2013年全国硕士研究生招生考试英语（二）试题

Given the advantages of electronic money, you might think that we would move quickly to the cashless society in which all payments are made electronically.

鉴于电子货币的优势，你可能会认为我们会迅速转向一个所有支付都通过电子方式进行的无现金社会。

1, a true cashless society is probably not around the corner.

1 ，一个真正的无现金社会可能不会很快到来。

Indeed, predictions have been 2 for two decades but have not yet come to fruition.

事实上，预测已经持续了20年但尚未实现。

For example, Business Week predicted in 1975 that electronic means of payment would soon “revolutionize the very 3 of money itself,” only to 4 itself several years later.

例如，Business Week在1975年预测电子支付手段将很快“彻底改变货币本身的3”，但几年后却不得不4自己的预测。

Why has the movement to a cashless society been so 5 in coming?

为何向无现金社会的转变如此缓慢？

Although electronic means of payment may be more efficient than a payments system based on paper, several factors work 6 the disappearance of the paper system.

尽管电子支付方式可能比基于纸质的支付系统更高效，但有几个因素阻碍6纸质系统的消失。

First, it is very 7 to set up the computer, card reader, and telecommunications networks necessary to make electronic money the 8 form of payment.

首先，建立必要的计算机、读卡器和电信网络以使电子货币成为第 8 种支付形式是非常 7 的。

Second, paper checks have the advantage that they 9 receipts, something that many consumers are unwilling to 10.

其次，纸质支票的优势在于它们9收据，许多消费者不愿10的东西。

Third, the use of paper checks gives consumers several days of “float” – it takes several days 11 a check is cashed and funds are 12 from the issuer’s account, which means that the writer of the check can earn interest on the funds in the meantime.

第三，使用纸质支票为消费者提供了几天的“浮存”时间——支票被兑现且资金从发行者账户中扣除需要几天时间11，这意味着支票的撰写者可以在期间内对这笔资金赚取利息。

13 electronic payments arc immediate, they eliminate the float for the consumer.

13 电子支付是即时的，它们消除了消费者方面的资金浮动。

Fourth, electronic means of payment may 14 security and privacy concerns.

第四，电子支付手段可能14安全与隐私问题。

We often hear media reports that an unauthorized hacker has been able to access a computer database and to alter information 15 there.

我们经常听到媒体报道未经授权的黑客能够访问计算机数据库并修改那里的信息15。

The fact that this is not an 16 occurrence means that dishonest persons might be able to access bank accounts in electronic payments systems and 17 from someone else’s accounts.

这并非第 16 次发生意味着不诚实的人可能能够访问电子支付系统中的银行账户并从他人的账户中 17

The 18 of this type of fraud is no easy task, and a new field of computer science is developing to 19 security issues.

这种类型的欺诈的18不是一项容易的任务，并且计算机科学的一个新领域正在发展以19安全问题。

A further concern is that the use of electronic means of payment leaves an electronic 20 that contains a large amount of personal data.

另一个担忧是使用电子支付手段会留下一个电子20，其中包含大量个人数据。

There are concerns that government, employers, and marketers might be able to access these data, thereby violating our privacy.

人们担心政府、雇主和营销人员可能会获取这些数据，从而侵犯我们的隐私。

In an essay entitled “Making It in America,” the author Adam Davidson relates a joke from cotton country about just how much a modern textile mill has been automated: The average mill has only two employees today, “a man and a dog.

在一篇题为《在美国立足》的文章中，作者亚当·戴维森讲述了一个来自棉花产区的笑话，说明现代纺织厂的自动化程度有多高：如今一家平均的纺织厂只有两名员工，‘一个人和一条狗’。

The man is there to feed the dog, and the dog is there to keep the man away from the machines.

这个人在那里是为了喂狗，而狗在那里则是为了阻止人靠近机器。

Davidson’s article is one of a number of pieces that have recently appeared making the point that the reason we have such stubbornly high unemployment and declining middle-class incomes today is largely because of the big drop in demand because of the Great Recession, but it is also because of the advances in both globalization and the information technology revolution, which are more rapidly than ever replacing labor with machines or foreign workers.

戴维森的文章是最近几篇论述的一个例子，这些文章指出，我们如今之所以面临顽固的高失业率和中产阶级收入下降，主要原因是由于大萧条导致的需求大幅下降，但同时也是由于全球化和信息技术革命的进展，这两者正以前所未有的速度用机器或外国工人取代劳动力。

In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle.

过去，拥有普通技能的工人，做着普通的工作，可以获得普通的生活方式。

But, today, average is officially over.

但如今，普通已正式成为过去式。

Being average just won’t earn you what it used to.

做个普通的人已经无法赚到以前那样的收入了。

It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor, cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genius.

当越来越多的雇主能够更便捷地获取大量廉价的外国劳动力、廉价的机器人、廉价的软件、廉价的自动化和廉价的天才时，这就更不可能了。

Therefore, everyone needs to find their extra – their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in whatever is their field of employment.

因此，每个人都需要找到自己的额外价值——在各自的工作领域中让自己脱颖而出的独特贡献。

Yes, new technology has been eating jobs forever, and always will.

是的，新技术一直在吞噬工作岗位，而且永远都会如此。

But there’s been an acceleration.

但这种趋势正在加速。

As Davidson notes, “In the 10 years ending in 2009, [U.S.] factories shed workers so fast that they erased almost all the gains of the previous 70 years; roughly one out of every three manufacturing jobs – about 6 million in total – disappeared.

戴维森指出，在2009年结束的10年里，美国工厂裁员速度之快，几乎抹去了过去70年的所有成果；约三分之一的制造业岗位，总计约600万，消失。

There will always be change – new jobs, new products, new services.

变化将始终存在——新的工作、新的产品、新的服务。

But the one thing we know for sure is that with each advance in globalization and the I.

但有一件事我们是确定的，那就是随着全球化的每一次进步以及I的每一次发展，

revolution, the best jobs will require workers to have more and better education to make themselves above average.

革命，最好的工作将要求工人拥有更多更好的教育以使自己高于平均水平。

In a world where average is officially over, there are many things we need to do to support employment, but nothing would be more important than passing some kind of G.

在一个平均值已正式终结的世界里，我们需要做很多事情来支持就业，但没有什么比通过某种形式的G更为重要的了。

Bill for the 21st century that ensures that every American has access to post-high school education.

一项确保每个美国人都能接受高中后教育的21世纪法案。

A century ago, the immigrants from across the Atlantic included settlers and sojourners.

一个世纪前，来自大西洋彼岸的移民包括定居者和暂住者。

Along with the many folks looking to make a permanent home in the United States came those who had no intention to stay, and who would make some money and then go home.

除了许多希望在美国安家落户的人之外，还有一些人根本没有打算留下，他们只想赚些钱然后就回国。

Between 1908 and 1915, about 7 million people arrived while about 2 million departed.

1908年至1915年间，约有700万人抵达，同时约有200万人离开。

About a quarter of all Italian immigrants, for example, eventually returned to Italy for good.

例如，大约四分之一的意大利移民最终永久返回了意大利。

They even had an affectionate nickname, “uccelli di passaggio,” birds of passage.

他们甚至有一个亲切的绰号，“uccelli di passaggio”，意为“过境鸟”。

Today, we are much more rigid about immigrants.

如今，我们对移民的态度要严格得多。

We divide newcomers into two categories: legal or illegal, good or bad.

我们将新来的人分为两类：合法或非法，好人或坏人。

We hail them as Americans in the making, or brand them as aliens to be kicked out.

我们一方面将他们誉为正在成为美国人的群体，另一方面则将他们视为需要驱逐的外国人。

That framework has contributed mightily to our broken immigration system and the long political paralysis over how to fix it.

这种框架极大地加剧了我们移民体系的崩溃，以及在如何修复它方面长期的政治僵局。

We don’t need more categories, but we need to change the way we think about categories.

我们并不需要更多的分类，但需要改变我们对分类的看法。

We need to look beyond strict definitions of legal and illegal.

我们需要超越对合法与非法的严格定义。

To start, we can recognize the new birds of passage, those living and thriving in the gray areas.

首先，我们可以认识到这些新的候鸟式人群，他们生活在并活跃于灰色地带。

We might then begin to solve our immigration challenges.

接着，我们或许可以开始解决我们的移民挑战。

Crop pickers, violinists, construction workers, entrepreneurs, engineers, home health-care aides and physicists are among today’s birds of passage.

今天的候鸟式人群包括摘水果工人、小提琴手、建筑工人、企业家、工程师、家庭健康护理员和物理学家。

They are energetic participants in a global economy driven by the flow of work, money and ideas.

他们是全球经济发展中工作、金钱和思想流动的积极参与者。

They prefer to come and go as opportunity calls them.

他们更倾向于根据机遇的召唤来去自如。

They can manage to have a job in one place and a family in another.

他们能够在一个地方工作，在另一个地方拥有家庭。

With or without permission, they straddle laws, jurisdictions and identities with ease.

无论有没有许可，他们都能轻松地跨越法律、司法管辖区和身份界限。

We need them to imagine the United States as a place where they can be productive for a while without committing themselves to staying forever.

我们需要他们将美国想象成一个可以暂时发挥生产力，而无需永久定居的地方。

We need them to feel that home can be both here and there and that they can belong to two nations honorably.

我们需要让他们感受到，家既可以在这里也可以在那里，并且他们可以体面地属于两个国家。

Accommodating this new world of people in motion will require new attitudes on both sides of the immigration battle.

适应这个充满流动人口的新世界，将需要移民问题双方都采取新的态度。

Looking beyond the culture war logic of right or wrong means opening up the middle ground and understanding that managing immigration today requires multiple paths and multiple outcomes, including some that are not easy to accomplish legally in the existing system.

超越文化战争中非黑即白的逻辑，意味着开辟中间地带，并理解如今管理移民需要多种途径和多种结果，其中一些在现行制度下很难通过法律手段实现。

Scientists have found that although we are prone to snap overreactions, if we take a moment and think about how we are likely to react, we can reduce or even eliminate the negative effects of our quick, hard-wired responses.

科学家发现，尽管我们容易产生迅速的过度反应，但如果花点时间思考我们可能会如何反应，就能减少甚至消除我们快速、本能反应带来的负面影响。

Snap decisions can be important defense mechanisms; if we are judging whether someone is dangerous, our brains and bodies are hard-wired to react very quickly, within milliseconds.

即时决策可以是重要的防御机制；当我们判断某人是否危险时，我们的大脑和身体天生就会在毫秒之内迅速反应。

But we need more time to assess other factors.

但我们需要更多的时间来评估其他因素。

To accurately tell whether someone is sociable, studies show, we need at least a minute, preferably five.

研究表明，要准确判断一个人是否善于社交，我们至少需要一分钟，最好是五分钟。

It takes a while to judge complex aspects of personality, like neuroticism or open

判断性格的复杂方面，比如神经质或开放性，需要一些时间。

-mindedness.

思维方式。

But snap decisions in reaction to rapid stimuli aren’t exclusive to the interpersonal realm.

但对快速刺激的即时决策并不局限于人际交往领域。

Psychologists at the University of Toronto found that viewing a fast-food logo for just a few milliseconds primes us to read 20 percent faster, even though reading has little to do with eating.

多伦多大学的心理学家发现，仅仅在几毫秒内看到快餐标志，就会让我们阅读速度提高20%，尽管阅读与进食几乎无关。

We unconsciously associate fast food with speed and impatience and carry those impulses into whatever else we’re doing, Subjects exposed to fast-food flashes also tend to think a musical piece lasts too long.

我们无意识地将快餐与速度和不耐烦联系在一起，并将这些冲动带入我们正在做的其他事情中。接受快餐标志短暂刺激的受试者也倾向于认为一段音乐持续时间太长。

Yet we can reverse such influences.

然而，我们可以逆转这些影响。

If we know we will overreact to consumer products or housing options when we see a happy face (one reason good sales representatives and real estate agents are always smiling), we can take a moment before buying.

如果我们知道在看到一张笑脸时，会对消费品或住房选择产生过度反应（这也是为什么优秀的销售人员和房地产经纪人总是面带微笑的原因之一），那么在购买之前我们可以稍作停顿。

If we know female job screeners are more likely to reject attractive female applicants, we can help screeners understand their biases – or hire outside screeners.

如果我们知道女性招聘者更可能拒绝有吸引力的女性求职者，我们就可以帮助招聘者认识到他们的偏见——或者聘请外部人员来进行筛选。

John Gottman, the marriage expert, explains that we quickly “thin slice” information reliably only after we ground such snap reactions in “thick sliced” long-term study.

婚姻专家约翰·戈特曼解释说，只有当我们把这种即时反应建立在长期深入研究的基础上，我们才能可靠地快速‘薄切’信息。

When Dr. Gottman really wants to assess whether a couple will stay together, he invites them to his island retreat for a much longer evaluation: two days, not two seconds.

当戈特曼博士真正想评估一对夫妻是否会维持关系时，他会邀请他们到他的岛上度假地进行更长时间的评估：两天，而不是两秒钟。

Our ability to mute our hard-wired reactions by pausing is what differentiates us from animals: dogs can think about the future only intermittently or for a few minutes.

我们通过暂停来抑制与生俱来的反应的能力，使我们与动物区分开来：狗只能间歇性地或在几分钟内思考未来。

But historically we have spent about 12 percent of our days contemplating the longer term.

但从历史上看，我们每天大约有12%的时间用于思考更长远的问题。

Although technology might change the way we react, it hasn’t changed our nature.

尽管科技可能改变我们的反应方式，但它并未改变我们的本质。

We still have the imaginative capacity to rise above temptation and reverse the high-speed trend.

我们仍然具备想象力，能够超越诱惑，逆转高速发展的趋势。

Europe is not a gender-equality heaven.

欧洲并不是性别平等的天堂。

In particular, the corporate workplace will never be completely family-friendly until women are part of senior management decisions, and Europe’s top corporate-governance positions remain overwhelmingly male.

特别是，除非女性参与高级管理层的决策，否则企业工作场所永远不会完全适合家庭需求，而欧洲企业治理的高层职位仍几乎全部由男性担任。

Indeed, women hold only 14 per cent of positions on European corporate boards.

事实上，女性仅占欧洲企业董事会职位的14%。

The European Union is now considering legislation to compel corporate boards to maintain a certain proportion of women – up to 60 per cent.

现在，欧盟正在考虑立法，强制要求企业董事会保持一定比例的女性成员——最高可达60%。

This proposed mandate was born of frustration.

这项提议的强制规定源于挫败感。

Last year, European Commission Vice President Viviane Reding issued a call to voluntary action.

去年，欧盟委员会副主席薇薇安·雷丁发起了一项自愿行动的呼吁。

Reding invited corporations to sign up for gender balance goals of 40 per cent female board membership.

雷丁邀请企业报名参与实现董事会女性成员比例达到40%的目标。

But her appeal was considered a failure: only 24 companies took it up.

但她的呼吁被认为是一次失败：只有24家公司响应了这一倡议。

Do we need quotas to ensure that women can continue to climb the corporate ladder fairly as they balance work and family?

我们需要配额来确保女性在平衡工作与家庭的同时，能够公平地继续攀登企业阶梯吗？

“Personally, I don’t like quotas,” Reding said recently.

雷丁最近表示："我个人不喜欢配额。"

“But I like what the quotas do.

但我喜欢配额的作用。

Quotas get action: they “open the way to equality and they break through the glass ceiling,” according to Reding, a result seen in France and other countries with legally binding provisions on placing women in top business positions.

配额制度推动了行动，”Reding表示，“它们为实现平等开辟了道路并突破了玻璃天花板，”这一结果在法国和其他具有法律约束力规定女性担任高层职位的国家已经显现。

I understand Reding’s reluctance – and her frustration.

我理解雷丁的犹豫——以及她的挫败感。

I don’t like quotas either; they run counter to my belief in meritocracy, governance by the capable.

我也不喜欢配额制度；它们与我信奉的才能至上的理念背道而驰。

But, when one considers the obstacles to achieving the meritocratic ideal, it does look as if a fairer world must be temporarily ordered.

然而，当我们考虑到实现才能至上的理想所面临的障碍时，似乎一个更公平的世界必须暂时进行某种秩序安排。

After all, four decades of evidence has now shown that corporations in Europe as well as the US are evading the meritocratic hiring and promotion of women to top positions – no matter how much “soft pressure” is put upon them.

毕竟，四十年来的证据表明，欧洲和美国的企业都在逃避按才能招聘和晋升女性到高层职位的做法——无论对它们施加了多少“软性压力”。

When women do break through to the summit of corporate power – as, for example, Sheryl Sandberg recently did at Facebook – they attract massive attention precisely because they remain the exception to the rule.

当女性最终突破到企业权力的顶峰——比如，谢丽尔·桑德伯格最近在Facebook所做的那样——她们会吸引大量关注，正是因为她们仍然是这一规则的例外。

If appropriate public policies were in place to help all women – whether CEOs or their children’s caregivers – and all families, Sandberg would be no more newsworthy than any other highly capable person living in a more just society.

如果适当的社会政策能够帮助所有女性——无论是首席执行官还是她们孩子的照看者——以及所有家庭，那么桑德伯格就不会比其他任何在更加公正社会中具备高度能力的人更有新闻价值。

I can pick a date from the past 53 years and know instantly where I was, what happened in the news and even the day of the week.

我可以从过去的53年中挑选一个日期，并立即知道我当时在哪里，新闻中发生了什么，甚至星期几。

I’ve been able to do this since I was four.

我从四岁开始就能做到这一点。

I never feel overwhelmed with the amount of information my brain absorbs.

我的大脑吸收的信息量从不会让我感到不堪重负。

My mind seems to be able to cope and the information is stored away neatly.

我的大脑似乎能够应对，信息也被整齐地储存起来。

When I think of a sad memory, I do what everybody does – try to put it to one side.

当我想到一个悲伤的回忆时，我就做每个人都会做的事——试图把它放在一边。

I don’t think it’s harder for me just because my memory is clearer.

我认为这对我来说并不更难，仅仅因为我的记忆更清晰。

Powerful memory doesn’t make my emotions any more acute or vivid.

强大的记忆力并没有使我的情感更加敏锐或鲜明。

I can recall the day my grandfather died and the sadness I felt when we went to the hospital the day before.

我还能回忆起祖父去世的那一天以及前一天我们去医院时我所感受到的悲伤。

I also remember that the musical play Hair opened on Broadway on the same day – they both just pop into my mind in the same way.

我也记得音乐剧《Hair》是在同一天在百老汇首演的——它们都突然浮现在我脑海中。