大学英语四第二单元

Explain the three expressions in the sentence, “telemarketing”, “traffic jam” and “identity theft”.
(=Telemarketing means salespeople try to sell products to you on the phone. Traffic jam means your car is stuck in heavy traffic. Identity theft means your personal information is stolen.)
With technology changing so rapidly, is it possible for people to buy the best product? Why or why not?
(=No, because rapid development of technology will always soon produce a better one.)
2) (LL25~29) The truly groundbreaking work on the relationship between prosperity and well-being was done by the economist Richard Easterlin, who in 1974 wrote a famous paper entitled “Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot?”
impact of technology on our human relationships.
What do modern critiques of technology mainly focus on?
(= They mainly focus on the impact of technology on our human relationships.)
What does “it” refer to here?
(= It refers to the relationship between happiness and technology.)
Paraphrase this sentence.
(=But economists and social scientists have hardly examined the relationship between happiness and technology at all.)
What does this sentence imply?
(=…the fact that technology has greatly improved people’s health and life expectancy is just contradictory to the general claim at any level that technology cannot bring happiness to people.)
Paraphrase this sentence.
(=However, current comments on technology have mostly centered on the bad effects of technology on our human relationships rather than particular, harmful technologies.)
What does this sentence mean?
(=…the longer life people live in the world, the happier they feel
they’ll be.)
12) (LL97~101) As much as we should worry about the rising cost of health care and the problem of the uninsured, it’s also worth remembering how valuable for our spirits as well as our bodies are the benefits that medical technology has brought us.
Translate this sentence into Chinese.
(=经济学家理查德?伊斯特林在经济繁荣和幸福的关系方面进行了具有开拓性的研究，并于1974年发表了一篇题为“经济增长改变人类命运吗？”的著名论文。)
3) (LL32~33) Money, Easterlin argued, could not buy happiness — at least not after a certain point.
(=人们对电视的批评主要集中在以下方面：技术扰乱了人际关系、破坏了社区交往。)
8) (LL 78~ 81) Today, technological change is so rapid that when you buy something, you do so knowing that in a few months there’s going to be a better, faster version of the product, and that you’re going to be stuck with the old one.
14) (LL104~107) …even though people may not be happier, even though they are wealthier and possess more technology, they’re still as hungry as ever for more time.
Who are the “uninsured”?
(= people who don’t enjoy health care insurance.)
How does medical technology benefit people according to this sentence?
(= It benefits people both physically and mentally.)
What does this sentence imply?
(= Money can’t bring people happiness, at least when people’s wealth
has reached to a certain level.)
4) (L.39) …people adapt very quickly to good news.
Unit 2 Book 4
Technology and Happiness
1. Difficult sentences
1) (LL24~25) But it’s been left largely unexamined by economists and social scientists.
What can we do with the old version of the product?
(=We have to keep it even if we don’t like it any more.)
9) (LL 82~ 83) It’s as if disappointment were built into acquisition from the very beginning.
What does this sentence mean?
(=It seems as if people were doomed to disappointment the moment they bought the product.)
10) (LL84~87) Daily stress, an annoying sense of disappointment, fear that the government knows a lot more about you than you would like it to — these are obviously some of the ways in which technology reduces people’s sense of well-being.
How usually will people react to good news?
(=They tend to feel happy and excited on hearing good news but they
soon take it for granted.)
5) (L.58) Telemarketing, traffic jams, and identity theft all come to mind.
7) (LL 66~ 68) The notion that technology disrupts relationships and fractures community gained mainstream prominence as an attack blame television mainly for?
Translate this sentence into Chinese.
(=日常生活的压力、一种令人烦恼的失望感、对政府知道你的情况超出你
希望程度的恐惧感 —— 这些显然都是技术降低了人们幸福感的几个方面。)
11) (LL94~ 95) …the more time they get on earth, the better off they feel they’ll be.