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An earlier sunny mood about technology and innovation has given way to pessimism.
在技术与创新领域，悲观主义取代了先前的乐观态度

Sunny
快活的；性情开朗亲切的：
a sunny smile.
温和的微笑
Given way to
取代=replace
My excitement gave way to fear when I drove a car for the first time.

The most striking battle in modern business pits the techno-optimists against the techno-pessimists.
在现代商业中，高新技术乐观派与悲观派构成了激烈对峙的两大阵营。

Striking 明显
In one respect, however, the men really were strikingly similar.
Pit
1. 坑，陷阱
2. 使对立：置于直接对立或竞争的位置：
a war that pitted brother against brother. 一场兄弟之间直接对立的战争
Techno-
科技，技术，工艺：
technophobia.科技恐惧症

The first group argues that the world is in the middle of a technology-driven renaissance.
乐观主义者声称，世界正处于技术驱动的复兴中。
Renaissance
文艺复兴时期：大约从14世纪到16世纪的复兴时期，标志着从中世纪到现代时期的过渡
Renaissance architecture

Tech CEOs compete with each other for superlatives.
各技术巨头相互竞争，力求推出最优秀的产品。
Compete with
与...竞争
例句:We ask for a level playing field when we compete with foreign companies.
我们寻求一个能与外国公司公平竞争的环境。
Superlative
最佳品质
Some superlative wines are made in this region.

Business professors say that our only problem will be what to do with the people when the machines become super-intelligent.
商学院教授则认为，唯一需要担心的是，当机器发展为超级智能，人类该如何应对。

Intelligent
1. 智能的：具有数据储存和处理能力的：
an intelligent terminal; artificial intelligent
智能终端；人工智能
2. 明智的，深思熟虑的：显示出可靠的判断和推理的：
an intelligent decision; an intelligent solution to the budget problem.
深思熟虑的决定；对预算问题的合理的解决办法

The pessimists retort that this is froth: a few firms may be doing wonderfully but the economy is stuck.
悲观主义者则反讥道，以上言论不过是高谈弘论：虽然少部分公司的确运行得不错，但经济已陷入停滞。
Larry Summers of Harvard University talks about secular stagnation.
哈佛大学的拉里•萨默斯就此提出了“长期停滞”。

Retort
反驳，甚至到反击（语言）
Others retort that strong central power is a dangerous thing in Russia.
Froth 泡沫
the froth of bubbles on the top of a glass of beer
Stuck 停滞
He said his car had got stuck in the snow.
Secular
1. 世俗的：现实的而不是精神的，非宗教
It began as a religious organization, but these days it is purely secular.
2. 长久的：
Secular inflation
Stagnate=>stagnation
停滞
Industrial production is stagnating.

Tyler Cowen, of George Mason University, says that the American economy has eaten all the low-hanging fruits of modern history and got sick.
乔治梅森大学的泰勒•科文认为，美国经济已耗尽现代史上一切唾手可得的成果而趋于病态。

Low-hanging fruit
唾手可得的事情，形容很容易得到
Don't be satisfied with the low-hanging fruit.
got sick 生病
例句:I even stole for you when you got sick.
在你生病的时候我甚至还为你偷过东西。

Until recently the prize for the most gloom-laden book on the modern economy has gone to Robert Gordon of Northwestern University.
唱衰现代经济势的问鼎之作是1月出版的西北大学罗伯特•戈登写的。

Gloom
阴暗，黑暗；昏暗：
switched on a table lamp to banish the gloom of a winter afternoon.
打开台灯来赶走冬天傍晚的昏暗
Lade
=load 装载
Laden
承受重负的：
“the warmish air, laden with the rains of those thousands of miles of western sea”(&b{Hilaire Belloc}) “暖暖的空气充满着几千里外西方海洋的雨水”(西莱尔•贝洛克)

In “The Rise and Fall of American Growth”, published in January, Mr Gordon argues that the IT revolution is a minor diversion compared with the inventions that accompanied the second industrial one—electricity, motor cars and aeroplanes— which changed lives profoundly.
戈登在《美国兴衰》一书中指出，第二次工业革命中，电力、汽车和飞机都曾给日常生活带来翻天覆地的变化，而IT革命不过是小巫见大巫。

Rise and Fall 兴衰
Rise and Fall of Rome
Diversion 消遣
Strangers and travelers were welcome sources of diversion, and brought news of the outside world.
Profound 深远的：贯穿整个的；意义深远的：
profound social changes.意义深远的社会变革

The current information upheaval, by contrast, is merely altering a narrow range of activities.
近年来，人们获取信息的方式发生了剧变，但也仅仅是让原本就为数不多的方式增添了些新花样。

Upheaval
1. 举起
2. 突变：突然而猛烈的爆发或错乱：
“the psychic upheaval caused by war”(&b{Wallace Fowlie})
“战争所导致的心理恐慌”(华莱士•福利)
Alter
变更，更改：改变或使之不同；修饰：=modify
altered my will.
修改我的遗嘱

Now a new book, “The Innovation Illusion” by Fredrik Erixon and Bjorn Weigel, presents a still more pessimistic vision.
弗雷德里克•埃里克松和比约?恩格尔现发行了他们的新书《创新的假象》，书中表达了更为悲观的看法。

Illusion
An erroneous perception of reality.
错觉，假象：对现实错误的看法
No one really has any illusions about winning the war.
Vision
幻想，对于未来的想象，观点
That's my vision of how the world could be.

Messrs Erixon and Weigel write that the very engine of capitalist growth, the creative destruction described by Joseph Schumpeter, is kaput.
他们在书中写道，资本主义发展的“核心引擎”（約瑟夫•熊彼特曾称其为创造性破坏）已运作失常。

Capitalist
资本主义的，也可以指资本家
Kaput
完蛋了！
He finally admitted that his film career was kaput.

Aside from a handful of stars such as Google and Amazon, they point out, capitalism is ageing fast.
他们指出，除了如谷歌和亚马逊等少数精英公司仍发展良好，资本主义整体已迅速老化。

Aside from
=Excluding; except for: 不包括；除…以外：
Aside from a mild fever, the patient feels fine. 除了有点中度发烧外，病人感觉良好
point out 指出
例句:Critics point out that the prince, on his income, should be paying tax
批评家指出王子的收入应该纳税。
Age 变老
He was only in his mid-thirties, but already worry had aged him.