基本释义
Mantle: the role and responsibilities of an important person or job, especially when they are passed on from one person to another.
Howard Schultz, who turned Starbucks from a handful of Seattle coffeeshops to a global behemoth, has pulled it off twice. At the turn of the millennium he passed on the chief executive’s mantle to an heir, only to return to shepherd the firm through the global financial crisis of 2007-09. He then abdicated once more in 2017.
起初，星巴克只在西雅图有几家店面，而经霍华德·舒尔茨之手星巴克成为了全球咖啡巨头。舒尔茨进行过两次企业权力交接，第一次是在2000年左右，他将星巴克CEO的衣钵移交给其继任者。不料2007-2009年全球金融危机爆发，舒尔茨被迫回归，带领公司渡过难关。2017年，他再度卸任。
单词mantle来自拉丁语mantum，最初指“披风、斗篷”，后来引申出了比喻含义，指“覆盖物，罩，幕”等，例如：
The earth bore a thick green mantle of vegetation.
大地覆盖着一层厚厚的绿色植物。
After a cold night, the village was covered with a thick mantle of snow.
寒夜过后，村庄被盖上了厚厚的一层雪。
此时，也可以当做动词，表示“覆盖，遮盖”，反义词dismantle表示“拆除，取消”，例如：
The damp rain mantled the whole city.
整个城市笼罩在阴湿的雨里。
The worker had to dismantle the engine in order to repair it. 在圣经中，讲到Elijah将mantle（斗篷，披风）传给了Elisha，这里mantle被用作比喻义，指“（代代相传的）衣钵、（传承的）重要职责”。例如：
Only one man has an obvious right to assume the king's mantle.She has the intellectual form to take up the mantle of leadership.此外，1940年左右，mantle又多了一个新的含义，在地质学中被用来表示“地幔”。地幔是指地壳下面地球的中间层，厚度约2865公里，主要由致密的造岩物质构成，是地球内部体积最大、质量最大的一层。
在美剧《生活大爆炸》S4E7中，Leonard在说自己的时候，就用到了今天的单词：My problem is, I don't project confidence. So I decided the next time I meet a woman I think is attractive, rather than holding back and being cautious, I'm going to assume the mantle of self-assurance.我的问题在于，我没有展现出自信。所以我决定，当我下次见到美女时，我不会退缩和矜持，我要展现我自信的一面。
