乔布斯传 第97期:最年轻的亿万富翁(2)

 He was not particularly philanthropic.

乔布斯并不是一个特别乐善好施的人。

He briefly¹ set up a foundation, but he discovered that it was annoying to have to deal with the person he had hired to run it, who kept talking about "venture" philanthropy and how to "leverage²" giving.

他曾短暂地创立过一个基金，但发现他雇来管理基金的那个家伙十分烦人，总是谈及做慈善的新方法以及如何运用捐赠。

Jobs became contemptuous of people who made a display of philanthropy or thinking they could reinvent it.

乔布斯开始轻视那些总是把慈善挂在嘴上或是认为自己可以彻底改变慈善事业的人。

Earlier he had quietly sent in a $5,000 check to help launch Larry Brilliant's Seva Foundation to fight diseases of poverty, and he even agreed to join the board.

早些时候，他曾悄悄送出一张5000美元的支票，帮助成立拉里·布里连特的塞瓦基金会，该基金会致力于帮助穷人对抗疾病，乔布斯甚至同意了加入其董事会。

But when Brilliant brought some board members, including Wavy³ Gravy⁴ and Jerry Garcia, to Apple right after its IPO to solicit⁵ a donation, Jobs was not forthcoming.

然而，在苹果完成IPO之后，布里连特带着几位董事会成员--包括维维·格里维和杰里·加西亚--来到苹果公司募集善款的时候，乔布斯并没有满足他们。

He instead worked on finding ways that a donated Apple II and a VisiCalc program could make it easier for the foundation to do a survey it was planning on blindness in Nepal.

相反，他努力说服他们，自己之前捐赠的一台Apple II和VisiCalc程序可以帮助基金会简化他们计划中的针对尼泊尔民众失明情况的调査。

His biggest personal gift was to his parents, Paul and Clara Jobs, to whom he gave about $750,000 worth of stock.

乔布斯最大的一次个人赠与是送给自己的父母--保罗·乔布斯和克拉拉·乔布斯的，他送出了价值约75万美元的股票。

They sold some to pay off the mortgage on their Los Altos home, and their son came over for the little celebration.

老两口出售了其中一部分，用以偿还洛斯阿尔托斯的房子的抵押贷款，他们的儿子也回到家中庆祝。

"It was the first time in their lives they didn't have a mortgage," Jobs recalled.

“这是他们人生中第一次没有背负贷款，”乔布斯回忆道，

"They had a handful of their friends over for the party, and it was really nice."

“他们请来了少数几个朋友，到家中开派对，那场面太温馨了。”

Still, they didn't consider buying a nicer house.

但他们并没有考虑换一套好点儿的房子。

"They weren't interested in that," Jobs said. "They had a life they were happy with."

“他们对那个没有兴趣，”乔布斯说，“他们对现在的生活很满意。”

Their only splurge was to take a Princess cruise each year.

他们唯一的奢侈举动就是每年都乘坐公主号游轮度假一次。

The one through the Panama Canal "was the big one for my dad," according to Jobs,

据乔布斯说，穿越巴拿马运河的那条航线是“我爸爸的最爱”

because it reminded him of when his Coast Guard ship went through on its way to San Francisco to be decommissioned.

因为会让他想起自己在海岸警卫队的时候，他们的船穿越巴拿马运河驶往旧金山退役的情景。

1 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

2 leverage   

n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量

参考例句：

• We'll have to use leverage to move this huge rock.我们不得不借助杠杆之力来移动这块巨石。
• He failed in the project because he could gain no leverage. 因为他没有影响力，他的计划失败了。

3 wavy   

adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的

参考例句：

• She drew a wavy line under the word.她在这个词的下面画了一条波纹线。
• His wavy hair was too long and flopped just beneath his brow.他的波浪式头发太长了，正好垂在他的眉毛下。

4 gravy   

n.肉汁；轻易得来的钱，外快

参考例句：

• You have spilled gravy on the tablecloth.你把肉汁泼到台布上了。
• The meat was swimming in gravy.肉泡在浓汁之中。

5 solicit   

vi.勾引；乞求；vt.请求，乞求；招揽(生意)

参考例句：

• Beggars are not allowed to solicit in public places.乞丐不得在公共场所乞讨。
• We should often solicit opinions from the masses.我们应该经常征求群众意见。