考研英语阅读理解中的文章，很多来自一些外刊杂志方面的题材。接下来，北京文都考研网为扩宽2020考研学子的知识面，整理了考研英语经济学人:现代职场囚徒，供考生参考。
2020考研英语经济学人:现代职场囚徒
Ronald Reagan famously quipped that “it’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?” Beyond a certain level, extra effort seems to be self-defeating. Studies suggest that, after 50 hours a week, employee productivity falls sharply.
罗纳德·里根有句名言是这么说的，“繁重的工作确实不会要人的命，但我在想为什么要冒这个风险呢?”努力工作超过一定程度后反而会适得其反。研究表明，一周的工作超过50个小时后，员工的工作效率会大幅下降。
But that doesn’t stop some managers from demanding that workers stay chained to their desk for long periods. At the blood-testing firm Theranos, Sunny Balwani, then boyfriend of the founder, Elizabeth Holmes, had an obsession with employee hours, and would tour the engineering department at 7.30pm to check people were at their desks.
但这并不能阻止一些经理对员工长时间呆在办公桌前的要求。在血液检测公司 Theranos 时，桑尼·巴尔瓦尼(公司创始人伊丽莎白·霍尔姆斯当时的男友)非常在意员工的工时，他会在晚上七点半巡视工程部，检查员工是否仍坚守岗位。
All those hours were wasted when the company eventually collapsed (prosecutors have charged Ms Holmes and Mr Balwani with fraud).
当公司最终倒闭的时候，所有这些都被证明是在浪费时间(检察官指控霍尔姆斯和巴尔瓦尼犯有欺诈罪)。
Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce group, recently praised the “996” model, where employees work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week, as a “huge blessing”. To be fair, Mr Ma said employers should not mandate such hours. Still, presenteeism is the curse of the modern office worker.
中国电子商务集团阿里巴巴的创始人马云最近赞扬“996”工作模式(即每天早上9点上班，晚上9点下班，每周工作6天)是一种“巨大的福气”。平心而论，马云称，雇主绝不应该强制“996”.然而，出勤主义是现代上班族的厄运。
There will be days when you do not have much to do, perhaps because you are waiting for someone else in a different department, or a different company, to respond to a request.
总有些时候你没有太多事情要做，或许你是在等待其他部门或其他公司的某个人的回复。
As the clock ticks past 5pm, there may be no purpose in staying at your desk. But you can see your boss hard at work and, more important, they can see you. So you make an effort to look busy.
下午5点后，呆在办公桌前或许没有任何意义。但是，你能看到你的老板还在努力的工作，更重要的是，他们也能看到你。所以你努力让自己看起来很忙的样子。
Some of this may be a self-perpetuating cycle. If bosses do not like to go home before their underlings, and underlings fear leaving before their bosses, everyone is trapped.
这可能会陷入一种持续加班的循环。如果老板不乐于在下属之前下班回家，而下属又害怕在老板之前离开，那么每个人都将陷入困境。
Staff may feel that they will not get a pay rise, or a promotion, if they are not seen to be putting in maximum effort. This is easily confused with long hours. Managers, who are often no good at judging employees’ performance, use time in the office as a proxy.
员工可能会认为，如果他们没有尽努力工作，就不会加薪或升职。这很容易与长时间工作混为一谈。不擅于对员工的表现进行评判的经理们会以呆在办公室的时间长短来评价员工的表现。
The consequence is often wasted effort. To adjust the old joke about the Soviet Union: “We pretend to work and managers pretend to believe us.” Rather than work hard, you toil to make bosses think that you are.
结果往往是白费力气。改编一下有关苏联的老笑话:“我们假装工作，经理们假装相信我们。”你不是在努力工作，而是努力让老板认为你是在努力工作。
Leaving a jacket on your office chair, walking around purposefully with a notebook or clipboard and sending out emails at odd hours are three of the best-known tricks. After a while this can result in collective self-delusion that this pretence is actual work.
把夹克披在办公椅上，故意拿着笔记本或写字板走来走去，在空闲时间发送电子邮件，这是三个众所周知的假装在努力工作的技巧。一段时间后，这可能会导致集体性的自我错觉，大家会认为这种伪装就是真正的工作。
But presenteeism has more serious consequences. It is perhaps most prevalent in Japan, where people attend the office even when they are in discomfort. In doing so, they are doing neither themselves nor their employers any favours.
但出勤主义还会造成更严重的后果。这在日本可能是最为普遍的存在，人们即使感到人体不适也会去上班。但这样做对他们自己和雇主都没有任何好处。
【重难点词汇】
self-defeating [,selfdifi:tiŋ] adj. 弄巧成拙的;不利于自己的企图的
obsession [əbsɛʃ(ə)n] n. 痴迷;困扰;强迫观念
mandate [mændet] n. 授权;命令，指令;委托管理;受命进行的工作 vt. 授权;托管
presenteeism [,prezəntiːɪzəm] 出勤主义
curse [kɝs] n. 诅咒;咒骂 vt./vi. 诅咒;咒骂
underling [ʌndɚlɪŋ] n. 下属，部下;走卒
proxy [prɑksi] n. 代理人;委托书;代用品
self-delusion [,selfdilju:ʒən] n. 自欺;自我错觉
以上是北京文都考研网给出的“2020考研英语经济学人:现代职场囚徒”，希望对备考2020考研英语的考生有所帮助!祝2020考研顺利!
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