GRE作文背诵范文选 [新概念四的文章]

良人UID：7256

What makes trading between rich countries difficult?

  

    Chickens slaughtered in the United States, claim officials in Brussels, are not fit to grace European tables. No, say the American: our fowl are fine, we simply clean them in a different way. These days, it is differences in national regulations, far more than tariffs, that put sand in the wheels of trade between rich countries. It is not just farmers who are complaining. An electric razor that meets the European Union's safety standards must be approved by American testers before it can be sold in the United States, and an American-made dialysis machine needs the EU's okay before is hits the market in Europe.

    As it happens, a razor that is safe in Europe is unlikely to electrocute Americans. So, ask businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, why have two lots of tests where one would do? Politicians agree, in principle, so America and the EU have been trying to reach a deal which would eliminate the need to double-test many products. They hope to finish in time for a trade summit between America and the EU on May 28TH. Although negotiators are optimistic, the details are complex enough that they may be hard-pressed to get a deal at all.

    Why? One difficulty is to construct the agreements. The Americans would happily reach one accord on standards for medical devices and them hammer out different pacts covering, say, electronic goods and drug manufacturing. The EU -- following fine continental traditions -- wants agreement on general principles, which could be applied to many types of products and perhaps extended to other countries.



From: The Economist, May 24th, 1997

  

New words and expressions 生词和短语

    slaughter

v.  屠宰

    fit

adj. 适合

    grace

v.  给...增光

    tariff

n.  关税

    standard

n.  标准

    dialysis

n.  分离，分解；透析，渗析

    electrocute

v.  使触电身亡

    eliminate

v.  消灭

    accord

n.  协议

    device

n.  仪器，器械

    hammer out

v.  推敲

    pact

n.  合同，条约，公约

  

参考译文



    布鲁塞尔的官员说，在美国屠宰的鸡不适于用来装点欧洲的餐桌。不，美国人说，我们的家禽很好，只是我们使用了另一种清洗方式。当前，是各国管理条例上的差异，而不是关税阻碍了发达国家之间的贸易。并不仅仅是农民在抱怨。一把符合欧洲联盟安全标准的电动剃须刀必须得到美国检测人员的认可，方可在美国市场上销售；而美国制造的透析仪也要得到欧盟的首肯才能进入欧洲市场。

    碰巧在欧洲使用安全的剃须刀不大可能使美国人触电身亡，因此，大西洋两岸的企业都在问，当一套测试可以解决问题时，为什么需要两套呢？政治家在原则上同意了， 因此，美国和欧洲一直在寻求达成协议，以便为许多产品取消双重检查。他们希望尽早达成协议，为5月28日举行的美国和欧洲贸易的最高通级会议作准备。然谈判代表持乐观态度，但协议细节如此复杂，他们所面临的困难很可能使他们无法取得一致。

    为什么呢？困难之一是起草这些协议。美国人很愿意就医疗器械的标准达成一个协议，然后推敲出不同的合同，用以涵盖 -- 比如说 -- 电子产品和药品的生产。欧洲人遵循优良的大陆传统，则希望就普遍的原则取得一致，而这些原则适用于许多不同产品，同时可能延伸到其它国家。

良人UID：7256

Why Smart People Do Dumb Things

...and how to avoid their career-killing mistakes

      

为什么聪明人会做蠢事

...以及怎样避免他们那些扼杀前程的错误

  

  

By Mortimer R. Feinerg

  

      Why do smart people do such dumb things?  As a management consultant, I have studied a wide assortment of stupid decisions and weird actions taken by people with off-the-chart l.Q.s. From decades of personal observation, I have also learned that most of us make such mistakes sometime in our lives.  So understanding why the super-smart make career-killing bloopers can help us all avoid doing the same. Here are some reasons:

    [2] Arrogance, "Smart goys get used to knowing more than anybody else," says Brendan Sexton, vice president of New York's Rockefeller Group. "It's all too short a stop from there to thinking you know everything."

    [3] John Summu has a high I.Q. and did not keep it a secret. The combative former New Hampshire governor and White House chief of staff made many enemies in Congress, eschewing diplomacy for confrontation. Sununu once belittled Mississippi Sen .s Trent Lott, calling him "insignificant". Lott later became a member of the Senate Republican leadership.

    [4] Despite his genius-level 1.Q., Sununu made a mistake so foolish it amounted to professional suicide. He used military planes to go around the country on personal and political errands at a cost to taxpayer of hundreds of thousands of dollars. When calls for his resignation mounted and he needed defenders, the legions of insiders Sununu had angered rushed to stick knives in him.

    [5] Like the isolated world of Washington, the ivory towers of academia are fertile breeding ground for super-brain arrogance. In 1990, it was discovered that elite Stanford University was billing U.S. taxpayers for items that had nothing to do with government research, such as a 72-foot yacht and a reception for Stanford President Donald Kennedy's new wife. But Kennedy was unapologetic. Conceding that government funds had helped pay for "indirect research costs" that included napkins, ruble cloths and a dinner reception at his residence, Kennedy said, "I wouldn't be embarrassed about saying that every damn flower in the house ought to be an indirect cost against research.'

    [6] Kennedy handled the firestorm of outrage with self-defeating smugness. "He seemed to think that whatever he did was justifiable--because he did it,' says one Stanford insider. Within months, Kennedy had announced his resignation as president.

    [7]  Isolation.  From childhood on, high intelligence is an isolating factor. Bright youngster, feeling shut off from other kids, follow the pattern of our species and cluster among themselves. The same can happen in companies.

    [8]  "Smart people tend to surround themselves with other smart people," says

James W.  Wesley, Jr., president and CEO of Summit Communications. "That's good. But when the group starts relying on brilliance to the exclusion of experience, had things happen."

    [9] One danger is unwillingness to admit the need to change. "When smart people all agree with each other about a plan," observes Wesley, "they're apt to stay with the plan too long, even after others have seen that the direction is wrong."

    [10] A recent example is IBM.  For decades, the company enjoyed a near monopoly in the computer industry. Then the mainframe-computer market declined, 1987. Dogged by rumors of marital infidelity, Hart challenged reporters: "Follow me around." They did, and Hart was found with Donna Rice, a 29-year-old model. A tabloid ran a photo of Hart posing with Rice on his lap aboard a yacht named Monkey Business. Hafts Presidential ambitions were history, thanks to his own reckless actions.

    [14] Overreaching.  Many super-brains don't grasp a simple fact: brilliance

in one area is no guarantee of success in another.

    [l5] Victor Kiam, a Harvard Business School graduate, earned millions selling his Remington8 products in television commercials. In 1988, Kiam bought the New England Patriots. But owning a struggling football franchise9 proved quite different from marketing electric razors.  He was soon faced with heavy losses. Then came a public-relations disaster when a woman reporter accused players of sexually harassing her and Kiam initially belittled the problem. He apologized to her,  but after a few months was quoted making a joke about the incident. When Kiam unloaded the football team, it was for a loss of millions.

    [16] Many of the most successful and smartest achievers learn from such disasters. They listen to others. They refuse to take themselves too seriously. They actively seek feedback, and know their own limits.

    [17] The late Sam Walton was a business genius, building a *five-and-dime into the $ 55-billion Wal-Mart empire. He didn't do it by staying in corporate head-quarters. Instead, Walton flew his plane to stores across the country so he could listen to his "associates'' and even pitch bags of chocolate peanut clusters to customers.

    [18] Walton's humility was part of his recipe for success: competitors underestimated him, and his own employees felt they could tell him anything. "We're not that smart,  but we do change," Walton said shortly before he died. Believe only half that sentence.

    [19] Harold Tinker has noticed something in his 39 years as a teacher at The Choate School in Wallingford, Conn. Students who go on to achieve the most, he says, are almost never the top students. That's partly because of the self-defeating ways of the super-smart. But there's an even more important reason: these achievers learn the "Avis principle" of success: when you're No. 2, you try harder.

            

  

  

  

        为什么聪明人会做出这类蠢事?作为一名管理咨询人员，我研究了具有超常智商的人所做的各种各样的愚蠢决定以及他们的一些不可思议的行为。从几十年的亲身观察中我还了解到，我们中的大多数人在一生中也时面会犯这样的错误。因此，了解为什么极端聪明的人会犯下毁灭前程的大错．可以帮助我们所有人不至于重蹈覆辙。下面是几种原因：

    [2]傲慢。聪明人习惯于比别人懂得都多，"纽约洛克菲勒集团副总裁布伦丹塞克斯顿说，"这离认为你无所不知只不过一步之遥。"

    (3)约翰苏奴奴具有高智商，而对此毫不隐瞒。这位好斗的新罕布什尔州前州长和白宫办公厅主任，宁愿对抗而刻意不用外交手腕,在国会里树敌很多。一次，苏奴奴轻蓝地称密西西比州参议员特伦特洛特为"无足轻重的人"。后来洛特成了参议院共和党党团领导成员。

    [4)尽管具有天才级智商，苏奴奴却犯了个愚蠢到等于自毁前程的错误。他动用军用飞机周游全国，办私事，搞政治活动．耗费了纳税人几十万美元。当要求他辞职的呼声高涨，他需要保护人的时候，苏奴奴曾经得罪过的大批田里人都争着向他捅刀子。

    [5]跟隔绝的华盛顿世界一样，学术界的象牙塔也是滋生智力超常者妄自尊大的沃土。1990年，有人发现，精英云集的斯坦福大学要求美国纳税人支付的账单中有一些和政府研究没有任何关系的项目，例如72英尺长的游艇以及为斯坦福校长唐纳德肯尼迪的新妻子开的招待会。但是肯尼迪并无歉意。他承认用政府资金帮助偿付了包括餐巾、桌布和在他官邸中举办的招待宴会在内的"间接研究费用"，并说："我不会羞于说，在这所房子里的每朵该死的花都应该算作间接研究成本。

    [6)肯尼迪用自我拆台的自命不凡来对付愤怒的烈火。"他似乎认为，无论他做了什么都是无可非议的--因为是他做的．斯坦福的一位圈内人士说。不出几个月，肯尼迪宣布辞去校任职位。

    [7)孤立。从童年时起，高智力就是一个与人隔绝的因素。聪明的少年觉得自己被隔离在其他小孩之外，因而遵循我们这个物种的模式，只在自己的圈子里结伙。在公司中可能会发生同样的情况。

    [8] "聪明人倾向置身于其他的聪明人中间，"高峰通信公司董事长兼首席执行官小詹姆斯w韦斯利说，"这很好。然而，当这个集团开始依赖才华到排斥经验的程度，坏事就会发生。

    [9]一个危险是不愿意承认改变的必要。当聪明人都同意某个计划时，韦斯利说，"他们总是长久使用这个计划，即使别人已经看出方向不对他们也仍然坚持。'

    [10]最近一例是IBM'<国际商用机器)公司。几十年来，这家公司在计算机产业中几乎享有垄断地位。后来主计算机市场衰落了，客户开始需要较小、较便宜的系统。但是IBM公司的经理们未曾预料到这一变革的飞速步伐。结果呢?随着IBM公司公布的过去两年中创记录的78亿美元的亏损而来的，是大批的解雇和下岗。

    [11]反馈对于有效地和他人一起工作是必不可少的。但是某些聪明人对于任何不及他们聪明的人都不耐烦，觉得不可能倾听别人的意见。

    [12]"这种不耐烦，"一家通信公司--Senses国际公司一的首席执执行官罗伯特希弗说，'可能是一个危险的陷阱。'拿一家软料业巨擎的那位天才的销售经理来说吧，他强行推出了一种销售惨败的新型软饮料。后来发现，大量来自下层的提醒被这位经理忽视了。他的解释是；懦弱无能的人才需要反馈。他的事业进程不久就出轨了。

   [13]鲁莽。智力超常的人心中有种东西总是在吹风："现在该再来一招了"受无所不知的感觉所驱使，聪明人会演变为冒险成瘾者，就像科罗拉多州前参议员加里哈特那样。曾被(纽约时报)誉为"当代美国政坛最有智慧的人物之一"的哈特在1987年初是民主党总统提名候选人的领先者。由于被婚姻不忠的谣言所困扰，哈特向记者们发起了挑战：到处跟踪我吧。"他们这样做了，结果发现哈特和一名叫唐娜赖斯的29岁模特儿在一起。一家小报刊登了一张哈特的照片，是在一艘叫做"恶作剧"的游艇上拍的，赖斯正坐在他大腿上。由于自己的鲁莽行为，哈特的总统抱负成了历史。

    (14)好高骛远。很多智力超常的人不理解一个简单的事实：某个方面的智能绝不会成为另一个方面成功的保证。

    (15)哈佛商学院毕业生维克托基阿姆在电视业广告节目上卖他的雷明顿产品，赚了几百万美元。1988年，基阿姆买下了"新英格兰爱国者"。但是，拥有一个苦苦挣扎的橄榄球队和销售电动剃须刀原来大不相同。他很快面临严重亏损。接着又来了一场公共关系灾难，一名女记者指控球员们对她进行性骚扰，而基阿姆最初低估了这一问题。他向她道了歉，但是几个月后有人引述他的话说他拿这件事开个玩笑。当基阿姆甩掉这个橄榄球队时，他已损失了几百万美元。

    (16)很多最成功、最聪明的有成就者都能从这样的灾难中吸取教训。他们能倾听别人的意见。他们拒绝把自己看得过于了不起。他们积极地寻求反馈并且了解自己的局限所在。

    [17]已故的萨姆沃尔顿是位商业天才，他把一家小杂货店发展成了拥有550亿美元资产的"沃尔玛"帝国。他不是靠守在公司总部做到这一点的。相反，他开着自己的飞机到全国各个商场去，以能够聆听他的"同仁们"的章见，甚至亲自向顾客推销袋装的巧克力花生块糖。

    (18)沃尔顿的谦恭是他成功诀窍的一部分：他的竞争者会低估他，而他自己的雇员们觉得什么话都可以对他讲。"我们没有那么聪明，但是我们的确会改变，"沃尔顿在临终前不久曾这样说。这句话你只能相信一半。

    [19]哈洛德廷克在乔特学院(在摩涅狄格州沃林福德)的"年教师生涯中有所发现。他说，最能继续取得成就的学生几乎都不是尖子生。这一部分要归因于异常聪明者的种种自我挫败行径。但是有一个更为重要的原因：那些有成就的人学会了关于成功的"阿维斯定律"：当你是第二名时，你会加倍努力。

良人UID：7256

How does the writer like to treat young people?

  

    People are always talking about 'the problem of youth'. If there is one -- which I take leave to doubt -- then it is older people who create it, not the young themselves. Let us get down to fundamentals and agree that the young are after all human beings -- people just like their elders. There is only one difference between an old man and a young one: the young man has a glorious future before him and the old one has a splendid future behind him: and maybe that is where the rub is.

    When I was a teenager, I felt that I was just young and uncertain -- that I was a new boy in a huge school, and I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a problem. For one thing, being a problem gives you a certain identity, and that is one of the things the young are busily engaged in seeking.

    I find young people exciting. They have an air of freedom, and they not a dreary commitment to mean ambitions or love of comfort. They are not anxious social climbers, and they have no devotion to material things. All this seems to me to link them with life, and the origins of things. It's as if they were, in some sense, cosmic beings in violent and lovely contrast with us suburban creatures. All that is in my mind when I meet a young person. He may be conceited, ill-mannered, presumptuous or fatuous, but I do not turn for protection to dreary cliches about respect of elders -- as if mere age were a reason for respect. I accept that we are equals, and I will argue with him, as an equal, if I think he is wrong.


FIELDEN HUGHES from Out of the Air, The Listener

  

New words and expression 生词和短语

  

    leave

n.  允许

    fundamentals

n.  基本原则

    glorious

adj. 光辉灿烂的

    splendid

adj. 灿烂的

    rub

n.  难题

    identity

n.  身份

    dreary

adj. 沉郁的

    commitment

n.  信奉

    mean

adj. 吝啬，小气

    social climber

    追求更高社会地位的，向上爬的人

    devotion

n.  热爱

    cosmic

adj. 宇宙的

    suburban

adj. 见识不广的，偏狭的

    conceited

adj. 自高自大的

    presumptuous

adj. 自以为是的，放肆的

    fatuous

adj. 愚蠢的

    cliche

n.  陈词滥调

  

参考译文



    人们总是在谈论青年问题。如果这个问题存在的话 -- 请允许我对此持怀疑态度 -- 那么，这个问题是由老年人而不是青年人造成的。让我们来认真研究一些基本事实：承认青年人和他们的长辈一样也是人。老年人和青年人只有一个区别：青年人有光辉灿烂的前景，而老年人的辉煌已成为过去。 问题的症结恐怕就在这里。

    我十几岁时，总感到自己年轻，有些事拿不准 -- 我是一所大学里的一名新生，如果我当时真的被看成像一个问题那样有趣，我会感到很得意的。因为这至少使我得到了某种承认，这正是年轻人所热衷追求的。

    我觉得年轻人令人振奋，无拘无束。他们既不追逐卑鄙的名利，也不贪图生活的舒适。他们不热衷于向上爬，也不一味追求物质享受。在我看来，所有这些使他们与生命和万物之源联系在了一起。从某种意义上讲，他们似乎是宇宙人，同我们这些凡夫俗子形成了强烈而鲜明的对照。每逢我遇到年轻人，脑子里就想到这些年轻人也许狂妄自负，举止无理，傲慢放肆，愚昧无知，但我不会用应当尊重长者这一套陈词滥调来为我自己辨护，似乎年长就是受人尊敬的理由。我认为我和他们是平等的。如果我认为他们错了，我就以平等的身份和他们争个明白。

良人UID：7256

贴完了，好累的说。

特别谢谢阿莫和尚，嘻嘻

xshs_5UID：92155

最初由 jieyuhua111 发表
[B]唉
我以为呢：（
全是新概念四的文章
旧了 [/B]

楼主也辛苦一场,方便了没有NCE的朋友们