2009年阅读真题

　　Text3

　　1. Progress in both areas is undoubtedly necessary for the social, political and intellectual development of these and all other societies; however, the conventional view that education should be one of the very highest priorities for promoting rapid economic development in poor countries is wrong.

　　译文：毫无疑问，在这两个领域取得的进步对于这些贫穷国家以及其他国家的社会、政治、智力发展都是必不可少的。传统观点认为教育应成为促进贫困国家经济快速发展首要考虑的因素之一，然而这种观点是错误的。

　　2. We are fortunate that is it, because building new educational systems there and putting enough people through them to improve economic performance would require two or three generations.

　　译文：我们很庆幸这种观点错了，因为在这些国家建立新的教育体制并通过这种体制培养足够的人才来提高经济水平需要两三代人的时间。

　　3. More recently, while examining housing construction, the researchers discovered that illiterate, non-English- speaking Mexican workers in Houston, Texas, consistently met best-practice labor productivity standards despite the complexity of the building industry's work.

　　译文：更近些时候，研究者在调查房屋建筑业时发现，尽管建筑业的工作很复杂，但是在德克萨斯州休斯敦市的那些不识字、不会说英语的墨西哥工人却能一直达到劳动生产率最佳实践标准。