2023半岛星空体育·(中国)官方网站英语：《经济学人》中英读译Day85

英语阅读能力依靠什么？必然是词汇的积累，但，仅仅是词汇的积累是不够了，更应该了解英语句式，不同句型所表达意义。如何培养自己的阅读语感呢？那么就跟着半岛星空体育·(中国)官方网站小编每天学一点英语，一起为半岛星空体育·(中国)官方网站筑起坚实的地基。阅读是需要积累的，就像我们需要经常和人沟通才会促进我们的表达能力一样~小伙伴跟着小编一起，每天坚持打卡，培养英语阅读能力及语感，了解文章一些经典词汇的用法。

经济学人：为何人们对职场总是如此悲观(上)

The notion that the modern economy lacks “good jobs” is as uncontroversial as saying that Lionel Messi is good at football.Pundits decry the disappearance of the steady positions of yesteryear, where people did a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay.“Where have all the good jobs gone?”, wonders one recent book, while another talks about “the rise of polarised and precarious employment systems”.President Joe Biden takes after Donald Trump in promising to bring good jobs “back”.But what if the whole debate rests on shaky foundations?It certainly lacks historical awareness.

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现代经济缺乏“好工作”的观点，就像莱昂内尔·梅西擅长足球的说法一样毫无争议。权威人士谴责过去那种稳定的工作岗位的消失，在那种岗位上，人们公平地做一天工作拿一天工资。最近的一本新书中问道：“好工作都哪儿去了?”，而另一本书则谈到了“两极分化和不稳定的就业体系的兴起”。美国总统乔·拜登接替了唐纳德·特朗普，承诺把好的就业机会“找回来”。但是，如果整个辩论都建立在不可靠的基础上呢?这当然是缺乏历史意识的。

 

Compare the current discussion with the one during America’s postwar boom.Few people back then believed that they were living in a golden age of labour.Commentators were instead full of angst, worrying about the “blue-collar blues”.They said that unionised factory jobs—the very sort that today’s politicians yearn to restore—consisted of repetitive, dangerous work which involved all brawn and no brain.Others fretted over pay.Workers “are getting increasingly frustrated by a system they think is not giving them a satisfactory return for their labours”, proclaimed a high-ranking official at America’s Department of Labour in 1970.

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将当前的讨论与美国战后繁荣时期的讨论进行比较。当时很少有人相信他们生活在劳动的黄金时代。相反，评论家们却充满了焦虑，担心“蓝领忧郁”。他们说，有工会的工厂里的工作——正是今天的政客们渴望恢复的那种——是由重复的危险的工作组成的，只需要体力，不需要脑力。其他人则为工资烦恼。1970年，美国劳工部的一位高级官员宣称，工人们“对一个他们认为不能给他们的劳动带来满意回报的体系越来越感到沮丧”。

 

In fact the notion that the world of work is in decay is as old as capitalism itself.Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi, a Swiss writer who inspired Karl Marx, said that factories would turn people into drones.John Stuart Mill worried in the mid-19th century that the rise of capitalism would provoke social decay.People would focus on nothing other than earning money, he feared, turning them into dullards (just look at Americans, he warned).The rise of big business and white-collar work in America provoked a new set of anxieties.It was soon predicted that the self-made men of yore would be replaced by effete company drones who did what they were told.This is not the only reason to question today’s pessimistic narrative.By any reasonable standard work is better today than it was.Pay is higher, working hours are shorter and industrial accidents rarer.

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事实上，“职场正在衰落”的观念与资本主义本身一样古老。启发了卡尔·马克思的瑞士作家让·查尔斯·莱昂纳德·德·西斯蒙迪曾说过，工厂会让人变成懒汉。约翰·斯图尔特·密尔在19世纪中叶曾担心，资本主义的崛起会引发社会衰退。他担心，人们除了赚钱以外什么都不关心，这会让他们变成傻瓜（看看美国人就知道了，他警告说）。美国大企业和白领工作的兴起引发了一系列新的焦虑。很快就有人预言，昔日靠自己奋斗成功的人将被那些对衰弱的公司唯命是从的懒汉所取代。这并不是质疑当今悲观论调的唯一理由。以任何合理的标准衡量，今天的工作都比过去要好。工资更高，工作时间更短，工伤事故也更少。

 

注释

1.rest on 停留在；依靠；被搁在；信赖；基于

All our hopes now rest on you.

现在所有的希望都寄托在你的身上。

 

2.brawn 发达的肌肉；体力

In this job you need brains as well as brawn.

这项工作耗神又耗力。