英语四级真题阅读理解

Passage1

Reading leadership literature, you’d sometimes think that everyone has the potential to be an effective leader. 读领导文学，你有时会认为每个人都有可能成为一个有效的领导者。

I don’t believe that to be true. In fact, I see way fewer truly effective leaders than I see people stuck in positions of leadership who arc sadly incompetent and seriously misguided about their own abilities. 我不相信这是真的。事实上，我认为真正有效的领导者的方式比我看到的人都陷在领导的职位上，遗憾的是他们自己的能力不称职，严重误导了他们。

Part of the reason this happens is a lack of honest self-assessment by those who aspire to（追求）leadership in the first place. 对产生这种现象的原因一部分是由那些渴望缺乏诚实的自我评估（追求）放在首位的领导

We've all met the type of individual who simply must take charge. Whether it's a decision-making session, a basketball game, or a family outing, they can't help grabbing the lead dog position and clinging on to it for dear life. They believe they're natural born leaders.

我们都遇到了个人的类型，他们必须负责。无论是决策会议，篮球比赛，还是家庭外出，他们都不能不抓住领导的狗的地位，并紧紧抓住它，因为亲爱的生命。他们相信他们是天生的领袖。

Truth is, they're nothing of the sort. True leaders don't assume that it's their divine（神圣的）right to take charge every time two or more people get together. Quite the opposite. A great leader will assess each situation on its merits, and will only take charge when their position, the situation, and/or the needs of the moment demand it.

事实是，他们没有什么样的。真正的领导者不认为这是他们的神圣（神圣的）负责每次两个或两个以上的人在一起吧。恰恰相反。一个伟大的领导者会对每一个情况进行评估，并在他们的位置、情况和/或需要的情况下，只会负责。

Many business executives confuse leadership with action. They believe that constant motion somehow generates leadership as a byproduct. Faced with any situation that can’t be solved by the sheer force of activity, they generate a dust cloud of impatience. Their one leadership tool is volume: if they think you aren't working as hard as they think you should, their demands become increasingly louder and harsher.

许多企业高管把领导与行动混为一谈。他们认为，不断运动以某种程度上产生领导的副产品。面对任何无法解决的纯粹的力量的情况，他们产生了一个不耐烦的尘埃云。他们的一个领导的工具是量：如果他们认为你不做他们认为你应该努力，他们的要求越来越高和严厉的。

True leaders un derstand the value of action, of course, but it isn’t their only tool. In fact, it isn’t ever their primary tool. Great leaders see more than everyone else: answers, solutions, patterns, problems, opportunities. They know it’s vitally important to do, but they also know that thinking, understanding, reflection and interpretation are equally important.

真正的领导者明白行动的价值，当然，但这不是他们唯一的工具。事实上，它不是他们的主要工具。伟大领袖们看到的比其他人更多：答案、解决方案、模式、问题、机会。他们知道这是非常重要的，但他们也知道，思想，理解，反思和解释同样重要

If you're too concerned with outcomes to the extent that you manipulate and intimidate others to achieve those outcomes, then you aren't leading at all, you're dictating. A true leader is someone who develops his or her team so that they can and do hit their targets and achieve their goals.

如果你太关注结果的程度，你的操纵和恐吓他人来达到这些目标，那么你不是领导时，你决定。一个真正的领导者是一个发展他或她的团队的人，这样他们就可以打他们的目标，达到他们的目标。

Passage2

Have you ever felt your mind falling into disorder after a sleepless night You couldn’t come up with an original thought no matter how hard you tried.

你有过一个无眠的夜晚，你是否感到你的精神陷入混乱不管你怎么努力，你都不能想出一个原创的想法。

You were probably right if you thought that was caused by a lack of sleep. Dr. Horne, a sleep researcher in England, studied 24 college students. One group got their normal eight hours of sleep. The other group didn’t get the smallest amount of sleep ——they stayed awake all night. The next day, Dr. Horne tested the students. He asked them questions that required creative and original thinking. One of the questions was “How many uses can a cardboard box be put to”

你可能是对的，如果你认为这是由于缺乏睡眠造成的。Horne博士，在英国睡眠研究者研究了24名大学生。一组八小时的睡眠正常。另一组人没有得到最小的睡眠，他们整夜都睡不着觉。次日，测试的学生。他要求他们提出的问题，需要创造性和创造性思维。其中的一个问题是“有多少用纸板箱可以装

The result The wide-awake students did well on the test .The tired students did poorly.结果考试大的学生考得很好，累的学生成绩不好。

Research has already shown that tired people can do OK on tests of habitual thinking, like simple addition. But Dr. Horne tested creative thinking only.

研究已经表明，疲劳的人可以做测试的习惯性思维，如简单的加法。但是，测试创造性思维只有。

As part of his study, he offered an amount of money as a reward to the sleepy students if they did well. But even this encouragement w asn’t enough to help the students conquer their tiredness. They did poorly. Dr. Horne believes that the part of the brain where thinking takes place may get worn out during waking hours. Sleep may help to repair the brain. “Without any sleep,” he emphasized, “even if you pay closer attention, you cannot do better.” 作为他的研究的一部分，他提供了一个数额的钱，作为奖励给困倦的学生，如果他们做得很好。但即使是这种鼓励也不足以帮助学生克服疲劳。他们做得很差。霍恩博士认为发生在思维的那部分大脑会磨损在醒着的时候。睡眠可能有助于修复大脑。“没有任何睡眠，”他强调，“即使你付出更密切的关注，你也不能做得更好。”

This study gives people something to think about, especially people like hospital workers who must stay awake all night and then make quick decisions.

这项研究给人们一些思考，特别是像医院工作者的工作人员必须保持清醒，并作出快速决定。

Passage3

Researchers have established that when people are mentally engaged, biochemical changes occur in the brain that allow it to act more effectively in cognitive（认知的）areas such as attention and memory. This is true regardless of age. 研究人员发现，当人们心理活动时，大脑中发生的生化变化，使它在认知活动更为有效（认知的）等方面的注意和记忆。这是真实的，不论年龄。

People will be alert (警觉的) and receptive (接受能力强的) if they are faced with information that gets them to think about things they are interested in. And someone with a history of doing more rather than less will go into old age more cognitively sound than someone who has not had an active mind. 人们将警报（警觉的）和接受（接受能力强的）如果他们面对的信息使他们思考自己感兴趣的事物。有人用历史做更多而不是更少的进入老年的人比没有活跃的思维认知的声音。

Many experts are so convinced of the benefits of challenging the brain that they are putting the theory to work in their own lives. “The idea is not necessarily to learn to memorize enormous amounts of information,” says James Fozard, associate director of the National Institute on Aging. “Most of us don't need that kind of skill. Such specific training is of less interest than being able to maintain mental alertness.” Fozard and others say they challenge their brains with different mental skills, both because they enjoy them and because they are sure that their range of activities will help the way their brains work. 许多专家都这么认为，他们在给自己的生活中工作，挑战他们的大脑的好处。“是不是一定要学会记忆大量的信息，说：”杰姆斯Fozard国立老化研究所的副所长。我们中的大多数人都不需要这种技能。这种特别的培训比能够保持精力充沛，不感兴趣。”Fozard和其他人说他们挑战他们的大脑不同的心智技能，这是因为他们喜欢他们，因为他们相信他们的活动范围将有助于他们的大脑的工作方式。

Gene Cohen, acting director of the same institute, suggests that people in their old age should engage in mental and physical activities individually as well as in groups. Cohen says that we are frequently advised to keep physically active as we age, but older people need to keep mentally active as well. Those who do are more likely to maintain their intellectual abilities and to be generally happier and better adjusted. "The point is, you need to do both," Cohen says, “intellectual activity actually influences brain-cell health and size.”

基因科恩，同一研究所的代理主任，建议在他们的老年人应该从事的精神和身体活动，以及个人的团体。科恩说，我们经常被建议保持身体活跃，因为我们的年龄，但老年人需要保持精神上积极的。那些做的是更可能保持自己的智力能力和更幸福和更好的调整。”“这一点是，你需要做的，”科恩说，“智力活动实际上影响了脑细胞的健康和大小。”

Passage 4

English is one of the great thieves. It is constantly borrowing. It started out taking words from Latin, Greek, French, and German.英语是一个伟大的小偷。这是不断借。它开始从拉丁语，希腊语，法语和德语中取词。

Then English went on to borrow words from more than 50 different languages. From Italian, it took cameo, stanza, and violin, for example. From Spanish and Portuguese, it borrowed the words alligator, canyon, and sombrero. From Native Americans, it got raccoon and wigwam. Peru contributed llama and quinine. The Caribbean islands gave English barbecue and cannibal. From Africa came chimpanzee and zebra, from India came bandanna, curry, and punch, and from Australia came kangaroo and boomerang.然后，英语就从50多个不同的语言借用了词汇。来自意大利，花浮雕，节，和小提琴，例如。从西班牙和葡萄牙，它借用了鳄鱼，峡谷的话，和草帽。从土著美国人，它得到了浣熊和棚屋。秘鲁贡献了骆驼和奎宁。加勒比群岛给英语烧烤和食人族。从非洲来的黑猩猩和斑马线，从印度来的大手帕，咖喱，和冲床，和从澳大利亚来的袋鼠和飞镖。

Science caused an explosion in words. Some words in science combine parts of Greek and Latin words. They include penicillin, stethoscope, and supersonic. Others were borrowed from languages spoken today. Robot comes from a Czech word.引起爆炸的话。科学的一些词结合起来的希腊和拉丁词的部分。他们包括青霉素、听诊器、超声。其他人被借用的语言今天发言。机器人来自捷克词语。

The English language has been stealing words for more than 1,500 years. The most complete dictionary of the English language contains a whopping 600,000 words. 英语的语言已经超过1500年了。最全的英语词典包含了600000个字。

Passage 5

There is no doubt that a common language used throughout the world would do much to bring countries closer to each other. Though it is becoming increasingly easy to move from place to place, our inability to communicate with one another gives rise to numerous misunderstandings and makes real contact between people of differing nationalities impossible. Many attempts have been made to overcome this problem and they have all failed. The fear of foreign influence and domination rules out the universal acceptance of any one of the existing major languages. Aware of this difficulty, many linguists have constructed artificial languages which could have no possible political overtones. They have argued that a language of this sort would perform much the same service as Latin did in the Middle Ages.毫无疑问，世界上使用的一种通用语言，可以使各国彼此接近。虽然它变得越来越容易从地方移动到地方，我们无法与人沟通，产生了许多误解，使不同民族的人之间的真正接触不可能。许多尝试已经克服了这个问题，他们都失败了。外国势力和统治的恐惧，排除了普遍接受的任何一个现有的主要语言。意识到这一困难，许多语言学家人工语言，不可能有可能的政治色彩。他们认为，这种语言的一种语言，将履行与拉丁在中世纪的相同的服务。

Although linguists succeeded in making their artificial languages extremely simple so that they would be easy to learn, their efforts seemed doomed from the start. The reason for this is that there is no real incentive to learn an artificial language. There is nothing to guarantee that everybody is willing to make the effort; there is no assurance that the learner will have any adequate return for his toil. When people today undertake to learn a foreign language, they are not interested only in speaking it. Mastery of a language makes available to the learner a great deal of worthwhile literature and many current publications. This is the biggest stumbling-block of all for the artificially-constructed tongue. Having no literature of its own, all it can offer is a limited of translations, which are valueless in themselves. Nor can it acquire any literature; for it would have to be used for a great many generations before this could become possible. Moreover, constant use over a long period would bring into being many 'national' dialects and the language would thus defeat its own purpose.虽然语言学家们成功地使他们的人工语

言非常简单，所以他们很容易学，他们的努力似乎从一开始就注定了。之所以这样，是没有真正的动机去学习一种人工语言。没有任何东西能保证每个人都愿意付出努力，学习者将有足够的回报为自己的辛勤工作是没有保证的。当人们今天进行外语学习时，他们不感兴趣。掌握一种语言，使学习者获得大量的有价值的文献和许多当前的出版物。这是所有人为构造的舌头的最大障碍。没有自己的文学作品，它可以是一个有限的翻译，这是没有价值的自己。它也不可能获得任何文学作品，因为在这一可能成为可能的前几代人将要使用它。此外，长期的使用会带来许多“国家”的方言和语言，从而击败它自己的目的。

Another serious objection is the fact that a language is shaped by use and not by design. It is a living thing which is forever growing and changing. It takes hundreds of years before it can acquire richness and depth. In an artificial language, however, the meanings of words are rigidly defined. Inflexibility makes for an absence of subtlety, so that no really fine meaning can be conveyed. Though this quality might be admirable for scientific publications, it greatly impedes the formation of any significant literature. Latin was ideal in this respect, for it was a 'dead' language with a literature; an artificial one is 'dead' from the start. This makes it likely that existing language barriers will remain with us for a very long time.另一个严重的反对意见是一种语言是由使用而不是设计。它是一种生活的东西，它永远在成长和改变。它需要数百年才能获得丰富和深度。然而，在人工语言中，词的含义是严格定义的。缺乏灵活性，使微妙的缺失，所以没有很好的传达意思。虽然这种质量可能是令人钦佩的科学出版物，它大大阻碍了任何重要的文献的形成。拉丁语在这方面是理想的，因为这是一种“死”的语言，一种文学作品，一种是从一开始就“死”的。这使得它可能存在的语言障碍将留在我们很长一段时间。

Passage 6

If you want to stay young, sit down and have a good think. This is the research finding of a team of Japanese doctors, who say that most of our brains are not getting enough exercise---and as a result, we are aging unnecessarily soon.如果你想保持年轻，坐下来好好想想。这是一组日本医生的研究结果，他说，大部分大脑都没有得到足够的锻炼，因此我们很快就不必要了。

Professor Taiju Matsuzawa wanted to find out why otherwise healthy farmers in northern Japan appeared to be losing their ability to think and reason at a relatively early age, and how the process of aging could be slowed down.教授想找出为什么日本北部的健康农民失去了他们认为在相对年轻的年龄和能力的原因，如何减缓衰老过程的方法。

With a team of colleagues at Tokyo National University, he set about measuring brain volumes of a thousand people of different ages and varying

occupations.他在东京国立大学的一组同事中，对一千名不同年龄和不同职业的人进行了大脑体积的测量。

Computer technology enabled the researchers to obtain precise measurements of the volume of the front and side sections of the brain, which relate to intellect (智能) and emotion, and determine the human character. (The rear section of the brain, which controls functions like eating and breathing, does not contract with age, and one can continue living without intellectual or emotional faculties.)计算机技术帮助研究人员获得了大脑前部和侧面部分的容量的精确测量，其中涉及到智力（智能）和情感，决定着人的性格。（大脑的后部，它控制着进食和呼吸等功能，不与年龄增长，人们可以继续生活在没有智力或情绪的能力。）

Contraction of front and side parts---as cells die off---was observed in some subjects in their thirties, but it was still not evident in some sixty-and seventy-year-olds.前部和侧部的---收缩随着细胞的死亡在三十多岁时就能观察到一些人，但仍没有明显一些六十、七十岁。

Matsuzawa concluded from his tests that there is a simple remedy to the contraction normally associated with age---using the head. Matsuzawa从他的测试有一个简单的补救办法通常与年龄相关的收缩---用头。

The findings show in general terms that contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country than in the towns. Those least at risk, says Matsuzawa, are lawyers, followed by university professors and doctors. While collar workers doing routine work in government offices are, however, are likely to have shrinking brains as the farm worker, bus driver and shop assistant.研究结果表明，在全国的人比在城镇的大脑开始收缩的一般条款。那些最危险，松泽说，是律师，其次是大学教授和医生。然而，尽管在政府部门做日常工作的白领很可能会像农场工人、公共汽车司机和商店店员一样有大脑萎缩的大脑。

Matsuzawa’s findings show that thinking can prevent the brain from shrinking. Blood must circulate properly in the head to supply the fresh oxygen the brain cells need. “The best way to maintain good blood circulation is throug h using the brain,” he says, “Think hard and engage in conversation. Don’t rely on pocket calculators.”的调查显示思考可以防止大脑萎缩。血液必须在头部循环，以供应新鲜的氧气，脑细胞需要。他说：“保持良好的血液循环的最好方法是用大脑，”他说，“想一想，并进行交谈。不要依赖于袖珍计算器。”

Passage 7

Across the rich world, well-educated people increasingly work longer than the less-skilled. Some 65% of American men aged 62-74 with

a professional degree are in the workforce, compared with 32% of men with only a high-school certificate. This gap is part of a deepening divide between the well-educated well-off and the unskilled poor. Rapid technological advance has raised the incomes of the highly skilled while squeezing those of the unskilled. The consequences, for individuals and society, are profound.在富裕的世界，受过良好教育的人们的工作时间比不那么熟练的人要长。约65%的美国男性老年62-74拥有专业学位的在职场中，与只有高中文凭的人相比，32%。这一差距是一个不断加深的鸿沟之间的良好的教育小康和不熟练的穷人。快速的技术进步提高了高技术水平的收入，同时也提高了非技术性的。对个人和社会的影响是深远的。

The world is facing an astonishing rise in the number of old people. And they will live longer than ever before. Over the next 20 years the global population of those aged 65 or more will almost double, from 600 million to billion. The experience of the 20th century, when greater longevity (长寿) translated into more years in retirement rather than more years at work, has persuaded many observers that this shift will lead to slower economic growth, while the swelling ranks of pensioners will create government budget problems.世界正面临着一个惊人的增长，在老百姓的数量。他们将比以往任何时候都活得更长。在未来20年中，65岁以上的人口将几乎翻一倍，从6亿岁到11亿岁。第二十世纪的经验，当更长寿（长寿）转化为退休后的生活而不是工作中的更多时间，很多观察家认为这一转变将导致经济增长放缓，而激增的养老金将建立政府预算问题。

But the notion of a sharp division between the working young and the idle old misses a new trend, the growing gap between the skilled and the unskilled. Employment rates are falling among younger unskilled people, whereas older skilled folk are working longer. The divide is most extreme in America, where well-educated baby-boomers (二战后生育高峰期出生的美国人) are putting off retirement while many less-skilled younger people have dropped out of the workforce.但在工作的年轻人和空闲的老错过了一个新的趋势，技术和非技术之间的差距不断扩大的概念的概念。年轻的非技术人群中的就业率正在下降，而老年人则在工作时间更长。分歧最明显的是美国，在那里受过良好教育的婴儿潮一代（二战后生育高峰期出生的美国人）正在推迟退休，而许多缺乏技能的年轻人已经退出了劳动力大军。

Policy is partly responsible. Many European governments have abandoned policies that used to encourage people to retire early. Rising life expectancy(预期寿命), combined with the replacement of generous defined-benefit pension plans with less generous defined-contribution ones, means that even the better-off must work longer to have a comfortable retirement. But the changing nature of work also plays a big role. Pay has risen sharply for the highly educated, and those people continue to reap rich rewards into old age because these days the educated elderly are more productive than the preceding generation. Technological change

may well reinforce that shift: the skills that complement computers, from management knowhow to creativity, do not necessarily decline with age.政策部分责任。许多欧洲国家的政府已经放弃了鼓励人们提前退休的政策。预期寿命的上升（预期寿命），加之慷慨的养老金计划和固定缴费的更换，就意味着更好的工作时间必须有一个舒适的退休生活。但工作的性质的变化也发挥了很大作用。为受过高等教育的人支付的工资已经急剧上升，而那些继续从老年人中获得丰厚回报的人，因为这些天受教育的老年人比前一代人更有生产力。技术上的变化会增强这一趋势：技能：计算机的补充，从管理技术创新，不一定会随着年龄的增长而下降。

Passage 8

Some of the world’s most significant problems never hit headlines. One example comes from agriculture. Food riots and hunger make news. But the trend lying behind these matters is rarely talked about. This is the decline in the growth in yields of some of the world’s major crops. A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal looks at where, and how far, this decline is occurring. 一些世界上最重要的问题从未得到重视。一个例子来自农业。粮食骚乱和饥饿成为新闻。但在这些问题背后的趋势很少被讨论。那就是一些世界主要作物产量增长减缓。明尼苏达大学和蒙特利尔麦克吉尔大学的一项新研究着眼于这种下降所发生的地点及程度。

The authors take a vast number of data points for the four most important crops: rice, wheat, corn and soyabeans(大豆). They find that on between 24% and 39% of all harvested areas, the improvement in yields that took place before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990s and 2000s. 作者大量研究了四种最重要的作物的数据：水稻、小麦、玉米和大豆（大豆）。他们发现，在24%-39%的收获区域之间，20世纪80年代的产量增长快于20世纪

90年代和21世纪。

There are two worrying features of the slowdown. One is that it has been particularly sharp in the world’s most populous(人口多的)countries, India and China. Their ability to feed themselves has been an important source of relative stability both within the countries and on world food markets. That self-sufficiency cannot be taken for granted if yields continue to slow down or reverse. 这种增长减缓有两个令人担忧的特点，一个特点在世界上人口最多的国家—印度和中国—最为明显，两国自给自足能力是国内和国际粮食市场稳定的根源。如果粮食产量增长减缓或者下降，这种自给自足能力不能理所当然。

Second, yield growth has been lower in wheat and rice than in corn and soybeans. This is problematic because wheat and rice are more important as foods, accounting for around half of all calories consumed. Corn and soyabeans are more important as feed grains. The authors note

that “we have preferentially focused our cr op improvement efforts on feeding animals and cars rather than on crops that feed people and are the basis of food security in much of the world.” 第二，小麦和水稻的产量增长比玉米和大豆的慢。这是病态的因为小麦和玉米是更重要的食物，占所有消耗卡路里的一半。玉米和大豆是更重要的饲料谷物。作者注意到“我们更喜欢把精力放在提升饲养动物和发动汽车的作物产量方面，而不是注重提高供人吃的作物产量方面，供人食用的作物是世界粮食产量的基础。”

The report qualifies the more optimistic findings of another new paper which suggests that the world will not have to dig up a lot more land for farming in order to feed 9 billion people in 2050, as the Food and Agriculture Organisation has argued. 这个报告为另一篇论文更乐观的发现提供了依据，世界食物和农业组织提出，2050年，人们要开发更多土地耕种以养活90亿人，该论文表明，这是错误的。

Instead, it says, thanks to slowing population growth, land currently ploughed up for crops might be able to revert(回返)to forest or could happen. The trouble is that the forecast assumes continued improvements in yields, which may not actually happen.

相反，由于人口增长缓慢，当下耕种作物的土地可能会回返为森林或者荒地。这是可能发生的。问题是，人们所预料的产量增长可能不会发生。

Passage 9

In 1939 two brothers, Mac and Dick McDonald, started a drive-in restaurant in San Bernadino, California. They carefully chose a busy corner for their location. They had run their own businesses for years, first a theater, then a barbecue（烤肉）restaurant, and then another drive-in. But in their new operation, they offered a new, shortened menu: French fries, hamburgers, and sodas. To this small selection they added one new concept: quick service, no waiters or waitresses, and no tips. 1939年，两个兄弟，麦克和迪克麦当劳，在加利福尼亚州的San Bernadino开了一家汽车餐馆。他们小心地选择了一个繁忙的角落作为店址。多年来，他们经营自己的企业，首先是个剧场，然后烧烤餐厅，然后是另一家汽车餐馆。但在他们的新餐馆里，他们提供了一个新的、简化了的菜单：炸薯条，汉堡包，和苏打水。他们增加了一个新的概念：快速服务，没有服务员，也没有提示。

Their hamburgers sold for fifteen cents. Cheese was another four cents. Their French fries and hamburgers had a remarkable uniformity, for the brothers had developed a strict routine for the preparation of their food, and they insisted on their cooks' sticking to their routine. Their new drive-in became incredibly popular, particularly for lunch. People drove up by the hundreds during the busy noontime. The self-service restaurant was so popular that the brothers had allowed ten copies of their restaurant to be opened. They were content with this modest success until they met

Ray Kroc. 他们的汉堡包卖了十五美分。奶酪格外加是四美分。他们的薯条和汉堡包有着惊人的一致性，因为兄弟们已经制定了一个严格的日常准备食物流程，他们让他们的厨师坚持这一流程。他们的新餐馆变得非常流行，特别是在午餐。在繁忙的中午，数百人开车前来。这家自助餐厅很受欢迎，兄弟们又开了十家一样的餐厅。他们满足于这小小的成功，直到他们遇到了雷·克罗克内容

Kroc was a salesman who met the McDonald brothers in 1954, when he was selling milk shake-mixing machines. He quickly saw the unique appeal of the brothers' fast-food restaurants and bought the right to franchise （特许经营）other copies of their restaurants. The agreement struck included the right to duplicate the menu, the equipment, even their red and white buildings with the golden arches. 1954年，克罗克是个推销员，他在推销奶昔及其的时候遇见了麦当劳兄弟。他很快看到兄弟的快餐店的独特吸引力和并且买下了餐厅的特许经营权。该协议的权利，包括复制的菜单，设备，甚至包括带金色拱门的红白相间的建筑

Today McDonald's is really a household name. Its names for its sandwiches have come to mean hamburger in the decades since the day Ray Kroc watched people rush up to order fifteen-cent hamburgers. In 1976, McDonald's had over $ 1 billion in total sales. Its first twenty-two years is one of the most incredible success stories in modern American business history.今天麦当劳是个家喻户晓的名字。自从克罗克先生看着人们匆忙订购十五美分的汉堡包，几十年来，麦当劳的三明治已经成为汉堡的别称。在1976，

麦当劳拥有超过10亿美元的总销售额。它的前二十二年是美国现代商业史上最令人难以置信的成功案例之一。

Passage 10

The rise of the Internet has been one of the most transformative developments in human history, comparable in impact to the invention of the printing press and the telegraph. Over two billion people worldwide now have access to vastly more information than ever before, and can communicate with each other instantly, often using Web-connected mobile devices they carry everywhere. But the Internet’s tremendous impacts has only just begun. 互联网的兴起，一直是人类历史上最具变革性的发展之一，与印刷机和电报的发明影响相当。现在，超过二十亿人以往任何时候都有更多的信息，并可以立即与对方进行沟通，经常他们使用随身携带的联网的移动设备，但是互联网的巨大冲击才刚刚开始。

“Mass adoption of the Internet is driving one of the most exciting social, cultural, and political transformations in history, and unlike earlier periods of change, this time the effects are fully global,” Schmidt and Cohen write in their new book. The New Digital Age.

Perhaps the most profound changes will come when the five billion people worldwide who currently lack Internet access get online. The authors do an excellent job of examining the implications of the Internet revolution for individuals, governments, and institutions like the news media. But if the book has one major shortcoming, it’s that authors don’t spend enough time applying a critical eye to the role of Internet businesses in these weeping changes.

In their book, the authors provide the most authoritative volume to date that describes —and more importantly predicts —how the Internet will shape our lives in the coming decades. They paint a picture of a world in which individuals, companies, institutions, and governments must deal with two realities, one physical, and one virtual.

At the core of the book is the idea that “technology is neutral, but people aren’t.” By using this concept as a starting point, the authors aim to move beyond the now familiar optimist vs. pessimist dichotomy (对立观点) that has characterized many recent debates about whether the rise of the Internet will ultimately be good or bad for society. In an interview with TIME earlier this week, Cohen said although he and his co-author are optimistic about many aspects of the Internet, they’re also realistic about the risks and dangers that lie ahead when the next five billion people come online, particularly with respect to personal privacy and state surveillance(监视).

“互联网的大规模普及推动着历史上最令人兴奋的社会、文化和政治变革，不像早期的变化，这一次的影响是全球性的，”施密特和科恩在他们的新书《新数字时代》写道。

或许，当现在无法使用网络的五十亿人能上网时，最深刻的影响将到来。作者做了出色的工作，研究互联网对个人，政府和机构（如新闻媒体）的革命性影响。但如果这本书有一个主要的缺点，那就是作者没有花足够的时间对互联网企业在这些变化中的作用进行批判。

在他们的书中，作者提供了最具权威性的数据量来描述—更重要的是预测—未来几十年互联网将如何塑造我们的生活。他们描绘了一个世界的图景：个人、企业、机构和政府必须应对的两个现实，一个是真实的，一个是虚拟的。

在这本书的核心观念是，“技术是中性的，但人不是“利用这一概念为出发点，旨在超越现在熟悉的乐观者与悲观者二分法（对立观点），最近有关于互联网的崛起最终将对社会有利还是有害的争论，常常可以看到这种对立观点。本周早些时候，科恩在接受《时代周刊》采访时说，虽然他和他的合著者对互联网的很多方面持乐观态度，但是，他们也很现实地看待五十亿人上网的风险和危险，特别是有关个人隐私和国家监督方面。

Passage 11

Good afternoon, and welcome to England. We hope that your visit here will be a pleasant one. Today, I would like to draw your attention to a few of our laws. 下午好，欢迎来到英国。我们希望您在这里的访问将是愉快的。今天，我想提请你注意我们的一些法律。

The first one is about drinking. Now, you may not buy alcohol (酒) in this country if you are under 18 years of age, nor may your friends buy it for you. 首先是关于饮酒。在英国，未满十八岁不能买酒，您的朋友也不能为您买酒。

Secondly, noise. Enjoy yourselves by all means, but please don’t make unnecessary noise, particularly at night. We ask you to respect other people who may wish to be quiet.第二是关于噪音，您可以尽己所能让自己玩得愉快，但是，请不要发出不必要的噪音，尤其是在晚上的时候，我们希望您能尊重那些爱静的人。 Thirdly, crossing the road. Be careful. The traffic moves on the left side of the road in this country. Use pedestrian crossings (人行横道) and do not take any chances when crossing the road. 第三，关于过马路。要注意。在英国，车辆靠左行驶、过马路的时候要走人行横道，不要冒险。

My next point is about litter (throwing away waste material in a public place). It is an offence (违法行为) to drop litter in the street. When you have something to throw away, please put it in your pocket and take it home, or put it in a litter bin. 下面我要讲的是关于垃圾的（在公共场合乱丢废物）。在街上扔垃圾是违法的。当你有东西要扔的时候，请把它放到袋子里带回家，或者扔到垃圾箱里

Finally, as regards smoking, it is against the law to buy cigarettes or tobacco (烟草) if you are under 16 years of age. 最后，关于吸烟，16岁以下买烟卷或者烟草是违法的。

I’d like to finish by saying that if you require any sort of help or assistance, you should contact your local police station, who will be pleased to help you. 最后我要说的是，如果您需要任何帮助，您可以联系当地警察局，他们乐意效劳。

Now, are there any questions

现在，还有问题吗