對于政治、經濟、科技、文史哲等方面的背景知識,很多同學是比較欠缺的。而這些背景知識在考試中卻至關重要。同學們平時可以通過外刊精讀,有意識得選擇不同題材的文章,補齊背景知識的短板哦。
外刊精讀的好處:
上外高翻MTI考研真題中,翻譯基礎和翻碩英語兩門科目的很多試題都是選自外刊,尤其是一些西方傳統大刊,如經濟學人、紐約時報、金融時報等。
同學們平時的備考中,通過對外刊的閱讀和解析,可以幫助提高閱讀速度、積累詞匯和表達(包括縮略語)、增強語句理解力,了解中英思維差異,培養英語思維,掌握分析文章邏輯的能力,提高總結能力。
學習英文表達和句型,為漢譯英和作文積累地道表達、寫作素材、擴展思路,提高寫作能力。
下面是高譯老師從本周的外刊中選取的一些題材,同學們在備考中要多多涉獵哦:
Boy cries wolf狼來了
AI is not yet killing jobs
人工智能還沒有消滅工作崗位
White-collar workers are ever more numerous
白領工人越來越多
【外刊選材一】
AFTER ASTONISHING breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, many people worry that they will end up on the economic scrapheap. Global Google searches for "is my job safe?' have doubled in recent months, as people fear that they will be replaced with large language models (LLMs). Some evidence suggests that widespread disruption is coming. In a recent paper Tyna Eloundou of OpenAI and colleagues say that around 80% of the US workforce could have at least 10% of their work tasks affected by the introduction of LLMs”. Another paper suggests that legal services, accountancy and travel agencies will face unprecedented upheaval.
在人工智能 (AI)取得驚人突破之后,許多人擔心自己會失業。近幾個月,谷歌上“我的工作嗎?”的搜索量翻番,因為人們擔心自己會被大語言模型 (LLM) 取代。有跡象顯示大范圍的顛覆即將到來。在近的一篇論文中,OpenAI的泰納·埃倫杜(Tyna Eloundou)及其同事認為,“美國大約80%的勞動力可能有至少10%的工作量會受到引入LLM的影響”。另一篇論文指出,法律服務、會計和旅行社將面臨前所未有的劇變。
語言點
end up
to find yourself in a place or situation that you did not intend or expect to be in 終成為;后處于
end up doing sth
I ended up doing all the work myself. 結果所有的活兒都是我一個人干了。
+ adv./prep.
If you go on like this you'll end up in prison. 如果你繼續這樣,早晚得進監獄。
scrapheap
遭解雇;失業If you say that someone has been thrown on the scrapheap, you mean that they have been forced to leave their job by an uncaring employer and are unlikely to get other work.
Miners have been thrown on the scrapheap with no prospects.
大批礦工被解雇,工作沒著落。
知識補充
大語言模型 (LLM)
大語言模型是深度學習的分支。被訓練來解決通用(常見)的語言問題,如文本分類、問答、文檔總結和文本生成等。
在"大語言模型"的上下文中,"大"主要有兩層含義。一方面,它指的是模型的參數數量。在這些模型中,參數的數量通常會非常大,達到數十億甚至數百億。這使得模型能夠學習和表示非常復雜的模式。另一方面,"大"也指的是訓練數據的規模。大語言模型通常在大規模的文本數據上進行訓練,這種數據可以來自互聯網、書籍、新聞等各種來源。
OpenAI
OpenAI是一個美國人工智能研究實驗室,進行 AI 研究的目的是促進和發展友好的人工智能,使人類整體受益。 OpenAI 系統運行在微軟基于 Azure 的超級計算平臺上。
【外刊選材二】
Economists, however, tend to enjoy making predictions about automation more than the enjoy testing them. In the early 2010s many of them loudly predicted that robots would kill jobs by the millions, only to fall silent when employment rates across the rich world rose to all-time highs. Few of the doom-mongers have a good explanation for why countries with the highest rates of tech usage around the globe, such as Japan, Singapore and South Korea, consistently have among the lowest rates of unemployment.
不過,經濟學家往往更喜歡對自動化做預測,而不喜歡測試自動化。在2010年代初,許多經濟學家大聲預測機器人將奪走數百萬人的工作,但當發達國家的就業率升至歷史水平時,他們就啞口無言了。對于日本、新加坡和韓國等全球科技使用率的國家為何失業率一直處于水平,未世論者拿不出什么好的解釋。
語言點
-monger
a person who encourages a particular activity, especially one which causes trouble
專門制造(或散布)…的人;(尤指)專門惹麻煩的人
They're nothing but a bunch of war-mongers. 他們完全是一群戰爭販子。
因此本文的doom-monger也就是散布末日論的人,簡稱末日論者
【外刊選材三】
Here we introduce our first attempt at tracking AI's impact on jobs. Using American data on employment by occupation, we single out white-collar workers.These include people working in everything from back-office support and financial operations to copy-writers. White-collar roles are thought to be especially vulnerable to generative AI, which is becoming ever better at logical reasoning and creativity.
在此,我們啟動對AI如何影響就業的追蹤。在美國各種職業的就業數據中,我們把白領工人單抄出來。其中包括后臺支持、財務運營以及文案撰寫等各種崗位人員。生成式AI在邏輯推理和創造力方面的表現越來越好,通常認為白領職位特別容易受其影響。
語言點
single out
single sb/sth??out (for sth/as sb/sth)to choose sb/sth from a group for special attention 單獨挑出
She was singled out for criticism.
她被單挑出來進行批評。
He was singled out as the outstanding performer of the games.
他被評選為這次運動會表現出色的運動員。
知識補充
generative AI
生成式 AI(生成式人工智能)是指使用 AI 來創作新內容,例如文本、圖片、音樂、音頻和視頻。生成式 AI 的工作原理是利用機器學習模型,學習人工創建的內容數據集中的模式和關系。然后,它會利用學習的模式生成新內容。
【外刊選材四】
However, there is as yet little evidence of an AI hit to employment. In the spring of 202o white collar jobs rose as a share of the total, as many people in service occupations lost their job at the start of the covid-19 pandemic (see chart). The white-collar share is lower today, as leisure and hospitality have recovered. Yet in the past year the share of employment in professions supposedly at risk from generative AI has risen by half a percentage point.
不過,目前還沒有什么證據表明AI對就業造成了沖擊。2020年春季,白領崗位占全部工作崗位的比例上升,因為許多服務業從業者在疫情開始時失業了 (見圖表)。現在隨著休閑和接待業的復蘇,白領崗位的比例有所下降。但是在過去一年里,那些被認為受生成式AI威脅的職業占總就業的
