr. Squali said.

Mr. Musk has suggested he wants to shift Twitter away from its advertising-heavy business model to other forms of revenue, including a greater emphasis on subscriptions. Advertising accounted for more than 90% of Twitter’s revenue in the second quarter of this year.

He said he would allow former President Donald Trump back on the platform, though Mr. Trump has said he doesn’t intend to return to it. Twitter banned Mr. Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, citing what the company called “the risk of further incitement of violence.”

“Twitter is obviously not going to be turned into some right wing nuthouse. Aiming to be as broadly inclusive as possible,” Mr. Musk said in a message that was among a trove released as part of the legal battle.

The prospect of Mr. Musk taking over Twitter, as well as the subsequent uncertainty over the deal, roiled many Twitter employees. Twitter has told employees that they will hear from Mr. Musk on Friday, according to an internal note reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

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注：中文文本为华尔街日报官方译文，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Elon Musk Twitter Deal Completed, CEO and CFO Immediately Fired 马斯克完成对Twitter的收购，解雇CEO和CFO

The Wall Street Journal

Elon Musk fired several Twitter Inc. executives after completing his takeover of the company, according to people familiar with the matter, capping an unusual corporate battle and setting up one of the world’s most influential social-media platforms for potentially broad change.

据知情人士透露，马斯克（Elon Musk）完成了对推特公司的收购，并解雇了Twitter首席执行官和首席财务官。一场非同寻常的企业收购战由此画上句号，作为全球最有影响力的社交媒体平台之一，该公司可能走上全面变革之路。

表示“接管，收购”，通常指公司，英文解释为“A takeover is the act of gaining control of a company by buying more of its shares than anyone else.”举个🌰：

They were involved in a takeover last year.

去年他们参与了一家公司的收购。

可以作名词，也可以作动词，1）表示“对（收费或花费）定限额，限制；限额收取（或支出）”，英文解释为“to limit the amount of money that can be charged for sth or spent on sth”如：a capped mortgage 限额按揭，举个🌰：

Our mortgage is capped at 8.75 percent for five years.

我们的按揭贷款5年期的利率上限为8.75%。

2）表示“成为…的结尾；使达到高潮；结束”，英文解释为“If someone says that a good or bad event caps a series of events, they mean it is the final event in the series, and the other events were also good or bad.” 举个🌰：

He capped a memorable season by becoming champion of champions.

他以成为冠军中的冠军的方式结束了这个难忘的赛季。

Mr. Musk fired Chief Executive Parag Agrawal and Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal after the deal closed, the people said. Mr. Musk also fired Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top legal and policy executive, and Sean Edgett, general counsel. Spokespeople for Twitter didn’t comment.

上述人士称，交易完成后，马斯克解雇了Twitter首席执行官帕拉格·阿格拉瓦尔（Parag Agrawal）和首席财务官奈德·西格尔（Ned Segal）。马斯克还解雇了Twitter的法务和政策主管维贾亚·加德（Vijaya Gadde），以及首席法律顾问肖恩·埃杰特（Sean Edgett）。Twitter发言人不予置评。

Hours after those actions, Mr. Musk tweeted: “the bird is freed” in a seeming reference to Twitter, which has a blue bird as its logo.

收购完成几小时后，马斯克在推特上写道：“鸟儿解放了”，似乎是指推特，推特的标志是一只蓝色的鸟。

reference /ˈref.ər.əns/ 1）表示“提到；谈到；论及”，英文解释为“a mention of something”举个🌰：

Knowing what had happened, I avoided making any reference to (= mentioning) weddings.

因为我知道发生了什么，所以就避开不谈婚礼的事儿。

2）表示“引文出处；参考书目”，英文解释为“a writer or a book, article, etc. that is mentioned in a piece of writing, showing you where particular information was found”

Mr. Musk first agreed to buy Twitter in April for $44 billion, then threatened to walk away from the deal, before reversing course again this month and committing to see through the acquisition. He previously indicated unhappiness with some of the top ranks at Twitter, at one point responding to a tweet from Mr. Agrawal with a poop emoji. He also used the site to mock Ms. Gadde, the top legal boss, tweeting an image overlaid with text that repeated allegations Twitter had a left-wing political bias.

马斯克最初在4月份同意以440亿美元的价格收购Twitter，然后威胁说要放弃这项交易，后来在本月再次变卦，并承诺完成这项收购。他此前表达过对Twitter的一些高层不满意，曾用一个大便的表情符号来回应阿格拉瓦尔的推文。他还曾利用该网站嘲讽该公司法务主管加德，在推特上发布了一张图片，上面的文字重提对Twitter有左翼政治倾向的指控。

表示“（尤指艰难地）坚持做完”，英文解释为“to continue doing a job or activity until it is finished, especially when it is difficult”举个🌰：

The degree would take me three years to complete, but I was determined to see it through.

我要花3年的时间才能拿到学位，但我有决心坚持到底。

acquisition名词，1）表示“获得”，英文解释为“the process of getting something”举个🌰：

The acquisition of huge amounts of data has helped our research enormously.

获得的大量数据对我们的研究有莫大的帮助。

2）表示“收购”，英文解释为“If a company or business person makes an acquisition, they buy another company or part of a company.”举个🌰：

They have made acquisitions in several EU countries.

他们在几个欧盟国家购买了一些产业。

🎬电影《美国队长2：冬日战士》（Captain America: The Winter Soldier）中的台词提到：The prevailing theory was that the hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence. 大部分人的看法是劫持事件只是在掩盖机密情报的交易。

poop /puːp/这个词在比尔·盖茨在演讲中举起一杯“粪便”一文中就接触过，poo / poop均表示“屎，大便”，英文解释为“solid waste from the body”；一说poo是英式，poop是美式，比较不正式，口语上更常用；而柯林斯英汉双解大词典解释称poo是儿童用语“大便；臭臭”（Poo is a child's word for faeces.）

poop也可以作动词，表示“拉屎”，如：

Did you poop in your pants?

你是不是拉在裤子里了？

poop还有一些奇怪的用法，比如：

📍poop out可以表示“筋疲力尽”，英文解释为：to become too tired to continue what you are doing. 举个🌰：

I just poop out if I stay up too late.

我晚上熬夜熬得太晚的话就会筋疲力尽的。

还可以指机器或者设备“停止工作，停止运行，熄火”，英文解释为：to stop working or operating. 举个🌰：

The engine pooped out before we reached our destination.

在我们抵达目的地之前发动机就坏了。

📍当然，更奇怪的是在old-fashioned slang中，作为名词的poop还可以表示“信息；事实”（information），感受下这个🌰：

Did you get the poop on all the candidates?

你弄到所有候选人的信息了吗？

作形容词，表示“假的；仿制的；假装的”，英文解释为“not real but appearing or pretending to be exactly like something”如：mock cream 人造奶油，mock leather 人造革，mock surprise 假装出来的惊讶。

作动词，表示“嘲笑；（为了取笑）模仿”，英文解释为“If someone mocks you, they show or pretend that they think you are foolish or inferior, for example by saying something funny about you, or by imitating your behaviour.”举个🌰：

I thought you were mocking me.

我以为你在嘲笑我。

🎬电影《消失的爱人》（Gone Girl）中的台词提到：If you need to mock somebody, mock me. 如果你们要嘲弄什么人，嘲弄我。

overlay /ˌəʊ.vəˈleɪ/ 表示“在…上铺（或盖、涂）；覆盖，包，铺，镀”，英文解释为“to cover something with a layer of something”举个🌰：

The tiny carvings were overlaid with silver.

这些尺寸极小的雕刻品上贴了一层银。

📍be overlaid with sth 表示“掺杂着，交织着；撒满，遮掩”，英文解释为“Something that is overlaid with something has a particular quality added to it that influences its character.”举个🌰：

The place was overlaid with memories of his childhood.

这个地方处处都装点着他童年的回忆。

表示“（政治）左翼，左派，左倾”，英文解释为“the political left”

📍在任仅45天，特拉斯为何黯然辞职文中用的是left/right flank.

📍flank /flæŋk/ 作名词，表示“（动物或人体的）胁腹”，英文解释为“the area of the body between the ribs and the hips of an animal or a person”，也可以表示“侧面”，英文解释为“the side of something”如：right/left flank 右/左侧，右/左翼。

表示“偏见；偏心；偏向”，英文解释为“a strong feeling in favour of or against one group of people, or one side in an argument, often not based on fair judgement”举个🌰：

Employers must consider all candidates impartially and without bias.

雇主必须公平而毫无成见地考虑所有求职者。

It wasn’t immediately clear who would step into the top positions left vacant by Thursday’s exits. CNBC earlier reported the departures of Mr. Agrawal and Mr. Segal.

上述高管周四被解雇后，目前还不清楚谁将担任这些高层职位。CNBC此前报道了阿格拉瓦尔和西格尔被解雇的消息。

The deal, in which Twitter will again become a private company, adds to Mr. Musk’s expansive business reach, which also includes running Tesla Inc., the world’s most-valuable car company, and rocket company Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, among other endeavors. Mr. Musk, who had become Twitter’s largest individual shareholder, previously said he would pay for the acquisition mostly with cash, some contributed by co-investors, and $13 billion in debt.

该交易将使Twitter再次成为一家非上市公司。这笔交易将扩大马斯克庞大的业务版图，他麾下还拥有全球市值最高的汽车公司特斯拉（Tesla Inc., TSLA）和火箭公司Space Exploration Technologies Corp，以及其它一些事业。马斯克已成为Twitter第一大个人股东，他此前表示，将主要以现金和一些共同投资者提供的资金以及130亿美元的债务来支付这笔收购。

endeavor /enˈdev.ər/ 作动词，表示“努力；奋力”，英文解释为“to try to do something”举个🌰：

Engineers are endeavouring to locate the source of the problem.

工程师们正竭尽全力查找问题的根源。

作名词表示“尝试；努力；事业，活动”，英文解释为“an attempt to do something”举个🌰：

In spite of our best endeavours, it has proven impossible to contact her.

尽管我们尽了最大的努力，但最后还是未能联系上她。

表示“股票持有人，股东”，英文解释为“a person who owns shares in a company and therefore gets part of the company's profits and the right to vote on how the company is controlled”

There were signs this week indicating that Mr. Musk was moving closer to acquiring the social-media platform by Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline. Banks started sending money backing the deal, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Musk also has changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit,” showed himself walking into the San Francisco headquarters of the social-media platform, and issued a statement on Twitter explaining his vision for the site to advertisers.

本周早些时候已有迹象表明，马斯克正朝着在周五下午5点的最后期限前完成交易迈进。《华尔街日报》（The Wall Street Journal）此前报道称，银行开始提供资金用于支持这项交易。马斯克还将他的Twitter简介改为Chief Twit，展示了自己走进该社交媒体平台旧金山总部的画面，并在Twitter上发表声明，向广告客户解释他对该平台的愿景。

acquire作动词，表示“取得，获得；购得；学到；收购”，英文解释为“to get something”举个🌰：

Closing the deal ends a monthslong saga of whether Mr. Musk would or wouldn’t purchase the company. The deal also puts one of the world’s most prominent social-media platforms under the control of the world’s richest person, with implications for the future of online discourse.

数月来围绕马斯克到底会不会收购Twitter的巨大悬念也随着交易的完成而尘埃落定，同时也标志着这家全世界最重要的社交媒体平台之一将处于世界首富马斯克的掌控之下，并对未来的网络言论产生影响。

saga /ˈsɑːɡə/ 表示“（通常指负面的）系列事件，一长串事件”，英文解释为“a long complicated series of related, usually negative, events”举个🌰：

It was just another episode in the ongoing saga of their marriage problems.

这只是他们层出不穷的婚姻问题中的又一个插曲。

1）表示“论文；演讲”，英文解释为“a long and serious treatment or discussion of a subject in speech or writing”，如：a discourse on issues of gender equality 关于性别平等的论文。

2）表示“语篇；话语；对话；交流”，英文解释为“the use of language in speech and writing in order to produce meaning; language that is studied, usually in order to see how the different parts of a text are connected”。

A self-described free-speech absolutist, Mr. Musk has pledged to limit content moderation in favor of emphasizing free speech. However, that approach risks causing conflicts with some advertisers, politicians and users who would prefer a more moderated platform.

马斯克自称是言论自由的绝对主义者，他承诺限制内容审核，支持言论自由。但这种做法可能使Twitter与一些广告客户、政界人士和用户发生冲突，他们更希望有一个稍加审核的平台。

1）作动词，表示“承诺，保证（做某事）；保证给予（某物）”，英文解释为“When someone pledges to do something, they promise in a serious way to do it. When they pledge something, they promise to give it.”举个🌰：

He pledges support and offers to help in any way that he can.

他承诺给予支持并提供力所能及的帮助。

2）表示“抵押”，英文解释为“If you pledge something such as a valuable possession or a sum of money, you leave it with someone as a guarantee that you will repay money that you have borrowed.”举个🌰：

He asked her to pledge the house as security for a loan.

他要她抵押房子作为贷款担保。

3）作名词，表示“誓言；诺言；保证”，英文解释为“When someone makes a pledge, they make a serious promise that they will do something.”举个🌰：

The meeting ended with a pledge to step up cooperation between the states of the region.

会议以加快该地区州之间合作的承诺结束。

1）表示“ 适度；适中；合理；节制”，英文解释为“the quality of being reasonable and not being extreme”举个🌰：

The United Nations Secretary General called on all parties to show moderation.

联合国秘书长呼吁各方要克制。

2）也有“审核，审核评分制”的含义，英文解释为“the action or process of moderating examination papers, results, or candidates”。

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述TikTok的文章中提到：Controversies around TikTok's content moderation and data protection will keep cropping up. TikTok在内容审查和数据保护方面的争议将不断涌现。

In a message to advertisers on Twitter on Thursday, Mr. Musk said he was buying the company to “have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.” He said Twitter “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”

马斯克周四告诉Twitter的广告客户，他买下这家公司是为了“打造一个共同的数字城市广场，在那里，许多信仰可以在良好的气氛下被讨论”。他说，Twitter“不能成为一个说话可以不负责任的自由放纵的地狱！”

free-for-all /ˌfriː.fəˈrɔːl/ 表示“不受控制的局面，人人均可为所欲为的情形，自由放任”，英文解释为“a violent situation or argument that a lot of people join in”举个🌰：

The fight on the basketball court turned into a free-for-all.

篮球场上的打斗很快便失控了。

表示“地狱般的景象；令人极不愉快或非常严酷的地方或事物”，英文解释为“an area that looks extremely unpleasant, especially because everything there has been destroyed, or a picture that represents this”

Mr. Musk said the platform must be “warm and welcoming to all” and suggested Twitter could let people “choose your desired experience according to your preferences, just as you can choose, for example, to see movies or play videogames ranging from all ages to mature.”

马斯克表示，该平台必须对所有人都“温暖友好”，并建议Twitter可以让人们“根据喜好选择想要的体验，就像人们在看电影或玩游戏时可以选择各年龄段的内容一样”。

Mr. Musk’s decision to go through with the Twitter takeover came two weeks before a trial in Delaware was set to begin over the stalled deal. The judge presiding over the legal clash agreed to pause the litigation, granting a request by Mr. Musk for more time to complete the takeover. The judge gave Mr. Musk until Oct. 28 to follow through with his offer, or said she would schedule a November trial.

马斯克收购Twitter的交易曾一度陷入停滞，特拉华州（Delaware）一家法院针对该交易的审理原定于两周后开始。此前主持这场官司的法官答应暂停诉讼程序，同意了马斯克的请求，给他留出更多时间来完成收购。该法官允许马斯克在10月28日结束前完成他的收购提议，否则她将安排在11月份进行审理。

1）表示“审讯，审理，审判”，英文解释为“A trial is a formal meeting in a law court, at which a judge and jury listen to evidence and decide whether a person is guilty of a crime.”举个🌰：

I have the right to a trial with a jury of my peers.

我有权要求由和我一样的平民组成的陪审团参加审判。

2）表示“（对能力、质量、性能等的）试验，试用”，英文解释为“the process of testing the ability, quality or performance of sb/sth, especially before you make a final decision about them”。

区分：

📍trail作名词则表示“小路，小径”，如：a forest/mountain trail 林间/山间小道，以及“臭迹；踪迹；痕迹；蛛丝马迹，线索”等意思（the smell or series of marks left by a person, animal, or thing as it moves along；various pieces of information that together show where someone you are searching for has gone）举个🌰：

The dogs are trained to follow the trail left by the fox.

这些狗经过特别的训练，能够追踪狐狸留下的气味。

presiding /prɪˈzaɪ.dɪŋ/ 表示“主持的，指挥的”，英文解释为“in charge of a formal meeting, ceremony, or trial”如：the presiding judge 审判长。

litigation /ˌlɪt.ɪˈɡeɪ.ʃən/ 表示“诉讼，起诉”，英文解释为“the process of taking a case to a court of law so that a judgment can be made”举个🌰：

The company has consistently denied responsibility, but it agreed to the settlement to avoid the expense of lengthy litigation.

公司一直在推卸责任，但同意这一调解方案以避免漫长的诉讼所带来的花费。

Mr. Musk offered in April to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share—higher than the company was valued at the time. In the months since the deal was struck, Twitter has faced efforts by Mr. Musk to abandon the deal, a whistleblower complaint in which Twitter’s former head of security accused the company of security and privacy problems, and unsuccessful talks to negotiate a lower price with Mr. Musk.

马斯克今年4月份提出以每股54.20美元的价格收购Twitter，高于该公司当时的估值。该交易达成后的几个月里经历了一波三折，先是马斯克试图放弃交易，Twitter前安全主管举报该公司存在安全和隐私问题，之后马斯克又与Twitter谈判下调收购价格但未果。

表示“告发者，检举者，吹哨者”，英文解释为“a person who tells someone in authority about something illegal that is happening, especially in a government department or a company”。

Mr. Musk’s takeover leaves big questions over the future of the platform, including how he might revamp its business model and how he might implement changes he has proposed for the way it polices content.

马斯克的收购让Twitter的未来面临一些巨大疑问，包括他可能如何改革该平台的商业模式，以及可能如何实施所提出的内容管理方式调整。

表示“改变；修改；（通常指）改进外观，翻新”，英文解释为“to make changes to the form of sth, usually to improve its appearance”举个🌰：

We revamped the management system, but the business is doing no better than it was before.

我们对管理制度作了彻底改进，但是经营业绩并不比从前好。

🎬电影《鬼寓143》（Apartment 143）中的台词提到：We revamped the entire electrical system. 我们改造了整个电气系统。

1）表示“维持…的治安，巡查；在…部署警察”，英文解释为“to control or guard a public event or area by using members of the police or a similar force”；

2）表示“控制；监督”，英文解释为“to control the way in which a possibly dangerous substance is dealt with or a dangerous activity is done”举个🌰：

The use of these chemicals must be carefully policed.

这些化学药品使用时必须受到严格控制。

Like other social-media companies, Twitter heavily relies on digital advertising and has faced headwinds in recent months due to broad economic uncertainty. It will also be saddled with billions in debt as a result of the deal, and payments on those loans will add costs for a company that has posted a loss in eight of its past 10 fiscal years.

与其他社交媒体公司一样，Twitter严重依赖数字广告，近几个月来，由于广泛的经济不确定性，该公司面临压力。由于这项交易，该公司还将背负数以十亿美元计的债务，偿还这些贷款将增加该公司的成本。该公司在过去10个财年中有八年亏损。

headwind /ˈhed.wɪnd/ 表示“顶风，逆风”，英文解释为“a wind blowing in the opposite direction to the one you are moving in”举个🌰：

The runners had to battle against a stiff/strong headwind.

跑步者只能顶着劲风前行。

表示“使（某人）负担，使（某人）承担（重任或难题）”，英文解释为“to give someone a responsibility or problem that they do not want and that will cause them a lot of work or difficulty”举个🌰：

The company is saddled with debt.

公司负债累累。

1）作名词，表示“职位，职务”，英文解释为“a job in a company or organization”举个🌰：

Teaching posts are advertised in Tuesday's edition of the paper.

星期二的报纸上有招聘教师的广告。

📍二〇二一年新年贺词中提到“顽强不屈的坚守”时，原句：holding posts with tenacity. 其中posts指的是岗位，（坚守）岗位。

2）此外，经常在网上冲浪的就比较熟悉，post除了作名词，表示“网站上公布的信息；帖子”，英文解释为“something such as a message or picture that you publish on a website or using social media”，也可以作动词，表示“（在网站上）公布，发布（信息）；发（帖）”，英文解释为“to publish something such as a message or picture on a website or using social media”举个🌰：

Lots of friends have commented on my post.

很多小伙伴给我的帖子评论了。

3）作动词，表示“张贴，公布”，英文解释为“to stick or pin a notice on a wall in order to make it publicly known”，也可以特指“公布（公司）财务结果”，英文解释为“to announce a company's financial results”举个🌰

The oil company posted profits of $25.1 billion.

石油公司公布利润为251亿美元。

The deal turned into a wild business drama with little precedent. Mr. Musk moved to buy Twitter in April. After signing a merger agreement, however, he accused the company of misrepresenting the prevalence of fake and spam accounts on its platform, which Twitter denied.

这笔交易此前演变成了一场几乎前所未见的商业闹剧。马斯克在4月提出收购Twitter。然而，在签署并购协议后，他指责Twitter没有如实公布其平台上虚假和垃圾账户盛行的情况，而Twitter对此予以否认。

表示“先例，前例”，英文解释为“an action, situation, or decision that has already happened and can be used as a reason why a similar action or decision should be performed or made”举个🌰：

There are several precedents for promoting people who don't have formal qualifications.

提拔没有正式学历的人是有几个先例的。

表示“（公司、企业等的）合并”，英文解释为“an occasion when two or more companies join together to make one larger company”举个🌰：

She's an attorney who advises companies about mergers and takeovers.

她是位律师，提供公司合并、收购方面的咨询服务。

表示“不如实地叙述（或说明）；误传；歪曲；诈称”，英文解释为“to describe falsely an idea, opinion, or situation, often in order to get an advantage”举个🌰：

She accused her opponents of deliberately misrepresenting her as an extremist.

她指责对手故意诬陷她是极端分子。

prevalence /ˈprev.əl.əns/ 表示“流行，盛行；普遍，广泛”，英文解释为“the fact that something is very common or happens often”如：the prevalence of smoking among teenagers 青少年吸烟的普遍性。

He formally tried to abandon the deal in July, prompting Twitter to sue him to enforce the original merger agreement. Mr. Musk countersued.

马斯克在7月正式试图放弃这笔交易，促使Twitter对他提起诉讼，要求执行最初的并购协议。马斯克提出了反诉。

counter- 表示“反，逆”，英文解释为“opposing or as a reaction to something”如：a counterattack (= an attack on someone who has attacked you) 反击；反攻。

📍counter-sue 表示「反诉」

In early October, Mr. Musk suddenly abandoned his legal battle with Twitter, with little public explanation. After his reversal, he tweeted that “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” He previously suggested he could create a social-media platform named X.com if he didn’t buy Twitter.

10月初，马斯克突然放弃了与Twitter的法律战，对此并没有公开解释。他改变主意后在Twitter上写道，收购Twitter是创建万能应用X的助推器。他此前曾暗示，如果不收购Twitter，他可能创建一个名为X.com的社交媒体平台。

reversal /rɪˈvɜː.səl/ 1）表示“反向；倒转；倒退；推翻”，英文解释为“the act of changing or making something change to its opposite”举个🌰：

He demanded a reversal of the previous decision/policy.

他要求撤销原来的决定/废弃原先的政策。

2）表示“挫折；失败”，英文解释为“a problem or failure”举个🌰：

We have suffered a couple of minor/temporary reversals.

我们遭遇了几次小/暂时的挫折。

accelerant /əkˈsel.ə.rənt/ 表示“加速剂，促进剂，催化剂”，英文解释为“a substance that makes the progress or growth of something faster, especially something that helps a fire to burn”如：a fire accelerant 一种助燃剂。

Eric Talley, a law professor at Columbia University, said after the most recent about-face that several factors were piling up against Mr. Musk, including rulings from the court denying some of Mr. Musk’s discovery requests. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, who was overseeing the case in Delaware, had called some of his data requests “absurdly broad.”

哥伦比亚大学法学教授埃里克·塔利（Eric Talley）在马斯克最近改变态度之后表示，有几个因素都对马斯克不利，包括法院拒绝马斯克的一些证据开示请求的裁决。特拉华州主持该案的法官凯萨琳·麦考密克（Kathaleen McCormick）称他的一些数据开示请求“宽泛得不合情理”。

美式 about-face 英式 about turn 1）表示“（朝反方向的）倒转”，英文解释为“a change of direction”举个🌰：

I'd only gone a little way down the street when I remembered I hadn't locked the door, so I made/did a quick about-turn.

我在街上刚走出不远就想起来忘锁门了，于是马上转身跑回去。

2）表示“（意见或行为的）彻底转变”，英文解释为“a complete change of opinion or behaviour”举个🌰：

This is his second about-turn on the issue.

这是他在这个问题上立场第二次180度大转变。

类似的：U-turn.

📍 U-turn 1）表示“（观念或行为上的）彻底转变”，英文解释为“a complete change from one opinion or plan of action to an opposite one”举个🌰：

He did/made a quick U-turn in response to all the adverse publicity.

面对所有这些不利宣传，他的态度来了个180度的大转弯。

2）表示“U 型转弯，180度转弯”，英文解释为“a turn made by a car in order to go back in the direction from which it has come”举个🌰：

It is illegal to do/make a U-turn on a motorway.

在高速路上掉头是违章的。

pile up表示“（使）（不好的事物）增加，（使）累积”，英文解释为“(of something bad) to increase”举个🌰：

Unpaid bills began to pile up alarmingly.

未支付的账单越积越多，数目惊人。

“He has spent months with various attempts to figure out ways out of this deal,” Mr. Talley said. “All those windows had started to close and some of them closed completely.”

“他已经花了几个月的时间，尝试了各种方法试图从这笔交易中抽身而去，”塔利说，“所有这些窗口已经开始关闭，其中一些已经完全关闭。”

Mr. Musk’s specific plans for the company remain unclear. He could return Twitter to public ownership after just a few years, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

马斯克对Twitter的具体计划仍不清楚。《华尔街日报》此前报道称，短短几年后他可能就会将Twitter重新上市。

By taking Twitter private, the billionaire entrepreneur likely can take more risks to jump-start the company’s business. “It’s going to be bumpy,” said Youssef Squali, lead internet analyst at Truist Securities. “He can take it away for a couple of years, really kind of re-engineer the whole thing,” Mr. Squali said.

将Twitter私有化，意味着为了推动该公司业务重新起航，这位亿万富翁企业家可能要承担更多风险。“这个过程不会一帆风顺，”Truist Securities首席互联网分析师尤瑟福·斯卡利（Youssef Squali）称，“他可能会将Twitter私有化，并用几年的时间真正重新设计整个业务流程。”

jump-start /ˈdʒʌmp.stɑːt/ 表示“（采取行动）推动”，英文解释为“to improve a situation by taking a particular action”

bumpy /ˈbʌm.pi/ 表示“颠簸的，崎岖不平的”，英文解释为“not smooth”举个🌰：

We drove along a narrow, bumpy road.

我们行驶在崎岖不平的小路上。

补充：

📍have a bumpy ride表示“经历困难；处境艰难”（to have a difficult time） 举个🌰：

She's had a bumpy ride at work over the last few months.

过去的几个月里，她在工作上很不顺利。

Mr. Musk has suggested he wants to shift Twitter away from its advertising-heavy business model to other forms of revenue, including a greater emphasis on subscriptions. Advertising accounted for more than 90% of Twitter’s revenue in the second quarter of this year.

马斯克曾表示，他希望让Twitter从重广告的商业模式转向其他形式的收入来源，包括更加强调订阅。今年第二季度，广告在Twitter收入中占90%以上。

表示“（报刊等的）订阅费，订购款，订阅，订购”，英文解释为“an amount of money you pay, usually once a year, to receive regular copies of a newspaper or magazine, etc.; the act of paying this money”如：an annual subscription 一年期订阅。

He said he would allow former President Donald Trump back on the platform, though Mr. Trump has said he doesn’t intend to return to it. Twitter banned Mr. Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, citing what the company called “the risk of further incitement of violence.”

马斯克称，他将允许前总统特朗普（Donald Trump）重返该平台。不过特朗普已表示自己不打算这样做。2021年1月6日美国国会大厦袭击事件发生后，Twitter封禁了特朗普的账号，理由是“有进一步煽动暴力的风险”。

in the wake of表示“作为…的后果；随…之后而来”，英文解释为“If something happens in the wake of something else, it happens after and often because of it.”举个🌰：

Airport security was extra tight in the wake of yesterday's attacks.

昨天的袭击发生之后，机场安检变得格外严格。

🎬电影《科洛弗道10号》（10 Cloverfield Lane）中的台词提到：In the wake of this afternoon's widespread blackout 在今天下午的大面积停电之后，...

🎬电影《阿波罗13号》（Apollo 13）中的台词提到：lt was that phosphorescent stuff that gets churned up in the wake of a big ship. 就是在大船驶过后被搅上来 会发出磷光的那种东西。

🎬传记电影《史蒂夫·乔布斯》（Steve Jobs）中的台词提到：Apple Computers closed two of its factories today in the wake of disappointing sales. 因为销量不佳 苹果电脑今天关闭了两家工厂。

表示“煽动；鼓动”，英文解释为“If someone is accused of incitement to violent or illegal behaviour, they are accused of encouraging people to behave in that way.”

“Twitter is obviously not going to be turned into some right wing nuthouse. Aiming to be as broadly inclusive as possible,” Mr. Musk said in a message that was among a trove released as part of the legal battle.

马斯克曾在一条信息中表示，Twitter显然不会被变成一些右翼人士的疯人院，而是会尽可能地广泛包容。该信息是作为法律诉讼的一部分而发布的。

nuthouse /ˈnʌt.haʊs/ 同 psychiatric hospital，表示“精神病院”，英文解释为“a psychiatric hospital ”

trove /trəʊv/ 表示“有价值的物品（信息）；藏宝地，宝库”，英文解释为“a group of valuable or interesting things or pieces of information, or the place where they are”通常会说a treasure trove of sth.，如：a treasure trove of information 丰富的信息，举个🌰：

LearnAndRecord Shop is a treasure trove of curiosities and gadgets.

“LearnAndRecord商店”是一座新奇物品的宝库。

The prospect of Mr. Musk taking over Twitter, as well as the subsequent uncertainty over the deal, roiled many Twitter employees. Twitter has told employees that they will hear from Mr. Musk on Friday, according to an internal note reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

马斯克可能接管Twitter的前景以及该交易随后的不确定性，曾使许多Twitter员工感到愤怒。根据《华尔街日报》看到的一份内部通知，Twitter告诉员工，他们将在周五收到马斯克的消息。

roil 表示“扰乱；使混乱；使…停止正常运作”，英文解释为“Something that roils a state or situation makes it disturbed and confused.”也可以表示水的“激荡；翻腾”，英文解释：If water roils, it is rough and disturbed. 举个🌰：

The water roiled to his left as he climbed carefully at the edge of the waterfall.

当他在瀑布边缘小心攀爬时，水飞溅到他左边。

- 今日盘点 -

takeover

cap

reference

see sth through

acquisition

poop

mock

overlay

left-wing

bias

endeavor

shareholder

acquire

saga

prominent

implication

discourse

pledge

moderation

free-for-all

hellscape

trial

presiding

litigation

grant

whistleblower

revamp

police

headwind

saddle sb with sth

post

precedent

merger

misrepresent

prevalence

prompt

counter-

reversal

accelerant

about-face

pile (sth) up

jump-start

bumpy

subscription

in the wake of sth

incitement

nuthouse

trove

roil

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- 推荐阅读 -

2022政府工作报告中英文对照注释版

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「LearnAndRecord」2021大盘点

写在七周年的话

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