一些“消極”風格的閱讀文章

閱讀文章有的是作者解釋現象，有的是作者反駁別人觀點，還有的可能隻是曆數世事變遷。最後一類講變化的文章大部分讀起來積極向上，有一種昂揚的進步主義(yi) 精神，但也有少數文章畫風比較消極，告訴我們(men) 不是所有的變化對所有人來說都是好事，時代的進程也不是永遠向上。這種消極文章比較少見，但也正因為(wei) 如此，一些同學在理解的時候理解上會(hui) 出現偏差。比如看到profound effect這樣的表達會(hui) 先入為(wei) 主覺得說的一定是好事，這樣就跟整個(ge) 文章/段落想表達的意思相反。所以首先是要注意到有講“消極”變化的可能性，其次不是很確定感情色彩的時候，可以多看看後幾句的展開。

下麵是幾個(ge) 例子。

In regions of western India where cotton was grown, spinning (the method for creating yarn) had long constituted an important source of cash income for many rural and urban people. Women had particularly gained income from spinning cotton into thread, using in-home, hand-operated spinning wheels. Thus the rise of factory spinning in the last decades of the nineteenth century spelled a radical change in the economic activity of large numbers of households in the Bombay Presidency, an administrative subdivision of British India. This change had more profound effects on the income-earning possibilities for women and persons from poor families than for men and more prosperous agriculturalists. In the Ahmedabad area of the Presidency, the effects were particularly severe for Muslim women who lived in purdah (seclusion), because hand spinning was one activity they had been able to do in the confines of the house. There is little evidence of any alternative new form of employment in the Presidency that could have compensated for the loss of earnings by women.

注意前兩(liang) 句用的had constituted, had gained，是說老早以前就可以在家裏掙錢。第三句說新生產(chan) 方式帶來變化，第四句說影響深遠，其實都看不出感情色彩。第五句說severe，第六句說原來的收入沒了，也沒有新的收入可以填補。可見工廠紡紗這種高級的生產(chan) 方式或許對其他人有正麵影響，但起碼對於(yu) 這段話關(guan) 心的那些女性來說是負麵影響，因為(wei) 她們(men) 被限製在家，沒法投身於(yu) 這樣的變化而隻能被動地受到新生產(chan) 方式競爭(zheng) 的影響。

Until the mid-1980s, Swedish workers’ wages were largely determined through centralized collective bargaining at a national level, a policy aimed at achieving equal pay for equal work across companies and industries. This policy, designed to raise the relative wages of low-wage workers, resulted in a decrease in overall wage inequality in Sweden's labor market. Furthermore, this policy may have indirectly resulted in a relatively small gender wage gap difference between women's wages and those of similarly qualified men: several recent studies have demonstrated that decentralized wage bargaining produces relatively large wage inequality in general and large gender wage differentials in particular, and international comparisons show that a society's overall wage inequality is positively related to the gender wage gap.

這段話雖然主要是正麵的，但要注意第一句話說是直到上世紀80年代中期以前都集體(ti) 協商工資，也就意味著在那個(ge) 時間點以後一直到現在可能都放棄了這種集體(ti) 協商。所以後麵講集體(ti) 協商的各種好處，但也暗示了放棄集體(ti) 協商以後這些好處可能會(hui) 消退。

In 1776, the state of New Jersey adopted a constitution that ignored gender in its suffrage clause, defining voters simply as adult residents worth at least fifty pounds. After 1776 women routinely participated in the state's electoral process, until in 1807, the state legislature passed a law redefining voters solely as adult White male taxpaying citizens. Political historians have been perplexed by New Jersey's deviation from the established norm of exclusive male suffrage, finding no sign of public agitation either for or against the voting rights of women prior to their enfranchisement in 1776 or disenfranchisement in 1807.

一開始新澤西州憲不做性別區分，女性也有投票權，但到了1807年反而做出限製，把選民定義(yi) 為(wei) 納稅白男公民。怎麽(me) 跟說好的不一樣呢，曆史學家都迷惑了。

In 1886 approximately 20 percent of United States workers belonged to the Knights of Labor, a labor-activist fraternal order. Nonetheless, soon after reaching this peak, the Knights' membership began a rapid decline, and the organization never regained its national prominence. This collapse had wide-ranging repercussions: subsequent worker organization took a less active and less broad-based organizational approach. The Knights' defeat demoralized those who championed radical reform and the organization of workers as a class, while empowering those who promoted a less inclusive strategy.

一個(ge) 組織成員數量下降，而且導致後來的類似工人組織更消極，更狹隘。