[双语]“极客”风潮袭来

Move over, high school quarterback. The geek is the new cool kid in town.
让位吧，高中橄榄球队四分卫，现在城里的新派酷哥是“极客”。

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.
据Modis信息科技公司的最新调查，六分之一的美国人认为自己是“极客”，另有多达57%的受访者认为被称为“极客”是一种赞美。该调查旨在纪念“极客节”。

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.
美国人最爱将“极客”和某些优点联系起来，比如45%的受访者认为“极客”非常聪明、能提供正确的技术建议（56%）、是新技术的尝鲜者（45%）。共有一千名美国成年人接受了调查。

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).
但能支持这一论点的一个最有趣的发现是，愿意被称为“极客”的美国人（41%）是愿意被称为“运动健将”的美国人（22%）的两倍。

Of the people surveyed by the Opinion Research Group for Modis` study, 17 percent said they were geeks.
在Modis公司委派市场研究集团进行的这项调查中，17%的受访者自称“极客”。

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.
调查结果表明，美国人看待“极客”的方式出现了文化转变。三分之二的“千年一代”，也就是年龄在18岁至34岁之间的群体，认为被称为“极客”是一种赞美。而在65岁及以上的受访者中，仅有39%的人对此表示赞同。

Eighty-two percent of the respondents feel it is more acceptable to be a geek today than it was 15 years ago.
82%的受访者认为，与15年前相比，而今“极客”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公司总裁杰克•卡伦说：“这也许是因为美国人越来越依赖科技，对科技、以及那些前‘极客’的普遍形象更有好感了。这些人如今成功领导着价值数十亿美元的科技公司。但如今做个‘极客’已经成为主流。”

At the same time, the survey showed self-identified geeks are not as fond of the label "nerd."
调查同时表明，自称“极客”的人们却不喜欢被叫做“电脑迷”。

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%的受访者称，自己更喜欢被称为“极客”而不是“电脑迷”。受访者认为最适合“极客”的专业领域是“电脑游戏设计师”（65%）、科技工程师（50%）和专业博主（37%）。