“拉错群”事件持续发酵

近日，《大西洋月刊》总编辑杰弗里·戈德堡称自己被拉入涉密群聊，提前知晓了美军空袭也门计划一事。

今天你练听力了吗？

🤔️小作业：

1. What can be inferred about Signal's user growth pattern from the passage?

A. It relies primarily on celebrity endorsements to attract new users.

B. Significant spikes occur following publicized privacy failures of competitors.

C. Growth is steady due to the app's compatibility with other systems.

D. Most new users come from pre-existing WhatsApp group migrations.

无注释原文：

Signal Ascends From Hacker Passion Project to Washington's Top Messaging App

From: The Wall Street Journal

Meredith Whittaker spent her first few years running Signal preaching the encrypted-messaging app's benefits for sensitive conversations, regardless of whether users had anything to hide.

This week her pitch got a lot easier. Signal attracted a wave of users after the Atlantic published the details of a group chat in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared attack plans with a group that included key members of the U.S. administration, including the vice president, as well as the magazine's editor in chief. 

Signal said app downloads this week are double what they were last week. Suddenly, the not-for-profit app that competes with Meta Platforms's WhatsApp and Apple's iMessage with a paltry $50 million annual budget is ascendant.

“Every time there is what we call a big tech screw-up or a massive data breach, we see spikes in Signal growth,” Whittaker said in an interview last fall with the podcaster Kara Swisher. Whittaker declined to comment for this article. 

“There are so many great reasons to be on Signal,” Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike said on X. “Now including the opportunity for the vice president of the United States of America to randomly add you to a group chat for coordination of sensitive military operations.”

The app, which now has 30 million monthly users, collects virtually no user data and makes it difficult to discover others on Signal, making a viral Signal post a near-impossibility. Whittaker has touted its privacy and security over that of rival apps and said it exists to help the masses, not any one group or cause.

“We are really laser-focused on the mission of maintaining a meaningful way to communicate intimately and privately with the people we care about in a world where that is decreasingly possible,” she said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last year.

Funded by donations and grants to cover expenses such as bandwidth and hosting, Signal got its start as a messaging service hatched by a self-described crypto enthusiast. 

Much of Signal's current operating costs are for infrastructure, renting servers and hardware from big tech companies such as Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft.

- ◆ -

注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为华尔街日报官方译文，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Signal Ascends From Hacker Passion Project to Washington's Top Messaging App

From: The Wall Street Journal

Meredith Whittaker spent her first few years running Signal preaching the encrypted-messaging app's benefits for sensitive conversations, regardless of whether users had anything to hide.

梅雷迪思·惠特克（Meredith Whittaker）在运营Signal的头几年里，一直在宣传这款加密通讯应用在进行敏感对话方面的优势，无论用户是否真的有什么要隐瞒的。

1）表示“宣传，宣扬，宣讲（教义、生活方式、体制等）”，英文解释为“to tell people about a particular religion, way of life, system, etc. in order to persuade them to accept it”举个🌰：He preached the virtues of capitalism to us. 他向我们宣扬资本主义的优点。

2）表示“ 说教”，英文解释为“to give sb advice on moral standards, behaviour, etc, especially in a way that they find annoying or boring”举个🌰：You're preaching at me again! 你又在对我说教了！

encrypt /ɪnˈkrɪpt/ 作动词，表示“将…译成密码；把…编码；把…加密”，英文解释为“to change electronic information or signals into a secret code (= system of letters, numbers, or symbols) that people cannot understand or use on normal equipment”举个🌰：Your financial information is fully encrypted and cannot be accessed. 有关你财务状况的信息已被完全加密，别人无法看到。

反义词：

 📍decrypt /dɪˈkrɪpt/ 表示“对（电子信息）进行解码，破译，破解”，英文解释为“to change electronic information or signals that were stored, written, or sent in the form of a secret code (= a system of letters, numbers, or symbols) back into a form that you can understand and use normally”举个🌰：Messages encrypted using the public key can be decrypted only by someone with the private key. 用公共钥匙加密的信息只能由有私人钥匙的人来进行解密。

This week her pitch got a lot easier. Signal attracted a wave of users after the Atlantic published the details of a group chat in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared attack plans with a group that included key members of the U.S. administration, including the vice president, as well as the magazine's editor in chief. 

本周，她的推销变得容易多了。《大西洋月刊》（The Atlantic）公布了一个群聊的细节，美国国防部长皮特·海格塞斯（Pete Hegseth）在这个群聊中分享了战争计划，群成员包括副总统等美国政府的关键人物以及该杂志的总编。消息一出，Signal吸引了一大波用户。

pitch /pɪtʃ/ 作名词 1）表示“投球”，英文解释为“a throw in a baseball game”如：a good/bad pitch 质量好/差的投球。

2）表示“运动场地；（尤指）足球场”，英文解释为“an area painted with lines for playing particular sports, especially football”如：a football/hockey/cricket pitch 足球/曲棍球/板球赛场。

作动词，pitch /pɪtʃ/ 表示“竭力劝说”，英文解释为“to try to persuade someone to do something”举个🌰：She pitched her idea to me over a business lunch. 她在一次吃工作午餐时竭力向我游说她的想法。

📍“pitch”是一个商业术语，通常用于描述提出一个想法、产品、服务或企业给潜在的投资者、客户或合作伙伴的过程。可以将它翻译为“推销”，“销售提案”或“推介”。

Editor-in-Chief的缩写EiC，表示“主编，总编辑”，也可以说lead editor或者chief editor；Wikipedia的解释为：An editor-in-chief, also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies.

Signal said app downloads this week are double what they were last week. Suddenly, the not-for-profit app that competes with Meta Platforms's WhatsApp and Apple's iMessage with a paltry $50 million annual budget is ascendant.

Signal表示，本周的应用下载量是上周的两倍。这款非营利性应用的年度预算仅为5,000万美元，却在与Meta Platforms旗下WhatsApp和苹果公司（Apple）旗下iMessage的竞争中突然崛起。

表示“（钱数）微不足道的，无价值的”，英文解释为“(of an amount of money) very small and of little or no value”举个🌰：Student grants these days are paltry. 如今的学生助学金少得可怜。

表示“向上的；优越的；占支配地位的”，英文解释为“rising in power or influence”

“Every time there is what we call a big tech screw-up or a massive data breach, we see spikes in Signal growth,” Whittaker said in an interview last fall with the podcaster Kara Swisher. Whittaker declined to comment for this article. 

“每次发生我们所说的大型科技公司失误或大规模数据泄露事件时，我们都会看到Signal的用户数量激增，”惠特克去年秋天在接受播客主持人卡拉·斯威舍（Kara Swisher）采访时表示。惠特克对本文不予置评。

screw-up表示“把事情搞砸了；犯了大错”，英文解释为“a situation in which you do something badly or make a big mistake”举个🌰：There's been a screw-up with our hotel reservation. 我们的旅店预订系统出了乱子。

1）作名词，表示“违反”，英文解释为“A breach of an agreement, a law, or a promise is an act of breaking it.”举个🌰：The congressman was accused of a breach of secrecy rules. 这个国会议员被指控违反保密条例。

2）表示“（关系中的）裂痕”，英文解释为“A breach in a relationship is a serious disagreement which often results in the relationship ending.”举个🌰：Their actions threatened a serious breach in relations between the two countries. 他们的行动有威胁两国关系分裂的危险。

3）表示“破坏；辜负”，英文解释为“of sth an action that breaks an agreement to behave in a particular way”如：a  breach of confidence/trust  泄密；背信，a breach of security (= when sth that is normally protected is no longer secure) 破坏安全，data breach 数据泄漏。

spike /spaɪk/ 在年度词汇盘点文章中基本都会出现这个词，1）作名词，可以理解为“峰值”或者“激增；猛增；急升”，英文解释为“a sharp increase in the magnitude or concentration of something”如：a spike in oil prices 油价的急剧上涨。

2）也可以作动词，同样表示“激增”，英文解释为“if the number or rate of something spikes, it increases quickly and by a large amount ”举个🌰：New orders have spiked in the last two years. 新订单在过去两年里激增。

3）作名词，表示“尖头，尖刺；（尤指金属的）尖状物”，英文解释为“a narrow, thin shape with a sharp point at one end, or something, especially a piece of metal, with this shape”

4）spikes表示“（某些运动鞋上的）防滑鞋钉；钉鞋”，英文解释为“a set of short, pointed pieces of metal or plastic, attached to the bottom of shoes worn for particular sports, that stop the person wearing the shoes from sliding on the ground, or shoes with these pointed pieces”

“There are so many great reasons to be on Signal,” Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike said on X. “Now including the opportunity for the vice president of the United States of America to randomly add you to a group chat for coordination of sensitive military operations.”

“使用Signal的理由有很多，”Signal的联合创始人莫克西·马林斯派克（Moxie Marlinspike）在X上说。“现在又多了一个理由，那就是有机会被美国副总统随机拉进一个群聊，协调敏感的军事行动。”

The app, which now has 30 million monthly users, collects virtually no user data and makes it difficult to discover others on Signal, making a viral Signal post a near-impossibility. Whittaker has touted its privacy and security over that of rival apps and said it exists to help the masses, not any one group or cause.

这款应用目前月活跃用户数量达3,000万，它几乎不收集任何用户数据，也很难在Signal上找到其他人，这使得Signal上的帖子几乎不可能像病毒一样传播开来。惠特克曾宣称，与竞争对手的应用相比，Signal的隐私和安全性能更好，并表示该应用的存在是为了帮助大众，而不是任何一个群体或事业。

viral /ˈvaɪ.rəl/ 表示“（通过网络在个体之间迅速）病毒式的（传播）”，英文解释为“used to describe something that quickly becomes very popular or well known by being published on the internet or sent from person to person by email, phone, etc.”举个🌰：Here's a list of the top ten viral videos this week. 以下是本周十大病毒式传播的视频。

📍常用短语 go viral，字面意思就是“像病毒一样传播、扩散”，引申为“走红，十分流行，疯狂传播”，比如朋友圈xxx刷屏了，也可以说go viral. 📍名词形式virality.

tout /taʊt/ 表示“标榜；吹捧；吹嘘”，英文解释为“to try to persuade people that sb/sth is important or valuable by praising them/it”举个🌰：A local car dealership was touting its services/wares on the radio. 一家地方汽车特许经销商正在当地电台作宣传。

🎬电影《大谎言家》（Big Fat Liar）中的台词提到：Big Fat Liar is already being touted as next summer's must-see movie event. 《大谎言家》已被誉为明年夏天必看的电影。

rival /ˈraɪ.vəl/ 作名词，表示“竞争对手；敌手”，英文解释为“a person, group, etc. competing with others for the same thing or in the same area”

作动词，表示“可与…相媲美，比得上”，英文解释为“to be as good, clever, beautiful, etc. as someone or something else”举个🌰：No computer can rival a human brain for/in complexity. 没有任何计算机比得上人脑复杂。

“We are really laser-focused on the mission of maintaining a meaningful way to communicate intimately and privately with the people we care about in a world where that is decreasingly possible,” she said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last year.

“我们真正专注于一项使命，那就是在一个越来越不可能与我们关心的人进行私密交流的世界里，维持一种有意义的私密交流方式，”她去年在瑞士达沃斯世界经济论坛（World Economic Forum）期间接受《华尔街日报》（The Wall Street Journal）采访时表示。

表示 “高度专注的” 或 “目标极其明确的”，强调像激光（laser）一样精准、集中且不分散的注意力。

Funded by donations and grants to cover expenses such as bandwidth and hosting, Signal got its start as a messaging service hatched by a self-described crypto enthusiast. 

Signal的资金来自捐款和拨款，用于支付带宽和托管等费用，最初是一位自称为加密爱好者的人创造的一项即时通讯服务。

grant /ɡrɑːnt/ 作名词，浙大博士生和蜜橘商家的聊天记录火了火了文中，表示“（尤指政府为特殊目的给予个人或组织的）拨款，补助金”，英文解释为“an amount of money given especially by the government to a person or organization for a special purpose”如：a student/research grant 助学金/研究拨款，举个🌰：They'd got a special grant to encourage research 他们已得到了一笔用来支持研究的特别补助金。

作动词，表示“（通常指官方）同意，准予，授予”，英文解释为“to give or allow someone something, usually in an official way”举个🌰：They granted her an entry visa. 他们发给她入境签证。

bandwidth /ˈbænd.wɪtθ/ 1）表示“带宽”，英文解释为“a measurement of the amount of information that can be sent between computers, through a phone line, etc.”举个🌰：The system will handle signals that need high bandwidth, for instance those that encode TV pictures. 这个系统可以处理需要高带宽的信号，比如编码压缩过的电视图像信号。

2）表示“处理大信息或复杂情况所需的时间、精力和综合能力”，英文解释为“the ability or time to deal with a situation, especially one that involves a large amount of information or a number of problems”举个🌰：I don't have the bandwidth to read stuff I know isn't going to lead to productive discussion. 我没有精力去看那种没什么正面意义的东西。

hatch /hætʃ/ 1）表示“孵出，孵蛋，出壳”，英文解释为“to (cause an egg to) break in order to allow a young animal to come out”举个🌰：The eggs hatch after a week or ten days. 这些蛋1周或10天后孵化。The young disappeared soon after they were hatched. 幼崽孵出后不久就不见了。

2）表示“策划（尤指秘密计划）”，英文解释为“to make a plan, especially a secret plan”举个🌰：He hatched a plot to forge documents that would embarrass the company. 他密谋伪造令公司难堪的文件。

Much of Signal's current operating costs are for infrastructure, renting servers and hardware from big tech companies such as Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft.

Signal目前的大部分运营成本是用于基础设施，从Amazon Web Services、谷歌和微软（Microsoft）等大型科技公司租赁服务器和硬件。

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