[英语新闻]为何21世纪缺少发明巨人

原文期刊：金融时报

原文标题：

Inventors Are the Greatest Heroes of All

本文剖析了 现代社会中缺乏发明巨人的原因，属于现象分析型文章，按照

“

提出现象

—

—

分析原因

”

的脉络展开论述。

【原文】

Ⅰ

Society has a curious attitude towards inventors. Their

brilliance

over the centuries touches

all of our lives in countless ways, yet we mostly take their efforts for granted. Indeed, more

often than not in Britain we describe them as weird scientists like Caractacus Potts in Chitty

Chitty Bang Bang. This

ambivalence

is a mistake; to me, they are perhaps the greatest heroes

of all.

Ⅱ

It is a great shame that so much innovation now seems to stem from nameless teams inside

large corporations. The whole idea of technological progress had so much more personality in

the

era

of

giants

like

Nikola

Tesla

and

Thomas

Edison.

There

are

too

few

such

inspirational

figures

around

today

to

dazzle

and

excite.

Perhaps

the

solitary

ideas

of

one man are not enough to produce real technological progress in the 21st century.

Ⅲ

Flash of

Genius

, a movie based on an article by John Seabrook tells the true story of Bob

Kearns, the professor who pioneered the windscreen wiper for cars. He showed it to the Ford

Motor

Company

in

1969,

but

subsequently

entered

into

endless

litigation

with

it,

almost

reminding people of Jarndyce and Jarndyce in Charles Dickens' Bleak House. More than 20

years later, he settled for $$10.2m, but only after his legal actions had taken over his life.

Ⅳ

Yet

the

spirit

of

independent

innovation

springs

eternal

.

Unfortunately,

it

appears

patent

infringement

and

suchlike

is

a

fact

of

life

for

inventors.

Knowledge

of

patent

law

and

persistence

bordering

on the

obsessive

seem

useful

attributes

if

you

want

to

be

a

successful inventor.

Ⅴ

Moreover,

it

is

clear

that

some

abuse

the

patent

system

to

prevent

progress.

Too

many

patents are now issued, many of

dubious

merit

—

especially in the field of software patents.

1

Patent

trolls

are those who file “paper patents” or “submarine patents” that they never intend

to

exploit,

but

merely

use

as

tools

to

sue

unwitting

infringers.

Both

Research

in

Motion,

maker

of

the

BlackBerry,

and

more

recently

Microsoft

have

suffered

from

this

type

of

behaviour, which acts as a harmful toll on

endeavour

.

Ⅵ

Inventors

are

fundamentally

motivated

by

a

desire

to

see

their

creations

become

appreciated and recognised, rather than an urge to accumulate wealth. Tim Berners-Lee, the

man

responsible

more

than

any

other

for

the

initiation

of

the

world

wide

web,

is

a

classic

example

of

this

attitude.

He

is

a

modest

academic

who

has

resisted

countless

proposals

to

make huge fortunes from the web, in order to carry on his role as one of its supervisors.

Ⅶ

Some

inventors

are

almost dismissive

of

accountants

and

bankers

—

they

say

the

money

men

do

not

understand

the

way

creative

minds

work.

Yet

inventors

must

have

a

deeply

practical

quality:

they

need

to

think

of

ways

to

fabricate

new

things.

They

should

be

a

combination of artist and engineer: with the vision to imagine a new device, and the ability to

make it come to life.

【词汇短语】

ance ['br< /p>

?

l

??

ns] n.

光芒，辉煌

ational [ ??

nsp

??

re

< br>???

nl] a.

给予灵感的

[?d?zl]

v.

晕眩，眼花缭乱

ry

[?s?

l

?

tri] a.

独自的，单独的

[?d?

i:ni

?

s] n.

天才

[spr

??] v.

跳跃，流淌

l [

??

t

?

:nl] a.

永恒的

tence [p

??

s

?

st

?

ns] n.

坚持

ive [

?b?ses?

v] a.

着迷的，迷恋的；强迫性的

ute [

??

tr

?

bju:t] n.

属性，特征

[

??

bju:s] v.

滥用

2

s [?dju:bi?

s] a.

可疑的

ing [

?n?w?

t

??] a.

无意的，没意识到的

our [

?

n'dev

?

(r)] n.

努力

...for granted

认为

……

是理所当然 的

ing on

接近于

on

对

(

人或事

)

的长期不良影响，毁坏，损失

sive of

嗤之以鼻的，不屑一顾的

19.*ambivalence [?m'b

?

v

?

l

?

< br>ns] n.

矛盾心理，矛盾状态

20.*litigation [?l?

t

< br>??

ge

??

n] n.

诉讼，官司

21.*infringement [

?

n'fr

?

nd

?

m

?

nt] n.

侵权

22.*troll [tr

?

l] n.

巨魔，巨怪

（标

*

的为超纲词）

【翻译点评】

Ⅰ①

Society

has

a

curious

attitude

towards

inventors.

②

Their

brilliance

over

the

centuries

touches

all

of

our

lives

in

countless

ways,

yet

we

mostly take

their

efforts

for

granted.

③

Indeed,

more

often

than

not

in

Britain

we

describe

them

as

weird

scientists

like

Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

④

This

ambivalence

is a mistake; to me, they

are perhaps the greatest heroes of all.

翻译：社会对待发明家的态度 很奇怪。几个世纪以来，他们的智慧以无数种方式触及

我们生活的方方面面，然而，我们 却通常把他们的努力看成是理所当然的事情。实际

上，在英国，我们往往把他们描绘为古 怪的科学家，就像《飞天万能车》中的卡拉克

塔克斯

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