考研时文阅读

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1、考研时文阅读（1）FEW ideas in education are more controversial than vouchers-letting parents choose to educatetheir children wherever they wish at the taxpayers expense.First suggested by Milton Friedman,an economist,in 1955,the principle is compelling simple.The state pays;parents choose;schoolscompete;sta

2、ndards rise;everybody gains.Simple,perhaps,but it has aroused predictable and often fatal-opposition from theeducational establishment.Letting parents choose where to educate their children is a silly idea;professionals know best.Cooperation,not competition,is the way to improve education for all.Vo

3、uchers would increase inequality because children who are hardest to teach would be leftbehind.But these arguments are now succumbing to sheer weight of evidence.Voucher schemes arerunning in several different countries without ill-effects for social cohesion;those that use a lotteryto hand out vouc

4、hers offer proof that recipients get a better education than those that do not.Harry Patrinos,an education economist at the World Bank,cites a Colombian program tobroaden access to secondary schooling,known as PACES,a 1990s initiative that provided over125,000 poor children with vouchers worth aroun

5、d half the cost of private secondary school.Crucially,there were more applicants than vouchers.The programme,which selected children bylottery,provided researchers with an almost perfect experiment,akin to the“pill-placebo“studiesused to judge the efficacy of new medicines.The subsequent results sho

6、w that the children whoreceived vouchers were 1520%more likely to finish secondary education,five percentagepoints less likely to repeat a grade,scorced a bit better on scholastic tests and were much morelikely to take college entrance exams.Vouchers programmes in several American states have been r

7、un along similar lines.GregForster,a statistician at the Friedman Foundation,a charity advocating universal vouchers,saysthere have been eight similar studies in America:seven showed statistically significant positiveresults but was not designed well enough to count.The voucher pupils did better eve

8、n though the sate spent less than it would have done had thechildren been educated in normal state schools.American voucher schemes typically offer privateschools around half of what the sate would spend if the pupils stayed in public schools.TheColombian programme did not even set out to offer bett

9、er schooling than was available in the statesector;the aim was simply to raise enrollment rates as quickly and cheaply as possible.These results are important because they strip out other influences.Home,neighborhood andnatural ability all affect results more than which school a child attends.If the

10、 pupils who receivedvouchers differ from those who dont perhaps simply by coming from the sort of go-gettingfamily that elbows its way to the front of every queue-any effect might simply be the result ofany number of other factors.But assigning the vouchers randomly guarded against this risk.Opponen

11、ts still argue that those who exercise choice will be the most able and committed,andby clustering themselves together in better schools they will abandon the weak and voiceless tolanguish in rotten ones.Some cite the example of Chile,where a universal voucher scheme thatallows schools to charge top

12、-up fees seems to have improved the education of the best-off most.The strongest evidence against this criticism comes from Sweden,where parents are freer thanthose in almost any other country to spend as they wish the money the government allocates toeducating their children.Sweeping education refb

13、nns in 1992 not only relaxed enrolment rules instate sector,allowing students to attend schools outside their own municipality,but also let themtake their state funding to private schools,including religious ones and those operating for profit.The only real restrictions imposed on private schools we

14、re that they must run their admissions ona first-come-first-served basis and promise not to charge top-up fees(most American voucherschemes impose similar conditions).The result has been burgeoning variety and a breakneck expansion of the private sector.At thetime of the refbnns only around 1%of Swe

15、dish students were educated privately;now 10%are,and growth in private schooling continues unabated.Anders Hultin of Kunskapsskolan,a chain of 26 Swedish schools founded by a venturecapitalist in 1999 and now running at a profit,says its schools only rarely have to invoke thefirst-come-first-served

16、rule-一 the chain has responded to demand by expanding so fast that parentskeen to send their children to its schools usually get a place.So the private sector,by increasingthe total number of places available,can ease the mad scramble for the best schools in the statesector(bureaucrats,by contrast,d

17、islike paying for extra places in popular schools if there arevacancies in bad ones).More evidence that choice can raise standards for all comes from Caroline Hoxby,aneconomist at Harvard University,who has shown that when American public schools mustcompete for their students with schools that acce

18、pt vouchers,their performance improves.Swedish researchers say the same.It seems that those who work in state schools are just likeeverybody else:they do better when confronted by a bit of competition.没有什么教育观念比学券更容易引发争议。所谓学券，就是让父母花纳税人的钱随意为孩子选择去哪里上学。经济学家Milton Friedman 1955年首次提出这一概念，其原则十分简单,但令人信服：即国家

19、出钱；父母选择；学校竞争，标准提升；各方受益。这原则虽然简单，但引发了教育机构的反对。这是预料之中的，但常常是致命的。让父母为孩子选择在何处接受教育的想法很荒唐；专业人士才是最懂行的。合作而非竞争才是提高所有学生教育水平的方式。学券会增加不平等，因为最难教的孩子将会被甩在后面。但是这些说法在强有力的证据面前正败下阵来。一些不同的国家正在实行学券计划，但并没有对社会疑聚力造成负面影响；用抽签方式发放学券的国家也证明：接受学券者比不接受学券者获得了更好的教育。世界银行的教育经济学家Harry Patrinos列举了 20世纪90年代启动、被称做“PACES”的哥伦比亚项目。该项目旨在增加学生上中学

20、的机会。它 为 12。5 万名贫困孩子提供了学券,其价值约为私立中学教育收费的一半。但关键问题是，申请人比学券多。该项目以抽签方式挑选学生，为研究人员提供了几乎完美无缺的实验，类似于用来判定新药疗效的“安慰剂”研究。后来的研究结果表明，接受学券的孩子完成中学学业的可能性要高出15%至 20%,留级的可能性低5 个百分点，在学术能力测试中的得分高些,也更有可能参加大学入学考试。美国也有几个州在类似方式实施学券计划。主张全面推广学券计划的慈善组织弗里德曼基金会的统计学家Greg Forster说，美国有8 项类似的研究，其中7 项研究的统计数据显示，学券对于那些幸运的获得者们具有明显的积极作用；第

21、 8 项研究也显示了正面结果，但由于设计不佳不予考虑。尽管在与普通公立学校接受教育的学生相比，政府的支出要少，但接受学券的学生成绩却更好。美国的学券计划通常提供给私立学校费用为政府在公立学校学生身上投入的一半。哥伦比亚项目甚至没有把提供比公立学校更好的教育作为目标；其目标仅仅是尽快提高入学率，并提供尽可能便宜的教育。这些研究结果非常重要，因为他们完全排除了其它因素的影响。家庭背景、居住社区环境和天赋都比孩子在哪个学校就读更能影响结果。如果说拿到学券的学生与未能拿到学券的学生之间存在差异-或许仅仅由于前者来自那种事事争先，志在必得的家庭一任何差可能仅仅是其他多种因素作用的结果。但随机分配学券避免

22、了这种风险。反对学券制者认为，那些择校的人能力最强、最执着，如果让他们在好学校扎堆儿，会将那些处于弱势地位、没有代言人的学生留在烂校长期受煎熬。有人举智利为例，该国普及了允许学校收取附加学费的学券计划，但似乎只最大程度地提高了最富裕学生的教育水平。反击这一批评的最有力的证据来自瑞典。瑞典的父母比几乎任何其它国家的人都自由，可随意支配政府分配的子女教育费用。1992年开始的全面改革不仅放宽了公立学校的入学要求，允许学生到他们所居住的城市以外的地方上学，而且也允许学生将国家的资助转到私立学校，包括宗教学校以及盈利性学校。对私立学校唯一真正的限制就是必须按“先来先得”的原则招收学生，并且要承诺不收取

23、附加费（大多数美国学券计划也附加类似条件）。这样做的结果是办学形式越来越多样化，私立学校飞速增加。启动改革时:瑞典只有大约1%的学生在私立学校接受教育，现在达到了 10%,而且在私立学校就读学生比例增长的趋势依然不减。一位风险资本家在1999年创办的Kunsk叩sskolan是一家拥有26所瑞典学校的连锁学校，现在正处于赢利状态。该校的Anders Hultin说，各分校几乎没有用过“先来先得”的规则-为满足需求，连锁学校增加得非常快，愿意送孩子来该校读书的家长一般都能如愿。所以，通过增加学校数量，私立学校这一领域能够缓解公立学校领域疯狂争抢进入最好学校的压力（对比之下，如果劣等学校还有招生空

24、间，政府官员就不愿意为增加名校招生拨款）。哈佛大学的经济学家Caroline Hoxby为择校能够提高所有学生水平提供了更多的证据。他已经证明，当美国的公立学校必须同接受学券的学校竞争生源时，它们的业绩就有进步。瑞典的研究人员也坚持同样的观点。看来，在公立学校工作的人就像其他人一样：面对一点竞争时，他们会做得更好。考研时文阅读（2）Altruism（利他主义），according to the text books,has two fbnns.One is known technically as kinselection,and familiarly as nepotism.This spr

25、eads an individuafs genes collaterally,rather thandirectly,but is otherwise similar to his helping his own offspring.The second form is reciprocalaltruism,or“you scratch my back and 1,1 1 scratch yours”.It relies on trust,and a good memory forfavours given and received,but is otherwise not much diff

26、erent from simultaneous collaboration（such as a wolf pack hunting）in that the benefit exceeds the cost fbr all parties involved.Humans,however,show a third sort of altruismone that has no obvious pay-off.This is altruism towardsstrangers,fbr example,charity.That may enhance reputation.But how does a

27、n enhancedreputation weigh in the Darwinian balance?To investigate this question,the researchers made aninteresting link.At first sight,helping charities looks to be at the opposite end of the selfishnessspectrum from conspicuous consumption.Yet they have something in common:both involve theprofliga

28、te deployment of resources.That is characteristic of the consequences of sexual selection.An individual shows he（or she）has resources to bum-whether those are biochemical reserves,time or,in the human instance,moneyby using them to make costly signals.That demonstratesunderlying fitness of the sort

29、favoured by evolution.Viewed this way,both conspicuousconsumption and what the researchers call blatant benevolence“are costly signals.And sincethey are behaviours rather than structures,and thus controlled by the brain,they may be part of themating mind.Researchers divided a bunch of volunteers int

30、o two groups.Those in one were putinto what the researchers hoped would be a“romantic mindset“by being shown pictures ofattractive members of the opposite sex.They were each asked to write a description of a perfectdate with one of these people.The unlucky members of the other group were shown pictu

31、res ofbuildings and told to write about the weather.The participants were then asked two things.Thefirst was to imagine they had$5,000 in the bank.They could spend part or all of it on variousluxury items such as a new car,a dinner party at a restaurant or a holiday in Europe.They werealso asked wha

32、t fraction of a hypothetical 60 hours of leisure time during the course of a monththey would devote to volunteer work.The results were just what the researchers hoped fbr.In theromantically primed group,the men went wild with the Monopoly money.Conversely,the womenvolunteered their lives away.Those

33、women continued,however,to be skinflints,and the menremained callously indifferent to those less fortunate than themselves.Meanwhile,in the othergroup there was little inclination either to profligate spending or to good works.Based on thisresult,it looks as though the sexes do,indeed,have different

34、 strategies for showing off.Moreover,they do not waste their resources by behaving like that all the time.Only when it counts sexuallyare men profligate and women helpful.（选自 Economist,08/02/2007）参考译文根据教科书，利他主义有两种表现形式：一种就是所谓的血缘选择，即家庭亲戚关系。这种利他主义是通过一 个 人的基因间接传播的，而不是直接的，但是另一方面也就像个人会无私地帮助自己的孩子一样。第二种形式是互

35、惠的利他主义，或者说“你帮我搓背我也帮你搓背”。这种利他主义的基础在于信任，并对自己得到和付出过的帮助保持较好的记忆，但是除此以外，这种利他主义和物种天然的合作关系（比如狼群共同寻找猎物）没有什么大的区别，因为对于所有的参与者来说，他们合作的所得远远超过其付出。但是人类却表现出了第三种利他主义一一种不会有什么赢利的利他主义。这是一种对陌生人的利他主义，比如说慈善业，从而能够增进人们的名誉。但是名誉的增加如何在达尔文平衡中找到其位置呢？为了探讨这一问题，研究者们找到了一个有趣的关系。乍一看，从自私角度来说参与慈善事业好像是炫耀性消费的相反面。但是他们有一点是相同的，即二者都包含了对资源的大规模调

36、度。这是性别选择结果的一个特点。一个人想要显示他（或者她）拥有的可以挥霍的资源一无论是生化储备、时间、还是对于人类来说的金钱一通过使用这些东西来发出一些昂贵的信号。这也是进化过程中帮助物种生存下来的适切性。如果从这个角度来看问题的话，那么炫耀性消费和研究者们所称的“炫耀性善行”都是昂贵信号。而且它们都是行为而不是结构，因此是由大脑控制的，也许还是寻偶想法的一部分。研究者将一群志愿者分成了两组。他们向第一组的成员展示了一组相反性别的长得很漂亮或很帅的人们的照片，从而希望使志愿者们变得浮想联翩。接着研究者要求他们写一个关于自己和照片上的人的次完美约会。而另一组的志愿者就没有这么幸运了，他们看到的是

37、一组高楼大厦的图片，并要写个关于天气的报告。然后研究人员要求参与者们做两件事情。第一件事情是要求他们想象自己在银行有5千美元。他们可以把其中一部分或者所有的钱花在各种奢侈品上，比如 辆 新 车、在 餐 馆 的 一 次 晚宴、或者去欧洲度假。第二件事情是，假设他们一周有60个小时的休闲时间，那么在一个月期间他们愿意花多少百分比的休闲时间在志愿者工作上。研究结果正如研究人员最初预料的那样。在充满浪漫气氛的第一组成员中，男人们疯狂地想完全占有金钱。相反，女人们则更愿意做志愿者工作。但是女人们却更加吝啬，而男人们却对财富的减少并不那么在意。同时，在另 组成员中，人们既不倾向于大肆挥霍、也没有认真工作的

38、偏好。基于这一结果，看起来不同性别的人实际上对于炫耀有不同的策略。此外，他们不会总是把他们的资源浪费这些行为上。只有当吸引异性的时候，男人们才会花更多的钱、而女人们会更加乐于助人。考研时文阅读（3）Digital books start a new chapter导读：第一代电子书并没有取得预期的成功，然而随着技术的进步，新一代电子书产品逐渐浮出水面。继苹果公司取得巨大成功，令便携电子产品风行一时后，索尼公司利用“数字墨水”技术推出新款图书阅览器，将目光瞄准电子书市场。其它电子阅读器生产商也不甘落后，纷纷推出带有各自特色的产品。本文向读者介绍了电子阅读器产品的最新动态，以及出版商、作家和消费者

39、对这种新生事物的态度。可以想象，电子书时代已经离我们不远了。（选自Business Week,2006)Richard D.Warren,a 58-year-old lawyer in California,is halfway through Ken Folletts novelJackdaws.But he doesn*t bother carrying around the book itself.Instead,he has a digital versionof Follett he reads on his Palm Treo each morning as he communte

40、s by train to San Franciscofrom his home in Berkeley.Hes a big fan of such digital books.Usually,there are around seventitles on his Treo,and he buys at least two new ones each month.4It is just so versatile,he says.Tve tried to convert some friends to this,but they think its kind of geeky.”Geeky?Fo

41、r now,maybe,but not for much longer.Many experts are convinced that digitalbooks,after plenty of false starts,are finally ready fbr takeoff.Every other forms of media hasgone digital-music,newspapers,movies,says Joni Evans,a top literary agent who just left theWillian Morris Agency to start her won

42、company that will focus on books and technology.Werethe only industry that hasnt lived up to the pace of technology.A revolution is around thecorner.,What developments have won over people like Evans?Portable devices are becoming lighterand more appealing.Books are being scanned into digital form by

43、 the thousands.The mostimportant step forward may be in“digital ink,“the technology used fbr displaying letters on ascreen.A small company called E Ink has created a method fbr arranging tiny black and whitecapsules into words and images with an electronic charge.Because no power is used unless ther

44、eader changes the page,devices with the technology could go as long as 20 books betweenbattery charges.The text also looks just as sharp as ink on a printed page,since each capsule is thesize and pigment of a grain of laser-jet toner.Sony is the first major player to take advantage of the technology

45、.This spring,it will debut theSony Reader,which uses E Ink and closely mimics the size,weight,and feel of a book.TheReader will sell fbr about$400.Sony also will offer roughly 10,000 book titles fbr downloadfrom its online store,along with news stories and blog items.Other pklayers sniff opportunity

46、,too.At least two more companies are introducing digitalreaders this year.And scorces of companies,from Google to Random House Inc.,are angling forother ways to profit from digital books.Chalk it up to the influence of Apple Computer Inc.Withits Ipod,Apple has demonstrated that millions of people ar

47、e willing to carry around digital deviceswith their favorite content.After music,why not novels and nonfiction?”The iPod led the way ingetting people comfortable with a similar device for books,says Jack Romanos,CEO of Simon&Schuster Inc.”These things are not only inevitable,but a good idea.”加利福尼亚州5

48、8岁的律师Richard D.W arren已经把Ken Follett的小说 寒鸦 读了半,但他不必将书天天带到身边。事实上，每天早晨在他乘火车从伯克利的家里赶往旧金山上班的途中，他可以用自己的Palm Treo阅读该小说的电子版。沃伦对电子书非常痴迷。他的Treo里通常存有大约7 本书，每个月他至少会买两本新书。他说：“它的用途很多，我曾劝说一些朋友改看电子书，但他们觉得有点前卫。”前卫？也许吧，但只是现在，用不了多久这种情况就会改变。许多专家确信，在经历了多次不成功的尝试后，电子书终于可以大展身手了。琼斯埃文斯是一位资深的作者对外事物代理人，她刚刚离开威廉莫里斯经纪公司。她说：“所有其它

49、内型的媒体一音乐、报纸、电影-都走向了数字化。我们是唯一未能赶上科技步伐的产业。变革指日可待。”电子书有什么新进展，能够吸引像埃文斯这样的人？便携设备变得更轻便、更时尚。成千上万册图书正在被扫描成数字格式。“数字墨水”或许是最重大的技术突破，它能将文字显示于屏幕上。一家名叫E Ink的小公司发明了一种方法，用电荷排列黑白粒子形成文字图案。由于只有当用户翻页时才会耗电，所以采用该技术的装置能让读者连续看20本书而不需要充电。显示文本酷似白纸黑字，因为这种微粒的大小和色质与激光打印机的墨粉颗粒一模样。第一个采用这种技术的大厂家是索尼。今年春天，索尼将首次推出采用E Ink技术的“索尼阅读器“，在大

50、小、重量和手感方面都酷似真书。阅读器的售价约为400美元。除了新闻报道和博客文章外，索尼还将在网上书店提供大约1 万本电子书供用户下载。其它厂家也闻风而动。今年至少还有两家公司将推出自己的电子阅读器。包括Google和蓝登书屋在内的几十家公司都在争取通过其它途径从电子书中获利。苹果电脑公司的影响也是促成电子书兴起的一大原因。苹果公司用iPod证明，随身携带存有个人喜爱内容的电子产品正被千百万人所接受。除了听音乐，为什么不可以用它来阅读小说和写实类文学作品呢？西蒙古一舒斯特出版公司首席执行官杰克罗曼诺斯说“iPod开时尚之先河，使 人 们（对供阅读图书用的类似电子产品）乐在其中。这不仅仅是大势所

51、趋，而且别具创意。”考研时文阅读（4）续 上 篇 电子阅读No book company has come close to Apples magic touch.But the technology,availability ofcontent,and consumer behavior may be aligned for a breakthrough this year.uThe puzzle piecesare on the table,says aTimothy OReilly,founder of the tech publisher OReilly Media.Youvegot

52、the ctitical mass of content,and youve got attractive hardware.What we dont have yet is anattractive business model that connects them all together.Sony is clearly attempting to pulloff this feat.Its combinations of devices and online store isreminiscent of Apples approach.The Reader is impressive:a

53、 slim,sturdy package that weighsnine ounces and comes bound in heavy faux leather.But its unlikely just yet to become the kindof cult hit Apple has on its hands.The Readers controls can be clumsy to use.Plus,new books forthe device will cost about the same as books from megastores like Borders,and r

54、eaders will haveto search the Web on their own to get classics that have gone off copyright for free.The other makers of digital readers are treading cautiously.Jinke,a Chinese company,plans tosell into the education field in China and other markets.But it declined to comment in detail on itsplans.I

55、rex Technologies,a spin-off from Royal Philips Electronics,says it will make a deviceavailable fbr sale by April.CEO Willem Endhoven says the company will begin by selling tocompanies,such as newspapers or textbook publishers,rather than directly to consumers.There are sure to be other companies tha

56、t introduce readers in the months and years ahead.Plastics Logic Inc.,a British startup,is working on a flexible display the size of an 81/2-in.-by-11-in.piece of paper that can receive books,news,or e-mail wirelessly.Its partneringwith Japans NTT DoCoMo and plans to have a product on the market by

57、early 2008.Theres even speculation that Apple could come out with its own device,an iPod designed forbooks.The secretive company hasnt said anything publicly and declined to comment for thisarticle.Just as digital readers are hitting the market,the number of books on the Net is swelling toLibrary of

58、 Congress proportions.Google,through an initiative it began a year ago,is scanningmillions of books from five of the worlds largest libraries and plans to make the contentssearchable online.The effort has drawn the ire of publishers and authors,since its digitizing somebooks still under copyright.Pu

59、blishers sued last fall for copyright infringement and the case ispending.(One of the plaintiffs in the case is The McGraw-Hill Companies,the parent of BusinessWeek.)New Literary ModelsYet Google is helping ignite the digital market.In November,following the lawsuit,RandomHouse announced plans to di

60、gitize 25,000 titles.It will sell access to them to consumers,charginga per page rate for everything from novels to recipes out of a cookbook.In December,HarperCollins Publishers Inc.said it would build a digital warehouse of its entireholdings 一another 25,000 titles or so 一which it may later sell o

61、ver the Net.A is moving aggressive into digital books,too.It sells digital versions of most of itstitles,available fbr download instantly.In August,it launched Amazon Shorts,a collection ofstories,novellas,and essays that can be downloaded fbr 49 cents a piece.Later this year it plans tooffer shoppe

62、rs who purchase traditional books the chance to buy a version they can read on theWeb,too.That way they could keep Stephen Kings Cell:A Novel on their nightstand and read achapter from any computer with Net access.We think consumers increasingly are ready fbr it,“says Steve Kessel,vice-president for

63、 worldwide digital media.Authors are intrigued by the opportunities to go digital.George Saunders,a short story authorand professor of English at Syracuse University,says hed like a way to get his work out toreaders more quickly.After the scandal broke over James Freys falsehoods in his hit book AMi

64、llion Little Pieces,Saunders penned a humorous essay stemming from the events.It was aconfession to Oprah Winfrey that all of the fiction hed written had,in fact,been true.ButSaunders had a ahrd time getting the piece published quickly,and now it feels dated.There mightbe a different model for a lit

65、erary community thats quicker,more real-time,and involves morespontaneity,he says.If digital books finally do take-off,they could change not only how we read,but what we read,too.没有一家图书公司能像苹果电脑公司那样点石成金。但是如果把技术、可供使用的内容和消费者行为等因素整合在一起，今天电子书或许能实现突破。技术出版商奥莱理媒体公司的创始人提姆奥莱理说：“拼图的各个部件都在桌上。你不但有制作电子书所必须的大量内容资源

66、，还有极具吸引力的硬件。我们还缺乏的是一个将它们整合起来的成功商业模式。”显然，索尼正试图完成这一业绩。把设备和网上结合起来颇似苹果公司的手法。“索尼阅读器“外观令人印象深刻：一个薄而坚固的盒子，重 9 盎司，外包厚实的人造革。但它可能不会像苹果公司的iPod那样成为风靡一时的时尚产品。“索尼阅读器”的控制键用起来可能不太灵活。止 匕 外，用于这种阅读器的新书售价几乎和鲍德斯之类的大型图书零售店里出售的图书一样。用户必须自行上网搜索并下载已经过了版权保护期的免费经典著作。其它电子阅读器的制造商则在谨慎行事。中国公司津科打算向教育界和其它市场推出它的电子阅读器，但公司解决透露计划的详细内容。从皇家飞利浦电子有限公司分拆出来的公司Irex Technologies声称，今年4 月其新款电子阅读器将上市销售。公司首席执行官威廉恩霍芬称,他们一开始时会向报纸或教科书出版商之类的企业进行销售,而不是直接面向消费者。毋庸置疑，在今后几个月和几年内还会有其它公司推出电子阅读器。英国新兴的PlasticLogic公司正在开发一种长11英寸、宽 8.5 英寸的一张纸大小的柔性电子显示屏，可以无线接受电子