2019考研英语经典短文背诵：财富与人口-艾瑞克网

2019考研英语经典短文背诵：财富与人口

(6) Write an essay of 160-200 words based on the following drawing. In your essay, you should:

1) describe the drawing briefly,

2) explain its intended meaning, and then

3) state your point of view.

You should write on ANSWER SHEET 2.

范文：

As is depicted in the picture, compared to the situation in the past, nowadays the total wealth that mankind possesses conspicuously surpasses that of any time in history. What is more striking is that most of the wealth concentrates in the hands of a small bunch of people.

It is quite obvious that the artist wishes to set us thinking about the disparity between the rich and the poor in today’s world. On the one hand, it is staggering for us to find in the annual list of the “World’s Wealthiest People” by Forbes Magazine how the property of the rich keeps aggregating in an unbelievable scale. For instance, the fortune of Bill Gates certainly amounts to, or even exceeds, the annual GDP of an average developing country. On the other hand, the majority of humans have to struggle simply to make ends meet, not to mention those still suffer from hunger in the most less developed countries.

It is beyond doubt that the gross discrepancy of wealth distribution, though being a problem long existing in human society, is now developing to an extreme which may cause chaos. Therefore, the whole world should take this problem into serious consideration. Only through a systematic reform to achieve a more equal society can we prevent the problem from deteriorating.

译文：

正如图中描绘的那样，比起以前，现在人类拥有的总财富明显超过了历史上的任何一个时期。但是，更惊人的是我们的财富集中在了一群非常少的人们手中。

很显然作图者意在唤起人们对于当今世界上不断拉大的贫富差距这一问题的思考。一方面，通过福布斯杂志每年公布的世界富豪榜中，我们惊奇地发现富人们聚集财富的速度和规模令人难以置信。例如，比尔.盖茨的财产必然相当于甚至是超过了一个一般发展中国家的年均国内生产总值。另一方面，大部分人都苦苦地为了家里的收支平衡而奋斗，更不用说在那些最穷的国家中人们还在忍饥挨饿。

毫无疑问，尽管财富分配不均是人类历史上一个长久的问题，但是现在这种差距正在向极端方向发展，并可能导致根本性的混乱。因此，全世界都应该严肃地思考这个问题。我们只有通过改革来建设一个更加公平的社会，才能够防止这个问题的进一步恶化。

闪光词汇及词组：

surpass: v. 超过，超越，胜过

disparity: n. 不一致，不同，不等

staggering: adj. 惊人的

Forbes Magazine: 福布斯杂志

property: n. 财产

aggregate: v. 聚集，合计

amount to: 达到

exceed: v. 超过

make ends meet: 收支相抵

not to mention: 更不用说