2017年12月六级第3套仔细阅读 Passage 2 原文翻译及答案解析

It is the season for some frantic last-minute math across the country, employees of all stripe are counting backward in an attempt to figure out just how much paid time-off they have left in their reserves. More of them, though, will skip those calculations altogether and just power through the holidays into 2017: More than half of American workers don't use up all of their allotted vacation days each year.

现在全国上下都在进行一些紧张的最后一刻的计算，各行各业的员工都在倒数，试图弄清楚他们还有多少带薪假期储备。不过，更多的人会完全跳过这些计算，直接硬撑着度过假日直到2017年：超过一半的美国工人每年都没有用完他们所有的假期。

Not so long ago, people would have turned up their noses at that kind of dedication to the job. As marketing professors Silvia Bellezza, Neeru Paharia, and Anat Keinan recently explained in Harvard Business Review (HBR), leisure time was once seen as an indicator of high social status, something attainable only for those at the top. Since the middle of the 20th century, though, things have turned the opposite way these days, punishing hours at your desk, rather than days off, are seen as the mark of someone important.

不久前，人们还会对这种对工作的投入嗤之以鼻。正如市场营销教授 Silvia Bellezza、Neeru Paharia 和 Anat Keinan 最近在《哈佛商业评论》(HBR) 中所解释的那样，休闲时间曾经被视为高社会地位的标志，只有那些顶级人士才能获得。然而，自20世纪中叶以来，情况已经反过来了，如今，在办公桌前度过漫长的时间，而不是休假，被视为重要人物的标志。

In a series of several experiments, the researchers illustrated just how much we've come to admire busyness, or at least the appearance of it. Volunteers read two passages, one about a man who led a life of leisure and another about a man who was over-worked and over scheduled; when asked to determine which of the two had a higher social status, the majority of the participants said the latter. The same held true for people who used products that implied they were short on time: In one experiment, for example, customers of the grocery-delivery service Peapod were seen as of higher status than people who shopped at grocery stores that were equally expensive; in another, people wearing wireless headphones were considered further up on the social ladder than those wearing regular headphones, even when both were just used to listen to music.

在一系列实验中，研究人员展示了我们多么崇拜忙碌，或者至少是忙碌的表象。志愿者阅读两段文字，一段关于一个过着休闲生活的男人，另一段关于一个过度工作和过度安排时间的男人；当被问及哪个人社会地位更高时，大多数参与者说后者。对于那些使用暗示时间紧张的产品的人也是如此：例如，在一个实验中，使用杂货配送服务 Peapod 的顾客被认为比在同样昂贵的杂货店购物的人地位更高；在另一个实验中，佩戴无线耳机的人被认为在社会阶梯上比佩戴普通耳机的人更高，即使两者都只是用来听音乐。

In part, the authors wrote in HBR, this pattern may have to do with the way work itself has changed over the past several decades.

作者在 HBR 中写道，部分原因可能与工作本身在过去几十年中的变化方式有关。

We think that the shift from leisure-as-status to busyness-as-status may be linked to the development of knowledge-intensive economics. In such economies, individuals who possess the human capital characteristics that employers or clients value(e.g., competence and ambition) are expected to be in high demand and short supply on the job market. Thus, by telling others that we are busy and working all the time, we are implicitly suggesting that we are sought after, which enhances our perceived status.

我们认为，从“休闲即地位”到“忙碌即地位”的转变可能与知识密集型经济的发展有关。在这样的经济中，拥有雇主或客户所重视的人力资本特征（如能力和野心）的个人，预计在就业市场上需求高而供应少。因此，通过告诉别人我们很忙并且一直在工作，我们暗示自己很抢手，从而提升我们的 perceived status。

Even if you feel tempted to sacrifice your own vacation days for fake busyness, though, at least consider leaving your weekends unscheduled. It's for your own good.

然而，即使你感到诱惑为了虚假的忙碌而牺牲自己的假期，至少考虑让周末保持无计划。这对你自己有好处。