第一次世界大戰

　　2023復習正是強化復習階段，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。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強烈推薦了雜志《經濟學人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認真閱讀，快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 　　The First World War 　　第一次世界大戰 　　Look back with angst 　　再回首 憂心忡忡 　　A century on, there are uncomfortable parallelswith the era that led to the outbreak of the FirstWorld War 　　一戰過去已有一個世紀，回望一戰卻發現與當今世界有不少相似之處，令人不安。 　　AS NEW YEAR approached a century ago, most people in the West looked forward to 1914with optimism. 　　一個世紀前，同是新年將至，許多西方人對即將來臨的1914年充滿期待。 　　The hundred years since the Battle of Waterloo had not been entirely free of disastertherehad been a horrific civil war in America, some regional scraps in Asia, the Franco-Prussianwar and the occasional colonial calamity. 　　滑鐵盧戰役百年來，世界仍未完全擺脫災難美國爆發嚴重內戰，亞洲部分地區變成廢墟，普法戰爭爆發，殖民地災難時有發生。 　　But continental peace had prevailed. 　　不過，各大陸整體來說還是和平的。 　　Globalisation and new technologythe telephone, the steamship, the trainhad knitted theworld together. 　　全球化進程加深，加上電話，蒸汽船，火車等新技術應運而生，世界各國緊密相連。 　　John Maynard Keynes has a wonderful image of a Londoner of the time, sipping his morningtea in bed and ordering the various products of the whole earth to his door, much as hemight today from Amazonand regarding this state of affairs as normal, certain andpermanent, except in the direction of further improvement. 　　凱恩斯精彩描繪了當時倫敦人的生活情景，躺在床上嘖吧嘖吧喝著早茶，訂購來自全世界各地的各種產品還送貨上門，就像現在從亞馬遜上購物一樣他們認為這種狀態正常，必然且不變，要變也只會變更好。 　　The Londoner might well have had by his bedside table a copy of Norman Angell s The GreatIllusion, which laid out the argument thatEurope s economies were so integrated that war wasfutile. 　　他們的床頭桌上可能還放著一本諾曼?安吉爾的《大幻覺》，例舉種種說明歐洲經濟高度一體化，戰爭無用。 　　Yet within a year, the world was embroiled in a most horrific war. 　　然而不到一年，整個世界卷入了一場極端可怕的戰爭。 　　It cost 9m livesand many times that number if you take in the various geopolitical tragediesit left in its wake, from the creation of Soviet Russia to the too-casual redrawing of MiddleEastern borders and the rise of Hitler. 　　一戰中，900萬人喪生;一戰后，蘇聯建國，中東地區的國家邊界被草率劃定，希特勒迅速崛起，若把這些尾隨一戰而來的地緣政治慘劇都囊括在內的話，死亡人數可就要翻好幾番了。 　　From being a friend of freedom, technology became an agent of brutality, slaughtering andenslaving people on a terrifying scale. 　　而科技，從自由之友搖身變成暴行的代理人，無數人因此遭屠殺、被奴役。 　　Barriers shot up around the world, especially during the Great Depression of the 1930s. 　　世界各地壁壘林立，在20世紀30年代經濟大蕭條時期更是如此。 　　The globalisation that Keynes s Londoner enjoyed only really began again in 1945or, somewould argue, in the 1990s, when eastern Europe was set free and Deng Xiaoping s reformsbegan bearing fruit in China. 　　凱恩斯筆下倫敦人享受的全球化真正再次出現已是1945年，或是有人認為的20世紀90年代，那時西歐解放，鄧小平在中國的改革開放已初見成效。 　　The driving force behind the catastrophe that befell the world a century ago wasGermany,which was looking for an excuse for a war that would allow it to dominate Europe. 　　德國一直伺機尋找借口發動戰爭欲征服歐洲，是百年前那場大災難的助推手。 　　Yet complacency was also to blame. 　　然而他國的驕傲自滿也難辭其咎。 　　Too many people, inLondon,Parisand elsewhere, believed that because BritainandGermanywere each other s biggest trading partners after America and there was therefore noeconomic logic behind the conflict, war would not happen. 　　不論是在倫敦、巴黎還是其它地方，有太多人認為英德兩國互為僅次于美國的第二大貿易合作伙伴，也就不會有經濟方面的糾紛，戰爭也就不會爆發。 　　As Keynes put it, The projects and politics of militarism and imperialism, of racial and culturalrivalries, of monopolies, restrictions and exclusion, which were to play the serpent to thisparadise, were little more than the amusements ofdaily newspaper. 　　正如凱恩斯所言，軍國主義和帝國主義，種族和文化對抗，貿易壟斷、限制和排外等種種計劃和政策正如失樂園的撒旦化身大蛇一樣，然而在倫敦人看來，不過是日報上的娛樂資訊罷了。 　　Playing your role 　　演好角色 　　Humanity can learn from its mistakes, as shown by the response to the economic crisis,which was shaped by a determination to avoid the mistakes that led to the Depression. 　　從經濟危機的應對便可看出，人類能從錯誤中吸取教訓，尤其當人們下定決心不再重蹈經濟大蕭條的覆轍時。 　　The memory of the horrors unleashed a century ago makes leaders less likely to stumbleinto war today. 　　回憶起百年前這場恐怕的戰爭，各國便不太可能再度卷入戰爭。 　　So does the explosive power of a modern conflagration: the threat of a nuclear holocaust isa powerful brake on the reckless escalation that dispatched a generation of young meninto the trenches. 　　同樣，想到現代沖突帶來的爆炸威力：核毀滅的威脅有力的剎住了不顧后果的沖突升級，新一代年輕男子也就無需匍匐戰壕了。 　　Yet the parallels remain troubling. 　　然而當今世界與一戰的諸多相似之處，仍令人擔憂。 　　The United StatesisBritain, the superpower on the wane, unable to guarantee globalsecurity. 　　現在的美國類似當時的英國，同是月滿正虧的超級大國，同樣無法保證全球安全。 　　Its main trading partner,China, plays the part of Germany, a new economic power bristlingwith nationalist indignation and building up its armed forces rapidly. 　　中國，美國最主要的貿易伙伴，則類似當時的德國，同為新興經濟力量，同樣充斥著憤懣的民族主義者，同樣在迅速地構建軍事力量。 　　Modern Japan is France, an ally of the retreating hegemon and a declining regional power. 　　日本就如當時的法國，同為衰退霸權國的同盟者，在地區的影響力同樣下降。 　　The parallels are not exactChina lacks the Kaiser s territorial ambitions and America sdefence budget is far more impressive than imperial Britain sbut they are close enoughfor the world to be on its guard. 　　不過，并無完全相同，中國缺少德國擴張的野心，美國的國防預算也遠強于那時的英帝國。然而，這種高度相似已足以令世界提高警惕。 　　Which, by and large, it is not. 　　但總體上并未引起世界各國的重視。 　　The most troubling similarity between 1914 and now is complacency. 　　自滿才是1914年與當今世界最令人擔憂的相似點。 　　Business people today are like businesspeople then: too busy making money to notice theserpents flickering at the bottom of their trading screens. 　　商人還像那時的的商人：忙著掙錢，對電子交易屏下若隱若現的撒旦毒蛇渾然不知。

　　2023復習正是強化復習階段，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。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強烈推薦了雜志《經濟學人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認真閱讀，快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 　　The First World War 　　第一次世界大戰 　　Look back with angst 　　再回首 憂心忡忡 　　A century on, there are uncomfortable parallelswith the era that led to the outbreak of the FirstWorld War 　　一戰過去已有一個世紀，回望一戰卻發現與當今世界有不少相似之處，令人不安。 　　AS NEW YEAR approached a century ago, most people in the West looked forward to 1914with optimism. 　　一個世紀前，同是新年將至，許多西方人對即將來臨的1914年充滿期待。 　　The hundred years since the Battle of Waterloo had not been entirely free of disastertherehad been a horrific civil war in America, some regional scraps in Asia, the Franco-Prussianwar and the occasional colonial calamity. 　　滑鐵盧戰役百年來，世界仍未完全擺脫災難美國爆發嚴重內戰，亞洲部分地區變成廢墟，普法戰爭爆發，殖民地災難時有發生。 　　But continental peace had prevailed. 　　不過，各大陸整體來說還是和平的。 　　Globalisation and new technologythe telephone, the steamship, the trainhad knitted theworld together. 　　全球化進程加深，加上電話，蒸汽船，火車等新技術應運而生，世界各國緊密相連。 　　John Maynard Keynes has a wonderful image of a Londoner of the time, sipping his morningtea in bed and ordering the various products of the whole earth to his door, much as hemight today from Amazonand regarding this state of affairs as normal, certain andpermanent, except in the direction of further improvement. 　　凱恩斯精彩描繪了當時倫敦人的生活情景，躺在床上嘖吧嘖吧喝著早茶，訂購來自全世界各地的各種產品還送貨上門，就像現在從亞馬遜上購物一樣他們認為這種狀態正常，必然且不變，要變也只會變更好。 　　The Londoner might well have had by his bedside table a copy of Norman Angell s The GreatIllusion, which laid out the argument thatEurope s economies were so integrated that war wasfutile. 　　他們的床頭桌上可能還放著一本諾曼?安吉爾的《大幻覺》，例舉種種說明歐洲經濟高度一體化，戰爭無用。 　　Yet within a year, the world was embroiled in a most horrific war. 　　然而不到一年，整個世界卷入了一場極端可怕的戰爭。 　　It cost 9m livesand many times that number if you take in the various geopolitical tragediesit left in its wake, from the creation of Soviet Russia to the too-casual redrawing of MiddleEastern borders and the rise of Hitler. 　　一戰中，900萬人喪生;一戰后，蘇聯建國，中東地區的國家邊界被草率劃定，希特勒迅速崛起，若把這些尾隨一戰而來的地緣政治慘劇都囊括在內的話，死亡人數可就要翻好幾番了。 　　From being a friend of freedom, technology became an agent of brutality, slaughtering andenslaving people on a terrifying scale. 　　而科技，從自由之友搖身變成暴行的代理人，無數人因此遭屠殺、被奴役。 　　Barriers shot up around the world, especially during the Great Depression of the 1930s. 　　世界各地壁壘林立，在20世紀30年代經濟大蕭條時期更是如此。 　　The globalisation that Keynes s Londoner enjoyed only really began again in 1945or, somewould argue, in the 1990s, when eastern Europe was set free and Deng Xiaoping s reformsbegan bearing fruit in China. 　　凱恩斯筆下倫敦人享受的全球化真正再次出現已是1945年，或是有人認為的20世紀90年代，那時西歐解放，鄧小平在中國的改革開放已初見成效。 　　The driving force behind the catastrophe that befell the world a century ago wasGermany,which was looking for an excuse for a war that would allow it to dominate Europe. 　　德國一直伺機尋找借口發動戰爭欲征服歐洲，是百年前那場大災難的助推手。 　　Yet complacency was also to blame. 　　然而他國的驕傲自滿也難辭其咎。 　　Too many people, inLondon,Parisand elsewhere, believed that because BritainandGermanywere each other s biggest trading partners after America and there was therefore noeconomic logic behind the conflict, war would not happen. 　　不論是在倫敦、巴黎還是其它地方，有太多人認為英德兩國互為僅次于美國的第二大貿易合作伙伴，也就不會有經濟方面的糾紛，戰爭也就不會爆發。 　　As Keynes put it, The projects and politics of militarism and imperialism, of racial and culturalrivalries, of monopolies, restrictions and exclusion, which were to play the serpent to thisparadise, were little more than the amusements ofdaily newspaper. 　　正如凱恩斯所言，軍國主義和帝國主義，種族和文化對抗，貿易壟斷、限制和排外等種種計劃和政策正如失樂園的撒旦化身大蛇一樣，然而在倫敦人看來，不過是日報上的娛樂資訊罷了。 　　Playing your role 　　演好角色 　　Humanity can learn from its mistakes, as shown by the response to the economic crisis,which was shaped by a determination to avoid the mistakes that led to the Depression. 　　從經濟危機的應對便可看出，人類能從錯誤中吸取教訓，尤其當人們下定決心不再重蹈經濟大蕭條的覆轍時。 　　The memory of the horrors unleashed a century ago makes leaders less likely to stumbleinto war today. 　　回憶起百年前這場恐怕的戰爭，各國便不太可能再度卷入戰爭。 　　So does the explosive power of a modern conflagration: the threat of a nuclear holocaust isa powerful brake on the reckless escalation that dispatched a generation of young meninto the trenches. 　　同樣，想到現代沖突帶來的爆炸威力：核毀滅的威脅有力的剎住了不顧后果的沖突升級，新一代年輕男子也就無需匍匐戰壕了。 　　Yet the parallels remain troubling. 　　然而當今世界與一戰的諸多相似之處，仍令人擔憂。 　　The United StatesisBritain, the superpower on the wane, unable to guarantee globalsecurity. 　　現在的美國類似當時的英國，同是月滿正虧的超級大國，同樣無法保證全球安全。 　　Its main trading partner,China, plays the part of Germany, a new economic power bristlingwith nationalist indignation and building up its armed forces rapidly. 　　中國，美國最主要的貿易伙伴，則類似當時的德國，同為新興經濟力量，同樣充斥著憤懣的民族主義者，同樣在迅速地構建軍事力量。 　　Modern Japan is France, an ally of the retreating hegemon and a declining regional power. 　　日本就如當時的法國，同為衰退霸權國的同盟者，在地區的影響力同樣下降。 　　The parallels are not exactChina lacks the Kaiser s territorial ambitions and America sdefence budget is far more impressive than imperial Britain sbut they are close enoughfor the world to be on its guard. 　　不過，并無完全相同，中國缺少德國擴張的野心，美國的國防預算也遠強于那時的英帝國。然而，這種高度相似已足以令世界提高警惕。 　　Which, by and large, it is not. 　　但總體上并未引起世界各國的重視。 　　The most troubling similarity between 1914 and now is complacency. 　　自滿才是1914年與當今世界最令人擔憂的相似點。 　　Business people today are like businesspeople then: too busy making money to notice theserpents flickering at the bottom of their trading screens. 　　商人還像那時的的商人：忙著掙錢，對電子交易屏下若隱若現的撒旦毒蛇渾然不知。