单选题 .  SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
    In this section there are three passages followed by fourteen multiple choice questions. For each multiple choice question, there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
    PASSAGE ONE
    (1)Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent, but the tests that have to be applied to them are not, of course, the same in all cases. In Gandhi's case the questions on feels inclined to ask are: to what extent was Gandhi moved by vanity—by the consciousness of himself as a humble, naked old man, sitting on a praying mat and shaking empires by sheer spiritual power—and to what extent did he compromise his own principles by entering politics, which of their nature are inseparable from coercion and fraud? To give a definite answer one would have to study Gandhi's acts and writings in immense detail, for his whole life was a sort of pilgrimage in which every act was significant. But this partial auto-biography, which ends in the nineteen-twenties, is strong evidence in his favor, all the more because it covers what he would have called the unregenerate part of his life and reminds one that inside the saint, or near-saint, there was a very shrewd, able person who could, if he had chosen, have been a brilliant success as a lawyer, an administrator or perhaps even a businessman.
    (2)At about the time when the autobiography first appeared I remember reading its opening chapters in the ill-printed pages of some Indian newspaper. They made a good impression on me, which Gandhi himself at that time did not. The things that one associated with him—home-spun cloth, "soul forces" and vegetarianism—were unappealing. It was also apparent that the British were malting use of him, or thought they were making use of him. Strictly speaking, as a Nationalist, he was an enemy, but since in every crisis he would exert himself to prevent violence—which, from the British point of view, meant preventing any effective action whatever—he could be regarded as "our man". In private this was sometimes cynically admitted. The attitude of the Indian millionaires was similar. Gandhi called upon them to repent, and naturally they preferred him to the Socialists and Communists who, given the chance, would actually have taken their money away. The British Conservatives only became really angry with him when, as in 1942, he was in effect turning his non-violence against a different conqueror.
    (3)But I could see even then that the British officials who spoke of him with a mixture of amusement and disapproval also genuinely liked and admired him, after a fashion. Nobody ever suggested that he was corrupt, or ambitious in any vulgar way, or that anything he did was actuated by fear or malice. In judging a man like Gandhi one seems instinctively to apply high standards, so that some of his virtues have passed almost unnoticed. For instance, it is clear even from the autobiography that his natural physical courage was quite outstanding: the manner of his death was a later illustration of this, for a public man who attached any value to his own skin would have been more adequately guarded. Again, he seems to have been quite free from that maniacal suspiciousness which, as E. M. Forster rightly says in A Passage to India, is the besetting Indian vice, as hypocrisy is the British vice. Although no doubt he was shrewd enough in detecting dishonesty, he seems wherever possible to have believed that other people were acting in good faith and had a better nature through which they could be approached. And though he came of a poor middle-class family, started life rather unfavorably, and was probably of unimpressive physical appearance, he was not afflicted by envy or by the feeling of inferiority. Color feeling when he first met it in its worst form in South Africa, seems rather to have astonished him. Even when he was fighting what was in effect a color war, he did not think of people in terms of race or status. The governor of a province, a cotton millionaire, a haft-starved Dravidian coolie, a British private soldier were all equally human beings, to be approached in much the same way.
    (4)Written in short lengths for newspaper serialization, the autobiography is not a literary masterpiece, but it is the more impressive because of the commonplaceness of much of its material. It is well to be reminded that Gandhi started out with the normal ambitions of a young Indian student and only adopted his extremist opinions by degrees and, in some cases, rather unwillingly. There was a time, it is interesting to learn, when he wore a top hat, took dancing lessons, studied French and Latin, went up the Eiffel Tower and even tried to learn the violin—all this was the idea of assimilating European civilization as thoroughly as possible. He was not one of those saints who are marked out by their phenomenal piety from childhood onwards, nor one of the other Idnd who forsake the world after sensational debaucheries. He makes full confession of the misdeeds of his youth, but in fact there is not much to confess.
    (5)One feels that even after he had abandoned personal ambition he must have been a resourceful, energetic lawyer and a hard-headed political organizer, careful in keeping down expenses, an adroit handier of committees and an indefatigable chaser of subscriptions. His character was an extraordinarily mixed one, but there was almost nothing in it that you can put your finger on and call bad, and I believe that even Gandhi's worst enemies would admit that he was an interesting and unusual man who enriched the world simply by being alive. Whether he was also a lovable man, and whether his teachings can have much for those who do not accept the religions beliefs on which they are founded, I have never felt hilly certain.
    PASSAGE TWO
    (1)In 1823, Thomas Jefferson wrote:
    "I am not fully informed of the practices at Harvard, but there is one from which we shall certainly vary, although it has been copied, I believe, by nearly every college and academy in the United States. That is, the holding the students all to one prescribed course of reading, and disallowing exclusive application to those branches only which are to qualify them for the particular vocations to which they are destined We shall, on the contrary, allow them uncontrolled choice in the lectures they shall choose to attend, and require elementary qualification only, and sufficient age." Unfortunately, there is a steady push of students into the STEM subjects so they can get high-paying jobs when they are done.
    (2)This is college admissions decision season—a time when many young people have traditionally looked forward to an educational experience quite different from what they had (sometimes just endured) in high school. The days of checking off boxes to prove their worthiness to some future gatekeepers would be over. In college there might be requirements, but there would also be much more freedom, much more relevance, and much more intellectual excitement.
    (3)But the discourse about colleges and universities today is undermining these hopeful expectations. Everywhere one looks, from government statistics on earnings after graduation to a bevy of rankings that purport to show how to monetize your choice of major, the message to students is to think of their undergraduate years as an economic investment that had better produce a substantial and quick return.
    (4)There are good reasons for this. One is the scourge of student indebtedness. When students graduate with mountains of debt, especially from shady institutions graduating a small percentage of those who enroll, they can fall into a vicious cycle of poor choices and ever more limited horizons. They are collateral damage in a world of rising tuition. While the wealthiest families have been benefiting from enormous tax breaks, many states have disinvested in public universities, putting great pressure on these institutions to collect tuition dollars. Middle-class and low-income students often borrow those dollars to pay the bills. And the bills grow ever greater as colleges raise tuition in part to meet the demands of rich families for campus amenities so that their children can live in the style to which they have grown accustomed.
    (5)But even students without the pressure of loans are being encouraged to turn away from "college as exploration" and toward "college as training." They hear that in today's fast-paced, competitive world, one can no longer afford to try different fields that might improve one's ability to interpret cultural artifacts or analyze social dynamics. Learning through the arts, one of the most powerful ways to tap into one's capacities for innovation is often dismissed as an unaffordable luxury.
    (6)Parents, pundits and politicians join in the chorus warning students not to miss the economic boat. Study science, technology, engineering and mathematics, they chant, or else you will have few opportunities. Other subjects will leave you a "loser" in our not-so-brave new world of brutal change. College, they insist, should be the place where you conform and learn to swim with this tide.
    (7)As president of a university dedicated to broad, liberal education, I both deplore the new conformity and welcome an increased emphasis on STEM fields. I've been delighted to see mathematics and neuroscience among our fastest growing majors, have supported students from under-represented groups who are trying to thrive in STEM fields, and have started an initiative to integrate design and engineering into our liberal arts curriculum.
    (8) Choosing to study a STEM field should be a choice for creativity not conformity. There is nothing narrow about an authentic education in the sciences. Indeed, scientific research is a model for the American tradition of liberal education because of the creative nature of its inquiries, not just the truth-value of its results. As in other disciplines (like music and foreign languages), much basic learning is required, but science is not mere instrumental training; memorizing formulae isn't thinking like a scientist. On our campus, some of the most innovative, exploratory work is being done by students studying human-machine interactions, using computer science to manipulate moving images to tell better stories, and exploring inter-sections of environmental science with economics and performance art.
    (9)Fears of being crushed by debt or of falling off the economic ladder are pressuring students to conform, and we must find ways to counteract these pressures or we risk undermining our scientific productivity as well as our broad cultural creativity.
    (10)I've heard it said that students today opt for two fields of study, one for their parents and one for themselves. Examples abound of undergraduates focusing on: economics and English; math and art; biology and theater. But we make a mistake in placing too much emphasis on the bifurcation. Many students are connecting these seemingly disparate fields, not just holding them as separate interests. And they are finding that many employers want them to develop these connections further. Exploration and innovation are not fenced in by disciplines and majors. Students who develop habits of mind that allow them to develop connections that others haven't seen will be creating the opportunities of the future.
    (11)When Thomas Jefferson was thinking through a new, American model of higher education, it was crucial for him that students not think they already knew at the beginning of their studies where they would end up when it was time for graduation. For him, and for all those who have followed in the path of liberal education in this country, education was exploration—and you would only make important discoveries if you were open to unexpected possibilities. About a century later W.E.B. Du Bois argued that a broad education was a form of empowerment not just apprenticeship. Both men understood that the sciences, along with the humanities, arts and social sciences had vast, integrative possibilities.
    (12)This integrative tradition of pragmatic American liberal education must be protected. We must not over-react to fears of being left behind. Yes, ours is a merciless economy characterized by deep economic inequality, but that inequality must not be accepted as a given; the skills of citizenship acquired through liberal learning can be used to push back against it. We must cultivate this tradition of learning not only because it is has served us well for so long, but because it can vitalize our economy, lead to an engaged citizenry and create a culture characterized by connectivity and creativity.
    PASSAGE THREE
    (1)Innovation, the elixir of progress, has always cost people their jobs. In the Industrial Revolution artisan weavers were swept aside by the mechanical loom. Over the past 30 years the digital revolution has displaced many of the mid-skill jobs that underpinned 20th-century middle-class life. Typists, ticket agents, bank tellers and many production-line jobs have been dispensed with, just as the weavers were.
    (2)For those who believe that technological progress has made the world a better place, such churn is a natural part of rising prosperity. Although innovation kills some jobs, it creates new and better ones, as a more productive society becomes richer and its wealthier inhabitants demand more goods and services. Optimism remains the right starting-point, but for workers the dislocating effects of technology may make themselves evident faster than its benefits. Even if new jobs and wonderful products emerge, in the short term income gaps will widen, causing huge social dislocation and perhaps even changing politics.
    (3)Why be worried? It is partly just a matter of history repeating itself. In the early part of the Industrial Revolution the rewards of increasing productivity went disproportionately to capital; later on, labor reaped most of the benefits. The pattern today is similar. The prosperity unleashed by the digital revolution has gone overwhelmingly to the owners of capital and the highest-skilled workers. Over the past three decades, labor's share of output has shrunk globally from 64% to 59%. Meanwhile, the share of income going to the top 1% in America has risen from around 9% in the 1970s to 22% today. Unemployment is at alarming levels in much of the rich world, and not just for cyclical reasons. Fifteen years ago, 65% of working-age Americans were in work; since then the proportion has fallen, during good years as well as bad, to the current level of 59%.
    (4)Worse, it seems likely that this wave of technological disruption to the job market has only just started. From driverless cars to clever household gadgets, innovations that already exist could destroy swathes of jobs that have hitherto been untouched. The public sector is one obvious target: it has proved singularly resistant to tech-driven reinvention. But the step change in what computers can do will have a powerful effect on middle-class jobs in the private sector too.
    (5)Until now the jobs most vulnerable to machines were those that involved routine, repetitive tasks. But thanks to the exponential rise in processing power and the ubiquity of digitised information ("big data"), computers are increasingly able to perform complicated tasks more cheaply and effectively than people. Clever industrial robots can quickly    "learn" a set of human actions. Services may be even more vulnerable. Computers can already detect intruders in a closed-circuit camera picture more reliably than a human can. By comparing reams of financial or biometric data, they can often diagnose fraud or illness more accurately than any number of accountants or doctors.
    (6)At the same time, the digital revolution is transforming the process of innovation itself. Thanks to off-the-shelf code from the internet and platforms that host services (such as Amazon's cloud computing), provide distribution (Apple's app store) and offer marketing (Facebook), the number of digital startups has exploded. Just as computer-games designers invented a product that humanity never knew it needed but now cannot do without, so these firms will no doubt dream up new goods and services to employ millions. But for now they are singularly light on workers. When Instagram, a popular photo-sharing site, was sold to Facebook for about $1 billion in 2012, it had 30 million customers and employed 13 people. Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy a few months earlier, employed 145,000 people in its heyday.
    (7)The problem is one of timing as much as anything. Google now employs 46,000 people. But it takes years for new industries to grow, whereas the disruption a startup causes to incumbents is felt sooner. Airbnb may turn homeowners with spare rooms into entrepreneurs, but it poses a direct threat to the lower end of the hotel business—a massive employer.
    (8)If this analysis is halfway correct, the social effects will be huge. Many of the jobs most at risk are lower down the ladder    (logistics, haulage), whereas the skills that are least vulnerable to automation (creativity, managerial expertise) tend to be higher up, so median wages are likely to remain stagnant for some time and income gaps are likely to widen.
    (9)Anger about rising inequality is bound to grow, but politicians will find it hard to address the problem. Shunning progress would be as futile now as the Luddites' protests against mechanised looms were in the 1810s, because any country that tried to stop would be left behind by competitors eager to embrace new technology. The freedom to raise taxes on the rich to punitive levels will be similarly constrained by the mobility of capital and highly skilled labour.
    (10)The main way in which governments can help their people through this dislocation is through education systems. One of the reasons for the improvement in workers' fortunes in the latter part of the Industrial Revolution was because schools were built to educate them—a dramatic change at the time. Now those schools themselves need to be changed, to foster the creativity that humans will need to set them apart from computers. There should be less rote-learning and more critical thinking. Technology itself will help, whether through MOOCs (massive open online courses) or even video games that simulate the skills needed for work.
    (11)Yet however well people are taught, their abilities will remain unequal, and in a world which is increasingly polarised economically, many will find their job prospects dimmed and wages squeezed. The best way of helping them is not, as many on the left seem to think, to push up minimum wages. Jacking up the floor too far would accelerate the shift from human workers to computers. Better to top up low wages with public money so that anyone who works has a reasonable income, through a bold expansion of the tax credits that countries such as America and Britain use.
    (12)Innovation has brought great benefits to humanity. Nobody in their right mind would want to return to the world of handloom weavers. But the benefits of technological progress are unevenly distributed, especially in the early stages of each new wave, and it is up to governments to spread them. In the 19th century it took the threat of revolution to bring about progressive reforms. Today's governments would do well to start making the changes needed before their people get angry.1.  According to Para. 1, a testing criterion for Gandhi's sainthood is to see if ______.(PASSAGE ONE)
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】 根据题干可直接定位到第1段。
   本题要求选出判断甘地是否是圣人的方法。第1段第2句提到判断甘地是否是圣人要问两个问题:他在多大程度上受到虚荣心的影响(moved by vanity);他进入政坛,对自己的原则作了多大程度的妥协(compromise his own principles by entering politics)。D提到“他是否因政治需要而放弃原则”与第二个问题对应,其中的override一词指“不顾,不理会”与文中的compromise“折衷,妥协”所表达的内涵是一致的,故确定D为答案。
   细节判断题。从第1段第2句可知,文中只是提到了政治离不开压迫与欺诈(coercion and fraud),因此选项A“他的政治动机是为了钱”在文中并无依据。同样,此处也不能得出“压迫与欺诈和甘地的政治原则相关”的结论,因此排除C。选项B“他的虚荣心是建立在精神原则上的”,利用原词vanity作干扰。文中并没有说明甘地的政治原则与虚荣心有何关系。故排除B。
[参考译文]
   PASSAGE ONE
   (1)我们都默认圣人有罪,除非有人能为其正名。不过,检验圣人的方法当然不能一成不变。对于甘地,人们往往会提出这些问题:自认为是一个出身卑微、身无长物的老人,甘地坐在祈祷席上纯粹用精神力量就震撼了大英帝国,他在多大程度上受到了虚荣心的驱使?而且,甘地进入政坛,而政治的本质与强迫和欺诈密不可分,他对自己的原则作了多大程度的妥协?要确切地回答这些问题,人们就不得不极其详尽地研究甘地的行为和著作,因为他的一生就是某种意义上的朝圣,一举一动都意味深长。不过,这部自传却是对他有利的有力证词,虽然它并不完整,只记载到十九世纪二十年代。更有说服力的是,书中记载的是甘地自称生命中冥顽不化的那段时期。这让人们意识到,这位圣人或亚圣其实是位非常精明能干的人,如果他选择当律师、管理者甚至是商人,也会非常出色。
   (2)记得大约是在这部自传刚问世时,我从某份印刷低劣的印度报纸上阅读了它的开篇章节。当时那些章节给我留下了好印象,甘地本人却没有。人们将他与家纺布、“灵魂力量”和素食主义联系在一起,这些东西并没有吸引力。而且很明显,英国人在利用甘地,或者自以为在利用他。严格地说,他是位民族主义者,与英国为敌。但是,在每次危机中他都竭力阻止暴力——在英国人看来这意味着阻止任何有效的行动。因此,他可以被看作是“我们的人”。英国人在私下里偶尔会戏谑地承认这一点。印度的百万富翁们对甘地的态度与此类似,虽然甘地号召他们忏悔,他们自然地偏向他胜过偏向社会主义者和共产主义者,因为实际上后者一有机会就会拿走他们的金钱。1942年,甘地把他的非暴力思想指向了不同的征服者,英国保守派在这时才真正表现出对甘地的愤怒。
   (3)但我发现那时的英国官员,谈及甘地时夹杂着复杂的情绪,既用他来打趣和非难他,同时又真的有点喜欢和钦佩他。没有人用庸俗的方式指出他的腐败或是野心,推测他的所作所为是出于恐惧或怨念。人们似乎本能地用高标准去评价像甘地那样的人,所以人们几乎没有注意到甘地的一些美德。例如,即使从他的自传也能清楚地感受到他与生俱来的非凡勇气:他日后死亡的方式就说明了这点。因为作为一个公众人物,但凡稍微爱惜自身皮囊的人都会得到更充分的保护。再者,甘地好像没有那种疯狂的多疑。正如E. M.福斯特在《印度之行》里公正地指出,多疑是印度人的通病,正如虚伪之于英国。甘地的精明足以发现欺骗,这是毫无疑问的,但他似乎会尽可能地相信人性本善,待人都会真心实意。尽管他出身于贫穷的中层家庭,自小生活相当拮据,相貌平平,但他并没有因此而感到嫉妒或自卑。在南非他第一次目睹了最严重的肤色歧视,这很可能震惊到他了。实际上他即使是在与肤色歧视作斗争,他也没有以肤色或地位取人。在他眼里,省长、售卖棉花的百万富翁、饿得半死的德拉威族苦力、英国列兵,都是平等的,他们应获得大体相同的对待。
   (4)这部自传不是文学杰作,它以短篇的形式在报纸连载,但因其提供了大量寻常平实的材料,却更为感人。值得一提的是,甘地起初的抱负与一般的印度青年学生无异,他的极端思想是逐渐形成的,有些甚至并非出于自愿。有趣的是,他曾经戴大礼帽、上跳舞课、学习法语和拉丁语、登上埃菲尔铁塔甚至尝试学小提琴,这样做都是为了尽可能全面吸收欧洲文明。他不像其他圣人,自小就表露出非凡的虔诚,也不是那种历尽奢华后脱离红尘的圣人。他将年轻时的不轨行为尽数坦白,但事实上没什么要坦白的。
   (5)人们认为即使他放弃了个人抱负,他也一定会成为足智多谋、精力充沛的律师和头脑清醒的政客,小心仔细地压低开支。他也可能会成为一位娴熟的委员会的管理者和一位坚持不懈的募捐者。他的个性是非常多面的,但你几乎不能确切指出哪一点是坏的。而且我相信,即使是最憎恨甘地的敌人也会承认,他是一位有趣并且不同寻常的人,只是活着就丰富了这个世界。至于他是否也是一位可爱的人,对于那些不认同自身赖以生存的宗教信仰的人,他的教导又能产生多大的影响,我未能完全确定。
   PASSAGE TWO
   (1)1823年,托马斯·杰斐逊写道:
   “我并不十分了解哈佛大学的做法,尽管哈佛模式已经被全美绝大多数的大学和学院套用,但是有一点我们必须和他们有所区别。那就是,他们要求全体学生学习必修课程,不允许学生申请其他分支学科,尽管只有学习这些学科才能使学生具备他们想要从事职业所要求的技能。我们应反其道而行之,让学生自由选择他们想要学习的课程,只规定基本要求和年龄限制。”遗憾的是,一股持续的力量正推动学生去学习STEM(译注:Science“科学”、Technology“技术”、Engineering“工程”和Mathematics“数学”的统称,有时也泛指理工科),以便日后能获得高薪工作。
   (2)又到了大学填报志愿的时候了——这个时节很多年轻人总是满怀期待,在体验(有时是忍受)高中生涯后,希望能有一段全新的经历,再也不用靠在方框里勾选答案来向掌握他们前程的考官证明自己的价值。大学或许会有诸多要求,但是也会赋予更多自由,更多归属感和学术激励。
   (3)然而,如今有关学院和大学的论断正在逐渐消磨他们的满心期待。双目所及,无论是政府发布的毕业后收入统计数据,还是声称能用金钱量化所选专业的众多排行榜,传达给学生们的信息无非是把大学几年当成是经济投资,最好日后能有可观、快捷的回报。
   (4)人们这么做不无道理。首先,学生苦于债务压力。带着如山的债务毕业的学生们,特别是从那些大量录取学生却只有很少一部分能毕业的不靠谱学校毕业出来的学生,进入了一个恶性循环,机会渺茫,选择范围有限。他们是学费日益攀升的间接受害者。经济富裕的家庭可以享受巨额的减税,而很多州都紧缩了对公立大学的投资,迫使这些大学提高学费。中产阶级和低收入家庭的学生通常会借钱来支付学费。富裕家庭为了让他们的孩子能维持惯有的生活方式,对校园设施要求更高;在某种程度上大学为了满足这些人的要求,学费不断攀升。
   (5)然而,即便是没有债务压力的学生也受到怂恿,把从“大学即探索”变为“大学即培训”。他们被告知,在这个快节奏、充满竞争的现代社会,人们再不能尝试另类的领域,尽管这些领域能让人提高鉴赏手工艺术品或分析社会动力的能力。通过工艺品来学习这个最能激发创新能力的方式已经被摒弃,成为无法承受的奢侈。
   (6)父母、专家以及政客们异口同声,告诫学生不要错过这趟经济号。他们鼓吹要学习科学、技术、工程和数学,否则机会渺茫。在这个求稳且瞬息万变的新世界,其他的学科只会让你成为“失败者”。他们坚称,大学应该是学生们学会顺应潮流,不被大潮淹没的地方。
   (7)作为一位致力于人文通识教育的大学校长,我既反对这种盲目遵循,也支持不断强化STEM的学科领域。我很欣慰地看到,数学和神经系统学成为我们发展最快的专业之一;我支持那些努力在STEM领域取得成绩的学生,尽管他们人数寥寥无几;我们首创将设计和工程整合引入人文课程。
   (8)选择学习STEM的动机应为选择创造力而非随波逐流。真正的科学教育并不是狭隘的。事实上,科学研究因其善于质疑的创造性本质成为美国人文教育传统的典范。与其他学科(如音乐和外语)一样,理科也需要基本知识,但是理科不是简单的工具型训练;背诵公式并不能形成科学家般的思维。在我们的校园中,很多最具有创新性、探索性的研究由学习人机互动的学生完成,他们用电脑技术来操控动画,制作出更精彩的故事;他们探索经济、环境科学与表演艺术的融合。
   (9)惧于债务压力或经济状况下滑,学生们只好屈从;我们若不设法消除此压力,科学生产力以及文化创造力难保不受侵蚀。
   (10)我曾听闻如今学生会选两个学科学习,一为父母,二为自身。例子比比皆是:大学生们既学经济也学英语、既学数学也学艺术、既学生物也学戏剧。我们往往过分强调其分歧,这是不可取的。很多学生能将表面上截然不同的学科紧密联系,而非将其当成互不相干的兴趣。他们发现很多雇主希望他们能进一步挖掘两者间的关联。探索和创新不受学科和专业限制。他们所形成的思维习惯有利于他们发现别人看不见的关联,从而为将来创造机遇。
   (11)托马斯·杰斐逊在深思熟虑后提出美国高等教育模式时,他认为有一点尤为重要:学生们开学时并无法得知毕业将会是何种结果。对于托马斯·杰斐逊和全国所有支持人文教育的人而言,教育即探索,只有面向未知的可能才会有重大发现。一百年后,威廉·爱得华·伯格哈特·杜波依斯声称,通识教育是授予学生的权利而不仅仅是手艺。两人都明白,科学和人文科学、艺术、社会科学融合,会产生巨大的、综合性的发展潜力。
   (12)这种一脉相承的美国式实用主义人文教育传统必须传承下去。我们不必过度反应,惧怕落后。没错,我们的经济体制残酷无情、严重不均等,但是我们不应视之必然。公民通过人文教育所获得的技能可以与之抗衡。我们必须培养这种学习传统,不仅是因为长久以来它一直为我们服务,也因为它能激活我们的经济,激发人们参与其中,创建出相互贯通、富有创造力的文化。
   PASSAGE THREE
   (1)创新总能推动进步,却也总能让人们失业。在工业革命时期,机械织布机让织布工丢了饭碗。在过去的三十年中,数字革命取代了众多中等技工的工作,这可是上世纪中产阶级的主流工作。打字员、票务员、银行柜台以及许多在生产线上的工作都遭遇了和当年织布工一样的命运。
   (2)有些人坚信技术进步会让这个世界更加美好,他们认为这种流失是走向繁荣的必经之路。创新的确会让一些工作消失,但同时也能创造更新、更优质的工作,这是由于随着生产力的提高,社会更加富裕,而更富有的居民的商品和服务需求会更多。开始的时候保持乐观是正确的。但是,工人在享受到好处前就明显受到了技术进步的冲击。即便会有新的工作和优质的产品出现,但是,从短期来看,收入差距会越拉越大,从而引发巨大的社会动荡,甚至还有可能造成权力的更迭。
   (3)我们为什么要担忧呢?从某种程度上看,这不过是历史重演罢了。在工业革命早期,生产力提高产生的好处绝大部分归于资方。但随后,劳方获得绝大部分的好处。当前的模式与此相类似。数字革命带来的繁荣成果大都流向投资者和技能最好的工人。在过去的30年间,从全球范围来看,劳动力在产出中所占的比例已经从64%降至59%。与此同时,美国最富有的1%人群的收入在总收入中的比例却从上世纪70年代的9%左右上升到如今的22%。大多数富裕国家的失业率正处于警戒水平,这不仅仅是周期性原因造成的。十五年前,在美国适龄劳动人口中,65%的人是有工作的;但是,从那以后,不论是年景好坏,这个比例一直都在下降,如今已经降至59%。
   (4)更糟的是,当前由技术带来的这一波冲击就业市场的浪潮似乎才刚刚开始。已有的创新——包括无人驾驶汽车和智能的家居产品——可能会“消灭”一大批迄今为至还未受影响的工作。事实证明,首当其冲的是公共部门:此前,公共部门对新科技发明的抵御力异常强大。但是,计算机功能的巨大转变也会给私营部门中的中级职位造成深远影响。
   (5)在此之前,最容易受机器影响的主要是重复性的日常工作。但是,随着处理能力指数般的增长和数字化信息(即所谓的“大数据”)的日渐普及,计算机完成复杂任务的能力也正在日渐提高,比使用人力成本更低廉有效。聪明的工业机器人能快速地“学会”一连串的人类动作。服务行业可能会变得更脆弱。计算机已经能够从闭路摄像头拍摄的画面中识别出入侵者,而且其判断比人类更加可靠。在辨识欺诈或者诊断疾病方面,由于计算机能对大量的金融或者生物计量数据进行比较,因而它们判断的准确性会比任何会计或者医生要高。
   (6)与此同时,创新进程本身也在因数字革命而发生改变。由于互联网有现成的代码和平台能够提供服务(如亚马逊的云计算)、发布软件(如苹果的APP应用商店)和进行营销(如脸谱网),数字创业企业数量激增。就如电脑游戏的开发者发明了人类从未想到而令却又偏偏离不开的产品那样,这些企业无疑会设计出新产品和新服务,从而成为雇用数百万员工的大公司。但奇怪的是,到目前为止,它们还是员工很少的企业。比如说流行图片分享网站Instagram:该网站在2012年被脸谱公司以10亿美元收购,当时该网站有3000万用户,却只有13名员工。相比之下,在几个月前破产的柯达公司在全盛期时拥有14.5万名员工。
   (7)与其他事情一样,这只是一个早晚的问题罢了。如今的谷歌就雇用了4.6万名员工。但是,尽管新产业的成长需要数年的时间,但是它们的破坏力很快就能被现有企业感受到的。“爱奔波”网(Airbnb,一家联系旅游人士和家有空房出租的房主的服务型网站)可能会把有闲置房屋的房主变成一位企业家,但同时也对雇用大量员工的旅馆业构成了直接的威胁。
   (8)倘若这种分析有一半是正确的话,其社会效应将会是巨大的。最有可能消亡的工作大多处于社会阶梯的底端(如物流和运输),而最不容易受自动化影响的技能(如创造力和管理技能)往往都处于高端。因此,收入的中位数可能会在一段时间内保持不变,而收入的差距可能会越拉越大。
   (9)不平等日益加剧,民众的愤怒也会随之增长。但政府可能难以解决这个问题。如今,回避进步纯属徒劳,就像是卢德派分子在1810年代反对机械织布机一样。因为,试图阻挡进步的国家会被渴望接受新技术的竞争对手抛在身后。同样,惩罚性地调高富人税率的自由也会因资本和高技能人才的流动性而受到约束。
   (10)政府要帮助民众渡过难关,主要方式是通过教育。工人的财富之所以能在工业革命后期得到增加,其中的一个原因就是政府开办了可以让他们接受教育的学校,这在当时是一个极大的转变。如今,这些学校也到了需要变革的时候。它们应当把重点放在培养学生的创造性上,使得人类和计算机能区分开来。它们应当减少机械记忆,培养学生的批判性思维。其实,技术本身就能够提供这种帮助,无论是通过开放式网络课程,还是通过能够模拟工作必备技能的电子游戏。
   (11)然而,就算人们接受了再多的教育,个人之间的能力差距还会存在;再者,在当今这个经济两极化的世界,很多人会发现他们的工作前景日渐暗淡,而且薪水缩减。因此,帮助他们的最佳方式不是如左派人士所想的那样去提高最低工资。最低工资提得过高反而会加快计算机取代人力的进程。与之相比,最好还是采用以政府收入来补贴低收入者薪水的办法——如英美正在采用的大胆的税收抵免政策——以实现凡是有工作的人都能够获得合理收入的目标。
   (12)创新给人类带来了巨大好处。凡是思维正常的人都不想回到依靠人力来织布的那个时代。不过,技术进步所带来的好处分配极不均衡,尤其是每一次新浪潮的初期。因此,政府有责任把这些好处传播开来。19世纪时,革命的压力催生了进步性的改革。如今,政府必须在民众变得日益不满之前开始变革。