经济学人

本帖最后由lilywizardry 于2010-3-10 19:38 编辑

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A special report on managing information

信息管理专题

New rules for big data

大数据的新规则

Regulators are having to rethink their brief

规则的制定者不得不重新考虑他

TWO centuries after Gutenberg invented movable type in the mid-1400s there were plenty of books around, but they were expensive and poorly made. In Britain a cartel had a lock on classic works such as Shakespeare’s and Milton’s. The first copyright law, enacted in the early 1700s in the Bard’s home countr y, was designed to free knowledge by putting books in the public domain after a short period of exclusivity, around 14 years. Laws protecting free speech did not emerge until the late 18th century. Before print became widespread the need was limited.

自15世纪中叶德国人古滕堡发明活字印刷术之后的两个世纪中，书籍大量涌现，但那时的书籍非常昂贵且做工粗糙。在英国有一个联合企业把诸如莎士比亚和米尔顿的经典著作很好地封存起来。第一个版权法于18世纪早期在吟游诗人的故乡颁布，其目的是在一个持续约14年的短暂排他期后使书籍不再受版权法或专利的限制，从而使知识能够自由传播。直到18世纪晚期法律才具备了对自由言论的保护作用。而在印刷术广泛传播前对法律这项作用的需求也并不是那么迫切。

Now the information flows in an era of abundant data are changing the relationship between technology and the role of the state once again. Many of today’s rules look increasingly archaic. Privacy laws were not designed for networks. Rules for document retention presume paper records. And since all the information is interconnected, it needs global rules.

如今信息再次在一个丰富的数据能够对技术和国家角色之间关系产生影响的时代中传播着。现今的很多规则看起来越来越赶不上时代了。有关隐私的法律并非针对网络环境而设计。文档的产权保持力规则仍停留于纸质文档。然而由于所有信息都是通过互相方式关联着的，因而我们需要的是一个全球通用的规则。

New principles for an age of big data sets will need to cover six broad areas: privacy, security, retention, processing, ownership and the integrity of information.

对于大数据集时代的新原则需涵盖以下六个广泛的领域：隐私、安全、产权保持力、处理、拥有和信息的完整性。

Privacy is one of the biggest worries. People are disclosing more personal information than ever. Social-networking sites and others actually depend on it. But as databases grow, information that on its own cannot be traced to a particular individual can often

be unlocked with just a bit of computer effort.

隐私是最大的问题。人们比以往暴露着越来越多的个人信息。社会网络站点和其他网站均需要具备很高的隐私等级。当数据库逐步增长时，信息本身虽不能自己去追踪到某一特定的个人，但只需要使用很少一点的计算机技巧便能够获取到那个特定个人的信息。

This tension between individuals’ interest in protecting their privacy and companies’ interest in exploiting personal information could be resolved by giving people more control. They could be given the right to see and correct the information about them that an organisation holds, and to be told how it was used and with whom it was shared.

这种存在于个人想要保护自身隐私的需求和商业公司想要获取个人信息的需求之间的对立可以通过赋予人们更多的控制手段而得到缓解。人们可以获得查看和更正单位或组织持有的个人信息的权利，而且人们还将被告知这些个人信息将被如何使用以及谁可以共享这些信息。

Today’s privacy rules aspire to this, but fall short because of technical difficulties which the industry likes to exaggerate. Better technology should eliminate such problems. Besides, firms are already spending a great deal on collecting, sharing and processing the data; they could divert a sliver of that money to provide greater individual control.

如今的隐私规则非常期望能够如此，但是在业界夸大其辞的技术困难面前这样的愿望却很难实现。技术的进一步发展应该能够解决这样的问题。此外，商业公司为获取、分享和处理数据花费了大量的资金；他们只需花费其中九牛一毛的资金便能够提供更好的个人控制。

The benefits of information security—protecting computer systems and networks—are inherently invisible: if threats have been averted, things work as normal. That means it often gets neglected. One way to deal with that is to disclose more information. A pioneering law in California in 2003 required companies to notify people if a security breach had compromised their personal information, which pushed companies to invest more in prevention. The model has been adopted in other states and could be used more widely.

信息安全的利益在于——保护计算机系统和网络——具有其余生俱来的的不可见属性：如果危险已经转移，则一切都会正常工作。那将意味着信息安全通常会被忽视。这样做的一种后果是暴露更多的信息。2003年加利福尼亚州初创的法律要求，当商业公司的信息安全漏洞危及人们的个人信息安全时则公司必须通知相关人员，这条法律迫使商业公司增加了对信息安全防范的投入。这一模式已被其他几个州采用，它还应被推广使用。

In addition, regulators could require large companies to undergo an annual information-security audit by an accredited third party, similar to financial audits for listed companies. Information about vulnerabilities would be kept confidential, but it could be used by firms to improve their practices and handed to regulators if problems

arose. It could even be a requirement for insurance coverage, allowing a market for information security to emerge.

另外，规则的制定者应要求大公司通过由授信第三方实施的年度信息安全审核，就像对指定公司进行年度财政审核那样。与自身不足相关的信息应被作为机密，但这样的信息可以被商业公司用于改善他们的做法，并且在发生问题时转交给规则的制定者。这些信息甚至可作为保险责任范围的一项必要条件，以利于信息安全市场的形成。

Current rules on digital records state that data should never be stored for longer than necessary because they might be misused or inadvertently released. But Viktor Mayer-Schönberger of the National University of Singapore worries that the increasing power and decreasing price of computers will make it too easy to hold on to everything. In his recent book “Delete” he argues in favour of technical systems that “forget”: digital files that have expiry dates or slowly degrade over time.

当前有关数字记录状态的规则是：数据的存储期决不能超过其必要时间跨度，因为这样数据可能会被误用或者由于不注意而泄漏。但新加坡国立大学的Viktor Mayer-Schönberger却担心不断增长的计算机效能和不断降低的计算机价格会使信息丧失一切防范。在其最近的一本名为《删除》的书中他主张，对于技术系统而言“遗忘”是指：数字文件有保质期或着说数字文件会随着时间推移而变质。

Yet regulation is pushing in the opposite direction. There is a social and political expectation that records will be kept, says Peter Allen of CSC, a technology provider: “The more we know, the more we are expected to know—for ever.” American security officials have pressed companies to keep records because they may hold clues after a terrorist incident. In future it is more likely that companies will be required to retain all digital files, and ensure their accuracy, than to delete them.

然而规则却被推着向相反的方向运动。社会期望和政治期望均认为应当保留数字记录，根据技术提供商CSC公司的Peter Allen所言：“我们知道得越多，就会想要知道得更多——永远都是这样。”负责美国安全的官方机构已经给公司施加压力，要求他们保留记录以便于在恐怖事件发生后能够留下线索。公司在未来更倾向于在被要求保留下所有数字文件的同时还必须保证文件的准确性，而不是将文件删除。

Processing data is another concern. Ian Ayres, an economist and lawyer at Yale University and the author of “Super-Crunchers”, a book about computer algorithms replacing human intuition, frets about the legal implications of using statistical correlations. Rebecca Goldin, a mathematician at George Mason University, goes fu rther: she worries about the “ethics of super-crunching”. For example, racial discrimination against an applicant for a bank loan is illegal. But what if a computer model factors in the educational level of the applicant’s mother, which in America is strongly correlated with race? And what if computers, just as they can predict an individual’s susceptibility to a disease from other bits of information, can predict his predisposition to committing a crime?

处理数据是另一种考虑。耶鲁大学的经济学家和律师Ian Ayres是《超级处理机》的作者，《超级处理机》是一本关于计算机算法代替人类直觉的书，其间也有关于使用统计相关性推断出合法推论的内容。George Mason大学的数学家Rebecca Glodin却对此书却另有见解：她对“超级处理机的伦理”表示了担心。例如，对银行贷款申请的种族歧视是非法的。但如果计算机的模型组成中要求对申请者母亲的受教育程度进行考察情况会怎样呢？在美国这种情况与种族歧视之间存在强相互关联吗？另外，虽然计算机能够通过少量相关信息预知某人极易患上某种疾病，但是计算机能够预知某人是否存在犯罪倾向吗？

A new regulatory pr inciple in the age of big data, then, might be that people’s data cannot be used to discriminate against them on the basis of something that might or might not happen. The individual must be regarded as a free agent. This idea is akin to the general rule of national statistical offices that data gathered for surveys cannot be used against a person for things like deporting illegal immigrants—which, alas, has not always been respected.

在大数据时代，另外一条用于指导规则制定的原则可能是，数据可以用来推断某些事情可能发生或者不可能发生，但这些推断不能被作为歧视的依据。个人必须被作为自由而无约束的个体。这个想法与国家统计署的一般原则相似，即用于统计调查而收集的数据不能用于诸如把某人作为非法移民驱逐出境的依据——然而，遗憾的是，这个原则总是没有被很好地遵守

Privacy rules lean towards treating personal information as a property right. A reasonable presumption might be that the trail of data that an individual leaves behind and that can be traced to him, from clicks on search engines to book-buying preferences, belong to that individual, not the entity that collected it. Google’s “data liberation” initiative mentioned earlier in this report points in that direction. That mi ght create a market for information. Indeed, “data portability” stimulates competition, just as phone-number portability encourages competition among mobile operators. It might also reduce the need for antitrust enforcement by counteracting data aggregator s’ desire to grow ever bigger in order to reap economies of scale.

隐私规则的制定取决于是够将个人信息作为个人的所有权权利。一种合理的假设可能是，某个个人留下的数据痕迹以及能够被用于追踪到那个人的数据信息，应归属于那个个人，而不应被作为收集到这些数据的组织或公司的财产。本报告前面提到的谷歌“数据解放”的思想就首创性地表明了这个理念。这样才能够形成一个信息市场。事实上，“数据的便携性”将刺激竞争的发展，就像电话的便携性激励着移动运营商之间的相互竞争。“数据的便携性”能够抑止数据垄断组织意欲通过进一步垄断实现获得规模经济利润的意图，从而降低实施反托拉斯的必要性。

Ensuring the integrity of the information is an important part of the big-data age. When America’s secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, lambasted the Chinese in January for allegedly hacking into Google’s computers, she used the term “the global networked commons”. The idea is that the internet is a shared environment, like the oceans or airspace, which requires international co-operation to make the best use of it. Censorship pollutes that environment. Disrupting information flows not only violates

the integrity of the data but quashes free expression and denies the right of assembly. Likewise, if telecoms operators give preferential treatment to certain content providers, they undermine the idea of “network neutrality”.

确保数据的完整性是大数据时代的一个重要组成部分。当美国国务卿希拉里克林顿痛斥中国在今年七月存在入侵谷歌计算机的嫌疑时，她使用了术语“全球网络化了的民众”。其思想是，互联网是一个共享的环境，就像是海洋和天空，需要通过国际合作使其得到更好地利用。审查制度却一直污染着这个环境。破坏信息的流动不但是对数据完整性的妨碍，而且是对自由表达的镇压和对自由集会权利的否定。同样的，电信运营商给予确定内容的数据提供商以优惠待遇，这样的做法同样破坏了“网络中立性”的理念。

Governments could define best practice on dealing with information flows and the processing of data, just as they require firms to label processed foods with the ingredients or impose public-health standards. The World Trade Organisation, which oversees the free flow of physical trade, might be a suitable body for keeping digital goods and services flowing too. But it will not be quick or easy.

政府能够为信息流动和数据处理规范出最佳的做法，就像政府能够要求商业公司给加工好的食品贴上印有成分的标签那样，或者是像政府能够强制实施公共卫生体系那样。监管着商品自由贸易的世界贸易组织，同样也是适合于作为确保数字产品和数字服务贸易自由进行的组织机构。而这并非易事，也不可能一蹴而就。

如何养活世界(来自经济学人的英语阅读精品,含翻译)

[2009.11.17]How to feed the world 如何养活世界 Nov 19th 2009 From The Economist print edition Business as usual will not do it 一切照旧已不再可行 IN 1974 Henry Kissinger, then America’s secretary of state, told the first world food conference in Rome that no child would go to bed hungry within ten years. Just over 35 years later, in the week of another United Nations food summit in Rome, 1 billion people will go to bed hungry. 1974年，在罗马举行的第一届世界粮食会议上，当时的美国国务卿亨利?基辛格宣称10年内将没有小孩再饿着肚子入睡。而35年之后的罗马，在又一届联合国粮食峰会在罗马召开的这一周内，仍有10亿人饿着肚子上床睡觉。 This failure, already dreadful, may soon get worse. None of the underlying agricultural problems which produced a spike in food prices in 2007-08 and increased the number of hungry people has gone away. Between now and 2050 the world’s populat ion will rise by a third, but demand for agricultural goods will rise by 70% and demand for meat will double. These increases are in a sense good news in that they are a result of rising wealth in poor and middle-income countries. But they will have to happen without farmers clearing large amounts of new land (there is some scope for expansion, but not much) or using up lots more water (in parts of the world, water supplies are stretched to their limit or beyond). Moreover, they will take place while farmers also wrestle with the consequences of climate change, which, on balance, will do more harm than good to farmland round the world. 这样的失败虽已甚为可怕，但很快将会变得更糟。现存的农业问题推动了2007-08年粮食价格的上涨，使饥饿人数有所增加，而这些问题无一得到解决。现在至2050年间，世界人口将增长1/3，但农产品需求将上涨70%，而肉类需求更将翻番。这些增长在一定意义上是个好消息，因为这是中低收入国家财富增长的结果。但是伴随这些增长的却是一些不容乐观的景象：农民无法清理出大量的新地（可耕地有扩大的空间，但并不多），更多的水资源会被耗尽（在世界某些地方，供水量已至其极限甚至超过了极限）。此外，与此同时农民还需应对气候变化造成的影响。总的来说，气候变化对其全球的耕地来说将是弊大于利的。 It may be too late to avoid another bout of price rises. Despite a global recession and the largest grain harvest on record in 2008, food prices are heading up again. Still, countries have a brief window of opportunity in which to set long-term policy goals without being distracted by panic measures. They need to do two things: invest in the productive capacity of agriculture and improve the operation of food markets. 或许想避免下一轮的价格上涨为时已晚。尽管全球经济衰退，而2008年收获了有记录以来

2020考研：考研同源外刊《经济学人》最常用600个词汇(下)

考研同源外刊《经济学人》最常用600个词汇（下） 401、Final goods最终产品 旨在最终使用而非转卖或进一步加工的商品。(参见"中间产品"，intermediate goods) 402、Financial economics金融经济学 经济学的一个分支。分析理性投资者如何通过最有效的方式使用资金和进行投资以期达到目标。 403、Financial intermediary金融中介 接受储蓄存款并将其出借给借款者的机构。包括存款机构(如商业银行和储蓄银行)和非存款机构(如货币市场共同基金、经纪人商行、保险公司或养老基金)。 404、Firm(business firm)厂商 (企业)经济体系中基本的私人生产单位。它雇用劳动，购买其他投入品，以制造和销售商品。 405、Fiscal-monetary mix财政-货币政策组合 用以干预宏观经济活动的财政政策和货币政策的组合。紧缩的货币政策和宽松的财政政策，倾向于鼓励消费和抑制投资。而宽松的货币政策和紧缩的财政政策，则具有相反的功效。 406、Fiscal policy财政政策 一种政府计划。内容包括：(1)商品和服务的购买及转移支付等支出；(2)税收的数量和种类。 407、Fiscal cost固定成本 见固定成本(cost，fixed)。 408、Fixed exchange rate固定汇率

见外汇汇率(foreign exchangs rate)。 409、Flexible exchange rates弹性汇率制 一种国际汇率制度。在该制度条件下，汇率主要由市场力量(即供给和需求)决定，政府不设定及维持某种特定的汇率。有时也称作"浮动汇率制"(floating exchange rates)。当政府对外汇市场不加干预时，该制度称为纯粹的浮动汇率制。 410、Floating exchange rates浮动汇率制 见弹性汇率制(flexible exchange rates)。 411、Flow vs stock流量与存量 流量是指，带有时间跨度或曰在一个时段上所累积变动的量(好比通过一个河段的水流)。存量则指，在某一个时点上某一变量的量值(如同湖中所盛的水)。收人代表每一年的美元流入数，因此是一个流量。而到1998年12月为止某人的财富则是一个存量。 412、Foreign exchange外汇 各国用以偿付对他国所欠债务的通货(或其他金融票据)。 413、Foreign exchange market外汇市场 不同国家的通货进行交易的市场。 414、Foreign exchange rate外汇汇率 一国通货与他国通货的交换比率或曰价格。例如，如果你可以用1美元购买19德国马克，那么马克的汇率就是19。如果一国通货钉住某一汇率水平，并准备随时捍卫这一汇率，则称该国实行的是固定汇率制(fixed ex-change rate)。而由市场供求力量来决定的汇率称为弹性汇率制(flexible exchange rates)。 415、Fourfirm concentration rate四企业集中度 见集中度(concentration ratio)。 416、Fractional-reserve banking部分准备金 银行制度现代银行体系的一种管制形式。依法要求有关金融机构将其所吸收的存款

考研英语经济学人文章阅读训练五十

Convalescent plasma and artificial antibodies:Survivors as saviours 恢复期血浆和人工抗体：康复者成为了人们的救星 During the flu pandemic of1918-19doctors at an American naval hospital developed a treatment which,according to the American Journal of Public Health,had“a decided influence in shortening the course of the disease and in lowering the mortality”. 据《美国公共卫生杂志》报道称，在1918年至1919年的流感大流行期间，美国一家海军医院的医生研发了一种能够“有效缩短疾病病程并降低患者死亡率”的治疗方法。It involved clotting and then centrifuging blood from people who had got over the disease so as to separate out the antibodies it contained,then giving those antibodies to patients in dire need. 该方法是对处于恢复期的病人的血液进行采集和离心，进而分离出含有抗体的血浆，然后将其用于那些亟待治疗的患者。 Since then antibody-rich“convalescent plasma”(CP)has been used as a treatment for various diseases,including SARS and the pandemic strains of H1N1and H5N1influenza.Now covid-19has joined the list. 从那时起，富含抗体的“恢复期血浆”被广泛用于治疗包括SARS以及H1N1和H5N1流感大流行在内的各种疾病。如今，新冠肺炎也也位列其中。 A recent study in Wuhan found that severely ill covid-19patients treated with CP did significantly better than patients matched with them by age, gender and severity of infection had done earlier in the epidemic. 最近在武汉进行的一项研究发现，相比疫情早期那些年龄、性别和病情相当的新冠肺炎患者，接受恢复期血浆治疗的重症患者的治疗效果明显要好一些。

考研英语经济学人文章阅读训练2020021502

Youngsters’job preferences and prospects are mismatched 年轻人的工作偏好与就业前景不相匹配 Teenage picks 青少年的选择 The world of work is changing.Are people ready for the new job outlook? A survey of15-year-olds across41countries by the OECD,a club of mostly rich countries,found that teenagers may have unrealistic expectations about the kind of work that will be available. 职业的世界正在发生变化。人们做好准备接受新的就业观了吗？世界经合组织（一个以发达国家为主的组织）对41个国家的15岁青少年进行了一项调查，结果发现青少年对于未来可能从事的工作抱有不切实际的期望。 Four of the five most popular choices were traditional professional roles: doctors,teachers,business managers and lawyers. Teenagers clustered around the most popular jobs,with the top ten being chosen by47%of boys and53%of girls.Those shares were significantly higher than when the survey was conducted back in2000. 在五个最受欢迎的职业选择中有四个是传统的职业角色：医生、教师、企业经理和律师。青少年对于最受欢迎工作的选择呈现了聚集性，有47％的男孩和53％的女孩选择了排在前十位的职业。这一比例显著高于2000年调查时的水平。 The rationale for this selection was partly down to wishful thinking on the part of those surveyed(designers,actors and musical performers were three of the top15jobs).Youth must be allowed a bit of hope. 受访者做出这一选择往往是出于自己的一厢情愿（最受欢迎的15个职业中有3个分别是设计师、演员和歌手）。我们必须给年轻人一点希望。

比特币原文+译文(来自经济学人)

18Bitcoin’s future比特币的未来 Hidden flipside另一面；反面隐藏的另一面 How the crypto-currency could become the internet of money 加密货币是怎样变成互联网货币的 Mar 15th 2014 | From the print edition Bitcoin: the original 比特币的由来 1.THE father has been found in time for 及时赶上his child’s funeral. That would appear to be 似乎是，仿佛，显示为the sorry 遗憾的state of affairs 事态，状态，情况好坏in the land of Bitcoin, a crypto-currency, if recent press coverage 新闻报道is to be believed. On March 6th Newsweek新闻周刊（美国一杂志）reported that it had足迹，踪迹tracked down 追踪Satoshi Nakamoto,中本聪Bitcoin’s elusive [?'l(j)u?s?v]难以捉摸的creator. And on March 11th Mt Gox, the Japanese online exchange 交易所，交换，交流，兑换that had long dominated控制；支配；占优势；在…中占主要地位the trade in the currency before losing $490m of customers’Bitcoins at today’s prices, once more再一次，重新filed 提出for 再一次申请bankruptcy protection, this time in America. “父亲奔赴孩子的葬礼。”如果最近的新闻报道属实的话，那似乎会是比特币领域很遗憾的情况。3月6日，据《新闻周刊》报道，业已追踪到比特币发明人中本聪的踪迹，此人难以捉摸。日本的在线交易所Mt Gox长期以来一直是比特币行业的佼佼者，而如今，这一平台4.9亿客户的比特币被盗，于是，3月11日Mt Gox又在向美国申请破产保护。 2.In reality, things are rather different. Evidence证据，证明；迹象；明显is mounting 增加；爬上that Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, whom Newsweek identified as Bitcoin’s father, is not the relevant Satoshi. More importantly, Bitcoin’s best days 得意时代；全盛时代may still be ahead of优于，超过it—if not as a fully fledged成熟的；快会飞的；羽毛丰满的currency, then as a platform for financial innovation金融创新. Much as虽然，尽管（表让步）；非常像，和…几乎一样the internet is a foundation for digital services数字化服务, the technology behind Bitcoin could support a revolution革命in the way people own and pay for things. Geeks极客，专业人士of all sorts各种各样的are getting excited—including a growing number of 越来越多的venture capitalists,风险投资家，风险资本家who know a new platform when they see one. 事实上，一切都是迥然不同的。不断增加的证据表明《新闻周刊》的报道是错的，多利安-蒲伦蒂斯-中本聪(Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto)和比特币之父中本聪并不是同一个人。更重要的是，如果比特币没有作为一种完全成熟的货币，而是作为金融创新的平台，那么达到比特币的全盛时代依然任重而道远。如同互联网是数字化服务的基石一样，比特币背后的科技可以引领一场革命，而这场革命可以改变买方和卖方的交易方式。各路极客们都异常兴奋，其中不乏渐多大批风险资本家，一旦一个新平台出现，这些人就会对其了如指掌。 3.To understand the enthusiasm in this modern currency, it helps to think about a very old one. Until the early 20th century the people on Yap,[j?p]雅浦岛an island in the Pacific Ocean,太平洋used large stone disks 圆盘，磁盘(pictured) as money货币，钱，钱币for big expenses, 开支；消费；损失，代价such as a daughter’s dowry.嫁妆，陪嫁，天资Being very heavy, they were rarely 很少地；难得；罕有地moved when spent. Instead, they simply changed owners. Every

TheEconomist《经济学人》常用

1、绝对优势（Absolute advantage） 如果一个国家用一单位资源生产的某种产品比另一个国家多，那么，这个国家在这种产品的生产上与另一国相比就具有绝对优势。 2、逆向选择（Adverse choice） 在此状况下，保险公司发现它们的客户中有太大的一部分来自高风险群体。 3、选择成本（Alternative cost） 如果以最好的另一种方式使用的某种资源，它所能生产的价值就是选择成本，也可以称之为机会成本。 4、需求的弧弹性（Arc elasticity of demand） 如果P1和Q1分别是价格和需求量的初始值，P2 和Q2 为第二组值，那么，弧弹性就等于 -（Q1-Q2）（P1＋P2）/（P1-P2）（Q1＋Q2） 5、非对称的信息（Asymmetric information） 在某些市场中，每个参与者拥有的信息并不相同。例如，在旧车市场上，有关旧车质量的信息，卖者通常要比潜在的买者知道得多。 6、平均成本（Average cost） 平均成本是总成本除以产量。也称为平均总成本。 7、平均固定成本( Average fixed cost） 平均固定成本是总固定成本除以产量。 8、平均产品（Average product） 平均产品是总产量除以投入品的数量。 9、平均可变成本（Average variable cost） 平均可变成本是总可变成本除以产量。 10、投资的β(Beta） β度量的是与投资相联的不可分散的风险。对于一种股票而言，它表示所有现行股票的收益发生变化时，一种股票的收益会如何敏感地变化。11、债券收益(Bond yield） 债券收益是债券所获得的利率。 12、收支平衡图（Break－even chart） 收支平衡图表示一种产品所出售的总数量改变时总收 益和总成本是如何变化的。收支平衡点是为避免损失而 必须卖出的最小数量。 13、预算线(Budget line） 预算线表示消费者所能购买的商品X和商品Y的数量的 全部组合。它的斜率等于商品X的价格除以商品Y的价 格再乘以一1。 14、捆绑销售（Bundling） 捆绑销售指这样一种市场营销手段，出售两种产品的厂 商，要求购买其中一种产品的客户，也要购买另一种产 品。 15、资本（Capital） 资本是指用于生产、销售及商品和服务分配的设备、厂 房、存货、原材料和其他非人力生产资源。 16、资本收益（Capital gain） 资本收益是指人们卖出股票（或其他资产）时所获得的 超过原来为它支付的那一部分。 17、资本主义（Capitalism） 资本主义是一种市场体系，它依赖价格体系去解决基本 的经济问题：生产什么？如何生产？怎样分配？经济增 长率应为多少？ 18、基数效用(Cardinal utility） 基数效用是指像个人的体重或身高那样在基数的意义 上可以度量的效用（它意味着效用之间的差别，即边际 效用，是有意义的）。序数效用与它相反，它只在序数 的层面上才有意义。 19、卡特尔（Cartel） 卡特尔是指厂商之间为了合谋而签订公开和正式协议 这样一种市场结构形态。 20、科布一道格拉斯生产函数（Cobb-Douglas production function） 科布一道格拉斯生产函数是指这样的生产函数 Q=AL"IK"2 Mi3。式中，Q为产量；L为劳动的数量；K为资本的数 量；M为原材料的数量；A，31，12，23均为常数。 21、勾结（Collision） 勾结是指一个厂商和同业内其他的厂商签订有关价格、 产量和其他事宜的协议。 22、比较优势（Comparative advantage） 如果与生产其他商品的成本相比，一个国家生产的某种 产品的成本比另一个国家低，那么，该国就在这种商品 的生产上与另一个国家相比具有比较优势。 23、互补品（Complements） 如果X和Y是互补品，X的需求量就与Y的价格成反向 变化。 24、成本不变行业（Constant-cost industry） 成本不变的行业是指具有水平的长期供给曲线的行业， 它的扩大并不会引起投入品价格的上升或下降。 25、规模收益不变（Constant returns to scale） 如果所有投入品的数量都以相同的百分数增加，并导致 产量也以相同的百分数增加，就是规模收益不变的。 26、消费者剩余（Consumer surplus） 消费者剩余是指消费者愿意为某种商品或服务所支付 的最大数量与他实际支付的数量之差。 27、可竞争市场（Contestable market） 可竞争市场是指那种进入完全自由以及退出没有成本 的市场。可竞争市场的本质在于它们很容易受到打了就 1

0113期经济学人第一篇The digital proletariat

Free exchange 自由交易 The digital proletariat 数字无产阶级（无产阶级，不占有生产资料的阶级，这里意思我们产生数据，却无偿的交由互联网公司使用） 导读： Economists propose a radical solution to the problems posed byartificial intelligence 经济学家提出了一个彻底解决人工智能相关问题的方法。 正文： YOUhave multiple jobs, whetheryouknowitornot. 不管你有没有意识到，你身上都有多种生意。 Most begin first thing in the morning, when you pick up your phoneand begin generatingthe data thatmake up Silicon Valley’smost importantresource. 大多数生意在早晨开始，你拿起手机时就开始产生了数据。这些数据组成了硅谷最重要的资源 That, atleast, ishowwe oughtto think aboutthe role ofdata-creation in the economy, according to a fascinating new economics paper. 至少，这就是我们应该思考的：数据创造在经济里扮演怎样的角色，这是根据一篇很有吸引力的新经济文章提到的。

We are all digital labourers, helpingmake possible the fortunes generated by firms like Google andFacebook, the authors argue. 其中作者认为，我们就是所有数字的劳工，帮助像谷歌和脸书这样的公司创造财富。（fortunes命运，幸运，富有）Ifthe economy is to function properlyin the future—and ifa crisisoftechnological unemployment isto be avoided—we musttake accountofthis, and change the relationship between biginternetcompaniesand theirusers. 在未来经济运转良好的情况下，如果想要避免工业发展带来的失业危机，我们必须着眼于这件事情，并且改变大型互联网公司和他们用户之间的关系。 Artificial intelligence (AI) is getting better all the time, and stands poised totransform a host of industries, say the authors 作者说，人工智能势头一直越来越好，势必（准备）改变一大批工业。 But, in orderto learn to drive a carorrecognize a face, the algorithmsthatmake clever machines tick（滴答，拟声词，表示机器运作）mustusuallybe trained on massive amountsofdata. 但是，为了做到自动驾驶和人脸识别（主语是AI），使智能机器运作的法则必须经常用非常大量的数据进行测试。Internetfirms gather these data from users every time they click on aGoogle search result, say, orissue a command to Alexa.

考研英语经济学人文章阅读训练2020082202

Cloth of gold 一块价值堪比黄金的布 Why the economic value of a face mask is$56.14 为什么说一个口罩的经济价值是56.14美元 After a brutal first six months of the year,governments across the world are hoping for an economic bounce-back.Rich-world GDP fell by about 10%in the first half of2020. 在经历今年上半年的残酷考验后，世界各国政府都期待经济能够触底反弹。2020年上半年，发达国家的GDP下降了约10%。 Yet much has changed since—including that more people are now wearing masks.Economists,obsessed with translating everything into GDP,wonder if more widespread face-covering could help the recovery.然而，自从越来越多的人戴上口罩后，情况发生了显著变化。经济学家痴迷于用GDP来解释一切事物，如今他们想知道，随着更多的人戴上了口罩，经济能否走向复苏。The thinking goes that masks can,in part,substitute for lockdowns. People wearing them need not be discouraged as much from using public transport.More shops and offices might be able to reopen,albeit while practising social distancing. 这种想法基于这样一个逻辑，戴口罩在一定程度上可以代替封锁措施。当人们戴上口罩后，就不必再对公共交通工具进行限制了。更多的商店和办公室也将重新开放，尽管是在保持社交距离的前提下。 Calculations from Goldman Sachs,a bank,suggest that a15 percentage-point rise in the share of the population that wears masks

经济学人两篇+翻译

Disney Star Wars, Disney and myth-making How one company came to master the business of storytelling FROM a galaxy far, far away to a cinema just down the road: “The Force Awakens”, the newest instalment of the Star Wars saga, is inescapable this Christmas. The first Star Wars title since Lucasfilm, the owner of the franchise, was acquired by Disney in 2012 for $4.1 billion, it represents more than just the revival of a beloved science-fiction series. It is the latest example of the way Disney has prospered over the past decade from a series of shrewd acquisitions (see article). Having bought Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, Disney has skilfullycapitalised on their intellectual property—and in so doing, cemented its position as the market leader in the industrialisation of mythology. Its success rests on its mastery of the three elements of modern myth-making: tropes, technology and toys. From Homer to Han Solo Start with the tropes. Disney properties, which include everything from “Thor” to “Toy Story”, draw on well-worn devices of mythic structure to give their stories cultural resonance. Walt Disney himself had an intuitive grasp of the power of fables. George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, is an avid student of the work of Joseph Campbell, an American comparative mythologist who outlined the “monomyth” structure in which a hero answers a call, is assisted by a mentor figure, voyages to another world, survives various trials and emerges triumphant. Both film-makers merrily plundered ancient mythology and folklore. The Marvel universe goes even further, directly appropriating chunks of Greco-Roman and Norse mythology. (This makes Disney's enthusiasm for fierce enforcement of intellectual-property laws, and the seemingly perpetual extension of copyright, somewhat ironic.) The internal mechanics of myths may not have changed much over the ages, but the technology used to impart them certainly has. That highlights Disney's second area of expertise. In Homer's day, legends were passed on in the form of dactylic hexameters; modern myth-makers prefer computer graphics, special effects, 3D projection, surround sound and internet video distribution,

经济学人

China in Laos Busted flush How a Sino-Lao special economic zone hit the skids May 26th 2011 | BOTEN, LAOS | from the print edition ?Tweet ? Soon all this will be jungle again AT HOME and abroad, China is a byword for fast-track development, where yesterday’s paddy field is tomorrow’s factory, highway or hotel. Less noticed is that such development can just as quickly go into reverse. Golden City, in Boten, just over the border from China in tiny Laos, is a case in point. When a Hong Kong-registered company signed a 30-year, renewable lease with the Lao government in 2003 to set up a 1,640-hectare special economic zone built with mainland money and expertise, Golden City was touted as a

考研英语经济学人文章阅读训练一

Tencent Video battles iQiyi in China’s streaming wars腾讯视频与爱奇艺之中国流媒体大战 But the two big Chinese streaming platform may onc day settle into a cosy duopoly 但两大平台在未来某天或将实现双头垄断 L aunched in2010,iQiyi has grown used to the foreign press calling it“the Netflix of China”.Not the worst nickname,given the videostreaming pioneer’s success.But Gong Yu,iQiyi’s founder and boss,insists that his firm is more accurately described as“Netflix plus”.A bold claim for a loss-making business worth one-fifteenth as much as America’s(cash-generating)entertainment powerhouse with a market value of$214bn.Still,Mr Gong has a point. 创立于2010年的爱奇艺常常被外国媒体称为“中国版网飞”。鉴于这家流媒体先驱的成功，这一称号也算名副其实。但爱奇艺创始人兼老板龚宇坚称，准确来说，爱奇艺是“加强版网飞”。对于这家仍在亏损的公司来说，这种说法有些张狂，作为美国娱乐业巨头的网飞现已实现盈利，市值高达2140亿美元，而爱奇艺市值仅为其十五分之一。不过，龚宇所言仍有些许道理。 Like Netflix,iQiyi offers customers a deep catalogue of licensed and original content.Unlike Netflix,which relies almost entirely on subscription fees,iQiyi has multiple revenue streams.“Membership fees”,which start from19.8yuan ($2.87)a month,accounted for just over half of iQiyi’s7.4bn yuan in revenues in the second quarter. 爱奇艺和网飞一样，也为客户提供海量版权及原创影视作品。但不同于几乎完全依赖会员费的网飞，爱奇艺拥有多项收入来源。在爱奇艺第二季度74亿元的营收中，每月19.8元（约合2.87美元）起的“会员费”占比刚刚过半。 The rest came mainly from an online store(which sells“entertainment-related merchandise”),a nascent mobile-gaming arm,an e-book business and advertisements;iQiyi operates a“freemium”model which allows stingier users to stream some content free of charge provided they agree to watch ads.

2018考研英语：阅读经济学人文章(一)

2018考研英语：阅读经济学人文章（一） German politics 德国政治 Gone boy on the right 消失的极右领袖 How an anti-foreigner, anti-establishment group ischanging German politics 一个反移民、反伊斯兰化组织如何改变德国政治 Bachmann: only joking, honest 巴赫曼：真的只是玩笑罢了 THE march on January 19th in Dresden by Pegida, or “Patriotic Europeans against theIslamisation of the Occident”, would have been its 13th. But it was cancelled because the policehad “concrete”information of plans to assassinate its organiser, Lutz Bachmann. On January21st Mr Bachmann was exposed in German tabloids for posing as Hitler on his Facebook page.He called it a joke, but later resigned his position. Pegida plans to resume its marches nextweek. 1月19日，在德累斯顿爆发了一场由Pegida(或者称作“爱国欧洲人反对西方的伊斯兰化”)发起的游行。本来这次游行应该在13号举行，但是由于警方获知了刺杀该运动领袖卢茨巴赫曼行动的“详细”信息而被取消。1月21日，巴赫曼因为在“脸书”(Facebook)上传其模仿希特勒的照片而被德国小报争相报道。他声称这只是一个玩笑，但是随后他宣布辞职。Pegida计划下周恢复游行。 Among its followers, despite Mr Bachmann's antics, neo-Nazis are a small minority. The typicalmarcher is a middle-aged, middle-class Saxon man who, says Hans V orl?nder at the TechnicalUniversity of Dresden, is alienated from politics and the liberal media, and yearns for ahomogenous fatherland. The marches may have “passed the peak”, adds Dieter Rucht at theBerlin Social Science Centre. Yet there will be political fallout. Nine-tenths of Pegida supportersback the Alternative for Germany (AfD), founded only in 2013 and represented in three easternstate parliaments. 在该运动众多的追随者中，除了巴赫曼这种滑稽行为的人，新纳粹仍是少数。据来自德尔德累斯顿技术大学的汉斯?福尔兰德尔讲，其中有一位的游行示威者是较为典型，他是一个来自于萨克森州的中年中产阶级男性，他对政治和自由媒体漠不关心，却呼唤一个同文同种的父国。柏林社会科学研究中心的Dieter Rucht说到，这支游行队伍可能已经“越过底线”。也许会带来某些政治后果。Pegida运动中有十分之九的支持者拥护德国新选项党(AfD)，该党于2013年刚刚成立，享有东部三个州的议会席位。