【题源外刊】第15期：大城市不再是低技能工人的机会之地
原文期刊：金融时报
原文标题：
Look for new start-ups to provide gig worker benefit
考研英语阅读话题-现代经济
集聚效应（agglomeration），是指各种产业和经济活动在空间上集中产生的经济效果以及吸引经济活动向一定地区靠近的向心力，是导致城市形成和不断扩大的基本因素。
集聚效应是一种常见的经济现象，如产业的集聚效应，最典型的例子当数美国硅谷，聚集了几十家全球IT巨头和数不清的中小型高科技公司。
产业集群效应（cluster）是指集中于一定区域内特定产业的众多具有分工合作关系的不同规模等级的企业与其发展有关的各种机构，组织等行为主体，通过纵横交错的网络关系紧密联系在一起的空间积聚体，代表着介于市场和等级制之间的一种新的空间经济组织形式。是推动区域经济增长的重要方式，是区域创新系统的一种重要实现方式，是提升区域竞争力的重要方式。
来源：百度百科
本文选自bloomberg.com（彭博网）2019.01.22文章Big Cities No Longer Deliver for Low-Skilled Workers（大城市不再是低技能工人的机会之地）。文章指出美国经济转型背景下，城市中中等技能工作渐趋消失，非大学生群体再难通过移居城市找到体面工作并提高收入，处境堪忧。
主要亮点与脉络：
①本文情形并非仅限于美国，而是如今许多国家面临的问题；文章内容丰富且属于大学生应了解的信息；②结构清晰紧凑：引入如今现象“美国未上过大学的工人很难在城市找到体面工作，通往中产阶级富足生活的主要道路被封闭”（首两段）——分析原因“制造业衰落、城市转型”（第三至五段）——提出建议“在城市多建住房、压低租金；借研究型大学引进人才、振兴乡村；出台旨在提高低薪工人经济福祉的激励性措施”（第六、七段）。
Part 1
原文
Ⅰ In a recent lecture, David Autor, a labor economist, attempted to weave the biggest and most important issues together into a single story. Paraphrasing heavily, that story goes something like this: Forty years ago, Americans who didn’t go to college could move to cities and get good jobs in manufacturing or office work. But starting in about 1980, these jobs began to disappear, thanks in part to offshoring and automation.
Ⅱ Workers without a college education were increasingly moved to low-skilled service jobs. Even as educational inequality was growing, geographic inequality was growing as well. High-skilled occupations increasingly clustered in cities, while low-skilled service jobs have become more plentiful outside of urban centers. At the same time, wages for mid-skilled jobs like manufacturing and office work equalized between cities and rural areas — workers in these jobs can no longer get much of a pay bump by moving into town. Thus, a major route to middle-class prosperity has been closed off.
Ⅲ Some of this can be explained by virtue of the two basic economic reasons for cities to exist in a modern economy — agglomeration, and clustering. Agglomeration refers to the tendency of businesses of all types, but especially manufacturers, to locate near each other. This happens because employers want to be near to employees, who want to be near to the businesses they work for and buy goods from. The result is a city with lots of different industries.
Ⅳ Clustering on the other hand, refers to the tendency of companies within a single industry to want to be near each other. Clustering effects are much stronger in knowledge-based industries like tech and finance, because ideas are their lifeblood, and workers who live near each other tend to share ideas with each other. Clustering also arises because of the need for employers to have access to a deep pool of skilled workers.
Ⅴ As the U.S. economy has transferred manufacturing overseas or automated it, and as consumers have moved from buying more physical goods to buying more digital services, agglomeration has become less important relative to clustering. The smokestack cities of the last century have given way to tech hubs and financial centers.
Ⅵ So what’s to be done in order to help mid-skilled and non-college workers live decent, middle-class lives? And how can the emerging divide between small towns and big cities be arrested? One idea is to build lots more housing in cities, driving down rents and making cities more livable for everyone. Another idea is to use research universities to revitalize economically depressed regions by dispersing knowledge workers to less-populated areas.
Ⅶ But in the end, the government may simply have to step in and intervene on behalf of the services class. Wage subsidies, portable pensions and various other incentives for higher wages can be deployed to make today’s low-skilled jobs more like the good office and factory jobs of yesteryear. The alternative may be to watch non-college workers and small towns fall further behind.
Part 2
词汇短语
1.weave [wi:v] v.使组合，使交织
2.paraphrase [ˈpærəfreɪz] v.意译，改述
3. heavily [ˈhevɪli] ad.严重地，至极大程度
4.offshoring [ˌɒfˈʃɔ:rɪŋ] n.离岸外包
5.cluster [ˈklʌstə(r)] v.聚集，集居
6.bump [bʌmp] n.（工资等）数量上的增加
7.close off 关闭，封锁
8.by virtue of 由于，因为
9.agglomeration [əˌglɒməˈreɪʃn] n.集聚
10.lifeblood [ˈlaɪfblʌd] n.生命线，命脉
11.a deep pool of 一大批（可用的人员）
12.livable ['lɪvəbəl] a.宜居的
13.revitalize [ˌri:ˈvaɪtəlaɪz] v.使得到复兴
14.disperse [dɪˈspɜ:s] v.使分散
15.intervene [ˌɪntəˈvi:n] v.干预
16. on behalf of 为了……的利益
17.wage subsidy 工资津贴.portable pension 可携式养老金
18.incentive [ɪnˈsentɪv] n.鼓励，刺激
19.alternative [ɔ:lˈtɜ:nətɪv] n.两者（或两者以上之间）择一
20.deploy [dɪˈplɔɪ] v.利用
Part 3
长难句语法点拨
本句主干为Clustering effects are much stronger。in knowledge-based industries like tech and finance作状语。because原因状语从句包含and连接的两个并列分句，后一分句嵌含定语从句who live near each other修饰workers。
Part 4
写作句型借鉴
thanks in part to部分原因归于……
原文例句：But starting in about 1980, these jobs began to disappear, thanks in part to offshoring and automation.而大约从1980年开始，这些工作开始消失，部分原因归于外包和自动化。
So what’s to be done in order to do XX?One idea is to do AA. Another idea is to do BB.那么，要做些什么来做到XX?一个想法是AA,另一个想法是BB。
原文例句：So what’s to be done in order to help mid-skilled and non-college workers live decent, middle-class lives? And how can the emerging divide between small towns and big cities be arrested? One idea is to build lots more housing in cities, driving down rents and making cities more livable for everyone. Another idea is to use research universities to revitalize economically depressed regions by dispersing knowledge workers to less-populated areas.那么，要做些什么来帮助中等技能及未上过大学的工人过上体面的中产生活？又如何来遏制小城镇与大都市之间浮现的裂痕？一个想法是在城市多建住房，压低租金，使城市对所有人都更宜居。另一个想法是借助研究型大学使知识工作者分散到人口较少地区，以复兴经济衰退地区。
本篇逻辑梳理、关键词、翻译点评等可见：考研英语黄皮书~
