2020年09月六级第2套仔细阅读 Passage 1 原文翻译及答案解析

Danielle Steel, the 71-year-old romance novelist is notoriously productive, having published 179 books at a rate of up to seven a year. But a passing reference in a recent profile by Glamour magazine to her 20-hour workdays prompted an outpouring of admiration.

丹妮尔·斯蒂尔，这位71岁的言情小说家以其高产出而闻名，已出版179本书，年产量高达七本。但《魅力》杂志最近的一篇人物简介中偶然提及她每天工作20小时，这引发了人们的一片钦佩之情。

Steel has given that 20-hour figure when describing her "exhausting" process in the past: "I start the book and don't leave my desk until the first draft is finished. " She goes from bed, to desk, to bath, to bed, avoiding all contact aside from phone calls with her nine children. "I don't comb my hair for weeks, " she says. Meals are brought to her desk, where she types until her fingers swell and her nails bleed.

斯蒂尔过去在描述她“筋疲力尽”的创作过程时曾提到那个20小时的数字：“我开始写书，直到完成初稿才离开书桌。”她从床到书桌，到浴室，再回到床，除了与九个孩子通电话外，避免一切接触。“我几周不梳头，”她说。饭菜被送到她的书桌前，她在那里打字，直到手指肿胀、指甲流血。

The business news website Quartz held Steel up as an inspiration, writing that if only we all followed her "actually extremely liberating" example of industrious sleeplessness, we would be quick to see results.

商业新闻网站Quartz将斯蒂尔视为灵感来源，写道如果我们都能效仿她“实际上极其解放”的勤奋不眠榜样，我们很快就会看到成果。

Well, indeed. With research results showing the cumulative effects of sleep loss and its impact on productivity, doubt has been voiced about the accuracy of Steel's self-assessment. Her output may be undeniable, but sceptics have suggested that she is guilty of erasing the role of ghostwriters (代笔人) at worst, gross exaggeration at best.

确实如此。随着研究结果显示睡眠不足的累积效应及其对生产力的影响，人们对斯蒂尔自我评估的准确性产生了怀疑。她的产出或许不可否认，但怀疑者认为，她最坏的情况是抹杀了代笔人的作用，最好的情况也是严重夸大。

Steel says working 20 hours a day is "pretty brutal physically. " But is it even possible? "No," says Maryanne Taylor of the Sleep Works. While you could work that long, the impact on productivity would make it hardly worthwhile. If Steel was routinely sleeping for four hours a night, she would be drastically underestimating the negative impact, says Alison Gardiner, founder of the sleep improvement programme Sleepstation. "It's akin to being drunk. "

斯蒂尔说每天工作20小时“在身体上相当残酷”。但这可能吗？“不可能，”Sleep Works的玛丽安·泰勒说。虽然你可以工作那么长时间，但对生产力的影响会使其几乎不值得。如果斯蒂尔通常每晚只睡四小时，她就会严重低估负面影响，睡眠改善项目Sleepstation的创始人艾莉森·加德纳说。“这就像喝醉了一样。

It's possible that Steel is exaggerating the demands of her schedule. Self-imposed sleeplessness has "become a bit of a status symbol", says Taylor, a misguided measure to prove how powerful and productive you are. Margaret Thatcher was also said to get by on four hours a night, while the 130-hour work weeks endured by tech heads has been held up as key to their success.

斯蒂尔可能夸大了她的日程需求。泰勒说，自我强加的睡眠不足“已经成为一种地位象征”，这是一种误导性的衡量标准，用来证明你有多强大和多产。据说玛格丽特·撒切尔每晚也只睡四小时，而科技巨头们忍受的每周130小时工作时间被奉为他们成功的关键。

That is starting to change with increased awareness of the importance of sleep for mental health. "People are starting to realise that sleep should not be something that you fit in between everything else," says Taylor.

随着人们对睡眠对心理健康重要性的认识增加，这正在改变。“人们开始意识到，睡眠不应该是在其他所有事情之间见缝插针的东西，”泰勒说。

But it is possible—if statistically extremely unlikely-that Steel could be born a "short sleeper" with an unusual body clock, says sleep expert Dr. Sophie Bostock. "It's probably present in fewer than 1% of the population. "

但睡眠专家索菲·博斯托克博士说，斯蒂尔可能天生就是“短睡眠者”，拥有不寻常的生物钟，尽管从统计上看极不可能。“这可能存在于不到1%的人口中。

Even if Steel does happen to be among that tiny minority, says Bostock, it's "pretty irresponsible" to suggest that 20-hour days are simply a question of discipline for the rest of us.

博斯托克说，即使斯蒂尔恰好属于那极少数人，认为对我们其他人来说每天20小时工作只是纪律问题，也是“相当不负责任的”。