问答题Directions : Read the following text carefully and then
translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be
written neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. A hundred years
ago it was assumed and scientifically" proved" by economists that the laws of
society made it necessary to have a vast army of poor and jobless people in
order to keep the economy going. (46) {{U}}Today, hardly anybody would dare to
voice this principle. It is generally accepted that nobody should be excluded
from the wealth of the nation, either by the laws of nature or by those of
society.{{/U}} The opinions, which were current a hundred years ago, that the poor
owed their conditions to their ignorance, lack of responsibility, are outdated.
In all Western industrialized countries, a system of insurance has been
introduced which guarantees everyone a minimum of subsistence (生活维持费) in case of
unemployment, sickness and old age. I would go one step further and argue that,
even if these conditions are not present, everyone has the right to receive the
means to subsist(维持生活), in other words, he can claim this subsistence minimum
without having to have any" reason". (47) I would suggest, however, that it
should be limited to a definite period of time. let's say two years, so as to
avoid the encouraging of an abnormal attitude which refuses any kind of social
obligation. This may sound like a fantastic proposal, but so, I
think our insurance system would have sounded to people a hundred years ago. The
main objection to such a scheme would be that if each person were entitled to
receive minimum support, people would not work. (48) {{U}}This assumption rests on
the fallacy of the inherent laziness in human nature ; actually, aside from
abnormally lazy people, there would be very few who would not want to earn more
than the minimum, and who would prefer to do nothing rather than
work.{{/U}} (49){{U}}However, the suspicions against a system of
guaranteed subsistence minimum are not groundless from the standpoint of those
who want to use ownership of capital for the purpose of forcing others to accept
the work conditions they offer.{{/U}} If nobody were forced to accept work in
order not to starve, work would have to be sufficiently interesting and
attractive to induce one to accept it. (50){{U}} Freedom of contract is possible
only if both parties are free to accept and reject it ; in the present
capitalist system this is not the case.{{/U}} But such a system
would not only be the beginning of real freedom of contract between employers
and employees; its principal advantage would be the improvement of freedom in
interpersonal relationships in every sphere of daily life.