2012经济学院复试专业英语【吐槽+给后人分享+攒RP】

buckssss · 发表于 2012-3-27 22:26

本帖最后由 buckssss 于 2012-3-27 22:28 编辑

写在前面的闲扯……
这专英真的是让人纠结，昨儿晚上还在研究欧债的各种词汇还有人民币市场化相关的词和文章，结果居然出了一篇这么bug的文章，开始没觉得多难，A4纸正反各一面，第一个半小时就翻译到了反面，结果一“淡定”第二面翻译完就只有一刻钟了，所以考试千万不能太high……

这个翻译是70分，还有三十分的两道题的英语回答，第一题10分，第二题20分……

闲扯结束，祝各位好运【金融专硕七点才复试完的表示饥饿的赶脚压力真大】

PS:后头的两个问题实在是想不清了……毕竟迷迷糊糊考完又复试早忘到九霄云外了……欢迎各位补充

===================我是dt的复试完事儿的纠结的无语的没事儿干的分割线=======================

Marathon machine
马拉松机器

Unskilled workers are struggling to keep up with technological change
非技术工人正在努力跟上技术变革

THE rich world’s crisis of unemployment would be painful enough on its own, but it comes on the heels of a generation of labour-market stagnation. Growth in inflation-adjusted incomes in the rich world slowed sharply as early as the 1970s. In America, median household income has actually fallen since 1999. Economic growth continues, but not all see the rewards. By some estimates, the top 1% of American earners captured 58% of the country’s economic growth between 1976 and 2007.

富国的就业危机本身就够痛苦的了，偏偏这又发生在一场长达二十年左右的劳动力市场停滞之后。早在上世纪70年代，富国剔除通胀后的收益增长就已急剧放缓。实际上美国家庭收入的中位数自1999年也在下降。经济还在持续增长，但增长的成果未能得以共享。有人估计，从1976年到2007年美国经济增长的58%被1%的高端工薪阶层获取了。

Scapegoats, from crony capitalists to foreign-currency manipulators, are in no short supply, but technology is increasingly fingered as a culprit. Some economists reckon the problem with technology is that there is too little of it. Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University, says in a recent e-book that a “great stagnation” is under way. The gains from the big inventions of previous eras—electricity, jet engines and antibiotics, for example—are now exhausted, and new, comparable innovations are exceedingly rare. Fewer grand inventions mean less productivity growth and a slower improvement in living standards.

从裙带资本主义者到外国货币操控者，这种危机从来都不乏替罪羊，而技术日渐成为千夫所指。一些经济学家认为，所谓技术问题在于技术太少。最近，乔治梅森大学的经济学家泰勒•考文在他的一本电子书中表示，一场“大规模的停滞”已经开始。前些时代那些伟大发明(如电、发动机和抗生素)给人类带来的福音现已消耗殆尽，而新的、可与之相媲美的伟大发明却少之又少。这些伟大发明少了，生产率的提高、人们的生活水平的改善就变得缓慢了。

It is a troubling diagnosis, but not the only one available. Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist, and Andrew McAfee, a technology expert, argue in their new e-book, “Race Against the Machine”, that too much innovation is the bane of struggling workers. Progress in information and communication technology (ICT) may be occurring too fast for labour markets to keep up.Such a revolution ought to be obvious enough to dissuade others from writing about stagnation. But Messrs Brynjolfsson and McAfee argue that because the growth is exponential, it is deceptive in its pace.

这一“诊断”结果令人不安，但令人不安的诊断结果还不止这一个。经济学家艾立克•布林约尔弗森和技术专家安德鲁•麦凯菲在他们最近合并的一本电子书《与机器赛跑》中表示，太多的创新是让劳动者疲于奔命的罪魁祸首。信息通信技术发展过快，大大超过劳动力市场上人们的适应能力。这一革新应该是显而易见的，从而足以打消其他人撰写技术停滞话题文章的念头，然而，布林约尔弗森和麦凯菲两位先生认为，因为技术呈几何级增长，因此它的速度具有欺骗性。

Progress in many areas of ICT follows Moore’s law, they write, which suggests that circuit performance should double every 1-2 years. In the early years of the ICT revolution, during the flat part of the exponential curve, progress seemed interesting but limited in its applications. As doublings accumulate, however, and technology moves into the steep part of the exponential curve, great leaps become possible. Technological feats such as self-driving cars and voice-recognition and translation programmes, not long ago a distant hope, are now realities. Further progress may generate profound economic change, they say. ICT is a “general purpose technology”, like steam-power or electrification, able to affect businesses in all industries.

他们在书中写道，按照摩尔定律，电子线路的性能每1-2年将增强一倍，信息通信技术很多领域的发展都遵循着摩尔定律。在信息通信技术革命的早期，指数曲线处于水平阶段，那时的技术进步非常有趣但应用有限。然而，随着加倍速度越来越快，技术到了指数曲线的陡增阶段，其跳跃式发展成为可能。无人驾驶汽车、语音识别和翻译程序等技术性成就，不久前还是一个遥远的梦想，现在已成现实。他们表示，更大的进步可能创造更加深远的经济变革。信息通信技术就像蒸汽机或电气化一样，是一种通用技术，能够影响到所有的行业。

Watson, the IBM supercomputer which dazzled audiences in throttling human competition on the game show “Jeopardy!”, is now being adapted for use in medical diagnoses. Autonomous vehicles, such as the Google creations that have logged some 140,000 miles on American roads, could make transport dramatically cheaper, safer and more efficient. The long-awaited wonders of the space age may finally be at hand.

在智力竞赛节目《危险边缘》中，IBM的超级计算机“沃森”遏制了人类挑战，令观众感到目眩。现在，这种计算机正被改造用以医疗诊断。谷歌创造的无人驾驶汽车在美国的道路上行驶了14万公里，能够使交通成本骤降，而且安全、效率更高。太空时代等待已久的奇迹也许近在咫尺。

There will also be growing pains. Technology allows firms to offshore back-office tasks, for instance, or replace cashiers with automated kiosks. Powerful new systems may threaten the jobs of those who felt safe from technology. Pattern-recognition software is used to do work previously accomplished by teams of lawyers. Programmes can do a passable job writing up baseball games, and may soon fill parts of newspaper sections (those not sunk by free online competition). Workers are displaced, but businesses are proving slow to find new uses for the labour made available. Those left unemployed or underemployed are struggling to retrain and catch up with the new economy’s needs.

但痛苦相伴而来。比如，技术进步使后勤工作可外包海外，技术进步可以使用自动售货机取代收银员。过去有些人因技术进步而感到安全，现在他们的工作受到新系统强有力的挑战。模式识别软件可以完成原先需由律师团队才能完成的工作；一些程序也能把棒球赛的报道写得像模像样，也许不久它们将成为报界（没有被免费的在线竞争者击败的那些人）的成员。工人不断被新技术所替代，而企业接纳这些劳动力的速度缓慢。那些失业和半失业的人们正努力接受再培训，以紧跟新经济发展的需要。

As a result, the labour force is polarising. Many of those once employed as semi-skilled workers are now fighting for low-wage jobs. Change has been good for those at the very top. Whereas real wages have been falling or flat for most workers, they have increased for those who have advanced degrees. Owners of capital have also benefited. They have enjoyed big gains from the increased returns on investments in equipment. Technology is allowing the best performers in many fields, such as superstar entertainers, to dominate global markets, crowding out those even slightly less skilled. And technology has yet to cut costs for health care, or education. Much of the rich world’s workforce has been squeezed on two sides, by stagnant wages and rising costs.

结果，劳动力表现出极化的现象。很多曾以半技术性受雇的劳动者还在为一份低薪拼命工作，高端人才却享受着技术变革带来的好处。大多数工人的实际工资一直在下降或保持不变，而那些高学历人士的工资却已增加。资本拥有者也可从中获益，他们享受着从设备投资中获得的高额回报。技术进步使巨星艺人等很多领域的佼佼者能够统领全球市场、将那些技术稍逊的同行排挤出去。技术进步还能降低医疗保健和教育成本。富国的劳动力大多遭遇双重压力：劳动薪酬积年不变，生活成本节节攀升。

Rage against the machines
对机器的愤怒

A similarly bleak view inspired acolytes of Ned Ludd to smash mechanical looms. Still, the industrial revolution ultimately improved the living standards of workers of all skill levels. It would be surprising if progress in ICT did not do the same. Messrs Brynjolfsson and McAfee emphasise the importance of educational reform and investment in helping workers adapt. Big gains may arrive as firms find better ways to use new technologies. As a new paper by Tim Leunig and Joachim Voth explains, process innovations may be as valuable as inventions themselves.

与此相似的暗淡前景激怒了奈德•卢德的追随者们，他们怒砸纺织机械。但工业革命最终提高了所有技术层次工人的生活水平。如果信息通信技术做不到这一点，那将是一件奇怪的事情。布林约尔弗森和麦凯菲两位先生强调了教育改革以及投资帮助工人提高适应能力的重要性。当公司找到新技术使用的更好方法时可能获得巨大收益。就像由Tim Leunig 和 Joachim Voth两位最近合作的一篇论文中所解释的那样，工艺革新可能与发明本身一样有价值。

Henry Ford didn’t invent the car, but his moving assembly line led to dramatic declines in car prices and produced a gain to consumers equivalent to about 2% of GDP in 1923. More ICT in sectors such as education and health care could similarly generate significant gains for consumers. As Messrs Leunig and Voth note, falling car prices led to a surge in American car sales, from 64,000 in 1908 to 3.6m in 1923. This leap allowed Ford to employ hundreds of thousands of workers in its factories. A golden age of manufacturing is unlikely to return, but Messrs Brynjolfsson and McAfee reckon that matters aren’t hopeless for those without PhDs (a great relief). They describe “freestyle” chess tournaments in which teams of amateur chess players using computers are able to beat both powerful computers and human grandmasters. The human brain is an impressive and dexterous organ. It would be strange indeed if markets, given room to experiment with new technologies, couldn’t devise ways to combine man and machine in fruitful—and profitable—new ways.

亨利•福特没有发明汽车，但他的移动装配线使得汽车价格大大降低，1923年为消费者创造的收益相当于GDP的2%。更多信息通信技术在教育、医疗保健等领域的使用同样能为消费者带来重大收益。正如Leunig 和Voth 所述，车价降低极大地拉动了美国的汽车消费，汽车销售从1908年的6.4万辆激增到1923年的360万辆。这种飞跃使福特生产厂能够安置数十万工人就业。制造业的黄金时代可能一去不复返了，但布林约尔弗森和麦凯菲两位先生预计，对于那些没有博士学位的人们来说，并未到毫无希望的境地（这是一个极大的安慰）。他们记述了一种自由式的棋类比赛，比赛中，使用电脑的业余队的选手们能够打败强劲的电脑和人类大师。人脑是一个让人钦佩的灵巧器官。如果给以实验新技术的空间，而市场创造不出卓有成效的（并且有利可图的）将人与机器联系起来的新方法，那倒是一件奇怪的事情。