考研英语历年真题来源报刊阅读100篇(五)

Behind the bleeding edgeNO.5

5Behind the bleeding edge

MANKIND’S progress in developing new gizmos is often referred to as the “march of technology”. That conjures up images of constant and relentless forward movement orchestrated with military precision. In reality, technological progress is rather less orderly. Some technologies do indeed improve at such a predictable pace that they obey simple formulae such as Moore’s law, which acts as a battleplan for the semiconductor industry. Other technologies proceed by painful lurches—think of thirdgeneration mobile phones, or new versions of Microsoft Windows. And there are some cases, particularly in the developing world, when technological progress takes the form of a leapfrog.
Such leapfrogging involves adopting a new technology directly, and skipping over the earlier, inferior versions of it that came before. By far the bestknown example is that of mobile phones in the developing world. Fixedline networks are poor or nonexistent in many developing countries, so people have leapfrogged straight to mobile phones instead. The number of mobile phones now far outstrips the number of fixedline telephones in China, India and subSaharan Africa.

There are other examples. Incandescent light bulbs, introduced in the late 1870s, are slowly being displaced in the developed world by more energyefficient lightemitting diodes (LEDs), in applications from traffic lights to domestic lighting. LEDs could, however, have an even greater impact in parts of the developing world that lack mains power and electric lighting altogether. LEDs’ greater energy efficiency makes it possible to run them from batteries charged by solar panels during the day.

Being behind the “bleeding edge” of technological development can sometimes be a good thing, in short. It means that early versions of a technology, which may be buggy, unreliable or otherwise inferior, can be avoided. America, for example, was the first country to adopt colour television, which explains why American television still looks so bad today: other countries came to the technology later and adopted technically superior standards.

The lesson to be drawn from all of this is that it is wrong to assume that developing countries will follow the same technological course as developed nations. Having skipped fixedline telephones, some parts of the world may well skipdesktop computers in favour of portable devices, for example. Entire economies may even leapfrog from agriculture straight to hightech industries. That is what happened in Israel, which went from citrus farming to microchips; India, similarly, is doing its best to jump straight to a hightech service economy.

Those who anticipate and facilitate leapfrogging can prosper as a result. Those who fail to see it coming risk being jumped over. Kodak, for example, hit by the sudden rise of digital cameras in the developed world, wrongly assumed that it would still be able to sell oldfashioned film and film cameras in China instead. But the emerging Chinese middle classes leapfrogged straight to digital cameras—and even those are now outnumbered by cameraphones.

precision［pri5siVEn］

n.精确，精确度

［真题例句］ The tests themselves are merely tools, with characteristics that can be measured with reasonable precision under specified conditions.［1995年翻译］

［例句精译］ 这些测试本身只是一种工具，其各种特性是可以在规定的条件下用相当的精度来测定的。

skip［skip］

v.跳，蹦，急速改变，跳读，遗漏，跳跃；n.跳跃

inferior［in5fiEriE］

a.①（to）下等的，下级的；②差的，次的；n.下级，晚辈

［真题例句］ He will not do so for long, for mercifully the public has the good sense not to buy the inferior (a.②) article more than once.［1995年阅读1］

［例句精译］ 他这样做的时间不会长，因为庆幸的是，公众有良好的判断力，他们不会一而再、再而三地去购买劣质商品。

version［5vE:Fen］

n.①型，版本；②译本，译文；③说法，看法；④（某种）形式

［真题例句］ And if scientists have yet to create the mechanical version (④) of science fiction, they have begun to come close.［2002年阅读2］

［例句精译］ 如果科学家们还没有在机械上实现科幻小说的幻想，那么他们也已经很接近这个目标了。assume［E5sju:m］

v.①假装；②假定，设想；③采取，承担；④呈现；⑤以为，认为

［真题例句］ (71) Actually, it isnt, because it assumes (②) that there is an agreed account of human rights, which is something the world does not have.［1997年翻译］

［例句精译］ （71）事实并非如此，因为这种问法是以人们对人的权利达成共识为基础的，而这种共同认识并不存在。

［真题例句］ (41：Neither) kind of sleep is at all wellunderstood , but REM sleep is (42：assumed) (⑤) to serve some restorative function of the brain.［1995年完形］

［例句精译］ 我们对两种形式的睡眠了解都不多，但是人们认为REM睡眠对大脑起着某种康复功能。

facilitate［fE5siliteit］

v.使变得（更）容易，使便利

［真题例句］ Technology has facilitated the sharing of information and the storage and delivery of information, thus making more information available to more people.［1995年阅读3］

［例句精译］ 技术的发展促进了信息分享、存储和传递，这就使更多的人得到更多的信息。

emerge［i5mE:dV］

v.浮现，出现

［真题例句］ Emerging from the 1980 census is the picture of a nation developing more and more regional competition, as population growth in the Northeast and Midwest reaches a near standstill.［1998年阅读4］

［例句精译］ 1980年美国人口普查表明：随着东北部和中西部人口增长近乎停止，地区间的竞争越来越激烈了。

后发优势理论：发生变革的当代, 发展中国家完全有可能通过“蛙跳”实现对发达国家的赶超。从发展中国家的角度来看,新增长理论无外乎解释了两个经济现象:一个是“经济趋异”的原因,即发展中国家知识存量低于发达国家的“后发劣势”;二是“经济赶超”的途径,即发展中国家利用知识外溢和技术跳跃实现经济赶超的“后发优势”,具体而言是指,发展中国家通过选择性吸收和学习,可在短短几十年内跳跃式地获得发达国家用几百年才获得的知识存量。

落后于尖端

当谈到人类在某些新发明上取得进展时，人们往往会提到“技术行军”。这不禁让人眼前浮现一幅幅如军队般整齐排列、源源不断、表情严肃地向前迈进的景象。事实上，技术的进步很少有步调一致的情形。的确，有些技术的进步是以一种可预测的节奏进行着，他们遵循摩尔定律般简单的公式，好比是半导体工业的设计图纸。其他技术则往往举步维艰、坎坷难行——看看第三代移动电话或者微软最新版本的视窗操作系统就明白了。而在某些情况下，尤其在发展中国家，技术进步却是“跳跃式”的。

所谓“跳跃式”的进步就是跨越早期略显陈旧的技术而直接采用新技术。迄今，最深入人心的例子恐怕就是发展中国家的移动电话了。在许多发展中国家，固话网络发展落后甚至就没有。正因为如此，这些国家的人们便直接“跑步进入”移动电话时代。如今，在中国、印度和非洲撒哈拉沙漠以南地区手机的数量远远超过固定电话。

这儿还有一个例子。在发达国家里，从交通信号灯到家用照明灯，节能型LED灯正慢慢地取代19世纪70年代末引进的白炽灯。然而，在那些缺少电力网络和照明的发展中国家，LED可能已扮演更加重要的角色。凭借更高的能效，LED可以通过太阳能电池供能全天候工作。

总之，尖端技术发展落后有时也未必是坏事。也就是说，技术落后可以避免某项技术在发展初期可能不成熟、不可靠或者较粗糙所造成的麻烦。例如，美国是第一个使用彩色电视的国家，这也就解释为什么时至今日美国的电视机看起来还是那么糟糕；其他国家发展该项技术起步较晚，但采用的是更先进的技术工艺。

而种种技术跳跃也带来了启示：如果认为发展中国家会重复发达国家走过的技术发展历程，那就大错特错了。比如对世界上某些国家来说，既然已经跨越了固定电话，那么跨越台式进入便携式计算机时代或许也理所当然；甚至有可能整个国家从农业经济直接转向高科技产业。以色列便是例子，它从管理橘子园转变为生产微芯片；而印度也同样竭尽所能跻身高技术服务业。

早作准备并为之提供便利可以坐享技术跳跃带来的繁荣；而反应迟钝则意味着冒被他人赶超的危险。例如柯达，之前已经在发达国家内遭到数码相机的突袭而先败了一阵，却依然错误地判断老式胶卷和相机能够在中国帮其挽回颓势。但是，中国新兴的中产阶级们纷纷提前跨入了数码相机时代——而且现在，甚至连数码相机也被带有摄像功能的手机赶超了。