2023復(fù)習(xí)正是強(qiáng)化復(fù)習(xí)階段，在考研英語中占了40分，所以考研英語閱讀是英語科目中重要的一項(xiàng)。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅(jiān)持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強(qiáng)烈推薦了雜志《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認(rèn)真閱讀，快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 　　Civil servants and austerity 　　公務(wù)員與財(cái)政緊縮 　　The times they aren t a-changin 　　不曾變革的時(shí)代 　　Civil-service payrolls have held up surprisingly well 　　一直以來，公務(wù)員的薪酬都出奇地好 　　AFTER the party, the hangover. 　　盛宴之后，宿醉來臨。 　　When debt-fuelled economic growth came to a crashing halt in the financial crisis of 2008,governments across much of the rich world sought to cut spending. 　　在2008年的經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)中，由債務(wù)推動(dòng)的經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)模式徹底崩潰，隨后許多富裕經(jīng)濟(jì)體政府則力圖縮減開支。 　　One obvious target was the state s payroll. 　　而其中一個(gè)明顯的著手點(diǎn)便是公務(wù)員薪酬支出。 　　Leviathan s minions are certainly costly. 　　利維坦仆從們的耗費(fèi)當(dāng)然不菲。 　　In the European Union public-sector wages and salaries take up about 10% of GDP. 　　在歐盟國(guó)家當(dāng)中，公共部門的薪水支出大約占國(guó)民總收入的10%。 　　The Initiative for Policy Dialogue, based at Columbia University, reckons that since 2010almost 100 governments have set out plans to cut their payrolls. 　　據(jù)哥倫比亞大學(xué)的政策對(duì)話倡議組織估計(jì)，自2010年以來，已有接近100個(gè)政府著手削減他們的公務(wù)員薪酬開支。 　　Some cuts may be savage. 　　一些裁員計(jì)劃或許能用殘忍來形容。 　　The headcount in many British government departments may fall by as much as 40% by 2023from current levels, says a recent report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think-tank. 　　近期一篇來自英國(guó)政府智囊團(tuán)財(cái)政研究院的報(bào)告表明，英國(guó)許多政府部門將于在2023年之前裁減目前總數(shù)40%的員工。 　　Relative to its 2023 level Italy plans to jettison 20% of public-administration managers by2023. 　　而意大利政府則計(jì)劃于2023年之前裁減相當(dāng)于2023年總量20%的公務(wù)員。 　　However, aggregated data on public-sector headcounts offer some surprises. 　　然而，公共部門員工的統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)卻有些出人意料。 　　Whereas Britain s public-sector workforce has already contracted by 8% since 2007, inGermany and France the number has increased. 　　自2007年起英國(guó)政府公務(wù)員人數(shù)已縮減了8%，與此相反的是德國(guó)與法國(guó)方面卻在增加。 　　More intriguing still is what has happened to compensation coststhe amountgovernments pay bureaucrats in wages and salaries, but not pensions. 　　更耐人尋味的是官僚薪酬待遇變化情況，而不是津貼方面的問題。 　　Of the 30 countries in a Eurostat database, half are spending more after inflation on publicemployees than they were in 2007, even in cases where headcount has fallen. 　　據(jù)歐盟統(tǒng)計(jì)局的資料顯示，有半數(shù)國(guó)家公務(wù)員薪酬開支與2007年的水平相比有所提升。 　　The euro zone as a whole spends only 1.7% less on government wages than it did six yearsago. 　　其中部分國(guó)家甚至已經(jīng)著手削減了其公務(wù)員規(guī)模。以歐元區(qū)國(guó)家作為整體來統(tǒng)計(jì)，其公務(wù)員薪酬開支僅比6年前減少了1.7%。 　　Belgium spends 10% more, Luxembourg 24%. 　　與此同時(shí)，比利時(shí)政府反而增加了10%，盧森堡增加了24%。 　　And since 2007, 21 countries, including Cyprus, Italy and France, have not cut theproportion of GDP that they devote to public servants wages. 　　自2007年以來，有21個(gè)國(guó)家仍未削減公務(wù)員薪酬，這其中包括塞浦路斯、意大利和法國(guó)。 　　Finding explanations for dearer public payslips is tricky. 　　要為日益高昂的政府工資單找理由，不是一件容易的事情。 　　One reason might be wage driftthe automatic increases in salaries that can occur as civilservants are granted annual promotions in seniority, simply for having been in their jobs foranother year. 　　其中一個(gè)原因或許可以總結(jié)為工資浮動(dòng)這一機(jī)制確保了公務(wù)員薪酬隨著職位的逐年提升而增加，而職位的提升往往并不需要什么理由，僅僅在自己的崗位上又待了一年的公務(wù)員便可獲得提升。 　　In 2023, for example, more than 600,000 staff from Britain s National Health Service receivedrises averaging 3.5%, despite a pay freeze. 　　例如，除了一次薪金凍結(jié)之外，英國(guó)國(guó)家醫(yī)療衛(wèi)生服務(wù)系統(tǒng)超過60萬名員工，在2023年得到了平均3.5%的薪金漲幅。 　　In 2010 Barack Obama also decided to freeze government pay, yet the median salary forfederal employees climbed by over $3,000 during the following two years. 　　在2010年，美國(guó)總統(tǒng)奧巴馬雖然同樣地實(shí)施了薪金凍結(jié)，然而在其后的兩年內(nèi)，公務(wù)員薪酬中位數(shù)則突破了3000美元的大關(guān)。 　　Wage drift could outweigh the effect of reduced headcount, which is likely to beconcentrated in the lower echelons of the civil service. 　　工資浮動(dòng)機(jī)制的影響，可能遠(yuǎn)比裁減人員的作用更大，而這是由于政府的裁員計(jì)劃主要面向低層公務(wù)員。 　　Another possibility, suggests Alberto Alesina of Harvard University, is that governmentssimply failed to implement planned spending cuts. 　　哈佛大學(xué)的艾爾波托?艾萊斯那表示還有另一種可能：簡(jiǎn)單地說，那就是政府沒有去執(zhí)行早已制定好的開支削減計(jì)劃。 　　At the end of January Greece s highest administrative court ruled that pay reductions for thearmed forces and emergency services were unconstitutional: the government now faces aheavy bill in back pay. 　　在一月底，希臘最高行政法院宣布，政府對(duì)軍隊(duì)以及應(yīng)急服務(wù)部門的經(jīng)費(fèi)削減行為是違憲的：這意味著政府現(xiàn)在要面對(duì)的是堆積如山的欠薪賬單。 　　Portugal s constitutional court also opposed the scrapping of Christmas bonuses for civilservants on similar grounds. 　　同樣地，葡萄牙憲法法庭也反對(duì)其政府取消相關(guān)部門公務(wù)員圣誕節(jié)獎(jiǎng)金的計(jì)劃。 　　These data are worrisome. 　　以上種種數(shù)據(jù)令人十分不安。 　　The implicit trade-off of austerity was pain now, prosperity later. 　　如今交由政府當(dāng)局權(quán)衡的利弊是自己能否忍受開支削減的痛苦，以換取將來的經(jīng)濟(jì)繁榮。 　　Yet as growth in advanced economies picks up, many civil services seem no morestreamlined than before. 　　但隨著發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)復(fù)蘇，許多公共服務(wù)將愈發(fā)臃腫不堪。 　　詞語解釋 　　1.financial crisis 財(cái)務(wù)危機(jī) 　　Did the financial crisis change very much? 　　金融危機(jī)是否帶來了許多變化? 　　The international monetary fund is in financialcrisis. 　　國(guó)際貨幣基金組織正處于財(cái)政危機(jī)之中。 　　2.take up 開始從事;接受 　　But a plot description could take up all my space, and more. 　　一個(gè)情節(jié)的描述會(huì)占用我的全部空間還不夠。 　　Ten billion twitter messages take up little storage space: about five terabytes of data. 　　一百億條twitter信息所占用的存儲(chǔ)空間很小：約五萬億字節(jié)數(shù)據(jù)。 　　3.plan to 打算,計(jì)劃 　　Many plan to stomach more risk. 　　許多人計(jì)劃承擔(dān)更多的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。 　　Other countries plan to buy or build more. 　　其他國(guó)家也打算購(gòu)買或建造更多的潛艇。 　　4.as much as 差不多 　　But the most swingeing cuts were to pensions, which were slashed by as much as 55%. 　　但是大部分大幅的削減都是在養(yǎng)老金上面的，足足高達(dá)55%。 　　Because he believes you doubt him as much as he doubts himself. 　　因?yàn)樗嘈拍銜?huì)懷疑他就像他懷疑他自己一樣。

　　2023復(fù)習(xí)正是強(qiáng)化復(fù)習(xí)階段，在考研英語中占了40分，所以考研英語閱讀是英語科目中重要的一項(xiàng)。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅(jiān)持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強(qiáng)烈推薦了雜志《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認(rèn)真閱讀，快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 　　Civil servants and austerity 　　公務(wù)員與財(cái)政緊縮 　　The times they aren t a-changin 　　不曾變革的時(shí)代 　　Civil-service payrolls have held up surprisingly well 　　一直以來，公務(wù)員的薪酬都出奇地好 　　AFTER the party, the hangover. 　　盛宴之后，宿醉來臨。 　　When debt-fuelled economic growth came to a crashing halt in the financial crisis of 2008,governments across much of the rich world sought to cut spending. 　　在2008年的經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)中，由債務(wù)推動(dòng)的經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)模式徹底崩潰，隨后許多富裕經(jīng)濟(jì)體政府則力圖縮減開支。 　　One obvious target was the state s payroll. 　　而其中一個(gè)明顯的著手點(diǎn)便是公務(wù)員薪酬支出。 　　Leviathan s minions are certainly costly. 　　利維坦仆從們的耗費(fèi)當(dāng)然不菲。 　　In the European Union public-sector wages and salaries take up about 10% of GDP. 　　在歐盟國(guó)家當(dāng)中，公共部門的薪水支出大約占國(guó)民總收入的10%。 　　The Initiative for Policy Dialogue, based at Columbia University, reckons that since 2010almost 100 governments have set out plans to cut their payrolls. 　　據(jù)哥倫比亞大學(xué)的政策對(duì)話倡議組織估計(jì)，自2010年以來，已有接近100個(gè)政府著手削減他們的公務(wù)員薪酬開支。 　　Some cuts may be savage. 　　一些裁員計(jì)劃或許能用殘忍來形容。 　　The headcount in many British government departments may fall by as much as 40% by 2023from current levels, says a recent report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think-tank. 　　近期一篇來自英國(guó)政府智囊團(tuán)財(cái)政研究院的報(bào)告表明，英國(guó)許多政府部門將于在2023年之前裁減目前總數(shù)40%的員工。 　　Relative to its 2023 level Italy plans to jettison 20% of public-administration managers by2023. 　　而意大利政府則計(jì)劃于2023年之前裁減相當(dāng)于2023年總量20%的公務(wù)員。 　　However, aggregated data on public-sector headcounts offer some surprises. 　　然而，公共部門員工的統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)卻有些出人意料。 　　Whereas Britain s public-sector workforce has already contracted by 8% since 2007, inGermany and France the number has increased. 　　自2007年起英國(guó)政府公務(wù)員人數(shù)已縮減了8%，與此相反的是德國(guó)與法國(guó)方面卻在增加。 　　More intriguing still is what has happened to compensation coststhe amountgovernments pay bureaucrats in wages and salaries, but not pensions. 　　更耐人尋味的是官僚薪酬待遇變化情況，而不是津貼方面的問題。 　　Of the 30 countries in a Eurostat database, half are spending more after inflation on publicemployees than they were in 2007, even in cases where headcount has fallen. 　　據(jù)歐盟統(tǒng)計(jì)局的資料顯示，有半數(shù)國(guó)家公務(wù)員薪酬開支與2007年的水平相比有所提升。 　　The euro zone as a whole spends only 1.7% less on government wages than it did six yearsago. 　　其中部分國(guó)家甚至已經(jīng)著手削減了其公務(wù)員規(guī)模。以歐元區(qū)國(guó)家作為整體來統(tǒng)計(jì)，其公務(wù)員薪酬開支僅比6年前減少了1.7%。 　　Belgium spends 10% more, Luxembourg 24%. 　　與此同時(shí)，比利時(shí)政府反而增加了10%，盧森堡增加了24%。 　　And since 2007, 21 countries, including Cyprus, Italy and France, have not cut theproportion of GDP that they devote to public servants wages. 　　自2007年以來，有21個(gè)國(guó)家仍未削減公務(wù)員薪酬，這其中包括塞浦路斯、意大利和法國(guó)。 　　Finding explanations for dearer public payslips is tricky. 　　要為日益高昂的政府工資單找理由，不是一件容易的事情。 　　One reason might be wage driftthe automatic increases in salaries that can occur as civilservants are granted annual promotions in seniority, simply for having been in their jobs foranother year. 　　其中一個(gè)原因或許可以總結(jié)為工資浮動(dòng)這一機(jī)制確保了公務(wù)員薪酬隨著職位的逐年提升而增加，而職位的提升往往并不需要什么理由，僅僅在自己的崗位上又待了一年的公務(wù)員便可獲得提升。 　　In 2023, for example, more than 600,000 staff from Britain s National Health Service receivedrises averaging 3.5%, despite a pay freeze. 　　例如，除了一次薪金凍結(jié)之外，英國(guó)國(guó)家醫(yī)療衛(wèi)生服務(wù)系統(tǒng)超過60萬名員工，在2023年得到了平均3.5%的薪金漲幅。 　　In 2010 Barack Obama also decided to freeze government pay, yet the median salary forfederal employees climbed by over $3,000 during the following two years. 　　在2010年，美國(guó)總統(tǒng)奧巴馬雖然同樣地實(shí)施了薪金凍結(jié)，然而在其后的兩年內(nèi)，公務(wù)員薪酬中位數(shù)則突破了3000美元的大關(guān)。 　　Wage drift could outweigh the effect of reduced headcount, which is likely to beconcentrated in the lower echelons of the civil service. 　　工資浮動(dòng)機(jī)制的影響，可能遠(yuǎn)比裁減人員的作用更大，而這是由于政府的裁員計(jì)劃主要面向低層公務(wù)員。 　　Another possibility, suggests Alberto Alesina of Harvard University, is that governmentssimply failed to implement planned spending cuts. 　　哈佛大學(xué)的艾爾波托?艾萊斯那表示還有另一種可能：簡(jiǎn)單地說，那就是政府沒有去執(zhí)行早已制定好的開支削減計(jì)劃。 　　At the end of January Greece s highest administrative court ruled that pay reductions for thearmed forces and emergency services were unconstitutional: the government now faces aheavy bill in back pay. 　　在一月底，希臘最高行政法院宣布，政府對(duì)軍隊(duì)以及應(yīng)急服務(wù)部門的經(jīng)費(fèi)削減行為是違憲的：這意味著政府現(xiàn)在要面對(duì)的是堆積如山的欠薪賬單。 　　Portugal s constitutional court also opposed the scrapping of Christmas bonuses for civilservants on similar grounds. 　　同樣地，葡萄牙憲法法庭也反對(duì)其政府取消相關(guān)部門公務(wù)員圣誕節(jié)獎(jiǎng)金的計(jì)劃。 　　These data are worrisome. 　　以上種種數(shù)據(jù)令人十分不安。 　　The implicit trade-off of austerity was pain now, prosperity later. 　　如今交由政府當(dāng)局權(quán)衡的利弊是自己能否忍受開支削減的痛苦，以換取將來的經(jīng)濟(jì)繁榮。 　　Yet as growth in advanced economies picks up, many civil services seem no morestreamlined than before. 　　但隨著發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)復(fù)蘇，許多公共服務(wù)將愈發(fā)臃腫不堪。 　　詞語解釋 　　1.financial crisis 財(cái)務(wù)危機(jī) 　　Did the financial crisis change very much? 　　金融危機(jī)是否帶來了許多變化? 　　The international monetary fund is in financialcrisis. 　　國(guó)際貨幣基金組織正處于財(cái)政危機(jī)之中。 　　2.take up 開始從事;接受 　　But a plot description could take up all my space, and more. 　　一個(gè)情節(jié)的描述會(huì)占用我的全部空間還不夠。 　　Ten billion twitter messages take up little storage space: about five terabytes of data. 　　一百億條twitter信息所占用的存儲(chǔ)空間很小：約五萬億字節(jié)數(shù)據(jù)。 　　3.plan to 打算,計(jì)劃 　　Many plan to stomach more risk. 　　許多人計(jì)劃承擔(dān)更多的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。 　　Other countries plan to buy or build more. 　　其他國(guó)家也打算購(gòu)買或建造更多的潛艇。 　　4.as much as 差不多 　　But the most swingeing cuts were to pensions, which were slashed by as much as 55%. 　　但是大部分大幅的削減都是在養(yǎng)老金上面的，足足高達(dá)55%。 　　Because he believes you doubt him as much as he doubts himself. 　　因?yàn)樗嘈拍銜?huì)懷疑他就像他懷疑他自己一樣。