【视频讲解】

AS A teenager, Travis Kalanick’s first job was to knock on strangers’ doors and sell them knives. Now he is trying to dodge the daggers aimed at him and at Uber, a ride-hailing firm that is the world’s most valuable startup. On March 19th Jeff Jones, the company’s president, stepped down after six months, declaring that “the beliefs and approach to leadership that have guided my career are inconsistent with what I saw and experienced at Uber.” At least six key executives and high-ranking employees have left in the past nine weeks. They include Uber’s head of mapping, a former head of self-driving car technology, and an artificial-intelligence (AI) expert who had been put in charge of the firm’s AI research lab only three months ago.
特拉维斯•卡兰尼克（Travis Kalanick）在十几岁时做的第一份工作是上门向陌生人推销刀具。如今他则在努力躲避朝他和优步（这家网约车公司是全球估值最高的创业公司）飞来的刀子。3月19日，该公司的总裁杰夫•琼斯（Jeff Jones）在上任六个月后辞职，并宣称“在优步的见闻体验与自己职业生涯中一直遵循的领导理念和方式有冲突。”过去九周内，至少已有六位核心高管及高层员工离职，其中包括优步的地图测绘部门主管、自动驾驶汽车技术部门的一名前主管，以及一位三个月前才开始掌管优步人工智能研究实验室的AI专家。

dodge v.躲避
- He dodged questions.
dagger n.匕首
ride-hailing 一键叫车
inconsistent adj.不符合
artificial adj.人工的
- artificial diamonds
intelligence n.治理
put in charge of 任命去管理

Aggressive and unrelentingly ambitious, Mr Kalanick built his eight-year-old company into America’s largest privately owned technology firm by treading on the toes of different groups, including traditional taxi drivers, other tech companies and regulators. He pushed into new markets abroad and raised an unprecedented amount of capital, to the tune of around $12.5bn, including debt. The firm has a valuation of close to $70bn .
好斗的而具有不懈雄心的卡兰尼克不惜开罪传统出租车司机、其他科技公司和监管机构等不同团体，把这家创立八年的公司打造成美国最大的非上市私人科技公司。他努力开拓海外市场，筹集到前所未有的巨额资本，包括借债在内约达125亿美元。该公司目前估值接近700亿美元。

aggressive adj.好斗的
unrelentingly adv.不懈地 (not slowing down/stopping)
- unrelenting adj.有决心的
- an unrelenting leader
ambitious adj.有抱负的
tread on someone‘s toes 得罪某人
- tread v.踩 (step on)
- Carelessly treading on the flowers.
unprecedented adj.史无前例的
capital n.资金
to the tune of 达到...之多
debt n.债务

Yet a remarkable run of bad news for Mr Kalanick, combined with some setbacks for Uber itself, threatens to halt the firm’s momentum. “I have never seen someone have such a bad couple of months,” commiserates the boss of a large, public tech firm. Politics struck first: in January Mr Kalanick was widely criticised for serving on Donald Trump’s businessadvisory committee and for apparently intervening in a strike by taxi drivers opposed to Mr Trump’s ban on refugees. A campaign, called #DeleteUber, took off, encouraging users to stop using the Uber app.
然而，坏消息接二连三地向卡兰尼克袭来，加上优步本身遭遇的一些挫折，公司的发展势头受到威胁。“我从没见过有人像这样倒霉好几个月的。”一家大型上市科技公司的老板同情地说。先是政治方面的冲击：今年1月，卡兰尼克因加入特朗普的经济顾问团，以及疑似干扰出租车司机反对特朗普难民禁令的停运活动而广受批评。网民们发起名为“#删除优步”（#DeleteUber）的行动，鼓动优步用户卸载该应用。

remarkable adj.引人注目的
setback n.挫折
- Despite some early setbacks, they finally became successful.
halt v.暂停
- The project halted for lack of funds.
momentum n.势头
- maintain the momentum
commiserate v.同情
strike v.袭击
intervene v.介入
- The military had to intervene to restore order.