考研英语时文阅读(33)
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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。
Carved stone balls are a curious type of artifact found at a number of locations in Scotland. They date from the late Neolithic period, around 4,000 years ago. They are round in shape; they were carved from several types of stone; most are about 70 mm in diameter; and many are ornamented to some degree. Archaeologists do not agree about their purpose and meaning, but there are several theories.One theory is that the carved stone balls were weapons used in hunting or fighting. Some of the stone balls have been found with holes in them, and many have grooves on the surface. It is possible that a cord was strung through the holes or laid in the grooves around the ball. Holding the stone balls at the end of the cord would have allowed a person to swing it around or throw it.A second theory is that the carved stone balls were used as part of a primitive system of weights and measures. The fact that they are so nearly uniform in size –at 70 mm in diameter –suggests that the balls were interchangeable and represented some standard unit of measure. They could have been used as standard weights to measure quantities of grain or other food, or anything that needed to be measured by weight on a balance or scale for the purpose of trade.A third theory is that the carved stone balls served a social purpose as opposed to a practical or utilitarian one. This view is supported by the fact that many stone balls have elaborate designs. The elaborate carving suggests that the stones may have marked the important social status of their owners.Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.(female professor) None of the three theories presented in the reading passage are very convincing.First, the stone balls as hunting weapons, common Neolithic weapons such as arrowheads and hand axes generally show signs of wear, so we should expect that if the stone balls had been used as weapons for hunting of fighting, they, too, would show signs of that use. Many of the stone balls would be cracked or have pieces broken off. However, the surfaces of the balls are generally well preserved, showing little or no wear or damage.Second, the carved stone balls maybe remarkably uniform in size, but their masses vary too considerably to have been used as uniform weights. This is because the stone balls were made with different types of stone including sandstone, green stone and quartzite. Each type of stone has a different density. Some types of stone are heavier than others just as a handful of feathers weight less than a handful of rocks. Two balls of the same size are different weights depending on the type of stone they are made of. Therefore, the balls could not have been used as a primitive weighing system.Third, it’s unlikely that the main purpose of the balls was as some kind of social marker. A couple of facts are inconsistent with this theory. For one thing, while some of the balls are carved with intricate patterns, many others have markings that are extremely simple, too simple to make the balls look like status symbols. Furthermore, we know that in Neolithic Britain, when someone died, particularly a high-ranking person, they were usually buried with their possessions. However, none of the carved stone balls have been actually found in tombs or graves. That makes it unlikely that the balls were personal possessions that marked a person’s status within the community.Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they challenged the specific theories presented in the reading passage.Independent WritingDo you agree or disagree with the following statement?When teachers assign projects on which students must work together, the students learn much more effectively than when they are asked to work alone on projects. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.。
英语时文阅读参考答案一、阅读理解题1. 根据文章内容,以下哪项是作者的主要观点?A. 英语学习对个人职业发展至关重要。
B. 英语是全球通用语言,应该被广泛学习。
C. 学习英语可以提高个人的跨文化交流能力。
D. 英语教育应该注重实用性和应用性。
答案:C2. 文章中提到了哪些因素可以促进英语学习?A. 个人兴趣和学习动力。
B. 良好的语言环境和实践机会。
C. 系统的教育体系和教学方法。
D. 所有上述因素。
答案:D3. 作者认为哪种学习方式对提高英语水平最有效?A. 通过阅读英文原著来学习。
B. 通过观看英语电影和电视节目来学习。
C. 通过与母语为英语的人交流来学习。
D. 通过参加英语角或语言交换活动来学习。
答案:C4. 文章中提到的“沉浸式学习法”是指什么?A. 完全用英语进行思考和交流。
B. 在英语环境中学习英语。
C. 通过学习英语文化来提高语言水平。
D. 通过背诵英语单词和短语来学习。
答案:B5. 根据文章,以下哪项不是提高英语听力的方法?A. 经常听英语广播和新闻。
B. 观看英语电影和电视节目。
C. 阅读英语书籍和报纸。
D. 参加英语听力训练课程。
答案:C二、完形填空题6. The best title for the passage could be "The Importance of _______ in Learning English."A. PracticeB. GrammarC. VocabularyD. Pronunciation答案:A7. The author suggests that _______ is the key to mastering English.A. listeningB. speakingC. writingD. reading答案:B8. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT a benefit of learning English?A. Better job opportunities.B. Access to a wider range of information.C. The ability to travel without a guide.D. The ability to understand complex mathematical concepts.答案:D9. The word "immersion" in the context of the passage means_______.A. being surrounded by the English languageB. learning English in a classroom settingC. only learning English grammarD. memorizing English vocabulary lists答案:A10. The author believes that learning English can alsoimprove one's _______.A. cooking skillsB. cultural understandingC. mathematical abilitiesD. physical fitness答案:B三、词汇题11. The word "enhance" in the context of the passage isclosest in meaning to:A. increaseB. reduceC. maintainD. replace答案:A12. The term "fluency" refers to:A. the ability to speak a language easily and smoothlyB. the ability to understand complex sentencesC. the ability to write well in a languageD. the ability to read quickly答案:A13. In the passage, "comprehension" is related to:A. understandingB. speakingC. writingD. listening答案:A14. The word "articulate" is used to describe someone who can:A. speak quicklyB. speak clearly and effectivelyC. speak with a lot of gesturesD. speak with a strong accent答案:B15. The phrase "language barrier" in the passage implies:A. the difficulty of learning a new languageB. the challenge of communicating in a different languageC. the advantage of being bilingualD. the importance of learning multiple languages答案:B请注意,以上内容仅为示例,实际的英语时文阅读参考答案应根据具体文章内容和问题来制定。
2023年中考英语新热点时文阅读科学新知201(2022·江西赣州·校考模拟预测)Shanghai Renji Hospital broadcast(直播) a cancer(癌症) operation, using 5G technology first in China with the Da Vinci Robotics System. It is the ____1____ robotic system for difficult operations. It uses a minimally invasive approach(微创方法).The broadcast ____2____ doctors in Renji Hospital’s Ningbo branch(分院) in Zhejiang and their workmates in Shanghai to watch each step of the operation ____3____ at the same time. It was just like being the surgeon(外科医生) in the operation room.The patient was a 65year old woman ____4____ from cancer. The degree of ____5____ for the operation was high. The ____6____ was performed by Zhong Ming, a pioneer surgeon.The hospital’s Ningbo branch was in ____7____ in 2018. But Zhong Ming, who works in both hospitals, soon found that the doctors in Ningbo did not have enough ____8____ to watch difficult cases and master medical technology. The hospital came up with the ____9____ to broadcast a live operation.Doctors in Ningbo are able to ____10____ the details of the difficult operation with a wider view. The doctors can see clearly ____11____ Zhong operated on the blood vessels(血管) and nerves(神经). One of the doctors in Ningbo said that in the past they had tried to use other technologies during such broadcasts, but none of them is clear or ____12____ enough. The 5G network helps the medical circle ____13____ the problem. This was the ____14____ time he had watched such a clear broadcast of an operation, and it was impressive(令人印象深刻的).Maybe one day, we’ll be able to watch a (n) ____15____ broadcast of an operation in Shanghai through our phones with 5G network. Such broadcasts are good for young doctors to learn the most moderntechnology to treat more patients.1.A.newest B.oldest C.biggest D.smallest2.A.taught B.chose C.allowed D.understood3.A.clearly B.beautifully C.carefully D.happily4.A.ing B.hearing C.learning D.suffering 5.A.temperature B.difficulty C.performance D.education 6.A.program B.operation C.action D.illness7.A.order B.danger C.trouble D.service8.A.time B.money C.chances D.experience 9.A.discussion B.argument C.idea D.agreement10.A.watch B.find C.forget D.build11.A.why B.how C.where D.when12.A.strong B.cheap C.smooth D.lively13.A.solve B.meet C.enter D.discover14.A.first B.second C.third D.fourth15.A.free B.busy C.active D.live02(2022·河北石家庄·统考一模)A pany in Beijing announced that it had successfully bred(繁殖) China’s first cloned(克隆) cat, reports China Science and Technology Daily.“The kitten named Garlic(大蒜) was born on July 21, 2019, in a laboratory(实验室) of the biotechnology pany Sinogene. It was born from an embryo (胚胎) carried by a surrogate(代孕) mother,” said Wang Jidong, the CEO of Sinogene."Garlic has been verified(证实的) as a cloned cat by a thirdparty verification organization, and is currently in a good condition."The birth of the kitten is the result of a cloning program that began last August. Chen Dayuan, a researcher from the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the technology developed by the pany has a high success rate: one cloned kitten from four implanted surrogates.It’s rare(罕见的) for cats to be successfully cloned, said Shi Zhensheng, a professor from the Veterinary Medicine College at China Agricultural University. Cats have unique reproductive characteristics, whichmake them difficult to clone. The success of Sinogene marks a step forward in China’s cloning research sector.The cloning technology used to create Garlic will help China to build a genetic library of endangered species (物种), with the goal of breeding species under threat of extinction.16.How old is the cloned cat Garlic now?A.Less than one year old.B.One year old.C.Two years old.D.Three years old.17.The underlined expression of “in a good condition” could be replaced by _______.A.happy B.healthy C.beautiful D.expensive18.Which of the following statements is CORRECT?A.Sinogene is a biotechnology pany in Beijing.B.The cloning program began in July, 2019.C.It’s mon to clone cats successfully because they are easy to clone.D.The success of cloning Garlic might help China save endangered plants.03(2022·云南昆明·云大附中校考三模)Imagine this: you and your friend are on a video call. He or she picks up a book, and you feel like you’re holding the book as well. You can shake hands or give your friend a high five, even though you’re apart.A pair of special gloves might make this a reality. Researchers at the University of New South Wales, Australia, have made gloves that can recreate the sense of touch. They call this haptic device(触觉装置)a “soft skin stretch device” (SSD).The SSD works like this: One user’s gloves create 3D force signals when they touch something. The signals are sent to the other user’s gloves, which vibrate(震动)to create the same force that the first user is experiencing. This allows the second user to experience the same sense of touch.The SSD allows you to feel force, vibration and change. “It is like wearing a second skin,” said Thanh Nho Do, one of the researchers who created the gloves.Haptic technology is already being widely used. For example, the track pads(触控板)in laptops use vibration to make it feel like you’re clicking a real mouse. However, it is difficult to recreate the sense of touch in virtual(虚拟的)environments or outside, according to Mai Thanh Thai, lead researcher of the SSDproject. The SSD is special because it has a high level of sensitivity(敏感)even when it is used continuously. This makes it feel more practical.The SSD could be used in medical practice. Two doctors in different places could work together during an operation(手术)—one touches the patient’s organs(器官)with the SSD while the other doctor feels the same sensation(感觉)and pletes the operation.根据短文内容,选择最佳答案。
考研英语_时⽂阅读50篇考拉进阶英语时⽂阅读50篇Passage1Dealing With Spam1:Confidence Game(2010.11.18The Economist)[483words]Bill Gates,then still Microsoft’s boss,was nearly rightin2004when he predicted the end of spam in two years.Thanks to clever filters2unsolicited3e-mail has largelydisappeared as a daily nuisance4for most on the internet.But spam is still a menace5:blocked at the e-mail inbox,spammers post messages as comments on websites and increasingly on social networks like Twitter and Facebook.The criminal businesses behind spam are competitive and creative.They vault over6technical fixes as fast as the hurdles7are erected.The anti-spam industry has done applaudable work in saving e-mail.But it is always one step behind.In the end,the software industry’s interest is in making money from the problem(by selling subscriptions to regular security updates)rather than tackling it at its source.Law-enforcement agencies have had some success shutting down spam-control servers in America and the Netherlands.But as one place becomes unfriendly, spammers move somewhere else.Internet connections in poor and ill-run countries are improving faster than the authorities there can police them.That won’t end soon.In any case,the real problem is not the message,but the link.Sometimes an unwise click leads only to a website that sells counterfeit8pills.But it can also lead to a page that infects your computer with a virus or another piece of malicious software that then steals your passwords or uses your machine for other immoral purposes. Spam was never about e-mail;it was about convincing us to click.To the spammer,it needs to be decided whether the link is e-mailed or liked.The police are doing what they can,and software companies keep on tightening security.But spam is not just a hack9or a crime,it is a social problem,too.If you look beyond the computers that lie between a spammer and his mark,you can see allthe classic techniques of a con-man:buy this stock,before everyone else does.Buy these pills,this watch,cheaper than anyone else can.The spammer plays upon the universal human desire to believe that we are smarter than anyone gives us credit for,and that things can be had for nothing.As in other walks of life,people become wiser and take precautions only when they have learned what happens when they don’t.That is why the spammers’new arena10—social networks—is so effective.A few fiddles might help,such as tougher default privacy settings on social networks.But the real problem is man,not the machine.Public behaviour still treats the internet like a village,in which new faces are welcome and anti-social behaviour a rarity.A better analogy would be a railway station in a big city,where hustlers11gather to prey on the credulity12of new arrivals.Wise behaviour in such places is to walk fast,avoid eye contact and be cautious with strangers.Try that online.1.spam/sp?m/n.垃圾邮件2.filter/?f?lt?/n.过滤器;滤光器;筛选过滤程序3.unsolicited/??ns??l?s?t?d/adj.未经请求的,⾃发的4.nuisance/?nju?s?ns/n.⿇烦事,讨厌的⼈或东西5.menace/?men?s/n.威胁,恐吓;危险⽓氛;烦⼈的⼈或事物6.vault over越过7.hurdle/?h??dl/n.障碍;跨栏,栏8.counterfeit/?ka?nt?f?t/n.伪造,仿造,制假9.hack/h?k/n.砍,劈;供出租的马;出租车司机;⾮法侵⼊(他⼈计算机系统)10.arena/??ri?n?/n.圆形运动场,圆形剧场;竞技舞台,活动场所11.hustler/?h?sl?/n.耍诡计骗钱的⼈12.credulity/kr??du?l?t?/n.轻信Passage2A Gene to Explain Depression(2011.1.3Time)[459words]As powerful as genes are in exposing clues to diseases,not even the most passionate geneticist1believes thatcomplex conditions such as depression can be reduced to atell-tale2string of DNA.But a new study confirms earlier evidence that aparticular gene,involved in ferrying3a brain chemical critical to mood known as serotonin4,may play a role in triggering5the mental disorder in some people.Researchers led by Dr.Srijan Sen,a professor of psychiatry at University of Michigan,report in the Archives6of General Psychiatry that individuals with a particular form of the serotonin transporter gene were more vulnerable to developing depression when faced with stressful life events such as having a serious medical illness or being a victim of childhood abuse.The form of the gene that these individuals inherit prevents the mood-regulating serotonin from being re-absorbed by nerve cells in the brain.Having such a low-functioning version of the transporter starting early in life appears to set these individuals up for developing depression later on,although the exact relationship between this gene,stress,and depression isn’t clear yet.Sen’s results confirm those of a ground-breaking7study in2003,in which scientists for the first time confirmed the link between genes and environment in depression.In that study,which involved more than800subjects,individuals with the gene coding for the less functional serotonin transporter were more likely to develop depression following a stressful life event than those with the more functional form of the gene.But these findings were questioned by a2009analysis in which scientistspooled814studies investigating the relationship between the serotonin transporter gene,depression and stress,and found no heightened risk of depression among those with different versions of the gene.“One of the hopes I have is that we can settle this story,and move on to looking more broadly across the genome9for more factors related to depression,”he says.“Ideally we would like to find a panel of different genetic variations that go together to help us predict who is going to respond poorly to stress,and who might respond well to specific types of treatment as opposed to others.”He believes that the2009findings do not contradict those from2003,or the latest results,but rather reflect a difference in the way the study was conducted.Sen stresses,however,that this gene is only one player in the cast of genetic and environmental factors that contribute to depression.“All things considered,this gene is a relatively small factor,and for this finding to be clinically10useful,we really need to find many,many more factors.Ultimately we may identify new pathways that are involved in depression to come up with new and better treatments.”1.geneticist/dnet?s?st/n.遗传学家2.tell-tale/?tel?te?l/adj.暴露实情的,能说明问题的3.ferry/?fer?/vt.渡运,摆渡4.serotonin/?s??rt??n?n/n.[⽣化]⾎清素,5-羟⾊胺(神经递质,易影响情绪等)5.trigger/?tr?ɡ?/vt.触发,引发;开动,启动6.archive/?ɑ?ka?v/n.档案馆;档案⽂件7.ground-breaking/?gra?nd?bre?k??/adj.开创性的;创新的8.pool/pu?l/vt.合伙经营;集中(智慧等);共享,分享9.genome/??i?n??m/n.[⽣]基因组;[⽣]染⾊体组10.clinically/?kl?n?kl?/adv.临床地;冷淡地;通过临床诊断Passage3Second Thoughts on Online Education(2010.9New York Times)[415words]Let the computer do the teaching.Some studies,expertopinion and cost pressures all point toward a continuing shiftof education online.A major study last year,funded by the EducationDepartment,which covered comparative research over12years,concluded that online learning on average beat face-to-face teaching by a modest1but statistically meaningful margin2.Bill Gates,whose foundation funds a lot of education programs,predicted last month that in five years much of college education will have gone online.“The self-motivated learner will be on the Web,”Mr.Gates said,speaking at the Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe.“College needs to be less place-based.”But recent research,published as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper,comes to a different conclusion.“A rush to online education may come at more of a cost than educators may suspect,”the authors write.The research was a head-to-head experiment,comparing the grades achieved in the same introductory economics class by students—one group online,and one in classroom lectures.Certain groups did notably worse online.Hispanic3students online fell nearly a full grade lower than Hispanic students that took the course in class.Male students did about a half-grade worse online,as did low-achievers,which had college grade-point averages below the mean for the university.The difference certainly was not attributable4to machines replacing a tutorial-style human teaching environment.Instead,the classroom was a large lecture hall seating hundreds of students.Initially,David Figlio,an economist at Northwestern University and co-author of the paper,said he had thought that the flexibility5of the Internet—the ability to“go back and roll the tape”—would probably give the online coursework6an edge over traditional“chalk and talk teaching.”The online lectures were well done,using a professional producer and cameraman7.“It had very much the feel of being in the room,”Mr.Figlio said.So what accounts for the difference in outcomes8?Mr.Figlio has a few theories. For the poorer performance of males and lower-achievers,he says the time-shifting convenience of the Web made it easier for students to put off viewing the lectures and cram9just before the test,a tactic10unlikely to produce the best possible results.It’s partly a stereotype11but also partly true,Mr.Figlio says,that female students tend to be better at timemanagement,spreading their study time over a semester,than males.“And the Internet makes it easier to put off12the unpleasant thing,attending the lecture,”he said.1.modest/?m?d?st/adj.谦虚的,谦恭的;适中的,适度的;些许的2.margin/?mɑ:d??n/n.页边空⽩;边,边缘;差数,差额3.Hispanic/h?s?p?n?k/adj.西班⽛和葡萄⽛的4.attributable/??tr?bj?t?bl/adj.可归因于,可能由于5.flexibility/?fleks??b?l?t?/n.灵活性;柔韧性6.coursework/?k?:sw?:k/n.课程作业7.cameraman/?k?m?r?m?n/n.摄影师8.outcome/?a?tk?m/n.结果9.cram/kr?m/v.挤满,塞满;临时死记硬背10.tactic/?t?kt?k/n.兵法;⽅法,策略;⼿段;招数11.stereotype/?ster??ta?p/n.模式化观念,⽼⼀套,刻板形象12.put off撤销,取消Passage4The Kids Can’t Help It(2010.12.16Newsweek)[372words]What new research reveals about the adolescentbrain—from why kids bully1to how the teen yearsshape the rest of your life.They say you never escape high school.And forbetter or worse,science is lending some credibility tothat old saw.Thanks to sophisticated imaging technology and a raft2of longitudinal3studies,we’re learning that the teen years are a period of crucial brain development subject to a host of environmental and genetic factors.This emerging research sheds4light not only on why teenagers act they way they do,but how the experiences of adolescence—from rejection to binge5 drinking—can affect who we become as adults,how we handle stress,and the way we bond with others.One of the most important discoveries in this area of study,says Dr.Frances Jensen,a neuroscientist at Harvard,is that our brains are not finished maturing by adolescence,as was previously thought.Adolescent brains“are only about80percentof the way to maturity,”she said at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in November.It takes until the mid-20s,and possibly later,for a brain to become fully developed.An excess of gray matter6(the stuff that does the processing)at the beginning of adolescence makes us particularly brilliant at learning—the reason we’re so good at picking up new languages starting in early childhood—but also particularly sensitive to the influences of our environment,both emotional and physical.Our brains’processing centers haven’t been fully linked yet,particularly the parts responsible for helping to check7our impulses8and considering the long-term repercussions9of our actions.“It’s like a brain that’s all revved10up not knowing where it needs to go,”says Jensen.It’s partially because of this developmental timeline that a teen can be so quick to conjure11a stinging remark,or a biting insult,and so uninhibited12in firing it off at the nearest unfortunate target—a former friend,perhaps,or a bewildered parent.The impulse to hurl13an insult14is there,just as it may be for an adult in a stressful situation,but the brain regions that an adult might rely on to stop himself from saying something cruel just haven’t caught up.1.bully/?b?l?/v.恐吓;充当恶霸,恃强凌弱2.raft/rɑ?ft/n.筏;橡⽪艇,充⽓船;⼤量3.longitudinal/?l?ntju?d?nl/adj.纵向的;纵观的;经度的4.shed/?ed/vt.散发出光;去除,摆脱;蜕,落5.binge/b?nd?/n.饮酒作乐;狂饮;狂闹6.gray matter灰质(脑、脊髓内神经元集中的地⽅)7.check/t?ek/v.检查,核验,核对;制⽌,控制8.impulse/??mp?ls/n.冲动;脉冲;刺激,推动⼒9.repercussion/?ri?p??kn/n.(间接的)反响,影响,恶果10.rev/rev/v.(发动机等)加快转速11.conjure/?k?n??/v.变魔术;使变戏法般地出现(或消失)12.uninhibited/??n?n?h?b?t?d/adj.⽆限制的;⽆拘束的,放任的13.hurl/h??l/vt.猛掷,猛扔;⼤声说出14.insult/?n?s?lt/n.侮辱;凌辱;⽆礼Passage5The Power of Posture(2011.1.13The Economist)[486words]“Stand up straight!”“Chest out!”“Shoulders back!”Theseare the perennial1cries of sergeant2majors and fussy3parentsthroughout the ages.Posture certainly matters.Big is dominantand in species after species,humans included,postures thatenhance the posturer’s apparent size cause others to treat him asif he were more powerful.The stand-up-straight brigade4,however,often make a further claim:that posture affects the way the posturer treats himself,as well as how others treat him.To test the truth of this,Li Huang and Adam Galinsky,at Northwestern University in Illinois,have compared posture’s effects onself-esteem with those of a more conventional ego-booster,management responsibility. In a paper just published in Psychological Science they conclude,surprisingly,that posture may matter more.The two researchers’experimental animals—77undergraduate students—first filled out questionnaires5,ostensibly6to assess their leadership capacity.Half were then given feedback forms which indicated that,on the basis of the questionnaires, theywere to be assigned to be managers in a forthcoming7experiment.The other half were told they would besubordinates8.While the participants waited for this feedback, they were asked to help with a marketing test on ergonomic9chairs.In fact,neither of these tests was what it seemed.The questionnaires were irrelevant.V olunteers were assigned to be managers or subordinates at random.The test of posture had nothing to do with ergonomics.And,crucially,each version of the posture test included equal numbers of those who would become“managers”and “subordinates”.Once the posture test was over the participants received their new statuses and the researchers measured theirimplicit10sense of power by asking them to engage in a word-completion task.Participants were instructed to complete a number of fragments11with the first word that came to mind.Seven of the fragments could be interpreted as words related to power(“power”,“direct”,“lead”,“authority”,“control”,“command”and“rich”).Although previous studies suggested a mere title is enough to produce a detectable increase in an individual’s sense of power,Dr Huang and Dr Galinsky found no difference in the word-completion scores of those told they would be managers and those told they would be subordinates.Having established the principle,Dr Huang and Dr Galinsky went on to test the effect of posture on other power-related decisions:whether to speak first in a debate, whether to leave the site of a plane crash to find help and whether to join a movement to free a prisoner who was wrongfully locked up.In all three cases those who had sat in expansive12postures chose the active option(to speak first,to search for help,to fight for justice)more often than those who had sat crouched13. The upshot14,then,is that father(or the sergeant major)was right.Those who walk around with their heads held high not only get the respect of others,they seem also to respect themselves.1.perennial/p??ren??l/adj.[植]多年⽣的;长久的,持续的2.sergeant/?sɑnt/n.[军](英)陆军、空军、海军陆战队中⼠;(美)陆军或空军中⼠3.fussy/?f?s?/adj.挑剔的,⼤惊⼩怪的;紧张不安的4.brigade/?br?ɡe?d/n.旅;伙,帮,派5.questionnaire/?kwestn e?/n.问卷;调查表6.ostensibly/?s?tens?bl?/adv.表⾯上;明显地7.forthcoming/?f??θ?k?m??/adj.即将发⽣的;现成的;乐于提供信息的8.subordinate/s??b??d?n?t/n.下级,部属9.ergonomic/ɡn?m?k/adj.⼈类⼯程学的10.implicit/?m?pl?s?t/adj.不⾔明的,含蓄的11.fragment/?fr?ɡm?nt/n.碎⽚,⽚段12.expansive/?ks?p?ns?v/adj.⼴阔的,辽阔的;⼴泛的,全⾯的;友善健谈的,开朗的13.crouch/kraut?/vt.屈膝,蹲伏,蹲,蹲下14.upshot/??p??t/n.最后结果,结局Passage6How Rest Helps Memory:Sleepy Heads(2010.2.25The Economist)[402words]Mad dogs and Englishmen,so the song has it,go out in themidday sun.And the business practices of England’s linealdescendant1,America,will have you in the office from nine in themorning to five in the evening,if not longer.Much of the world,though,prefers to take a siesta2.And research presented to theAAAS meeting in San Diego suggests it may be right to do so.Ithas already been established that those who siesta are less likely todie of heart disease.Now,Matthew Walker and his colleagues at the University of California,Berkeley,have found that they probably have better memory, too.A post-prandial3snooze4,Dr Walker has discovered,sets the brain up for learning.The role of sleep in consolidating5memories that have already been created has been understood for some time.Dr Walker has been trying to extend this understanding by looking at sleep’s role in preparing the brain for the formation of memories in the first place.He was particularly interested in a type of memory called episodic6memory,which relates to specific events,places and times.This contrasts with procedural memory,of the skills required to perform some sort of mechanical task,such as driving.The theory he and his team wanted to test was that the ability to form new episodic memories deteriorates7with increased wakefulness,and that sleep thus restores the brain’s capacity for efficient learning.They asked a group of39people to take part in two learning sessions,one at noon and one at6pm.On each occasion the participants tried to memorise and recall 100combinations of pictures and names.After the first session they were assigned randomly to either a control group,which remained awake,or a nap group,which had 100minutes of monitored sleep. Those who remained awake throughout the day became worse at learning.Those who napped8,by contrast,actually improved their capacity to learn,doing better in the evening than they had at noon.These findings suggest that sleep is clearing the brain’s short-term memory and making way for new information.The benefits to memory of a nap,says Dr Walker,are so great that they can equal an entire night’s sleep.Hewarns,however,that napping must not be done too late in the day or it will interfere with night-time sleep.Moreover,not everyone awakens refreshed from a siesta.1.lineal descendant直系后裔2.siesta/s??est?/n.午睡,午休3.prandial/?pr?nd??l/adj.膳⾷的,正餐的4.snooze/snu:z/n.⼩睡5.consolidate/k?n?s?l?de?t/vt.使巩固,使加强;合并6.episodic/?ep??s?d?k/adj.偶尔发⽣的,不定期的;有许多⽚段的7.deteriorate/d??t??r??re?t/vi.恶化,退化;变坏8.nap/n?p/vi.⼩睡Passage7Learning Gap Between Rich and Poor Starts Early(2011.2Newsweek)[354words]It’s generally accepted that there is a correlationbetween a child’s educational attainment1and a family’spoverty level,but new research shows that the problemmay take root2earlier than previously thought.A new study in Psychological Science found that at10months old,children from poor families performed just as well as children from wealthier families,but by the time they turned2,children from wealthier families were scoring consistently higher than those from poorer ones.“Poor kids aren’t even doing as well in terms of school readiness,sounding out letters and doing other things that you would expect to be relevant to early learning,”Elliot M.Tucker-Drob of the University of Texas at Austin,lead author of the study, said in a press release.To conduct the study,researchers assessed the mental abilities of about750pairs of fraternal3and identical4twins from all over the U.S.The participants’socioeconomic status was determined based on parents’educational attainment, occupations and family income.Each child was asked to perform tasks that included pulling a string to ring a bell, placing three cubes in a cup,matching pictures and sorting pegs by color first at10 months and again when they were2years old.At this time,researchers discovered that during the14-month window between the aptitude5tests,gaps in cognitive6 development had started to occur.Children from wealthier families had started to consistently outperform those from poorer ones.Researchers attempted to disprove7a genetic explanation by comparing the aptitude tests of each set of twins.Among the2-year-olds from wealthier families, identical twins had much more similar test scores than fraternal twins,who share only half of their genes.However,among2-year-olds from poorer families,identical twins scored no more similar to one another than did fraternal twins.The implication is that children’s genetic potential is subdued8by poverty, though the study stopped short of drawing a scientific conclusion as to what specifically was causing the achievement gaps.Researchers did postulate9that, generally speaking,poorer parents may not have the time or resources to spend playing with their children in stimulating ways.1.attainment/??te?nm?nt/n.达到;成就,造诣2.take root⽣根;开始;建⽴3.fraternal/fr??t??nl/adj.兄弟般的,亲如⼿⾜的4.identical/a??dent?kl/adj.同⼀的,完全相同的5.aptitude/??pt?tju?d/n.天资,天赋6.cognitive/?k?ɡn?t?v/adj.认知的,认识的7.disprove/d?s?pru?v/vt.证明……是错的8.subdue/s?b?dju?/vt.征服;抑制,克制9.postulate/?p?stj?le?t/v.假定,假设Passage8More Than Meets the Mirror:Illusion1Test Links Difficulty Sensing InternalCues2with Distorted3Body-Image(2011.1.4Scientific America)[457words]With all of the New Year’s diet ads claiming you canlose dozens of pounds in seemingly as many days,youprobably are not alone if you looked in the mirror thismorning and saw a less than ideal body.Or maybe you justpicked up a new magazine in which already thin modelshave their remaining flesh scavenged4by Photoshop to make them appear even slimmer.With all of these unrealistic promises and images,it can be hard to gain an accurate sense of one’s own body.But the disjunction5for some people might go deeper than manipulated5photos.A new study shows that the way people perceive their external7appearance is likely linked to how they experience their bodies internally.Researchers found that people who had greater difficulties sensing their own internal bodily states were also more likely to be fooled into believing a rubber hand was part of their own bodies. These results,published online in the issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,may one day help scientists understand how body image can become so distorted in disorders like body dysmorphia8and anorexia nervosa9,says lead author Manos Tsakiris of Royal Holloway,University of London.“The sense of self is built up from a representation of internal states,”says Hugo Critchley,a professor of psychiatry at the University of Sussex in England who was not involved with the study.“This paper is showing that sensitivity of individuals to their internal state predicts the strength of their self-representation.”Most of the time,the image someone has of their body is pretty close to its external appearance.You may see your thighs10as slightly bigger than they actually are,or your arm muscles as slightly smaller,but the discrepancy11is usually minimal12.In some mental disorders,however,body image can become dramatically distorted.Those who suffer from body dysmorphic disorder think that parts of their bodies are malformed13or grotesque14,even when these supposed flaws are not noticeable to others.In eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa patients continue to think they need to lose weight even as their bodies waste away.Crucial to the formation of body image—pathological15and otherwise—is the integration of external and internal cues.What we see in the mirror and what we feel against our skin melds with16our own internal awareness of our bodies to create an overarching17body image.Scientists have historically focused on how external factors like magazines and fashion models affect the creation of an accurate body image.Tsakiris and his colleagues,however,hypothesized that a person’s internal awareness of his or her body,known as interoceptive18awareness,was also related to the creation of an accurate body image.1.illusion/??ljun/n.错觉,幻觉;假象2.cue/kju?/n.提⽰;暗⽰,暗号3.distorted/d?s?t??t?d/adj.变形的,扭曲的;歪曲的,曲解的4.scavenge/?sk?v?n?/v.(从废弃物中)觅⾷,捡破烂;吃(动物⼫体)5.disjunction/d?sk??n/n.分离,分裂6.manipulate/m??n?pj?le?t/vt.控制,操纵;操作,使⽤;正⾻7.external/?k?st??nl/adj.外部的,外⾯的;外界的,外来的;对外的8.dysmorphia/d?s?m??f??/n.[医]畸形,变形9.anorexia nervosa神经性厌⾷症10.thigh /θa?/n.股,⼤腿11.discrepancy/d?s?krep?ns?/n.差异,不符合,不⼀致12.minimal/?m?n?m?l/adj.极⼩的,极少的,最⼩的13.malformed/?m?l?f??md/adj.畸形的14.grotesque/ɡrtesk/adj.怪诞的,荒唐的;奇形怪状的15.pathological/?p?θ??lkl/adj.不理智的,⽆道理的;病态的;病理学的16.meld with与……融合;与……合并17.overarching/v?r?ɑ?t/adj.⾮常重要的,⾸要的18.interoceptive /??nt?r?u?sept?v/adj.内感受(器)的Passage9The Tussle1for Talent(2011.1.6The Economist)[432words]Plato believed that men are divided into three classes:gold,silver and bronze.Vilfredo Pareto,an Italianeconomist,argued that“the vital2few”account for mostprogress.Such sentiments are taboo today in public life.Politicians talk of a“leadership class”or“the vital few”attheir peril3.Schools abhor4picking winners.Universities welcome the masses:more people now teach at British ones than attended them in the 1950s.In the private sector5things could hardly be more different.The world’s best companies struggle relentlessly6to find and keep the vital few.They offer them fat pay packets,extra training,powerful mentors7and more challenging assignments.If anything,businesses are becoming more obsessed with ability.This is partly cyclical8.Deloitte and other consultancies have noticed that as the economy begins to recover,companies are trying harder to nurture raw talent,or to poach9it from their rivals.When new opportunities arise,they hope to have the brainpower to seize them.The acceleration of the tussle for talent is also structural, however.Private-equity firms rely heavilyon a few stars.High-tech firms,for all their sartorial10egalitarianism11,are ruthless12about recruiting the brightest.Firms in emerging markets are desperate to find high-flyer13s—the younger the better—who can cope with rapid growth and fast-changing environments.Successful companies make sure that senior managers are involved with“talentdevelopment”.Jack Welch and /doc/2e5e0328482fb4daa58d4b15.html fley,former bosses of GE and P&G,claimed that they spent40%of their time on personnel.Andy Grove,who ran Intel,a chipmaker14,obliged all the senior people,including himself,to spend at least a week a year teaching high-flyers.Nitin Paranjpe,the boss of Hindustan Unilever,recruits people from campuses and regularly visits high-flyers in their offices.Involving the company’s top brass15in the process prevents lower-level managers from monopolising16high-flyers(and taking credit for their triumphs).It also creates a dialogue between established and future leaders.Successful companies also integrate talent development with their broader strategy.This ensures that companies are more than the sum of their parts.Adrian Dillon,a former chief financial officer of Agilent,a firm that makes high-tech measuring devices,says he would rather build a“repertory17company”than a “collection of world experts”.P&G likes its managers to be both innovative and worldly:they cannot rise to the top without running operations in a country and managing a product globally.Agilent and Novartis like to turn specialists into general managers.Goodyear replaced23of its24senior managers in two years as it shifted from selling tyres to carmakers to selling them to motorists.1.tussle/t?sl/n.扭打;争论;争⽃;奋⽃2.vita l/?va?tl/adj.⽣命的;充满活⼒的;⽣死攸关的;极其重要的3.peril/?per?l/n.严重危险;祸害,险情4.abhor/?b?h??/vt.痛恨,憎恶5.sector/?sekt?/n.[数]扇形;两脚规;部分;部门6.relentlessly/r??lentl?sl?/adv.残酷地,⽆情地;不停地,不减弱地7.mentor /?men?t??/n.私⼈教师,辅导教师;良师益友8.cyclical/?sa?kl?kl/adj.周期的,循环的9.poach/p??t?/vt.⽔煮;偷猎;盗⽤,挖⾛(⼈员)10.sartorial/sɑ??t??r??l/adj.服装的,男装的,⾐着的11.egalitarianism/??ɡ?l??te?r??n?z?m/n.平等主义,平均主义12.ruthless/?ru?θl?s/adj.⽆情的,冷酷的;残忍的13.high-flyer/?ha?fla??/n.抱负极⾼的⼈;有野⼼的⼈14.chipmaker/?t??p?me?k?/n.集成块制造者;半导体(元件)制造商15.top brass要员16.monopolise/m??n?p?la?z/vt.垄断,独占;占去(⼤部分时间、精⼒),霸占17.repertory/?rep?tr?/n.保留剧⽬轮演Passage10What Is a Medically Induced Coma1and Why Is It Used?(2011.1.10Scientific America)[497words]Basically what happens with a medically induced。
托福阅读tpo33R-2原文+译文+题目+答案+背景知识原文Railroads and Commercial Agriculture In Nineteenth-Century United States①By1850the United States possessed roughly9,000miles of railroad track;ten years later it had over30,000miles,more than the rest of the world combined. Much of the new construction during the1850s occurred west of the Appalachian Mountains–over2,000miles in the states of Ohio and Illinois alone.②The effect of the new railroad lines rippled outward through the economy. Farmers along the tracks began to specialize in crops that they could market in distant locations.With their profits they purchased manufactured goods that earlier they might have made at home.Before the railroad reached Tennessee,the state produced about25,000bushels(or640tons)of wheat,which sold for less than50cents a bushel.Once the railroad came,farmers in the same counties grew 400,000bushels(over10,000tons)and sold their crop at a dollar a bushel.③The new railroad networks shifted the direction of western trade.In1840most northwestern grain was shipped south down the Mississippi River to the bustling port of New Orleans.But low water made steamboat travel hazardous in summer, and ice shut down traffic in winter.Products such as lard,tallow,and cheese quickly spoiled if stored in New Orleans’hot and humid warehouses.Increasingly, traffic from the Midwest flowed west to east,over the new rail lines.Chicago became the region’s hub,linking the farms of the upper Midwest to New York and other eastern cities by more than2,000miles of track in1855.Thus while the value of goods shipped by river to New Orleans continued to increase,the South’s overall share of western trade dropped dramatically.④A sharp rise in demand for grain abroad also encouraged farmers in the Northeast and Midwest to become more commercially oriented.Wheat,which in 1845commanded$1.08a bushel in New York City,fetched$2.46in1855;in similar fashion the price of corn nearly doubled.Farmers responded by specializing in cash crops,borrowing to purchase more land,and investing in equipment to increase productivity.⑤As railroad lines fanned out from Chicago,farmers began to acquire open prairie land in Illinois and then Iowa,putting the fertile,deep black soil into production. Commercial agriculture transformed this remarkable treeless environment.To settlers accustomed to eastern woodlands,the thousands of square miles of tall grass were an awesome sight.Indian grass,Canada wild rye,and native big bluestem all grew higher than a person.Because eastern plows could not penetrate the densely tangled roots of prairie grass,the earliest settlers erected farms along the boundary separating the forest from the prairie.In1837,however, John Deere patented a sharp-cutting steel plow that sliced through the sod without soil sticking to the blade.Cyrus McCormick refined a mechanical reaper that harvested fourteen times more wheat with the same amount of labor.By the 1850s McCormick was selling1,000reapers a year and could not keep up with demand,while Deere turned out10,000plows annually.⑥The new commercial farming fundamentally altered the Midwestern landscape and the environment.Native Americans had grown corn in the region for years,but never in such large fields as did later settlers who became farmers,whose surpluses were shipped east.Prairie farmers also introduced new crops that were not part of the earlier ecological system,notably wheat,along with fruits and vegetables.⑦Native grasses were replaced by a small number of plants cultivated as commodities.Corn had the best yields,but it was primarily used to feed livestock. Because bread played a key role in the American and European diet,wheat became the major cash crop.Tame grasses replaced native grasses in pastures for making hay.⑧Western farmers altered the landscape by reducing the annual fires that had kept the prairie free from trees.In the absence of these fires,trees reappeared on land not in cultivation and,if undisturbed,eventually formed woodlots.The earlier unbroken landscape gave way to independent farms,each fenced off in a precise checkerboard pattern.It was an artificial ecosystem of animals,woodlots,and crops,whose large,uniform layout made western farms more efficient than the more-irregular farms in the East.译文十九世纪的美国铁路和商贸农业①到1850年,美国拥有大约9000英里的铁路;十年后,美国铁路变成了30,000多英里,超过了世界其他地区所有铁路的总和。
最新英语中考 3.4月份疫情相关时政阅读整理(二)一、任务型阅读(文章节选于China Daily )Zhang Jingjing, 33, was passionate (热衷于)about helping others. She worked for two months with COVID-19 patients as part of a medical team from Shandong province that had been assigned to Huanggang, Hubei province.张最近刚完成任务,回到山东。
She entered 14 days of routine quarantine(检疫)in shandong. She tested negative for the coronavirus three times.But on Sunday morning, just before the end of her quarantine, Zhang had a heart attack. She died on Monday. Zhang's husband, Han Wentao, was in Sierra Leone, West Africa, working on construction projects there. They have a 5-year-old daughter.When Han learned of his wife's heart attack, he tried to return to China quickly. But flights had been suspended because of the pandemic.Zhang was in the first group of 138 medical professionals who traveled to Hubei on Jan 25 to help treat COVID-19 patients.She was hailed by her patients as "a beam of light in the dark night" the Hubei Health Commission said in a notice published late Monday on its website.It also expressed its condolences to her family. The commission was joined in expressions of sadness online by a large number of Chinese netizens.1. 将文中划线的句子翻译成汉语。
时文阅读中考版全世界的科学家都在加速进行针对新冠病毒疫苗的研发工作,虽然已经取得一些进展,但离疫苗的正常使用还有很长一段时间。
文章介绍了开发一种安全疫苗所需要的时间,测试过程的重要性以及生产疫苗所需的费用等。
Scientists around the world are racing to create and test vaccines(疫苗) to helpprotect people against the novel coronavirus(新冠病毒). They are making progress,but it will be quite a while before anyvaccines are ready.There are many different ways to make vaccines. At least 115 different vaccinesfor the novel coronavirus are being developed around the world right now. Many ofthem may not work or may have side effects that can be dangerous.That is whytesting is very important.Before a vaccine is ever tested on humans,it's first tested on animals to makesure it seems safe.Testing the vaccine on humans is done in several different phases.In Phase 1, a small group of people are given small amounts of the vaccine to see if ithas any bad effects. Phase 2 still tests the vaccine's safety, but it's mainly a test to seeif the vaccine seems to work.If Phase 2 goes well, the vaccine can begin Phase 3.During Phase 3, the vaccine is tried on a much larger group of people to see how wellit works.Because of the serious and worldwide influence of the novelcoronavirus, there ishuge pressure to develop a working vaccine quickly. It normally takes seven or moreyears to develop a safe vaccine that works well. Now drug companies are hoping tocreate working vaccines in 12 or 18 months.But health experts also warn that rushing too much could be dangerous. A vaccinewith harmful effects could cause more problems than it solves.1.According to the passage,the scientists who are making vaccines are- hard-working and carefulB.patient and easy-goingC.kind and curiousD.caring and brave2.How long does it take to create working vaccines in the usualway?A.Less than six years.B.More than ten years.C.Twelve to eighteen months.D.About seven years.3.What's the meaning of the underlined word?A.阶段B.方面C.实验D.治疗4.Which of the following is TRUE?A.There are only three phases in testing vaccines.B.Working vaccinesmust be created in a short time.C.Vaccines have already been developed.D.Rushing too quickly in creating vaccines may bring more problems.5.What's the best title of the passage?A.Rush for a vaccineB.Fight against the diseaseC.Protect people against the virusD.Create working vaccines答案:ADADA。
考研英语二(阅读)模拟试卷33(题后含答案及解析)全部题型 2. 阅读理解阅读理解Boys and girls used to grow up and set aside their childish pursuits. Not anymore. These days, men and women hold on to their inner kid. They live with their parents far longer than previous generations. They’re getting married later. Even when they have kids, moms and dads download pop songs for their cell phone ringtones, play video games, watch cartoons, and indulge in foods from their childhood. Christopher Noxon explores this Peter Pan culture in his new book, Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grownup. For rejuveniles today, all roads lead back to Peter Pan and the turn of the twentieth century. The natural capacities of children, which for centuries had been viewed as weak and obstinate were over the course of these few years discovered as a primary source of inspiration and profit. It would be another century before the rejuvenile rebellion we know today, but resistance to what historian Woody Register calls “the weakening prudence, restraint and solemnity of growing up” began here, with the first flight of Pan and the dawn of the twentieth century. The temptation today is to think of adulthood as a historic and natural fact. In a 2004 essay on “The Perpetual Adolescent,” Joseph Epstein wrote that adulthood was treated as the “lengthiest and most earnest part of life, where everything serious happened.”To stray outside the defined boundaries of adulthood, he wrote, was “to go against what was natural and thereby to appear inappropriate, to put one’s world somehow out of joint.” Before the Industrial Revolution, no one thought much about adulthood, and even less about childhood. In sixteenth-century Europe, for instance, “children shared the same games with adults, the same toys, and the same fairy stories. They lived their lives together, never apart,” notes historian J.H. Plumb. This shouldn’t suggest that people in the past didn’t distinguish between kids and grown-ups. Of course they did. The distinction forms the basis of rites of passage that are as old as human history. A-mazonian initiation rites, Jewish Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, Christian confirmations—all serve the same basic function: to formally announce the end of childhood and the assumption of new duties and freedoms. It’s a mistake, though, to confuse maturity with adulthood. The maturity celebrated in traditional rites of passage is not the same thing as the idea of adulthood hatched a century ago by a group of Victorian clergymen and society ladies. Maturity is old. “Adulthood” is new.1.According to the passage, Peter Pan culture is probably a phenomenon that A.people cast away their childish pursuits once they grow up.B.people indulge in foods and games from their childhood.C.people still act in a childish way when they are adults.D.people hang on to their adult interests and attitudes.正确答案:C解析:事实细节题。
考研时文阅读(33)实体商场从网络商家手中极力挽回消费者(2011-04-15 20:30:24)转载标签:黄涛考研时文阅读教育分类:阅读篇Bricks-and-mortar shops struggle to win customers back from virtual ones实体商场从网络商家手中极力挽回消费者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 favor 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 initiative.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 totaled $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 defunct-jewellery-maker known for its gem-encrusted eggs, re-launched 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 position to 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 Target, 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成的几率较去年高。
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Target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。