考研英语经济学人文章阅读训练一

How to reveal a country’s sense,over the years,of its own well-being 如何揭开一个国家多年来的主观幸福感Read its books.By computer利用计算机扫描其书刊Do a country’s inhabitants get happier as it gets richer?Most governments seem to believe so,given their relentless focus on increasing GDP year by year.Reliable,long-term evidence linking wealth and happiness is,however,lacking.And measuring well-being is itself fraught with problems,since it often relies on surveys that ask participants to assess their own levels of happiness subjectively.一个国家越富有，其人民就越幸福吗？鉴于大多数政府都坚持不懈地致力于逐年提高GDP，它们似乎是认同这一点的。

然而，我们尚缺乏能够证明财富与幸福相关联的可靠而长期的证据。

衡量幸福感本身就存在很多问题，因为它往往依赖于要求参与者主观评估自己幸福水平的调查。

Daniel Sgroi of the University of Warwick and Eugenio Proto of the University of Glasgow,both in Britain,think,nevertheless,that they have an answer.尽管如此，英国华威大学的丹尼尔·斯格里和格拉斯哥大学的尤金尼奥·普罗托认为他们找到了答案。

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。

Neanderthals had a propensity for earache,nudging them to their doom易患耳疾将尼安德特人推向了灭亡A new analysis of their skulls points to an anatomical problem一项对头颅的新研究指出了一个生理构造缺陷The last neanderthals vanished from Earth about40,000years ago.Exactly what drove them to extinction,however,remains a mystery,with their disappearance variously attributed to anything from climate change to inferior cognitive abilities or even cannibalism.在大约4万年前，最后一批尼安德特人消失在地球上。

但究竟是什么导致了他们的灭亡，至今仍是一个谜，关于他们灭亡原因有着各种各样的猜想，从气候变化到认知能力低下，再到同类相食。

Anthony Pagano,a medical researcher at Seton Hall University in New Jersey,has a new explanation.He thinks Neanderthals might have been unusually prone to severe ear infections,which left them struggling to compete against their Homo sapiens cousins.新泽西州西顿霍尔大学的医学研究员安东尼·帕加诺给出了一个新的解释。

他认为尼安德特人或许非常容易患上严重的耳部感染，这使得他们很难与智人相互竞争。

More Chinese children are being given their mother’s surname越来越多的中国孩子开始随母姓It’s not just about feminism这不仅仅是女权主义As China emerged from lockdown,a woman wrote a post on Weibo,a microblog,that has echoed through the long,hot summer.She was divorcing her husband,she said,because he would not allow her to change the surname of her child to her own.随着中国走出疫情，一女子在微博上发布的一条博文在漫长而又炎热的夏季引发了人们广泛的关注。

据该女子称，她和丈夫离了婚，起因是丈夫不允许她给孩子改名为随她姓。

Details of the case were scant,but that did not stop it lighting up the internet,shining a new spotlight on the question of how far Chinese women have come.Phoenix Weekly,a magazine,launched an online poll that drew47,000respondents.Almost two-thirds said that a surname could come from either parent.有关这一事件的细节并不多，但该事件还是在网上引发了人们的热议，并使人们重新审视女性成长的步伐。

据《凤凰周刊》发起的一项有4.7万名受访者参与的在线调查显示，近三分之二的人认为，孩子的姓氏可以随父母中的任何一方。

The legal cannabis market shrank in California last year去年，加州的合法大麻市场在萎缩Harbourside Cannabis in Oakland is a modern-day temple to the delights and possibilities of the botanical marvel that is the plant Cannabis sativa. Around the airy shop move a well-heeled clientele.They browse among offerings ranging from cannabis-infused chocolate to sparkling water and vape pens.奥克兰的哈伯赛德大麻公司是一座可供寻求快乐和见识到大麻种植奇观的现代庙宇。

一群有钱人在通透的大麻商店里来来往往。

他们浏览着从大麻巧克力到大麻起泡水和大麻电子烟等各式各样的大麻商品。

California was the first state to allow sales of medical cannabis in1996, and Harbourside one of the first shops in America to sell pot legally.Since January last year,the firm has also been able to sell pot for purely recreational purposes.1996年，加州成为美国首个允许销售医用大麻的州，哈伯赛德也是美国首批合法销售大麻的商店之一。

自去年1月以来，哈伯赛德也能销售纯娱乐用途的大麻了。

Thanks to its large number of“medical”users,California’s is the largest legal cannabis market in the world.But since the legalisation of adult sales, that market has been shrinking.得益于大批的“医疗”用户，加州成为了全球最大的合法大麻市场。

Covid-19has made it hard for the Japanese to visit family graves新冠肺炎疫情致使日本人难以前去扫墓But they have found high-tech ways round the problem但他们利用高科技解决了这一问题Every august the spirits of fallen ancestors rise all across Japan.During obon,the living commemorate them with offerings of food at altars, gather for festivals,and perform collective dances known as bon odori.每年八月，日本各地逝者的灵魂便会回到人间。

在盂兰盆节期间，生者会聚集而来参加祭奠活动，在祭坛上为逝者供奉食物，并一同跳起盂兰盆舞。

Many stream back to their home towns to be with family and visit cemeteries to pay respects to their dead.“Graves are a place to talk,”says Yamazaki Masako of Zenyuseki,a tombstone carvers’trade association.许多人会返回家乡与家人团聚，并前去墓地悼念逝去的亲人。

墓碑雕刻行业协会Zenyuseki的山崎雅子说：“墓地是一个可以和逝者交流的地方。

”This year covid-19has upset the routine.Japan’s viral caseload is relatively small,with just1,148total deaths,roughly America’s daily average.But a recent rise in infections,especially in big cities such as Tokyo and Osaka,has spread the jitters.今年，新冠肺炎疫情的爆发打破了常规。

2019考研英语经济学人阅读1（英语学习）联合国严厉制裁朝鲜The European Union announced that it will provide700m ($760m) in aid to accommodate migrants incountries overwhelmed by the refugee crisis. Most ofthe money is expected to go to Greece. AngelaMerkel, Germany’s chancellor, scolded Austria andother countries for clamping down on refugeearrivals, and vowed not to abandon Greece.欧盟宣布将向深陷难民危机的国家提供7亿欧元(7.6亿美元)的难民安置援助。

该援助的一大部分将给希腊。

德国总理安吉拉·默克尔(Angela Merkel)谴责奥地利等国家抵制难民入境的行为，并承诺不会放弃对希腊的援助。

The leader of Spain’s Socialist Party, Pedro Sánchez, failed in his first attempt to form aminority government with the upstart centrist Ciudadanos party. Both the centre-right PopularParty and the far-left Podemos party voted against the proposed coalition in parliament. If MrSánchez fails again in a second vote planned for March 4th, the caretaker government willprobably call new elections.西班牙工人社会党( Socialist Party)领导人彼得罗·桑切斯(Pedro Sánchez)与新兴中立公民党(Ciudadanos party)首次尝试组建少数党政府，但最终以失败告终。

Unpacking the rise of urban coyotes揭秘城市郊狼的崛起The attacker sprang from the tall grass in a lakefront park,leaving a five-year-old victim terrified,blood streaming from his head.After the boywas taken to hospital,a hunt ensued.Helicopters,police and specialist trackers fanned across the Chicago neighbourhood.从湖滨公园高出的草丛中扑出来的袭击者让一名5岁的受害者头破血流、惊恐万分。

在将这名男孩送往医院后，一场狩猎随之展开。

直升机、警察和专业追踪人员在芝加哥周边地区展开了行动。

A man brought himself to hospital saying he,too,had been bitten.Two nearby schools were locked down for a day.Eventually a suspect—a brindle coyote with puppy-dog eyes—was apprehended behind a theatre.随后又有一名男子自行来到医院，声称自己也被咬伤。

附近的两所学校也因此停课一天。

最终，人们在一家剧院的后面逮到了嫌疑犯（一只长着小狗般眼睛、身上布满斑点的郊狼）。

The incident excited much of Chicago.Although coyote attacks on humans are rare,the animals have become an increasingly common part of urban American life.Once mostly found west of the Mississippi,they have spread east.这一事件让许多芝加哥市民激愤不已。

Japan’s state-owned version of Tinder日本官方版TinderLocal authorities are setting up matchmaking websites to pair their residents with lonely-hearts in the cities政府当局创办相亲网站，为当地居民牵线搭桥Even after years of attending match-making parties,a professional in Tokyo explains,she has not found any suitable marriage prospects.“I’m tired of going to these events and not meeting anyone,”she gripes.东京一名职场人士表示，虽然参加了多年的相亲会，但她仍然没有找到合适的结婚对象。

她抱怨道：“我对参加这些活动感到厌倦了，却没有遇见一个合适的人。

”So she has decided to expand her pool of prospective partners by looking for love outside the capital.To that end she has filled out an online profile detailing her name,job,hobbies and even weight on a match-making site that pairs up single urbanites with people from rural areas.因此，她决定将她寻找伴侣的范围扩大到首都之外。

为此，她在一个为城市和农村的单身人士配对的婚配网站上填写了一份个人资料，详细描述了自己的姓名、工作、爱好，甚至体重。

What a museum of disgusting food reveals about human nature一家展览恶心食物的博物馆所揭示的人之本性Visitors receive a sick bag in lieu of a ticket参观者将领到一个呕吐袋，而非一张门票It is a hands-on,tongues-out experience.At the Museum of Disgusting Food in Malmö,in Sweden,all the world’s great cuisines are represented. Each exhibit is considered a delicacy somewhere,but strikes many unaccustomed palates as revolting.Visitors are invited to handle a raw bull’s penis and sip liquor with dead mice in it.这是一次亲手体验、亲口品尝的经历。

瑞典马尔默的恶心食物博物馆展示了世界各地具有代表性的美食。

每一件展品都会在某个地方被当地人视为美味佳肴，但却让许多不习惯的人感到恶心。

参观者可以去体验生牛鞭的处理过程或品尝老鼠酒。

Nordic cuisine is well represented.The meat of the Greenland shark has toxically high levels of urea.It will make you woozy unless first left to rot and then hung to dry.Icelanders eat small cubes of hakarl,as they call it, from toothpicks.北欧美食很具有代表性。

Why lesbian couples are more likely to divorce than gay ones为什么女同性恋者比男同性恋更容易离婚Sarah always wanted to get married.She grew up with“girly girly”dreams of a big ceremony.In2016,two years after the law changed to allow single-sex marriages,she walked down the aisle,wearing the big white dress she had longed for.“The wedding was perfect,”she says.“It was a shame about the marriage.”一直以来，萨拉都梦想能够结婚。

她从小就怀揣着长大后举办一场盛大婚礼的“少女般的”梦想。

2016年，也就是在法律经修改承认同性婚姻的两年后，她穿上了渴望已久的白色婚纱走上了婚姻的殿堂。

她说：“婚礼很完美，但这段婚姻却很丢人。

”She is one of a growing number of same-sex divorcees.By the end of2018, 900same-sex couples,of whom nearly three-quarters were female,had divorced.她是越来越多的同性恋离婚者之一。

截至2018年底，已有900对同性恋人选择了离婚，而其中有近四分之三是女性。

More lesbians than gay men get married,but the discrepancy in divorce rates is much wider than that in marriage rates.Gay men account for44% of same-sex marriages in the latest data,but make up only26%of divorcees.相比男同性恋者，女同性恋者结婚的人数更多，但两者离婚率的差异却远大于结婚率的差异。

Fewer and fewer Japanese want to see the world想去看看世界的日本人越来越少了Only24%of them even have a passport—the lowest proportion among rich countries只有24％的日本人持有护照，这一比例在发达国家中是垫底的No fewer than191countries admit Japanese visitors without a visa.That is twice as many as wave through Kuwaitis,for example,and five times the number that let in Nepalese without hesitation.全球有超过191个国家对日本游客开放了免签入境。

这是科威特的两倍，是尼泊尔的5倍。

By that measure,Japan’s chrysanthemum-decorated passport is the most welcomed in the world.Yet only24%of Japanese possess one—about half the proportion of Americans who have a passport.Why do so few Japanese take advantage of their freedom to wander the globe?以此来衡量的话，印有菊花纹章的日本护照应该是世界上最受欢迎的护照。

然而，只有24％的日本人持有日本护照，这一比例是美国（即持有美国护照的美国人的比例）的一半。

为什么日本人不利用这种便利去周游世界呢？On paper,Japanese are venturing abroad more often.They went on roughly20m overseas trips in2019,up from19m in2018.But that figure is inflated by people travelling for work and by frequent flyers.The share of people who hold a passport has been slowly falling,from27%in2005.从表面上来看，日本人出国变得更加频繁了。

Using artificial intelligence,agricultural robots are on the rise农业机器人正在借助于人工智能技术而崛起Slowly but surely,a spidery machine about the size of a golf cart swings an electrode over a tray of plants.Every few seconds there is a small puff of smoke as a weed keels over,having been zapped with a high voltage.一台高尔夫球车一般大小的蜘蛛机器人虽然缓慢但却很稳当地在一撮植物上摆弄着电极。

每隔几秒，杂草就会被高压电击中，并冒出一小股烟。

The device doing the zapping is a prototype weeding robot developed by the Small Robot Company,a new firm operating out of an old munitions depot near Salisbury,in south-west Britain.该除草设备是由小型机器人公司（一家开在英国西南部索尔兹伯里附近的一个废旧军火库里的公司）开发的原型除草机器人。

Weed control is essential for improving crop yields,but it is getting increasingly difficult.Some weeds are becoming resistant to herbicides, which face stricter regulation and in some cases are being banned.On top of that,many consumers want organic produce.想要提高农作物的产量，除掉杂草是关键，但这正在变得越来越困难。

A new idea for diagnosis一个关于疾病诊断的新想法A system based on AI will scan the retina for signs of Alzheimer’s一个基于人工智能的系统将通过眼部扫描来探寻痴呆症的患病迹象And,after that,of stroke susceptibility and heart disease此外，还包括中风和心脏病的诊断The different parts of a health-care system have different focuses.A hospital’s dementia unit keeps records of patients’mental abilities.The stroke unit monitors blood flow in the brain.The cardiac unit is interested in that same flow,but through and from the heart.医疗卫生体系的不同部门有着不同的关注点。

一家医院的痴呆症科室所记录下的是病人的思维能力。

中风科室则会监测病人大脑中的血液流动情况。

心脏病科室同样关注于血液流动，但关注的却是经过和来自心脏的血液。

Each agglomeration of equipment and data is effective in its own domain, but for the most part has little relevance to other bits of the body and the conditions that plague them.每一组仪器及数据都能够有效用于各自疾病的诊断，但往往无法用于同样折磨着病人的其他部位疾病的诊断。

Thus,like the proverbial blind men feeling an elephant,modern health care offers many fragmented pictures of a patient,but rarely a useful cohesive one.因此，就如同成语盲人摸象一般，现代医疗为病人提供的是许多零碎的疾病画像，但却无法汇聚为一个有用的整体画像。

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。

Poverty and privacy贫穷与隐私How digital financial services can prey upon the poor数字金融服务是如何对穷人进行掠夺的For those seeking to help the worst-off in poor countries,the mobile phone has been a magic wand.Mobile-money accounts have helped deliver“financial inclusion”—making financial services accessible to the tens of millions with a phone but no bank account.But they have downsides too.对于那些想要给予贫穷国家中最贫穷的人帮助的人来说，手机就像是一根魔术棒。

移动支付账户的出现使“普惠金融”得以实现，普惠金融让数千万拥有手机但没有银行账户的人也可以使用金融服务，但它同样也带来了弊端。

The most obvious way digital financial services harm poor people is by laying them more open to fraud.Research from2016cited in a new report by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor(CGAP),a consortium of donors affiliated to the World Bank,found that in the Philippines83%of people surveyed had been targets of mobile-phone scams,with17% losing money.In Tanzania,27%had been targeted and17%fleeced;in Ghana,56%and12%.数字金融服务对穷人造成伤害最显而易见的方式就是使他们更容易遭受诈骗。

Dung beetles prefer human faeces to those of wild animals相比野生动物的粪便，屎壳郎更喜欢人类的粪便Ecosystems arecomplex things,and monitoring their health is hard.To track every species would be impossible,so ecologists commonly focus on those that,like canaries in coal mines,are thought to indicate when the system as a whole is beginning to suffer.Dung beetles are one such group, and have been relied on heavily for years to monitor the effects of things like logging,grazing and road-building.生态系统是个复杂的东西，我们很难监测它的健康状况。

想要追踪生态系统中的每一个物种几乎是不可能的，因此生态学家们通常只关注那些可以用来指示生态系统何时开始遭到破坏的物种，比如煤矿中的金丝雀。

而屎壳郎正是这样的一个物种，多年来，生态学家们一直极度依赖于屎壳郎来监测伐木、放牧和修路等人类活动对生态系统的影响。

When there are lots of species of dung beetles around,and faeces vanish quickly,an ecosystem is assumed to be in good shape.When their diversity drops and faeces hang about unconsumed,it suggests something is wrong.如果一个地方周围有大量各种各样的屎壳郎，那么粪便很快就能被处理掉，生态系统也就处于良好的状态。