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2014年2月GMAT阅读机经:英国贵族压迫农民
日期:2014-10-15 10:49

(单词翻译:单击)

※ 主题思路:

新老观点型:关于封建领主影响英国经济长期发展的真正原因

※ 段落大意:

1)传统观点。14世纪时人民的生活水平日益下降,甚至到了威胁生存的地步(开头句)。接着说了英国lord和tenant的关系,tenant的生 活如何疾苦,如何受lord剥削控制,以至于他们的关系像是master和serf(农奴)。学者们还认为这些地主好吃懒做,表现在很重视眼前的享受和消费,而不在乎长远的发展,所以经济一直处于投资不足的状态(underinvestment),还说了一些其它因素,这些都妨碍了宏观经济的发展。

2)新证据。虽然老观点有着很大的吸引力(作者用了compelling),但是它越来越不能回答近期发现的一些新证据(主题句)。老观点忽视了(overlook)另一个不同于lord和tenant的新人群:freetenant。他们不是serf,不受地主的人身控制,只用按一个较低的fixed rate缴纳租金。最后提到其实tenant也不是原来想的那样软弱无力,他们已经能够组织起来和地主negotiate rate。

3)进一步的补充。为了应付tenant想多租地扩大自身利益的欲望,地主想出了一系列方法。。。,生词很多,看不太懂。。。结果就是造成巨大的unemploymentin rural area. 地主的这种做法相当于对经济的一个“brake”,阻碍了14世纪的英国经济发展。(有题,说地主的做法对谁有利?选项里都分了从长期看和从短期看,两方 面讨论)[推测:短期对领主有利,但不利于长期的经济发展。因为造成乡村的失业]感觉第三段可能是对第一段经济学家的反驳,说这才是阻碍经济发展的真正原 因,当然这只是我个人的看法。

超完美匹合原文版bycamelo777

Any analysis ofwhy the earlyfourteenth-century agrarian economy was so predisposed to'crisis' necessarilyrequires careful consideration of class and propertyrelations on the land, for,as Robert Brenner and S. H. Rigby have bothemphasized, these could be ofdecisive importance.7At that time landlordsexercised feudal rights of lordshipover their tenants, many of whom were ofservile status and therefore legallysubordinate to their lords. This powerrelationship shaped the tenurialrelationship between those who owned the landand those who occupied and workedit. Thus it was tenure, as regulated bylandlords, that determined the supply ofholdings and the form and level ofrents that were charged. Until recently itwas widely believed that feudaltenurial relationships sanctioned andfacilitated the extra-economicexploitation of tenants by their lords. Together,the heaviness of rent chargesand the arbitrariness of lordship discouraged anddepressed tenant investmentin agriculture.8Meanwhile, lords were moreinterested in pursuing a feudallifestyle of conspicuous consumption than inenhancing the productivity andprofitability of their estates.9The upshot, ithas been claimed, was a viciouscircle of underinvestment, static technology,and low and decliningagricultural productivity.10

Such pessimisticviews of lordsand their relations with their tenants have long exercised acompellingappeal.15 Nevertheless, they have become increasingly difficult toreconcilewith a growing body of historical evidence. The preoccupation withserfdomoverlooks the numerous free tenants who were exempt from the mostcoerciveaspects of lordship.16Free tenants mostly paid fixed and low rents andtheirproperty rights enjoyed the protection of the royal courts。The more substantial customarytenants were, in fact,relatively well off 。Many of these tenants certainlypaid a proportion of their rent inlabour, but historians, probably because of amodern abhorrence of theinstitution of forced labour, have exaggerated itseconomic significance. Inreality, only a minority of tenants actually performedlabour services, and theaggregate value of rents in cash far exceeded that ofrents in kind.21Notwithstanding the much-vaunted powers of lordship, tenantshad long beenremarkably effective at opposing efforts by lords to raise rentsand increaselabour services in line with rising land values and commodityprices.22They didso by countering seigniorial power with custom and denyingthat, as tenants,they were obliged to pay their lords anything more than a defacto ground rentfor the land. Tenant right, in fact, often proved morepowerful than landlordright.

As this articleargues, the factthat so many tenants were in such conspicuous economicdifficulties by the earlyfourteenth century had less to do with feudallordship per se and the supposedoppressions and inequalities of serfdom, thanwith the contradictions andinefficiencies inherent in the coexistence ofcustomary, contractual andcommercial relationships. Herein lay the real sourceof the agrarian problem inthe early fourteenth century. In so far as lordswere the inadvertent agents ofthis adverse state of affairs, it was becausetheir dealings with their tenantswere typically more compliant than coercive.By yielding to tenant demands foraccess to land on terms that were sofavourable to the tenants, lords createdthe preconditions for the subdivisionand subletting that stoked populationgrowth and thereby engendered the ruralcongestion that was the source of somuch under- and unemployment, with all thenegative consequences that this impliesfor labour productivity, livingstandards and purchasing power. Thisdeteriorating situation in the countrysideacted as a brake upon the continuedgrowth of the economy and, from 1315, leftincreasing numbers ever more cruellyexposed to the heightened risk ofenvironmental hazard

附上bale的中文版

Para1:

B:傳統的觀點認為,lord給tenant,特別是serftenant (隸屬於lord的,給其交租納貢的tenant),帶來了極大的經濟壓力,因為tenant要交很高的稅負,要孝敬lord,缺乏人身自由。

Para2:

P:但是,這一觀點是不正確的,雖然老觀點有著很大的吸引力(作者用了compelling),但是它越來越不能回答近期發現的一些新證據(主題句)。

S:因為其一,有很大一部分是non serf tenant,這些人只要交很低的錢,有很大的自由度,小日子還挺滋潤;其二,即便是serftenant,他們的生活也沒有那麼糟糕,他們還是有一定自主權的,諸如lord要增加稅賦的時候,他們可以提出反對意見,並且有一定的力量。

 Para3:

S:但是中世紀的經濟還是惡化了,這是為什麼呢?究其原因,是因為,為了應付tenant想多租地擴大自身利益的欲望,地主想出了一系列方法。。。,生詞很多,看不太懂。。。結果就是造成巨大的unemploymentin ruralarea. 地主的這種做法相當於對經濟的一個“brake”,阻礙了14世紀的英國經濟發展。lord在表面上向tenant做了讓步使tenant獲得短期經濟利益,但是從長期來看,lord通過這些舉措遏制了人口和經濟的發展,並最終帶來了社會環境的惡化。

※ 题目:

Q1、主旨题

V1 经济停滞不前的原因(秒选答案)

add a new factor to explain 经济停滞不前的原因,类似的话语,那个new factor就是freetenant(本月V44狗主答案、本月V37确认)

考古答案:貌似evaluate14世纪英国经济停滞不前的真正原因

Q2、

lord对于社会的影响是怎么样的。

V1选的就是短期benifit,长期是negative的(参考答案)(本月V33狗主答案)

Q3、在作者眼里lord应该是怎么样的。(本月试题)

V1选的好像是lord依然需要维护法律这样意思的一个(参考答案)(本月V33答案)

Q4、问这个文章的写作方式,

V1选有modification的(参考答案)(本月V37确认)

考古答案:选介绍了个现象,给出了解释,然后modify了解释的那个。

Q5、是如果以下什么措施被采取了,那么文中第一段黄色highlight的那个词(我理解为激化的阶级矛盾,但这词我不认识)可以被缓和或者解决,

选项有A扩大佃农家庭人数,

C控制subdivision和subtlling,

V1选C

Q6、从文章infer出什么,

V1选地主并不是肆无忌惮,还想有法律约束什么的(参考答案) (本月V37确认)

考古答案: 选landlord对土地权利神马的,不是totally free(因为第二段提到那个free tetant他们好像有royal court保护,所以landlord不是完全横行的)。

Q7、Free tenant例子的作用/举例说那些non-tenant的目的是什么

V1选举了个例子说明老观点不能解释一些新的evidence(参考答案)

Q8、关于landlord赋予free tenant对土地的权利,作者同意哪个选项有,(本月试题)

A.serve the short term and longterm interest of landlord;

B.serve the short term and longterm interest of tenant;

C.serve neither short term norlong term interest of landlord;

D.serve neither short term norlong term interest of landlord;

E.serve short term interest oftenant but not the long term(秒选答案)

V1选了E 本月V44、V37狗主确认

【以下为该狗主心理历程:选我当时很纠结,我觉得,站在黄世仁的角度,他肯定不愿意把土地的权利下放给杨白劳,所以黄世仁觉得此事不妥,对他长期短期都不利;站在杨白劳的角度,肯定想拥有田地,对他长期短期都好事儿啊。我当时想,丫的人家freetenant在土地上过的好好的,男耕女织,生儿育女,其乐融融,和谐社会,过着低碳又环保的生活。你非得让人家发展经济、弃农务工才是社会进步么?瞧瞧现在所谓“发 展”导致的温室效应、气候异常、极端天气、资源衰竭等,人类迟早要被所谓的“发展”搞得灭亡了,心想作者你也太狭隘了。。。骂完之后,违心地选了E】

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重点单词
  • compliantadj. 服从的,顺从的
  • therebyadv. 因此,从而
  • adverseadj. 不利的
  • neverthelessadv. 仍然,不过 conj. 然而,不过
  • sourcen. 发源地,来源,原始资料
  • infervt. 推断,推论,猜测,暗示 vi. 作出推论
  • inherentadj. 内在的,固有的
  • overlookvt. 俯瞰,远眺,没注意到,忽视 n. 高出
  • highlightn. 加亮区,精彩部分,最重要的细节或事件,闪光点 vt
  • ruraladj. 农村的