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考研时文阅读（18） At the World Bank in Washington, officials have posted some new “help wanted” signs. The bank is looking for a few good specialists to focus on adapting to global warming. Its a small start, perhaps. Still, the ads represent one signal that adaptation is emerging from the political doghouse to take its place among the front-rank options for dealing with climate change. At least in the developed world, the idea that people should start figuring out how to deal with the projected effects of warming has been overshadowed by calls to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. Some environmentalists have viewed adaptation either as a white flag on the issue or as a refuge of contrarians who despise the broad consensus that human activity is warming the climate. But last weeks release of a report on the science of global warming-with its projections of warming based on emissions already in the air, as well as on potential future emissions trends-has helped underscore the need. “Climate change is here and now,” notes Ian Noble, a senior climate-change specialist at the World Bank. “We have to adapt.” In some cases, adaptation can be politically wrenching. Australia, for example, is facing the worst drought in a century. The droughts length and severity is consistent with some projections of global warming, several scientists note. The national government has proposed a controversial, $ 2.5-billion (Australian) plan to wrest control of the withering Murray-Darling river basin-the countrys largest river system-from the four states in eastern Australia that draw water from it. Meanwhile, Queensland has adopted regulations that since last March have required each new home in the state to draw nearly 40 percent less water than pre-2006 homes. In some towns, building codes specify the installation of large holding tanks to capture and store rain for use in the gardens and to flush toilets. If Australia represents the dry end of the adaptation spectrum in the develop world, New Orleans and the Gulf Coast may well represent the wet end. The region is still struggling to recover from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The tragedy surrounding those two storms underline just how maladapted major population centers in the region are to todays conditions, let alone those that might hold in 2050 or 2100, experts say. “The reality is that we should be adapting ” and tackling carbon-dioxide emissions at the same time, notes Roger Pielke Jr., a science-policy specialist at the University of Colorado at Boulder. 华盛顿世界银行的官员们发布了新的“紧急招募令”。他们正在寻找几位可以胜任的专家来重点研究顺应全球变暖的问题。 也许这只是个小小的开端。然而，这则招聘启事还透露出一个信息：应对全球气候变化的各种对策中，顺应变化已经成为政界的优先之选。至于在发达国家，对于人类应开始设法应对气候变暖的突出影响的呼吁，已经被减少二氧化碳排放的呼声所压倒。一些环境保护论者认为，顺应变化要么意味着对全球变暖问题举白旗，要么就是反对派的权宜之计，他们蔑视人类活动引起了气候变暖这种广泛共识。然而，上周发布的一份全球变暖科学报告基于已排入大气的二氧化碳数量及未来可能的排放量对气候变暖作出预测，突出了顺应变化的必要性。世行高级气候变化专家Ian Noble说：“气候变化是个迫在眉睫的问题，我们不得不去顺应变化。” 一些情况下，顺应变化可能意味着政策上的重大转变。例如，澳大利亚，该国正在遭遇百年不遇的特大旱灾。一些科学家指出，此次旱灾的持续时间及强度与一些关于全球变暖的预测相一致。澳大利亚政府已经提出一个具争议性的、耗资25亿澳元的方案，以求从自墨累达令河取水的澳大利亚东部四州那里夺回流域控制权，挽救这一该国最大河系，使其避免干涸的命运。同时，昆士兰州已经下达细则，从去年3月起，要求该州新建住宅用水量比2006年前住宅减少约40%。一些城镇的建筑规范明确规定建筑物需设有大型储水槽来收集和储存雨水，用于灌溉园林和冲洗抽水马桶。 如果说澳大利亚是发达国家中顺应气候变化的干旱区的代表，那么新奥而良与墨西哥湾岸地区则算得上涝灾区的典型。这个地区依然未能从2005年的“卡特里娜”与“丽塔”飓风中完全恢复。专家称，从那两场灾难就可以看出该地区主要人口密集区与当前环境的强烈不适，更不用说，2050年或2100年可能出现的状况了。 位于博尔得的科罗拉多大学科学政策专家小罗杰派而克指出：“现实情况就是我们应该顺应变化”，在此同时也需要去处理二氧化碳排放问题。考研时文阅读（19A）篇章结构分析本文是一篇说明文，通过两项研究来阐述了黑猩猩的语言能力，以及它们的手势和面部表情的一些特点。前两段介绍了卡德勒夫妇的研究成果并引出后两位学者对黑猩猩的其它特征的研究；第三、四段分别介绍了两位学者所提出的研究假设及其研究的结果；末段进一步阐述了手势对于人类大脑语言能力的进化作用。核心词组记忆attribute n. 属性, 品质, 特征 sophistication n. 复杂，精致hard-wired adj. 天生的 adept adj. 熟练的, 拿手render vt. 致使，导致 successor n. 继承者, 接任者 end in v. 以 而结束 be incapable of adj. 不能够 be equivalent to 相当于，类似于 no doubt 毫无疑问 be confined to v. 局限在，限制在 to some extent 在某种程度上 by contrast 相比之下 come up with 提出，想出 vary with 因 而不同/变化 be built on 以为基础，指望，依靠Previous attempts to teach chimpanzees to talk had ended in failure and the matter was considered by most people to be closed. But the Gardners realized that speech and language are not the same thing. Many deaf people, for example, are unable to speak but are perfectly able to communicate by gestures that have all the attributes and sophistication of spoken language. So the Gardners suspected that previous experiments had failed because chimps are physically incapable of speech.They therefore decided to try teaching a chimpanzee to sign in the way that deaf people do. And their chosen subject, a female chimp named Washoe, proved an adept pupil. Though there is still debate about whether what Washoe learned was really equivalent to human language, there is no doubt that she now has a vocabulary of about 200. All of this, however, raises a second question. If Washoe and her successors can learn a complex and arbitrary vocabulary of gestures from people, do they have such vocabularies naturally? To examine that possibility, Amy Pollick and Frans de Waal have looked at gestures and expressions in chimpanzees.Signaling by facial and vocal expression is present among primates. Signaling by gesture is confined to the great apes. The researchers hypothesis was that the meaning of expressions has been hard-wired by evolution whereas the meaning of gestures is learnt and, at least to some extent, is arbitrary. If that were true, particular sorts of facial and vocal expression would occur only in particular contexts, and this would be consistent across groups and even species. The same gestures, by contrast, would be used in different contexts.The researchers found exactly what they expected. Expressions (“silent bared teeth”, “relaxed open mouth”, etc) almost always occurred in the same contexts in different groups and different species. Gestures (“hard touch”, “reach outside”, etc) did not. Half of the gestures Dr. Pollick and Dr. de Waal regularly observed seemed to have completely different meanings in the two species. Moreover, even within a single group, the meaning of a gesture could vary with context, almost as tone of voice can vary the meaning of a humans spoken word.It is also worth remembering that gesture is still a crucial part of human language, even for those with normal hearing. Evolution does not come up with complicated structures in a single leap. They are built up step by step. This study suggests that the step of speech may have been built on mental attributes that were acquired millions of years ago when the ancestors of apes and men began to wave meaningfully at each other. 考研时文阅读（19B）参考译文 以前曾试图教黑猩猩说话的尝试最后都以失败而告终，大多数人认为这项研究就此结束了。但是卡德勒夫妇意识到说话和语言是两码事。比如说，许多聋哑人不能说话，但是却能熟练地用手势进行交流，这些手势都包含了人类语言的那些特点和复杂度。因此卡德勒夫妇认为前人研究的失败是因为黑猩猩生理上就不能说话。因此，他们决定试着教一只黑猩猩掌握使用聋哑人的手势。他们选择的研究对象是一只名叫Washoe的雌性黑猩猩，结果这只黑猩猩成了一个能熟练使用手势的“学生”。尽管人们对Washoe学会的单词到底算不算人类语言存在争议，但毫无疑问她现在已掌握了约200个单词的词汇量。所有这一切又提出了第二个问题。如果Washoe和她的后代能够从人类那里学会复杂和任意性的词汇，那么他们是不是天生就拥有这些词汇呢？为了验证这种可能性，爱米波利克和弗朗斯德瓦尔对一些黑猩猩的手势和表情进行了研究。通过面部表情和声音来发送信号在灵长类动物中很普遍。但只有大猩猩才能用手势发送信号。研究者的假设是，表情的意义是通过进化天生而成的，而手势的意义是后天学成的，至少在一定程度上是任意的。如果这个假设成立，那么特别的面部表情和声音就只会在特殊的情境下才能发生，而且在种群甚至是物种之间都是一致的。相反，同样的手势却能够在不同的情境下使用。研究结果正如研究者所料。不同种群以及不同物种之间几乎都会在相同的情境下使用一些表情（比如“不出声地露齿”、“放松地张嘴”等），但它们不会用相同的手势（比如“硬碰”、“向外伸手”等）。波利克和德瓦尔博士定期观察到，两个物种有一半手势在意义上完全不同。此外，即使是在同一物种内部，一个手势的意义可能会随情境的不同而变化，几乎就像人类说话时用不同的声调可以表示不同的意义那样。值得我们记住的是，手势仍然是人类语言中一个至关重要的组成部分，即使是对那些没有正常听力的人而言。进化并不是一步就能达到其复杂结构的，而是一步一步累积起来的。这项研究说明了，数百万年前，当我们的猿人和人类祖先开始有意义地彼此挥手的时候，语言能力就在已获得的这种脑力特征上不断地向前发展。考研时文阅读（20）教育Several years ago, at the height of the dotcom boom, it was widely assumed that a publishing revolution, in which the printed word would be supplanted by the computer screen, was just around the corner. It wasnt: for many, there is still little to match the joy of reading a printed book and settling down for one hour. But recently some big technology companies, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo, contend that the dream of bringing books online is still very much alive. The digitizing of thousands of volumes of print is not without controversy. On Thursday, Google, the worlds most popular search engine, posted a first installment of books on Google Print. This collaborative effort between Google and several worlds leading research libraries aims to make books available to be searched and read online free of charge. Although the books included so far are not covered by copyright, the plan has attracted the rage of publishers.Five large book firms are suing Google for violating copyright on material that it has scanned and, although out of print, is still protected by law. Google has said that it will only publish short extracts from material under copyright unless given express permission to publish more, but publishers are unconvinced. Ironically, many publishers are collaborating with Google Print Publisher, which aims to give readers an online taste of books that are commercially available. The searchable collection of extracts and book information is intended to tempt readers to buy the complete books online or in print form.Amazon, the worlds largest online retailer, has made plans to enter the mass e-book market by selling a vast array of goods. Given that Google should impinge upon its central territory, Amazon revealed that it would introduce two new services. Amazon Pages will allow customers to search for key terms in selected books and then buy and read online whatever part they wish. Amazon Upgrade will give customers online access to books they have already purchased as hard copies. Customers are likely to have to pay five cents a page, with the bulk going to the publisher.Microsoft has also joined the online-book trend. In October, the software giant said it would spend around $ 200m to digitize texts, starting with 150,000 that are in the public domain, to avoid legal problems. It will do so in collaboration with the Open Content Alliance. And on Thursday, coincidentally the same day as Google and Amazon announced their initiatives, Microsoft released details of a deal with the British Library, the countrys main reference library, to digitize some 25m pages; these will be made available through MSN Book Search, which will be launched next year.篇章结构分析本文是一篇说明文，主要论论了当今各大技术公司纷纷推出在线图书服务的计划和行动。第一段提出了电脑阅读和印刷书阅读的特点，接着用But转折引出本文的主题，即在线阅读服务。第二、三段介绍了Google的在线图书行动，并指出在线图书存在的问题，及其出版商对在线图书服务持矛盾的态度。第四、五段介绍了亚马逊公司和微软公司在线图书计划及行动。核心词汇记忆supplant 取代，代替 around the corner 即将到来free of charge 免费的out of print 不再出版/印刷is intended to 目的在于 impinge upon 侵害，侵犯a vast array of 一系列 in collaboration with 与合作it was widely assumed that 人们普遍认为参考译文几年前，在网站建设繁荣的高峰时期，人们普遍认为，一场由电脑屏幕将取代传统印刷的出版革命即将到来。但这一革命并没有到来：对许多人来说，电脑阅读所带来的乐趣不能与安下心来坐一小时读一本印刷书的乐趣相比。但最近这些大技术公司（包括Google, Amazon, 微软和雅虎）认为，将书放到互联网的梦想依然充满了生命力。把数以千计的印刷版书籍电子化并不是毫无争议。星期四，业界最受欢迎的搜索引擎Google在其Google Print上发布了第一期书目。Google和几个全球领先的研究性图书馆共同合作，旨在使读者能够在互联网上搜索到书籍并且能够免费阅读。虽然目前这些相关的书籍不受到版权保护，但该计划依然引起了出版商们的愤怒。五大图书出版公司正在控告Google因扫描一些读物而侵犯了版权，尽管这些书籍已不再印刷出版，但它们仍受到法律的保护。Google声称对于那些受版权保护的书籍只会发布简短的摘录，并在取得出版商明确的同意之前不会发布更多的信息，但出版商们并不认可这一做法。有趣的是，许多出版商都在与Google Print Publisher合作，旨在为读者提供有偿的网上阅读服务。这些可以搜索到的内容摘要和书的信息意在吸引读者购买在线书籍的完整版本或是印刷版。世界上最大的网上零售商亚马逊（Amazon）已经计划通过销售一系列的产品来进军大众电子书籍市场。由于Google将进军亚马逊的中心地带，亚马逊透露将提供两项新的服务。Amazon Pages允许用户在选定的书籍中用关键字进行查询，然后用户还可以选择购买或是在线阅读书中的任何一部分。Amazon Upgrade 在用户购买印刷版书籍后为其提供该书的电子版。用户可能需要支付每页5美分的费用，这将为出版商带来巨大的收益。微软也加入了在线书籍这一趋势。10月，这个软件业巨头称将投资2亿美元用于书籍电子化，为了避免法律纠纷，首期计划只包括15万本属于公共领域的书籍。微软将选择与Open Content Aliance合作。碰巧的是，在Google和亚马逊发布其新计划的同一天，即星期四，微软公布了与英国主要参考书图书馆大英博物馆的合作的详细内容。该计划准备2500万页相关书籍电子化，到明年用户就可以通过MSN Book Search来使用该项服务了。 考研时文阅读（21）教育篇章结构分析 本文的主题是有关美国的非法移民问题。第一段引出非法移民这一矛盾的问题，即美国人不喜欢非法移民，但又依靠非法移民来做事情。第二、三段讲述了参议院最近对非法移民问题的讨论，及可能出台的法律措施。第四段提到了移民的支持者已在美国一些大城市开始采取激烈的行动来维护自己的利益。第五段继续论述了新法案通过的困难性。末段提出足够的签证有可能解决美国非法移民这一问题。核心词汇记忆no less than 与 一样 depend on 取决于，依靠suchas 像一样 bring up 抚养，教育give priority to 给优先考虑 contribute to 有助于，导致call for 要求，需要 regardless of 不管In the neighborhoods of Los Angeles, white kids occasionally shout to each other in Spanish. They learn their first words from Mexican nannies who are often working illegally, just like the maids who scrub floors and the gardeners who cut their lawns, which helps to explain why fixing Americas broken immigration system is proving so difficult. Californians, no less than the residents of other states, find illegal immigration distasteful. Yet they depend on immigrants for even such intimate tasks as bringing up their children. This week the Senate was trying again to reconcile these contradictory problems. It seemed close to the promise of legalization for the nations roughly 12 m illegals, some 2.5 m of them in California alone. But their cases will not be considered until the border is deemed to have been made more secure and the current stockpile of legal immigrants is clearedsomething that will take at least eight years. Worse, from the immigrants point of view, they will probably have to leave the country and then implore to return, in what is known as “touch-back”. If it becomes law, the Senate bill will transform Americas immigration system. Following the lead of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Britain, America would adopt a points system that will give priority to the sort of young, employable immigrants who are most likely to contribute to the economy. Family ties, essential in deciding immigration claims since the 1960s, would become less important.Immigrant advocates have become more militant. Last year huge, mostly orderly crowds gathered on the streets of Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities to protest against a bill, passed by the House of Representatives that would have criminalised illegal immigrants. Many carried American flags. Rallies earlier this month, by contrast, were dominated by professional protesters. In Los Angeles a small and occasionally angry crowd clashed with police. Protesters have called for another rally next month in Hollywood.Although the pressure for reform appears overwhelming, it is not clear that a deal can be done this year. Compromise may prove more elusive in the House of Representatives. Because of the way that congressional districts are drawn, many politicians represent constituencies with large numbers of ethnic minorities or hardly any at all. Nor is it clear that the Senate plan would bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows. Those who have American children (up to 40% of those in California) will be reluctant to “touch-back”. Much will also depend on how many visas are made available to unskilled workers. If there are too few, the supply of immigrant labour will surely continue to meet the demand for it, regardless of what the law says.参考译文在美国洛杉矶的一些邻近地区，白人孩子偶尔会用西班牙语彼此叫嚷。他们从墨西哥奶妈那里学到了最早的词汇，而那些奶妈通常都是非法打工者，就像那些擦地板的女仆和整理草坪的园艺工一样，这就解释了为什么要修补好美国已经受到破坏的移民制度是如此艰难。加州人也和其他各州的居民一样，觉得非法移民令人生厌，然而他们却又依赖移民来承担甚至像抚育孩子这样亲密的任务。本周参议院正试图重新解决这些令人感到矛盾的问题。现在看起来这个国家中大约1千2百万的非法移民很有希望可以合法化，其中仅在加州就有大约250万非法移民。但是只有在边境变得更加安全、以及当前的合法移民问题得到充分解决之后（这需要至少8年的时间才能解决），非法移民的问题才会得以考虑。更遭糕的是，从移民们的观点来看，他们有可能不得不先离开这个国家，然后再申请回来，这就是所谓的“touch-back”。如果有关非法移民的问题得以立法，那么参议院的这一法案将改变美国的移民制度。美国将学加拿大、澳大利亚、新西兰和英国的做法，采用一个积分制度，并优先考虑那类年轻且有工作能力的移民，因为他们更有可能为美国经济作贡献。自从上世纪60年代以来，对移民申请极为重要的家庭关系，在将来会变得不再那么重要。移民的支持者已经采取越来越激烈的行动。去年，大量移民有组织地来到洛杉矶、芝加哥以及其它城市的大街上游行来抗议众议院通过的一项将非法移民犯罪化的法案。他们中的许多人都挥舞着美国国旗。而这个月早些时候这些游行队伍则由职业抗议者们所领导。在洛杉矶，一小部分愤怒的人群偶尔会与警察发生冲突。现在抗议者们正在号召下个月在好莱坞举行另一次集会。尽管改革的压力显得非常大，但是目前不清楚在今年法案是否能够通过。妥协在众议院会证明更加难以令人置信。因为国会采取分区的方式，所以很多政治家代表的是有很多人口的少数民族或者根本不代表任何少数民族。现在参议院的计划是否能够使非法移民走出阴影仍然是个谜团。许多人的孩子都是美国公民（其中高达40%的在加州），他们都不会愿意“touch-back”。这也将大大取决于有多少签证能够发放给没有特殊技能的工人。如果签证太少，那么不管法律制定了什么标准，对移民劳动力的供应还将一定继续来满足对移民劳动力的需求。考研时文阅读（22）教育Imagine waking up and finding the value of your assets has been halved. No, you are not an investor in one of those hedge funds that failed completely. With the dollar slumping to 26-year low against the pound, already-expensive London has become quite unaffordable. A coffee at Starbucks, just as unavoidable in England as it is in the United States, runs about $ 8. The once all-powerful dollar isnt doing a Titanic against just the pound. It is sitting at a record low against the euro and at a 30-year low against the Canadian dollar. Even the Argentina peso and Brazilian real are thriving against the dollar. 想象一下，当你醒来时发现自己的资产价值已经减少了一半，但你却不像那些彻底破产倒闭的对冲基金之一的投资者那样。随着美元兑换英镑的汇率创下了26年来的最低纪录，已经昂贵的伦敦消费已经变得让人无法忍受。在英国，就像在美国不可避免的一样，喝上一杯星巴克（Starbacks）咖啡的价格却高达8美元。曾经不可一世的美元现在没有与英镑保持着坚挺的汇率。美元兑换欧元的汇率跌落至历史的最低点，美元兑换加拿大元的汇率也创下了30年的新低，甚至阿根廷比索和巴西里拉也对美元保持着坚挺的汇率。The weak dollar is a source of humiliation, for a nations self-esteem rests in part on the strength of its currency. It is also a potential economic problem, since a declining dollar makes imported food more expensive and exerts upward pressure on interest rates. And yet there are substantial sectors of the vast U.S. economy-from giant companies like Coca-cola to mon-and-pop restaurant operators in Miami-for which the weak dollar is most excellent news.Many Europeans may view the U.S. as an arrogant superpower that has become hostile to foreigners. But nothing makes people think more warmly of the U.S. as a sight-seeing place than a weak dollar. Through April, the total number of visitors from abroad was up 6.8 percent from last year. Should the trend continue, the number of tourists this year will finally top the 2000 peak? Many Europeans now apparently view the U.S. the way many Americans view Mexico-as a cheap place to vacation, shop and party, all while ignoring the fact that the poorer locals cant afford to join the merrymaking.弱势的美元是屈辱的根源。在某种程度上，一个国家的自尊取决于其货币的坚挺。弱势的美元也是一个潜在的经济问题，不断下挫的美元会使得进口商品更加昂贵，迫使利率上升。然而，对于庞大的美国经济的许多部门-无论是可口可乐这样的商业巨头还是迈阿密家庭餐馆的经营者来说，弱势美元是最好的消息。许多欧洲人也许将美国视为一个对外国人怀有敌意的，自负傲慢的超级大国。但是没有任何事物能比弱势美元更能让人热切地将美国视为旅游之地。整个四月