考研英语经济学人文章阅读训练四十二
考研英语经济学人文章阅读训练20200208
Growing up in a city weakens the brain’s navigational skills在城市中长大会削弱大脑的寻路能力Country folk can find their way more easily农村人更容易找到路Rural folk can blame Aesop—of the moralising fables—for centuries of stories that mock them as bumpkins.The ancient Greek storyteller’s tale of the Country Mouse and the Town Mouse was only the first to emphasise their supposed simpler tastes and habits when compared with more sophisticated urbanites.农村人对伊索（的道德说教寓言）或许是心怀怨恨的，因为在流传了几个世纪的寓言故事里，他们总是被当做乡巴佬而受到嘲笑。
这位古希腊故事家创作的寓言故事《乡下老鼠和城里老鼠》最早着重描绘了农村人（相比精致的城里人而言）的纯朴品味和习性。
So listen for the cheers from Somerset to Kansas as neuroscientists announce that,in fact,it is city living that can dull the wits—at least when it comes to finding one’s way in the world.所以，当神经科学家们宣布，城市生活实际可能会让头脑变得迟钝（至少就寻路而言）时，请听听从萨默塞特到堪萨斯州传来的欢呼声吧。
Growing up in a city,a vast global survey has found,has a lifelong negative impact on a person’s ability to navigate.When looking for a half-remembered restaurant in a poorly-lit side street,it seems Country Mouse would be a more useful companion.一项大规模的全球调查发现，在城市中长大会对一个人的寻路能力产生终身的负面影响。
考研英语阅读理解外刊原文经济学人
Diageo last week took a majority stake in Seedlip, a non-alcoholic spirit sold as an alternative to gin — a move seen by analysts as the drinks giant’s attempt to grab more of the growing teetotal market. The young are more abstemious than their elders, and manufacturers and marketers need to keep up.帝亚吉欧(Diageo)不久前收购了Seedlip的多数股权，这是一种被作为金酒替代品出售的无酒精型烈酒——市场分析师们将此举解读为酒业巨头试图在日益扩张的无酒精饮料市场中分一杯羹。
年轻一代相对于他们的长辈在饮酒方面更加节制，酒类生产商和营销机构必须跟上这种趋势。
For those of us who don’t drink or, in my case, only occasionally, a reduction in others’ drinking, along with a fall in the antisocial consequences, is a welcome development. At a wedding in Italy this summer, I marvelled as a group of Italian and French guests partied under a hot afternoon sun and late into the night, without anyone staggering or slurring in the way they would inevitably have done in the UK.对于我们当中那些不喝酒——或者以我自己为例——仅偶尔喝一杯的人来说，他人饮酒量的下降，以及与之相随的危害社会公共利益问题的减少，是一种令人愉快的新变化。
考研英语阅读理解外刊原文经济学人
The Guardian view on plastics: a treaty could stem the tide《卫报》关于塑料的观点：一项条约可以遏制这个趋势There is no data on global plastic pollution that is equivalent to the regular measurements of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. But as with greenhouse gases, the recent news has been nearly all bad. In 1950, worldwide production of plastics stood at 2m tons per year. In 2020, it was 367m tons (down from 368m the year before due to the coronavirus pandemic). An increase this enormous is hard to visualise. But the 8.8m tons of plastic waste that is estimated to enter the world’s marine environment each year is the equivalent of a rubbish truck filled with plastic being tipped into the sea every minute.关于全球塑料污染，目前还没有与地球大气中二氧化碳的常规测量值相当的数据。
但和温室气体一样，最近的消息几乎都是坏的。
1950年，全球塑料产量达到每年200万吨。
2020年，这一数字为3.67亿吨（由于新冠肺炎疫情，它比前一年的3.68亿吨有所下降）。
考研英语阅读理解外刊原文经济学人
A global house-price slump is coming全球房价即将暴跌It won’t blow up the financial system, but it will be scary虽然不会摧毁金融体系，但仍然令人恐慌Over the past decade owning a house has meant easy money. Prices rose reliably for years and then went bizarrely ballistic in the pandemic. Yet today if your wealth is tied up in bricks and mortar it is time to get nervous.过去十年里，拥有一套房就意味着轻松赚钱。
房价多年来一直稳步上涨，甚至在疫情期间还异乎寻常地飙升了。
然而现如今，如果你的财富被套牢在房产上，那你应该感到紧张了。
House prices are now falling in nine rich economies. The drops in America are small so far, but in the wildest markets they are already dramatic. In condo-crazed Canada homes cost 9% less than they did in February.九个发达经济体的房价都在下跌。
到目前为止，美国房价的跌幅还不大，但最疯狂的市场的房价跌幅已经非常大了。
在热衷于共管公寓的加拿大，房价较今年2月下跌了9%。
As inflation and recession stalk the world a deepening correction is likely—even estate agents are gloomy. Although this will not detonate global banks as in 2007-09, it will intensify the downturn, leave a cohort of people with wrecked finances and start a political storm.随着通货膨胀和经济衰退的风险在全球范围内蔓延，房价或将迎来一场深度调整——甚至房地产经纪人也对此感到悲观。
考研英语经济学人文章阅读训练2020031402
Rethinking sick leave反思病假制度Attitudes towards employee illness are out of step with the times对待生病员工的态度与时代脱节The global spread of covid-19has led to calls for those who might be infected with the new disease to“self-isolate”at home.That could prove a threat to economic activity.It also represents a terrible dilemma for workers,some of whom could face financial hardship if they don’t turn up.随着新冠病毒在全球范围内的传播，人们呼吁那些可能感染了这种新疾病的人待在家里进行“自我隔离”。
但这可能会对经济活动造成威胁，同时也会让员工们陷入两难的境地，一些员工如果不去上班可能将面临经济困难。
The quandary is all the greater when the disease is unfamiliar,with symptoms that are often mild,at first,and resemble common ailments. And if,like a quarter of all Americans working in the private sector, employees get no paid sick leave at all,they are more likely to take the risk and attend.而当这种疾病不为人熟知，最初的症状很轻微，并且类似于普通疾病时，人们更是会感到左右为难。
考研英语阅读理解外刊原文经济学人
One afternoon in April 2020, I took an old bamboo rod out of my shed and cut it to a length of 115cm. Stood on the ground, it came about halfway up my chest. I laid it on a scrubby patch of our garden on the island of Aegina, in Greece: one end next to a tough-looking dandelion, the other pointed northwards. Then I dug up the dandelion with a trowel and replanted it at the other end of the stick. A small step for humans, but quite the leap for the dandelion.2020年4月的一个下午，我从棚子里拿出一根旧竹竿，把它切成了115厘米的长度。
立在地上，它的长度大概是到我胸部高度的一半。
我把它搁在花园中的一小片灌木丛生的土地上，花园位于希腊的埃吉纳岛（Aegina）上。
竹竿的一端挨着一株看上去很强韧的蒲公英，另一端朝着北方。
随后我用泥铲把蒲公英挖了出来，再把它重新种进竹竿另一端的土里。
对人类来说，这是一小步的距离，但对蒲公英而言却是一次不小的跃进。
This 115cm corresponds to a particular measurement. It is the present average velocity of climate change — how fast the effects of global heating are moving across the surface of the planet — and thus represents the speed we need to move in order for the conditions around us to stay the same. It also implies a direction: the bubble habitats where different forms of life can survive and thrive are moving uphill, and towards the poles.这115厘米所对应的是一个特定的尺寸。
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。
考研英语阅读理解外刊原文经济学人
Britain’s young face a poorer future英国年轻一代面临更加贫穷的未来Economic statistics will never fully capture the extent of the sacrifices of Britain’s youth during the pandemic. For a generation of students and pupils it was a lost chance to make friends, explore who they are and, gradually, become adults — as well as to learn, in person. In the face of the deaths in the broader population, it is easy to dismiss as frivolous the setbacks of those who missed partying, travelling and dating during the long months stuck inside but these are still years of carefree youth they will not get back. What is more, most of these privations were primarily to protect those from older generations, the most vulnerable to the coronavirus.经济统计数字将永远不能完全反映出英国青年在这场大流行病中牺牲了多少。
对于这一代学生来说，他们失去了结交朋友、探索自我并逐渐成长为人,以及亲身学习的机会。
在有人死于新冠疫情之际，我们很容易认为被困在室内长达数月而错过聚会、旅行和约会的人所经历的这些挫折无关痛痒，但这是他们再也无法重返的无忧无虑的青春时光。
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Imagine the post-pandemic misery of business travel
想象一下后疫情时代商务出行的痛苦
Governments are keen to get employees back to work in order to limit the economic damage of covid-19.And some companies will also be eager to send employees out in search of clients.
为了遏制新冠肺炎疫情造成的经济损失，各国政府都急着让人们回到工作岗位。
而一些公司也迫不及待地派出员工去拉客户。
But a vaccine is unlikely to be ready for at least another12months.So the next business trip you make might be an endurance test.Imagine the public announcements that travellers will hear.
但在未来12个月内恐怕不大可能研制出新冠疫苗。
因此，你的下次出差或将是一次耐力的考验。
想象一下旅客们将会听到怎样的广播吧。
Ding dong.Welcome to the renamed Heathrow Waystation5.We decided the word“terminal”might be a little off-putting to passengers in the current circumstances.
叮咚。
欢迎来到更名后的希斯罗机场5号站。
我们认为，就目前的情况而言，“terminal”一词可能会给旅客们带来不适。
（注：terminal一词除了“航站楼”的含义外，还有“致命的”的含义。
）
Please check in your baggage so it can be disinfected:apologies to those whose suitcases are made out of genuine leather as there will probably be stains.But never mind,it will be a good excuse to go shopping when you get to your destination.
请您将行李箱托运，以便让我们对其进行消毒：我们对那些拿着真皮行李箱的旅客深表歉意，因为您的行李箱很可能会被弄脏。
但没关系，当你到达目的地后，这正是前去购物的一个好理由。
After check-in,head straight to security for your nasal swab and temperature check.As everyone needs to stand six feet(two metres)apart, the queue currently snakes around the building.
办理好行李托运后，请您直接前往安检处进行咽试子采样，并测量体温。
由于旅客之间需要保持6英尺（即2米）的间隔，因此目前队伍已经绕着航站楼蜿蜒地排开了。
When you make it through security,head to duty-free where you can choose from our extensive selection of hand sanitisers.Hope you ate before you arrived because none of the restaurants is open.Travel safely.Ding dong.当你通过安检后，就可以前往免税商店，在那里有种类繁多的洗手液可供选择。
希望您在来到这里前已经就餐，因为这里没有一家餐厅营业。
祝您旅途平安。
叮咚。
Welcome aboard Acme Airlines flight107to New York.I am your pilot, Captain Richards.Social-distancing rules mean no co-pilot as there is not enough room in the cockpit for more than one person.
欢迎乘坐Acme航空公司飞往纽约的107航班。
我是你们的飞行员——理查兹机长。
由于社交距离的规定，本航班将没有副驾驶，因为驾驶舱的空间容不下两个人。
But don’t worry;I brought a flask of coffee with me and I haven’t fallen asleep on a flight yet.If I don’t give you an update every30minutes,the cabin crew will hammer on the cockpit door.
不过大家别担心；我带了一壶咖啡，并且我从没在开飞机时睡着过。
如果每隔半小时我没有为大家播报最新航况，那么机组人员就会来敲驾驶舱的门。
We won’t be able to give you our normal in-flight food and beverage service but please enjoy the complimentary bottle of water,packets of
salted nuts and crisps,and the empty seat next to you.Just a warning, though,to those of you who have chosen to sit by the window.
我们无法为您提供正常的机上餐饮服务，但请享用免费赠饮、袋装坚果和薯片，还有您旁边的空座位。
当然，还得提醒那些选择靠窗座位的旅客。
Passengers must observe distancing rules so you won’t be allowed to squeeze past the person in the aisle seat if they fall asleep.In any case, only three people are allowed in the line for the restroom at any time.
由于旅客必须遵守社交距离规定，因此如果坐在靠过道座位上的旅客睡着了，那么你不能从他的身边挤过去。
不管发生什么情况，任何时候都只允许三个人排队上厕所。
You may want to go easy on that water.If you need anything extra,the cabin crew will come and help you.Give them a few minutes as they need to don a hazmat suit first.
因此您最好少喝点水。
如果您还需要别的服务，机组人员会来帮您的。
但请给他们几分钟的时间，因为他们需要先穿上防护服。
Ladies and gentlemen,you have arrived at JFK airport.We have good news and bad news.The good news is that passenger traffic is lower than normal.The bad news is that,given the need to disinfect the electronic passport reader after each use,the line for immigration is still two hours long.
女士们、先生们，您已达到肯尼迪国际机场。
我们有一个好消息和一个坏消息。
好消息是，客流量低于正常水平。
坏消息是，考虑到电子护照阅读器在每次使用后都需要进行消毒，因此办理入境手续还需要排队两小时。
And no,you can’t use your cell phone to catch up on calls while you are in the waiting area.Welcome to the land of the free.Be brave.
此外，当你在等候区排队时是不可以用手机接听电话的。
欢迎来到自由的美利坚。
勇敢一点吧！(红色标注词为重难点词汇)
重难点词汇：
misery[ˈmɪzəri]n.痛苦，悲惨；不幸
be keen to热衷于；渴望
disinfect[ˌdɪsɪnˈfekt]vt.将…消毒
go easy on节约使用
hazmat suit防护服。