马斯克真的把Twitter标志换掉了

再见「小蓝鸟」。

🤔️小作业：

A. By quoting experts' opinions about the destruction of Twitter's brand value.

B. By illustrating the discontent among Twitter users with anecdotal evidence.

C. By highlighting the risks faced by Twitter due to increased competition.

D. By arguing that the new logo could be interpreted as having a 'Big Brother' tech overlord vibe.

B. Users are conflicted but are willing to adapt to the changes gradually.

C. Users are resistant to the change, expressing nostalgia for the old branding.

D. Users have largely ignored the rebranding, focusing instead on the platform's features.

无注释原文：

From Twitter to X: Elon Musk Begins Erasing an Iconic Internet Brand

From: The New York Times

For more than 10 years, Twitter has been recognizable for its blue and white bird logo, which became a symbol of the social network’s unique culture and lexicon. To “tweet” became a verb. A “tweet” referred to a post. “Tweeps” became the moniker for Twitter employees.

Late on Sunday, Elon Musk began getting rid of it all.

The tech billionaire, who bought Twitter last year, renamed the social platform X.com on its website and started replacing the bird logo with a stylized version of the 24th letter of the Latin alphabet.

Inside Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco on Monday, X logos were projected in the cafeteria, while conference rooms were renamed to words with X in them, including “eXposure,” “eXult” and “s3Xy,” according to photos seen by The New York Times. Workers also began removing bird-related paraphernalia, such as a giant blue logo in the cafeteria. Outside the building, workers took off the first six letters of Twitter’s name before the San Francisco Police Department stopped them for performing “unauthorized work,” according to an alert sent by the department.

Mr. Musk had long said he might make the name change, but he hastened the process in a tweet early Sunday when he declared that “soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.” He has said he hopes to turn Twitter into an “everything app” called X, which would encompass not only social networking but also banking and shopping.

Earlier on Monday, Mr. Musk also shared a photo of a giant X projected on Twitter’s San Francisco office building with the caption: “Our headquarters tonight.”

The moves — which are continuing — are the most visible changes that Mr. Musk has made to Twitter since he closed the deal to buy the company in October. Behind the scenes, he has taken many steps to overhaul the firm, eliminating thousands of employees and changing the platform’s features, including badges that were meant to verify users, as well as the rules governing what can and can’t be said on the service.

Yet the name and logo changes were impossible to ignore. By starting to remove the Twitter name, Mr. Musk tossed out an entrenched brand that had been around since 2006 — when the company was founded — and that had delighted and frustrated celebrities, politicians, athletes and other users in equal measure. Twitter introduced its blue bird mascot in 2010 and updated it two years later.

Many Twitter users, who have spent years tweeting and building up their presence on the site, appeared alienated by the shift. “Has everybody seen the (eXecrable) new logo?” the actor Mark Hamill tweeted on Monday, with the hashtag #ByeByeBirdie. Others saw the move as Mr. Musk’s latest blow to the site, with some stubbornly saying they will still call the site Twitter and will continue to “tweet.”

When brands become verbs, it’s the “holy grail,” said Mike Proulx, a vice president and research director at Forrester, because it means they have become part of popular culture.

“The app itself has become a cultural phenomenon in all sorts of ways,” he said. “In one fell swoop, Elon Musk has essentially wiped out 15 years of brand value from Twitter and is now essentially starting from scratch.”

Mr. Musk risked the wrath of Twitter’s users even as he can ill afford to upset them. His company faces financial difficulties and increased competition, with rival Meta releasing an app this month for real-time, public conversations called Threads. The new app quickly racked up 100 million downloads in less than a week, though use of the app is under scrutiny.

Mike Carr, a co-founder of the branding company NameStormers, said Mr. Musk’s X logo could be interpreted as having an ominous “Big Brother” tech overlord vibe. Unlike the blue bird, which he described as warm and cuddly but perhaps a bit dated and weighed down by bad press, the new logo is “very harsh,” he said.

Still, it conjured phrases like “X marks the spot” and could help Mr. Musk differentiate the platform from its Twitter baggage, Mr. Carr said.

“If they do this wrong and it was anybody other than Elon Musk, he’d be running a higher risk because people could start making fun of it,” said Mr. Carr, who has helped come up with names for thousands of clients, including CarMax, the used car company.

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注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为纽约时报官方译文，仅供参考

含注释全文：

From Twitter to X: Elon Musk Begins Erasing an Iconic Internet Brand

From: The New York Times

For more than 10 years, Twitter has been recognizable for its blue and white bird logo, which became a symbol of the social network’s unique culture and lexicon. To “tweet” became a verb. A “tweet” referred to a post. “Tweeps” became the moniker for Twitter employees.

十几年来，人们已经十分熟悉Twitter蓝底白鸟的标识，它成为该社交网络独特文化和语汇的象征。“发推”成了一个动词。“推文”指的是一个帖子。“Tweeps”成为Twitter员工的绰号。

lexicon /ˈlek.sɪ.kən/ 表示“（某语言或学科的）全部词汇；词典”，英文解释为“(a list of) all the words used in a particular language or subject, or a dictionary”

tweet作名词，表示“发布在推特上的信息”，其实指的就是“推文”，英文解释为“a short remark or piece of information published on Twitter”；作动词，指的就是“发推文，发推特”（to publish a short remark or piece of information on Twitter），retweet就是转发推文，举个🌰：He tweeted that he was just about to meet the president. 他发推特说自己即将见到总统。

verb /vɜːb/ 表示“动词”，英文解释为“a word or phrase that describes an action, condition, or experience”举个🌰：The words "learn" and "record" are both verbs. learn和record都是动词。

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。

📍二〇二三年新年贺词：每个人都不容易中提到：Officials and the general public, particularly medical professionals and community workers, have bravely stuck to their posts through it all. 广大干部群众特别是医务人员、基层工作者不畏艰辛、勇毅坚守。

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“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。

moniker /ˈmɒn.ɪ.kər/ 表示“名字；绰号”，英文解释为“a name or nickname”

Late on Sunday, Elon Musk began getting rid of it all.

周日晚些时候，埃隆·马斯克开始抛却这一切。

The tech billionaire, who bought Twitter last year, renamed the social platform X.com on its website and started replacing the bird logo with a stylized version of the 24th letter of the Latin alphabet.

去年收购了Twitter的这位科技亿万富翁在该网站上将这一社交平台重新命名为X.com，并开始用拉丁字母表第24个字母的艺术字体取代小鸟标识。

stylized /ˈstaɪə.laɪzd/ 表示“程序化的;（尤指）非写实的”，英文解释为“If something is stylized, it is represented with an emphasis on a particular style, especially a style in which there are only a few simple details.”举个🌰：The rock drawings depict a variety of stylized mythological figures and patterns. 这些岩画刻画了大批非写实的神话形象和图案。

alphabet /ˈæl.fə.bet/ 表示“字母表”，英文解释为“a set of letters arranged in a fixed order, used for writing a language”如：the Roman/Cyrillic alphabet 罗马/西里尔字母表。

Inside Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco on Monday, X logos were projected in the cafeteria, while conference rooms were renamed to words with X in them, including “eXposure,” “eXult” and “s3Xy,” according to photos seen by The New York Times. Workers also began removing bird-related paraphernalia, such as a giant blue logo in the cafeteria. Outside the building, workers took off the first six letters of Twitter’s name before the San Francisco Police Department stopped them for performing “unauthorized work,” according to an alert sent by the department.

据《纽约时报》看到的照片，周一，在Twitter位于旧金山的总部内，自助餐厅里出现了X标识的投影，而会议室也被重新命名为带有X的单词，包括“eXposure”、“eXult”和“s3Xy”。工人们还开始拆除与小鸟标识有关的装置，例如自助餐厅里的巨大蓝底标识。在大楼外，工作人员取下了Twitter名字的前六个字母，根据旧金山警察局发出的警情通报，随后警局以“未经许可”为由阻止了他们。

1）表示“放映；投射（影、像或光）”，英文解释为“to cause a film, image, or light to appear on a screen or other surface”举个🌰：Laser images were projected onto a screen. 激光图像被投射到了屏幕上。

2）表示“预计，推算”，英文解释为“to calculate an amount or number expected in the future from information already known”举个🌰：Government spending is projected to rise by three percent next year. 明年政府的支出预计将增加3%。

exult /ɪɡˈzʌlt/ 表示“（尤指因别人失败而）欢欣鼓舞，兴高采烈，喜形于色”，英文解释为“to express great pleasure or happiness, especially at someone else's defeat or failure”举个🌰：They exulted at/over their victory. 他们获得了成功，喜形于色。

paraphernalia /ˌpær.ə.fəˈneɪ.li.ə/ 表示“（某项活动所需的）全部用具，全套装备”，英文解释为“all the objects needed for or connected with a particular activity”举个🌰：We sell pots, gloves, seeds and other gardening paraphernalia. 我们出售花盆、手套、种子及其他各类园艺用品。

unauthorized /ʌnˈɔː.θə.raɪzd/ 表示“未经授权的，未经许可的”，英文解释为“without someone's official permission to do something or be in a particular place”举个🌰：Unauthorized personnel are not admitted beyond this point. 未经许可，不得进入。

Mr. Musk had long said he might make the name change, but he hastened the process in a tweet early Sunday when he declared that “soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.” He has said he hopes to turn Twitter into an “everything app” called X, which would encompass not only social networking but also banking and shopping.

虽然马斯克早就表示他可能会更名，他在周日早些时候的一条推文中加快了这一进程，他宣称“很快我们将告别Twitter品牌，然后逐渐送走小鸟”。他曾表示，希望将Twitter打造成一款名为X的“超级应用程序”，不仅是社交网络，还涵盖银行业务和购物。

hasten /ˈheɪsən/ 表示“促进；使加快”，英文解释为“to make sth happen sooner or more quickly”举个🌰：The treatment she received may, in fact, have hastened her death. 实际上，她所接受的治疗可能加快了她的死亡。

adieu /əˈdjuː/ 表示“再见”，英文解释为“goodbye”举个🌰：She bade (= said to) him adieu and left. 她向他告别后离去。

表示“包含，包括（尤指很多不同事物）”，英文解释为“to include different types of things”举个🌰：The festival is to encompass everything from music, theatre, and ballet to literature, cinema, and the visual arts. 本届文化节将涵盖从音乐、戏剧、芭蕾到文学、电影、视觉艺术等各种艺术形式。

Earlier on Monday, Mr. Musk also shared a photo of a giant X projected on Twitter’s San Francisco office building with the caption: “Our headquarters tonight.”

周一早些时候，马斯克还分享了一张照片，显示Twitter旧金山办公楼上的巨型X标识投影，并配上说明文字：“今晚我们的总部。”

可以作动词，也可以作名词，表示“（图片或卡通的）说明文字”，英文解释为“A caption is the words printed underneath a picture or cartoon which explain what it is about.”如：a captioned photograph 一幅带有文字说明的照片，举个🌰：The local paper featured me standing on a stepladder with a caption, "He climbs the ladder to success." 当地的报纸刊登了一幅我站在梯子上的特写，下面写着：“他登上了成功之梯。”

The moves — which are continuing — are the most visible changes that Mr. Musk has made to Twitter since he closed the deal to buy the company in October. Behind the scenes, he has taken many steps to overhaul the firm, eliminating thousands of employees and changing the platform’s features, including badges that were meant to verify users, as well as the rules governing what can and can’t be said on the service.

这些正在进行中的举措是马斯克自去年10月完成收购该公司的交易以来对Twitter所做的最明显的改变。在幕后，他采取了许多措施对公司进行彻底改革，他裁减了数千名员工，并改变了平台的功能，包括认证用户的徽章，以及在该平台上可以说什么和不能说什么的规定。

overhaul /ˈəʊ.və.hɔːl/ 可以作动词也可以作名词，表示“彻底检修，大修；改造；改进”，英文解释为“to repair or improve something so that every part of it works as it should”举个🌰：I got the engine overhauled. 我彻底检修了发动机。

1）表示“排除；消除；清除”，英文解释为“to remove or take away someone or something”举个🌰：A move towards healthy eating could help eliminate heart disease. 养成健康的饮食习惯有助于消除心脏病诱因。

2）表示“（比赛中）淘汰”，英文解释为“to defeat someone so that they cannot continue in a competition”举个🌰：He was eliminated in the third round of the competition. 他在第3轮比赛中被淘汰。

表示“徽章；像章；证章；纪念章 ”，英文解释为“a small piece of metal, plastic, cloth, etc., with words or a picture on it, that you carry with you or that is fastened or sewn to your clothing, often to show your support for a political organization or belief, or to show who you are, your rank, or that you are a member of a group, etc.”

表示“核实；查对；核准；证明；证实”，英文解释为“to check that sth is true or accurate；to show or say that sth is true or accurate”举个🌰：We have no way of verifying his story. 我们无法核实他所说的情况。Her version of events was verified by neighbours. 她对这些事件的说法已得到邻居的证实。

Yet the name and logo changes were impossible to ignore. By starting to remove the Twitter name, Mr. Musk tossed out an entrenched brand that had been around since 2006 — when the company was founded — and that had delighted and frustrated celebrities, politicians, athletes and other users in equal measure. Twitter introduced its blue bird mascot in 2010 and updated it two years later.

然而，更换名字和标识是无法忽视的。通过开始去除Twitter名称，马斯克抛弃了一个自2006年该公司成立以来就一直存在的标志性的品牌，无论是名人、政客、运动员还是其他用户，都同样对这个平台有过喜悦和不满。Twitter于2010年推出了蓝色小鸟吉祥物，并于两年后进行了更新。

toss /tɒs/ sth out表示“丢弃…，抛弃…”，英文解释为“to get rid of or remove something”举个🌰：She tossed out my old chair. 她把我的旧椅子扔了。

entrenched /ɪnˈtrentʃt/ 表示“牢固确立的；根深蒂固的；积重难返的”，英文解释为“Entrenched ideas are so fixed or have existed for so long that they cannot be changed.”举个🌰：It's very difficult to change attitudes that have become so deeply entrenched over the years. 改变多年以来形成的根深蒂固的旧看法是很困难的。

🎬电影《别让我走》（Never Let Me Go）中的台词提到：The tide is with the entrenched mindset, with values that are still unexamined 他们固步自封 抱残守缺 坚守着未经证实的价值观。

mascot /ˈmæs.kɑːt/ 表示“吉祥物”，英文解释为“a person, animal, or object that is believed to bring good luck, or one that represents an organization”如：a team mascot 球队的吉祥物。

Many Twitter users, who have spent years tweeting and building up their presence on the site, appeared alienated by the shift. “Has everybody seen the (eXecrable) new logo?” the actor Mark Hamill tweeted on Monday, with the hashtag #ByeByeBirdie. Others saw the move as Mr. Musk’s latest blow to the site, with some stubbornly saying they will still call the site Twitter and will continue to “tweet.”

多年来，一直在Twitter上发推并在该网站上建立影响力的许多许多用户似乎对这种转变存在排斥感。“大家都看到新的（不堪入目的[eXecrable]）标志了吗？”演员马克·哈米尔周一在Twitter上发布了带有#ByeByeBirdie#标签的推文。还有人则认为，此举是马斯克对该网站的最新打击，一些人固执地表示，他们仍会将该网站称为Twitter，并将继续“发推文”。

alienate /ˈeɪljəˌneɪt/ 1）表示“使背离；使不友好；离间”，英文解释为“to make sb less friendly or sympathetic towards you”(LOSE SUPPORT)举个🌰：His comments have alienated a lot of young voters. 他的言论使许多年轻选民离他而去。2）表示“使格格不入；使疏远”，英文解释为“to make someone feel that they are different and not part of a group”举个🌰：Disagreements can alienate teenagers from their families. 家庭争吵会使青少年跟家人产生感情裂痕。

🎬电影《猜情寻》（Chasing Amy）中的台词提到：Or you'll alienate him because of it. 或者你会因为这个而疏远他。

alienated /ˈeɪ.li.ə.neɪ.tɪd/ 表示“疏离的，疏远的，不合群的”，英文解释为“feeling that you have no connection with the people around you or that you are not part of a group”或者表示“（对于某人或某种观点）不再支持的”，英文解释为“feeling that you no longer support or agree with a person or group or their ideas”

execrable /ˈek.sə.krə.bəl/ 表示“拙劣的；糟糕的；极坏的”，英文解释为“very bad”如：an execrable performance 极拙劣的表演。

表示“在社交媒体上发文时用来描述主题的#号”，英文解释为“used on social media for describing the general subject of a Tweet or other post (= message)”.

When brands become verbs, it’s the “holy grail,” said Mike Proulx, a vice president and research director at Forrester, because it means they have become part of popular culture.

福里斯特研究公司副总裁、研究总监迈克·普鲁克斯表示，品牌名字成为动词是一个品牌成功的“圣杯”，因为这意味着它们已经成为流行文化的一部分。

the holy grail /ˌhəʊ.li ˈɡreɪl/ 1）表示“圣杯（传说耶稣在最后的晚餐上使用过）”，英文解释为“a cup believed to have been used by Jesus Christ at the meal before his death”

2）表示“极难找到（或得到）之物”，英文解释为“something that is extremely difficult to find or get”举个🌰：Sustained nuclear fusion is the holy grail of the power industry. 能持久反应的核聚变是电力工业梦寐以求的“圣杯”。

“The app itself has become a cultural phenomenon in all sorts of ways,” he said. “In one fell swoop, Elon Musk has essentially wiped out 15 years of brand value from Twitter and is now essentially starting from scratch.”

“该应用程序本身已经以各种方式成为了一种文化现象，”他说。“埃隆·马斯克一举抹杀了Twitter 15年的品牌价值，现在基本上是从头开始。”

at/in one fell swoop表示“一举，一下子”，英文解释为“If you do something at/in one fell swoop, you do it all at the same time.”举个🌰：I got all my Christmas shopping done in one fell swoop. 我一次就把圣诞节需要的所有物品都买齐了。

1）表示“摧毁；使灭绝”，英文解释为“To wipe out something such as a place or a group of people or animals means to destroy them completely.”举个🌰：Experts say if the island is not protected, the spill could wipe out the gulf's turtle population. 专家们说如果那座小岛得不到保护，此次泄露有可能使该海湾地区的海龟灭绝。

2）表示“（尤指车辆）失控，出事故”，英文解释为“to lose control, especially in a vehicle, and have an accident”举个🌰：I was going too fast and I wiped out on the bend. 我开得太快了，在拐弯处失去了控制。

表示“从零开始”，英文解释为“If you do something from scratch, you do it without making use of anything that has been done before.”举个🌰：Building a home from scratch can be both exciting and challenging. 白手起家既激动人心又具有挑战性。

Mr. Musk risked the wrath of Twitter’s users even as he can ill afford to upset them. His company faces financial difficulties and increased competition, with rival Meta releasing an app this month for real-time, public conversations called Threads. The new app quickly racked up 100 million downloads in less than a week, though use of the app is under scrutiny.

马斯克冒着激怒Twitter用户的风险，尽管他承受不起惹恼他们的后果。他的公司面临着财政困难和日益激烈的竞争，竞争对手Meta本月发布了一款名为Threads的实时公开对话应用，在不到一周时间内迅速获得了一亿次下载量，不过它的使用情况正受到密切关注。

wrath /rɒθ/ 表示“愤怒；愤慨”，英文解释为“extreme anger”举个🌰：The people feared the wrath of God. 人们害怕上帝发怒。

表示“积累，大量获得（利润）；严重遭受（损失）；（体育中）多次赢得（比赛）”，英文解释为“If a business racks up profits, losses, or sales, it makes a lot of them. If a sportsman, sportswoman, or team racks up wins, they win a lot of games or races.”举个🌰：Lower rates mean that firms are more likely to rack up profits in the coming months. 更低的费率意味着各公司更有可能在未来的几个月里获得大量利润。

scrutiny /ˈskruːtɪnɪ/表示“细看，仔细审查；监视”，英文解释为“the careful and detailed examination of something in order to get information about it”举个🌰：His private life came under media scrutiny. 他的私生活开始受到媒体的密切关注。

Mike Carr, a co-founder of the branding company NameStormers, said Mr. Musk’s X logo could be interpreted as having an ominous “Big Brother” tech overlord vibe. Unlike the blue bird, which he described as warm and cuddly but perhaps a bit dated and weighed down by bad press, the new logo is “very harsh,” he said.

品牌公司NameStormers的联合创始人迈克·卡尔说，马斯克的X标志可以被解读为可怕的“老大哥”科技霸主之感。他说，蓝鸟标识温暖可爱，但可能有点过时，而且受到负面新闻的影响，相比起来，新标志则“非常刺眼”。

表示“（使人感到）不吉利的，不祥的”，英文解释为“making you feel that something bad is going to happen”举个🌰：‘How long will she be ill?’ he asked. There was an ominous silence. “她的病多久会好？”他问。大家的沉默让人感觉不妙。

overlord /ˈəʊ.və.lɔːd/ 表示“（尤指旧时的）领主，大王，霸主”，英文解释为“a person in a position of power, especially in the past”

表示“（某地、某种局面或某支曲子的）气氛，氛围”，英文解释为“the mood or character of a place, situation, or piece of music”举个🌰：The music has a soothing vibe. 这种音乐能让人放松。

cuddly /ˈkʌd.əl.i/ 表示“可爱的；令人想抱的”，英文解释为“liking to cuddle, or making you want to cuddle”如：a very cuddly child 非常可爱的小孩。

1）表示“使(某人)感到沉重；压下，压倒”，英文解释为“if something weighs you down, it is heavy and difficult to carry”；

2）表示“使感到焦虑，使烦恼，使忧心忡忡”，英文解释为“if a problem weighs you down, it makes you feel worried and upset”举个🌰：He felt weighed down by his responsibilities. 他感到自己的责任重得难以承受。

Still, it conjured phrases like “X marks the spot” and could help Mr. Musk differentiate the platform from its Twitter baggage, Mr. Carr said.

卡尔说，尽管如此，它还是让人联想到“这就是确切地点(X marks the spot)”这样的说法，可以帮助马斯克让这个平台摆脱Twitter的包袱。

conjure /ˈkʌn.dʒər/ 表示“变戏法；用魔法变出；像变魔术般变出”，英文解释为“to make something appear by magic, or as if by magic”举个🌰：In an instant, the magician had conjured (up) a dove from his hat. 魔术师眨眼间便从他的帽子里变出了一只鸽子。

conjure sth up 表示“想象出；联想起”，英文解释为“to make a picture or idea appear in someone's mind”举个🌰：The glittering ceremony conjured up images of Russia's imperial past. 辉煌的典礼让人联想起俄罗斯帝国昔日的景象。

1）表示“短语”，英文解释为“a group of words that is part of, rather than the whole of, a sentence”。

2）表示“说法；用语；警句”，英文解释为“a short group of words that are often used together and have a particular meaning”

“If they do this wrong and it was anybody other than Elon Musk, he’d be running a higher risk because people could start making fun of it,” said Mr. Carr, who has helped come up with names for thousands of clients, including CarMax, the used car company.

“如果他们这件事没做对，而且不是埃隆·马斯克在做的话，风险会更高，因为人们可能会取笑他，”卡尔说。他曾帮助数千家客户取名字，包括二手车公司CarMax。

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