托福閱讀水平的提升需要我們在真題訓練的基礎上盡可能多地進行英文材料拓展閱讀，通過精讀積累可以用到自己托福寫作表達中的好詞好句，揣摩作者的西方寫作風格與思路，通過泛讀熟悉托福閱讀難度的文章，培養(yǎng)略讀能力。下面的這篇雙語閱讀素材Competition from China will only get fiercer. That calls for cool heads and wise policies難度接近托福閱讀，可以作為同學們備考托福閱讀的補充材料。

Global economy

Does China Play Fair?

Competition from China will only get fiercer. That calls for cool heads and wise policies

全球經濟

中國在公平競爭么?

來自中國的競爭只會更加激烈。對此需要冷靜的頭腦和明智的政策

IF DONALD TRUMP had slapped punitive tariffs on all Chinese exports to America, as he promised, he would have started a trade war. Fortunately, the president hesitated, partly because he wants China’s help in thwarting North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. But that is not the end of the story. Tensions over China’s industrial might now threaten the architecture of the global economy. America’s trade representative this week called China an “unprecedented” threat that cannot be tamed by existing trade rules. The European Union, worried by a spate of Chinese acquisitions, is drafting stricter rules on foreign investment. And, all the while, China’s strategy for modernising its economy is adding further strain. 如果特朗普像他承諾過的那樣，對中國出口到美國的所有商品征收懲罰性關稅，那么他就會挑起一場貿易戰(zhàn)。所幸這位總統(tǒng)猶豫了，部分原因是他需要中國的幫助來挫敗朝鮮的核野心。但故事并未到此結束。中國的產業(yè)實力引發(fā)的緊張局勢如今威脅到了全球經濟的結構。本周，美國貿易代表稱中國是“前所未有的”威脅，無法由現有的貿易規(guī)則制約。中國一連串的海外收購引發(fā)了歐盟的擔憂，它正在起草針對外國投資的更嚴格規(guī)定。與此同時，中國經濟現代化的戰(zhàn)略也在加劇這種緊張局勢。

At the heart of these tensions is one simple, overwhelming fact: firms around the world face ever more intense competition from their Chinese rivals. China is not the first country to industrialise, but none has ever made the leap so rapidly and on such a monumental scale. Little more than a decade ago Chinese boom towns churned out zips, socks and cigarette lighters. Today the country is at the global frontier of new technology in everything from mobile payments to driverless cars. 這些緊張局勢的核心是一個簡單而又無法辯駁的事實：世界各地的公司都面臨著來自中國對手的日益激烈的競爭。中國不是第一個工業(yè)化的國家，但從沒有哪一個國家曾如此迅速地實現了如此大規(guī)模的飛躍。僅僅十多年前，中國新興的城鎮(zhèn)還在大量生產拉鏈、襪子和打火機。如今，從移動支付到無人駕駛汽車，中國在方方面面都處于全球新技術的前沿。

Even as China’s achievements inspire awe, there is growing concern that the world will be dominated by an economy that does not play fair. Businesses feel threatened. Governments that have seen Brexit and the election of Mr Trump, worry about the effects of job losses and shrinking technological leadership. Yet if the outcome is to be good, they must all think clearly about the real nature of China’s challenge. 中國的成就令人敬畏，但同時人們也越來越擔心世界將被一個不公平行事的經濟體所主宰。各行各業(yè)感受到了威脅。已目睹了英國退歐和特朗普當選的各國政府則擔心職位流失和技術領先優(yōu)勢縮減的影響。不過，如果想要得到好的結果，它們都必須清楚地思考由中國帶來的挑戰(zhàn)的真正本質。

Go, in three dimensions

從三方面入手

Undoubtedly, China has form. It kept its currency cheap for years, boosting exporters; it finances its state-owned giants with cheap credit; and its cyber-spies steal secrets. Yet depictions of corporate China as just an undemocratic, state-run monster, thieving and cheating to get ahead, are crude and out of date. Home-grown innovation is flourishing. The innovators are mainly private, not the many heads of a single creature called China Inc. To separate hype from reality, think of Chinese competition as having three dimensions: illegal, intense and unfair. Each needs a different response. 毫無疑問，中國在不當競爭方面是有前科的。多年來它一直壓低匯率以提振出口;它為國有巨頭提供低息貸款;它的網絡間諜竊取機密。但如果還是把中國企業(yè)描述成不民主的國營怪物，靠剽竊和欺騙冒頭，就簡單粗暴且過時了。中國本土的創(chuàng)新正在蓬勃發(fā)展。創(chuàng)新的主體是私營企業(yè)，而不是一個叫“中國有限公司”的生物的諸多分身。為區(qū)分炒作和現實，可以從三個方面看待中國的競爭：非法、激烈、不公平。每一面需要不同的應對方式。

First, consider illegality. The best example is the blatant theft of intellectual property that makes for the most sensational headlines, such as the charges laid in 2014 against five Chinese military officers for hacking into American nuclear, solar and metals firms. The good news is such crimes are declining. An agreement with America in 2015 seemingly led to a marked drop in Chinese hacks of foreign companies and, as Chinese firms produce more of value, they are themselves demanding better intellectual-property protection at home. 首先來看非法。最好的例證就是中國明目張膽地竊取知識產權，一次次成為轟動的頭條新聞。比如2014年，五名中國軍官被指控入侵美國核電廠、太陽能企業(yè)和金屬公司的電腦網絡。好消息是此類犯罪正在減少。2015年與美國達成的一項協(xié)議似乎令中國對外國公司的黑客行為大幅減少，而且隨著中國企業(yè)創(chuàng)造的價值越來越高，它們自己也要求在國內獲得更好的知識產權保護。

The second dimension—intense but legal competition—is far more important. Chinese firms have proven that they can make good products for less. Consumer prices for televisions, adjusted for quality, fell by more than 90% in the 15 years after China joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO). China’s share of global exports has risen to 14%, the highest any country has reached since America in 1968. That may fall as China loses its grip on low-value industries such as textiles. But it is gaining a new reputation in high tech. If data are the new oil, China’s tech industry has vast reserves in the information generated by the hundreds of millions of its people online—unprotected by privacy rules. Whether you make cars in Germany, semiconductors in America or robots in Japan, the chances are that in future some of your fiercest rivals will be Chinese. 第二個方面——激烈但合法的競爭——要重要得多。中國的公司已經證明，它們能以更少的成本做出好產品。中國加入世界貿易組織(WTO)的15年里，按質量調整后，電視機的零售價格下降了90%以上。中國在全球出口中所占的份額已經上升到14%，這是自1968年的美國以來的最高水平。隨著中國失去對紡織等低附加值產業(yè)的控制，這一份額可能會下降。但它正在高科技領域贏得新的聲譽。如果說數據是新的石油，中國的科技行業(yè)就有巨大的“儲量”，這些信息由數億網民產生，且不受隱私條款的保護。無論你是在德國生產汽車，在美國生產半導體，還是在日本生產機器人，未來某些最強勁的競爭對手很可能會是中國人。

Last, and hardest to deal with, is unfair competition: sharp practice that breaks no global rules. The government demands that firms give away technology as the cost of admission to China’s vast market (see article). Foreign firms have been targeted in the biggest of China’s anti-monopoly cases. The government restricts access to lucrative sectors, while financing assaults on those same industries abroad. Such behaviour is dangerous precisely because today’s rules offer no redress.

Don’t get angry. Get even

Sorting Chinese competition into these categories helps calibrate the response. Blatant illegality is the most straightforward. Governments must prosecute and seek redress, whether through the courts or the WTO. Firms can better protect themselves against cyber-thieves—from China and elsewhere.

Though it is politically hard, the best response to intense competition is to welcome it. Consumers will gain from lower costs and faster innovation. Misguided attempts to hold back the tide would not only lose those potential gains but might also blow up the world trading system, with catastrophic results. Rather than try to stop the loss of jobs, governments should provide retraining and a decent safety net. Both companies and governments need to spend more on education and research. Six years ago Barack Obama said America faced a new “Sputnik moment” in China’s rise. Since then not much extra has been devoted to research, training and infrastructure.

The hardest category is competition that is unfair, but not illegal. One approach is to coax China into behaving better by acting collectively. America, Europe and big Asian countries could jointly publish information about economic harm from China’s policies—as they did by sharing details about overcapacity in the steel industry, nudging China into cutting its excesses. They should demand reciprocity, requiring China to give foreign companies the same access that its own firms enjoy in their markets. Governments need to review their policies for screening investments from China so that they can block genuine threats to national security (though only those). And they should also require that investors with state backing report this in full, and punish those hiding their true identity.

Much of the responsibility for putting this right falls on China. It may ask why it should hold itself back. After all, 19th-century Germany and America grew rich behind subsidies and tariff walls; Britain and Japan were bullies. Yet, having done so well out of the global commercial ecosystem, China should recognise that it has become one of its custodians. Abuse it—illegally or by overburdening it—and it will break.要糾正這些問題，主要責任還是在中國身上。它可能會問，為什么它應該保持克制。畢竟，19世紀的德國和美國就是靠補貼和關稅壁壘富裕起來，英國和日本從前也恃強凌弱。不過，既然中國從全球商業(yè)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)中獲益良多，它應該認識到自己已經成為這個系統(tǒng)的守護者之一。濫用這個系統(tǒng)——無論是違法或是讓它超負荷——都會讓它崩潰。