第一段
①When I decided to quit my full time employment it never occurred to me that I might become a part of a new international trend.
②A lateral move that hurt my pride and blocked my professional progress prompted me to abandon my relatively high profile career although, in the manner of a disgraced government minister, I covered my exit by claiming “I wanted to spend more time with my family”.
单词&词组
sth. occur to sb. 某人意识到某事
lateral move 平级调动
block v. 阻碍
prompt v. 促使；引起，激起
profile n. 受公众注意的程度
in the manner of 以……的方式
disgraced a. 失势的
professional progress 职业发展
juggle one's life 尽量兼顾生活各方面
social status 社会地位
be urged to do sth. 被力劝做某事
organic vegetables 有机蔬菜
本段翻译
当决定辞去全职工作时，我绝不会想到自己竟会成为国际新潮流的一份子。一次伤害我自尊、阻断我事业发展的平级人事调动，促使我放弃了我那相对备受瞩目的职业，然而，我却以一种失势政府大臣的方式宣称，“我想多陪陪家人”，以此掩饰我辞职的原因。
第二段
①Curiously, some two-and-a-half years and two novels later, my experiment in what the Americans term “downshifting”has turned my tired excuse into an absolute reality.②I have been transformed from a passionate advocate of the philosophy of “having it all”, preached by Linda Kelsey for the past seven years in the pages of She magazine, into a woman who is happy to settle for a bit of everything.
单词&词组
downshift v. 原意指减低汽车的档，这里指“放慢生活节奏”
transform v. 改变
passionate a. 热情的
advocate n. 拥护（者）
philosophy n. 哲学
preach v. 宣扬
settle for sth. 满足于
本段翻译
奇妙的是，大约两年半的时间我写完两部小说后，我这种被美国人称为“放慢生活节奏”的尝试，已经把我那老掉牙的借口变成了绝对的现实。我已经从一个(琳达·凯尔茜过去七年中在《她》这本杂志中宣扬的)“拥有一切”哲学的热情倡导者，变成了一个很容易心满意足的女人。
第三段
①I have discovered, as perhaps Kelsey will after her much-publicized resignation from the editorship of She after a build-up of stress, that abandoning the doctrine of “juggling your life”, and making the alternative move into “downshifting” brings with it far greater rewards than financial success and social status.②Nothing could persuade me to return to the kind of life Kelsey used to advocate and I once enjoyed: 12-hour working days, pressured deadlines, the fearful strain of office politics and the limitations of being a parent on “quality time”.
单词&词组
publicize v. 公开宣称
resignation n. 辞职
editorship n. 编辑职位
build-up n. 长期增长
doctrine n. 教义，学说
make the alternative move into 转而选择……
strain n. 负担；压力
politics n. （贬义）权术，勾心斗角
本段翻译
我已经意识到，放弃“忙忙碌碌的生活”教条，转而选择“放慢生活节奏”这一非传统做法所带来的回报，远远超过财务上的成功和社会地位，这一点，凯尔茜在因累积的重负而做出引发外界广泛关注之举——-辞去《她》杂志编辑一职——之后可能也会领悟。没有什么能
说服我回到那种凯尔茜过去所倡导的、我自己也曾自得其乐的生活中去：每天工作12小时、因最后期限倍感压力、因办公室政治无比紧张、连和孩子一起享受“黄金时光”都要受限。
第四段
①In America, the move away from juggling to a simpler, less materialistic lifestyle is a well-established trend.②Downshifting-also known in America as “voluntary simplicity”—has, ironically, even bred a new area of what might be termed anti-consumerism.③There are a number of bestselling downshifting self-help books for people who want to simplify their lives; there are newsletter's, such as The Tightwad Gazette, that give hundreds of thousands of Americans useful tips on anything from recycling their cling-film to making their own soap; there are even support groups for those who want to achieve the mid- '90s equivalent of dropping out.
单词&词组
materialistic lifestyle 物质化的生活方式
well-established trend 明确趋势
ironically ad. 让人哭笑不得的是
breed a new area 孕育了新领域
term v. 被称为
anti-consumerism n. 反消费主义
bestselling a. 畅销的
tightwad n. 吝啬鬼
gazette n. 公报，简报
cling-film n. 保鲜膜
equivalent n. 等价物
drop out （因对传统的道德观和价值观不再抱幻想而）退出习俗社会，逃避现实
本段翻译
在美国，摆脱忙碌，转向一种更简朴、不那么物质化的生活方式已成明确趋势。可笑的是，“放慢生活节奏”——在美国也称“自愿简朴”甚至孕育了一个可称之为“反消费主义”的崭新领域。对于那些希望简化生活的人来说，有许多有关放慢生活节奏的畅销自助书籍；有各种像《守财奴简报》这样的简讯，给成千上万的美国人提供包罗万象的实用小窍门，从重复利用保鲜膜到自己制造肥皂；甚至还有一些团体为那些希望在90年代中期实现“遁世生活”的人提供资助。
第五段
①While in America the trend started as a reaction to the economic decline——after the mass redundancies caused by downsizing in the late’80s——and is still linked to the politics of thrift, in Britain, at least among the middle-class downshifters of my acquaintance, we have different reasons for seeking to simplify our lives.
单词&词组
redundancy n. （因劳动力过剩而造成的）裁员，解雇
downsize v. 缩小规模
thrift n. 节俭
acquaintance n. 熟人，认识的人
a reaction to 对……的一种反应
economic decline 经济衰退
本段翻译
在美国，这种趋势一开始是对经济衰退所做出的一种反应一出现于80年代后期经济规模缩小所引起的大量裁员之后—现在这种趋势仍与节俭的政治思想有关；而在英国，至少在我所认识的这些中产阶层“放慢生活节奏”者中，寻求简朴生活的缘由却不尽相同。
第六段
①For the women of my generation who were urged to keep juggling through the’80s, downshifting in the mid-'90s is not so much a search for the mythical good life—growing your own organic vegetables, and risking turning into one—as a personal recognition of your limitations.
单词&词组
mythical（又作mythic） a. 假想的，虚构的
one（此处指代前文的vegetable） n. 生活单调乏味的人
recognition n. 意识
本段翻译
对我们这一代在整个80年代都被鼓励过忙碌生活的女性来说，90年代中期的放慢生活节奏，与其说是为了寻求神话般的美好生活——(她们)种植自己的有机蔬菜并可能会变成一个生活简单而悠闲的人倒不如说是我们都认识到了自身的局限。
五道题
37. Which of the following is true according to paragraph 1?
[A] Full-time employment is a new international trend.
[B] The writer was compelled by circumstances to leave her job.
[C] “A lateral move” means stepping out of full-time employment.
[D] The writer was only too eager to spend more time with her family.
38. The writer’s experiment shows that downshifting ____
[A] enables her to realize her dream
[B] helps her mold a new philosophy of life
[C] prompts her to abandon her high social status
[D] leads her to accept the doctrine of She magazine
39. “Juggling one’s life” probably means living a life characterized by_____.
[A] non-materialistic lifestyle
[B] a bit of everything
[C] extreme stress
[D] anti-consumerism
40. According to the passage, downshifting emerged in the U.S. as a result of _____
[A] the quick pace of modern life
[B] man’s adventurous spirit
[C] man’s search for mythical experiences
[D] the economic situation
参考答案
答案解析
37、根据题干定位到第一段。第一段②句提到，“一次平级调动伤害了我的自尊，阻碍了我在工作上的升迁，这促使我放弃了相对体面的职业”。可见，作者辞职非她所愿，而是环境所迫。[B]项正确。
38、根据题干关键词experiment与downshifting定位至第二段①句。该句转承上文指出“作者辞职后对慢节奏生活的尝试”使其之前“多陪家人”的借口成真，暗示作者态度因生活方式变化而生变。随后②句以transformed from...into...具体指出前后变化：从“追求一切”到“知足常乐”， 因此辞职后对downshifting的尝试使作者形成了全新生活哲学。[B] 正确。
39、由题干关键词juggling one's life定位至第三段①句。含取舍逻辑的abandon ng...and making the alternative move into...表明juggling one's life是downshifting的反面， 因此前者应该指与“放慢生活节奏”相反的“工作压力大、忙忙碌碌的生活”。②句中四个并列名词短语12-hour working days， pressured deadlines， the fearful strain of office politics和the limitations of being a parent on“quality time”也对该短语做了进一步解释。显然， 这是一种极度紧张的生活方式， [C] 项正确。
40、第五段前半句指出， 美国的这一趋势(即上段downs hifi ng) 的生成是对经济衰退的一种反应，换句话说也就是，经济(不利)形势是其出现的原因。[D]项正确。
