北京师范大学考博英语真题,考博英语试题

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2015年北京师范大学博士研究生入学考试英语试题

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Part I Reading Comprehension (45%)
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Directions: Read the following passages carefully and then select the best answer from
the four choices marked A, B, C, and D by marking the corresponding letter on the
ANSWER SHEET with a single line through the center.


1
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    The Pacific Northwest coast of North America is a temperate rain forest, where trees
like the red cedar grow straight more than two meters thick at the base and sixty meters
high. Western red cedar is often called the canoe cedar because it supplied the native
people of the region with the raw material for their seagoing dugout canoes. These
extraordinary crafts, as much as twenty meters in length, were fashioned from a single tree
trunk and carried as many as forty people on fishing and whaling expeditions into the open
ocean.

    The Haida people from the Queen Charlotte Islands off British Columbia were noted in
their skill in canoe building. After felling a giant tree with controlled burning, the
canoe makers split the log into lengthwise sections with stone wedges. They burned away
some of the heartwood, leaving a rough but strong cedar shell. They then carved away wood
from the inside, keeping the sections below the waterline thickest and heaviest to help keep
the canoe upright in stormy seas. To further enhance the canoe's stability, they filled the
hull with water and heated it to boiling by dropping in hot stones. This rendered the wood
temporarily flexible, so the sides of the hull could be forced apart and held with sturdy
wooden thwarts, which served as both cross braces and seats. The canoes were often painted
with elaborate designs of cultural significance to the tribe.

    The Haida raised canoe building to high art, designing boats of such beauty and utility
that neighboring tribes were willing to exchange quantities of hides, meats, and oils for a
Haida canoe. These graceful vessels became the tribe's chief item of export. In their swift
and staunch canoes, the first people of the Northwest were able to take full advantage of
the riches provided by the sea. With harpoons of yew wood, baited hooks of red cedar, and
lines of twisted and braided bark fibers, they fished for cod, sturgeon, and halibut, and
hunted whales, seals, and sea otters.

1. Why did the canoe makers keep the sections of the canoe below the waterline thickest
and heaviest?
    A. To prevent the canoe from overturning in rough water.
    B. To shorten the work of carving wood from the inside.
    C. To avoid having to paint the bottom of the canoe.
    D. To make the canoe strong enough to hold forty people.

2. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph two?
    A. Carving changed the texture and strength of the wood.
    B. It took the canoe makers several months to build a canoe.
    C. The wood was beaten with stone tools to make it flexible.
    D. Canoes were important cultural artifact of the Haida.

3. The word staunch in paragraph three is closest in meaning to ______.
    A. silent             B. strong              C. scented             D. severe

4. It can be inferred from paragraph three that ______.
    A. canoes were the Haida's only known art form
    B. the Haida dominated trade among local tribes
    C. the people used up all of the natural resources
    D. trees provided essential tools for obtaining food

5. Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?
    A. The western red cedar thrives in a variety of climates.
    B. The skill of the Haida canoe makers has never been copied.
    C. Haida canoes were of great value in the regional economy.
    D. People no longer use cedar canoes for fishing and whaling.


2
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    Nothing in the history of modern astronomy has excited as much speculation as the
object, or event, known as a black hole. Black holes have provided endless imaginative
fodder for science fiction writers and endless theoretical fodder for astrophysicists. They
are one of the more exotic manifestations of the theory of general relativity, and their
fascination lies in the way their tremendous gravity affects nearby space and time.

    A black hole is very simple in structure: it has a surface—the event horizon—and a
center—the singularity. Everything else is gravity. The standard model for the formation of
a black hole involves the collapse of a large star. The imaginary spherical surface
surrounding the collapsed star is the event horizon—an artificial boundary in space that
marks a point of no return. Outside the event horizon, gravity is strong but finite, and it
is possible for objects to break free of its pull. However, once within the event horizon,
an object would need to travel faster than light to escape.

    For extremely massive stars, the exclusion principle—the resistance between the
molecular particles within the star as they are compressed—will not be strong enough to
offset the gravity generated by the star's own mass. The star's increasing density will
overwhelm the exclusion principle. What follows is runaway gravitational collapse. With no
internal force to stop it, the star will simply continue to collapse in on itself. Once a
collapsing star has contracted through its event horizon, nothing can stop it from
collapsing further until its entire mass is crushed down to a single point—a point of
infinite density and zero volume—the singularity.

    The star now disappears from the perceivable universe, like a cartoon character that
jumps into a hole and pulls the hole in after him. What this process leaves behind is a
different kind of hole—a profound disturbance in space-time, a region where gravity is so
intense that nothing can escape from it. Any object falling within the boundary of a black
hole has no choice but to move inward toward the singularity and disappear from our
universe forever. Moreover, a black hole can never be plugged up or filled in with matter,
the more matter that is poured into a black hole, the bigger it gets.

    What would happen to objects, such as astronauts, as they vanished into a black hole?
Physicists have been amusing themselves with this question for years, and most believe
that the intense gravitational forces would rip apart the astronauts long before they were
crushed at the singularity. Theoretically, any astronauts who managed to survive the
passage would encounter some very strange thing. For instance, they would experience
acute time distortion, which would enable them to know, in a few brief seconds, the
entire future of the universe.

    Inside a black hole, space and time are so warped that the distance from the event
horizon to the singularity is not a distance in space in the normal sense that we can
measure in kilometers. Instead, it becomes a distance in time. The time it takes to reach
the singularity from the event horizon—as measured by someone falling in—is proportional
to the mass of the black hole.

    The only way that astronauts would know whether they had crossed the event horizon
would be if they tried to halt their fall and climb out again by firing their engines enough
to push themselves back from the center of the hole. However, because of the time warp, if
the astronauts tried to do this, they would reach the singularity faster than if they had
left their engines off. Moreover, since they could get no farther once they had reached the
singularity, this point would mark the end of time itself.

6. The word fodder in paragraph one is closest in meaning to ______.
    A. material             B. stories             C. support             D. problems

7. The opposing force between the molecular particles inside a star is called ______.
    A. general relativity                        B. the exclusion principle
    C. infinite density                          D. The singularity

8. Why does the author mention a cartoon character in paragraph four?
    A. To illustrate the complete disappearance of a collapsing star.
    B. To warn of the danger of being sucked into a black hole.
    C. To point out a humorous phenomenon in astrophysics.
    D. To announce the creation of a cartoon about black holes.

9. Astronauts who fell into a black hole would probably experience all of the following
EXCEPT ______.
    A. distortion of space and time              B. traveling faster than light
    C. knowledge of the universe                D. strong gravitational forces

10. The phrase this point in paragraph seven refers to ______.
    A. The event horizon                         B. Firing their engines
    C. The time warp                             D. The singularity


3
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    The geology of the Earth's surface is dominated by the particular properties of water.
Present on Earth in solid, liquid, and gaseous states, water is exceptionally reactive. It
dissolves, transports, and precipitates many chemical compounds and is constantly
modifying the face of the Earth.

    Evaporated from the oceans, water vapor forms clouds, some of which are transported
by wind over the continents. Condensation from the clouds provides the essential agent of
continental erosion: rain. Precipitated onto the ground, the water trickles down to form
brooks, streams, and rivers, constituting what is called the hydrographic network. This
immense polarized network channels the water toward a single receptacle: an ocean. Gravity
dominates this entire step in the cycle because water tends to minimize its potential
energy by running from high altitudes toward the reference point that is sea level.

    The rate at which a molecule of water passes though the cycle is not random but is a
measure of the relative size of the various reservoirs. If we define residence time as the
average time for a water molecule to pass through one of the three reservoirs—atmosphere,
continent, and ocean—we see that the times are very different. A water molecule stays, on
average, eleven days in the atmosphere, one hundred years on a continent and forty
thousand years in the ocean. This last figure shows the importance of the ocean as the
principal reservoir of the hydrosphere but also the rapidity of water transport on the
continents.

    A vast chemical separation process takes places during the flow of water over the
continents. Soluble ions such as calcium, sodium, potassium, and some magnesium are
dissolved and transported. Insoluble ions such as aluminum, iron, and silicon stay where
they are and form the thin, fertile skin of soil on which vegetation can grow. Sometimes
soils are destroyed and transported mechanically during flooding. The erosion of the
continent thus results from two closely linked and interdependent processes, chemical
erosion and mechanical erosion. Their respective interactions and efficiency depend on
different factors.

11. The word "which" in line 5 refers to ______.
    A. clouds              B. oceans              C. continents         D. compounds

12. According to the passage, clouds are primarily formed by water ______.
    A. precipitating onto the ground
    B. changing from a solid to a liquid state
    C. evaporating from the oceans
    D. being carried by wind

13. The passage suggests that the purpose of the "hydrographic network" is to ______.
    A. determine the size of molecules of water
    B. prevent soil erosion caused by flooding
    C. move water from the Earth's surface to the oceans
    D. regulate the rate of water flow from streams and rivers

14. What determines the rate at which a molecule of water moves through the cycle, as
discussed in the third paragraph?
    A. The potential energy contained in water
    B. The effects of atmospheric pressure on chemical compounds
    C. The amounts of rainfall that fall on the continents
    D. The relative size of the water storage areas

15. The word "rapidity" in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ______.
    A. significance        B. method              C. swiftness          D. reliability


4
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    Our culture has caused most Americans to assume not only that our language is universal
but that the gestures we use are understood by everyone. We do not realize that waving
good-bye is the way to summon a person from the Philippines to one's side, or that in Italy
and some Latin-American countries, curling the finger to oneself is a sign of farewell.

    Those private citizens who sent packages to our troops occupying German after World War
II and marked them GIFT to escape duty payments did not bother to find out that "Gift"
means poison in German. Moreover, we like to think ourselves as friendly, yet we prefer to
be at least 3 feet or an arm's length away from others. Latins and Middle Easterners like
to come closer and touch, which makes Americans uncomfortable.

    Our linguistic and cultural blindness and the casualness with which we take notice of
the developed tastes, gestures, customs and languages of other countries, are losing us
friends, business and respect in the world.

    Even here in the United States, we make few concessions to the needs of foreign
visitors. There are no information signs in four languages on our public buildings or
monuments; we do not have multilingual guided tours. Very few restaurant menus have
translations, and multilingual waiters, bank clerks and policemen are rare. Our
transportation systems have maps in English only and often we ourselves have difficulty
understanding them.

    When we go abroad, we tend to cluster in hotels and restaurants where English is
spoken. The attitudes and information we pick up are conditioned by those natives—usually
the richer—who speak English. Our business dealings, as well as the nation's diplomacy,
are conducted through interpreters.

    For many years, America and Americans could get by with cultural blindness and
linguistic ignorance. After all, America was the most powerful country of the free world,
the distributor of needed funds and goods.

    But all that is past. American dollars no longer buy all good things, and we are slowly
beginning to realize that our proper role in the world is changing. A 1979 Harris poll
reported that 55 percent of Americans want this country to play a more significant role in
world affairs; we want to have a hand in the important decisions of the next century, even
though it may not always be the upper hand.

16. It can be inferred that Americans being approached too closely by Middle Easterners
would most probably ______.
    A. stand still          B. jump aside          C. step forward        D. draw back

17. The author gives many examples to criticize Americans for their ______.
    A. cultural self-centeredness                B. casual manners
    C. indifference towards foreign visitors     D. arrogance towards other cultures

18. In countries other than their own most Americans ______.
    A. are isolated by local people
    B. are not well informed due to the language barrier
    C. tend to get along well with the natives
    D. need interpreters in hotels and restaurants

19. According to the author, American's cultural blindness and linguistic ignorance will
______.
    A. affect their image in the new era
    B. cut themselves off from the outside world
    C. limit their role in world affairs
    D. weaken the position of US dollar

20. The author's intention in writing this article is to make Americans to realize that
______.
    A. it is dangerous to ignore their foreign friends
    B. it is important to maintain their leading role in world affairs
    C. it is necessary to use several languages in public places
    D. it is time to get acquainted with other cultures


5
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    Historians have only recently begun to note the increase in demand of luxury goods and
services that took place in eighteenth-century England. McKendrick has explored the
Wedgwood firm's remarkable success in marketing luxury pottery; Plumb has written about
the proliferation of provincial theaters, musical festivals, and children's toys and books.
While the fact of this consumer revolution is hardly in doubt, three key questions remain:
Who were the consumers? What were their motives? And what were the effects of the new
demand for luxuries?

    An answer to the first of these has been difficult to obtain. Although it has been
possible to infer from the goods and services actually produced what manufacturers and
serving trades thought their customers wanted, only a study of relevant personal documents
written by actual consumers will provide a precise picture of who wanted what. We still
need to know how large this consumer market was and how far down the social scale the
consumer demand for luxury goods penetrated. With regard to this last question, we might
note in passing that Thompson, while rightly restoring laboring people to the stage of
eighteenth-century English history, has probably exaggerated the opposition of these
people to the inroads of capitalist consumerism in general; for example, laboring people in
eighteenth-century England readily shifted from home-brewed beer to standardized beer
produced by huge, heavily capitalized urban breweries.

    To answer the question of why consumers became so eager to buy, some historians have
pointed to the ability of manufacturers to advertise in relatively uncensored press. This,
however, hardly seems a sufficient answer. McKendrick favors a Veblen model of
conspicuous consumption stimulated by competition for status. The "middling sort" bought
goods and services because they wanted to follow fashions set by the rich. Again, we may
wonder whether this explanation is sufficient. Do not people enjoy buying things as a form
of self-gratification? If so, consumerism could be seen as a product of the rise of new
concepts of individualism and materialism, but not necessarily of the frenzy for conspicuous
competition.

    Finally, what were the consequences of this consumer demand for luxuries? McKendrick
claims that it goes a long way toward explaining the coming of the Industrial Revolution.
But does it? What, for example, does the production of high quality pottery and toys have to
do with the development of iron manufacture or textile mills? It is perfectly possible to
have the psychology and reality of a consumer society without a heavy industrial sector.

    That future exploration of these key questions is undoubtedly necessary should not,
however, diminish the force of the conclusion of recent studies: the insatiable demand in
eighteenth-century England for frivolous as well as useful goods and services foreshadows
our own world.

21. In the first paragraph, the author mentions McKendrick and Plumb most probably in order
to ______.
    A. contrast their views on the subject of luxury consumerism in eighteenth-century
       England
    B. indicate the inadequacy of approaches to eighteenth-century English history
    C. give examples of historians who have helped to establish the fact of growing
       consumerism in eighteenth-century England
    D. support the contention that key questions about eighteenth-century consumerism
       remain to be answered

22. According to Thompson, which kind of attitude did laboring people in eighteenth-century
England have toward capitalist consumerism?
    A. Enthusiasm          B. Curiosity           C. Stubbornness        D. Hostility

23. In the third paragraph, the author is mainly concerned with ______.
    A. contrasting two theses and offering a compromise
    B. questioning two explanations and proposing a possible alternative to them
    C. paraphrasing the work of two historians and questioning their assumptions
    D. raising several questions but implying that they cannot be answered

24. According to the passage, a Veblen model of conspicuous consumption has been used to
______.
    A. explain the motivation of eighteenth-century consumers to buy luxury goods
    B. classify the kinds of luxury goods desired by eighteenth-century consumers
    C. investigate the extent of the demand for luxury goods among social classes in
       eighteenth-century England
    D. Compare luxury consumerism in eighteenth-century England with such consumerism
       in the 20th century.

25. According to the author, eighteenth-century England and the contemporary world of the
passage's readers are ______.
    A. dissimilar in the extent to which luxury consumerism could be said to be widespread
       among the social classes
    B. dissimilar in their definitions of luxury goods and services
    C. dissimilar in the extent to which luxury goods could be a stimulant of industrial
       development
    D. similar in their strong demand for a variety of goods and services


6
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    Pity those who aspire to put the initials PhD after their names. After 16 years of
closely supervised education, prospective doctors of philosophy are left more or less alone
to write the equivalent of a large book. Most social-science postgraduates have still not
completed their theses by the time their grant runs out after three years. They must then
get a job and finish in their spare time, which can often take a further three years. By
then, most new doctors are sick to death of the narrowly defined subject which has
blighted their holidays and ruined their evenings.

    The Economic and Social Research Council, which gives grants to postgraduate social
scientists, wants to get better value for money by cutting short this agony. It would like
to see faster completion rates: until recently, only about 25% of PhD candidates were
finishing within four years. The ESRC's response has been to stop PhD grants to all
institutions where the proportion taking less than four years is below 10%; in the first
year of this policy the national average shot up to 39%. The ESRC feels vindicated in its
toughness, and will progressively raise the threshold to 40% in two years. Unless
completion rates improve further, this would exclude 55 out of 73 universities and
polytechnics—including Oxford University, the London School of Economics and the London
Business School.

    Predictably, howls of protest have come from the universities, who view the blacklisting
of whole institutions as arbitrary and negative. They point out that many of the best
students go quickly into jobs where they can apply their research skills, but consequently
take longer to finish their theses. Polytechnics with as few as two PhD candidates
complain that they are penalized by random fluctuations in student performance. The
colleges say there is no hard evidence to prove that faster completion rates result from
greater efficiency rather than lower standards or less ambitious doctoral topics.

    The ESRC thinks it might not be a bad thing if PhD students were more modest in their
aims. It would prefer to see more systematic teaching of research skills and fewer
unrealistic expectations placed on young men and women who are undertaking their first piece
of serious research. So in future its grants will be given only where it is convinced that
students are being trained as researchers, rather than carrying out purely knowledge-based
studies.

    The ESRC cannot dictate the standard of thesis required by external examiners, or force
departments to give graduates more teaching time. The most it can do is to try to persuade
universities to change their ways. Recalcitrant professors should note that students want
more research training and a less elaborate style of thesis, too.

26. By the time new doctors get a job and try to finish their theses in spare time, ______.
    A. most of them died of some sickness
    B. their holidays and evenings have been ruined by their jobs
    C. most of them are completely tired of the narrowly defined subject
    D. most of their grants run out

27. Oxford University would be excluded out of those universities that receive PhD grants
from ESRC, because the completion rate of its PhD students' theses within four years is
lower than ______.
    A. 25%                 B. 40%                 C. 39%                 D. 10%

28. All the following statements are the arguments against ESRC's policy except ______.
    A. all the institutions on the blacklist are arbitrary and negative
    B. there is no hard evidence to prove that faster completion rates result from greater
       efficiency rather than lower standards or less ambitious doctoral topics
    C. many of the best students go quickly into jobs where they can apply their research
       skills, but consequently take longer to finish their theses
    D. some polytechnics are penalized by random fluctuations in student performance

29. The ESRC would prefer ______.
    A. that the students were carrying out purely knowledge-based studies rather than
       being trained as researchers
    B. to see higher standards of PhD students' theses and more ambitious doctoral topics
    C. more systematic teaching of research skills to fewer unrealistic expectations placed
       on inexperienced young PhD students
    D. that PhD students were less modest in their aims

30. What the ESRC can do is to ______.
    A. force departments to give graduates more teaching time
    B. try to persuade universities to change their ways
    C. dictate the standard of thesis required by external examiners
    D. note that students want more research training and less elaborate style of thesis


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Part II Translation (40%)
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A. Translate the following paragraphs into Chinese.
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1.

    The English, in fact, are strongly gifted with the rural feeling. They possess a quick
sensibility to the beauties of nature, and a keen relish for the pleasures and employments
of the country. This passion seems inherent in them. Even the inhabitants of cities, born
and brought up among brick walls and bustling streets, enter with facility into rural habits,
and evince a tact for rural occupation. The merchant has his snug retreat in the vicinity
of metropolis, where he often displays as much pride and zeal in the cultivation of his
flower garden, and the maturing of his fruits, as he does in the conduct of his business,
and the success of a commercial enterprise. Even those less fortunate individuals who
doomed to pass their lives in the midst of din and traffic, contrive to have something that
shall remind them of the green aspect of nature.

2.

    Classical science will have to thrive in order for the third culture to thrive, since
technology is so derivative of the scientific process. The question I would like to posit is:
If the culture of technology should dominate our era, how do we pay attention to science?
For although science may feed technology, technology is steadily changing how we do
science, how we think of science, and what it means to be a scientist. It is self-evident
that the culture of science, so long in the shadow of the culture of art, has another
orientation to contend with, one grown from its own rib.


B. Translate the following into English.
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    硅谷犹如一块磁铁,把许多天资聪明的工程师、科学家、企业家从世界各地聚集到
这里投身于技术革命的大潮。其影响于人类必将远远超过具有划时代意义的欧洲文化复兴和
工业革命。

    许多国家已经或正在着手建设自己的"硅谷",但至今似无一威胁到美国硅谷的领
先地位。美国硅谷与众不同的秘诀何在?

    首先,硅谷有着世界最大最密集的优秀计算机专家群体、最佳的后援服务体系、与之紧
密联系着的斯坦福大学等世界一流的研究机构,而后者正源源不断地培养科学技术赖以发展
的明日天才。若缺少这些有利条件,硅谷的面貌便会大不一样。


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Part III Writing (15%)
================================================================================

Directions: Read the following passage carefully and then write a summary of it in about
250 words.

    In the early 20th century Henry Ford combined moving assembly lines with mass labour
to make building cars much cheaper and quicker—thus turning the automobile from a rich
man's toy into transport for the masses. Today a growing group of entrepreneurs is
striving to do the same to services, bringing together computer power with freelance
workers to supply luxuries that were once reserved for the wealthy.

    Yet this on-demand economy goes much wider than the occasional luxury. Click on
Medicast's app, and a doctor will be knocking on your door within two hours. Want a
lawyer or a consultant? Axiom will supply the former, Eden McCallum the latter.

    The on-demand economy is small, but it is growing quickly. Uber, founded in San
Francisco in 2009, now operates in 53 countries, had sales exceeding $1 billion in 2014
and a valuation of $40 billion. Like the moving assembly line, the idea of connecting
people with freelancers to solve their problems sounds simple. But, like mass production,
it has profound implications for everything from the organization of work to the nature
of the social contract in a capitalist society.

    Some of the forces behind the on-demand economy have been around for decades. Ever
since the 1970s the economy that Henry Ford helped create, with big firms and big trade
unions, has withered. Manufacturing jobs have been automated out of existence or
outsourced abroad, while big companies have abandoned lifetime employment. Some 53m
American workers already work as freelances.

    But two powerful forces are speeding this up and pushing it into ever more parts of
the economy. The first is technology. Cheap computing power means a lone thespian with an
Apple Mac can create videos that rival those of Hollywood studios. Complex tasks, such as
programming a computer or writing a legal brief, can now be divided into their
component parts—and subcontracted to specialists around the world. The on-demand economy
allows society to tap into its under-used resources, thus Uber gets people to rent their
own cars, and InnoCentive lets them rent their spare brain capacity.

    The other great force is changing social habits. Karl Marx said that the world would
be divided into people who owned the means of production and people who worked for them.
In fact it is increasingly being divided between people who have money but no time and
people who have time but no money. The on-demand economy provides a way for these two
groups to trade with each other.

    This will push service companies to follow manufacturers and focus on their core
competencies. The "transaction cost" of using an outsider to fix something is falling.
Rather than controlling fixed resources, on-demand companies are middlemen, arranging
connections and overseeing quality. They don't employ full-time lawyers and accountant with
guaranteed pay and benefits. Uber drivers get paid only when they work and are
responsible for their own pensions and health care. Risks borne by companies are being
pushed back on to individuals and that has consequences for everybody.

    The on-demand economy is already provoking political debate, with Uber at the centre
of much of it. Many cities, states and countries have banned the ride-sharing company on
safety or regulatory grounds. Taxi drivers have staged protests against it. Uber drivers
have gone on strike, demanding better benefits. Techno-optimists dismiss all this as
teething trouble: the on-demand economy gives consumers greater choice, they argue,
while letting people work whenever they want. Society gains because idle resources are put
to use. Most of Uber's cars would otherwise be parked in the garage.

    The truth is more nuanced. Consumers are clear winners; so are Western workers who
value flexibility over security, such as women who want to combine work with child-rearing.
Taxpayers stand to gain if on-demand labour is used to improve efficiency in the provision
of public services. But workers who value security over flexibility, including a lot of
middle-aged lawyers, doctors and taxi drivers, feel justifiably threatened. And the
on-demand economy certainly produces unfunded pensions; taxpayers will also end up supporting
many contract workers who have never built up pensions.

    This sense of nuance should inform policymaking. Governments that outlaw on-demand
firms are simply handicapping the rest of their economies. But that does not mean they
should sit on their hands. The ways governments measure employment and wages will have to
change. Many European tax systems treat freelances as second-class citizens, while
American states have different rules for "contract workers" that could be tidied up. Too
much of the welfare state is delivered through employers, especially pensions and health
care; both should be tied to the individual and made portable, one area where Obamacare
was a big step forward.

    But even if governments adjust their policies to a more individualistic age, the
on-demand economy clearly imposes more risk on individuals. People will have to master
multiple skills if they are to survive in such a world and keep those skills up to date.
Professional sorts in big service firms will have to take more responsibility for educating
themselves. People will also have to learn how to sell themselves, through personal
networking and social media or, if they are really ambitious, turning themselves into
brands. In a more fluid world, everybody will need to learn how to manage You Inc.

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