2018年揚州第一次模擬考試閱讀理解C篇語音簡講
C
Competition is an ideology(意識形態) that spreads all over oursociety and misleads our thinking.
與人競爭這種潛在的意識形態在社會上非常流行，它會使我們的思考方向誤入歧途。
But it means no profits for anybody, no meaningfuldifferentiation（區別，不同）, and a struggle for survival. 但是它對任何人都不能帶來好處，只會產生沒有意義的分化，人們只是為了生存而競爭。
We advocate competition, see it as necessary, and set its laws; and as a result, we trapourselves within it—the more we compete, the less wegain.
我們鼓吹競爭，認為它必不會可少，同時為它制定規則；結果，我們深陷其中---我們越是競爭，我們得到的就越少。
Our educational system both drives and reflects ourcraze（渴求，渴望，發狂）for competition.
我們的教育體系鼓噪人們競爭的同時也折射出了人們對競爭的渴望。
Gradesalone are precisemeasurement（度量，衡量）of each student"scompetitiveness（競爭力，競爭性）; pupils with thehighest marks receive status and credits.
只有分數才能精確地衡量出每個學生的競爭力；考高分的學生才能獲得相應的地位和名譽。
Andit gets worse as students rise to higher levels of the tournament.
當學生之間的競爭達到更高的階段時，事情就變得非常糟糕。
Higher education is the place where people who had big plans in high school get stuckin fierce competition with equally smart peers over conventional careers likemanagement consulting and investment banking.
高等教育讓那些在中學時代就樹立遠大抱負的人深陷於和同樣聰明的同齡人在那些管理諮詢和投資銀行等傳統職業上的激烈競爭。
For the privilege of being turning into conformists (順從者), students (or their families)pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in rapidly rising tuition.
為了進入這些傳統行業成為循規蹈矩的人，學生（或其家長）需要支付不斷快速上漲的巨額學費。
Whyare we doing this to ourselves?
我們為什麼找虐？
Iwish I had askedmyself when I was younger.
我多麼希望我小時候就問過自己這些問題。（虛擬語氣，說明小時候沒有問過自己類似的問題。言外之意，如果我小時候能夠問自己這個問題，那麼我就不會深陷於與別人無意義的競爭。）
My path was sotracked（留下足跡，被追蹤）that in my 8th-grade yearbook, one of my friends predicted—accurately—thatfour years later I would enter Stanford.
我的人生軌跡是這樣的：在我第八年級的年鑒里，我的一個朋友準確地預言四年後我會進斯坦福大學。
AndI enrolled at Stanford Law School, where I competed even harder for the standard badges(徽章) of success.
我考上了斯坦福大學法學院，在那裡我更努力地學習為的就是能夠和別人競爭獲得象徵著成功的標準徽章。
The highest prize ina law student"s world isunambiguous（不含糊的，清楚的，明白的）: the Supreme Court clerkship. I was so close to winning this last competition.
法學院學生心目中的最高獎項非常明確，那就是最高法院的書記員崗位的見習機會。我離贏得這場終極競爭已經非常近了。（the Supreme Court clerkship具體指的什麼，對理解這篇文章不是重點，只需知道是法學生都夢寐以求的令人羨慕的職位。）
If onlyI got the clerkship, I thought, I would be set for life. But I didn"t. At the time, I was frustrated.
如果我能夠得到這個機會，我想，我的一生就定下來了。但是，我輸了。當時，我非常失落。（第一句是虛擬語氣，注意作者的話外音。作者非常失落，說明他非常在意這個職位）
In 2004, after I had built and sold PayPal, Iran into（拜訪）an old friend who had helped me preparemy failed clerkship applications.
2004年，我創立並且賣掉了貝寶之後驅車造訪了一位老朋友，他曾經幫助我申請那次失敗的見習機會。
We hadn"t spoken innearly a decade.
我們已經有十年沒有來往了。
His first words to me were not 「Hi Peter」 or 「How are you doing？」 But rather, 「So, aren"t you glad you didn"tget that clerkship？」
他見到我的第一句話不是「嗨，彼得」或「你最近怎樣？」這樣的話，而是「那麼，你沒有得到那次見習機會難道你不覺得高興嗎？」（這句說明，作者的朋友並不認為作者當年沒有成功申請到那個職位是個失敗。正所謂，塞翁失馬焉知非福。）
Because if Ihadn"t lostthat last competition, weboth knew that Inever would have leftthe track laid down since middle school. （虛擬語氣，注意作者話外音）
因為如果我當時爭取到那個見習機會，我們倆都知道我一定會沿著中學時代設定好的路線一直走下去。
Had I actually clerkedon the Supreme Court,I probablywould have spentmy entire career taking depositions or drafting otherpeople"s business deals instead of creating anything new.
如果我真的得到那次機會的話，我很可能就會把它作為我的終身職業，在法庭上宣誓證詞或者幫人打經濟官司而不是去從事創新活動。（虛擬語氣，注意作者話外音）
It"s hard to say how much would be different, butthe_opportunity_costs_were_enormous.
很難說這兩者之間有多大不同，但是機會成本卻大的驚人。
Looking back at my ambition to become a lawyer, it lookslesslike a plan for the future andmorelike an excuse for the present.
回顧過去，當時的我曾胸懷壯志想成為一個律師，這看上去不像為了將來設計好的計劃，更像為了當下的苟且找到的一個借口。（這句是說，作者當時選擇成為律師並不是出於內心的真實想法，只是當時大部分優秀的學生所期望走的路就是如此，作者只不過隨大溜而已。）
It was a way to explain to anyone who would ask—to my parents, to my peers,and most of all to myself—that there was noneed to worry.
如果有人問起來，這是一個向他們解釋，向我父母，同齡人，最重要的是向我自己解釋的一個途徑罷了---其實根本不需要擔心什麼。
I wasperfectly on track.But it turned out that my biggest problem was taking the track without thinking really hard about where it was going.
我完全走上正軌。但事實證明我最大的問題就是只需保持目前的狀態根本不需要絞盡腦汁去設想未來的路到底該怎麼走。
()61.Students compete at school because ________．
A. they are assessed by grades
B. they are under peer pressure
C. they want to find asecurejob
D. thetuition increases quickly
()62. We can learn from paragraph 3 that the writer________．
A. didn"t have a clear plan for future
B. didbadly in study in the 8th grade
C. wasn"t a capable student in college
D. didn"t want to obtain the clerkship
()63. The underlined sentence 「the opportunitycosts were enormous」(in paragraph 4) shows the writer ________.
A. is unsure whether his choice is correct
B. regrets failing clerkship applications
C. is happy about not getting the clerkship
D. thinks he could have had a better career
()64. The writer shares his life story mainly toargue that ________.
A. people shouldn"t support competition
B. grades cannot reflect students"ability
C. failure can be a good thing sometimes
D.weshouldn"t follow other people blindly
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