上海外国语大学考研翻译硕士英语真题2016+答案

2、回答问题： What aspects are ignored by many when assessing American power?
Did Britain decline after American independence in 1776?
also overlook China’s geopolitical 8.
in the Asian balance of power,
compared with America’s relations with Europe, Japan and India, which
are likely to remain more favorable.
Chinese as 10ft tall and proclaim this “the Chinese century”.
China’s size and relatively rapid economic growth will bring it closer
to the US in terms of its power resources in the next few decades. But
what is the natural life cycle of a nation.
A century is generally the limit for a human organism but countries
are social constructs. Rome did not collapse until more than three
The scenarios that could 10. decline include ones in which the
US overreacts to terrorist attacks by turning inwards and thus cuts itself
off from the strength it obtains from openness. Alternatively it could
as well as the increased role of non-state actors, will make it harder
for even America, the biggest power, to 14.
influence and organize
action. Entropy is a greater challenge than China.
remember a year such as 1956, when the US was unable to prevent Soviet
15. of a revolt in Hungary; or the Suez invasion by our allies Britain,
France and Israel.
centuries after it reached its apogee of power in 117AD. After American
independence in 1776 Horace Walpole, the British politician, lamented
that his nation had been reduced to the level of Sardinia, just as Britain
this does not necessarily mean it will surpass the US in military, economic
and soft power.
6.
China suffers no big domestic political setback, many
projections are simple linear extrapolations of growth rates that are
American decline is inaccurate and misleading. Though the US has problems
it is not in absolute decline, unlike ancient Rome, and it is likely to
remain more powerful than any single state in coming decades.
in coming decades.
In 1941 Time editor Henry Luce proclaimed “the American century”.
Some now see this coming to an end 1.
of the nation’s economic and
political decline. Many point to the example of US failure to convince
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The real problem is not that it will be overtaken by China or another
contender but rather that it faces a rise in the power resources of many
others — both states and non-state actors such as transnational
12. to the views of those who proclaim this the Chinese century,
we have not entered a post-American world. But the American century of
the future will not look the same as in previous decades. The US
At the same time, even when the US had its greatest preponderance of
power resources, it often failed to secure what it wanted. Those who argue
that the disorder of today’s world is much worse than in the past should
was about to enter the industrial revolution that 3.
its second
century as a global power.
Any effort at assessing American power in the coming decades should
13.
of the world economy will be smaller than it was in the middle
of the past century.
Furthermore, the complexity created by the rise of other countries,
On the question of absolute rather than 9.
American decline, the
US faces serious problems in areas such as debt, secondary education,
income in¬equality and political gridlock but these are only part of the
its allies to stay out of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank,
Beijing’s rival to the World Bank; but this was 2. an example of a
faulty decision than evidence of decline, which raises the question of
picture. On the positive side of the ledger are favourable trends in
demography, technology and energy as well as abiding factors such as
geography and entrepreneurial culture.
4.
how many earlier efforts have been wide of the mark. It is
chastening to remember how wildly 5.
US estimates of Soviet power
in the 1970s and of Japanese power in the 1980s were. Today some see the
react by overcommitting itself, and wasting blood and treasure as it did
in Vietnam and Iraq.
As an overall assessment, describing the 21st century as one of
different from when Luce first articulated it.
The writer is a professor at Harvard and author of ‘Is the American
Century Over?’