deck no. 01 Flashcards

Question

absolutny, niekwestionowany

Answer 1

outright As the British entrepreneur tells it, the result will be **outright** failure or success unmatched.

Answer 2

zwiększyć Mr. Musk has been embattled for several months amid investor concern over whether the company’s Fremont, Calif., factory can **ramp up** production of the Model 3 sedan.

Answer 3

to fine-tune This allows publishers to monitor exactly how customers are playing games, and **fine-tune** them to make them as compelling as possible.

Answer 4

outlandish Some analysts see this as **outlandish** for a company which is spending far more than it collects in revenues, which has $8.5bn in debt and hasn’t even had that many hit programmes.

Answer 5

nie na miejscu, nieuzasadniony, niestosowny Those concerns turned out to be largely **misplaced**.

Answer 6

to outgun Its money, often handed to entrepreneurs in multiples of the amounts they initially demand and accompanied by the threat that the cash will go to the competition if they balk, gives startups the wherewithal to **outgun** worse-funded rivals.

Answer 7

consensual One of their biggest concerns is "I don’t want to hurt you"… when in reality, I’m into it! (**consensually**).

Answer 8

wspierać finansowo As a protest, Astana’s riders at the Giro start wearing uniforms that obscure the logos of their deadbeat **underwriters**. Armstrong begins scrambling to find new sponsors, and it’s possible he’ll be riding for a new team for the Tour de France. Meanwhile, rumors are flying that Contador will jump to another team.

Answer 9

wzmocnić All this has been **supercharged** by smartphones, which mean people can keep playing—and paying—at all hours of the day.

Answer 10

unikać czegoś; stronić od czegoś But it is also because Mr Son’s method is to do things rapidly and on a scale other investors would **shy away** **from**.

Answer 11

touchy It would be no surprise if Tencent were feeling **touchy** as it approaches its 20th anniversary on November 11th.

Answer 12

restrukturyzacja Its boss, Pony Ma, has **shaken things up** in time for its 20th anniversary.

Answer 13

to bulk up To compete with the Vision Fund’s pot of moolah, and with the forays of other unconventional investors, incumbents are having to **bulk up**.

Answer 14

elementarny, pierwotny AVA, a customer-service chatbot for Autodesk, has **rudimentary** emotional intelligence.

Answer 15

znosić; tolerować If you can provide them with entertainment they genuinely enjoy for that length of time, they will have little reason to pay anyone else for further screen-based entertainment—though they may splash out more for sport, and **put up with** adverts for news, real or fake.

Answer 16

oprócz With investors expecting further growth **on top of** that, its market value would be a lot higher.

Answer 17

bargaining chip It has the territory it really wants and has maintained its claim to Arunachal Pradesh only as a **bargaining chip**.

Answer 18

pot To compete with the Vision Fund’s **pot** of moolah, and with the forays of other unconventional investors, incumbents are having to bulk up.

Answer 19

parlance Once a show is ready for delivery, it is up to executives in Los Gatos like Todd Yellin, vice-president of product, to work out how to get it to the appropriate users and check that they are, in the corny **parlance** of the company, "delighted" by it.

Answer 20

zaszaleć If you can provide them with entertainment they genuinely enjoy for that length of time, they will have little reason to pay anyone else for further screen-based entertainment—though they may **splash out** more for sport, and put up with adverts for news, real or fake.

Answer 21

to evade It is being investigated for allegedly designing software to identify and **evade** transport regulators.

Answer 22

foray To compete with the Vision Fund’s pot of moolah, and with the **forays** of other unconventional investors, incumbents are having to bulk up.

Answer 23

to wean off Muhammad bin Salman, now Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, was preparing to launch a programme to **wean** the country off oil and diversify the economy.

Answer 24

plamić The past week has brought more bad news. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has been forced onto the airwaves to defend his second-in-command, Sheryl Sandberg, after the New York Times on November 14th published a report alleging that they had tried to downplay the extent of Russian electoral interference to the firm’s board of directors, and hired lobbyists and the kind of "opposition-research" firms commonly used in political campaigns, to deflect blame onto other firms and to **tarnish** critics.

Answer 25

powodować wzrost And the dash towards size has the helpful side-effect of **driving up** rivals’ production costs at the same time as it eats into their revenues.

Answer 26

narzekać Such **gripes** aside, the marketing industry has two principal complaints.

Answer 27

to supercharge All this has been **supercharged** by smartphones, which mean people can keep playing—and paying—at all hours of the day.

Answer 28

deadbeat As a protest, Astana’s riders at the Giro start wearing uniforms that obscure the logos of their **deadbeat** underwriters. Armstrong begins scrambling to find new sponsors, and it’s possible he’ll be riding for a new team for the Tour de France. Meanwhile, rumors are flying that Contador will jump to another team.

Answer 29

dusić; zdławić; zahamować China’s pretensions to being a superpower will look hollow as long as America can **throttle** its firms at will.

Answer 30

teren, terytorium, obaszar wpływów Each coterie guards its **turf** jealously, and coordination between them is infrequent.

Answer 31

to enforce But it has no **enforcement** mechanism and its decision-making process is highly politicized and easy for the manipulators to block.

Answer 32

grump The social effects of novels, films, comic books and pop music were condemned by the **grumpy** reactionaries of the time.

Answer 33

to stymie It has given Tencent a powerful distribution channel for its own games, and has allowed it to **stymie** new rival products, including Douyin, by blocking them from its platform.

Answer 34

dodgy From **dodgy** American mortgages to the British high street

Answer 35

istotny It is giving new opportunities to entrepreneurs and forcing Silicon Valley's best to stay **relevant**

Answer 36

zrezygnować [z czegoś] It has also led millions of American households to **dispense with** pay-TV.

Answer 37

jałowy; daremny; bezcelowy In the long run it may be **futile**, too.

Answer 38

oskarżyciel Regulators, who unlike private **plaintiffs** can subpoena information before filing a lawsuit, could examine the facts behind Mr. Musk’s statement if Tesla doesn’t follow through with regulatory filings that explain the terms of the deal.

Answer 39

to embody The company’s hard-charging culture—**embodied** in Travis Kalanick, Uber’s co-founder and boss—was celebrated, not questioned.

Answer 40

obfitować; tu: się mnożyć się He’s drawing rock star crowds, but questions **abound**. As this issue went to press, it was unclear what team he would be riding for when the Tour begins on July 4 in Monaco.

Answer 41

kąśliwy; złośliwy The **prickly** inner confidence that most buy-out firms have in their DNA can seem insular when applied to other fields.

Answer 42

old hat Moral panics over new media are **old hat**.

Answer 43

wycofać się Startled by the looming harm, and (he says) swayed by appeals from Mr Xi, Mr Trump swiftly **backtracked**.

Answer 44

to relish The trade disputes President Donald Trump **relishes** have an old-fashioned feel.

Answer 45

sales pitch Mr Son’s **sales pitch** on how he could use the kingdom’s wealth to grab a stake in future technologies, rather than buying the usual Western trophy assets, saw him leave with a pledge of $45bn.

Answer 46

wyrządzić, zadać, zadawać One is that a tolerance of casual sexism can **inflict** real commercial damage.

Answer 47

belated Uber is **belatedly** making efforts to fix things.

Answer 48

rzekomo It is being investigated for **allegedly** designing software to identify and evade transport regulators.

Answer 49

bout Gripped by a **bout** of madness, they overpaid for firms at the top of the economic cycle and loaded them with too much debt.

Answer 50

tarapaty Walter Russell Mead paints a disturbing portrait of the United States’ geopolitical **predicament**.

Answer 51

obowiązek The **onus** is on him to show employees, advertisers and shareholders that Facebook won’t repeat it.

Answer 52

pełen (czegoś), obarczony (czymś) HERMAN NARULA named his company Improbable for a business plan so outlandish and **fraught with** computing problems that only two outcomes are plausible.

Answer 53

to startle About three hours into the trading day, Mr. Musk **startled** investors by writing on Twitter: "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured."

Answer 54

appealing But even these conflicts are fueled more by weakness—their leaders’ and regimes’—than by strength. They have no **appealing** brand.

Answer 55

pomysł, owoc wyobraźni It is the **brainchild** of Masayoshi Son, an unusually risk-loving Japanese telecoms and internet entrepreneur.

Answer 56

to lurk Several old-economy industries with high prices and fat profits **lurk** beneath the surface of commerce: credit cards, pharmaceutical distribution and credit-checking.

Answer 57

to splash out If you can provide them with entertainment they genuinely enjoy for that length of time, they will have little reason to pay anyone else for further screen-based entertainment—though they may **splash out** more for sport, and put up with adverts for news, real or fake.

Answer 58

hen The foxes have decided their best bet is to try to help build the **henhouse**.

Answer 59

wchłaniać The founder of SoftBank, a Japanese telecoms and internet firm, has put together an enormous investment fund that is busy **gobbling up** stakes in the world’s most exciting young companies.

Answer 60

udobruchać Tencent is trying to **placate** the Chinese government. It is expanding its age-verification scheme and limiting screen time for children.

Answer 61

setback Some think that, even without such a **setback**, Netflix’s prospects are being exaggerated.

Answer 62

on top of With investors expecting further growth **on top of** that, its market value would be a lot higher.

Answer 63

nadgryźć; zmniejszyć Such a setback would slow Netflix’s growth—and give deep-pocketed competitors like Amazon or Apple time to **eat into** its leads in inventory, tied-up talent and personalisation.

Answer 64

najlepsze czasy In the **heyday** of the talkie, Louis B. Mayer, head of the biggest studio, was Hollywood’s lion king.

Answer 65

to dispense [with] It has also led millions of American households to **dispense with** pay-TV.

Answer 66

przetrwać; przeżyc dłużej And whatever Messrs Trump and Xi say at the g20, this conflict will **outlast** them both.

Answer 67

rozdawać But a return to 1960s-style capitalism, in which bloated oligopolies earn fat margins but **dole cash out** to workers under the threat of strikes is something to be avoided.

Answer 68

to fall out Recent weeks have seen China **fall out** with South Korea (as well as the West) over how to respond to the sinking in March, apparently by a North Korean torpedo, of a South Korean navy ship.

Answer 69

wiodący, czołowy, rzucający się w oczy It has since become the most **prominent** tech startup in the world, with a valuation of $70bn.

Answer 70

to forgo Creators **forgo** lucrative licensing of their shows to secondary markets because, in Netflixonomics, there are no secondary markets.

Answer 71

pojąć It is no longer **inconceivable** that its growth could outpace China’s for a considerable time.

Answer 72

dash And the **dash** towards size has the helpful side-effect of driving up rivals’ production costs at the same time as it eats into their revenues.

Answer 73

pristine He’d hired Catlin, he said, to publish his drug test results online. You want a clean rider? Armstrong appeared to be saying. I’ll give you **pristine**.

Answer 74

cło **Tariffs** are the principal weapons.

Answer 75

wprowadzić na rynek Facebook will inevitably **roll out** ads (which is again the reason why WhatsApp’s co-founders left), but it knows that it needs to be cautious about introducing ads in an environment where people go for private communication.

Answer 76

to gripe Such **gripes** aside, the marketing industry has two principal complaints.

Answer 77

to burgeon Witness America’s alliances with Japan and South Korea, its legal obligation to help Taiwan defend itself and its **burgeoning** friendships with China’s rivals, notably India but also now Vietnam.

Answer 78

zadziwiający, niesamowity This is partly because of his belief in **mind-boggling** futuristic scenarios such as the "singularity", when computer intelligence is meant to overtake the human kind.

Answer 79

fledgling Last year it took 45% of China’s **fledgling** cloud-computing market, worth 69bn yuan ($10bn), compared with 10% for Tencent, according to idc, a research firm.

Answer 80

guessing game It immediately set off a **guessing game** of where Mr. Musk would get the funds.

Answer 81

to beat a retreat He spent a decade focusing on SoftBank’s Japanese telecoms and internet-infrastructure businesses and on trying to turn around struggling Sprint, an American mobile-phone operator acquired in 2013 (on April 29th Mr Son **beat a retreat**, agreeing to merge it with T-Mobile to create an enterprise worth $146bn)

Answer 82

supremacy Chip wars: China, America and silicon **supremacy**.

Answer 83

to underwrite As a protest, Astana’s riders at the Giro start wearing uniforms that obscure the logos of their deadbeat **underwriters**. Armstrong begins scrambling to find new sponsors, and it’s possible he’ll be riding for a new team for the Tour de France. Meanwhile, rumors are flying that Contador will jump to another team.

Answer 84

mieć się na baczności przed Another is **to be wary of** the power handed to founders.

Answer 85

dogonić; nadrobić zaległości Well before Mr Trump arrived on the scene, China made plain its intention to **catch up**.

Answer 86

powiadomić The way Mr. Musk **broke the news** added to the drama, disclosing in a casually worded tweet the prospect of a buyout that would be an enormously complicated transaction for a company struggling to generate cash.

Answer 87

at length Perhaps to soften such accusations, the rest of the blog post talked **at length** about better privacy protections for users of Google’s other products.

Answer 88

dający wolną rękę; z dala The day-to-day running of SpaceX, his thriving rocket business, is handled by Gwynne Shotwell, a talented aerospace veteran, with Mr Musk taking more of a **hands-off** role

Answer 89

precedence In markets that lack net-neutrality protections (such as America), dominant internet providers might decide to give their own streaming services **precedence** over Netflix.

Answer 90

to gobble up The founder of SoftBank, a Japanese telecoms and internet firm, has put together an enormous investment fund that is busy **gobbling up** stakes in the world’s most exciting young companies.

Answer 91

stingy Despite low interest rates, firms have reinvested a **stingy** share of their bumper profits.

Answer 92

zbierać żniwo The firm’s problems have started **to take a toll**.

Answer 93

niezwykły His pursuit of the "**singularity**", the point at which computer intelligence exceeds the human kind, might make him a visionary—or just an eccentric.

Answer 94

murky Unsurprisingly, clients are disillusioned. Measuring performance is a depressingly **murky** affair, but the typical endowment or pension fund saw its private-equity holdings drop by 20-30% in fiscal 2009 alone, and their illiquidity also proved a serious pain during the crisis.

Answer 95

pula, garnek To compete with the Vision Fund’s **pot** of moolah, and with the forays of other unconventional investors, incumbents are having to bulk up.

Answer 96

to grapple with Above all, it must **grapple with** the changing ways that people use its products, which could have a huge impact on its profits.

Answer 97

to iron out But Tesla still has big distribution problems to **iron out**.

Answer 98

wezwać do sądu Regulators, who unlike private plaintiffs can **subpoena** information before filing a lawsuit, could examine the facts behind Mr. Musk’s statement if Tesla doesn’t follow through with regulatory filings that explain the terms of the deal.

Answer 99

rocznik, zbiór (np. wina) klasyczny, w najlepszym wydaniu (np. występ, koncert) Blackstone’s 2003 buy-out fund had a net internal rate of return (IRR) of nearly 40%. The 2006 **vintage** had a net IRR of -11.2% as of March.

Answer 100

to streamline Proponents believe these features can help solve all sorts of problems, from **streamlining** bank payments and guaranteeing the provenance of medicines to securing property rights and providing unforgeable identity documents for refugees.

Answer 101

to stoke Many are made by cryptocurrency speculators, who hope that **stoking** excitement around blockchains will boost the value of their related cryptocurrency holdings.

Answer 102

zamówić To stay in the game, cable networks and other streaming services have **commissioned** hundreds of hours of high-quality scripted programming, providing an unprecedented glut of good television drama.

Answer 103

szczegółowo Perhaps to soften such accusations, the rest of the blog post talked **at length** about better privacy protections for users of Google’s other products.

Answer 104

mark-up Netflix usually buys up exclusive worldwide rights to the shows it makes and acquires, paying a **mark-up** over production costs.

Answer 105

szpakowaty; siwy; posiwiały In particular, the way in which Bytedance is capturing very young users, as well as young talent, makes Tencent look increasingly **grizzled**.

Answer 106

morsel That company would need two things: a big, broad, frequently renewed range of programming; and an understanding of its consumers deep enough to serve up to each of them the **morsels** most likely to appeal.

Answer 107

to muscle in Some firms found tricks to **muscle in** on the aftermarket, using warranties, authorised repair shops, and strategies such as selling cheap printers and expensive ink.

Answer 108

wygórowana (cena) On August 7th it announced it had managed to raise $2.3 billion in the capital markets, although at a **steep** price.

Answer 109

to roll out Facebook will inevitably **roll out** ads (which is again the reason why WhatsApp’s co-founders left), but it knows that it needs to be cautious about introducing ads in an environment where people go for private communication.

Answer 110

to fret Exasperated parents and opportunistic politicians have long **fretted** that they make players lazy and listless, or else unpredictable and violent.

Answer 111

to exasperate **Exasperated** parents and opportunistic politicians have long fretted that they make players lazy and listless, or else unpredictable and violent.

Answer 112

skąpy Despite low interest rates, firms have reinvested a **stingy** share of their bumper profits.

Answer 113

smutny In quiet moments veteran hedge-fund managers sound a little **wistful** these days.

Answer 114

to covet Decisions about what projects to pursue, and whether to make them, are up to the executives in Hollywood; Mr Sarandos has 20 people working for him who have the **coveted** power to "green light" a project.

Answer 115

wyśmiewać The nine-figure statement of intent was widely **derided** as profligate, showing that Netflix might be a source of cash but scarcely offered serious competition.

Answer 116

irytować "I wish we could be private with Tesla." So said an **exasperated** and exhausted Elon Musk to Rolling Stone last November.

Answer 117

wyrególować This allows publishers to monitor exactly how customers are playing games, and **fine-tune** them to make them as compelling as possible.

Answer 118

rozpoznać A hundred years ago it was perhaps already possible to **discern** the rising powers whose interaction and competition would shape the 20th century.

Answer 119

backlash China’s gaming crackdown should worry the industry elsewhere. Gaming firms’ skill at extracting money from players risks a regulatory **backlash**.

Answer 120

to champion The establishment of the European single market, a project **championed** by Margaret Thatcher, prised open stale domestic markets to dynamic foreign firms.

Answer 121

prawnie zastrzeżony Almost to the day 17 years ago Steve Ballmer, then boss of Microsoft, the world’s biggest software firm, called Linux a "cancer", meaning that the open-source operating system would spell the death of **proprietary** software.

Answer 122

well-heeled Seven years ago Uber launched itself as an app connecting **well-heeled** users with nearby limousines.

Answer 123

pokonać Its money, often handed to entrepreneurs in multiples of the amounts they initially demand and accompanied by the threat that the cash will go to the competition if they balk, gives startups the wherewithal to **outgun** worse-funded rivals.

Answer 124

overriding And when it comes to their **overriding** interests, Russia and, especially, China are deeply integrated into the world economy and its governing institutions.

Answer 125

rozważyć It has imposed export controls that affect on Fujian Jinhua, another Chinese firm accused of stealing secrets, and the White House is **mulling** broader bans on emerging technologies.

Answer 126

kandydat, uczestnik A third puzzle is that the number of new **entrants** has been falling and productivity growth has been weak.

Answer 127

bez ogródek; wprost; dosadnie And it would be a **bluntly** antagonistic act, which would make no distinction between unfair and genuine competition.

Answer 128

grzęznąć w bagnie But since January it has become **mired** in a series of controversies, misjudgments and missteps.

Answer 129

slur Netflix dropped Mr Spacey from "House of Cards" after allegations of sexual misconduct and recently got rid of a senior executive over his use of a racial **slur**; there is no way to insure against future scandals.

Answer 130

comprehensive Companies usually spell out the details of such proposed complex transactions in **comprehensive**, lawyered documents.

Answer 131

opóźniony; zaległy; przeterminowany The company has spent the past year fending off critics who claim it is addictive, bad for democracy and **overdue** for a regulatory reckoning.

Answer 132

przesyt To stay in the game, cable networks and other streaming services have commissioned hundreds of hours of high-quality scripted programming, providing an unprecedented **glut** of good television drama.

Answer 133

outsize An **outsize** investment in an unconventional business is typical of a fund that itself is both vast and resistant to definition.

Answer 134

in and of itself Instead it has become an industry **in and of itself**

Answer 135

przewaga; wyższość Chip wars: China, America and silicon **supremacy**.

Answer 136

przedstawić It is a misreading of the logic and character of the existing world order, which is more stable and expansive than Mead **depicts**, leading him to overestimate the ability of the "axis of weevils" to undermine it.

Answer 137

vintage Blackstone’s 2003 buy-out fund had a net internal rate of return (IRR) of nearly 40%. The 2006 **vintage** had a net IRR of -11.2% as of March.

Answer 138

wymóg When Google announced in 2010 that it would no longer censor results on its Chinese service, a **prerequisite** for operating in the communist state, internet users laid flowers at the search giant’s Beijing headquarters to mourn its exit.

Answer 139

advert If you can provide them with entertainment they genuinely enjoy for that length of time, they will have little reason to pay anyone else for further screen-based entertainment—though they may splash out more for sport, and put up with **adverts** for news, real or fake.

Answer 140

whiz Of late Mr Musk says his company has been in "production hell" trying to increase output of the Model 3, a **whizzy** mass-market saloon.

Answer 141

precarious Facebook is still strong but it is **precariously** balanced at the top of the industry, facing several big challenges in the coming year.

Answer 142

to turn down Its quantitative understanding, and personalised marketing, of niche projects has seen Netflix revive cancelled shows with loyal fan bases, such as "Gilmore Girls", and take up shows others **turned down**, such as "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt".

Answer 143

irytować This could **irk** people, who may choose to spend less time on Instagram in future, just as they have done with Facebook itself.

Answer 144

to eschew It **eschews** many of the practices of private-equity funds, such as shaking up management and applying plenty of debt.

Answer 145

kusić, wabić **Beckoning** the barbarians.

Answer 146

copious Disney is pulling its films off Netflix and launching its own streaming service next year, hoping that its roster of Pixar, Marvel and "Star Wars" movies, not to mention **copious** princesses, gives it a must-have edge.

Answer 147

rozliczenie The company has spent the past year fending off critics who claim it is addictive, bad for democracy and overdue for a regulatory **reckoning**.

Answer 148

puścić **letting go of** the wheel. Elon Musk’s grip on Tesla loosens.

Answer 149

reklama If you can provide them with entertainment they genuinely enjoy for that length of time, they will have little reason to pay anyone else for further screen-based entertainment—though they may splash out more for sport, and put up with **adverts** for news, real or fake.

Answer 150

fluke Many old hands of the tech industry snootily dismiss his bets on Yahoo and Alibaba as **flukes**.

Answer 151

słabnąć In the 1980s, with the studio system **on the wane**, "superagent" Michael Ovitz was often described as the most powerful man in town.

Answer 152

lackadaisical Because its games have done so well, Tencent has been **lackadaisical** in monetising other parts of its business.

Answer 153

zaszczyt The **accolades** bestowed upon Alan Greenspan ahead of his retirement on January 31st have a strong whiff of irrational exuberance.

Answer 154

obowiązkowy Britain’s Labour Party promises **compulsory** employee share-ownership.

Answer 155

praktyczne aspekty [czegoś] But the idea of appointing a new chief operating officer to oversee **the nuts and bolts** of the business has long hung in the air.

Answer 156

reminiscent of sth Mr Kalanick and his band of brothers created a workplace more **reminiscent of** a bar than a business.

Answer 157

acute Two concerns are particularly **acute**.

Answer 158

irytować; drażnić **Exasperated** parents and opportunistic politicians have long fretted that they make players lazy and listless, or else unpredictable and violent.

Answer 159

kadencja And after the accolades have faded, what will economists conclude about his **tenure**?

Answer 160

about-face Aware of such risks, the company is increasingly persuading internet and pay-TV distributors like Comcast, T-Mobile and Sky to bundle its service with theirs, an **about-face** for some of these incumbents.

Answer 161

forbearance A little voluntary **forbearance** now could save a lot of regulatory pain later.

Answer 162

oświadczenie woli The nine-figure **statement of intent** was widely derided as profligate, showing that Netflix might be a source of cash but scarcely offered serious competition.

Answer 163

realizować, wykonać Decisions about what projects to **pursue**, and whether to make them, are up to the executives in Hollywood; Mr Sarandos has 20 people working for him who have the coveted power to "green light" a project.

Answer 164

to set about Having amassed the wherewithal, Mr Son **set about** collecting stakes.

Answer 165

the nuts and bolts [of sth] But the idea of appointing a new chief operating officer to oversee **the nuts and bolts** of the business has long hung in the air.

Answer 166

brainchild It is the **brainchild** of Masayoshi Son, an unusually risk-loving Japanese telecoms and internet entrepreneur.

Answer 167

watershed The Year of Living Dangerously. Was 2014 a **watershed**?

Answer 168

to cash in Its latest big bet in mobile games, "PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds", has accrued a huge audience of some 50m Chinese gamers who play daily, but because of the monetisation freeze, Tencent cannot **cash in**.

Answer 169

krótkowzroczność Monetary **myopia**

Answer 170

megalomania This combination of gargantuanism, **grandiosity** and guaranteed payouts may end up in financial disaster.

Answer 171

gargantuan This combination of **gargantuanism**, grandiosity and guaranteed payouts may end up in financial disaster.

Answer 172

eat away at something Monopolistic prices may have allowed powerful firms **to eat away** **at** the purchasing power of wages.

Answer 173

to subpoena Regulators, who unlike private plaintiffs can **subpoena** information before filing a lawsuit, could examine the facts behind Mr. Musk’s statement if Tesla doesn’t follow through with regulatory filings that explain the terms of the deal.

Answer 174

dać sygnał do odwrotu He spent a decade focusing on SoftBank’s Japanese telecoms and internet-infrastructure businesses and on trying to turn around struggling Sprint, an American mobile-phone operator acquired in 2013 (on April 29th Mr Son **beat a retreat**, agreeing to merge it with T-Mobile to create an enterprise worth $146bn)

Answer 175

slippery In the digital age ownership has become more **slippery**.

Answer 176

ware It is investing more in shows developed outside America, too, and unwinding partnerships with foreign distributors so that it can stream its own **wares** worldwide.

Answer 177

ubiegać się As a protest, Astana’s riders at the Giro start wearing uniforms that obscure the logos of their deadbeat underwriters. Armstrong begins **scrambling** to find new sponsors, and it’s possible he’ll be riding for a new team for the Tour de France. Meanwhile, rumors are flying that Contador will jump to another team.

Answer 178

zdezynfekować; złagodzić; ugrzecznić The swap is ostensibly the result of a move by Tencent in April to **sanitise** content, after a crackdown on popular online platforms by government regulators, but is also self-serving.

Answer 179

zrzęda The social effects of novels, films, comic books and pop music were condemned by the **grumpy** reactionaries of the time.

Answer 180

wykaz; lista; spis Disney is pulling its films off Netflix and launching its own streaming service next year, hoping that its **roster** of Pixar, Marvel and "Star Wars" movies, not to mention copious princesses, gives it a must-have edge.

Answer 181

indefinite He said this week that he will take an **indefinite** leave of absence, in part to grieve for his mother, who was killed in a recent accident, and in part to "work on himself".

Answer 182

absolutny, niekwestionowany As the British entrepreneur tells it, the result will be **outright** failure or success unmatched.

Answer 183

plaintiff Regulators, who unlike private **plaintiffs** can subpoena information before filing a lawsuit, could examine the facts behind Mr. Musk’s statement if Tesla doesn’t follow through with regulatory filings that explain the terms of the deal.

Answer 184

to let go of **letting go of** the wheel. Elon Musk’s grip on Tesla loosens.

Answer 185

mroczny Unsurprisingly, clients are disillusioned. Measuring performance is a depressingly **murky** affair, but the typical endowment or pension fund saw its private-equity holdings drop by 20-30% in fiscal 2009 alone, and their illiquidity also proved a serious pain during the crisis.

Answer 186

to tweak The choice can come down to details like the poster art, which Netflix **tweaks** algorithmically according to the aspects of a film or show that would appeal most to a given user.

Answer 187

kąsek That company would need two things: a big, broad, frequently renewed range of programming; and an understanding of its consumers deep enough to serve up to each of them the **morsels** most likely to appeal.

Answer 188

haste One of the reasons that Netflix is spending in such **haste** is that Netflixonomics is a winner-takes-most proposition.

Answer 189

rozrzutny The nine-figure statement of intent was widely derided as **profligate**, showing that Netflix might be a source of cash but scarcely offered serious competition.

Answer 190

poprawiać The choice can come down to details like the poster art, which Netflix **tweaks** algorithmically according to the aspects of a film or show that would appeal most to a given user.

Answer 191

wartość, zaleta, zasługa, wyróżnienie And because India does not threaten the West, it has powerful friends both on its own **merits** and as a counterweight to China.

Answer 192

dziewiczy He’d hired Catlin, he said, to publish his drug test results online. You want a clean rider? Armstrong appeared to be saying. I’ll give you **pristine**.

Answer 193

to nurture And it may **nurture** competition against the tech giants.

Answer 194

reinwestować With an average subscription of $10 a month, those customers represent some $14bn in annual revenue which the company will **plough straight back** into programming, marketing and technology—along with billions more that it will borrow.

Answer 195

to abound He’s drawing rock star crowds, but questions **abound**. As this issue went to press, it was unclear what team he would be riding for when the Tour begins on July 4 in Monaco.

Answer 196

winny, karygodny He is **culpable** for its failings; its culture was created in his image.

Answer 197

spieniężyć Its latest big bet in mobile games, "PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds", has accrued a huge audience of some 50m Chinese gamers who play daily, but because of the monetisation freeze, Tencent cannot **cash in**.

Answer 198

remit There is nothing wrong with trustbusters’ **remit** to promote consumer welfare.

Answer 199

żargon Once a show is ready for delivery, it is up to executives in Los Gatos like Todd Yellin, vice-president of product, to work out how to get it to the appropriate users and check that they are, in the corny **parlance** of the company, "delighted" by it.

Answer 200

to entice **Enticed** by such prospects, the market values Netflix at $170bn, which is more than Disney.

Answer 201

misplaced Those concerns turned out to be largely **misplaced**.

Answer 202

dziwaczny Some analysts see this as **outlandish** for a company which is spending far more than it collects in revenues, which has $8.5bn in debt and hasn’t even had that many hit programmes.

Answer 203

to dole out But a return to 1960s-style capitalism, in which bloated oligopolies earn fat margins but **dole cash out** to workers under the threat of strikes is something to be avoided.

Answer 204

podwładny The firm will do other things differently, too: more performance reviews, less booze and no sex between a manager and an **underling**.

Answer 205

kusić, wabić **Enticed** by such prospects, the market values Netflix at $170bn, which is more than Disney.

Answer 206

fiasko, klapa But even if the fund ends up **flopping**, it will have several lasting effects on technology investing.

Answer 207

flop But even if the fund ends up **flopping**, it will have several lasting effects on technology investing.

Answer 208

wzmocnić Some argue that the solution to capital’s excesses is to **beef up** labour.

Answer 209

to exasperate "I wish we could be private with Tesla." So said an **exasperated** and exhausted Elon Musk to Rolling Stone last November.

Answer 210

caveat So **caveats** abound. Yet as the years roll forward, the chances are that it will increasingly come down once again to the two Asian giants facing each other over a disputed border

Answer 211

obelga, oszczerstwo Netflix dropped Mr Spacey from "House of Cards" after allegations of sexual misconduct and recently got rid of a senior executive over his use of a racial **slur**; there is no way to insure against future scandals.

Answer 212

to be wary of Another is **to be wary of** the power handed to founders.

Answer 213

to rankle Still, the media hype over "clean teams" seemed to **rankle** Armstrong, as if the subtext was that all others were dirty.

Answer 214

to put up with If you can provide them with entertainment they genuinely enjoy for that length of time, they will have little reason to pay anyone else for further screen-based entertainment—though they may splash out more for sport, and **put up** **with** adverts for news, real or fake.

Answer 215

to downplay The past week has brought more bad news. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has been forced onto the airwaves to defend his second-in-command, Sheryl Sandberg, after the New York Times on November 14th published a report alleging that they had tried to **downplay** the extent of Russian electoral interference to the firm’s board of directors, and hired lobbyists and the kind of "opposition-research" firms commonly used in political campaigns, to deflect blame onto other firms and to tarnish critics.

Answer 216

kiczowaty Once a show is ready for delivery, it is up to executives in Los Gatos like Todd Yellin, vice-president of product, to work out how to get it to the appropriate users and check that they are, in the **corny** parlance of the company, "delighted" by it.

Answer 217

pojawienie się, nadejście Since the **advent** of smartphones, consumers have been forced to accept that they do not control the software in their devices; they are only licensed to use it.

Answer 218

podsycać Many are made by cryptocurrency speculators, who hope that **stoking** excitement around blockchains will boost the value of their related cryptocurrency holdings.

Answer 219

tattered Investors will take a lot of convincing that it is fully seaworthy, having looked so **tattered** just days ago

Answer 220

bent on doing something Mr Son is **bent** on proving them wrong.

Answer 221

zwrot For Mr Bewkes that was quite a **reversal**.

Answer 222

wciągający He wants to create virtual worlds as detailed, **immersive** and persistent as reality, where millions of people can live as their true selves, earn their main income and interact with artificially intelligent robots.

Answer 223

bronić; opowiadać się za The establishment of the European single market, a project **championed** by Margaret Thatcher, prised open stale domestic markets to dynamic foreign firms.

Answer 224

to nag That has given rise to a "freemium" business model, of which Tencent was a pioneer, whereby games are given away cheaply or free but players are constantly **nagged** to spend money on in-game items.

Answer 225

to irk This could **irk** people, who may choose to spend less time on Instagram in future, just as they have done with Facebook itself.

Answer 226

rozchodzić się, rozszerzać Although it has **sprawled** into all sorts of areas, from online lending (WeBank) and insurance (WeSure) to offline medical clinics (Tencent Doctorwork), the company still derives over two-fifths of its revenue from gaming.

Answer 227

hard-charging The company’s **hard-charging** culture—embodied in Travis Kalanick, Uber’s co-founder and boss—was celebrated, not questioned.

Answer 228

agresywny, zdeterminowany, ambitny The company’s **hard-charging** culture—embodied in Travis Kalanick, Uber’s co-founder and boss—was celebrated, not questioned.

Answer 229

reckoning The company has spent the past year fending off critics who claim it is addictive, bad for democracy and overdue for a regulatory **reckoning**.

Answer 230

misstep Uber’s **missteps** would have become clear much sooner with better governance and a visible share price.

Answer 231

wistful In quiet moments veteran hedge-fund managers sound a little **wistful** these days.

Answer 232

przyziemny Tesla bulls and bears can surely agree on one thing: Chief Executive Elon Musk is capable of making the surreal seem **mundane**.

Answer 233

osoba, która wyłudza pieniądze od innych i nie spłaca swoich długów As a protest, Astana’s riders at the Giro start wearing uniforms that obscure the logos of their **deadbeat** underwriters. Armstrong begins scrambling to find new sponsors, and it’s possible he’ll be riding for a new team for the Tour de France. Meanwhile, rumors are flying that Contador will jump to another team.

Answer 234

to notch up He has **notched up** some triumphs in his career, including an early bet on Alibaba.

Answer 235

wyrzucić If you no longer wanted it, you sold it or **chucked** it away.

Answer 236

to commission To stay in the game, cable networks and other streaming services have **commissioned** hundreds of hours of high-quality scripted programming, providing an unprecedented glut of good television drama.

Answer 237

to shy away from something But it is also because Mr Son’s method is to do things rapidly and on a scale other investors would **shy away from**.

Answer 238

rynek części zapasowych, zamienników i dodatkowych akcesoriów (także nieoryginalnych) Some firms found tricks to muscle in on the **aftermarket**, using warranties, authorised repair shops, and strategies such as selling cheap printers and expensive ink.

Answer 239

ryzykowny From **dodgy** American mortgages to the British high street

Answer 240

dispute The trade **disputes** President Donald Trump relishes have an old-fashioned feel.

Answer 241

zakres odpowiedzialności There is nothing wrong with trustbusters’ **remit** to promote consumer welfare.

Answer 242

to derive from Although it has sprawled into all sorts of areas, from online lending (WeBank) and insurance (WeSure) to offline medical clinics (Tencent Doctorwork), the company still **derives** over two-fifths of its revenue from gaming.

Answer 243

potęga Since its founding in 1997, the company has morphed from a DVD-rental service to a streaming-video upstart to the world’s first global TV **powerhouse**.

Answer 244

borykać się z Above all, it must **grapple with** the changing ways that people use its products, which could have a huge impact on its profits.

Answer 245

shortcoming Their likes, dislikes, and even **shortcomings** are something they are thankful for.

Answer 246

przejmować się Exasperated parents and opportunistic politicians have long **fretted** that they make players lazy and listless, or else unpredictable and violent.

Answer 247

kapryśny For **skittish** investors, all this has concentrated minds on whether the giant can maintain its momentum as it enters its third decade.

Answer 248

bystrzak Of late Mr Musk says his company has been in "production hell" trying to increase output of the Model 3, a **whizzy** mass-market saloon.

Answer 249

to beef up Some argue that the solution to capital’s excesses is to **beef up** labour.

Answer 250

zaskoczyć About three hours into the trading day, Mr. Musk **startled** investors by writing on Twitter: "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured."

Answer 251

to ramp up Mr. Musk has been embattled for several months amid investor concern over whether the company’s Fremont, Calif., factory can **ramp up** production of the Model 3 sedan.

Answer 252

odpierać The firm is **fending off** accusations of stealing autonomous-car technology.

Answer 253

to squeeze out But these ways of **squeezing out** more profit did not challenge the nature of what it means to be an owner.

Answer 254

przeżytek Moral panics over new media are **old hat**.

Answer 255

spędzać sen z powiek The spectre of the past will continue **to loom large**, thanks to litigation and government probes.

Answer 256

ściągać Disney is **pulling its films off** Netflix and launching its own streaming service next year, hoping that its roster of Pixar, Marvel and "Star Wars" movies, not to mention copious princesses, gives it a must-have edge.

Answer 257

to deflect The past week has brought more bad news. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has been forced onto the airwaves to defend his second-in-command, Sheryl Sandberg, after the New York Times on November 14th published a report alleging that they had tried to downplay the extent of Russian electoral interference to the firm’s board of directors, and hired lobbyists and the kind of "opposition-research" firms commonly used in political campaigns, to **deflect** blame onto other firms and to tarnish critics.

Answer 258

to fend off The firm is **fending off** accusations of stealing autonomous-car technology.

Answer 259

przypominający coś, przywołujący coś Mr Kalanick and his band of brothers created a workplace more **reminiscent of** a bar than a business.

Answer 260

komplikacja, niepowodzenie Some think that, even without such a **setback**, Netflix’s prospects are being exaggerated.

Answer 261

myopia Monetary **myopia**

Answer 262

dręczyć That has given rise to a "freemium" business model, of which Tencent was a pioneer, whereby games are given away cheaply or free but players are constantly **nagged** to spend money on in-game items.

Answer 263

kursować And **shuttling** data continuously between users makes them slower than conventional databases.

Answer 264

to drive up And the dash towards size has the helpful side-effect of **driving up** rivals’ production costs at the same time as it eats into their revenues.

Answer 265

wyścig, sprint And the **dash** towards size has the helpful side-effect of driving up rivals’ production costs at the same time as it eats into their revenues.

Answer 266

to deride Feeling the heat, Mr Musk earlier this year lashed out at share analysts for "bonehead" questions, and has **derided** the army of short sellers targeting it.

Answer 267

rozwijać [się] It is investing more in shows developed outside America, too, and **unwinding** partnerships with foreign distributors so that it can stream its own wares worldwide.

Answer 268

superstition Armstrong imported industrial-grade efficiency to a romantic sport rich with **superstition**. He left nothing to chance: Training was no-expenses-spared, beta teammates were handpicked to serve the Lance alpha, every inch of body and bike was examined in a wind tunnel to reduce aerodynamic drag.

Answer 269

to sanitize The swap is ostensibly the result of a move by Tencent in April to **sanitise** content, after a crackdown on popular online platforms by government regulators, but is also self-serving.

Answer 270

allegedly It is being investigated for **allegedly** designing software to identify and evade transport regulators.

Answer 271

to disrupt The Vision Fund is **disrupting** both the industries in which it invests and other suppliers of capital.

Answer 272

onus The **onus** is on him to show employees, advertisers and shareholders that Facebook won’t repeat it.

Answer 273

wspierać And it may **nurture** competition against the tech giants.

Answer 274

glut To stay in the game, cable networks and other streaming services have commissioned hundreds of hours of high-quality scripted programming, providing an unprecedented **glut** of good television drama.

Answer 275

on the face of it **On the face of it**, that hardly matters: Google+ is a ghost town.

Answer 276

self-serving The swap is ostensibly the result of a move by Tencent in April to sanitise content, after a crackdown on popular online platforms by government regulators, but is also **self-serving**.

Answer 277

odrzucić Its quantitative understanding, and personalised marketing, of niche projects has seen Netflix revive cancelled shows with loyal fan bases, such as "Gilmore Girls", and take up shows others **turned down**, such as "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt".

Answer 278

crackdown China’s gaming **crackdown** should worry the industry elsewhere. Gaming firms’ skill at extracting money from players risks a regulatory backlash.

Answer 279

delektować się The trade disputes President Donald Trump **relishes** have an old-fashioned feel.

Answer 280

na pierwszy rzut oka **On the face of it**, that hardly matters: Google+ is a ghost town.

Answer 281

pochodzenie Proponents believe these features can help solve all sorts of problems, from streamlining bank payments and guaranteeing the **provenance** of medicines to securing property rights and providing unforgeable identity documents for refugees.

Answer 282

bagatelizować The past week has brought more bad news. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has been forced onto the airwaves to defend his second-in-command, Sheryl Sandberg, after the New York Times on November 14th published a report alleging that they had tried to **downplay** the extent of Russian electoral interference to the firm’s board of directors, and hired lobbyists and the kind of "opposition-research" firms commonly used in political campaigns, to deflect blame onto other firms and to tarnish critics.

Answer 283

to mire But since January it has become **mired** in a series of controversies, misjudgments and missteps.

Answer 284

to pull off Disney is **pulling its films off** Netflix and launching its own streaming service next year, hoping that its roster of Pixar, Marvel and "Star Wars" movies, not to mention copious princesses, gives it a must-have edge.

Answer 285

to seek Manufacturers **seeking** to restrict what owners do with increasingly complex technology have good reasons to protect their copyright, ensure that their machines do not malfunction, uphold environmental standards and prevent hacking.

Answer 286

unikać, powstrzymać się (od czegoś) It **eschews** many of the practices of private-equity funds, such as shaking up management and applying plenty of debt.

Answer 287

to coddle Favoured insiders might do well—witness the gap between **coddled** workers and neglected outsiders in Italy.

Answer 288

zdezorganizować, przerwać, zakłócić The Vision Fund is **disrupting** both the industries in which it invests and other suppliers of capital.

Answer 289

to scramble As a protest, Astana’s riders at the Giro start wearing uniforms that obscure the logos of their deadbeat underwriters. Armstrong begins **scrambling** to find new sponsors, and it’s possible he’ll be riding for a new team for the Tour de France. Meanwhile, rumors are flying that Contador will jump to another team.

Answer 290

przynosić; ściągać But Baidu, China’s leading search engine, took 19% and Alibaba, a giant in e-commerce, **drew in** almost a third.

Answer 291

kura The foxes have decided their best bet is to try to help build the **henhouse**.

Answer 292

atak Gripped by a **bout** of madness, they overpaid for firms at the top of the economic cycle and loaded them with too much debt.

Answer 293

to unwind It is investing more in shows developed outside America, too, and **unwinding** partnerships with foreign distributors so that it can stream its own wares worldwide.

Answer 294

zgadywanka It immediately set off a **guessing game** of where Mr. Musk would get the funds.

Answer 295

starać się; usiłować; próbować Manufacturers **seeking** to restrict what owners do with increasingly complex technology have good reasons to protect their copyright, ensure that their machines do not malfunction, uphold environmental standards and prevent hacking.

Answer 296

rozdrażniony, drażliwy The surprise tweets on Tuesday came as Mr. Musk’s long-combative stance against Tesla’s short sellers has grown **testier** in recent months.

Answer 297

to clamp down The government **clamped down** on the approval of new games earlier this year, and stopped approvals altogether in October.

Answer 298

to pursue Decisions about what projects to **pursue**, and whether to make them, are up to the executives in Hollywood; Mr Sarandos has 20 people working for him who have the coveted power to "green light" a project.

Answer 299

gafa Uber’s **missteps** would have become clear much sooner with better governance and a visible share price.

Answer 300

statement of intent The nine-figure **statement of intent** was widely derided as profligate, showing that Netflix might be a source of cash but scarcely offered serious competition.

Answer 301

fuks Many old hands of the tech industry snootily dismiss his bets on Yahoo and Alibaba as **flukes**.

Answer 302

spór The trade **disputes** President Donald Trump relishes have an old-fashioned feel.

Answer 303

przeplatać; urozmaicać But there is less space for advertising within people’s personal "stories" than there is on the conventional landing pages (called "newsfeeds") where people scroll through posts and ads are **interspersed**.

Answer 304

dążyć do czegoś, walczyć o coś, starać się, próbować Nobody is perfect, but you should always **strive** to be better and to have more meaningful encounters with people.

Answer 305

to uphold Manufacturers seeking to restrict what owners do with increasingly complex technology have good reasons to protect their copyright, ensure that their machines do not malfunction, **uphold** environmental standards and prevent hacking.

Answer 306

to be in short supply Mr Son is also bringing capital to places where it is still in fairly **short supply**—to India, to South-East Asia and to several European countries.

Answer 307

pogarda At the beginning of this decade he poured **scorn** on the idea that Netflix could be a competitor, comparing it to the "Albanian army".

Answer 308

madcap Elon Musk’s latest **madcap** scheme: taking Tesla private.

Answer 309

nurtować, dręczyć Still, the media hype over "clean teams" seemed to **rankle** Armstrong, as if the subtext was that all others were dirty.

Answer 310

psuć się Manufacturers seeking to restrict what owners do with increasingly complex technology have good reasons to protect their copyright, ensure that their machines do not **malfunction**, uphold environmental standards and prevent hacking.

Answer 311

rozpychać się łokciami; wpychać się (np. do kolejki) Some firms found tricks to **muscle in** on the aftermarket, using warranties, authorised repair shops, and strategies such as selling cheap printers and expensive ink.

Answer 312

gniew In some cases public **ire** opens the door to newcomers, such as Netflix.

Answer 313

stary wyga Many **old hands** of the tech industry snootily dismiss his bets on Yahoo and Alibaba as flukes.

Answer 314

entrant A third puzzle is that the number of new **entrants** has been falling and productivity growth has been weak.

Answer 315

to break the news [to sb] The way Mr. Musk **broke the news** added to the drama, disclosing in a casually worded tweet the prospect of a buyout that would be an enormously complicated transaction for a company struggling to generate cash.

Answer 316

talkie In the heyday of the **talkie**, Louis B. Mayer, head of the biggest studio, was Hollywood’s lion king.

Answer 317

zmanierowany Because its games have done so well, Tencent has been **lackadaisical** in monetising other parts of its business.

Answer 318

zaprzątać, nurtować Farmers and factories **preoccupy** the president. And his personal chemistry with other powerful men can make or break deals.

Answer 319

oft The resulting surge in Tesla’s share price, and Mr Musk’s **oft**-stated desire to "burn" the short sellers that have targeted his firm, stoked the SEC’s anger.

Answer 320

underling The firm will do other things differently, too: more performance reviews, less booze and no sex between a manager and an **underling**.

Answer 321

to morph Since its founding in 1997, the company has **morphed** from a DVD-rental service to a streaming-video upstart to the world’s first global TV powerhouse.

Answer 322

boffin But the **boffins** at headquarters in Los Gatos help set the budgets.

Answer 323

gołosłowny China’s pretensions to being a superpower will look **hollow** as long as America can throttle its firms at will.

Answer 324

utrudniać; udaremnić; pokrzyżować szyki It has given Tencent a powerful distribution channel for its own games, and has allowed it to **stymie** new rival products, including Douyin, by blocking them from its platform.

Answer 325

punkt zwrotny The Year of Living Dangerously. Was 2014 a **watershed**?

Answer 326

to plough back With an average subscription of $10 a month, those customers represent some $14bn in annual revenue which the company will **plough straight back** into programming, marketing and technology—along with billions more that it will borrow.

Answer 327

to placate Tencent is trying to **placate** the Chinese government. It is expanding its age-verification scheme and limiting screen time for children.

Answer 328

śliski; drażliwy; delikatny (np. o temacie rozmowy) In the digital age ownership has become more **slippery**.

Answer 329

niepewny; niebezpieczny; nietrwały Facebook is still strong but it is **precariously** balanced at the top of the industry, facing several big challenges in the coming year.

Answer 330

karta przetargowa It has the territory it really wants and has maintained its claim to Arunachal Pradesh only as a **bargaining chip**.

Answer 331

to deploy The first is that the **deployment** of so much cash now will help shape the industries of the future.

Answer 332

to be on the wane In the 1980s, with the studio system **on the wane**, "superagent" Michael Ovitz was often described as the most powerful man in town.

Answer 333

to eat into Such a setback would slow Netflix’s growth—and give deep-pocketed competitors like Amazon or Apple time to **eat into** its leads in inventory, tied-up talent and personalisation.

Answer 334

potępić "The number of senior people who have left publicly and **denounced** the company going out the door is unprecedented.

Answer 335

wiązać się z; pociągać za sobą It also **entails** requiring big platforms to license anonymised bulk data to rivals.

Answer 336

ire In some cases public **ire** opens the door to newcomers, such as Netflix.

Answer 337

to chuck If you no longer wanted it, you sold it or **chucked** it away.

Answer 338

pierszeństwo In markets that lack net-neutrality protections (such as America), dominant internet providers might decide to give their own streaming services **precedence** over Netflix.

Answer 339

to come into force The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation **came into force** in May, two months after Google found its bug; it requires firms to disclose data breaches within 72 hours or face steep fines.

Answer 340

skittish For **skittish** investors, all this has concentrated minds on whether the giant can maintain its momentum as it enters its third decade.

Answer 341

to intersperse But there is less space for advertising within people’s personal "stories" than there is on the conventional landing pages (called "newsfeeds") where people scroll through posts and ads are **interspersed**.

Answer 342

bardzo duży, nietypowej wielkości An **outsize** investment in an unconventional business is typical of a fund that itself is both vast and resistant to definition.

Answer 343

to loom large The spectre of the past will continue **to loom large**, thanks to litigation and government probes.

Answer 344

to depict It is a misreading of the logic and character of the existing world order, which is more stable and expansive than Mead **depicts**, leading him to overestimate the ability of the "axis of weevils" to undermine it.

Answer 345

compelling This allows publishers to monitor exactly how customers are playing games, and fine-tune them to make them as **compelling** as possible.

Answer 346

brakować Mr Son is also bringing capital to places where it is still in fairly **short supply**—to India, to South-East Asia and to several European countries.

Answer 347

nadszarpnięty Investors will take a lot of convincing that it is fully seaworthy, having looked so **tattered** just days ago

Answer 348

prickly The **prickly** inner confidence that most buy-out firms have in their DNA can seem insular when applied to other fields.

Answer 349

obfity Disney is pulling its films off Netflix and launching its own streaming service next year, hoping that its roster of Pixar, Marvel and "Star Wars" movies, not to mention **copious** princesses, gives it a must-have edge.

Answer 350

listless Exasperated parents and opportunistic politicians have long fretted that they make players lazy and **listless**, or else unpredictable and violent.

Answer 351

brak, wada Their likes, dislikes, and even **shortcomings** are something they are thankful for.

Answer 352

to contend with Google would need to **contend with** other obstacles.

Answer 353

zmienić kierunek The past week has brought more bad news. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has been forced onto the airwaves to defend his second-in-command, Sheryl Sandberg, after the New York Times on November 14th published a report alleging that they had tried to downplay the extent of Russian electoral interference to the firm’s board of directors, and hired lobbyists and the kind of "opposition-research" firms commonly used in political campaigns, to **deflect** blame onto other firms and to tarnish critics.

Answer 354

malicious It was not supposed to be this way. Bitcoin, the first and still the most popular cryptocurrency, began life as a techno-anarchist project to create an online version of cash, a way for people to transact without the possibility of interference from **malicious** governments or banks.

Answer 355

heyday In the **heyday** of the talkie, Louis B. Mayer, head of the biggest studio, was Hollywood’s lion king.

Answer 356

grandiosity This combination of gargantuanism, **grandiosity** and guaranteed payouts may end up in financial disaster.

Answer 357

advent Since the **advent** of smartphones, consumers have been forced to accept that they do not control the software in their devices; they are only licensed to use it.

Answer 358

proponent **Proponents** believe these features can help solve all sorts of problems, from streamlining bank payments and guaranteeing the provenance of medicines to securing property rights and providing unforgeable identity documents for refugees.

Answer 359

pochłaniać (np. zyski) Monopolistic prices may have allowed powerful firms **to eat away** **at** the purchasing power of wages.

Answer 360

wyrachowanie The swap is ostensibly the result of a move by Tencent in April to sanitise content, after a crackdown on popular online platforms by government regulators, but is also **self-serving**.

Answer 361

istotny, robiący wrażenie, nie do odparcia This allows publishers to monitor exactly how customers are playing games, and fine-tune them to make them as **compelling** as possible.

Answer 362

uchylać się; unikać; obchodzić It is being investigated for allegedly designing software to identify and **evade** transport regulators.

Answer 363

usprawnić Proponents believe these features can help solve all sorts of problems, from **streamlining** bank payments and guaranteeing the provenance of medicines to securing property rights and providing unforgeable identity documents for refugees.

Answer 364

nadrzędne And when it comes to their **overriding** interests, Russia and, especially, China are deeply integrated into the world economy and its governing institutions.

Answer 365

pośpiech One of the reasons that Netflix is spending in such **haste** is that Netflixonomics is a winner-takes-most proposition.

Answer 366

często The resulting surge in Tesla’s share price, and Mr Musk’s **oft**-stated desire to "burn" the short sellers that have targeted his firm, stoked the SEC’s anger.

Answer 367

złośliwy It was not supposed to be this way. Bitcoin, the first and still the most popular cryptocurrency, began life as a techno-anarchist project to create an online version of cash, a way for people to transact without the possibility of interference from **malicious** governments or banks.

Answer 368

przestrzegać Manufacturers seeking to restrict what owners do with increasingly complex technology have good reasons to protect their copyright, ensure that their machines do not malfunction, **uphold** environmental standards and prevent hacking.

Answer 369

merit And because India does not threaten the West, it has powerful friends both on its own **merits** and as a counterweight to China.

Answer 370

to draw in But Baidu, China’s leading search engine, took 19% and Alibaba, a giant in e-commerce, **drew in** almost a third.

Answer 371

egzekwować But it has no **enforcement** mechanism and its decision-making process is highly politicized and easy for the manipulators to block.

Answer 372

roszczenie; aspiracja; pretensja China’s **pretensions** to being a superpower will look hollow as long as America can throttle its firms at will.

Answer 373

skazić Like a toffee apple with a maggot inside, the debt markets have been **tainted** by their links with America's subprime mortgage crisis.

Answer 374

nowopowstały; raczkujący Last year it took 45% of China’s **fledgling** cloud-computing market, worth 69bn yuan ($10bn), compared with 10% for Tencent, according to idc, a research firm.

Answer 375

to shuttle And **shuttling** data continuously between users makes them slower than conventional databases.

Answer 376

śledztwo The spectre of the past will continue to loom large, thanks to litigation and government **probes**.

Answer 377

sheer The concept of portfolio companies collaborating is familiar from private equity, but the fund’s **sheer** breadth marks it out.

Answer 378

endowment Unsurprisingly, clients are disillusioned. Measuring performance is a depressingly murky affair, but the typical **endowment** or pension fund saw its private-equity holdings drop by 20-30% in fiscal 2009 alone, and their illiquidity also proved a serious pain during the crisis.

Answer 379

mundane Tesla bulls and bears can surely agree on one thing: Chief Executive Elon Musk is capable of making the surreal seem **mundane**.

Answer 380

provenance Proponents believe these features can help solve all sorts of problems, from streamlining bank payments and guaranteeing the **provenance** of medicines to securing property rights and providing unforgeable identity documents for refugees.

Answer 381

to malfunction Manufacturers seeking to restrict what owners do with increasingly complex technology have good reasons to protect their copyright, ensure that their machines do not **malfunction**, uphold environmental standards and prevent hacking.

Answer 382

krok, próba sił To compete with the Vision Fund’s pot of moolah, and with the **forays** of other unconventional investors, incumbents are having to bulk up.

Answer 383

zdobyć He has **notched up** some triumphs in his career, including an early bet on Alibaba.

Answer 384

to elicit Big technology firms **elicit** extreme and conflicting reactions.

Answer 385

odgrywać rolę; figurować; przedstawiać Semiconductors **feature** prominently in "Made in China 2025", a national development plan issued in 2015.

Answer 386

nadziany (bogaty) Seven years ago Uber launched itself as an app connecting **well-heeled** users with nearby limousines.

Answer 387

scorn At the beginning of this decade he poured **scorn** on the idea that Netflix could be a competitor, comparing it to the "Albanian army".

Answer 388

obdarzać The accolades **bestowed** upon Alan Greenspan ahead of his retirement on January 31st have a strong whiff of irrational exuberance.

Answer 389

testy The surprise tweets on Tuesday came as Mr. Musk’s long-combative stance against Tesla’s short sellers has grown **testier** in recent months.

Answer 390

przełomowy; najnowocześniejszy; innowacyjny China’s ambitions to create a **cutting-edge** industry worried Mr Trump’s predecessor.

Answer 391

apatyczny Exasperated parents and opportunistic politicians have long fretted that they make players lazy and **listless**, or else unpredictable and violent.

Answer 392

rezygnować Creators **forgo** lucrative licensing of their shows to secondary markets because, in Netflixonomics, there are no secondary markets.

Answer 393

to taint Like a toffee apple with a maggot inside, the debt markets have been **tainted** by their links with America's subprime mortgage crisis.

Answer 394

to inflict One is that a tolerance of casual sexism can **inflict** real commercial damage.

Answer 395

zachwalanie towaru przez sprzedawcę, pozyskiwanie klienta Mr Son’s **sales pitch** on how he could use the kingdom’s wealth to grab a stake in future technologies, rather than buying the usual Western trophy assets, saw him leave with a pledge of $45bn.

Answer 396

fundacja Unsurprisingly, clients are disillusioned. Measuring performance is a depressingly murky affair, but the typical **endowment** or pension fund saw its private-equity holdings drop by 20-30% in fiscal 2009 alone, and their illiquidity also proved a serious pain during the crisis.

Answer 397

to scoff **Scoffing** WeChat users circulated the article just to highlight the switch.

Answer 398

drwić **Scoffing** WeChat users circulated the article just to highlight the switch.

Answer 399

shake-up Its boss, Pony Ma, has **shaken things up** in time for its 20th anniversary.

Answer 400

wyczerpujący, obszerny Companies usually spell out the details of such proposed complex transactions in **comprehensive**, lawyered documents.

Answer 401

uosabiać The company’s hard-charging culture—**embodied** in Travis Kalanick, Uber’s co-founder and boss—was celebrated, not questioned.

Answer 402

pożądać Decisions about what projects to pursue, and whether to make them, are up to the executives in Hollywood; Mr Sarandos has 20 people working for him who have the **coveted** power to "green light" a project.

Answer 403

puzzle A third **puzzle** is that the number of new entrants has been falling and productivity growth has been weak.

Answer 404

powerhouse Since its founding in 1997, the company has morphed from a DVD-rental service to a streaming-video upstart to the world’s first global TV **powerhouse**.

Answer 405

budować mięśnie, zyskać masę ciała To compete with the Vision Fund’s pot of moolah, and with the forays of other unconventional investors, incumbents are having to **bulk up**.

Answer 406

exuberance The accolades bestowed upon Alan Greenspan ahead of his retirement on January 31st have a strong whiff of irrational **exuberance**.

Answer 407

culpable He is **culpable** for its failings; its culture was created in his image.

Answer 408

to conceive It is no longer **inconceivable** that its growth could outpace China’s for a considerable time.

Answer 409

rozwiązać (problem) But Tesla still has big distribution problems to **iron out**.

Answer 410

nieokreślony, bezterminowy He said this week that he will take an **indefinite** leave of absence, in part to grieve for his mother, who was killed in a recent accident, and in part to "work on himself".

Answer 411

rudimentary AVA, a customer-service chatbot for Autodesk, has **rudimentary** emotional intelligence.

Answer 412

zdecydowany na zrobienie czegoś Mr Son is **bent** on proving them wrong.

Answer 413

szydzić [z kogoś, czegoś] Feeling the heat, Mr Musk earlier this year lashed out at share analysts for "bonehead" questions, and has **derided** the army of short sellers targeting it.

Answer 414

spóźniony Uber is **belatedly** making efforts to fix things.

Answer 415

olbrzymi This combination of **gargantuanism**, grandiosity and guaranteed payouts may end up in financial disaster.

Answer 416

poważny; palący Two concerns are particularly **acute**.

Answer 417

entuzjazm The accolades bestowed upon Alan Greenspan ahead of his retirement on January 31st have a strong whiff of irrational **exuberance**.

Answer 418

giddy Indeed, the Vision Fund could mark the **giddy** top of the tech boom.

Answer 419

topical She had resigned herself to buying tube after tube of **topical** painkillers - until she discovered the menstrual cup.

Answer 420

hands-off The day-to-day running of SpaceX, his thriving rocket business, is handled by Gwynne Shotwell, a talented aerospace veteran, with Mr Musk taking more of a **hands-off** role

Answer 421

accolade The **accolades** bestowed upon Alan Greenspan ahead of his retirement on January 31st have a strong whiff of irrational exuberance.

Answer 422

malign The trend is not always **malign**.

Answer 423

zmagać się z Google would need to **contend with** other obstacles.

Answer 424

rozlokować The first is that the **deployment** of so much cash now will help shape the industries of the future.

Answer 425

orędownik **Proponents** believe these features can help solve all sorts of problems, from streamlining bank payments and guaranteeing the provenance of medicines to securing property rights and providing unforgeable identity documents for refugees.

Answer 426

prominent It has since become the most **prominent** tech startup in the world, with a valuation of $70bn.

Answer 427

odzwyczaić się Muhammad bin Salman, now Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, was preparing to launch a programme to **wean** the country off oil and diversify the economy.

Answer 428

compulsory Britain’s Labour Party promises **compulsory** employee share-ownership.

Answer 429

rozprawienie się, atak, zastosowanie sankcji, China’s gaming **crackdown** should worry the industry elsewhere. Gaming firms’ skill at extracting money from players risks a regulatory backlash.

Answer 430

zwrot, obrót, zwrot o 180 stopni, wolta Aware of such risks, the company is increasingly persuading internet and pay-TV distributors like Comcast, T-Mobile and Sky to bundle its service with theirs, an **about-face** for some of these incumbents.

Answer 431

to beckon **Beckoning** the barbarians.

Answer 432

wchodzić w życie The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation **came into force** in May, two months after Google found its bug; it requires firms to disclose data breaches within 72 hours or face steep fines.

Answer 433

mamona To compete with the Vision Fund’s pot of **moolah**, and with the forays of other unconventional investors, incumbents are having to bulk up.

Answer 434

wyroby It is investing more in shows developed outside America, too, and unwinding partnerships with foreign distributors so that it can stream its own **wares** worldwide.

Answer 435

to take a toll The firm’s problems have started **to take a toll**.

Answer 436

tutaj: miejscowy; aktualny She had resigned herself to buying tube after tube of **topical** painkillers - until she discovered the menstrual cup.

Answer 437

roster Disney is pulling its films off Netflix and launching its own streaming service next year, hoping that its **roster** of Pixar, Marvel and "Star Wars" movies, not to mention copious princesses, gives it a must-have edge.

Answer 438

potwierdzać They will be watching to see if his claim of having "funding secured" is **borne out**

Answer 439

podwyzka, narzut Netflix usually buys up exclusive worldwide rights to the shows it makes and acquires, paying a **mark-up** over production costs.

Answer 440

rozpieszczać Favoured insiders might do well—witness the gap between **coddled** workers and neglected outsiders in Italy.

Answer 441

pochodzić z; brać się z Although it has sprawled into all sorts of areas, from online lending (WeBank) and insurance (WeSure) to offline medical clinics (Tencent Doctorwork), the company still **derives** over two-fifths of its revenue from gaming.

Answer 442

przyprawiający o zwrot głowy Indeed, the Vision Fund could mark the **giddy** top of the tech boom.

Answer 443

samo w sobie Instead it has become an industry **in and of itself**

Answer 444

film z dzwiękiem In the heyday of the **talkie**, Louis B. Mayer, head of the biggest studio, was Hollywood’s lion king.

Answer 445

corny Once a show is ready for delivery, it is up to executives in Los Gatos like Todd Yellin, vice-president of product, to work out how to get it to the appropriate users and check that they are, in the **corny** parlance of the company, "delighted" by it.

Answer 446

poróżnić się Recent weeks have seen China **fall out** with South Korea (as well as the West) over how to respond to the sinking in March, apparently by a North Korean torpedo, of a South Korean navy ship.

Answer 447

to discern A hundred years ago it was perhaps already possible to **discern** the rising powers whose interaction and competition would shape the 20th century.

Answer 448

przesąd Armstrong imported industrial-grade efficiency to a romantic sport rich with **superstition**. He left nothing to chance: Training was no-expenses-spared, beta teammates were handpicked to serve the Lance alpha, every inch of body and bike was examined in a wind tunnel to reduce aerodynamic drag.

Answer 449

turf Each coterie guards its **turf** jealously, and coordination between them is infrequent.

Answer 450

wyciskać (np. sok) But these ways of **squeezing out** more profit did not challenge the nature of what it means to be an owner.

Answer 451

moolah To compete with the Vision Fund’s pot of **moolah**, and with the forays of other unconventional investors, incumbents are having to bulk up.

Answer 452

to tarnish The past week has brought more bad news. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has been forced onto the airwaves to defend his second-in-command, Sheryl Sandberg, after the New York Times on November 14th published a report alleging that they had tried to downplay the extent of Russian electoral interference to the firm’s board of directors, and hired lobbyists and the kind of "opposition-research" firms commonly used in political campaigns, to deflect blame onto other firms and to **tarnish** critics.

Answer 453

profligate The nine-figure statement of intent was widely derided as **profligate**, showing that Netflix might be a source of cash but scarcely offered serious competition.

Answer 454

zastrzeżenie So **caveats** abound. Yet as the years roll forward, the chances are that it will increasingly come down once again to the two Asian giants facing each other over a disputed border

Answer 455

przystąpić [do czegoś] Having amassed the wherewithal, Mr Son **set about** collecting stakes.

Answer 456

wyrozumiałość A little voluntary **forbearance** now could save a lot of regulatory pain later.

Answer 457

singular His pursuit of the "**singularity**", the point at which computer intelligence exceeds the human kind, might make him a visionary—or just an eccentric.

Answer 458

to strive Nobody is perfect, but you should always **strive** to be better and to have more meaningful encounters with people.

Answer 459

delikatny; wrażliwy It would be no surprise if Tencent were feeling **touchy** as it approaches its 20th anniversary on November 11th.

Answer 460

ostry sprzeciw; gwałtowna reakcja China’s gaming crackdown should worry the industry elsewhere. Gaming firms’ skill at extracting money from players risks a regulatory **backlash**.

Answer 461

mind-boggling This is partly because of his belief in **mind-boggling** futuristic scenarios such as the "singularity", when computer intelligence is meant to overtake the human kind.

Answer 462

tariff **Tariffs** are the principal weapons.

Answer 463

dokonany za obopólną zgodą One of their biggest concerns is "I don’t want to hurt you"… when in reality, I’m into it! (**consensually**).

Answer 464

relevant It is giving new opportunities to entrepreneurs and forcing Silicon Valley's best to stay **relevant**

Answer 465

to sprawl Although it has **sprawled** into all sorts of areas, from online lending (WeBank) and insurance (WeSure) to offline medical clinics (Tencent Doctorwork), the company still derives over two-fifths of its revenue from gaming.

Answer 466

inwestować Its tech giants are on board: Alibaba, Baidu and Huawei are **ploughing** money into making chips.

Answer 467

reversal For Mr Bewkes that was quite a **reversal**.

Answer 468

wywoływać Big technology firms **elicit** extreme and conflicting reactions.

Answer 469

predicament Walter Russell Mead paints a disturbing portrait of the United States’ geopolitical **predicament**.

Answer 470

grizzled In particular, the way in which Bytedance is capturing very young users, as well as young talent, makes Tencent look increasingly **grizzled**.

Answer 471

serwis informacyjny The extent of this blacklist is unknown, even to local internet firms, and it is constantly mutating. It includes social-media websites, like Twitter and Facebook, and **news outlets** (including The Economist).

Answer 472

zagadka, łamigłówka A third **puzzle** is that the number of new entrants has been falling and productivity growth has been weak.

Answer 473

zły, szkodliwy, wrogi The trend is not always **malign**.

Answer 474

steep On August 7th it announced it had managed to raise $2.3 billion in the capital markets, although at a **steep** price.

Answer 475

ukrócić coś, ograniczać coś, przyhamować coś The government **clamped down** on the approval of new games earlier this year, and stopped approvals altogether in October.

Answer 476

tenure And after the accolades have faded, what will economists conclude about his **tenure**?

deck no. 01 Flashcards

(500 cards)