2023考研英语：《经济学人》中英读译Day262

英语阅读能力依靠什么？必然是词汇的积累，但，仅仅是词汇的积累是不够了，更应该了解英语句式，不同句型所表达意义。如何培养自己的阅读语感呢？那么就跟着聚创考研网小编每天学一点英语，一起为考研筑起坚实的地基。阅读是需要积累的，就像我们需要经常和人沟通才会促进我们的表达能力一样~小伙伴跟着小编一起，每天坚持打卡，培养英语阅读能力及语感，了解文章一些经典词汇的用法。

经济学人:科技泡沫正在破裂（上）

A favourite pastime in Silicon Valley, second only to inventing the next new thing, is bubble-spotting.Even industry insiders tend to get these things spectacularly wrong.“You’ll see some dead unicorns this year,” Bill Gurley, a noted venture capitalist, predicted in 2015, the year that incubation of these startups worth more than $1bn really got going.The game has just become much easier: the sound of bubbles popping can be heard all over the place.Tech shares, initial public offerings (IPOs), blank-cheque companies (known as SPACs), startup valuations and even cryptocurrencies: all the assets that climbed to dizzying heights over the past few years are now coming down to earth.It is harder to say how loudly they will burst - and which might still reflate.The decline of tech shares is the most spectacular.The NDXT, the index of the 100 largest tech firms on the Nasdaq exchange, is down by a third since its peak in early November.Firms in this index have lost a combined $2.8trn in market value.‍

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在硅谷，大家最喜爱的一种消遣方式就是发现泡沫，仅次于发明下一个新事物。即使是业内人士也常常会在这些事情上大错特错。著名风险投资家比尔·格利曾在2015年预测：“今年有一些独角兽企业会倒闭。”而这些价值超过10亿美元的初创企业的孵化就在那一年真正开始。这场游戏已变得简单得多：到处都能听到泡沫破裂的声音。科技股、首次公开募股、空白支票公司(又称特殊目的并购公司)、初创公司估值，甚至加密货币：所有在过去几年攀升至令人目眩的高度的资产，现在都在回归现实。很难说它们会以多大的声音破裂——以及哪些仍有可能再度膨胀。科技股的下跌最为壮观。由纳斯达克交易所100家最大科技公司组成的NDXT指数，自11月初达到峰值以来，已下跌了三分之一。该指数中的公司市值总共损失了2.8万亿美元。

High-flying startups that went public in recent years have been hit hard, too.The shares of Robinhood are 80% below the level at which the retail-trading app went public in July 2021.Those of Peloton, which makes internet-connected exercise bikes, have lost over 90% of their value from their peak.As a group, the largest newly listed firms are worth 38% less than at the start of the year.Small wonder that IPOs have dried up.From January to April 2021 some 150 companies went public in America, most of them techie.This year only 30 have done so.The boom in SPACs, which go public and then find a startup with which to merge, has imploded.Of the more than 1,000 such firms that have floated in America since 2018, only a third have merged with a target.Many of those that have done deals have lost their shine.According to an index that tracks the 25 largest de-SPACed vehicles, they have lost 56% of their value since the beginning of the year.As tech shares crash, they are pulling valuations of private firms down with them.CB Insights, a research firm, reckons that tech startups raised $628bn globally in 2021 in more than 34,000 deals.Between January and March this year the number of transactions fell by 5% compared with the previous quarter.

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近年来成功上市的高歌猛进的初创公司也受到了重创。零售交易应用Robinhood的股价比该公司于2021年7月上市时的水平低80%。Peloton是一家生产联网健身自行车的公司，其市值相比巅峰期已下跌超过90%。总体来说，大型新上市公司的市值相比今年年初缩水了38%。难怪IPO市场已经枯竭。2021年1月到4月期间，大约有150家公司在美国上市，其中大多数是科技公司。今年只有30家公司上市。特殊目的并购公司的繁荣破灭，这类公司会先上市，然后找一家初创公司进行合并。自2018年以来，在美国上市的1000多家此类公司中，只有三分之一与目标公司进行了合并。许多曾经达成交易的公司也已失去了往日的光彩。根据一项追踪了25家最大的已完成合并的公司的指数，这些公司的市值自今年年初以来已经下跌了56%。随着科技股崩盘，私营企业的估值也随之下降。研究公司CB Insights估计，2021年，全球科技初创企业通过逾3.4万笔交易筹集了6280亿美元。今年1月到3月之间，交易数量相比前一季度下降了5%。

The amount of capital invested dropped by 19%, the biggest quarterly decline since 2012.The unicorn boom’s superstar investors have been walloped.On May 12th SoftBank, a Japanese tech investor with a penchant for risky bets, most of which are private, reported that its flagship funds lost an eye-watering $33bn in the past 12 months.Although they were meant to reach the Moon no matter what, cryptocurrencies are also coming a cropper.Even some hardened “hodlers” have been getting cold feet.On May 12th bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, was trading below $26,000, less than half its peak in early November.Other digital monies have shed even more value.The next four biggest coins have lost more than 70% since their peak.Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), even more speculative titles to digital assets such as art that can be traded, have been hammered, too.Sales of NFTs in ether, another big cryptocurrency, have dropped by more than half in recent weeks on OpenSea, a big nft marketplace.

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资本投资额下降了19%，为2012年以来的最大季度降幅。独角兽热潮中的超级明星投资者被击溃。5月12日，日本科技投资者软银（该公司热衷于高风险投资，其中大部分是私人投资）报告称，其旗舰基金在过去12个月里损失了330亿美元，惨不忍睹。尽管加密货币无论怎样都注定是要登上月球的，但它们也在走下坡路。即时是一些坚定的“持币者”也开始胆怯退缩。5月12日，规模最大的加密货币比特币的交易价格低于26000美元，不及11月初峰值的一半。其他数字货币的价值缩水更厉害。紧随其后的四种最大的加密货币相比最高点下跌超过70%。非同质化代币(NFTs)，甚至更多的风险性数字资产，比如可以进行交易的艺术品，也受到了打击。最近几周，在大型NFT市场OpenSea上，另一种大型加密货币以太的NFT销售额下降了一半以上。