2018年全国硕士研究生招生考试英语（二）试题

Why do people read negative Internet comments and do other things that will obviously be painful?

为什么人们会去阅读负面的网络评论并做其他显然会带来痛苦的事情？

Because humans have an inherent need to 1 uncertainty, according to a recent study in Psychological Science.

根据最近发表在《心理科学》上的一项研究，人类有一种与生俱来的对1的不确定性需求。

The new research reveals that the need to know is so strong that people will 2 to satisfy their curiosity even when it is clear the answer will 3.

新研究显示，求知欲如此强烈，以至于人们即使清楚答案会带来2，仍会3以满足他们的好奇心。

In a series of four experiments, behavioral scientists at the University of Chicago and the Wisconsin School of Business tested students’ willingness to 4 themselves to unpleasant stimuli in an effort to satisfy curiosity.

在一系列四项实验中，芝加哥大学和威斯康星商学院的行为科学家测试学生第 4 题中自愿让自己暴露于不愉快刺激的意愿，以满足好奇心。

For one 5, each participant was shown a pile of pens that the researcher claimed were from a previous experiment.

对于第 5 题中的某一项，每个参与者都被展示了一堆笔，研究者声称这些笔来自之前的实验。

The twist?

转折？

Half of the pens would 6 an electric shock when clicked.

一半的钢笔在被按下时会6电击。

Twenty-seven students were told which pens were electrified; another twenty-seven were told only that some were electrified.

27名学生被告知哪些笔是带电的；另外27名学生仅被告知有些笔是带电的。

7 left alone in the room, the students who did not know which ones would shock them clicked more pens and incurred more shocks than the students who knew what would 8 .

7被单独留在房间里，不知道哪些笔会电击他们的学生点击了更多的笔并承受了更多的电击，比那些知道第8项内容的学生。

Subsequent experiments reproduced this effect with other stimuli, 9 the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard and photographs of disgusting insects.

随后的实验用其他刺激物复现了这一效果，9号指甲刮黑板的声音和令人厌恶的昆虫照片。

The drive to 10 is deeply rooted in humans, much the same as the basic drives for 11 or shelter, says Christopher Hsee of the University of Chicago.

人类对10的驱动力深深植根于其本性，与对11或庇护的基本驱动力大致相同，芝加哥大学的克里斯托弗·赫西表示。

Curiosity is often considered a good instinct – it can 12 new scientific advances, for instance – but sometimes such 13 can backfire.

好奇心通常被认为是一种良好的本能——它能 12 新的科学进步——但有时这种 13 会适得其反。

The insight that curiosity can drive you to do 14 things is a profound one.

好奇心可以促使你去做 14 件事的洞察是一个深刻的道理。

Unhealthy curiosity is possible to 15, however.

然而，不健康的求知欲是可能达到15的。

In a final experiment, participants who were encouraged to 16 how they would feel after viewing an unpleasant picture were less likely to 17 to see such an image.

在最后的实验中，被鼓励去16他们看完不愉快画面后感受的参与者，不太可能去17看这样的画面。

These results suggest that imagining the 18 of following through on one’s curiosity ahead of time can help determine 19 it is worth the endeavor.

这些结果表明，提前想象18的践行好奇心可以帮助确定19是否值得付出努力。

“Thinking about long-term 20 is key to reducing the possible negative effects of curiosity,” Hsee says.

In other words, don’t read online comments.

换句话说，不要阅读在线评论。

It is curious that Stephen Koziatek feels almost as though he has to justify his efforts to give his students a better future.

奇怪的是，史蒂芬·科扎泰克几乎感觉他必须为努力给学生更好的未来进行辩解。

Mr. Koziatek is part of something pioneering.

科扎泰克先生是某个开创性项目的一部分。

He is a teacher at a New Hampshire high school where learning is not something of books and tests and mechanical memorization, but practical.

他是新罕布什尔州一所高中的教师，那里的学习不是书本、考试和机械记忆的事情，而是实践性的。

When did it become accepted wisdom that students should be able to name the 13th president of the United States but be utterly overwhelmed by a broken bike chain?

什么时候起，让学生能够说出美国第13任总统的名字，却对一个断裂的自行车链条感到完全不知所措，成了被普遍接受的智慧？

As Koziatek knows, there is learning in just about everything.

正如科扎泰克所知，在几乎所有事情中都有学习的内容。

Nothing is necessarily gained by forcing students to learn geometry at a graffitied desk stuck with generations of discarded chewing gum.

强迫学生在满是涂鸦和几代人丢弃的口香糖的课桌上学习几何，未必能带来任何好处。

They can also learn geometry by assembling a bicycle.

他们也可以通过组装自行车来学习几何。

But he’s also found a kind of insidious prejudice.

但他也发现了一种隐秘的偏见。

Working with your hands is seen as almost a mark of inferiority.

动手工作被视为几乎是一种低人一等的标志。

Schools in the family of vocational education “have that stereotype.

职业教育体系中的学校存在这种刻板印象。

that it’s for kids who can’t make it academically,” he says.

他说这是针对那些在学术上无法达到要求的孩子。

On one hand, that viewpoint is a logical product of America’s evolution.

一方面，这种观点是美国发展历程中的一种合乎逻辑的产物。

Manufacturing is not the economic engine that it once was.

制造业已不再是曾经的经济引擎。

The job security that the US economy once offered to high school graduates has largely evaporated.

美国经济曾经为高中毕业生提供的就业保障已基本消失。

More education is the new principle.

更多的教育成为新的信条。

We want more for our kids, and rightfully so.

我们希望孩子们能拥有更多，这无可厚非。

But the headlong push into bachelor’s degrees for all – and the subtle devaluing of anything less – misses an important point: That’s not the only thing the American economy needs.

但盲目地让所有人都攻读学士学位，并微妙地贬低任何低于这一层次的教育，却忽略了一个重要的问题：这并不是美国经济唯一需要的东西。

Yes, a bachelor’s degree opens more doors.

是的，学士学位能打开更多的大门。

But even now, 54 percent of the jobs in the country are middle-skill jobs, such as construction and high-skill manufacturing.

但即使现在，全国54%的工作属于中等技能工作，例如建筑和高技能制造业。

But only 44 percent of workers are adequately trained.

但只有44%的工人接受了足够的培训。

In other words, at a time when the working class has turned the country on its political head, frustrated that the opportunity that once defined America is vanishing, one obvious solution is staring us in the face.

换句话说，在工人阶级已经让国家政治局面发生翻天覆地变化的当下，他们感到沮丧，因为曾经定义美国的机会正在消失，一个显而易见的解决方案正摆在我们面前。

There is a gap in working-class jobs, but the workers who need those jobs most aren’t equipped to do them.

在工人阶级的工作岗位上存在缺口，但最需要这些工作的人却没有接受相应的培训。

Koziatek’s Manchester School of Technology High School is trying to fill that gap.

科扎特克（Koziatek）在曼彻斯特科技高中（Manchester School of Technology High School）所做的正是试图填补这一缺口。

Koziatek’s school is a wake-up call.

科扎特克的学校是一个警钟。

When education becomes one-size-fits-all, it risks overlooking a nation’s diversity of gifts.

当教育变成一刀切的模式时，它可能会忽视一个国家在天赋上的多样性。

While fossil fuels – coal, oil, gas – still generate roughly 85 percent of the world’s energy supply, it’s clearer than ever that the future belongs to renewable sources such as wind and solar.

尽管化石燃料——煤炭、石油、天然气——仍然为全球约85%的能源供应提供动力，但越来越明显的是，未来属于可再生能源，如风能和太阳能。

The move to renewables is picking up momentum around the world: They now account for more than half of new power sources going on line.

向可再生能源的转型正在全球范围内加速：目前它们已占新投入使用的电力来源的一半以上。

Some growth stems from a commitment by governments and farsighted businesses to fund cleaner energy sources.

一些增长来自于政府和有远见的企业承诺资助更清洁的能源来源。

But increasingly the story is about the plummeting prices of renewables, especially wind and solar.

但越来越多的情况是关于可再生能源价格的大幅下降，尤其是风能和太阳能。

The cost of solar panels has dropped by 80 percent and the cost of wind turbines by close to one-third in the past eight years.

在过去八年中，太阳能板的成本下降了80%，风力涡轮机的成本下降了近三分之一。

In many parts of the world renewable energy is already a principal energy source.

在世界许多地方，可再生能源已经成为主要的能源来源。

In Scotland, for example, wind turbines provide enough electricity to power 95 percent of homes.

例如在苏格兰，风力涡轮机提供的电力已经足以供应95%的家庭用电。

While the rest of the world takes the lead, notably China and Europe, the United States is also seeing a remarkable shift.

当世界其他地区，尤其是中国和欧洲率先行动时，美国也正在经历一场显著的转变。

In March, for the first time, wind and solar power accounted for more than 10 percent of the power generated in the US, reported the US Energy Information Administration.

美国能源信息署报告称，3月份，风能和太阳能首次占到了美国发电总量的10%以上。

President Trump has underlined fossil fuels – especially coal – as the path to economic growth.

特朗普总统强调化石燃料——尤其是煤炭——是实现经济增长的途径。

In a recent speech in Iowa, he dismissed wind power as an unreliable energy source.

在最近一次爱荷华州的演讲中，他将风能驳斥为不可靠的能源来源。

But that message did not play well with many in Iowa, where wind turbines dot the fields and provide 36 percent of the state’s electricity generation – and where tech giants like Microsoft are being attracted by the availability of clean energy to power their data centers.

但这一信息在爱荷华州并不受欢迎，该州田野中遍布风力涡轮机，为该州36%的电力供应提供了保障——而且科技巨头如微软正因该州清洁电力的充足供应而被吸引来建设数据中心。

The question “what happens when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine?

当风不吹或太阳不照时会发生什么？

has provided a quick put-down for skeptics.

已经为怀疑者提供了一个简短有力的反驳。

But a boost in the storage capacity of batteries is making their ability to keep power flowing around the clock more likely.

但电池储能能力的提升，使得它们能够全天候持续供电的可能性正在增加。

The advance is driven in part by vehicle manufacturers, who are placing big bets on battery-powered electric vehicles.

这一进展部分得益于汽车制造商，他们正在大力押注于电池驱动的电动汽车。

Although electric cars are still a rarity on roads now, this massive investment could change the picture rapidly in coming years.

尽管目前电动汽车在道路上仍属罕见，但这种大规模投资可能在未来几年迅速改变这一局面。

While there’s a long way to go, the trend lines for renewables are spiking.

虽然还有很长的路要走，但可再生能源的趋势线正在急剧上升。

The pace of change in energy sources appears to be speeding up – perhaps just in time to have a meaningful effect in slowing climate change.

能源来源的变化速度似乎正在加快——或许正是时候，对减缓气候变化产生有意义的影响。

What Washington does – or doesn’t do – to promote alternative energy may mean less and less at a time of a global shift in thought.

华盛顿在推动替代能源方面所做或未做的事情，在全球思想转变的时期可能变得越来越不重要。

The power and ambition of the giants of the digital economy is astonishing-

数字经济巨头所拥有的权力和野心令人惊叹——

Amazon has just announced the purchase of the upmarket grocery chain Whole Foods for ＄ 13.5bn, but two years ago Facebook paid even more than that to acquire the WhatsApp messaging service, which doesn’t have any physical product at all.

亚马逊刚刚宣布以135亿美元收购高端杂货连锁店Whole Foods，但两年前Facebook为了收购WhatsApp信息服务，支付的金额甚至更多，而WhatsApp本身没有任何实体产品。

What WhatsApp offered Facebook was an intricate and finely detailed web of its users’ friendships and social lives.

WhatsApp为Facebook提供的，是其用户之间复杂而细致的友谊和社会生活网络。

Facebook promised the European commission then that it would not link phone numbers to Facebook identities, but it broke the promise almost as soon as the deal went through.

Facebook当时向欧盟委员会承诺，不会将电话号码与Facebook身份关联，但交易完成后几乎立刻就违背了这一承诺。

Even without knowing what was in the messages, the knowledge of who sent them and to whom was enormously revealing and still could be.

即使不知道这些信息的具体内容，仅知道是谁发送的以及发送给了谁，就已经非常具有揭示性，而且仍然可能具有价值。

What political journalist, what party whip, would not want to know the makeup of the WhatsApp groups in which Theresa May’s enemies are currently plotting?

哪个政治记者，哪个政党督导，不想知道那些目前正在密谋对抗特雷莎·梅的WhatsApp群组的成员构成呢？

It may be that the value of Whole Foods to Amazon is not so much the 460 shops it owns, but the records of which customers have purchased what.

Whole Foods对亚马逊的价值可能不在于它拥有的460家门店，而在于它记录了哪些顾客购买了什么商品。

Competition law appears to be the only way to address these imbalances of power.

竞争法似乎成了应对这些权力失衡的唯一途径。

But it is clumsy.

但这种方法显得笨拙。

For one thing, it is very slow compared to the pace of change within the digital economy.

首先，与数字经济中变化的速度相比，它显得非常缓慢。

By the time a problem has been addressed and remedied it may have vanished in the marketplace, to be replaced by new abuses of power.

等到一个问题被发现并加以解决时，它可能已经在市场上消失，取而代之的是新的权力滥用行为。

But there is a deeper conceptual problem, too.

但还有一个更深层次的概念性问题。

Competition law as presently interpreted deals with financial disadvantage to consumers and this is not obvious when the users of these services don’t pay for them.

目前对竞争法的解释主要关注消费者所遭受的经济损失，而当这些服务的使用者无需为此付费时，这种损失并不明显。

The users of their services are not their customers.

他们的服务使用者并不是他们的客户。

That would be the people who buy advertising from them – and Facebook and Google, the two virtual giants, dominate digital

那将是那些从他们那里购买广告的人——而Facebook和Google，这两个虚拟巨头，主导着数字领域。

advertising to the disadvantage of all other media and entertainment companies.

对所有其他媒体和娱乐公司不利的广告。

The product they’re selling is data, and we, the users, convert our lives to data for the benefit of the digital giants.

他们销售的产品是数据，而我们这些用户则将我们的生活转化为数据，以造福这些数字巨头。

Just as some ants farm the bugs called aphids for the honeydew they produce when they feed, so Google farms us for the data that our digital lives yield.

就像一些蚂蚁会饲养被称为蚜虫的昆虫，以获取它们进食时产生的蜜露一样，谷歌也在饲养我们，以获取我们的数字生活所产生的数据。

Ants keep predatory insects away from where their aphids feed; Gmail keeps the spammers out of our inboxes.

蚂蚁将捕食性昆虫赶出它们的蚜虫觅食区域；Gmail将垃圾邮件发送者阻挡在我们的收件箱之外。

It doesn’t feel like a human or democratic relationship, even if both sides benefit.

即使双方都受益，这也不像是一个人类或民主的关系。

To combat the trap of putting a premium on being busy, Cal Newport, author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, recommends building a habit of “deep work” – the ability to focus without distraction.

为了应对将忙碌视为重要价值的陷阱，深工作：在分心世界中专注成功的规则一书的作者卡尔·纽波特建议培养一种'深工作'的习惯——即在没有干扰的情况下专注的能力。

There are a number of approaches to mastering the art of deep work – be it lengthy retreats dedicated to a specific task; developing a daily ritual; or taking a “journalistic” approach to seizing moments of deep work when you can throughout the day.

掌握深工作这门艺术有多种方法，无论是进行长时间的退修以专注于特定任务；还是建立每日的仪式；或者采取一种'新闻业'的方式，在一天中抓住可以进行深工作的时刻。

Whichever approach, the key is to determine your length of focus time and stick to it.

无论采用哪种方法，关键是要确定你的专注时长并坚持下去。

Newport also recommends “deep scheduling” to combat constant interruptions and get more done in less time.

纽波特还建议采用'深度安排'来应对持续的干扰，从而在更短的时间内完成更多的工作。

“At any given point, I should have deep work scheduled for roughly the next month.

在任何时候，我都应该在日历上安排大约接下来一个月的深工作时间。

Once on the calendar, I protect this time like I would a doctor’s appointment or important meeting”, he writes.

一旦安排在日历上，我就像保护医生预约或重要会议一样保护这段时间。

Another approach to getting more done in less time is to rethink how you prioritise your day – in particular how we craft our to-do lists.

另一种在更少时间内完成更多工作的方法是重新思考你如何优先安排一天的任务——特别是我们如何制定待办事项清单。

Tim Harford, author of Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives, points to a study in the early 1980s that divided undergraduates into two groups: some were advised to set out monthly goals and study activities; others were told to plan activities and goals in much more detail, day by day.

《杂乱：无序的力量如何改变我们的生活》一书的作者蒂姆·哈福德引用了20世纪80年代初的一项研究，该研究将大学生分为两组：一组被建议制定每月目标和学习活动；另一组则被要求更详细地按天规划活动和目标。

While the researchers assumed that the well-structured daily plans would be most effective when it came to the execution of tasks, they were wrong: the detailed daily plans demotivated students.

尽管研究人员假设，当执行任务时，结构严谨的每日计划会最有效，但他们错了：过于详细的每日计划反而削弱了学生的动力。

Harford argues that inevitable distractions often render the daily to-do list ineffective, while leaving room for improvisation in such a list can reap the best results.

哈福德认为，不可避免的干扰常常使每日待办事项清单变得无效，而在这个清单中留出一定的即兴发挥空间，反而能取得最佳效果。

In order to make the most of our focus and energy, we also need to embrace downtime, or as Newport suggests, “be lazy”.

为了充分利用我们的注意力和精力，我们也需要接受空闲时间，正如纽波特所建议的那样，要“懒一点”。

“Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body…[idleness] is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done,” he argues.

他指出，空闲不仅仅是一种休息、放纵或恶习；它对大脑的重要性，就如同维生素D对身体一样不可或缺……[空闲]悖论般地，是完成任何工作的必要条件。

Srini Pillay, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, believes this counterintuitive link between downtime and productivity may be due to the way our brains operate.

哈佛医学院精神病学助理教授斯里尼·皮莱认为，这种空闲时间与生产力之间看似矛盾的联系，可能源于我们大脑的工作方式。

When our brains switch between being focused and unfocused on a task, they tend to be more efficient.

当我们的大脑在专注于任务和不专注于任务之间切换时，它们往往更加高效。

“What people don’t realise is that in order to complete these tasks they need to use both the focus and unfocus circuits in their brain,” says Pillay.

皮莱说，人们没有意识到，为了完成这些任务，他们需要同时使用大脑中的专注和非专注回路。

A fifth grader gets a homework assignment to select his future career path from a list of occupations.

一名五年级学生收到一份家庭作业，要求他从职业列表中选择未来的职业道路。

He ticks “astronaut” but quickly adds “scientist” to the list and selects it as well.

他勾选了“宇航员”，但迅速将“科学家”加入列表并选中它。

The boy is convinced that if he reads enough, he can explore as many career paths as he likes.

这个男孩坚信，如果他读得足够多，他就可以探索他喜欢的尽可能多的职业道路。

And so he reads – everything from encyclopedias to science fiction novels.

于是他阅读——从百科全书到科幻小说的一切内容。

He reads so passionately that his parents have to institute a “no reading policy” at the dinner table.

他读得如此充满激情，以至于他的父母不得不在餐桌制定一项“禁止阅读”政策。

That boy was Bill Gates, and he hasn’t stopped reading yet – not even after becoming one of the most successful people on the planet.

那个男孩就是比尔·盖茨，他尚未停止阅读——甚至在他成为全球最成功的人之一之后也未曾停止。

Nowadays, his reading material has changed from science fiction and reference books: recently, he revealed that he reads at least 50 nonfiction books a year.

如今，他的阅读材料已从科幻小说和参考书转变为非虚构类书籍：最近他透露，自己每年至少阅读50本非虚构类书籍。

Gates chooses nonfiction titles because they explain how the world works.

盖茨选择非虚构类书籍，因为它们解释了世界如何运作。

“Each book opens up new avenues of knowledge to explore”, Gates says.

每本书都开辟了知识的新途径供探索，Gates说。