2014年考研英语阅读真题
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In order to “change lives for the better” and reduce “dependency,” George Osbome,Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced the “upfront work search” scheme. Only if the jobless arrive at the job centre with a register for online job search, and start looking for work will they be eligible for benefit-and then they should report weekly rather than fortnightly. What could be more reasonable?
为了“让生活变得更美好”以及减少“依赖”，英国财政大臣乔治•奥斯本引入了“求职预付金”计划。只有当失业者带着简历到就业中心，注册在线求职并开始找工作，才有资格获得补助金——然后他们应该每周而非每两周报告一次。有什么比这更合理呢？
More apparent reasonableness followed. There will now be a seven-day wait for the jobseeker’s allowance. “Those first few days should be spent looking for work, not looking to sign on.” he claimed. “We’re doing these things because we know they help people sa y off benefits and help those on benefits get into work faster” Help? Really? On first hearing, this was the socially concerned chancellor, trying to change lives for the better, complete with “reforms” to an obviously indulgent system that demands too little effort from the newly unemployed to find work, and subsides laziness. What motivated him, we were to understand, was his zeal for “fundamental fairness”-protecting the taxpayer, controlling spending and ensuring that only the most deserving claimants received their benefits.
更加明显的合理性如下。现在领取求职者补贴要等待七天。“这前几天应该用来找工作，而不是办理失业登记（以获得救济金）。”他说，“我们这样做是因为我们知道，这样会帮助人们摆脱补助并让依赖补助的人尽快就业。”帮助？真的吗？乍一听，这是位关心社会的大臣，他努力改善人们的生活，包括对一个明显放纵的体系的“改革”，这个体系不要求新失业者付出多少努力去找工作，为其懒惰埋单。我们将会知道，激励他的是他对“基本的公正”的热诚——保护纳税人，控制花费以及确保只有最值得帮助的申请者才能得到补助金。
Los ing a job is hurting: you don’t skip down to the job centre with a song in your heart, delighted at the prospect of doubling your income from the generous state. It is financially terrifying psychologically embarrassing and you know that support is minimal and extraordinarily hard to get. You are now not wanted; you support is minimal and extraordinarily hard to get. You are now not wanted; you are now excluded from the work environment that offers purpose and structure in your life. Worse, the crucial income to feed yourself and your family and pay the bills has disappeared. Ask anyone newly unemployed what they want and the answer is always: a job.
失业是痛苦的：你不会内心歌唱并跳跃着到就业中心去，为从这个慷慨国度得到加倍收入的前景而欣喜。在经济上它令人生畏，在心理感到难堪，并且你还知道那种扶持的微薄和非常难以得到。现在没人需要你；你现在被排除在工作环境之外，那里会给予你人生的目标和体制。更糟糕的是，失去了用以养家糊口和支付账单的至关重要的收入。问任何新失业者他们想要什么，答案永远是：一份工作。
But in Osborne land, your first instinct is to fall into dependency- permanent dependency if you can get it-supported by a state only too ready to indulge your falsehood. It is as though 20 years of ever- tougher reforms of the job search and benefit administration system never happened. The principle of British welfare is no longer that you can insure yourself against the risk of unemployment and receive unconditional payments if the disaster happens. Even the very phrase ‘jobseeker’s allowance’invented in 1996- is about redefining the unemployed as a “jobseeker” who had no mandatory right to a benefit he or she has earned through making national
