英汉双语阅读——史蒂夫·乔布斯——苹果的科技巨人

Steve Jobs,the Apple tech titan

Steve Jobs was born on24th February,1955,in the city of San Francisco,and grew up in a farming area that was already turning into the world centre of computer technology,Silicon Valley.

As a teenager,Steve was interested in computers.Once he phoned William Hewlett, president of Hewlett-Packard,to ask for some computer parts he needed for a school project.He got them,along with an offer of a summer job at HP.

In1971,he met and quickly became friends with Stephen Wozniak,also known as Woz.Woz got the idea of designing his own computer,which was really only a circuit board.Steve saw that many people were interested in his friend’s work,so he suggested they sell the board to them.Apple Computer was born.

Steve and Woz spent their first year in business assembling the boards in Steve’s garage and driving to local computer stores to try and sell them.Meanwhile,Woz worked on a new computer,the Apple II,which he finished in1977.The Apple II was much more advanced than anything the market had ever seen.

Thousands of people bought the Apple II.The company grew very fast and went public three years later,on12th December1980.That day Steve Jobs,only25years old, was worth more than$200million.

There are quite a few interesting facts about this“tech titan”:

Steve bought his Woodside house in1984and lived there throughout the1990s.The house was famous for its enormous size and for its total lack of furniture.Steve was such a perfectionist that he could never make a decision on what to buy and so bought nothing.As a bachelor he only had a mattress,some pictures on the walls and a very expensive stereo system,but no furniture.He did not sleep on a bed for years even though he was a multi-millionaire.At Woodside the kitchen was the only room that was fully furnished.

In2010,the year before he died,Jobs gave himself a salary of$1per year.He had about5.5million shares of Apple’s stock,but he never sold a share.

When he died the front page of the website of displayed a picture of the late Steve Jobs,and the second page contained this tribute to the industry leader: Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius,and the world has lost an amazing human being.Those of us who’ve been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve lost a dear friend and inspiring mentor.Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built,and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

史蒂夫·乔布斯——苹果的科技巨人

1955年2月24日，史蒂夫·乔布斯出生于旧金山。他在一个农业地区长大，当时这个地区已经开始发展成为计算机技术的世界中心——硅谷。

十几岁的时候，史蒂夫对计算机产生了兴趣。有一次他给惠普公司的总裁威廉·休利特打电话，索要他为完成学校项目所需要的零件。他得到了这些零件，随之而来的还有一份在惠普公司暑期实习的机会。

1971年，他遇到了斯蒂芬·沃兹尼亚克，绰号沃兹。两人迅速成为朋友。沃兹想设计一台自己的电脑——其实只是一块集成电路板。史蒂夫发现有许多人对他的朋友这项工作感兴趣，于是他建议将主板卖给这些人。由此，苹果电脑公司诞生了。

第一年，史蒂夫和沃兹在车库中装配主板，然后驾车到当地的电脑商店尝试着推销这些主板。同时，沃兹开发了一台新的电脑，即苹果二代。沃兹于1977年基本完成。苹果二代比市场上有过的任何一台电脑都先进的多。

成千上万的人买了苹果二代。公司迅速成长，并在三年之后的1980年12月12日上市。那一天，年仅25岁的史蒂夫·乔布斯身家超过2亿美元。

关于这位“技术巨人”有相当多有趣的事情：

史蒂夫在1984年购买了伍德赛德的房子。整个20世纪90年代他都住在这里。这幢房子因规模巨大但完全没有家具而闻名。史蒂夫太过追求完美，以至于他一直无法决定买什么，于是什么也没买。当他还是单身汉时，他只有一个床垫，墙上挂了一些画，还有一套极为昂贵的音响系统，但没有家具。虽然是千万富翁，但他好多年都没在床上睡过。在伍德赛德的家里，厨房是唯一一间配套齐全的房间。

2010年，在他去世前一年，乔布斯付给自己一美元的年薪。他持有苹果约550万股的股票，但从未卖出过一股。

他去世后，苹果网站的首页放了已故的史蒂夫·乔布斯的照片，第二页包含了对这位行业的领导者的致敬：

苹果失去了一个有远见和创造性的天才，世界也从此失去了一位了不起的人。而有幸与史蒂夫相识并共事的我们，则失去了一位亲爱的朋友，一位启发灵感的导师。史蒂夫留下一个只有他自己才能创造的公司，而他的精神将永远是苹果的根基。