This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。
Changes are taking place in Silicon Valley in California. Larry Page will replace Eric Schmidt as chief executive at Google. And Apple's chief, Steve Jobs, is taking another medical leave.
加州硅谷正在经历巨变。拉里·佩奇将取代埃里克·施密特担任谷歌公司首席执行官。苹果公司首席执行官史蒂夫·乔布斯则再次因病休假。
Two years ago Mr. Jobs received a new liver. In two thousand four he had pancreatic cancer. This month's announcement did not say how long he might be away or give a reason.
2004年，乔布斯患上了胰腺癌。两年前，他进行了肝脏移植手术。苹果公司本月的公告并没有说明他将休假多长时间，也没有给出具体的休假原因。
Apple reported record-high earnings for the final three months of last year. But the health of Steve Jobs always brings questions about the future of the company.
苹果公司公告称，去年最后三个月公司利润再创新高。但乔布斯的健康状况经常引起人们对公司未来的质疑。
He helped start Apple Computer in nineteen seventy-six. Today the company that played a big part in the personal computing revolution just calls itself Apple. Its products include the iPod and iPhone, and it expects to sell six million iPad tablet computers this year.
乔布斯1976年帮助创建了苹果电脑。如今，这个自称为苹果的公司在个人电脑革命中发挥了巨大作用。其产品包括iPod、iPhone，预期今年能够售出600万台iPad平板电脑。
Steve Jobs has long been Apple's public face. But some might forget that he left in nineteen eighty-five to form a computer company called NeXT.
乔布斯一直被视为苹果公司的象征。但有些人可能忘记了，他曾在1985年离开苹果公司，创建了一家名为NeXT的电脑公司。
Manuel Perez-Quinones is a computer science professor at Virginia Tech. He says Apple has led the development of some technologies, but that explains only part of its success.
曼努埃尔·佩雷斯·奎诺恩斯是弗吉尼亚理工大学计算机科学教授。他说，苹果在一些技术方面引领着行业发展，但这只是他们成功的部分原因。
MANUEL PEREZ-QUINONES: "Apple has been a driver in some things and they have been a faithful adopter of good ideas in others."
Manuel Perez-Quinones：“苹果在某些方面是驱动者，但在其他方面则是好点子的忠实拥护者。”
For example, he says many development tools associated today with Apple came from NeXT.
他举例说，今天和苹果相关联的很多开发工具来自NeXT。
MANUEL PEREZ-QUINONES: "The development environment, the programming languages, some of the libraries that are used were things that Steve Jobs was very tightly connected to from the very beginning. But it was not necessarily at Apple. It came from NeXT Computer."
奎诺恩斯：“苹果用到的开发环境、编程语言和一些函数库从一开始就和乔布斯紧密关联。但这些未必来自苹果公司，而是来自NeXT公司。”
Apple bought NeXT in nineteen ninety-six. Mr. Jobs rejoined Apple and became the permanent CEO in two thousand.
苹果1996年收购了NeXT，乔布斯重返苹果，并于2000年担任苹果终身首席执行官。
Last May, Apple passed Microsoft in market value and became the most valuable technology company in the world.
去年五月，苹果市值超过微软，成为全球最有价值的科技公司。
Mr. Jobs says he will remain chief executive officer and stay involved in major decisions during his medical leave. But he put Tim Cook, his chief operating officer, in control of daily operations.
乔布斯表示，在病假期间，他将继续留任苹果公司首席执行官，并参与重大决策。但是他委任首席运营官蒂姆·库克处理日常事务。
As Steve Jobs steps back at Apple, Eric Schmidt is stepping down at Google. Mr. Schmidt plans to leave his CEO job in April after almost ten years. He will remain on Google's board of directors.
当乔布斯逐步回归苹果，谷歌的埃里克·施密特则即将离开。在担任谷歌首席执行官近10年，施密特计划于四月离职。他将继续留在谷歌董事会。
Larry Page was Google's founding CEO when he launched the company with Sergey Brin in nineteen ninety-eight. But Mr. Schmidt has been the public face of Google while Mr. Page has mainly worked on new products.
当1998年佩奇与谢尔盖·布林创建谷歌时，他担任公司首席执行官。但施密特一直是谷歌公司的象征。佩奇则主要从事新产品研发。
Today Google is the world leader in Internet search and has products like the Android operating system for mobile devices. But Google is seen as trying to recapture the creative energy and speed of its early days.
现在，谷歌是全球互联网搜索领域的领头羊，并拥有针对手机设备的Android操作系统等产品。但是谷歌被视为正试图重新夺回创办初期的创造力和发展速度。