2017年全国硕士研究生招生考试英语（二）试题

People have speculated for centuries about a future without work.

人们已经推测了几个世纪关于没有工作的未来。

Today is no different, with academics, writers, and activists once again 1 that technology is replacing human workers.

今天也不例外，学术界人士、作家和活动家再次1技术正在取代人类工人。

Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by 2: A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland.

一些人认为，即将到来的无工世界将由2：少数富人将拥有全部资本，而大众将在贫困荒原中挣扎。

A different and not mutually exclusive 3 holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort, one 4 by purposelessness: Without jobs to give their lives 5, people will simply become lazy and depressed.

一种不同的且不互相排斥的 3认为，未来将是一种不同类型的荒原，一种由无目的感所 4的荒原：没有工作来赋予他们生活以 5，人们将变得懒惰和沮丧。

6, today’s unemployed don’t seem to be having a great time.

6，如今的失业者似乎并不好受。

One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans who have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression, double the rate for 7 Americans.

一项盖洛普民意调查发现，失业至少一年的美国人中有20%表示有抑郁症状，是7%美国人的两倍。

Also, some research suggests that the 8 for rising rates of mortality, mental-health problems, and addiction 9 poorly-educated, middle-aged people is a shortage of well-paid jobs.

Perhaps this is why many 10 the agonizing dullness of a jobless future.

也许这就是为什么许多人10无业未来的痛苦乏味。

But it doesn’t 11 follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with unease.

但这些发现并不能 11 说明一个没有工作的世界会充满不安。

Such visions are based on the 12 of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment.

这些愿景基于在一个以就业概念为基础的社会中失业的第 12 个问题。

In the 13 of work, a society designed with other ends in mind could 14 strikingly different circumstances for the future of labor and leisure.

在 13的领域中，一个以其他目标设计的社会可能为劳动和休闲的未来创造 14截然不同的状况。

Today, the 15 of work may be a bit overblown.

如今，工作的第 15 个方面可能有些夸张。

“Many jobs are boring, degrading, unhealthy, and a waste of human potential,” says John Danaher, a lecturer at the National University of Ireland in Galway.

许多工作令人厌倦、有辱人格、不健康，而且浪费人类潜力，爱尔兰高威国立大学的讲师 John Danaher 说道。

These days, because leisure time is relatively 16 for most workers, people use their free time to counterbalance the intellectual and emotional 17 of their jobs.

如今，因为大多数工人的闲暇时间相对 16 ，人们利用空闲时间来抵消其工作中产生的智力和情感上的 17 。

“When I come home from a hard day’s work, I often feel 18 ,” Danaher says, adding, “In a world in which I don’t have to work, I might feel rather different” – perhaps different enough to throw himself 19 a hobby or a passion project with the intensity usually reserved for 20 matters.

当我从辛苦的工作回家时，我常常感到18，”丹纳赫说，补充道，“在一个我不必工作的世界里，我可能会感觉截然不同”——也许不同到足以全身心投入到19爱好或热情项目中，那种通常留给20事务的专注程度。

Every Saturday morning, at 9 am, more than 50,000 runners set off to run 5km around their local park.

每个星期六上午9点，超过5万名跑者都会出发，在他们当地的公园周围跑5公里。

The Parkrun phenomenon began with a dozen friends and has inspired 400 events in the UK and more abroad.

Parkrun现象始于一群朋友，并已激励了英国400场活动，海外也有更多类似的活动。

Events are free, staffed by thousands of volunteers.

这些活动是免费的，由数千名志愿者负责组织。

Runners range from four years old to grandparents; their times range from Andrew Baddeley’s world record 13 minutes 48 seconds up to an hour.

跑者年龄从四岁到祖父母辈不等；他们的用时从安德鲁·巴德利的世界纪录13分48秒到一个小时不等。

Parkrun is succeeding where London’s Olympic “legacy” is failing.

Parkrun正在成功之处，正是伦敦奥运会‘遗产’失败的地方。

Ten years ago on Monday, it was announced that the Games of the 30th Olympiad would be in London.

十年前的周一，宣布第30届奥运会将在伦敦举行。

Planning documents pledged that the great legacy of the Games would be to lever a nation of sport lovers away from their couches.

规划文件承诺，奥运会留下的伟大遗产是激发全国体育爱好者远离沙发，积极参与运动。

The population would be fitter, healthier and produce more winners.

人们将变得更健康、更健壮，并产生更多的冠军。

It has not happened.

这并没有发生。

The number of adults doing weekly sport did rise, by nearly 2 million in the run-up to 2012 – but the general population was growing faster.

在2012年之前，每周进行体育运动的成年人数量确实有所上升，增加了近200万人——但总体人口增长得更快。

Worse, the numbers are now falling at an accelerating rate.

更糟糕的是，这一数字现在正以越来越快的速度下降。

The opposition claims primary school pupils doing at least two hours of sport a week have nearly halved.

反对派声称，每周进行至少两小时体育运动的小学生人数几乎减少了一半。

Obesity has risen among adults and children.

成年人和儿童的肥胖率都上升了。

Official retrospections continue as to why London 2012 failed to “inspire a generation.

官方仍在继续回顾伦敦2012为何未能激励一代人。

The success of Parkrun offers answers.

Parkrun的成功提供了答案。

Parkun is not a race but a time trial: Your only competitor is the clock.

Parkrun不是一个比赛，而是一个计时赛：你唯一的对手就是时钟。

The ethos welcomes anybody.

这种理念欢迎任何人。

There is as much joy over a puffed-out first-timer being clapped over the line as there is about top talent shining.

对于首次参赛者气喘吁吁地冲过终点线而受到掌声欢呼，与顶尖人才大放异彩所带来的喜悦一样多。

The Olympic bidders, by contrast, wanted to get more people doing sport and to produce more elite athletes.

相比之下，申办奥运会的各方则希望让更多人参与体育运动，并培养出更多优秀的运动员。

The dual aim was mixed up: The stress on success over taking part was intimidating for newcomers.

这一双重目标被混淆了：过分强调成功而非参与，让新手感到望而生畏。

Indeed, there is something a little absurd in the state getting involved in the planning of such a fundamentally “grassroots” concept as community sports associations.

事实上，政府介入社区体育协会这样本质上属于‘基层’的概念的规划，多少有些荒谬。

If there is a role for government, it should really be getting involved in providing common goods – making sure there is space for playing fields and the money to pave tennis and netball courts, and encouraging the provision of all these activities in schools.

如果政府有其角色，那它真正应该做的是提供公共产品——确保有场地用于运动，有资金铺设网球和篮网球场，并鼓励在学校中开展所有这些活动。

But successive governments have presided over selling green spaces, squeezing money from local authorities and declining attention on sport in education.

然而，历届政府却一直在任期内推动出售绿地、从地方政府榨取资金，并且在教育中对体育的关注度不断下降。

Instead of wordy, worthy strategies, future governments need to do more to provide the conditions for sport to thrive.

未来的政府不应再制定冗长而空洞的战略，而应更多地为体育的发展创造有利条件。

Or at least not make them worse.

至少，不要让情况变得更糟。

With so much focus on children’s use of screens, it’s easy for parents to forget about their own screen use.

在如此关注儿童使用屏幕的情况下，父母很容易忘记自己也在使用屏幕。

“Tech is designed to really suck you in,” says Jenny Radesky in her study of digital play, “and digital products are there to promote maximal engagement.

在她关于数字游戏的研究中，Jenny Radesky说："科技的设计就是要真正吸引你，数字产品旨在促进最大程度的参与。"

It makes it hard to disengage, and leads to a lot of bleed-over into the family routine.

这使得人们难以脱离科技产品，导致大量时间渗透到家庭日常生活中。

Radesky has studied the use of mobile phones and tablets at mealtimes by giving mother-child pairs a food-testing exercise.

Radesky通过给母子配对进行食物测试练习，研究了用餐时间使用手机和平板电脑的情况。

She found that mothers who used devices during the exercise started 20 per cent fewer verbal and 39 per cent fewer nonverbal interactions with their children.

她发现，在练习过程中使用设备的母亲与孩子进行的口头交流减少了20%，非语言交流减少了39%。

During a separate observation, she saw that phones became a source of tension in the family.

在另一次观察中，她看到手机成为了家庭中紧张的来源。

Parents would be looking at their emails while the children would be making excited bids for their attention.

父母在查看电子邮件时，孩子们则兴奋地试图吸引他们的注意。

Infants are wired to look at parents’ faces to try to understand their world, and if those faces are blank and unresponsive – as they often are when absorbed in a device – it can be extremely disconcerting for the children.

婴儿天生就会注视父母的脸，以试图理解他们的世界，而如果这些脸是空白且无反应的——就像他们专注于设备时常常那样——对孩子来说会非常令人困惑。

Radesky cites the “still face experiment” devised by developmental psychologist Ed Tronick in the 1970s.

拉德斯基引用了发展心理学家埃德·特罗尼克在20世纪70年代设计的“静止面孔实验”。

In it, a mother is asked to interact with her child in a normal way before putting on a blank expression and not giving them any visual social feedback: The child becomes increasingly distressed as she tries to capture her mother’s attention.

在这个实验中，母亲首先被要求以正常的方式与孩子互动，然后戴上一副空白的表情，不再给予任何视觉上的社交反馈：孩子会越来越焦虑，因为她试图吸引母亲的注意。

“Parents don’t have to be exquisitely present at all times, but there needs to be a balance and parents need to be responsive and sensitive to a child’s verbal or nonverbal expressions of an emotional need,” says Radesky.

拉德斯基说：‘父母并不需要时时刻刻都极度专注，但需要保持一种平衡，同时要对孩子表达情绪需求时的言语或非言语信号做出回应和敏感的反应。’

On the other hand, Tronick himself is concerned that the worries about kids’ use of screens are born out of an “oppressive ideology that demands that parents should always be interacting” with their children: “It’s based on a somewhat fantasised, very white, very upper-middle-class ideology that says if you’re failing to expose your child to 30,000 words you are neglecting them.

另一方面，特伦尼克本人担忧，对孩子使用屏幕的忧虑源于一种“要求父母必须始终与孩子互动”的压迫性意识形态：“这种意识形态某种程度上理想化，非常白人至上，非常中上层阶级，认为如果你没有让孩子接触30,000个单词，就是在忽视他们。”

Tronick believes that just because a child isn’t learning from the screen doesn’t mean there’s no value to it – particularly if it gives parents time to have a shower, do housework or simply have a break from their child.

Tronick认为，仅仅因为孩子没有从屏幕中学习，并不意味着它没有价值——尤其是当它给父母时间洗澡、做家务或只是暂时离开孩子。

Parents, he says, can get a lot out of using their devices to speak to a friend or get some work out of the way.

他说，父母可以通过使用自己的设备与朋友交谈或处理一些工作，获得很多好处。

This can make them feel happier, which lets them be more available to their child the rest of the time.

这会让他们感觉更快乐，从而在其余时间里更愿意陪伴孩子。

Today, widespread social pressure to immediately go to college in conjunction with increasingly high expectations in a fast-moving world often causes students to completely overlook the possibility of taking a gap year.

如今，广泛的社会压力要求学生必须立刻上大学，再加上快节奏世界中日益提高的期望，常常使学生完全忽视了休学一年的可能性。

After all, if everyone you know is going to college in the fall, it seems silly to stay back a year, doesn’t it?

毕竟，如果你认识的人都要在秋季上大学，那么待一年再入学似乎很傻，不是吗？

And after going to school for 12 years, it doesn’t feel natural to spend a year doing something that isn’t academic.

在经历了12年的学校教育之后，花一年时间去做一些非学术的事情感觉不太自然。

But while this may be true, it’s not a good enough reason to condemn gap years.

但尽管这可能是真的，却不足以成为谴责间隔年的原因。

There’s always a constant fear of falling behind everyone else on the socially perpetuated “race to the finish line,” whether that be toward graduate school, medical school or a lucrative career.

在社会不断推动的‘冲刺终点线’竞赛中，人们始终存在着落后于他人的恐惧，无论这个终点是研究生院、医学院还是高薪职业。

But despite common misconceptions, a gap year does not hinder the success of academic pursuits – in fact, it probably enhances it.

但尽管存在一些常见的误解，间隔年并不会阻碍学术追求的成功——事实上，它可能还会增强这种成功。

Studies from the United States and Australia show that students who take a gap year are generally better prepared for and perform better in college than those who do not.

来自美国和澳大利亚的研究表明，休学一年的学生通常比没有休学的学生在大学里准备得更充分，表现也更好。

Rather than pulling students back, a gap year pushes them ahead by preparing them for independence, new responsibilities and environmental changes

间隔年并不是让学生退步，而是通过让他们为独立、新的责任和环境变化做好准备，从而推动他们前进。

– all things that first-year students often struggle with the most.

– 一年级学生最初常常最难以应对的各种问题。

Gap year experiences can lessen the blow when it comes to adjusting to college and being thrown into a brand new environment, making it easier to focus on academics and activities rather than acclimation blunders.

间隔年经历有助于减轻适应大学和进入全新环境时的冲击，使人更容易专注于学业和活动，而不是适应过程中的失误。

If you’re not convinced of the inherent value in taking a year off to explore interests, then consider its financial impact on future academic choices.

如果你还没有认识到休学一年去探索兴趣的内在价值，那么请考虑它对未来学术选择的经济影响。

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 80 percent of college students end up changing their majors at least once.

根据美国国家教育统计中心的数据，近80%的大学生至少换过一次专业。

This isn’t surprising, considering the basic mandatory high school curriculum leaves students with a poor understanding of the vast academic possibilities that await them in college.

这并不令人意外，考虑到基础必修的高中课程让学生对大学中等待他们的广阔学术可能性缺乏了解。

Many students find themselves listing one major on their college applications, but switching to another after taking college classes.

许多学生在大学申请时列出一个专业，但在上过大学课程后又转到另一个专业。

It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but depending on the school, it can be costly to make up credits after switching too late in the game.

这并不一定是坏事，但根据学校的不同，如果在太晚的时候才换专业，补足学分可能会产生高昂的费用。

At Boston College, for example, you would have to complete an extra year were you to switch to the nursing school from another department.

例如，在波士顿学院，如果你从其他院系转到护理学院，就需要多完成一年的学习。

Taking a gap year to figure things out initially can help prevent stress and save money later on.

最初休学一年来理清思路，可以帮助学生避免压力并节省以后的开支。

Though often viewed as a problem for western states, the growing frequency of wildfires is a national concern because of its impact on federal tax dollars, says Professor Max Moritz, a specialist in fire ecology and management.

火生态学与管理专家、教授Max Moritz表示，尽管野火频发常被视为西部州的问题，但由于其对联邦税收资金的影响，这一现象正在成为全国性的关注问题。

In 2015, the US Forest Service for the first time spent more than half of its $5.5 billion annual budget fighting fires – nearly double the percentage it spent on such efforts 20 years ago.

2015年，美国林业局首次将其每年55亿美元的预算中超过一半用于扑灭山火——这一比例几乎是20年前的两倍。

In effect, fewer federal funds today are going towards the agency’s other work – such as forest conservation, watershed and cultural resources management, and infrastructure upkeep – that affect the lives of all Americans.

实际上，如今更少的联邦资金被用于该机构的其他工作——例如森林保护、水源地和文化资源管理以及基础设施维护——这些工作影响着所有美国人的生活。

Another nationwide concern is whether public funds from other agencies are going into construction in fire-prone districts.

另一个全国性关注的问题是，其他机构的公共资金是否被用于在易发生火灾的地区进行建设。

As Moritz puts it, how often are federal dollars building homes that are likely to be lost to a wildfire?

正如莫里茨所说，联邦资金有多少次是用于建造那些很可能在野火中被毁掉的房屋？

“It’s already a huge problem from a public expenditure perspective for the whole country,” he says.

他说，从全国公共支出的角度来看，这已经是一个巨大的问题。

“We need to take a magnifying glass to that.

我们需要用放大镜仔细审视这一点。

Like, ‘Wait a minute, is this OK?

比如，等一下，这样可以吗？

Do we want instead to redirect those funds to concentrate on lower-hazard parts of the landscape?

我们是否想要转而将这些资金集中用于景观中的低风险部分？

Such a view would require a corresponding shift in the way US society today views fire, researchers say.

研究人员表示，这种观点将需要美国社会在看待火灾方式上相应的转变。

For one thing, conversations about wildfires need to be more inclusive.

首先，关于野火的讨论需要更加包容。

Over the past decade, the focus has been on climate change – how the warming of the Earth from greenhouse gases is leading to conditions that worsen fires.

在过去十年中，关注的焦点一直是气候变化——地球因温室气体变暖所导致的条件如何加剧火灾。

While climate is a key element, Moritz says, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the rest of the equation.

虽然气候是一个关键因素，莫里茨表示，但它不应以牺牲方程中的其他要素为代价。

“The human systems and the landscapes we live on are linked, and the interactions go both ways,” he says.

他说：‘我们所处的人类系统与景观是相互关联的，这种互动是双向的。’

Failing to recognize that, he notes, leads to “an overly simplified view of what the solutions might be.

他指出，未能认识到这一点，会导致‘对可能解决方案的过于简化的看法’。

Our perception of the problem and of what the solution is becomes very limited.

我们的对问题和解决方案的认识将变得非常有限。

At the same time, people continue to treat fire as an event that needs to be wholly controlled and unleashed only out of necessity, says Professor Balch at the University of Colorado.

同时，科罗拉多大学的巴奇教授指出，人们仍然将野火视为一种需要完全控制、只有在必要时才释放的事件。

But acknowledging fire’s inevitable presence in human life is an attitude crucial to developing the laws, policies, and practices that make it as safe as possible, she says.

她说：‘承认野火在人类生活中不可避免的存在，是制定使其尽可能安全的法律、政策和实践的关键态度。’

“We’ve disconnected ourselves from living with fire,” Balch says.

巴尔奇说："我们已经与火共处的生活方式断开了联系。"

“It is really important to understand and try and tease out what is the human connection with fire today.

今天，理解并试图厘清人类与火之间的关系真的非常重要。

My dream has always been to work somewhere in an area between fashion and publishing.

我一直以来的梦想就是在时尚和出版业之间的某个领域工作。

Two years before graduating from secondary school, I took a sewing and design course thinking that I would move on to a fashion design course.

中学毕业前两年，我上了一门缝纫与设计课程，想着之后会继续学习时尚设计课程。

However, during that course I realized I was not good enough in this area to compete with other creative personalities in the future, so I decided that it was not the right path for me.

然而，在那门课程中我意识到自己在这方面不足以与未来其他有创造力的人竞争，因此决定这并非适合我的道路。

Before applying for university I told everyone that I would study journalism, because writing was, and still is, one of my favourite activities.

在申请大学之前，我告诉所有人我会学习新闻学，因为写作曾经是，现在仍然是我最喜欢的活动之一。

But, to be honest, I said it, because I thought that fashion and me together was just a dream – I knew that no one could imagine me in the fashion industry at all!

但说实话，我说了这句话，因为我以为时尚与我结合只是一个梦想——我知道没有人能想象我在时尚行业。

So I decided to look for some fashion-related courses that included writing.

因此我决定寻找一些包含写作内容的与时尚相关的课程。

This is when I noticed the course “Fashion Media & Promotion.

就在这时，我发现了这门课程《Fashion Media & Promotion》。