看经济学人学雅思写作--你为何工作？（二）

摘要：本文为大家详细分析一篇经济学人杂志的文章，不仅有中文翻译，还总结了大量适用于雅思写作的万用经典句式和高分词汇，对于正在备考雅思写作的同学们来说是绝佳的复习资料。详情见文章。

For me, it has meant that any thought of sloping gently towards retirement is out of the window. And because there is to be no such sloping, I can no longer allow myself the luxury of mild disillusionment. Instead, Iam applying myself to the job, and, to my amazement and delight, find that instead of feeling trapped or sorry for myself, I’m rather enjoying it. The work itself has not changed a bit,but I am doing it with more conviction.

对我而言，这意味着混日子等退休的想法都不在考虑之列了。因为不会再有混日子的事情，我也就不再允许自己沉浸于轻微的幻灭之中。相反，我投入到工作之中。让我感到惊讶和喜悦的是，我非但没有觉得自己受缚于工作或很可怜，反而觉得很享受。工作本身一点也没有变，但是我工作的时候更深信不疑了。

【经典句式】

is out of the window 被舍弃了

no longer 不再

luxury奢侈

mild温和的

disillusionment幻灭

apply myself to … 努力……

to one’s +情感名词 感到……情感

amazement惊喜

delight喜悦

trap困住

conviction确信

This may not alter the quality of the finished product, but it does affect how it feels to be making it. Every time I am offered an additional piece of paidwork, I no longer think:I’m not sure I can bebothered; I think: let me at it.

这可能不会改变工作成果的质量，但的确改变了工作时的感觉。每当我被指派一份额外的有偿工作时，我不会再想：我不确定自己愿不愿意费那个麻烦;而是会想：让我来做吧。

【经典句式】

alter改变

paid work有偿工作

no longer 不再

cannot be bothered 懒得……

I am not saying that everyone in their sixth decade should ditch their spouse to give their flagging careers a bit more oomph. Neither am I suggesting that everyone who gets divorced can look forward to this kind of professional dividend. Some people are so poleaxed by the misery of it all that they can hardly crawl into the office, let alone feel relatively gung-ho once they get there.

我的意思不是说，每个人都该在六十多的时候抛弃他们的配偶，来给他们日渐衰微的事业注入一点热情。我也不是说每个离婚的人都有望在职业上获得这样的意外好处。有些人被这些痛苦彻底击垮，几乎连勉强去办公室上班都做不到，更不用提感到工作劲头更足了。

【大作文万用句式】让步/澄清：

I am not saying that … Neither am I suggesting that …我的意思不是说，……我也不是说……

【大作文万用句式】

…, let alone … 更不要说……了

【经典句式】

ditch抛弃

spouse配偶

look forward to期待

professional职业的

dividend红利

misery痛苦

crawl爬

Instead, what this proves is that the link between boredom,money and motivation is not what I thought it was. I used to think it was obvious why people in their fifties felt stale — it was because 30 years was simply too long to be doing the same thing.

相反，这正证明了无聊、金钱和动力这三者之间的联系不是我之前所想的那样。我过去一直认为五十多岁的人感到厌倦的原因很明显——30年做同一件事实在太长了。

【经典句式】

boredom无聊

motivation动力

used to过去……

stale陈腐的，不新鲜的

I now discover itis more complicated than that. People in professional jobs work for three reasons: money, status and the interest of the work itself. The main reason those in their fifties become sluggish is not that their minds are going, nor that the work itself has become too monotonous. It is that neither money nor status move them as they used to and the interest of the jobis not enough to keep them going on its own.

可现在我发现，事实比这更复杂。专业人士为了三个原因工作：金钱、地位和对工作本身的兴趣。他们在五十多岁变得懈怠的主要原因，既不是因为他们的脑力在减退，也不是因为工作本身变得太单调乏味，而是不管金钱还是地位都不能像从前那样驱使他们了，而只靠对工作的兴趣并不足以支撑他们继续保持对工作的热情。

【大作文万用句式】反驳

It is more complicated than that. 事实比这更复杂。

【经典句式】

professional职业的

status地位

interest兴趣

sluggish懈怠的

monotonous单调的

【犀利观点】工作的动力：

People in professional jobs work for three reasons: money, status and the interest of the work itself.

You would have to be a most peculiar person to beprepared to stay up allnight doing the legal slog on an M&A deal for the sheer fun of it. And even though journalism is arguably more enjoyable than corporate law, it is not so fabulously entertaining that I would consider doing it if I didn’t have to.

如果一个人仅仅是为了其中的乐趣而彻夜工作，处理一桩并购案相关的法务工作，那这个人一定怪到家了。虽然可以说记者工作比公司法工作更有意思，但是也没有有趣到哪怕没有必须做的原因，我也会考虑做着玩。

【经典句式】

peculiar奇怪的

stay up all night熬夜

sheer仅仅的;单纯的

journalism新闻

corporate law 公司法

entertaining令人愉快的

Almost all the scientific studies will tell you that money doesn’t motivate.Yet when you have just parted company with your nest egg and lost some of the financial security you thought you had, every pay cheque becomes a minor cause of celebration — and the same old, same old work suddenly seems as fresh and full of possibility as it ever did.

几乎所有的科学研究都告诉你，金钱不是动力。然而，当你刚刚失去了一笔储蓄，失去了一些你本以为享有的经济保障时，每一笔收入都能成为小小庆祝一下的理由——同样一成不变的工作突然就会像曾经那样，变得充满新鲜感和各种可能性。

【经典句式】

motivate给人动力

financial security 经济保障

pay cheque 工资支票

minor小的