12月27日午间英语新闻：网友投票支持马斯克应辞去推特CEO

Twitter users say Elon Musk should step down as CEO 
网友投票：马斯克应辞去推特CEO

Twitter users voted with a majority in a weekend poll indicating that Elon Musk should step down as CEO of the social media company. Among the 17.5 million votes cast in Musk's 12-hour poll, which closed early Monday, 57.5 percent were in favor of his exit, with 42.5 percent indicating he should stay.
在周末的一项民调中，多数推特网友投票支持埃隆·马斯克辞去这家社交媒体公司的首席执行官职务。马斯克发起该投票12小时后，有1750万人参与，57.5%的人支持他辞职，42.5%的人表示他应该留下来。

The move followed another day of controversy for the social media platform that has been in turmoil since Musk bought it in October and subsequently laid off large swaths of employees, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.
据《旧金山纪事报》报道，自今年10月收购推特并随后解雇了大量员工以来，公司陷入混乱，马斯克此举又引发了争议。

On Sunday morning, Twitter announced that it would prohibit users from steering their followers to their Instagram, Facebook, or Mastodon pages. It said accounts that repeatedly violated this new rule would be permanently suspended.
12月18日上午，推特宣布将禁止用户将粉丝导流至Instagram、Facebook或Mastodon主页。推特称，多次违反这一新规定的账户将被永久封号。

Vigorous blowback from Twitter users followed, and Musk later Sunday tweeted an apology, saying that "going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes." By Sunday night, Twitter had taken down its posts and its website notice announcing the new policy about linking to the targeted social media platforms.
此举引发推特用户强烈不满，马斯克当天在推特上致歉，称“今后，将对重大政策调整进行投票”。到18日晚，推特已经删除其帖子和网站通知，宣布了有关分享目标社交媒体平台链接的新政策。

By that time, Musk had also invited Twitter users to vote "yes" or "no" to the question of whether he should step down as the head of Twitter, and promised he'd follow the poll's results.
当时，马斯克还邀请推特用户对他是否应该卸任推特CEO一职进行投票，并承诺将遵守投票结果。

Later Sunday, he tweeted, "No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor."
18日晚些时候，马斯克在推特上发文称，“没有人想要接手拯救推特的工作。没有继任者。”

Musk expressed pessimism about the prospects for a new CEO, saying that such a person "must like pain a lot" to run a company that "has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy."
马斯克对新任首席执行官的前景表示悲观，称这样的人“必须非常享受痛苦”，才能经营一家“一直快速走向破产”的公司。

重点词汇
1、step down
辞职，退位；走下；逐步减低

2、turmoil
英/ ˈtɜːmɔɪl /   美/ ˈtɜːrmɔɪl /
n. 混乱，骚动
v. 扰乱，使不安

3、laid off
下岗；解雇；下岗；解雇

laid-off workers
下岗职工 ; 下岗工人 

laid-off
下岗 ; 下岗人员 ; 被解雇的

4、successor
英/ səkˈsesə(r) /  美/ səkˈsesər /
n. 继承者，接替的事物；（组织、机器等的）接替物

5、pessimism
英/ ˈpesɪmɪzəm /  美/ ˈpesɪmɪzəm /
n. 悲观，悲观情绪；（哲）悲观主义

US deep freeze leaves more than 700,000 without power, thousands of flights canceled
大型冬季风暴席卷美国 致使70多万用户断电 数千架航班取消

An arctic blast that gripped much of the United States on Saturday left more than 700,000 without power, at least 16 dead from weather-related car crashes, and thousands stranded due to flight cancellations.
当地时间12月24日，一股来自北极的极寒风暴席卷了美国大部分地区，造成70多万人断电，至少16人死于与天气有关的车祸，数千人因航班取消而受困。

Plummeting temperatures were expected to bring the coldest Christmas Eve on record, and energy systems across the country were strained by rising demand for heat and storm-related damage to transmission lines.
骤降的气温预计将带来有记录以来最冷的平安夜，美国各地的能源系统因高温需求上升和风暴对输电线路造成的破坏而紧张。

The latest outage numbers are a sharp drop from the 1.8 million US homes and businesses left without power as of early Saturday morning, according to tracking site Poweroutage.us. Many electric companies continued to ask customers to conserve energy by not running large appliances and turning off unneeded lights.
美国电力跟踪网站PowerOutage.us的数据显示，截至24日凌晨，美国有180万家庭和企业断电，目前，全美断电用户数已有明显下降。许多电力公司继续要求客户节约能源，不要使用大型电器，关闭不需要的灯。

Disruptions upended daily routines and holiday plans for millions of Americans during one of the year's busiest travel periods. More than 2,700 flights were canceled on Saturday, with total delays tallying more than 6,400, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. More than 5,000 flights were canceled on Friday, FlightAware said.
在一年中最繁忙的旅行假期之一，交通中断打乱了数百万美国人的日常生活和假日计划。据美国航班跟踪网站Flightaware统计，24日，美国有2700多个航班被取消，总延误超过6400次，23日有5000多个航班被取消。

The American Automobile Association had estimated that 112.7 million people would venture 50 miles (80 km) or more from home between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2.  But stormy weather heading into the weekend likely ended up keeping many people at home.
美国汽车协会原先估计，在12月23日至1月2日期间，约有1.127亿美国人将进行冒险离家50英里（80公里）或更远。但周末的暴风雨天气可能会让许多人选择呆在家里。

Weather-related car accidents around the country left at least 16 dead and hundreds stranded on ice and snowbound roads, according to media reports.
据媒体报道，全美各地与天气有关的交通事故已造成至少16人死亡，大量驾车族被困在被冰雪覆盖的道路上。

重点词汇
1、plummeting
英/ ˈplʌmɪtɪŋ /  美/ ˈplʌmɪtɪŋ /
n. 垂直落下；骤然下跌
adj. 直线下降的
v. (数量、比率、价格) 暴跌；垂直落下

2、upend
英/ ʌpˈend /  美/ ʌpˈend /
v. 使颠倒，倒放；（水中的鸭或其他鸟捕食时头部与前腹部潜入水中，尾部翘起）倒栽葱；（使某人）跌倒，翻转；（足球赛中）故意绊倒，铲倒（对方队员）