考研英语经济学人文章阅读训练三十九

The fight between people and pachyderms is growing ever more intense人象冲突，愈演愈烈As tropical dusk turns to night outside Galgamuwa,fireflies are not the only points of light around Lalith’s little rice paddy,the last field in the valley waiting to be harvested.当地处热带的加尔加穆瓦郊外从黄昏进入黑夜时，拉利斯的小片稻田（山谷中最后一片待收割的稻田）周围并不只有萤火虫闪烁着亮光。

On one side,bonfires are blazing in neighbours’fields.On the other, Lalith’s nephew is shining a torch out of one of the impressive tree houses that dot this part of the country.And in the middle of his paddy,seated around embers that are boiling a kettle,Lalith and friends are playing a furious card game that resembles whist.一边是邻近田地里熊熊燃烧的篝火。

另一边，拉利斯的侄子点燃了一个火把从树屋里走了出来，遍布该国这一地区的树屋让人印象深刻。

拉利斯和他的朋友们正围坐在稻田中央烧开水的篝火旁，玩着一种类似惠斯特的激烈的纸牌游戏。

Two dozen men are helping in all:this is Lalith’s watch against elephants emerging from the forest at night.Growing rice is like laying out dinner.A herd of cows and their calves can snaffle a year’s livelihood in a matter of minutes.前来帮忙的共计24人：这里是拉利斯为了防范夜晚从森林来袭的大象而设立的岗哨。

Cloth of gold一块价值堪比黄金的布Why the economic value of a face mask is$56.14为什么说一个口罩的经济价值是56.14美元After a brutal first six months of the year,governments across the world are hoping for an economic bounce-back.Rich-world GDP fell by about 10%in the first half of2020.在经历今年上半年的残酷考验后，世界各国政府都期待经济能够触底反弹。

2020年上半年，发达国家的GDP下降了约10%。

Yet much has changed since—including that more people are now wearing masks.Economists,obsessed with translating everything into GDP,wonder if more widespread face-covering could help the recovery.然而，自从越来越多的人戴上口罩后，情况发生了显著变化。

经济学家痴迷于用GDP来解释一切事物，如今他们想知道，随着更多的人戴上了口罩，经济能否走向复苏。

The thinking goes that masks can,in part,substitute for lockdowns. People wearing them need not be discouraged as much from using public transport.More shops and offices might be able to reopen,albeit while practising social distancing.这种想法基于这样一个逻辑，戴口罩在一定程度上可以代替封锁措施。

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。

The Guardian view on unaffordable homes: building injustice into the economy《卫报》关于难以负担的住房的观点：在经济中制造不公The average wage of the top 1% in Britain rose to £13,770 a month in December. Jeevun Sandher, an economist at King’s College London, points out the very richest saw their incomes rise the fastest during the pandemic. This group were also likely to have been able to save the most while Covid raged. Where do the very wealthiest spend their cash? One place is housing, for which there is a low level of stock being released on to the market. The result is rising house prices. Over the past 12 months, asking prices have gone up by 9.5%.12月，英国最富有的1%人群的平均工资上升至每月13770英镑。

伦敦国王学院的经济学家桑德尔指出，在疫情期间，最富有的人的收入增长最快。

在新冠病毒肆虐期间，这一群体也可能是能够存最多钱的人。

最富有的人把钱花在哪里？其中一个地方就是住房，因为住房市场上的存量很低。

结果就是房价上涨。

在过去12个月里，住房要价上涨了9.5%。

This has a knock-on effect for renters. UK rents rose by 8.3% in the last three months of 2021. For would-be first-time buyers, the situation is as bad if not worse, with the current average price of £277,000 nearly £25,000 higher than just a year ago. Those looking to have a roof to live under will find little solace in official figures. These record an 11% drop in the number of total homes added in 2021 compared with the year before. The number of new affordable houses that began being built dropped 16% year-on-year. Shortages of labour and materials, as well as planning delays, will make it harder for the 11th Tory housing minister since 2010 to meet government targets for new homes.这对租客产生了连锁反应。

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。

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。

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。

Springtime lethargy – is something entirely natural春困——一种很自然的现象Spring fatigue, also known as spring lethargy, refers to a state of fatigue, lowered energy, or depression, associated with the onset of spring.春困是指一种与春天的到来有关的疲劳、精力下降或抑郁的状态。

Such a state may be caused by a normal reaction to warmer temperatures, or it may have a medical basis, such as allergies or "reverse" seasonal affective disorder. Although the causes of this springtime lethargy have not yet been fully resolved, hormone balance may play a role.这种状态可能是对对气温升高的正常反应，也可能是一种医学上的反应，如过敏或“逆向”季节性情感障碍等。

人们至今尚未完全弄清楚春困发生的原因，但荷尔蒙平衡可能是原因之一。

According to this hypothesis, the body's reserves of the "happiness hormone" serotonin, whose production depends on daylight, become exhausted over the winter, making it especially easy for the "sleep hormone" melatonin to have its effect.根据这一假说，人体储存的“快乐荷尔蒙”血清素（其产生依赖于日光）在冬季会被消耗殆尽，这使得“睡眠荷尔蒙”褪黑激素特别容易发挥作用。

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。

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。

How to think about gamification如何看待游戏化The world of badges, streaks and leaderboards徽章、打卡和排行榜的世界The mopei phone-swing device is ingeniously depressing. It is a cradle for smartphones that rocks back and forth when it is plugged in, and it is designed to cheat fitness apps into believing that you are on the move.MoPei 手机摇步器是一个巧妙的小装置。

这是一个智能手机的摇篮，接上电源后便可以前后摇晃，它的设计目的是让健身应用误以为你在运动。

If you have a step counter, this phone shaker can gull it into thinking you have taken 8,700 paces in an hour. “Ideal for those people who don’t have the time or energy to get your recommended steps in,” boasts the product blurb.如果你有一个计步器，这个摇步器就可以骗过它，让它误以为你在一个小时内走了8700步。

该产品的宣传语吹嘘道：“这个产品是那些没有时间和精力完成推荐步数的人的最佳选择。

”Such cheating is pointless but not uncommon. Blog posts run through ways to trick a Fitbit into recording exercise, from strapping it to your children to swinging it on a piece of string. Strava is an app for runners and cyclists to record their times; becoming the fastest rider on a course segment is a lot easier if you use a motorbike.这种作弊行为毫无意义，但并不少见。

China’s “dreamchild” is stealthily winning the battery race中国“梦之子”悄然引领电池竞赛In America, if you want to dominate an industry, you channel your inner Elon Musk and shout about it. But CATL, the Chinese company that makes batteries for some of Mr Musk’s Tesla electric vehicles (EVs), is different. When your columnist first contacted it in 2017, the brush-off was swift.在美国，如果你想主宰一个行业，你就得调动自己内心的埃隆·马斯克并大声咆哮。

但为马斯克的部分特斯拉电动汽车供应电池的中国公司宁德时代则不同。

当笔者在2017年第一次与该公司取得联系时，对方直接拒绝了我们的采访。

“We want to concentrate on our products only and do not accept any interviews at present.” These days it is only marginally less blunt. “Unfortunately, we are sorry that it’s hard for us to arrange [interviews] at the moment.” The temptation is to give it a dose of its own medicine and ignore it.“我们只想专注于我们的产品，目前不接受任何采访。

”如今，该公司的态度没有过去那么生硬了，但也只是稍微缓和。

A new study finds preschool can be detrimental to children一项新的研究发现，学前教育对孩子可能并没有好处But the picture may not be as gloomy as it seems但前景或许并不那么悲观Free, universal preschool for three- and four-year-olds is a key component of the Democrats’ agenda. Proponents say pre-kindergarten, or pre-K, education can be transformative for children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. A new study seems to contradict this.为三、四岁儿童提供免费、普及的学前教育是民主党议程的一个关键组成部分。

支持者表示，学前教育对儿童（尤其是对那些来自弱势家庭的儿童来说）能够起到变革性作用。

一项新的研究似乎得出了与之相矛盾的结论。

It finds that children who attended a pre-K programme in Tennessee actually scored worse on a range of education and behavioural measures. Yet this might reflect general improvements in early education rather than the impact of one programme.该研究发现，在田纳西州参加学前教育项目的儿童实际上在一系列教育和行为指标上得分更低。

不过，这可能反映了早期教育的普遍改善，而不是一个项目的影响。

Plantation owners profit by not persecuting primates果园主通过放任猴子而获利Monkeys act as pest controllers who take their fees in fruit猴子收取水果费，扮演害虫控制者的角色Palm oil is a lucrative business,but not without its problems.Plantations of palms,the fruit of which are crushed to release the oil,are usually there at the expense of rainforest.This does not go down well with environmentalists.棕榈油是一门利润丰厚的生意，但其中也存在着一些问题。

种植棕榈树（人们通过压榨棕榈果来获得棕榈油）的果园往往是以破坏雨林为代价的。

这引发了环保人士的不满。

Nor does it go down well with the rainforest’s inhabitants,some of whom, such as pig-tailed macaques,a species of monkey,raid the plantations to eat the palm fruit before it can be harvested.同样不满的还有生活在雨林的居民们，其中一些居民（比如猪尾猕猴，一种猴子）会在棕榈果成熟前突袭果园去偷吃棕榈果。

Such raiding,naturally,invites retaliation by planters,who try to trap and relocate the animals,or scare them off with gunshots.But a study published in Current Biology this week,by Nadine Ruppert and Anna Holzner of the University of Sciences Malaysia,suggests such retaliation is a mistake.猴子的突袭自然会招致果园主的报复行为，他们试图诱捕并转移这些动物，或者用枪声将它们吓跑。

Plastic surgeons make a bundle despite Lebanon’s economic crisis尽管黎巴嫩遭遇经济危机，但整形外科医生还是赚了一大笔钱Many people have no jobs. Others, nose jobs许多人失业了，除了隆鼻医生Rhinoplasty has long been a rite of passage in Lebanon. Teenage girls want a dainty new nose in time for their graduation parties, celebrated in selfies. Lebanon’s many woes have not hindered the habit.隆鼻手术一直以来都是黎巴嫩人的一种成人礼。

十几岁的女孩想要一个精致的新鼻子，以便在毕业派对上自拍庆祝。

黎巴嫩的许多苦难并没有妨碍这种习惯。

Plastic surgeons are apparently making as much as or more than they did before an economic crisis, starting in 2019, that the World Bank has ranked as the third-worst anywhere, ever.从2019年开始，整形外科医生的收入显然与经济危机（世界银行将其列为有史以来最严重的第三大经济危机）前持平，甚至更高。

The World Health Organisation reckons that Lebanon’s economic meltdown prompted nearly 40% of the country’s doctors to leave. But for those who have stayed, the pickings, especially for nose jobs, may have increased. The pool of patients has stayed the same. There are fewer dexterous doctors to paddle in it.世界卫生组织估计，黎巴嫩的经济崩溃促使该国近40%的医生离开。

What are the keys to a successful life?成功的关键是什么?No matter what your goals are in life, there is one great law that you need to obey in order to be successful: No one else is going to climb the ladder of success for you. No one else is responsible for your health, wealth, happiness, or success. From the day you leave your parents’ house and start to make your own choices, you are responsible for your life and the choices you make.无论你的人生目标是什么，要想成功，你必须遵守一条伟大的法则：没有人会替你登上成功的阶梯。

没有人会对你的健康、财富、幸福或成功负责。

从你离开父母家开始做出自己的选择的那一天起，你就要对自己的生活和选择负责。

You choose the job you work in, the person you live with, and how much you exercise every day. Only you can choose how you spend your time, and the decisions you make on a consistent basis will make or break your life.你可以选择你的工作、与你一起生活的另一伴以及每天的运动量。

只有你自己可以选择如何分配你的时间，而你所做的决定将会成就或毁掉你的生活。

Housework may promote health in old age, study suggests研究表明，做家务可以促进老年健康Household chores might seem a drag, but researchers have suggested tasks like dusting, scrubbing floors and washing the windows might help adults to stay healthy into old age.家务事或许看起来很累人，但研究人员表示，清扫灰尘、拖地和擦窗户等家务活可能有助于人们在老了之后保持身体健康。

Writing in the journal BMJ Open, a Singapore-based team of researchers said regular physical activity “improves physical and mental health, mitigates the risks and effects of chronic diseases, and reduces falls, immobility, dependency and mortality among older adults”.新加坡的一个研究团队在《英国医学杂志》上发表论文称，定期体育锻炼“可以改善身心健康，减轻慢性疾病的风险和影响，减少老年人跌倒、瘫痪、失去独立生活能力以及死亡的风险”。

The team randomly recruited adults from the town of Yishun in Singapore, and asked them to complete cognitive function tests as well as activities to assess their physical capabilities, such as standing up from a chair as quickly as they could.该研究团队从新加坡义顺区随机招募了一些成年人，对他们进行了认知功能测试，并通过体力活动对他们的体能进行了评估，比如坐在椅子上以最快的速度站起来。

The 19th century French philosopher Auguste Comte got it wrong: demography is not destiny.19世纪法国哲学家奥古斯特•孔德错了：人口并不决定命运。

Population trends are some of the strongest forces in economics, affecting global prosperity, the growth of individual nations and the strength of public finances. But reducing the success of countries and regions to their trends in births, deaths and migration is a simplification too far.各种人口趋势是经济学中最强大的一些力量，影响着全球繁荣、单个国家的增长和公共财政的实力。

但是，将国家和区域的成功归结于其出生、死亡和人口移徙趋势是一种过于简单化的做法。

As the coronavirus pandemic has shown, the confident predictions in 2020 of a lockdown baby boom followed by the 2021 fear of a Covid baby bust demonstrate that demographic trends are far less stable than often imagined. Small changes in fertility, mortality and migration can have immense effects.正如新冠疫情所显示的那样，2020年对疫情封锁会带来一波婴儿潮的自信预测，以及接下来的2021年对疫情会造成婴儿荒的担忧，表明人口趋势远没有通常想象的那么稳定。

Surging living costs force Britons to work past retirement age生活成本飙升迫使英国人退休后继续工作The share of older UK workers planning to carry on working in their retirement has nearly doubled in two years due to rising living costs and insufficient pension savings, according to a survey from Abrdn.根据Abrdn的一项调查，由于生活成本上升和养老金储蓄不足，计划退休后继续工作的英国老年员工比例在两年内增加了近一倍。

The investment manager’s stark findings underscore the impact of soaring energy and food prices on household budgets, which is pressuring people’s finances as inflation hits a 30-year high.这家投资管理公司的严峻调查结果凸显出能源和食品价格飙升对家庭预算的影响。

随着通胀触及30年高点，家庭预算正给人们的财务状况带来压力。

Surveying people planning to retire in 2022, Abrdn found that 66 per cent respondents proposed to continue with some form of employment beyond retiring, up from just over 50 per cent in a similar study last year and just 34 per cent in 2020.Abrdn对计划2022年退休的人进行了调查，发现66%的受访者打算在退休后继续从事某种形式的工作，而在去年的一项类似研究中，这一比例略高于50%，而在2020年，这一比例仅为34%。