[雙語]“極客”風潮襲來

Move over, high school quarterback. The geek is the new cool kid in town.
讓位吧，高中橄欖球隊四分衛(wèi)，現在城里的新派酷哥是“極客”。

According to a new study presented by information technology company Modis in honor of Geek Pride Day, one in six Americans considers himself or herself a geek, and a whopping 57 percent believe being called a geek is a compliment.
據Modis信息科技公司的最新調查，六分之一的美國人認為自己是“極客”，另有多達57%的受訪者認為被稱為“極客”是一種贊美。該調查旨在紀念“極客節(jié)”。

Americans most closely associate the term "geek" with favorable attributes such as being extremely intelligent (45 percent), a reliable source for technology advice (56 percent) and a first adopter of technology (45 percent), according to a phone survey of 1,000 American adults.
美國人最愛將“極客”和某些優(yōu)點聯系起來，比如45%的受訪者認為“極客”非常聰明、能提供正確的技術建議（56%）、是新技術的嘗鮮者（45%）。共有一千名美國成年人接受了調查。

However, perhaps one of the most interesting findings that supports this point is that nearly twice as many Americans would prefer to be called a “geek” (41 percent) rather than a "jock" (22 percent).
但能支持這一論點的一個最有趣的發(fā)現是，愿意被稱為“極客”的美國人（41%）是愿意被稱為“運動健將”的美國人（22%）的兩倍。

Of the people surveyed by the Opinion Research Group for Modis` study, 17 percent said they were geeks.
在Modis公司委派市場研究集團進行的這項調查中，17%的受訪者自稱“極客”。

The results pointed to a cultural shift in the way Americans perceive geeks. While two-thirds of "Millennials," the age 18-34 demographic group, think being identified as a geek is a compliment, only 39 percent of respondents who are 65 and older agree.
調查結果表明，美國人看待“極客”的方式出現了文化轉變。三分之二的“千年一代”，也就是年齡在18歲至34歲之間的群體，認為被稱為“極客”是一種贊美。而在65歲及以上的受訪者中，僅有39%的人對此表示贊同。

Eighty-two percent of the respondents feel it is more acceptable to be a geek today than it was 15 years ago.
82%的受訪者認為，與15年前相比，而今“極客”更被大家所接受。

"It might be Americans` increasing dependence on and comfort with technology, or the prevalent images of former `geeks` who now successfully lead multibillion-dollar technology companies, but being a geek has gone mainstream," said Jack Cullen, president of Modis.
Modis公司總裁杰克•卡倫說：“這也許是因為美國人越來越依賴科技，對科技、以及那些前‘極客’的普遍形象更有好感了。這些人如今成功領導著價值數十億美元的科技公司。但如今做個‘極客’已經成為主流。”

At the same time, the survey showed self-identified geeks are not as fond of the label "nerd."
調查同時表明，自稱“極客”的人們卻不喜歡被叫做“電腦迷”。

Eighty-seven percent of them say they were more comfortable being called a geek than a nerd. Survey respondents feel the professional fields best-suited for geeks are video game designer (65 percent), technology engineer (50 percent) and professional blogger (37 percent).
87%的受訪者稱，自己更喜歡被稱為“極客”而不是“電腦迷”。受訪者認為最適合“極客”的專業(yè)領域是“電腦游戲設計師”（65%）、科技工程師（50%）和專業(yè)博主（37%）。