2014年全国硕士研究生招生考试英语（二）试题

Thinner isn’t always better.

更瘦并不总是更好。

A number of studies have 1 that normal-weight people are in fact at higher risk of some diseases compared to those who are overweight.

多项研究显示1正常体重人群实际上比超重人群面临更高的某些疾病风险。

And there are health conditions for which being overweight is actually 2.

并且存在一些健康状况，超重实际上是2。

For example, heavier women are less likely to develop calcium deficiency than thin women.

例如，体重较重的女性比体型较瘦的女性不太可能患上钙缺乏。

3, among the elderly, being somewhat overweight is often an 4 of good health.

3，对于老年人来说，略微超重通常是健康状况良好的一个 4。

Of even greater 5 is the fact that obesity turns out to be very difficult to define.

甚至更为重要的5是，肥胖结果证明是非常难以定义的。

It is often defined 6 body mass index, or BMI.

它通常被定义为6体重指数，或BMI。

BMI 7 body mass divided by the square of height.

BMI 7 体重除以身高的平方。

An adult with a BMI of 18 to 25 is often considered to be normal weight.

一个成年人的身体质量指数在18至25之间时，通常被认为属于正常体重。

Between 25 and 30 is overweight.

25到30之间属于超重。

And over 30 is considered obese.

超过30岁的人被认为肥胖。

Obesity, 8, can be divided into moderately obese, severely obese, and very severely obese.

肥胖，8，可分为中度肥胖、重度肥胖和极重度肥胖。

While such numerical standards seem 9, they are not.

虽然这些数字标准似乎9，但并非如此。

Obesity is probably less a matter of weight than body fat.

肥胖可能与其说是体重问题，不如说是体脂问题。

Some people with a high BMI are in fact extremely fit, 10 others with a low BMI may be in poor 11.

一些身体质量指数（BMI）较高的人实际上非常健康，10 而身体质量指数较低的其他人可能处于较差的 11 状态。

For example, many collegiate and professional football players 12 as obese, though their percentage body fat is low.

例如，许多大学和职业橄榄球运动员被 12为肥胖，尽管他们的体脂百分比很低。

Conversely, someone with a small frame may have high body fat but a 13 BMI.

相反的是，体型较小的人可能体脂率很高，但BMI仅为13。

Today we have a(n) 14 to label obesity as a disgrace.

今天我们有 14 将肥胖视为一种耻辱。

The overweight are sometimes 15 in the media with their faces covered.

超重的人有时在媒体中被以15的方式呈现，且脸部被遮盖。

Stereotypes 16 with obesity include laziness, lack of will power, and lower prospects for success.

与肥胖相关的刻板印象16包括懒惰、缺乏意志力和较低的成功前景。

Teachers, employers, and health professionals have been shown to harbor biases against the obese.

研究表明，教师、雇主和健康专业人士对肥胖者存在偏见。

17 very young children tend to look down on the overweight, and teasing about body build has long been a problem in schools.

17 年龄很小的孩子往往看不起超重的人，而对体型的嘲笑在学校里早就成了一个问题。

Negative attitudes toward obesity, 18 in health concerns, have stimulated a number of anti-obesity 19.

对肥胖的负面态度，18在健康担忧方面，已经激发了多种反肥胖19。

My own hospital system has banned sugary drinks from its facilities.

我自己的医院系统已经禁止在其设施中销售含糖饮料。

Many employers have instituted weight loss and fitness initiatives.

许多雇主已经推出减重和健身计划。

Michelle Obama has launched a high-visibility campaign 20 childhood obesity, even claiming that it represents our greatest national security threat.

米歇尔·奥巴马发起了一场针对儿童肥胖的高曝光度活动，甚至声称这代表我们最大的国家安全威胁。

What would you do with $590m?

你拿到5.9亿美元会做什么？

This is now a question for Gloria MacKenzie, an 84-year-old widow who recently emerged from her small, tin-roofed house in Florida to collect the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in history.

现在这个问题摆在格洛丽亚·麦克肯齐面前，她是一位84岁的寡妇，最近才从佛罗里达州她那间小而铁皮屋顶的房子中走出来，领取了历史上最大的未分割彩票头奖。

If she hopes her new-found fortune will yield lasting feelings of fulfilment, she could do worse than read Happy Money by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton.

如果她希望这笔意外之财能带来持久的满足感，那么她不如读一读伊丽莎白·邓恩和迈克尔·诺顿所著的《快乐金钱》。

These two academics use an array of behavioral research to show that the most rewarding ways to spend money can be counterintuitive.

这两位学者运用大量行为研究证明，最能带来满足感的花钱方式往往出人意料。

Fantasies of great wealth often involve visions of fancy cars and extravagant homes.

人们对巨额财富的幻想通常包括豪华汽车和奢侈住宅的画面。

Yet satisfaction with these material purchases wears off fairly quickly.

然而，对这些物质性购买的满足感很快就会消退。

What was once exciting and new becomes old-hat; regret creeps in.

曾经令人兴奋的新鲜感会变得乏味；后悔的情绪开始滋生。

It is far better to spend money on experiences, say Ms Dunn and Mr Norton, like interesting trips, unique meals or even going to the cinema.

邓恩女士和诺顿先生认为，与其购买这些物质性的东西，不如把钱花在体验上，比如有趣的旅行、独特的美食，甚至去看一场电影。

These purchases often become more valuable with time

这些购买往往随着时间的推移而变得更加有价值

– as stories or memories – particularly if they involve feeling more connected to others.

——作为故事或回忆——尤其是当它们让人感觉与他人更加联系紧密时。

This slim volume is packed with tips to help wage slaves as well as lottery winners get the most “happiness bang for your buck.

这本薄薄的小书塞满了各种技巧，帮助工薪族以及彩票中奖者获得最大的幸福感回报。

It seems most people would be better off if they could shorten their commutes to work, spend more time with friends and family and less of it watching television (something the average American spends a whopping two months a year doing, and is hardly jollier for it).

如果人们能缩短上下班通勤时间，多花时间与朋友和家人相处，少花时间看电视（美国人平均每年竟花去整整两个月看电视，但因此变得更快乐却很难说），那么大多数人会过得更好。

Buying gifts or giving to charity is often more pleasurable than purchasing things for oneself, and luxuries are most enjoyable when they are consumed sparingly.

购买礼物或进行慈善捐赠通常比为自己买东西更令人愉快，而奢侈品在适度消费时最为享受。

This is apparently the reason McDonald’s restricts the availability of its popular McRib – a marketing trick that has turned the pork sandwich into an object of obsession.

显然这就是麦当劳限制其受欢迎的麦里芝猪排三明治供应量的原因——这是一种营销策略，使这款猪肉三明治变成了人们痴迷的对象。

Readers of Happy Money are clearly a privileged lot, anxious about fulfilment, not hunger.

《快乐金钱》的读者显然是一群生活优渥的人，他们更焦虑的是追求满足感，而不是饥饿。

Money may not quite buy happiness, but people in wealthier countries are generally happier than those in poor ones.

金钱或许并不能完全买到幸福，但富裕国家的人通常比贫穷国家的人更幸福。

Yet the link between feeling good and spending money on others can be seen among rich and poor people around the world, and scarcity enhances the pleasure of most things for most people.

然而，在全世界的富人和穷人中，都能看到将钱花在他人身上与感觉良好的联系，而且稀缺性增强了大多数人对大多数事物的愉悦感。

Not everyone will agree with the authors’ policy ideas, which range from mandating more holiday time to reducing tax incentives for American homebuyers.

并非所有人都会同意作者的政策主张，这些主张从强制增加假期时间到减少对美国购房者的税收优惠不等。

But most people will come away from this book believing it was money well spent.

但大多数读完这本书的人会认为，花在上面的钱是值得的。

An article in Scientific American has pointed out that empirical research says that, actually, you think you’re more beautiful than you are.

《科学美国人》的一篇文章指出，实证研究表明，实际上，你认为自己比实际更漂亮。

We have a deep-seated need to feel good about ourselves and we naturally employ a number of self-enhancing strategies to achieve this.

我们内心深处有一种迫切的需求，那就是对自己有良好的感觉，因此我们会自然地采用多种自我提升的策略来实现这一点。

Social psychologists have amassed oceans of research into what they call the “above average effect”, or “illusory superiority”, and shown that, for example, 70% of us rate ourselves as above average in leadership, 93% in driving and 85% at getting on well with others – all obviously statistical impossibilities.

社会心理学家已经积累了大量关于他们称之为“高于平均水平效应”或“虚假优越感”的研究，并证明例如，70%的人认为自己在领导力方面高于平均水平，93%的人认为自己在驾驶方面高于平均水平，85%的人认为自己在与他人相处方面高于平均水平——显然这些都是统计上的不可能现象。

We rose-tint our memories and put ourselves into self-affirming situations.

我们会美化自己的记忆，并让自己置身于能够肯定自我的情境中。

We become defensive when criticised, and apply negative stereotypes to others to boost our own esteem.

当我们受到批评时，会变得防御性很强，并对他人的负面刻板印象进行应用，以提升自己的自尊。

We stalk around thinking we’re hot stuff.

我们四处走动时，总觉得自己很了不起。

Psychologist and behavioural scientist Nicholas Epley oversaw a key study into self-enhancement and attractiveness.

心理学家和行为科学家尼古拉斯·埃普利主持了一项关于自我提升和吸引力的关键研究。

Rather than have people simply rate their beauty compared with others, he asked them to identify an original photograph of themselves from a lineup including versions that had been altered to appear more and less attractive.

与其让参与者简单地将自己与他人相比评定美貌，他要求他们从一组包含被修改得更吸引人和不那么吸引人的照片中，辨认出自己原始的照片。

Visual recognition, reads the study, is “an automatic psychological process, occurring rapidly and intuitively with little or no apparent conscious deliberation”.

这项研究指出，视觉识别是一种‘自动的心理过程，快速且直觉地发生，几乎不需要或明显不需要有意识的深思熟虑’。

If the subjects quickly chose a falsely flattering image – which most did – they genuinely believed it was really how they looked.

如果受试者迅速选择了被错误地美化了的照片——大多数人都是如此——他们真的相信那张照片就是他们真实的模样。

Epley found no significant gender difference in responses.

埃普利发现，男女在回应上没有显著差异。

Nor was there any evidence that those who self-enhanced the most (that is, the participants who thought the most positively doctored pictures were real) were doing so to make up for profound insecurities.

也没有证据表明那些自我提升最多的人（即认为经过最多积极修改的照片是真实的参与者）是出于深刻的不安全感而这样做。

In fact, those who thought that the images higher up the attractiveness scale were real directly corresponded with those who showed other markers for having higher self-esteem.

事实上，认为吸引力等级更高的照片是真实的人，直接对应于那些表现出更高自尊心的其他标志的人。

“I don’t think the findings that we have are any evidence of personal delusion,” says Epley.

埃普利表示：‘我认为我们目前的发现并不能作为个人妄想的任何证据。’

“It’s a reflection simply of people generally thinking well of themselves.

这仅仅是人们普遍对自己有良好看法的反映。

If you are depressed, you won’t be self-enhancing.

如果你情绪低落，你就不会自我提升。

Knowing the results of Epley’s study, it makes sense that many people hate photographs of themselves viscerally – on one level, they don’t even recognise the person in the picture as themselves.

了解了Epley研究的结果，很多人从直觉上就讨厌自己的照片也就合情合理了——在某种程度上，他们甚至无法在照片中认出那个人就是自己。

Facebook, therefore, is a self-enhancer’s paradise, where people can share only the most flattering photos, the cream of their wit, style, beauty, intellect and lifestyles.

因此，Facebook对于那些喜欢自我提升的人来说简直就是天堂，人们可以只分享最能凸显自己魅力的照片，展现自己最出色的一面：机智、风格、美貌、智慧和生活方式。

It’s not that people’s profiles are dishonest, says Catalina Toma of Wisconsin-Madison University, “but they portray an idealised version of themselves.

威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的Catalina Toma表示：“人们的个人资料并非不诚实，但它们展现的是一个理想化的自我形象。

The concept of man versus machine is at least as old as the industrial revolution, but this phenomenon tends to be most acutely felt during economic downturns and fragile recoveries.

人与机器之间的概念至少可以追溯到工业革命时期，但这种现象往往在经济衰退和脆弱复苏时期最为明显。

And yet, it would be a mistake to think we are right now simply experiencing the painful side of a boom and bust cycle.

然而，认为我们现在仅仅是经历经济繁荣与萧条周期中痛苦的一面，那就错了。

Certain jobs have gone away for good, outmoded by machines.

某些工作已经一去不复返了，被机器淘汰了。

Since technology has such an insatiable appetite for eating up human jobs, this phenomenon will continue to restructure our economy in ways we cannot immediately foresee.

由于技术对吞噬人类工作有着无法满足的胃口，这种现象将继续以我们无法立即预见的方式重塑我们的经济。

When there is rapid improvement in the price and performance of technology, jobs that were once thought to be immune from automation suddenly become threatened.

当技术的价格和性能迅速提升时，那些曾经被认为不会受到自动化影响的工作突然变得岌岌可危。

This argument has attracted a lot of attention, via the success of the book Race Against the Machine, by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, who both hail from MIT’s Center for Digital Business.

这一论点因埃里克·布里尼奥尔森和安德鲁·麦卡菲合著的《与机器赛跑》一书的成功而受到广泛关注，这两位作者均来自麻省理工学院数字商业中心。

This is a powerful argument, and a scary one.

这是一个有力且令人不安的论点。

And yet, John Hagel, author of The Power of Pull and other books, says Brynjolfsson and McAfee miss the reason why these jobs are so vulnerable to technology in the first place.

然而，约翰·哈格尔——《拉力的力量》等书的作者——表示，布里尼奥尔森和麦卡菲忽略了这些工作之所以最初就如此容易受到技术冲击的原因。

Hagel says we have designed jobs in the U.S. that tend to be “tightly scripted” and “highly standardized” ones that leave no room for “individual initiative or creativity”.

哈格尔说，我们在美国设计的工作往往都是'高度脚本化'和'高度标准化'的，完全没有给'个人主动性或创造力'留下空间。

In short, these are the types of jobs that machines can perform much better at than human beings.

简而言之，这些是机器比人类做得更好的工作类型。

That is how we have put a giant target sign on the backs of American workers, Hagel says.

哈格尔说，这就是我们为何在美国家工的背上挂上了巨大的'目标牌'。

It’s time to reinvent the formula for how work is conducted, since we are still relying on a very 20th century notion of work, Hagel says.

哈格尔表示，现在是时候重新设计工作开展的公式了，因为我们仍在依赖一种非常20世纪的工作观念。

In our rapidly changing economy, we more than ever need people in the workplace who can take initiative and exercise their imagination “to respond to unexpected events”.

在我们快速变化的经济中，我们比以往任何时候都更需要那些能够在工作中主动行动并发挥想象力以应对意外事件的人。

That is not something machines are good at.

这并不是机器擅长的事情。

They are designed to perform very predictable activities.

它们被设计用来执行非常可预测的活动。

As Hagel notes, Brynjolfsson and McAfee indeed touched on this point in their book.

正如哈格尔指出的，布林约尔松和麦卡菲确实在他们的书中触及了这一点。

We need to reframe race against the machine as race with the machine.

我们需要将与机器的竞赛重新定义为与机器的合作。

In other words, we need to look at the ways in which machines can augment human labor rather than replace it.

换句话说，我们需要关注机器如何增强人类劳动，而不是取代它。

So then the problem is not really about technology, but rather, “how do we innovate our institutions and our work practices?

因此，问题并不真正在于技术本身，而在于“我们如何创新我们的制度和工作方式？”，

When the government talks about infrastructure contributing to the economy the focus is usually on roads, railways, broadband and energy.

当政府谈到基础设施对经济的贡献时，通常关注的是道路、铁路、宽带和能源。

Housing is seldom mentioned.

住房问题很少被提及。

Why is that?

为什么是这样？

To some extent the housing sector must shoulder the blame.

在某种程度上，住房部门必须承担部分责任。

We have not been good at communicating the real value that housing can contribute to economic growth.

我们并没有很好地传达住房对经济增长所能做出的真实价值。

Then there is the scale of the typical housing project.

然后还有典型住房项目的规模问题。

It is hard to shove for attention among multibillion-pound infrastructure projects, so it is

在众多数十亿英镑的基础设施项目中争夺关注是困难的，因此它……

inevitable that the attention is focused elsewhere.

不可避免地受到其他方面的关注。

But perhaps the most significant reason is that the issue has always been so politically charged.

但也许最重要的原因是，这一问题一直具有高度的政治敏感性。

Nevertheless, the affordable housing situation is desperate.

然而，可负担住房的状况却十分严峻。

Waiting lists increase all the time and we are simply not building enough new homes.

等待名单一直在增加，而我们 simply 没有建造足够的新房。

The comprehensive spending review offers an opportunity for the government to help rectify this.

全面的支出审查为政府提供了一个机会，可以帮助纠正这一问题。

It needs to put historical prejudices to one side and take some steps to address our urgent housing need.

它需要摒弃历史上的偏见，并采取一些措施来应对我们迫切的住房需求。

There are some indications that it is preparing to do just that.

有一些迹象表明，它正准备这样做。

The communities minister, Don Foster, has hinted that George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, may introduce more flexibility to the current cap on the amount that local authorities can borrow against their housing stock debt.

社区部长唐·福斯特暗示，财政大臣乔治·奥斯本可能会对地方政府以住房存量债务为抵押所能借款的现行上限引入更多灵活性。

Evidence shows that 60,000 extra new homes could be built over the next five years if the cap were lifted, increasing GDP by 0.6%.

证据表明，如果取消这一上限，未来五年内可以多建造6万套新房，从而使国内生产总值增长0.6%。

Ministers should also look at creating greater certainty in the rental environment, which would have a significant impact on the ability of registered providers to fund new developments from revenues.

部长们还应该考虑在租赁环境中创造更大的确定性，这将对注册供应商通过收入资助新开发项目的能力产生重大影响。

But it is not just down to the government.

但这不仅仅取决于政府。

While these measures would be welcome in the short term, we must face up to the fact that the existing £ 4.5bn programme of grants to fund new affordable housing, set to expire in 2015, is unlikely to be extended beyond then.

尽管这些措施在短期内值得欢迎，但我们必须正视这样一个事实：现有的45亿英镑的拨款计划用于资助新建可负担住房，该计划将于2015年到期，很可能不会延长。

The Labour party has recently announced that it will retain a large part of the coalition’s spending plans if it returns to power.

工党最近宣布，如果它重新执政，将保留联盟政府大部分的开支计划。

The housing sector needs to accept that we are very unlikely to ever return to the era of large-scale public grants.

住房行业需要接受这样一个现实：我们几乎不可能再回到大规模公共拨款的时代。

We need to adjust to this changing climate.

我们需要适应这种变化的环境。

While the government’s commitment to long-term funding may have changed, the very pressing need for more affordable housing is real and is not going away.

尽管政府对长期资金的承诺可能已经改变，但对更多可负担住房的迫切需求是真实存在的，并不会消失。

Most people would define optimism as being endlessly happy, with a glass that’s perpetually half full.

大多数人会将乐观定义为总是快乐，杯子里永远装着一半的水。

But that’s exactly the kind of false cheerfulness that positive psychologists wouldn’t recommend.

但这正是积极心理学家不会推荐的那种虚假乐观。

“Healthy optimism means being in touch with reality,” says Tal Ben-Shahar, a Harvard professor.

健康的乐观意味着正视现实，哈佛大学教授塔尔·本-沙哈尔说。

According to Ben-Shahar, realistic optimists are those who make the best of things that happen, but not those who believe everything happens for the best.

根据Ben-Shahar的观点，现实乐观者是指那些尽可能利用发生的事情的人，但不是那些认为一切都会向好的方向发展的人。

Ben-Shahar uses three optimistic exercises.

Ben-Shahar采用3个乐观练习。

When he feels down – say, after giving a bad lecture – he grants himself permission to be human.

当他情绪低落——比如，讲了一堂糟糕的课之后——他允许自己做一个普通人。

He reminds himself that not every lecture can be a Nobel winner; some will be less effective than others.

他提醒自己，并非每场讲座都能达到诺贝尔奖得主的水平；有些讲座的效果不如其他的。

Next is reconstruction.

接下来是重建。

He analyzes the weak lecture, learning lessons for the future about what works and what doesn’t.

他分析了效果不佳的讲座，为未来吸取教训，了解哪些方法有效、哪些无效。

Finally, there is perspective, which involves acknowledging that in the grand scheme of life, one lecture really doesn’t matter.

最后，还有视角，需要承认在人生的大局中，一次讲座其实并不重要。