英语四级真题阅读理解(带翻译)
短期培训-读矛盾论有感
Passage1
Reading leadership literature,
you’d sometimes think that everyone has the
potential to be an
effective leader.
读领导文学,你有时会认为每个人都有可能成为一个有效的领导者。
I don’t believe
that to be true. In fact, I see way fewer truly
effective leaders than I see people
stuck in
positions of leadership who arc sadly incompetent
and seriously misguided about their
own
abilities. 我不相信这是真的。事实上,我认为真正有效的领导者的方式比我看到的人都
陷
在领导的职位上,遗憾的是他们自己的能力不称职,严重误导了他们。
Part of the
reason this happens is a lack of honest self-
assessment by those who aspire
to
(追求)leadership in the first place.
对产生这种现象的原因一部分是由那些渴望缺乏诚实的
自我评估(追求)放在首位的领导
We've all met the type of individual who
simply must take charge. Whether it's a
decision-making session, a basketball game, or
a family outing, they can't help grabbing the lead
dog position and clinging on to it for dear
life. They believe they're natural born leaders.
我们都遇到了个人的类型,他们必须负责。无论是决策会议,篮球比赛,还是家庭外出,
他们
都不能不抓住领导的狗的地位,并紧紧抓住它,因为亲爱的生命。他们相信他们是天生
的领袖。
Truth is, they're nothing of the sort. True
leaders don't assume that it's their
divine(神圣
的)right to take charge every time two
or more people get together. Quite the opposite. A
great
leader will assess each situation on its
merits, and will only take charge when their
position, the
situation, andor the needs of
the moment demand it.
事实是,他们没有什么样的。真正的领导者不认为
这是他们的神圣(神圣的)负责每次两
个或两个以上的人在一起吧。恰恰相反。一个伟大的领导者会对每
一个情况进行评估,并在
他们的位置、情况和或需要的情况下,只会负责。
Many
business executives confuse leadership with
action. They believe that constant motion
somehow generates leadership as a byproduct.
Faced with any situation that can’t be solved by
the sheer force of activity, they generate a
dust cloud of impatience. Their one leadership
tool is
volume: if they think you
aren't working as hard as they think you should,
their demands become
increasingly louder and
harsher.
许多企业高管把领导与行动混为一谈。他们认为,不断运动以某种程度上产生领导的
副产品。
面对任何无法解决的纯粹的力量的情况,他们产生了一个不耐烦的尘埃云。他们的一个领导的工具是量:如果他们认为你不做他们认为你应该努力,他们的要求越来越高和严厉的。
True
leaders understand the value of action, of course,
but it isn’t their only tool. In fact, it
isn’t ever their primary tool. Great leaders
see more than everyone else: answers, solutions,
patterns, problems, opportunities. They know
it’s vitally important to do, but they also know
that
thinking, understanding, reflection and
interpretation are equally important.
真正的领导者
明白行动的价值,当然,但这不是他们唯一的工具。事实上,它不是他们的
主要工具。伟大领袖们看到的
比其他人更多:答案、解决方案、模式、问题、机会。他们知
道这是非常重要的,但他们也知道,思想,
理解,反思和解释同样重要
If you're too concerned with
outcomes to the extent that you manipulate and
intimidate
others to achieve those outcomes,
then you aren't leading at all, you're dictating.
A true leader is
someone who develops his or
her team so that they can and do hit their targets
and achieve
their goals.
如果你太关注结果的程度,你的操纵
和恐吓他人来达到这些目标,那么你不是领导时,你决
定。一个真正的领导者是一个发展他或她的团队的
人,这样他们就可以打他们的目标,达到
他们的目标。
Passage2
Have you ever felt your mind falling into
disorder after a sleepless night You
couldn’t
come up with an original thought no matter how
hard you tried.
你有过一个无眠的夜晚,你是否感到你的精神陷入混乱不管你怎么努
力,你都不
能想出一个原创的想法。
You were
probably right if you thought that was caused by a
lack of sleep.
Dr. Horne, a sleep researcher
in England, studied 24 college students. One group
got
their normal eight hours of sleep.
The other group didn’t get the smallest amount of
sleep ——they stayed awake all night. The next
day, Dr. Horne tested the students.
He asked
them questions that required creative and original
thinking. One of the
questions was “How many
uses can a cardboard box be put to”
你可能是对
的,如果你认为这是由于缺乏睡眠造成的。Horne博士,在英国睡眠研究者
研究了24名大学生。一
组八小时的睡眠正常。另一组人没有得到最小的睡眠,他们整
夜都睡不着觉。次日,测试的学生。他要求
他们提出的问题,需要创造性和创造性思维。
其中的一个问题是“有多少用纸板箱可以装
The result The wide-awake students did
well on the test .The tired students did
poorly.
结果考试大的学生考得很好,累的学生成绩不好。
Research has already shown that tired people can
do OK on tests of habitual
thinking, like
simple addition. But Dr. Horne tested creative
thinking only.
研究已经表明,疲劳的人可以做测试的习惯性思维,如简单的加法。但
是,测试
创造性思维只有。
As part of his study, he
offered an amount of money as a reward to the
sleepy
students if they did well. But even
this encouragement wasn’t enough to help the
students conquer their tiredness. They did
poorly. Dr. Horne believes that the part of
the brain where thinking takes place may get
worn out during waking hours. Sleep
may help
to repair the brain. “Without any sleep,” he
emphasized, “even if you pay
closer attention,
you cannot do better.” 作为他的研究的一部分,他提供了一个数
额的钱,作
为奖励给困倦的学生,如果他们做得很好。但即使是这种鼓励也不足
以帮助学生克服疲劳。他们做得很差
。霍恩博士认为发生在思维的那部分大脑会
磨损在醒着的时候。睡眠可能有助于修复大脑。“没有任何睡
眠,”他强调,“即
使你付出更密切的关注,你也不能做得更好。”
This study gives people something to think about,
especially people like
hospital workers who
must stay awake all night and then make quick
decisions.
这项研究给人们一些思考,特别是像医院工作者的工作人员必须保持清醒,并
作出快速决定。
Passage3
Researchers have
established that when people are mentally engaged,
biochemical changes occur in the brain that
allow it to act more effectively in
cognitive(认知的)areas such as attention and
memory. This is true regardless of age.
研究人员发现,当人们心理活动时,大脑中发生的生化变化,使它在认知活动更
为有效(认知的)等方
面的注意和记忆。这是真实的,不论年龄。
People will be
alert (警觉的) and receptive (接受能力强的) if they are
faced with information that gets them to think
about things they are interested in.
And
someone with a history of doing more rather than
less will go into old age more
cognitively
sound than someone who has not had an active mind.
人们将警报(警
觉的)和接受(接受能力强的)如果他们面对的信息使他们思考自己感兴趣的事
物。有人用历史做更多而不是更少的进入老年的人比没有活跃的思维认知的声
音。
Many experts are so convinced of the benefits of
challenging the brain
that they are putting
the theory to work in their own lives. “The idea
is not
necessarily to learn to memorize
enormous amounts of information,” says James
Fozard, associate director of the National
Institute on Aging. “Most of us don't need
that kind of skill. Such specific training is
of less interest than being able to maintain
mental alertness.” Fozard and others say they
challenge their brains with different
mental
skills, both because they enjoy them and because
they are sure that their
range of activities
will help the way their brains work. 许多专家都这么认为,他们<
br>在给自己的生活中工作,挑战他们的大脑的好处。“是不是一定要学会记忆大量
的信息,说:”杰
姆斯Fozard国立老化研究所的副所长。我们中的大多数人都不
需要这种技能。这种特别的培训比能
够保持精力充沛,不感兴趣。”Fozard和其
他人说他们挑战他们的大脑不同的心智技能,这是因为
他们喜欢他们,因为他们
相信他们的活动范围将有助于他们的大脑的工作方式。
Gene Cohen, acting director of the same institute,
suggests that people in
their old age should
engage in mental and physical activities
individually as well as in
groups. Cohen says
that we are frequently advised to keep physically
active as we
age, but older people need to
keep mentally active as well. Those who do are
more
likely to maintain their intellectual
abilities and to be generally happier and better
adjusted.
actually influences brain-cell
health and size.”
基因科恩,同一研究所的代理主任,建议在他们的老年人应该从
事的精神和身体
活动,以及个人的团体。科恩说,我们经常被建议保持身体活跃,因为我们的年
龄,但老年人需要保持精神上积极的。那些做的是更可能保持自己的智力能力和
更幸福和更好的调整。”
“这一点是,你需要做的,”科恩说,“智力活动实际上影
响了脑细胞的健康和大小。”
Passage 4
English is one of the
great thieves. It is constantly borrowing. It
started out
taking words from Latin, Greek,
French, and German.
英语是一个伟大的小偷。这是
不断借。它开始从拉丁语,希腊语,法语和德语中取词。
Then English went on to borrow words from
more than 50 different languages.
From
Italian, it took cameo, stanza, and violin, for
example. From Spanish and
Portuguese, it
borrowed the words alligator, canyon, and
sombrero. From Native
Americans, it got
raccoon and wigwam. Peru contributed llama and
quinine. The
Caribbean islands gave English
barbecue and cannibal. From Africa came chimpanzee
and zebra, from India came bandanna, curry,
and punch, and from Australia came
kangaroo
and boomerang.
然后,英语就从50多个不同的语言借用了词汇。来自
意大利,花浮雕,节,和小提琴,例如。从西班牙和葡萄牙,它借用了鳄鱼,峡
谷的话,和草帽。从土
著美国人,它得到了浣熊和棚屋。秘鲁贡献了骆驼和奎宁。
加勒比群岛给英语烧烤和食人族。从非洲来的
黑猩猩和斑马线,从印度来的大手
帕,咖喱,和冲床,和从澳大利亚来的袋鼠和飞镖。
Science caused an explosion in words. Some words
in science combine parts
of Greek and Latin
words. They include penicillin, stethoscope, and
supersonic.
Others were borrowed from
languages spoken today. Robot comes from a Czech
word.
引起爆炸的话。科学的一些词结合起来的希腊和拉丁词的部分。他们包括
青霉素、听诊器、超声。其他人被借用的语言今天发言。机器人来自捷克词语。
The English language has been stealing words for
more than 1,500 years. The
most complete
dictionary of the English language contains a
whopping 600,000
words.
英语的语言已经超过1500年了。最全的英语词典包含了600000个字。
Passage 5
There is no doubt that a
common language used throughout the world would
do much to bring countries closer to each
other. Though it is becoming increasingly
easy
to move from place to place, our inability to
communicate with one another
gives rise to
numerous misunderstandings and makes real contact
between people
of differing nationalities
impossible. Many attempts have been made to
overcome
this problem and they have all
failed. The fear of foreign influence and
domination
rules out the universal acceptance
of any one of the existing major languages. Aware
of this difficulty, many linguists have
constructed artificial languages which could
have no possible political overtones. They
have argued that a language of this sort
would
perform much the same service as Latin did in the
Middle Ages.
毫无疑问,世
界上使用的一种通用语言,可以使各国彼此
接近。虽然它变得越来越容易从地方
移动到地方,我们无法与人沟通,产生了许多误解,使不同民族的人
之间的真正
接触不可能。许多尝试已经克服了这个问题,他们都失败了。外国势力和统治的
恐惧
,排除了普遍接受的任何一个现有的主要语言。意识到这一困难,许多语言
学家人工语言
,不可能有可能的政治色彩。他们认为,这种语言的一种语言,将
履行与拉丁在中世纪的相同的服务。
Although linguists succeeded in making
their artificial languages extremely
simple so
that they would be easy to learn, their efforts
seemed doomed from the
start. The reason for
this is that there is no real incentive to learn
an artificial
language. There is nothing to
guarantee that everybody is willing to make the
effort;
there is no assurance that the learner
will have any adequate return for his toil.
When people today undertake to learn a foreign
language, they are not interested
only in
speaking it. Mastery of a language makes available
to the learner a great deal
of worthwhile
literature and many current publications. This is
the biggest
stumbling-block of all for the
artificially-constructed tongue. Having no
literature of
its own, all it can offer is a
limited of translations, which are valueless in
themselves.
Nor can it acquire any literature;
for it would have to be used for a great many
generations before this could become possible.
Moreover, constant use over a long
period
would bring into being many 'national' dialects
and the language would thus
defeat its own
purpose.
虽然语言学家们成功地使他们的人工语言非常简单,所
以他们很容
易学,他们的努力似乎从一开始就注定了。之所以这样,是没有真正
的动机去学习一种人工语言。没有任
何东西能保证每个人都愿意付出努力,学习
者将有足够的回报为自己的辛勤工作是没有保证的。当人们今
天进行外语学习
时,他们不感兴趣。掌握一种语言,使学习者获得大量的有价值的文献和许多当
前的出版物。这是所有人为构造的舌头的最大障碍。没有自己的文学作品,它可
以是一个有限的翻译,这
是没有价值的自己。它也不可能获得任何文学作品,因
为在这一可能成为可能的前几代人将要使用它。此
外,长期的使用会带来许多“国
家”的方言和语言,从而击败它自己的目的。
Another serious objection is the fact that a
language is shaped by use and not
by design.
It is a living thing which is forever growing and
changing. It takes hundreds
of years before it
can acquire richness and depth. In an artificial
language, however,
the meanings of words are
rigidly defined. Inflexibility makes for an
absence of
subtlety, so that no really fine
meaning can be conveyed. Though this quality might
be admirable for scientific publications, it
greatly impedes the formation of any
significant literature. Latin was ideal in
this respect, for it was a 'dead' language with
a literature; an artificial one is 'dead' from
the start. This makes it likely that existing
language barriers will remain with us for a
very long time.
另一个严重的反对意见
是一种语言是由使用而不是
设计。它是一种生活的东西,它永远在成长和改变。
它需要数百年才能获得丰富和深度。然而,在人工语
言中,词的含义是严格定义
的。缺乏灵活性,使微妙的缺失,所以没有很好的传达意思。虽然这种质量可
能
是令人钦佩的科学出版物,它大大阻碍了任何重要的文献的形成。拉丁语在这方
面是理想的,
因为这是一种“死”的语言,一种文学作品,一种是从一开始就“死”
的。这使得它可能存在的语言障碍
将留在我们很长一段时间。
Passage 6
If you
want to stay young, sit down and have a good
think. This is the
research finding of a team
of Japanese doctors, who say that most of our
brains are
not getting enough exercise
---and as a result, we are aging unnecessarily
soon.
如果
你想保持年轻,坐下来好好想想。这是一组日本医生的研究结果,他
说,大部分
大脑都没有得到足够的锻炼,因此我们很快就不必要了。
Professor Taiju Matsuzawa wanted to find out why
otherwise healthy
farmers in northern Japan
appeared to be losing their ability to think and
reason at a
relatively early age, and how the
process of aging could be slowed down.
教授想
找
出为什么日本北部的健康农民失去了他们认为在相对年轻的年龄和能力的原因,
如何减缓衰老
过程的方法。
With a team of colleagues at
Tokyo National University, he set about
measuring brain volumes of a thousand people
of different ages and varying
occupations.
他在东京国立大学的一组同事中,对一千名不同年龄和不同职业的
人进行了大脑体积的测量。
Computer technology enabled the
researchers to obtain precise
measurements of
the volume of the front and side sections of the
brain, which relate
to intellect (智能) and
emotion, and determine the human character. (The
rear
section of the brain, which controls
functions like eating and breathing, does not
contract with age, and one can continue living
without intellectual or emotional
faculties.)
计算机技术帮助研究人员获得了大脑前部和侧面部分的容量
的精确测
量,其中涉及到智力(智能)和情感,决定着人的性格。(大脑的后部,它控制
着进食
和呼吸等功能,不与年龄增长,人们可以继续生活在没有智力或情绪的能
力。)
Contraction of front and side parts---as cells die
off---was observed in some
subjects in their
thirties, but it was still not evident in some
sixty-and
seventy-year-olds.
前部和侧部的---
收缩随着细胞的死亡在三十多岁时就能观察
到一些人,但仍没有明显一些六十、七十岁。
Matsuzawa concluded from his tests that there is a
simple remedy to the
contraction normally
associated with age---using the head.
Matsuzawa从他的测试
有一个简单的补救办法通常与年龄相关的收缩---用头。
The findings show in general terms that
contraction of the brain begins
sooner in
people in the country than in the towns. Those
least at risk, says
Matsuzawa, are lawyers,
followed by university professors and doctors.
While collar
workers doing routine work in
government offices are, however, are likely to
have
shrinking brains as the farm worker, bus
driver and shop assistant.
研究结果表明,
在全国的
人比在城镇的大脑开始收缩的一般条款。那些最危险,松泽说,是律师,
其次是大学教授和医生。然而,
尽管在政府部门做日常工作的白领很可能会像农
场工人、公共汽车司机和商店店员一样有大脑萎缩的大脑
。
Matsuzawa’s findings show that
thinking can prevent the brain from
shrinking.
Blood must circulate properly in the head to
supply the fresh oxygen the
brain cells need.
“The best way to maintain good blood circulation
is through using
the brain,” he says, “Think
hard and engage in conversation. Don’t rely on
pocket
calculators.”
的调查显示思考可以防止大脑萎缩。血
液必须在头部循环,以供应
新鲜的氧气,脑细胞需要。他说:“保持良好的血液循环的最
好方法是用大脑,”
他说,“想一想,并进行交谈。不要依赖于袖珍计算器。”
Passage 7
Across the rich world,
well-educated people increasingly work longer than
the less-skilled. Some 65% of American men
aged 62-74 with a professional degree
are in
the workforce, compared with 32% of men with only
a high-school certificate.
This gap is part of
a deepening divide between the well-educated well-
off and the
unskilled poor. Rapid
technological advance has raised the incomes of
the highly
skilled while squeezing those of
the unskilled. The consequences, for individuals
and
society, are profound.
在富裕的世界,受过良好
教育的人们的工作时间比不那么
熟练的人要长。约65%的美国男性老年62-74拥有专业学位的在职
场中,与只有
高中文凭的人相比,32%。这一差距是一个不断加深的鸿沟之间的良好的教育小
康和不熟练的穷人。快速的技术进步提高了高技术水平的收入,同时也提高了非
技术性的。对个人和社会
的影响是深远的。
The world is facing an
astonishing rise in the number of old people. And
they will live longer than ever before. Over
the next 20 years the global population of
those aged 65 or more will almost double, from
600 million to billion. The
experience of the
20th century, when greater longevity (长寿)
translated into more
years in retirement
rather than more years at work, has persuaded many
observers
that this shift will lead to slower
economic growth, while the swelling ranks of
pensioners will create government budget
problems.
世界正面临着一个惊人的增
长,在老百姓的数量。他们将比以往
任何时候都活得更长。在未来20年中,65
岁以上的人口将几乎翻一倍,从6亿岁到11亿岁。第二十
世纪的经验,当更长
寿(长寿)转化为退休后的生活而不是工作中的更多时间,很多观察家认为这一转变将导致经济增长放缓,而激增的养老金将建立政府预算问题。
But the notion
of a sharp division between the working young and
the idle old
misses a new trend, the growing
gap between the skilled and the unskilled.
Employment rates are falling among younger
unskilled people, whereas older skilled
folk
are working longer. The divide is most extreme in
America, where well-educated
baby-boomers
(二战后生育高峰期出生的美国人) are putting off retirement while
many less-skilled younger people have dropped
out of the workforce.
但在工作的
年轻人和空闲的老错过了
一个新的趋势,技术和非技术之间的差距不断扩大的概
念的概念。年轻的非技术人群中的就业率正在下降
,而老年人则在工作时间更长。
分歧最明显的是美国,在那里受过良好教育的婴儿潮一代(二战后生育高
峰期出
生的美国人)正在推迟退休,而许多缺乏技能的年轻人已经退出了劳动力大军。
Policy is partly responsible. Many European
governments have abandoned
policies that used
to encourage people to retire early. Rising life
expectancy(预期寿
命), combined with the
replacement of generous defined-benefit pension
plans with
less generous defined-contribution
ones, means that even the better-off must work
longer to have a comfortable retirement. But
the changing nature of work also plays
a big
role. Pay has risen sharply for the highly
educated, and those people continue
to
reap rich rewards into old age because these days
the educated elderly are more
productive than
the preceding generation. Technological change may
well reinforce
that shift: the skills that
complement computers, from management knowhow to
creativity, do not necessarily decline with
age.
政策部分责任。许多欧洲国家的政
府已经放弃了鼓励人们提前退休的政策。
预期寿命的上升(预期寿命),加之慷
慨的养老金计划和固定缴费的更换,就意味着更好的工作时间必须
有一个舒适的
退休生活。但工作的性质的变化也发挥了很大作用。为受过高等教育的人支付的
工
资已经急剧上升,而那些继续从老年人中获得丰厚回报的人,因为这些天受教
育的老年人比前一代人更有
生产力。技术上的变化会增强这一趋势:技能:计算
机的补充,从管理技术创新,不一定会随着年龄的增
长而下降。
Passage 8
Some of the world’s
most significant problems never hit headlines. One
example
comes from agriculture. Food riots and
hunger make news. But the trend lying
behind
these matters is rarely talked about. This is the
decline in the growth in yields
of some of the
world’s major crops. A new study by the University
of Minnesota and
McGill University in Montreal
looks at where, and how far, this decline is
occurring.
一些世界上最重要的问题从未得到重视。一个例子来自农业。粮食骚乱和饥饿成
为新闻。但在这些问题背后的趋势很少被讨论。那就是一些世界主要作物产量增
长减缓。明尼苏
达大学和蒙特利尔麦克吉尔大学的一项新研究着眼于这种下降所
发生的地点及程度。
The
authors take a vast number of data points for the
four most important crops:
rice, wheat, corn
and soyabeans(大豆). They find that on between 24%
and 39% of
all harvested areas, the
improvement in yields that took place before the
1980s
slowed down in the 1990s and 2000s. 作者大量
研究了四种最重要的作物的数据:
水稻、小麦、玉米和大豆(大豆)。他们发现,在24%-39%的收
获区域之间,20
世纪80年代的产量增长快于20世纪90年代和21世纪。
There
are two worrying features of the slowdown. One is
that it has been
particularly sharp in the
world’s most populous(人口多的)countries, India and
China.
Their ability to feed themselves has
been an important source of relative stability
both within the countries and on world food
markets. That self-sufficiency cannot be
taken
for granted if yields continue to slow down or
reverse. 这种增长减缓有两个
令人担忧的特点,一个特点在世界上人口最多的国家—印度和中
国—最为明显,
两国自给自足能力是国内和国际粮食市场稳定的根源。如果粮食产量增长减缓或
者下降,这种自给自足能力不能理所当然。
Second, yield growth has
been lower in wheat and rice than in corn and
soybeans. This is problematic because wheat
and rice are more important as foods,
accounting for around half of all calories
consumed. Corn and soyabeans are more
important as feed grains. The authors note
that “we have preferentially focused our
crop
improvement efforts on feeding animals and cars
rather than on crops that feed
people and are
the basis of food security in much of the world.”
第二,小麦和水稻
的产量增长比玉米和大豆的慢。这是病态的因为小麦和玉米是更重要的食物,占
所有消耗卡路里的一半。玉米和大豆是更重要的饲料谷物。作者注意到“我们更
喜欢把
精力放在提升饲养动物和发动汽车的作物产量方面,而不是注重提高供人
吃的作物产量方面,供人食用的
作物是世界粮食产量的基础。”
The report qualifies the more
optimistic findings of another new paper which
suggests that the world will not have to dig
up a lot more land for farming in order to
feed 9 billion people in 2050, as the Food and
Agriculture Organisation has argued.
这个报告为另一篇论
文更乐观的发现提供了依据,世界食物和农业组织提出,
2050年,人们要开发更多土地耕种以养活9
0亿人,该论文表明,这是错误的。
Instead, it says, thanks to
slowing population growth, land currently ploughed
up for crops might be able to revert(回返)to
forest or could happen. The trouble is
that
the forecast assumes continued improvements in
yields, which may not actually
happen.
相反,
由于人口增长缓慢,当下耕种作物的土地可能会回返为森林或者荒地。
这是可能发生的。问题是,人们所
预料的产量增长可能不会发生。
Passage 9
In 1939 two
brothers, Mac and Dick McDonald, started a drive-
in restaurant
in San Bernadino, California.
They carefully chose a busy corner for their
location.
They had run their own businesses
for years, first a theater, then a
barbecue(烤肉)
restaurant, and then another
drive-in. But in their new operation, they offered
a new,
shortened menu: French fries,
hamburgers, and sodas. To this small selection
they
added one new concept: quick service, no
waiters or waitresses, and no tips.
1939
年,两个兄弟,麦克和迪克麦当劳,在加利福尼亚州的San Bernadino开了一家<
br>汽车餐馆。他们小心地选择了一个繁忙的角落作为店址。多年来,他们经营自己
的企业,首先是个
剧场,然后烧烤餐厅,然后是另一家汽车餐馆。但在他们的新
餐馆里,他们提供了一个新的、简化了的菜
单:炸薯条,汉堡包,和苏打水。他
们增加了一个新的概念:快速服务,没有服务员,也没有提示。
Their hamburgers sold for fifteen cents.
Cheese was another four cents. Their French
fries and hamburgers had a remarkable
uniformity, for the brothers had developed a
strict routine for the preparation of their
food, and they insisted on their cooks'
sticking to their routine. Their new drive-in
became incredibly popular, particularly
for
lunch. People drove up by the hundreds during the
busy noontime. The
self-service restaurant was
so popular that the brothers had allowed ten
copies of
their restaurant to be opened. They
were content with this modest success until
they met Ray Kroc. 他们的汉堡包卖了十五美分。奶酪格外加是四美分。他们的<
br>薯条和汉堡包有着惊人的一致性,因为兄弟们已经制定了一个严格的日常准备食
物流程,他们让他
们的厨师坚持这一流程。他们的新餐馆变得非常流行,特别是
在午餐。在繁忙的中午,数百人开车前来。
这家自助餐厅很受欢迎,兄弟们又开
了十家一样的餐厅。他们满足于这小小的成功,直到他们遇到了雷·
克罗克内容
Kroc was a salesman who met the McDonald
brothers in 1954, when he was
selling milk
shake-mixing machines. He quickly saw the unique
appeal of the
brothers' fast-food restaurants
and bought the right to franchise(特许经营)other
copies of their restaurants. The
agreement struck included the right to duplicate
the
menu, the equipment, even their red and
white buildings with the golden arches.
1954年,
克罗克是个推销员,他在推销奶昔及其的时候遇见了麦当劳兄弟。他
很快看到兄弟的快餐店的独特吸引力
和并且买下了餐厅的特许经营权。该协议的
权利,包括复制的菜单,设备,甚至包括带金色拱门的红白相
间的建筑
Today McDonald's is really a household
name. Its names for its sandwiches have
come
to mean hamburger in the decades since the day Ray
Kroc watched people
rush up to order fifteen-
cent hamburgers. In 1976, McDonald's had over $$ 1
billion in
total sales. Its first twenty-two
years is one of the most incredible success
stories in
modern American business history.今天
麦当劳是个家喻户晓的名字。自从克罗克
先生看着人们匆忙订购十五美分的汉堡包,几十年来,麦当劳的
三明治已经成为
汉堡的别称。在1976,麦当劳拥有超过10亿美元的总销售额。它的前二十二年是美国现代商业史上最令人难以置信的成功案例之一。
Passage 10
The
rise of the Internet has been one of the most
transformative developments in
human history,
comparable in impact to the invention of the
printing press and the
telegraph. Over two
billion people worldwide now have access to vastly
more
information than ever before, and can
communicate with each other instantly, often
using Web-connected mobile devices they carry
everywhere. But the Internet’s
tremendous
impacts has only just begun. 互联网的兴起,一直是人类历史上最具
变革性的发展之一,与印刷机和电报的发明影响相当。现在,超过二十亿人以往
任何时候都有更多的信息
,并可以立即与对方进行沟通,经常他们使用随身携带
的联网的移动设备,但是互联网的巨大冲击才刚刚
开始。
“Mass adoption of the Internet is
driving one of the most exciting social, cultural,
and political transformations in history, and
unlike earlier periods of change, this
time
the effects are fully global,” Schmidt and Cohen
write in their new book. The
New Digital Age.
Perhaps the most profound changes will
come when the five billion people
worldwide
who currently lack Internet access get online. The
authors do an excellent
job of examining the
implications of the Internet revolution for
individuals,
governments, and institutions
like the news media. But if the book has one major
shortcoming, it’s that authors don’t spend
enough time applying a critical eye to the
role of Internet businesses in these weeping
changes.
In their book, the authors provide
the most authoritative volume to date that
describes — and more importantly predicts —
how the Internet will shape our lives
in the
coming decades. They paint a picture of a world in
which individuals,
companies, institutions,
and governments must deal with two realities, one
physical,
and one virtual.
At the
core of the book is the idea that “technology is
neutral, but people
aren’t.” By using this
concept as a starting point, the authors aim to
move beyond
the now familiar optimist vs.
pessimist dichotomy (对立观点) that has characterized
many recent debates about whether the rise of
the Internet will ultimately be good
or bad
for society. In an interview with TIME earlier
this week, Cohen said although
he and his co-
author are optimistic about many aspects of the
Internet, they’re also
realistic about the
risks and dangers that lie ahead when the next
five billion people
come online, particularly
with respect to personal privacy and state
surveillance(监
视).
“互联网的大规模普及推动着历史上最令人兴奋的社
会、文化和政治变革,不
像早期的变化,这一次的影响是全球性的,”施密特和科恩在他们的新书《新数
字时代》写道。
或许,当现在无法使用网络的五十亿人能上网时,最深刻的影响将到来。作者
做
了出色的工作,研究互联网对个人,政府和机构(如新闻媒体)的革命性影响。
但如果这本书
有一个主要的缺点,那就是作者没有花足够的时间对互联网企业在
这些变化中的作用进行批判。
在他们的书中,作者提供了最具权威性的数据量来描述—更重要的是预测—未来
几十年互联网将如何塑
造我们的生活。他们描绘了一个世界的图景:个人、企业、
机构和政府必须应对的两个现实,一个是真实
的,一个是虚拟的。
在这本书的核心观念是,“技术是中性的,但人不是“利用这一概念为出发点,<
br>旨在超越现在熟悉的乐观者与悲观者二分法(对立观点),最近有关于互联网的
崛起最终将对社会
有利还是有害的争论,常常可以看到这种对立观点。本周早些
时候,科恩在接受《时代周刊》采访时说,
虽然他和他的合著者对互联网的很多
方面持乐观态度,但是,他们也很现实地看待五十亿人上网的风险和
危险,特别
是有关个人隐私和国家监督方面。
Passage 11
Good
afternoon, and welcome to England. We hope that
your visit here will be a
pleasant one. Today,
I would like to draw your attention to a few of
our laws. 下午
好,欢迎来到英国。我们希望您在这里的访问将是愉快的。今天,我想提请你
注
意我们的一些法律。
The first one is about
drinking. Now, you may not buy alcohol (酒) in this
country if you are under 18 years of age, nor
may your friends buy it for you.
首先是
关于饮酒。在英国,未满十八岁不能买酒,您的朋友也不能为您买酒。
Secondly, noise. Enjoy yourselves by all means,
but please don’t make
unnecessary noise,
particularly at night. We ask you to respect other
people who
may wish to be quiet.第二是关于噪音,您可以尽己所
能让自己玩得愉快,但是,
请不要发出不必要的噪音,尤其是在晚上的时候,我们希望您能尊重那些爱静
的
人。 Thirdly, crossing the road. Be careful.
The traffic moves on the left side of the
road
in this country. Use pedestrian crossings (人行横道)
and do not take any
chances when
crossing the road.
第三,关于过马路。要注意。在英国,车辆靠左
行驶、过马路的时候要走人行横道,不要冒险。
My next point is about litter (throwing away
waste material in a public place). It is
an
offence (违法行为) to drop litter in the street. When
you have something to
throw away, please put
it in your pocket and take it home, or put it in a
litter bin. 下
面我要讲的是关于垃圾的(在公共场合乱丢废物)。在街上扔垃圾是违法的
。当
你有东西要扔的时候,请把它放到袋子里带回家,或者扔到垃圾箱里
Finally, as regards smoking, it is against the law
to buy cigarettes or tobacco (烟
草) if you are
under 16 years of age.
最后,关于吸烟,16岁以下买烟卷或者烟草
是违法的。
I’d like to
finish by saying that if you require any sort of
help or assistance, you
should contact your
local police station, who will be pleased to help
you. 最后我要
说的是,如果您需要任何帮助,您可以联系当地警察局,他们乐意效劳。
Now, are there any questions
现在,还有问题吗