《经济学人》考研时文阅读三
2019经济学人考研英文文章阅读三十三
Twilight of the bureaucrats官僚的黄昏Millions of retiring Arab civil servants need not be replaced数百万即将退休的阿拉伯公务员不需要人来顶替Governments could save billions if they resist the urge to hire more政府如果能抑制住招募更多公务员的冲动，就能节省数十亿美元At a municipal parking garage in Cairo,a row of freshly painted machines wait to dispense tickets to drivers.But the machines are turned off. Attendants stand next to them and hand out tickets manually.在开罗的一个市政停车场，一排崭新的机器正在待命，等着给司机们分发票据。
但这些机器是关着的。
工作人员站在它们旁边，手动分发着票据。
It is one of many useless government jobs in the Egyptiancapital.Stamping passports at the airport can be a three-person affair. Offices are full of functionaries who make photocopies or brew tea(few do both).这是埃及首都诸多政府闲职中的一个。
机场给护照盖章的工作甚至都要3个人来做。
办公室里到处都是复印资料或泡茶的工作人员（很少会兼做这两项）。
More than5m Egyptians work in the civil service.Each serves fewer than 20citizens,if“serves”is the right word.Other developing countries get by with a far less populous public sector.埃及有超过500万名公务员。
Climate science 《经济学人》——考研阅读
Climate scienceA sensitive matterThe climate may be heating up less in response to greenhouse-gas emissions than was once thought. But that does not mean the problem is going awayOVER the past 15 years air temperatures at the Earth’s surface have been flat while greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to soar. The world added roughly 100 billion tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010. That is about a quarter of all the CO₂put there by humanity since 1750. And yet, as James Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, observes, “the five-year mean global temperature h as been flat for a decade.”Related topics∙Environmental problems and protection∙Science∙Climatology∙Climate change∙Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeTemperatures fluctuate over short periods, but this lack of new warming is a surprise. Ed Hawkins, of the University of Reading, in Britain, points out that surface temperatures since 2005 are already at the low end of the range of projections derived from 20 climate models (see chart 1). If they remain flat, they will fall outside the models’ range within a few years.The mismatch between rising greenhouse-gas emissions and not-rising temperatures is among the biggest puzzles in climate science just now. It does not mean global warming is a delusion. Flat though they are, temperatures in the first decade of the 21st century remain almost 1°C above their level in the first decade of the 20th. But the puzzle does need explaining.The mismatch might mean that—for some unexplained reason—there has been a temporary lag between more carbon dioxide and higher temperatures in 2000-10. Or it might be that the 1990s, when temperatures were rising fast, was the anomalous period. Or, as an increasing body of research is suggesting, it may be that the climate is responding to higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in ways that had not been properly understood before. This possibility, if true, could have profound significance both for climate science and for environmental and social policy.The insensitive planetThe term scientists use to describe the way the climate reacts to changes incarbon-dioxide levels is “climate sensitivity”. This is usually defined as how much hotter the Earth will get for each doubling of CO₂concentrations. So-called equilibrium sensitivity, the commonest measure, refers to the temperature rise after allowing all feedback mechanisms to work (but without accounting for changes in vegetation and ice sheets).Carbon dioxide itself absorbs infra-red at a consistent rate. For each doubling of CO₂levels you get roughly 1°C of warming. A rise in concentrations from preindustrial levels of 280 parts per million (ppm) to 560ppm would thus warm the Earth by 1°C. If that were all there was to worry about, there would, as it were, be nothing to worry about. A 1°C rise could be shrugged off. But things are not that simple, for two reasons. One is that rising CO₂levels directly influence phenomena such as the amount of water vapour (also a greenhouse gas) and clouds that amplify or diminish the temperature rise. This affects equilibrium sensitivity directly, meaning doubling carbon concentrations would produce more than a 1°C rise in temperature. The second is that other things, such as adding sootand other aerosols to the atmosphere, add to or subtract from the effect of CO₂. All serious climate scientists agree on these two lines of reasoning. But they disagree on the size of the change that is predicted.The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which embodies the mainstream of climate science, reckons the answer is about 3°C, plus or minus a degree or so. In its most recent assessment (in 2007), i t wrote that “the equilibrium climate sensitivity…is likely to be in the range 2°C to 4.5°C with a best estimate of about 3°C and is very unlikely to be less than 1.5°C. Values higher than 4.5°C cannot be excluded.” The IPCC’s next assessment is due in Sep tember. A draft version was recently leaked. It gave the same range of likely outcomes and added an upper limit of sensitivity of 6°C to 7°C.A rise of around 3°C could be extremely damaging. The IPCC’s earlier assessment said such a rise could mean that more areas would be affected by drought; that up to 30% of species could be at greater risk of extinction; that most corals would face significant biodiversity losses; and that there would be likely increases of intense tropical cyclones and much higher sea levels.New Model ArmyOther recent studies, though, paint a different picture. An unpublished report by the Research Council of Norway, a government-funded body, which was compiled by a team led by Terje Berntsen of the University of Oslo, uses a differe nt method from the IPCC’s. It concludes there is a 90% probability that doubling CO₂emissions will increase temperatures by only 1.2-2.9°C, with the most likely figure being 1.9°C. The top of the study’s range is well below the IPCC’s upper estimates of likely sensitivity.This study has not been peer-reviewed; it may be unreliable. But its projections are not unique. Work by Julia Hargreaves of the Research Institute for Global Change in Yokohama, which was published in 2012, suggests a 90% chance of the actual change being in the range of 0.5-4.0°C, with a mean of 2.3°C. This is based on the way the climate behaved about 20,000 years ago, at the peak of the last ice age, a period when carbon-dioxide concentrations leapt. Nic Lewis, an independent climate scientist, got an even lower range in a study accepted for publication: 1.0-3.0°C, with a mean of 1.6°C. His calculations reanalysed work cited by the IPCC and took account of more recent temperature data. In all these calculations, the chances of climate sensitivity above 4.5°C become vanishingly small.If such estimates were right, they would require revisions to the science of climate change and, possibly, to public policies. If, as conventional wisdom has it, global temperatures could rise by 3°C or more in response to a doubling of emissions, then the correct response would be the one to which most of the world pays lip service: rein in the warming and the greenhouse gases causing it. This is called “mitigation”, in the jargon. Moreover, if there were an outside possibility of something catastrophic, such as a 6°C rise, that could justify drastic interventions. This would be similar to taking out disaster insurance. It mayseem an unnecessary expense when you are forking out for the premiums, but when you need it, you really need it. Many economists, including William Nordhaus of Yale University, have made this case.If, however, temperatures are likely to rise by only 2°C in response to a doubling of carbon emissions (and if the likelihood of a 6°C increase is trivial), the calculation might change. Perhaps the world should seek to adjust to (rather than stop) the greenhouse-gas splurge. There is no point buying earthquake insurance if you do not live in an earthquake zone. In this case more adaptation rather than more mitigation might be the right policy at the margin. But that would be good advice only if these new estimates really were more reliable than the old ones. And different results come from different models.One type of model—general-circulation models, or GCMs—use a bottom-up approach. These divide the Earth and its atmosphere into a grid which generates an enormous number of calculations in order to imitate the climate system and the multiple influences upon it. The advantage of such complex models is that they are extremely detailed. Their disadvantage is that they do not respond to new temperature readings. They simulate the way the climate works over the long run, without taking account of what current observations are. Their sensitivity is based upon how accurately they describe the processes and feedbacks in the climate system.The other type—energy-balance models—are simpler. They are top-down, treating the Earth as a single unit or as two hemispheres, and representing the whole climate with a few equations reflecting things such as changes in greenhouse gases, volcanic aerosols and global temperatures. Such models do not try to describe the complexities of the climate. That is a drawback. But they have an advantage, too: unlike the GCMs, they explicitly use temperature data to estimate the sensitivity of the climate system, so they respond to actual climate observations.The IPCC’s estimates of climate sensitivity are bas ed partly on GCMs. Because these reflect scientists’ understanding of how the climate works, and that understanding has not changed much, the models have not changed either and do not reflect the recent hiatus in rising temperatures. In contrast, the Norwegian study was based on an energy-balance model. So were earlier influential ones by Reto Knutti of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich; by Piers Forster of the University of Leeds and Jonathan Gregory of the University of Reading; by Natalia Andronova and Michael Schlesinger, both of the University of Illinois; and by Magne Aldrin of the Norwegian Computing Centre (who is also a co-author of the new Norwegian study). All these found lower climate sensitivities. The paper by Drs Forster and Gregory found a central estimate of 1.6°C for equilibrium sensitivity, with a 95% likelihood of a 1.0-4.1°C range. That by Dr Aldrin and others found a 90% likelihood of a 1.2-3.5°C range.It might seem obvious that energy-balance models are better: do they not fit what is actually happening? Yes, but that is not the whole story. Myles Allen of Oxford University points out that energy-balance models are better at representing simple and direct climate feedback mechanisms than indirect and dynamic ones. Most greenhouse gases are straightforward: they warm the climate. The direct impact of volcanoes is also straightforward: they cool it by reflecting sunlight back. But volcanoes also change circulation patterns in the atmosphere, which can then warm the climate indirectly, partially offsetting the direct cooling. Simple energy-balance models cannot capture this indirect feedback. So they may exaggerate volcanic cooling.This means that if, for some reason, there were factors that temporarily muffled the impact of greenhouse-gas emissions on global temperatures, the simple energy-balance models might not pick them up. They will be too responsive to passing slowdowns. In short, the different sorts of climate model measure somewhat different things.Clouds of uncertaintyThis also means the case for saying the climate is less sensitive to CO₂emissions than previously believed cannot rest on models alone. There must be other explanations—and, as it happens, there are: individual climatic influences and feedback loops that amplify (and sometimes moderate) climate change.Begin with aerosols, such as those from sulphates. These stop the atmosphere from warming by reflecting sunlight. Some heat it, too. But on balance aerosols offset the warming impact of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Most climate models reckon that aerosols cool the atmosphere by about 0.3-0.5°C. If that underestimated aerosols’ effects, perhaps it might explain the lack of recent warming.Yet it does not. In fact, it may actually be an overestimate. Over the past few years, measurements of aerosols have improved enormously. Detailed data from satellites and balloons suggest their cooling effect is lower (and their warming greater, where that occurs). The leaked assessment from the IPCC (which is still subject to review andrevision) suggested that aerosols’ estimated radiative “forcing”—their warming or cooling effect—had changed from minus 1.2 watts per square metre of the Earth’s surface in the 2007 assessment to minus 0.7W/m ² now: ie, less cooling.One of the commonest and most important aerosols is soot (also known as black carbon). This warms the atmosphere because it absorbs sunlight, as black things do. The most detailed study of soot was published in January and also found more net warming than had previously been thought. It reckoned black carbon had a direct warming effect of around 1.1W/m ². Though indirect effects offset some of this, the effect is still greater than an earlier estimate by the United Nations Environment Programme of 0.3-0.6W/m ².All this makes the recent period of flat temperatures even more puzzling. If aerosols are not cooling the Earth as much as was thought, then global warming ought to be gathering pace. But it is not. Something must be reining it back. One candidate is lower climate sensitivity.A related possibility is that general-circulation climate models may be overestimating the impact of clouds (which are themselves influenced by aerosols). In all such models, clouds amplify global warming, sometimes by a lot. But as the leaked IPCC assessment says, “the cloud feedback remains the most uncertain radiative feedback in climate models.” It is even possible that some clouds may dampen, not amplify global warming—which may also help explain the hiatus in rising temperatures. If clouds have less of an effect, climate sensitivity would be lower.So the explanation may lie in the air—but then again it may not. Perhaps it lies in the oceans. But here, too, facts get in the way. Over the past decade the long-term rise in surface seawater temperatures seems to have stalled (see chart 2), which suggests that the oceans are not absorbing as much heat from the atmosphere.As with aerosols, this conclusion is based on better data from new measuring devices. But it applies only to the upper 700 metres of the sea. What is going on below that—particularly at depths of 2km or more—is obscure. A study in Geophysical Research Letters by Kevin Trenberth of America’s National Centre for Atmospheric Research and others found that 30% of the ocean warming in the past decade has occurred in the deep ocean (below 700 metres). The study says a substantial amount of global warming is going into the oceans, and the deep oceans are heating up in an unprecedented way. If so, that would also help explain the temperature hiatus.Double-A minusLastly, there is some evidence that the natural (ie, non-man-made) variability of temperatures may be somewhat greater than the IPCC has thought. A recent paper byKa-Kit Tung and Jiansong Zhou in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences links temperature changes from 1750 to natural changes (such as sea temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean) and suggests that “the anthropogenic global-warming trends might have been overestimated by a factor of two in the second half of the 20th century.” It is possible, therefore, that both the rise in temperatures in the 1990s and the flattening in the 2000s have been caused in part by natural variability.So what does all this amount to? The scientists are cautious about interpreting their findings. As Dr Knutti puts it, “the bottom line is that there a re several lines of evidence, where the observed trends are pushing down, whereas the models are pushing up, so my personal view is that the overall assessment hasn’t changed much.”But given the hiatus in warming and all the new evidence, a small reduction in estimates of climate sensitivity would seem to be justified: a downwards nudge on various best estimates from 3°C to 2.5°C, perhaps; a lower ceiling (around 4.5°C), certainly. If climate scientists were credit-rating agencies, climate sensitivity would be on negative watch. But it would not yet be downgraded.Equilibrium climate sensitivity is a benchmark in climate science. But it is a very specific measure. It attempts to describe what would happen to the climate once all the feedback mechanisms have worked through; equilibrium in this sense takes centuries—too long for most policymakers. As Gerard Roe of the University of Washington argues, even if climate sensitivity were as high as the IPCC suggests, its effects would be minuscule under any plausible discount rate because it operates over such long periods. So it is one thing to ask how climate sensitivity might be changing; a different question is to ask what the policy consequences might be.For that, a more useful measure is the transient climate response (TCR), the temperature you reach after doubling CO₂gradually over 70 years. Unlike the equilibrium response, the transient one can be observed directly; there is much less controversy about it. Most estimates put the TCR at about 1.5°C, with a range of 1-2°C. Isaac Held of America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently calculated his “personal bestestimate” for the TCR: 1.4°C, reflecting the new estimates for aerosols and natural variability.That sounds reassuring: the TCR is below estimates for equilibrium climate sensitivity. But the TCR captures only some of the warming that those 70 years of emissions would eventually generate because carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for much longer.As a rule of thumb, global temperatures rise by about 1.5°C for each trillion tonnes of carbon put into the atmosphere. The world has pumped out half a trillion tonnes of carbon since 1750, and temperatures have risen by 0.8°C. At current rates, the next half-trillion tonnes will be emitted by 2045; the one after that before 2080.Since CO₂accumulates in the atmosphere, this could increase temperatures compared with pre-industrial levels by around 2°C even with a lower sensitivity and perhaps nearer to 4°C at the top end of the estimates. Despite all the work on sensitivity, no one really knows how the climate would react if temperatures rose by as much as 4°C. Hardly reassuring.。
2019经济学人考研英文文章阅读一三四
The first face-off人脸识别第一案A lawsuit against face-scans in China could have big consequences在中国，一场有关人脸识别的诉讼或将带来巨大的影响Guo Bing,a legal academic in the eastern city of Hangzhou,likes to spend his leisure time at a local safari park.But when the park informed season-pass holders like him that admission would require a face-scan,Mr Guo objected.郭兵是中国东部城市杭州市的一名法律学者，他平日里喜欢在当地的野生动物园度过闲暇时光。
但当动物园告知像他这样的年卡用户需要扫脸入园时，郭先生无法接受。
Late last month he filed a lawsuit,claiming the new rules violated his privacy.Facial-recognition technology is widely used in izens have been hailing Mr Guo as a champion of consumer rights.A thread about his suit has garnered100m views on Weibo,a social-media platform.上月底，他以新规定侵犯其隐私为由向法院提起了诉讼。
人脸识别技术在中国已经得到了广泛的应用。
网友们纷纷称赞郭兵是消费者权益的捍卫者。
在社交媒体平台新浪微博上，一条关于他诉讼的微博获得了1亿次的点击量。
It is surprising that it has taken so long for the judiciary to get involved. Some300tourist sites in China use facial recognition to admit visitors.The safari park says doing so can shorten queues.令人惊讶的是，司法部门过了这么久才介入其中。
经济学人时文阅读
Drain or gain?失去还是得到？WHEN people in rich countries worry about migration, they tend to think of low-paid incomers who compete for jobs as construction workers, dishwashers or farmhands. When people in developing countries worry about migration, they are usually concerned at the prospect of their best and brightest decamping to Silicon Valley or to hospitals and universities in the developed world. These are the kind of workers that countries like Britain, Canada and Australia try to attract by using immigration rules that privilege college graduates.富裕国家的人担忧移民，他们往往想到的是，新来的移民收入低，他们通常都是建筑工人，洗碗工或是农场工人，他们为了这些工作而竞争。
而当贫穷国家担忧移民时，通常他们担心的是，自己国家最优秀和最聪明的人都潜逃到了硅谷，或发达国家的医院以及大学。
英国、加拿大、澳大利亚这些国家用移民政策吸引大学毕业生，给他们特别优惠，留在该国工作。
Lots of studies have found that well-educated people from developing countries are particularly likely to emigrate. By some estimates, two-thirds of highly educated Cape Verdeans live outside the country. A big survey of Indian households carried out in 2004 asked about family members who had moved abroad. It found that nearly 40% of emigrants had more than a high-school education, compared with around 3.3% of all Indians over the age of 25. This “brain drain” has long bothered policymakers in poor countries. They fear that it hurts their economies, depriving them of much-needed skilled workers who could have taught at their universities, worked in their hospitals and come up with clever new products for their factories to make.许多研究发现，发展中国家受过良好教育的人特别有可能会移民国外，一些预测说，佛得角国家的三分之二受过高等教育的人都住在国外。
2019经济学人考研英文文章阅读一二三
Why an“Uber for tailors”is gaining ground in Lagos“裁缝优步”为何能在拉各斯发展起来？“Rich and poor,everyone has a tailor here,”says Olajire Omikunle,a couturier for Nigeria’s powerful.So great is the appeal of a well-cut outfit in Lagos,Nigeria’s commercial centre,that roadside stitchers rove the streets armed with their sewing machines and clicking their large scissors to drum up customers.尼日利亚颇具影响力的服装设计师奥拉吉尔·奥米昆勒说：“无论贫富，这里的每个人都有自己的裁缝。
”在尼日利亚的商业中心拉各斯，一套剪裁考究的服装如此具有吸引力，以至于街头裁缝们会带着他们的缝纫机在街道上来回穿梭，并拿着大剪刀咔嚓咔嚓地招揽着顾客。
David Peterside,a local entrepreneur,hopes to capitalise on this sartorial obsession with a new app that is being dubbed an“Uber for tailors”.Fashion Map allows natty Nigerians to find a suitmaker at the press of a button.当地企业家戴维·彼得赛德希望借着人们对服装的痴迷，开发一款名为“裁缝优步”的新应用。
整洁时髦尼日利亚人只需按下一个按钮，便能在时尚地图上找到一位裁缝。
It may be a perfect fit for Africa’s most populous country.Nigeria has a fast-growing base of smartphone users and“over100,000registered tailors”,says Otunba Wasiu Taiwo of the Nigeria Union of Tailors.“We are still counting.”该应用或许非常适合这个非洲人口最多的国家。
考研英语经济学人文章阅读训练三十三
The covid-19pandemic puts pressure on the EU新冠疫情之下，欧盟压力重重An old question has resurfaced:what is the point of the bloc?人们再次提出了那个个由来已久的问题：欧盟的意义何在？In January Brussels was an optimistic place.The European Union(EU)had survived a decade that included the near collapse of the bloc’s currency, a refugee crisis and its second-largest economy,Britain,voting to leave. For the first time in years,officials had time to think of the future rather than clear up the messes of the past.Then120,000people died.今年1月，布鲁塞尔（欧盟总部所在地）还是着一片乐观的景象。
欧盟经历了十年的风风雨雨（包括欧元危机、难民危机以及第二大经济体英国的全民公投脱欧）。
这么多年来，欧盟的官员们终于有空去思考欧盟的未来，而不用再忙着去收拾过去的烂摊子了。
然而，新冠肺炎疫情随即爆发，欧盟各国12万人丧生。
Sweeping lockdowns confined citizens to their homes,in Paris and Warsaw alike.A bloc that prided itself on removing borders—“the scars of history”in the words of Josep Borrell,the European Commission’s foreign-policy chief—reintroduced them in muters were stranded at Poland’s borders with both Lithuania and Germany,some of them for days.在巴黎和华沙，全面封锁政策使得人们只能待在家中。
考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：收入与幸福感
考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：收入与幸福感Happiness and Income收入与幸福感Everything that rises must converge幸福的家庭总是相似的Emerging markets are catching up with the West inthe happiness stakes新兴国家的幸福指数将要赶上西方POETS, songwriters and left-wing politicians hate theidea, but for decades opinion-poll evidence has been clear: money buys happiness and thericher you are, the more likely you are to express satisfaction with your life. Until now. Asurvey of 43 countries published on October 30th by the Pew Research Centre of Washington,DC, shows that people in emerging markets are within a whisker of expressing the same levelof satisfaction as people in rich countries. It is the biggest qualification to the standard viewof happiness and income seen so far.诗人，作词家，左翼政治家总是反驳这样一个观点：钱可以买到幸福，一个人越有钱，他对生活的满意感就可能越高。
但是十年来民意调查却清楚证明了这一点。
不过，位于华盛顿特区的皮尤研究中心调查了43个国家后，发现发展中国家的人对生活满意度与富有国家的人们生活满意度相差无几。
2019经济学人考研英文文章阅读一三三
McDonald’s fires its boss over a workplace romance麦当劳CEO因办公室恋情遭到解雇The swiftness of Steve Easterbrook’s exit from McDonald’s matched that of Don Thompson,his predecessor,in2015.Mr Thompson was pushed out for poor performance.Not Mr Easterbrook,who was widely admired for doubling the American fast-food giant’s share price.史蒂夫·伊斯特布鲁克离开麦当劳的速度之快与其前任唐·汤普森（于2015年离职）不分伯仲。
汤普森是由于业绩不佳而遭到开除的。
但伊斯特布鲁克就不同了，他曾使这家美国快餐巨头的股价翻了一番，并因此广受赞誉。
On November3rd the company announced it was sacking its British-born boss because of“a recent consensual relationship with an employee”. Chris Kempczinski,who runs its domestic business,takes over.11月3日，麦当劳宣布解雇了这位英国籍老板，理由是“他最近与一位下属存在两情相悦的亲密关系”。
负责美国国内业务的克里斯·肯普钦斯基接手了该职位。
Bill George of Harvard Business School called Mr Easterbrook’s departure a“tragedy”for McDonald’s.In Europe ousting a capable CEO drew bemusement.Süddeutsche Zeitung,a German daily,commented that,“luckily”,German labour law would bar such a move.哈佛商学院的比尔·乔治称，伊斯特布鲁克的离开对于麦当劳来说是一场“悲剧”。
考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：日本汽车制造商
考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：日本汽车制造商Japanese carmakers日本汽车制造商Lots of oomph活力无穷Japan's small-car firms are defying the industry'sget-big-or-die imperative日本的小厂商们正在与“要么大，要么死”这一条金科玉律抗争ONE of the conundrums of the car business is thatfive smaller Japanese firms continue to prosper alongside three giants, Toyota, Nissan andHonda. In theory, those in the second division—Mazda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Subaru—shouldlong ago have merged with rivals at home or abroad, or fallen by the wayside. Daihatsu isalready controlled by Toyota, which has a 51% stake in the firm. They all sell 1m-2m vehicles ayear. Sergio Marchionne, boss of Fiat Chrysler, once said that 6m was the minimum required forcarmakers to have a hope of turning a profit.目前，汽车产业里有着这样一个费解的情况：在三大巨头(丰田Toyota、日产Nissan和本田Honda)的身旁，五家较小的日本公司能够持续地取得出色业绩。
理论上来说，这些第二梯队成员(马自达Mazda、三菱Mitsubishi、铃木Suzuki和斯巴鲁Subaru)应该早已被国内或国外的对手所兼并，或是退出历史长河。
2019经济学人考研英文文章阅读一三五
Research suggests happy employees are good for firms and investors 研究表明，快乐的员工对公司和投资者都有好处There is an old joke about a new arrival in Hell,who is given the choice by Satan of two different working environments.In the first,frazzled workers shovel huge piles of coal into a fiery furnace.In the second,a group of workers stand,waist-deep in sewage,sipping cups of tea.有个老笑话讲的是一个刚下地狱的人，撒旦让他在两种不同的工作环境中做出选择。
在第一个房间里，疲惫不堪的工人们要将大堆大堆的煤铲进炽热的火炉中。
在第二个房间里，一群工人站在齐腰深的污水中，啜饮着茶。
The condemned man opts,on balance,for the second room.As soon as the door closes,the foreman shouts“Right lads,tea break over.Time to stand on your heads again.”这个有罪之人在经过权衡后最终选择了第二个房间。
门一关上，工头便喊道：“伙计们，茶歇时间到了，是时候再倒立了。
”Terrible working conditions have a long tradition.Early industry was marked by its dirty,dangerous factories(dark,satanic mills).In the early 20th century workers were forced into dull,repetitive tasks by the needs of the production line.However,in a service-based economy,it makes sense that focusing on worker morale might be a much more fruitful approach.恶劣的工作环境有着悠久的传统。
考研英语阅读理解外刊原文经济学人
Why Do Trucks Use Diesel Fuel Instead of Gasoline?为什么卡车要烧柴油而不是汽油?Putting diesel in your regular gas-guzzling automobile isn’t just a waste of money—it can also cause some problems for your car. For semis and other trucks, however, diesel is just what the doctor (or mechanic, rather) ordered. And that’s because those types of vehicles typically have diesel engines, rather than gasoline engines.往你那烧汽油的车里加柴油不仅浪费钱，而且还会给你的汽车带来一些问题。
然而，对于半挂车和其他卡车来说，柴油就是医生（或者说机械师）开的处方。
这是因为这些类型的车辆通常使用柴油发动机，而非汽油发动机。
One big difference between the two engines is how they turn fuel into energy. According to Engineering Explained, gas engines usually use a spark plug to ignite the mixture of fuel and air in the cylinder.这两种发动机之间最大的区别就是将燃料转化为动能的方式。
根据《汽车机械小百科》的解释，汽油发动机通常使用火花塞来点燃气缸内燃料和空气的混合物。
But diesel engines compress the air until it reaches a high enough temperature that the fuel will ignite as soon as it gets injected into the cylinder. In order to heat the air to that point, a diesel engine needs an especially high compression ratio: the cylinder’s volume when the piston is at its highest point compared to the volume when the piston is at its lowest point.而柴油发动机会压缩空气，直到空气达到足够高的温度，燃料一进入气缸就会点燃。
考研英语经济学人文章阅读训练2020010405
A study suggests that higher minimum wages hit poorer bosses’pockets一项研究表明，最低工资标准的上调会给穷老板带来沉重的负担Wage floors are still progressive,but can have unintended consequences最低工资标准的上调仍具有进步意义，但或许会产生意想不到的后果A minimum wage is supposed to redistribute money from rich to poor. But economists disagree about whether it actually does so.Some researchers,for example,have found that,in America,Canada and Europe, raising the minimum wage tends to decrease employment among the least-skilled workers,as firms downsize to trim costs.最低工资标准的设立本是为了将富人手中的钱重新分配给穷人。
但对于它是否真的能起到作用，经济学家们一直存在着分歧。
例如，一些研究人员发现，在美国、加拿大和欧洲，最低工资标准的上调往往会导致低技能工人的失业，因为公司需要缩减规模以降低成本。
Others have found no effect on employment.And although no one doubts that the policy raises wages for the workers who stay employed,still unsettled is the question of where that extra money comes from.但也有其他研究发现，最低工资标准的改变不会对就业产生影响。
考研英语阅读练习：《经济学人》选读
考研英语阅读练习：《经济学人》选读Social change社会的改变The weaker sex弱男子Blue-collar men in rich countries are in trouble. Theymust learn to adapt在发达国家的蓝领男性群体正处于困境中，他们必须学会适应。
AT FIRST glance the patriarchy appears to be thriving. More than 90% of presidents andprime ministers are male, as are nearly all big corporate bosses. Men dominate finance,technology, films, sports, music and even stand-up comedy. In much of the world they stillenjoysocial and legal privileges simply because they have a Y chromosome. So it might seemodd to worry about the plight of men.父系社会现在咋一看似乎正兴盛。
超过90%的国家总统总理，和几乎所有大型公司的大boss都是男性。
男性统治着经济，科技，企业，体育，音乐，甚至连说相声的都基本是男的。
在大多数国家里男人仅仅因为拥有一条Y染色体便享有在社会和法律上的特权，这样看来，担心男性的“悲催命运”般的困境似乎是在杞人忧天。
Yet there is plenty of cause for concern. Men cluster at the bottom as well as the top. They arefar more likely than women to be jailed, estranged from their children, or to kill themselves.They earn fewer university degrees than women. Boys in the developed world are 50% morelikely to flunk basic maths, reading and science entirely.但有却又大量的原由让人不得不担心。
考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：法国地方政府
考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：法国地方政府French local government法国地方政府Slimming down瘦身中France tells local governments to cut the fat法国当局下令地方政府“减肥”WHEN Claude Monet lived near the Seine at Argenteuil, he painted white canvas sails and river banks. Today, Argenteuil is part of the suburban sprawl west of Paris, and is more famous for being the most indebted large town in France. A recent report from the Cour des Comptes, the national audit body, told the town hall to take urgent measures to curb the defici t “in line with the gravity of the situation”.克劳德·莫奈在阿让特伊的塞纳河附近时，画过白色帆船和塞纳河畔。
如今，阿让特伊只是巴黎西郊无计划扩展地区中的一部分，并且更是因负债累累而臭名远扬。
法国审计法院Courdes Comptes 已经命令当地市府大厅采取紧急措施，抑制财政赤字，要和“地球引力”方向保持一致。
Across the country, town halls are facing a budget squeeze. As part of its effort to control the national deficit, which this year is yet again set to bust the euro zone's 3% rule, President Franois Hollande's Socialist government has promised 50 billion of budget savings from 2015 to 2017. Of this, it says 11 billion will come from reduced transfers to local government. But persuading town halls to apply such cuts may prove the most difficult piece of the French deficit puzzle.当前全国上下、各地市府大厅均面临财政紧缩的困境。
2019经济学人考研英文文章阅读一一三
Congo’s enormous rainforest is getting smaller刚果幅员辽阔的雨林正在变小Jagged,charred tree stumps jut out of blackened earth in what was once part of the rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo.One man, Rafael,standing amid the devastation,reckons he has set fire to around 40sections of the forest near the city of Bandundu in the past two months.一个个锯齿状烧焦的树桩矗立在一片焦黑的土地上，这里曾经是刚果民主共和国热带雨林的一部分。
一个名叫拉斐尔的男子站在这片废墟上，他估计自己在过去两个月里已经纵火烧毁了班顿杜市附近的40片森林了。
He bags the scorched wood and flogs it as charcoal in the capital, Kinshasa,some250km away.Most of the city’s12m residents,unable to afford gas or electric ovens,rely on charcoal for cooking.他把烧焦的木头打包好，然后运至250公里外的首都金沙萨并将其作为木炭进行售卖。
这座城市1200万居民中的大多数人都用不起燃气或电炉，只能烧木炭来做饭。
The Congo basin rainforest is the second biggest tropical forest in the world,after the Amazon.It stretches across six central African countries (though more than half its trees are in Congo).Its absorbent peatlands hold the equivalent of three years’worth of global carbon emissions,mitigating global warming.刚果盆地雨林是世界上仅次于亚马逊雨林的第二大热带雨林。
考研英语经济学人文章阅读训练2020021503
Why Britain’s public conveniences are anything but为什么英国的公共厕所一点也不方便Campaigners want Britons to be able to“pee for free”in private loos 活动人士希望英国人能够在私人厕所里“免费上厕所”Antoinette,a rough sleeper in the Finsbury Park area of north London, doesn’t feel safe going to the toilet.The one public toilet nearby is often dirty,she says,and people take drugs in there.安托瓦内特是伦敦北部芬斯伯里公园里的一名露宿者，她觉得上厕所很不安全。
她说，附近有一座公共厕所，但总是很脏，并且还有人在那里吸毒。
A pub near the underground station allows non-customers in,but men use it for another kind of relief.She prefers a branch of Costa,a coffee chain,but the door requires a passcode that is handed out only to customers.So she relies on friendly baristas slipping her the code.地铁站附近一家酒吧的厕所虽然允许非顾客进去方便，但常常被一些男人作为消遣的场所。
她更喜欢去咖啡连锁店Costa的一家分店上厕所，但这家店的厕所设有密码，仅供顾客使用。
因此她只能靠着友善的咖啡师向她提供密码。
A guerrilla Twitter campaign called London Loo Codes aims to help.It collects and distributes codes for toilets across London,to allow more people to“pee for free”.It has collated a list of more than175facilities in the capital,including ones that are already unlocked.The initiative has trickled down to other cities,including Edinburgh,Sheffield and Oxford.推特上兴起了一项名为“伦敦厕所密码”的运动，旨在帮助人们解决这一问题。
考研英语阅读理解外刊原文经济学人
Britain’s poorest left to bear brunt of squeeze on cost of living英国最贫穷人群将承受最严重的生活水平下降Rishi Sunak has left the poorest households to bear the brunt of the biggest squeeze on living standards for more than 60 years, while cushioning the blow to those on middle and higher incomes, according to analysis of the measures outlined in the Spring Statement on Wednesday.根据对周三发布的《春季声明》所概述措施的分析，里希•苏纳克(Rishi Sunak)让最贫穷的家庭承受了60多年来最严重的生活水平下降，同时减轻了对中等和较高收入家庭的冲击。
The chancellor promised to deliver “security for working families” as the war in Ukraine exacerbated the coming crunch in the cost of living, announcing a £6bn cut in employees’ national insurance contributions, a 5p one-year cut in fuel duty and an extra £500mn of support for vulnerable households.在乌克兰战争加剧了即将到来的生活成本紧缩之际，这位财政大臣承诺“为工薪家庭提供安全保障”。
他宣布削减60亿英镑的雇员国民保险缴款(NIC)，燃油税下调5便士，期限为一年，并为弱势家庭提供额外的5亿英镑的支持。
考研英语阅读理解外刊原文经济学人
How Long Does a Bottle of Wine Generally Last Once It's Opened?葡萄酒开瓶后一般能放多久？There are many stuffy rules about wine, from the type of container it should come in to how expensive it should be. One common myth is that a bottle of wine should be fully consumed the same day it's opened.从盛酒的器具到酒的价格，关于葡萄酒有着很多传统讲究。
一个常见的误区是，一瓶葡萄酒应该在开瓶当天喝完。
While it's true that vino does start to oxidize the moment the cork comes out, that's no reason to guzzle a liter of it all by yourself, or pour your leftover liquid down the drain. According to Bon Appétit, an open bottle of wine is still good for several days—as long as you know how to store it properly.虽然葡萄酒确实在打开瓶塞的那一刻就开始氧化了，但你没有必要因此一个人喝完一瓶，或是把剩下的酒倒进下水道。
根据美食杂志《好胃口》的说法，只要保存方式得当，一瓶打开过的葡萄酒仍然可以放好几天。
If you pop open a new bottle of cabernet just to have a glass or two, hold onto the cork. Corks have been an important part of the wine-making process for centuries. The material is dense enough to keep liquids fresh without sealing off air altogether. A minimal amount of oxygen allows the flavors of the wine to continue to develop, while too much oxygen creates an acrid, unpleasant taste.如果你打开一瓶新的解百纳只是为了喝一两杯，那么就把软木塞留好。
考研英语阅读理解外刊原文经济学人
China's traditional tea-making enters UNESCO cultural heritage list中国传统制茶技艺被列入联合国教科文组织文化遗产名录China's traditional tea-making was added on Tuesday to the intangible cultural heritage list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).本周二，中国传统制茶技艺被列入联合国教科文组织非物质文化遗产名录。
The item "Traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China" passed the examination at the 17th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage ongoing in the Moroccan capital.在摩洛哥首都举行的联合国教科文组织保护非物质文化遗产政府间委员会第十七届常会上，题为“中国传统制茶技艺及相关习俗”的项目通过了审议。
China now has 43 items on the intangible cultural heritage list, continuing to be the most enlisted country in the world.目前，中国共有43项非物质文化遗产，仍为世界非物质文化遗产数量最多的国家。
The traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China consist of knowledge, skills, and practices concerning the management of tea plantations, picking of tea leaves, manual processing, drinking, and sharing of tea.中国传统制茶技艺及相关习俗是指有关茶园管理、茶叶采摘、茶的手工制作，以及茶的饮用和分享的知识、技艺和实践。
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SHOPPERS on Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season in America, which falls on November 27th this year, are notoriously aggressive. Some even start queuing outside stores before dawn to be the first to lay their hands on heavily discounted merchandise. Last year berserk bargain-hunters in the suburbs of New York City trampled a Wal-Mart employee to death. Despite the frenzy at many stores, however, the recession appears to have accelerated the pace at which shoppers are abandoning bricks and mortar in favour of online retailers—e-tailers, in the jargon. So this year Black Friday (so named because it is supposed to put shops into profit for the year) also marks the start of many conventional retailers’ attempts to regain the initiat ive.黑色星期五通常是美国假日消费季节的开端，今年的黑色星期五恰逢11月27日，场面热闹非凡。
有些人甚至天没亮就在商店门外排队希望可以第一个抢到“大跳水”的商品。
去年，纽约市郊沃尔玛超市的一名员工因为顾客疯抢打折商品而被踩伤致死。
然而，商场销售虽然火爆，但商场萧条之势却越演越烈，因为消费者正在弃实体商场转而投入在线零售商---行话叫电子零售商的怀抱。
所以今年的黑色星期五（这样命名源于这一天应该是令商店该年盈利的日子）也标志着传统实体零售商收回失地的第一炮。
E-commerce holds particular appeal in straitened times as it enables people to compare prices across retailers quickly and easily. Buyers can sometimes avoid local sales taxes online, and shipping is often free. No wonder, then, that online shopping continues to grow even as the offline sort shrinks. In 2008 retail sales grew by a feeble 1% in America and are expected to decline by more than 3% this year, according to the National Retail Federation, a trade body. In contrast, online sales grew by 13% in 2008 to over $141 billion and are predicted to grow by 11% in 2009, according to Forrester, a consultancy.在经济大环境恶化的背景下，电子商务具有独特的优势：消费者可以轻松快捷的货比三家。
有时在网上购物可以避开当地营业税，而且通常免邮费。
这就难怪网络销售可以在即使实体店销售萎缩的情况下仍然保持增长。
2008实体商场零售额增长了可怜的1%,而且预计今年的销售量将下滑三个百分点，全美零售商联合会（贸易组织）如是说。
而与之形成鲜明对比的是网络销售。
根据顾问公司福斯特的报告，网络销售量于2008年增长了13%，达到1410亿美元，预计今年将增长11%。
Online sales now account for 6% of all retail sales in America (up from 5% in 2008) and that figure is expected to reach 8% by 2013. E-commerce is also growing in Europe and Asia, where online sales in 2008 totalled $60 billion and $40 billion, respectively. In Britain, internet shopping now accounts for nearly 4% of total retail sales, according to Planet Retail, a research firm.网络销售目前占全美销售量的6%（2008年为5%），预计到2013年之前这一数字将达到8%。
电子商务在欧洲和亚洲也方兴未艾，两洲2008年的网络销售额分别为600亿美元和400亿美元。
目前英国的网络销售量占销售总额的4%左右，这一数字引自调研公司行星零售。
Online-only shopping sites such as Amazon and eBay, two e-commerce giants, have thrived in the downturn. Amazon’s sales rose to around $5.5 billion in the third quarter of the year, up by almost 30% from a year before. Listings, chiefly from commercial vendors, have surged so rapidly on eBay that its website briefly crashed on November 21st.诸如亚马逊和eBAY（网络销售巨头）等不设实体店铺的在线消费网站在经济危机之下茁壮成长。
亚马逊今年三季度的销售量达到约55亿美金，与去年相比，增长了30%. eBay亦是如此。
订单（以供应商的为主）数激增，导致eBay网站于11月21日暂时瘫痪。
The range of items available online is also growing. Amazon has started selling groceries. Consumer-goods companies such as Procter & Gamble (P&G) are encouraging the sale of things like nappies (diapers) and laundry detergent online. At the opposite extreme, the internet is also being used to sell luxury goods. Fabergé, a defunctjewellery-maker known for its gem-encrusted eggs, relaunched in September. It will not open any shops but will instead operate only online.网络销售的产品种类亦在扩大。
亚马逊已经开始在网上销售杂货。
保洁等消费品公司也正在网上促销像尿片和洗衣粉等小商品。
与这些小商品完全相反的奢侈品也被搬到了网上销售。
已经销声匿迹的珠宝制造商Fabergé（以镶嵌宝石的蛋而闻名）于九月重新开业。
该公司摒弃实体店只在网络销售产品。
The shift in spending to the internet is good news for companies like P&G that lack retail outlets of their own. But it is a big concern for brick-and-mortar retailers, whose prices are often higher than those of e-tailers, since they must bear the extra expense of running stores. Happily, however, conventional retailers are in a better positionto fight back than last year, when overstocking forced them to resort to ruinous discounting. Inventories are about 15% lower this year. Some big retailers, such as Saks and T arget, have recently reported rising revenues and margins.消费者转向网络消费对保洁这种没有自己专营店的公司来说是利好消息。
而对于实体零售商来说却是棘手问题。
因为实体零售商存在经营成本，其零售价格通常高于网上价格。
然而，利好的一面是今年传统的零售商能够扳回一城的几率较去年高。
去年库存过多，传统零售商被迫亏本打折，而今年的库存量下降了大约15%。
诸如Saks和T arget等的一些大型零售商已于最近传来营业额增加，利润率上升的好消息。
The most obvious response to the growth of e-tailing is for conventional retailers to redouble their own efforts online. The online arms of big retailers are performing well, on the whole. Saks, for example, saw online sales rise 9% in the nine months to the end of October while sales in its stores fell by 19%. The company expects online growth to outpace sales in stores for the “foreseeable future”, says Stephen Sadove, its boss.传统零售商应对网络销售最直接的应对措施是进一步加强网络销售力度。