2022年12月六级第1套仔细阅读 Passage 1 原文翻译及答案解析

Many people associate their self-worth with their work. The more successful their career, the better they feel about themselves. Work-related self-esteem is therefore a worthy ideal to pursue with vigor, right? Well, not always. According to recent research, in which psychologists interviewed 370 full-time workers over a period of three weeks, the reality is a little more complicated. And it involves negative as well as positive consequences.

许多人将自己的自我价值与工作联系起来。他们的职业生涯越成功，自我感觉就越好。因此，与工作相关的自尊是一个值得积极追求的理想，对吧？嗯，不一定总是如此。根据最近的研究，心理学家在三周内采访了370名全职员工，实际情况稍微复杂一些。它既涉及积极后果，也涉及消极后果。

It's natural to be drawn towards pleasure and to step away from pain. In the workplace, if that pleasure comes from a triumph which swells our self-respect, people will try to repeat the accomplishment. But repeating that accomplishment is often not realistic, which can lead to severe negative emotional consequences when it doesn't reoccur. This form of motivation is widely regarded as a negative type of motivation. It can hinder other more positive motivation types, such as completing a task purely because it's fulfilling or enjoyable.

趋乐避苦是人之常情。在工作场所，如果那种快乐来自于提升我们自尊的成功，人们会试图重复这一成就。但重复那个成就往往不现实，当它不再发生时，可能导致严重的负面情绪后果。这种动机形式被广泛认为是消极类型的动机。它可以阻碍其他更积极的动机类型，比如仅仅因为任务带来成就感或乐趣而完成它。

What consumes the employee instead is a pressing need to feel mighty and sure of themselves. They then take on only tasks and objectives which serve that ego-driven need. As a result, to avoid feelings of shame and worthlessness associated with failure, they extend themselves to such a degree that there's a subsequent adverse effect on their well-being. This internal pressure to succeed at all costs demands a lot of effort. It depletes their energy, culminating in disproportionate levels of damaging sentiment.

相反，消耗员工的是一种迫切需要感到强大和自信的需求。于是，他们只承担那些服务于这种自我驱动需求的任务和目标。结果，为了避免与失败相关的羞耻和无价值感，他们过度延伸自己，从而对其福祉产生不利影响。这种不惜一切代价成功的内部压力需要大量努力。它耗尽他们的精力，最终导致不成比例的有害情绪水平。

Those negative emotions mount into heightened anxiety, impacting their ability to make the most of their personal life. Their desire to avoid feeling inferior ends up making them feel inferior when it comes to their diminished capacity for friendship and leisure. They end up dissatisfied both at work and outside of it.

这些负面情绪累积成高度焦虑，影响他们充分利用个人生活的能力。他们避免自卑感的欲望最终在友谊和休闲能力下降时反而让他们感到自卑。他们最终在工作内外都感到不满。

But thankfully, for those people compelled almost entirely by this specific form of motivation, the news isn't all bad, or bad at all. The study also discovered several positive outcomes that can actually outweigh the harmful ones. Though these types of employees are motivated by the desire to avoid negative consequences, they are also motivated by the excitement of pursuing emotional rewards. This excitement makes pursuing goals enjoyable and stimulates pleasure and pride that would result from success. An effect of the positive motivation is that it neutralizes the existence of negative motivation.

但谢天谢地，对于那些几乎完全受这种特定动机形式驱动的人来说，消息并非全是坏的，或者一点也不坏。研究还发现了几个积极的结果，实际上可以超过有害的结果。虽然这类员工是出于避免负面后果的欲望而受到激励，但他们也受到追求情感奖励的兴奋感所激励。这种兴奋感使追求目标变得愉快，并激发成功所带来的快乐和自豪。积极动机的一个效果是它抵消了消极动机的存在。

Sure, it affects people's personal lives to what could be deemed an unhealthy extent, because leisure activities are often seen as a part of life that must be sacrificed to manage work and family demands. However, the way people feel about their work has less to do with whether they're motivated by the preservation of self-esteem but more with the fact that they're simply motivated.

当然，它影响人们的个人生活到了可能被视为不健康的程度，因为休闲活动通常被视为必须为管理工作和家庭需求而牺牲的生活部分。然而，人们对工作的感受与他们是否受到保护自尊的动机驱动关系不大，而更多地与他们仅仅是有动机这一事实有关。