2009年考研英语阅读理解全文翻

Text1

Habits are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine. “Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting herd,” William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. In the ever-changing 21st century, even the word “habit” carries a negative connotation. So it seems antithetical to talk about habits in the same context as creativity and innovation.

习惯是件有趣的事情。我们无意识间养成了一些习惯，我们的大脑是自动运转的，轻松进入熟知套路所带来的不自觉舒适状态。“这并非选择，而是习惯控制了那些没有思想的人”，这是威廉?华兹华斯（William Wordsworth）19世纪时说的话。在现在这个日新月异的21世纪，甚至习惯这个词本身也带有负面涵义。因此，在创造和革新的背景下来谈论习惯，似乎显得有点矛盾。

But brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks. But don’t bother trying to kill off old habits; once those ruts of procedure are worn into the hippocampus, they’re there to stay. Instead, the new habits we deliberately ingrain into ourselves create parallel pathways that can bypass those old roads.

但大脑研究人员发现，当我们有意识地培养新的习惯的时候，我们创建了平行路径，甚至是全新的脑细胞，可以让我们的思路跳转到新的创新轨道上来。但是，不必费心试图摈弃各种旧习惯；一旦这些程序惯例融进大脑，它们就会留在那里。相反，我们刻意培养的新习惯会创建平行路径能避开原来那些老路。

“The first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder,” says Dawna Markova, author of “The Open Mind” and an executive change consultant for Professional Thinking Partners. “But we are taught instead to ‘decide,’ just as our president calls himself ‘the Decider.’ ” She adds, however, that “to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities.”

《开放思想》一书的作者Dawna Markova说：“革新所需要的第一样东西，就是一种对好奇的着迷。然而我们被教导去做‘决定’，就像我们的总裁称呼自己为‘决策者’那样。”她补充道，“但是，决定意味着否决一切可能性而只保留一种。一个优秀的具有革新精神的思想者总是在探寻许多其它的可能。”

All of us work through problems in ways of which we’re unaware, she says. Researchers in the late 1960 covered that humans are born with the capacity to approach challenges in four primary ways: analytically, procedurally, relationally (or collaboratively) and innovatively. At puberty, however, the brain shuts down half of that capacity, preserving only those modes of thought that have seemed most valuable during the first decade or so of life.

她说，我们都是通过一些自己没有意识到的方法解决问题的。研究人员在20世纪60年代末发现人类天生主要用四种方法应对挑战。这四种方法是分析法，程序法，关联（或合作）法和创新法。但是在青春期结束的时候，大脑关闭一半的能力，仅仅保留了那些大约在生命最开始的十几年时间里似乎是最有价值的思维方式。

The current emphasis on standardized testing highlights analysis and procedure, meaning that few of us inherently use our innovative and collaborative modes of thought. “This breaks the major rule in the American belief system — that anyone can do anything,” explains M. J. Ryan, author of the 2006 book “This Year I Will...” and Ms. Markova’s business partner. “That’s a lie that we have perpetuated, and it fosters commonness. Knowing what you’re good at and doing even more of it creates excellence.” This is where developing new habits comes in.

目前标准化测试主要强调分析和程序的能力，也就是说，我们中很少有人会本能地使用创新和合作的思维方式。M.J.Ryan是2006年出版的著作《今年我将......》一书的作者以及Markova女士的商业合作伙伴，她解释说：“这打破了美国信念体系里的主要规则——任何人都可以做任何事。这是一个我们已经使之永恒的谎言，这造就了平庸。了解你擅长什么并且多去实践就会成就卓越。”这就是培养新习惯的目的。

Text 2

It is a wise father that knows his own child, but today a man can boost his paternal (fatherly) wisdom –or at least confirm that he’s the kid’s dad. All he needs to do is shell our $30 for paternity testing kit (PTK) at his local drugstore – and another $120 to get the results.More than 60,000 people have purchased the PTKs since they first become available without prescriptions last years, according to Doug Fog, chief operating officer of Identigene, which makes the over-the-counter kits.

再聪明的父亲也未必了解自己的孩子，但是如今男人可以提升其为人之父的智慧，至少可以确认他是孩子的父亲。他所要做的就是在当地药店里支付30美元买一个父子关系测试包（PTK），然后另支付120美元以获得该测试的各项结果。Doug Fogg是Identigene (生产这种在药店可以出售的测试包的公司)的首席运营官，他说，自从去年PTK不需要处方就能购买以来，已经有超过6万人购买了该产品。

More than two dozen companies sell DNA tests Directly to the public , ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to more than $2500.Among the most popular : paternity and kinship testing , which adopted children can use to find their biological relatives and latest rage a many passionate genealogists-and supports businesses that offer to search for a family’s geographic roots .

超过24家公司直接向公众出售DNA检测工具，价格从几百美元到2500多美元不等。其中最受欢迎的是父子和血缘关系检测，被收养的孩子可以利用它找到自己的有血缘关系的亲属，而家庭也可以用它来找到被人收养的孩子。DNA 检测也得到了许多热心的家谱学专家的推崇，还为那些寻找家族地域根源的服务公司提供了支持。

Most tests require collecting cells by webbing saliva in the mouth and sending it to the company for testing. All tests require a potential candidate with whom to compare DNA. But some observers are skeptical, “There is a kind of false precision being hawked by people claiming they are doing ancestry testing,” says Trey Duster, a New York University sociologist.

多数测试需要从口腔唾液中获取细胞，并将唾液送至公司进行检测。所有的测试都需要一个潜在的对照者，以便进行DNA对比。但是，一些观察家们持怀

疑态度。纽约大学的社会学家Troy Duster说，“那些声称可以进行血统测试的人在散播一种虚假的精确信息”。

He notes that each individual has many ancestors-numbering in the hundreds just a few centuries back. Yet most ancestry testing only considers a single lineage, either the Y chromosome inherited through men in a father’s line or mitochondrial DNA, which a passed down only from mothers. This DNA can reveal genetic information about only one or two ancestors, even though, for example, just three generations back people also have six other great-grandparents or, four generations back, 14 other great-great-grandparents.

他注意到每个人都有许多祖先，仅几个世纪以前就有好几百个。但是大多数血统检测只考虑单一的血统，要么只考虑来自父亲的男性遗传Y染色体，要么只考虑遗传自母亲的线粒体DNA。这个DNA只能显示一两个祖先的基因信息，即使是这样，仅仅上溯到3代之前，举个例子来说，人们还有6个曾祖父母，或者上溯到4代以前，人们还有14个曾曾祖父母（的基因信息是显示不出的）。

Critics also argue that commercial genetic testing is only as good as the reference collections to which a sample is compared. Databases used by some companies don’t rely on data collected systematically but rather lump together information from different research projects. This means that a DNA database may differ depending on the company that processes the results. In addition, the computer programs a company uses to estimate relationships may be patented and not subject to peer review or outside evaluation.

批评家们还认为，商业性基因检测实际上也就是比对样本的参考资料库。一些公司使用的数据库里的数据并非系统收集所得，而是将不同研究项目的信息整合在一起。这意味某个DNA数据库可能会从某些地区收集到很多信息，而别的地区却没有收集到任何信息，所以一个人的测试结果会随着测试公司的不同而不同。此外，公司用来评估血缘关系的软件程序可能是其专利，所以这些软件缺乏同类比较或外界评估。

Text 3

The relationship between formal education and economic growth in poor

countries is widely misunderstood by economists and politicians alike progress in both area is undoubtedly necessary for the social, political and intellectual development of these and all other societies; however, the conventional view that education should be one of the very highest priorities for promoting rapid economic development in poor countries is wrong.

贫穷国家中正规教育与经济发展之间的关系为经济学家及政治家们普遍误解。毫无疑问，在这两个方面都有所进步对于这些国家及其他国家的社会、政治及学术发展而言是必要的，但是那种认为“教育应该是促进贫穷国家经济快速发展的重要因素之一”的传统观点是错误的。

We are fortunate that is it, because new educational systems there and putting enough people through them to improve economic performance would require two or three generations. The findings of a research institution have consistently shown that workers in all countries can be trained on the job to achieve radical higher productivity and, as a result, radically higher standards of living.

我们庆幸这个传统观点的确是错误的，因为创立新的教育体制，让足够多的人接受教育以推动经济发展需要两代或三代人来完成。一家研究机构的研究成果一再表明所有国家的工人都可以进行（非正规）培训上岗以大幅度提高生产率，从而提高生活水平。

Ironically, the first evidence for this idea appeared in the United States. Not long ago, with the country entering a recessing and Japan at its pre-bubble peak. The U.S. workforce was derided as poorly educated and one of primary cause of the poor U.S. economic performance. Japan was, and remains, the global leader in

automotive-assembly productivity.

具有讽刺意味的是，这一观点的首个证据出现在美国。不久前，随着美国进入衰退，日本正处于泡沫破灭前的高峰期，美国工人被嘲讽没有受过良好教育，并且被认为这是美国经济不景气的主要原因之一。在全球，不管过去还是现在，日本一直是汽车组装生产力的领袖。

Yet the research revealed that the U.S. factories of Honda Nissan, and Toyota

achieved about 95 percent of the productivity of their Japanese countere pants a result of the training that U.S. workers received on the job.More recently, while examing housing construction, the researchers discovered that illiterate, non-English- speaking Mexican workers in Houston, Texas, consistently met best-practice labor productivity standards des pite the complexity of the building industry’s work.

然而，研究表明本田、尼桑和丰田位于美国工厂的生产率大约是日本同行的95%，这是美国工人接受在职培训的结果。最近，在进行住房建设检查时，研究人员发现在德克萨斯州的休斯顿，尽管建筑行业的工作复杂，但是未受过教育的，英语不是母语的墨西哥工人总是能够达到最佳的劳动生产率的各项标准。

What is the real relationship between education and economic development? We have to suspect that continuing economic growth promotes the development of education even when governments don’t force it. After all, that’s how education got started. When our ancestors were hunters and gatherers 10,000 years ago, they didn’t have time to wonder much about anything besides finding food. Only when humanity began to get its food in a more productive way was there time for other things.

教育与经济发展之间的真正关系到底是什么？我们不得不怀疑，即使政府不强迫发展教育，经济持续增长也会促进教育事业的发展。毕竟，教育就是那样开始的。一万年前当我们的祖先还在狩猎和采集野果时，除了寻找食物他们没有时间想其它很多的东西。只有当人类能够更高效地获取食物时，才有时间做其它的事情。

As ed ucation improved, humanity’s productivity potential, they could in turn afford more education. This increasingly high level of education is probably a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for the complex political systems required by advanced economic performance. Thus poor countries might not be able to escape their poverty traps without political changes that may be possible only with broader formal education.

随着教育的进步，人类的生产潜力也增加了。当竞争的环境推动我们的祖先实现这一生产潜力，他们反过来，又有能力获得更多的教育机会。先进的经济水平要求复杂的政治制度，越来越高的教育水平可能是这种复杂政治制度的必要

的，但不是充分的条件。因此，政治改革才可以使贫穷国家摆脱贫困陷阱，而政治改革则只能靠更广泛的正规教育实现。

A lack of formal education, however, doesn’t constrain the ability of the developing world’s workforce to substantially improve productivity for the forested future. On the contrary, constraints on improving productivity explain why education isn’t developing more quickly there than it is.

但是，发展中国家的劳动力在可预见的未来充分提高生产力的能力没有因缺乏正规教育而受到限制。相反，正是因为生产力的提高受到了各种限制，所以发展中国家的教育发展速度不能更快地发展。

Text 4

The most thoroughly studied in the history of the new world are the ministers and political leaders of seventeenth-century New England. According to the standard history of American philosophy, nowhere else in colonial America was “So much important attached to intellectual pursuit” According to many books and articles, New England’s leaders established the basic themes and preoccupations of an unfolding, dominant Puritan tradition in American intellectual life.

在新大陆的历史上，被研究的最彻底的学者是17世纪新英格兰的牧师和政治领袖们。根据美国标准哲学史的记载，在美洲殖民地中，没有任何地方比新英格兰地区“更重视对学术的追求。”据许多书籍及文章认为，新英格兰的领袖们在美国学术界中确立了正在发展、后来成为主流的清教传统的基本主题和关注点。

To take this approach to the New Englanders normally mean to start with the Puritans’ theological innovations and their distinctive ideas about the

church-important subjects that we may not neglect. But in keeping with our examination of southern intellectual life, we may consider the original Puritans as carriers of European culture adjusting to New world circumstances.

通过这条途径来了解新英格兰人，通常意味着要首先研究清教徒的神学创新和对于教会的独特看法——这是我们不可忽略的重要课题。但是为了与我们对南

部思想生活的研究保持一致，我们可以将最初的清教徒们视作欧洲文化的传递者，他们根据新大陆的情况进行了调整。

The New England colonies were the scenes of important episodes in the pursuit of widely understood ideals of civility and virtuosity. The early settlers of Massachusetts Bay included men of impressive education and influence in England. Besides the ninety or so learned ministers who came to Massachusetts church in the decade after 1629,There were political leaders like John Winthrop, an educated gentleman, lawyer, and official of the Crown before he journeyed to Boston.

在追求一些广泛认同的文化艺术理想过程中，新英格兰殖民地发生了许多重要的事情。马萨诸塞州的最早定居者包括那些在英格兰接受过良好的教育并深具影响力的英国人。在1629年之后的十年间，除了90多位来到马萨诸塞教堂的有学识的牧师，还有像约翰?温斯罗普（John Winthrop）这样的政治领袖，他是一位受过良好教育的绅士、律师，到波士顿之前曾是皇室官员。

There men wrote and published extensively, reaching both New World and Old World audiences, and giving New England an atmosphere of intellectual earnestness. We should not forget , however, that most New Englanders were less well educated. While few crafts men or farmers, let alone dependents and servants, left literary compositions to be analyzed, The in thinking often had a traditional superstitions quality.

这些人大量撰写、出版书籍，在新旧大陆都有读者，这给新英格兰带来了热衷思想研究的氛围。但是，我们不应该忘记，大多数新英格兰人没有接受过良好教育。虽然，几乎没有工匠或农民（更不用说其家人及仆人）给我们留下一些文学作品以供分析，但是，很明显他们的观点并不具有太大的思想性。他们的思想中往往有一种传统的迷信色彩。

A tailor named John Dane, who emigrated in the late 1630s, left an account of his reasons for leaving England that is filled with signs. sexual confusion, economic frustrations , and religious hope-all name together in a decisive moment when he opened the Bible, told his father the first line he saw would settle his fate, and read the magical words: “come out from among them, touch no unclean thing , and I will be

your God and you shall be my people.”

一个名为约翰?戴恩（John Dane）的裁缝于17世纪30年代末期移民到新大陆，他留下一个记录，陈述了离开英格兰的理由，其内容充满了各种符号征兆。性的困惑，经济挫折和宗教期望都会在一个决定性的时刻汇集涌现出来。这个时刻就是当他打开圣经对父亲说，他看到的第一行字将会决定他的命运，于是他把那些神奇的话语念了出来：“从他们当中走出来，不要沾不洁之物，我将成为你们的上帝，你就是我的子民”。

One wonders what Dane thought of the careful sermons explaining the Bible that he heard in puritan churched. Mean while , many settles had slighter religious commitments than Dane’s, as one clergyman learned in confronting folk along the coast who mocked that they had not come to the New world for religion . “Our main end was to catch fish. ”

人们会纳闷，戴恩（Dane）在清教徒教堂里听到那些仔细解释圣经的布道后会做何感想。与此同时，许多定居者并没有戴恩（Dane）那样虔诚，就像一位牧师在海边遇到一些人时听到的那样，那些人揶揄道，他们来新大陆可不是为了宗教，“我们的主要目的是捕鱼。