2018年考研英语一阅读 Text 4 原文翻译及答案解析

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) continues to bleed red ink. It reported a net loss of $5.6 billion for fiscal 2016, the 10th straight year its expenses have exceeded revenue. Meanwhile, it has more than $120 billion in unfunded liabilities, mostly for employee health and retirement costs. There are many reasons this formerly stable federal institution finds itself at the brink of bankruptcy. Fundamentally, the USPS is in a historic squeeze between technological change that has permanently decreased demand for its bread-and-butter product, first-class mail, and a regulatory structure that denies management the flexibility to adjust its operations to the new reality.

美国邮政服务（USPS）持续亏损。它报告2016财年净亏损56亿美元，这是其支出连续第10年超过收入。与此同时，它拥有超过1200亿美元的无资金准备负债，主要用于员工健康和退休成本。这家曾经稳定的联邦机构发现自己濒临破产，原因有很多。从根本上说，USPS正受到历史性的挤压：一方面，技术变革永久性地降低了对其核心产品一等邮件的需求；另一方面，监管结构剥夺了管理层调整运营以适应新现实的灵活性。

And interest groups ranging from postal unions to greeting-card makers exert self-interested pressure on the USPS's ultimate overseer - Congress - insisting that whatever else happens to the Postal Service, aspects of the status quo they depend on get protected. This is why repeated attempts at reform legislation have failed in recent years, leaving the Postal Service unable to pay its bills except by deferring vital modernization.

从邮政工会到贺卡制造商等利益集团，向USPS的最终监督者——国会——施加自利压力，坚持无论邮政服务发生什么变化，它们所依赖的现状方面必须得到保护。这就是为什么近年来反复尝试的改革立法都失败了，导致邮政服务无法支付账单，只能推迟重要的现代化。

Now comes word that everyone involved - Democrats, Republicans, the Postal Service, the unions and the system's heaviest users - has finally agreed on a plan to fix the system. Legislation is moving through the House that would save USPS an estimated $28.6 billion over five years, which could help pay for new vehicles, among other survival measures. Most of the money would come from a penny-per-letter permanent rate increase and from shifting postal retirees into Medicare. The latter step would largely offset the financial burden of annually pre-funding retiree health care, thus addressing a long-standing complaint by the USPS and its unions.

现在有消息说，所有相关方——民主党、共和党、邮政服务、工会和该系统的最重度用户——最终就修复系统的计划达成了一致。立法正在众议院推进，该立法预计在五年内为USPS节省约286亿美元，这可能有助于支付新车辆等生存措施的费用。大部分资金将来自每封信永久性增加一美分费率，以及将邮政退休人员转入Medicare。后一步将在很大程度上抵消每年预筹退休人员医疗保健资金的财务负担，从而解决USPS及其工会的长期投诉。

If it clears the House, this measure would still have to get through the Senate - where someone is bound to point out that it amounts to the bare, bare minimum necessary to keep the Postal Service afloat, not comprehensive reform. There's no change to collective bargaining at the USPS, a major omission considering that personnel accounts for 80 percent of the agency's costs. Also missing is any discussion of eliminating Saturday letter delivery. That common-sense change enjoys wide public support and would save the USPS $2 billion per year. But postal special-interest groups seem to have killed it, at least in the House. The emerging consensus around the bill is a sign that legislators are getting frightened about a politically embarrassing short-term collapse at the USPS. It is not, however, a sign that they're getting serious about transforming the postal system for the 21st century.

如果该措施在众议院通过，它仍需在参议院获得通过——在那里，肯定会有人指出，这只是维持邮政服务运营的最低限度，而非全面改革。USPS的集体谈判没有变化，考虑到人员占该机构成本的80%，这是一个重大遗漏。还缺少对取消周六信件投递的任何讨论。这一常识性变革享有广泛公众支持，每年可为USPS节省20亿美元。但邮政特殊利益集团似乎已经扼杀了它，至少在众议院是这样。围绕该法案的新兴共识表明，立法者正害怕USPS出现政治上令人尴尬的短期崩溃。然而，这并不意味着他们正在认真对待为21世纪改造邮政系统。