2023復習正是強化復習階段，在考研英語中占了40分，所以考研英語閱讀是英語科目中重要的一項。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強烈推薦了雜志《經濟學人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認真閱讀，快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 　　Post-office banking 　　郵政銀行 　　Put your money where your mail is 　　郵件在哪兒，錢就在哪兒 　　America s postal service ponders a foray intofinancial services 　　美郵政業或將涉足金融業 　　WITH a workforce of just over 491,000 in 2023, theUnited States Postal Service is second only to Walmart among civilian employers in America.But it still employed more than 200,000 fewer people last year than it did just nine yearsearlierwhen it handled nearly 500m more pieces of mail and had almost 2,000 more retailoffices. The rise of e-mail has left America s massive postal service with far less to do, and ithas been scrambling to find ways to raise revenue. 　　2023年，美國郵政服務公司雇員超過491000人，成為僅次于沃爾瑪的美國第二大雇主。九年前美郵需要處理近5億封郵件，擁有2000多個辦事處，和那時相比去年還是減少了超過20萬雇員。電子郵件的崛起導致美國大量的郵政服務沒什么業務可做，他們開始尋求其他的收入增長點。 　　Earlier this year its inspector-general released a white paper suggesting that post officesshould begin offering financial services, such as cheque-cashing, small loans, bill payments,international money transfers and prepaid cards to which salaries or benefits could betransferred. The reasoning is simple: a lot of Americans have scant access to banks and alot of post offices have too little to do. 　　今年初，美郵總監發布的白皮書顯示郵政業要開始提供金融服務，這些服務包括支票兌現，小額貸款，賬單支付，國際轉賬以及能夠預支的工資卡。這么做的原因很簡單：許多美國人對銀行的需求得不到滿足而一堆郵局又無事可做。 　　More than one-quarter of American households are unbanked or underbanked, meaning theyeither lack a current or savings account, or they have one but still use alternatives to bankssuch as cheque-cashers and payday lenders. That is an expensive habit: the averageunderbanked household has an annual income of only $25,500 or so, yet spends around 9.5%of that on fees and interest charged by these banking substitutes. 　　超過四分之一的美國家庭沒有銀行賬戶或者沒有得到充足的金融服務，這意味著他們沒有這種傾向或者沒有儲蓄賬戶，也可能他們有賬戶，但選擇如支票承兌人或發薪日貸款人等替代方式。這是種代價很高的習慣：一般來說沒有銀行賬戶的家庭年均收入25500美元，而支付給這種銀行替代機構的費用和利息達到9.5%左右。 　　High-street banks find it hard to make money serving poor customers, since they tend tohave little money on deposit that the banks can lend out. Penalties such as overdraft fees arenot always enough to compensate. Since 2008, 93% of bank-branch closings have come inareas where median household income is below the national average. 　　大型銀行為窮人提供服務很難賺到錢，因為他們的存款太少，而銀行要把這些錢貸出去。透支費這種懲罰措施并不總是能夠償還成本。自2008年起，93%的支行陷入這樣的境地家庭賬戶收入的中值低于國家平均水平。 　　These are the distressed customers to whose rescue the USPS hopes to ride. Some 59% ofits post offices are in places with either a single bank or none at all. In rural hamlets they areoften one of very few commercial establishments; even in the postal service s diminishedstate, there are still more than seven post offices for every Walmart in America. Post officesalready sell money orders and provide electronic remittances to nine Latin Americancountries; from 1911 to 1967 the USPS also held personal deposits. Providing small, briefloans at lower interest rates than payday lenders could save low-income consumers hundredsof millions or even billions of dollars in interest and fees. The post office would compete notwith banks, but with their more expensive stand-ins. 　　正式這些貧窮的顧客點燃了美郵的希望。美郵59%的郵政所周圍只有一家或者沒有銀行。在美國鄉下，他們常常是為數不多的商業機構之一;即使是在郵政服務日益蕭條的州，郵政所和沃爾瑪的數量比也大于7:1。郵政所造就開始向9個拉丁美洲國家賣郵政匯票并提供電子匯款服務;1911年到1967年之間，美郵還有個人存款業務。提供利率比發薪日貸款人低的小額短期貸款，能為低收入客戶節省數億甚至數十億美元的利息和費用。郵政局不是和銀行競爭，而是在和比銀行收費高的替代機構競爭。 　　Some, notably the head of the committee of the House of Representatives that oversees theUSPS, are unconvinced. They see the postal services expansion into financial services asgovernment overreach, and a delay of the necessary right-sizing of a massive agencythat does far less than it used to. Jennifer Tescher, who heads a charity focused on theunderbanked called the Centre for Financial Services Innovation, notes that the USPS haszero capacity, understanding or capability in this arena. The only asset they bring to thetable, she believes, is distribution. Even that is of limited value outside rural areas: MsTescher notes that just because a spot lacks bank branches does not mean it has nocheque-cashers and corner shops selling prepaid cardsmany with longer and moreconvenient opening hours than the post office. 　　眾議院委員會負責人指出美郵的做法明顯不具信服力。他們把郵政業擴張到金融領域的行為視作政府的手伸的太長，認為這是在拖延這個遠遠低于過去功效的大型機構合理精簡的步伐。一個專注于那些無法得到充分金融服務的人的慈善團體金融服務創新中心的負責人詹妮弗說美郵不了解這一領域，既沒資格也沒能力。她相信美郵唯一的優勢是渠道，即使這在農村以外地區基本沒有價值。Tescher女士提到這些區域缺少銀行網點并不意味著沒有支票承兌人和販賣預付卡的小店和郵局相比，他們的營業時間更長、更方便。 　　Although turning the USPS into a part-time financial institution may seem outlandish inAmerica, roughly 1 billion people in 50 countries rely on their postal systems for financialservices, according to the Universal Postal Union, the United Nations agency that helps thepost arrive on time. The business models vary widely. In some countries post offices act as apayment centre, allowing people to receive remittances, pay bills and top up or tap moneystored on their mobile phones. Some operate full-service banks: Japan Post, for instance, isone of the world s biggest. In other countries, such as Brazil, commercial banks formpartnerships with post offices; in Malawi private banks can rent space from post offices. 　　根據萬國郵政聯盟，盡管美郵成為兼職的金融機構在美國看起來很奇怪，但世界上50個國家的10億人依靠郵政系統提供的金融服務。這種商業模式差別很大。在一些國家，郵局充當支付中心的角色，人們可以接收匯款、支付賬單利用移動電話存取款。有一些則成為提供全面服務的銀行：比如日本郵政就是世界上最大的銀行之一。在像巴西一類國家，商業銀行和郵政成為合作伙伴;在馬拉維，私人銀行能向郵局租借場地。 　　A World Bank study found last year that postal banks are likelier than conventional ones toprovide accounts to those outside the financial mainstream. The bigger the postal network,the greater the ability to reach such people. That may not convince those who would like tosee the USPS shrink, but for those who want to preserve it, it could help to justify its scale. 　　去年世界銀行研究發現，相對于傳統銀行，郵政銀行更有可能為主流金融區域之外的人提供服務。郵政網絡越大，接觸到這些人的能力就越大。這也許不足以說服那些希望美郵精簡的人，但對于那些想要保持它的人來說，這能幫助他們證明美郵規模的合理性。 　　詞語解釋 　　1.scramble to 爭奪 　　Japanese jets scramble to deal with russian planeincursion. 　　日本噴氣機爭奪應對俄羅斯飛機入侵。 　　This will inflate valuations for funds that scrambleto make investments, and force the more cautiousto sit on their cash piles. 　　對于那些爭相投資的基金而言，這將推高資產估值，而那些更為謹慎的基金則只能坐擁巨額現金而無所作為。 　　2.access to 有權使用 　　Apple also would instantly get access to a huge swath of tv and movie content. 　　蘋果還可以立刻獲得大量電視和電影內容。 　　For one, open source hardware projects often require participants to have access to toolsand space. 　　比如，開源硬件項目往往要求參與者擁有工具和相應的場地。 　　3.tend to 趨向;偏重 　　Smaller laptops also tend to have longer battery life. 　　小巧的電腦也趨向更長的電池持續時間。 　　I tend to prefer light colors. 　　我往往更喜歡淡顏色。 　　4.enough to 足以 　　And maybe that s enough to get scale and expand. 　　或許這個市場空間已經足以容納汽車P2P的發展和擴張。 　　It s not enough to have a summer picnic and holiday party and consider your employeesthanked. 　　感謝員工，光靠舉辦一場夏季野餐會或假日聚會是不夠的。

　　2023復習正是強化復習階段，在考研英語中占了40分，所以考研英語閱讀是英語科目中重要的一項。名師老師曾建議過考研生需要堅持每天泛讀10-15分鐘的英文原刊。強烈推薦了雜志《經濟學人》.雜志中的文章也是考研英語的主要材料來源.希望考研考生認真閱讀，快速提高考研英語閱讀水平。 　　Post-office banking 　　郵政銀行 　　Put your money where your mail is 　　郵件在哪兒，錢就在哪兒 　　America s postal service ponders a foray intofinancial services 　　美郵政業或將涉足金融業 　　WITH a workforce of just over 491,000 in 2023, theUnited States Postal Service is second only to Walmart among civilian employers in America.But it still employed more than 200,000 fewer people last year than it did just nine yearsearlierwhen it handled nearly 500m more pieces of mail and had almost 2,000 more retailoffices. The rise of e-mail has left America s massive postal service with far less to do, and ithas been scrambling to find ways to raise revenue. 　　2023年，美國郵政服務公司雇員超過491000人，成為僅次于沃爾瑪的美國第二大雇主。九年前美郵需要處理近5億封郵件，擁有2000多個辦事處，和那時相比去年還是減少了超過20萬雇員。電子郵件的崛起導致美國大量的郵政服務沒什么業務可做，他們開始尋求其他的收入增長點。 　　Earlier this year its inspector-general released a white paper suggesting that post officesshould begin offering financial services, such as cheque-cashing, small loans, bill payments,international money transfers and prepaid cards to which salaries or benefits could betransferred. The reasoning is simple: a lot of Americans have scant access to banks and alot of post offices have too little to do. 　　今年初，美郵總監發布的白皮書顯示郵政業要開始提供金融服務，這些服務包括支票兌現，小額貸款，賬單支付，國際轉賬以及能夠預支的工資卡。這么做的原因很簡單：許多美國人對銀行的需求得不到滿足而一堆郵局又無事可做。 　　More than one-quarter of American households are unbanked or underbanked, meaning theyeither lack a current or savings account, or they have one but still use alternatives to bankssuch as cheque-cashers and payday lenders. That is an expensive habit: the averageunderbanked household has an annual income of only $25,500 or so, yet spends around 9.5%of that on fees and interest charged by these banking substitutes. 　　超過四分之一的美國家庭沒有銀行賬戶或者沒有得到充足的金融服務，這意味著他們沒有這種傾向或者沒有儲蓄賬戶，也可能他們有賬戶，但選擇如支票承兌人或發薪日貸款人等替代方式。這是種代價很高的習慣：一般來說沒有銀行賬戶的家庭年均收入25500美元，而支付給這種銀行替代機構的費用和利息達到9.5%左右。 　　High-street banks find it hard to make money serving poor customers, since they tend tohave little money on deposit that the banks can lend out. Penalties such as overdraft fees arenot always enough to compensate. Since 2008, 93% of bank-branch closings have come inareas where median household income is below the national average. 　　大型銀行為窮人提供服務很難賺到錢，因為他們的存款太少，而銀行要把這些錢貸出去。透支費這種懲罰措施并不總是能夠償還成本。自2008年起，93%的支行陷入這樣的境地家庭賬戶收入的中值低于國家平均水平。 　　These are the distressed customers to whose rescue the USPS hopes to ride. Some 59% ofits post offices are in places with either a single bank or none at all. In rural hamlets they areoften one of very few commercial establishments; even in the postal service s diminishedstate, there are still more than seven post offices for every Walmart in America. Post officesalready sell money orders and provide electronic remittances to nine Latin Americancountries; from 1911 to 1967 the USPS also held personal deposits. Providing small, briefloans at lower interest rates than payday lenders could save low-income consumers hundredsof millions or even billions of dollars in interest and fees. The post office would compete notwith banks, but with their more expensive stand-ins. 　　正式這些貧窮的顧客點燃了美郵的希望。美郵59%的郵政所周圍只有一家或者沒有銀行。在美國鄉下，他們常常是為數不多的商業機構之一;即使是在郵政服務日益蕭條的州，郵政所和沃爾瑪的數量比也大于7:1。郵政所造就開始向9個拉丁美洲國家賣郵政匯票并提供電子匯款服務;1911年到1967年之間，美郵還有個人存款業務。提供利率比發薪日貸款人低的小額短期貸款，能為低收入客戶節省數億甚至數十億美元的利息和費用。郵政局不是和銀行競爭，而是在和比銀行收費高的替代機構競爭。 　　Some, notably the head of the committee of the House of Representatives that oversees theUSPS, are unconvinced. They see the postal services expansion into financial services asgovernment overreach, and a delay of the necessary right-sizing of a massive agencythat does far less than it used to. Jennifer Tescher, who heads a charity focused on theunderbanked called the Centre for Financial Services Innovation, notes that the USPS haszero capacity, understanding or capability in this arena. The only asset they bring to thetable, she believes, is distribution. Even that is of limited value outside rural areas: MsTescher notes that just because a spot lacks bank branches does not mean it has nocheque-cashers and corner shops selling prepaid cardsmany with longer and moreconvenient opening hours than the post office. 　　眾議院委員會負責人指出美郵的做法明顯不具信服力。他們把郵政業擴張到金融領域的行為視作政府的手伸的太長，認為這是在拖延這個遠遠低于過去功效的大型機構合理精簡的步伐。一個專注于那些無法得到充分金融服務的人的慈善團體金融服務創新中心的負責人詹妮弗說美郵不了解這一領域，既沒資格也沒能力。她相信美郵唯一的優勢是渠道，即使這在農村以外地區基本沒有價值。Tescher女士提到這些區域缺少銀行網點并不意味著沒有支票承兌人和販賣預付卡的小店和郵局相比，他們的營業時間更長、更方便。 　　Although turning the USPS into a part-time financial institution may seem outlandish inAmerica, roughly 1 billion people in 50 countries rely on their postal systems for financialservices, according to the Universal Postal Union, the United Nations agency that helps thepost arrive on time. The business models vary widely. In some countries post offices act as apayment centre, allowing people to receive remittances, pay bills and top up or tap moneystored on their mobile phones. Some operate full-service banks: Japan Post, for instance, isone of the world s biggest. In other countries, such as Brazil, commercial banks formpartnerships with post offices; in Malawi private banks can rent space from post offices. 　　根據萬國郵政聯盟，盡管美郵成為兼職的金融機構在美國看起來很奇怪，但世界上50個國家的10億人依靠郵政系統提供的金融服務。這種商業模式差別很大。在一些國家，郵局充當支付中心的角色，人們可以接收匯款、支付賬單利用移動電話存取款。有一些則成為提供全面服務的銀行：比如日本郵政就是世界上最大的銀行之一。在像巴西一類國家，商業銀行和郵政成為合作伙伴;在馬拉維，私人銀行能向郵局租借場地。 　　A World Bank study found last year that postal banks are likelier than conventional ones toprovide accounts to those outside the financial mainstream. The bigger the postal network,the greater the ability to reach such people. That may not convince those who would like tosee the USPS shrink, but for those who want to preserve it, it could help to justify its scale. 　　去年世界銀行研究發現，相對于傳統銀行，郵政銀行更有可能為主流金融區域之外的人提供服務。郵政網絡越大，接觸到這些人的能力就越大。這也許不足以說服那些希望美郵精簡的人，但對于那些想要保持它的人來說，這能幫助他們證明美郵規模的合理性。 　　詞語解釋 　　1.scramble to 爭奪 　　Japanese jets scramble to deal with russian planeincursion. 　　日本噴氣機爭奪應對俄羅斯飛機入侵。 　　This will inflate valuations for funds that scrambleto make investments, and force the more cautiousto sit on their cash piles. 　　對于那些爭相投資的基金而言，這將推高資產估值，而那些更為謹慎的基金則只能坐擁巨額現金而無所作為。 　　2.access to 有權使用 　　Apple also would instantly get access to a huge swath of tv and movie content. 　　蘋果還可以立刻獲得大量電視和電影內容。 　　For one, open source hardware projects often require participants to have access to toolsand space. 　　比如，開源硬件項目往往要求參與者擁有工具和相應的場地。 　　3.tend to 趨向;偏重 　　Smaller laptops also tend to have longer battery life. 　　小巧的電腦也趨向更長的電池持續時間。 　　I tend to prefer light colors. 　　我往往更喜歡淡顏色。 　　4.enough to 足以 　　And maybe that s enough to get scale and expand. 　　或許這個市場空間已經足以容納汽車P2P的發展和擴張。 　　It s not enough to have a summer picnic and holiday party and consider your employeesthanked. 　　感謝員工，光靠舉辦一場夏季野餐會或假日聚會是不夠的。