本篇文章来源于经济学人 2024年4月6日版，标题为 King of the Castle 。全文如下：

  When BOB IGER returned to the top job at Disney in November 2022, some anticipated a fairytale ending to the entertainment giant's troubles. In February last year Nelson Peltz, a feared activist investor called off a campaign by his hedge fund, Trian Partners, for a shake-up after Mr Iger announced measures to slash costs and otherwise improve Disney's fortunes.1
  With the company's share price languishing, however, Mr Peltz returned to the warpath in October. Blackwells, another activist investor，launched a campaign of its own. Both sought seats on Disney's board, arguing it had grown too chummy with Mr Iger and failed to find a viable strategy amid the decline of "linear" TV.2
  On April 3rd both activists' candidates were rejected by shareholders at Disney's annual general meeting(AGM), by what the company said was "a substantial margin". This has handed Mr Iger what he surely hopes is a decisive victory.3 Investors began to regain faith in Disney's boss after an earnings call in February, when he reported that losses in its steaming business, including Disney+, had narrowed sharply in the final quarter of 2023, and trumpeted splashy new initiatives including a partnership with Epic Games, a video game developer, to incorporate Disney characters into its popular “Fortnite” franchise.4 The announcement that Disney would increase its dividend by 50% and repurchase $3bn of shares also went down a treat. Its share price jumped by % the following day, and has kept climbing since (see chart).
At the AGM, Mr. Iger declared that Disney has “turned a corner and entered a new, positive era.” Such triumphalism is premature, for Mr. Iger still has much work to do, in three areas especially. The first is to generate the “double-digit” operating margins in Disney's streaming business that he has promised investors. That will require a lot more subscribers, to provide economies of scale, which may put Mr. Iger in a bind. To stem losses in the business he has jacked up prices, undermining growth. Between the third and fourth quarters of last year, the number of subscribers to Disney+ (outside India) shrank by 1.3m.
What is more, over half of the $7.5bn in costs Mr. Iger has pledged to slash are to come from Disney's content budget. That will hardly help the company grow, and could undermine a second of Mr. Iger's promises to restore Disney's creative magic. In his letter to shareholders from 1966, the last before he died, Walt Disney declared a disdain for sequels. Mr Iger, by contrast, is an avid fan. Of the 15 forthcoming films he mentioned in his presentation in February, all bar one were sequels, pre-quels, spin-offs or remakes. Mr Iger ap-plauded a greater reliance on franchises as a "smart thing". Results at the box office, however, have been disappointing. Last year Disney lost the top spot for global cin-ema-ticket sales, to Universal, for the first time since 2015. On March 3ist it was re-ported that last year's Indiana Jones film, a Disney reboot featuring an 8o-year-old Harrison Ford, took in $134m less at the box office than it cost to produce.
The third promise Mr Iger must still ful-fil is to find a more durable successor than his last pick, whom he then supplanted. Worryingly, three of the four directors on Disney's succession-planning committee were involved in that bungled process. Already Mr Iger's two-year contract has been extended until the end of 2026.
If Mr Iger trips up, the interlopers may return. In his remarks at the AGM, Mr Peltz noted that, regardless of the outcome of the vote, he would be "watching the com-pany's performance". The veteran activist, too, may be a fan of sequels.

Sentence 1️⃣

1.Trian partners, for a shake-up after Mr. Iger announced measures to slash costs and otherwise improve Disney’ Fortunes.
在伊格宣布削减成本和其他改善迪士尼财务状况的措施之后，Trian合伙公司要求进行重组

for在句中做连词，引导目的状语从句，表示寻求变革。shake-up在这里指的是重大变革或动荡（组织、公司或团队）。 slash在这里时动词，意为大幅削减。Otherwise是一个副词，表示在其他方面。意思是除了大幅削减成本以外的其他方法。 to slash ... and ... improve，and前后两个并列的不定式，第二个不定式前的to可以省略。

Sentence 2️⃣

2.Both sought seats on Disney’s board, arguing it had grown too chummy with Mr. Iger and failed to find a viable strategy amid the decline of “linear” TV.
两人都寻求进入迪士尼董事会，认为公司与伊格尔关系过于亲密，而且在有线电视衰落的情况下，未能找到可行的战略。

sought 为 seek 的过去时态。现在时态为 seeking。固定搭配有seek sb/sth， seek sth from sb，seek to do。例句：
  • Drivers are advised to seek alternative routes. 寻找备份路线
  • He seeks help from a neighbour. 寻求帮助
  • He seeks to distance himself from the protesters. 试图和抗议者保持距离
    chummy意思是非常友好的，亲近的。近义词为friendly。

    • Sentence 3️⃣

    3.This has handed Mr. Iger what he surely hopes is a decisive victory.
    这给了伊格先生他无疑希望获得的决定性胜利

    decisive，形容词，意为果断的，决断的，决定性的，关键的。例句：
  • She has played a decisive role in the peace negotiations.

    • Sentence 4️⃣

    4.On April 3rd both activists candidates were rejected by shareholders at Disney’s annual general meeting(AGM), by what the company said was “a substantial margin“.
    4月3日，在迪士尼的年度股东大会上，两位活跃人士候选人被股东们以公司称为“相当大的差距”被否决。

    shareholders 就是股东，也就是一家公司share（股份）的持有者。substantial，大量的，实质的。margin，差额，边缘，利润。这里指的是差距大。

    Sentence 5️⃣

    5.Investors began to regain faith in Disney’s boss after an earnings call in February, when he reported that losses in its streaming business, including Disney+, had narrowed sharply in the final quarter of 2023, and trumpeted splashy new initiatives including a partnership with Epic Games, a video-game developer, to incorporate Disney characters into its popular “Fortnite franchise“.
    投资者在二月的财报电话会议后开始重新对迪士尼的老板恢复信心。在会议上，他报告称公司的流媒体业务，包括Disney+，在2023年第四季度的亏损大幅缩减，并宣布了一系列引人注目的新举措，包括与视频游戏开发商Epic Games合作，将迪士尼角色引入其热门的“Fortnite”系列游戏中。

    earnings call，即财报电话会议。losses损失，亏损，去世。常见词组还有 at a loss 不知所惑；困惑；cut your losses及时止损。trumpeted原型是trumpet，名词意为小号，喇叭。动词形式意为宣扬，鼓吹。splashy意为引入注目的，泥泞的。这里其实就是说宣布新举措像喇叭一样大声宣扬。franchise，特许经营权，做动词时意为授予（或出售）特许经销权（或经营权）。Disney给予Epic Games使用其角色的授权，将Disney角色引入Fortnite这个流行游戏及其相关产品和服务。
    这个句子太长了，但其实很长的一部分都是在修饰。主语是Investor，谓语是began to regain，宾语是faith in Disney‘s boss。后面是when引导的定语从句用来修饰二月的这个财报电话会议。会议内容就是公司的流媒体业务亏损大幅缩减，还有宣布了一系列引人注目的新措施。后面说到的措施就是与迪士尼合作。

    Sentence 6️⃣

    6.The announcement that Disney would increase its dividend by 50% and repurchase $3bn of shares also went down a treat.

    迪士尼将增加股息50%并回购30亿美元的股票的公告也非常成功。

    dividend，红利，股息，好处。常见词组有dividend policy，dividend distribution，stock dividend，分别是股息分配方针，股息分配，股票的股息。 went down原型是go down，意思是被接收被采纳，加上treat意思是非常受成功，也就是受欢迎。

    Sentence 7️⃣

    7.That will require a lot more subscribers, to provide economics of scale, which may put Mr. Iger in a bind.

    这将需要更多的订阅者，以提供规模经济，这可能会让伊格尔先生陷入困境。

    in a bind，处于困境中，进退维谷。

    Sentence 8️⃣

    8.To stem losses in the business he has jacked up prices, undermining growth.

    为了遏制业务中的损失，他已经大幅提高了价格，削弱了增长。

    stem，做名词时指的是花草的茎，高脚杯的脚。做动词时意为组织，遏止。这里与losses搭配表示阻止亏损。jack up，提高，抬高。