每周阅读 第一周

可忻

The "standard of living" of any country means the average person's share of the goods and services which the country produces. A country's standard of living,therefore, depends first and foremost on its capacity to produce wealth. "Wealth" in this sense is not money, for we do not live on money but on things that money can buy: "goods" such as food and clothing,and "services" such as transport and entertainment.A country's capacity to produce wealth depends upon many factors, most of which have an effect on one another.

Wealth depends to a great extent upon a country's natural resources, such as coal,gold, and other minerals, water supply and so on. Some regions of the world are well supplied with coal and minerals, and havea fertile soil and a favorable climate; other regions possess perhaps only one of these things, and some regions possess none of them. The U. S. A is one of the wealthiest regions of the world because she has vast natural resources within herborders, her soil is fertile, and her climate is varied. The Sahara Desert, on the other hand, is one of the least wealthy.

Next to natural resources comes the ability to turn them to use. China is perhaps as well off as the U. S. A. in natural resources, but suffered for many years from civil and external wars, and for this and other reasons was unable to develop her resources. Sound and stable political conditions, and freedom from foreign invasion, enable a country to develop its natural resources peacefully and steadily, and to produce more wealth than another country equally well served by nature but less well ordered. Another important factor is the technical efficiency of a country's people. Old countries that have, through many centuries, trained up numerous skilled craftsmen and technicians are better placed to produce wealth than countries whose workers are largely unskilled. Wealth also produces wealth. As a country becomes wealthier,its people have a large margin for saving,and can put their savings into factories and machines which will help workers toturn out more goods in their working day.

一个国家的“生活水平”是指该国生产的商品和服务的人均份额。因此，一个国家的生活水平首先取决于其创造财富的能力。”“财富”在这个意义上不是钱，因为我们不是靠钱生活，而是靠钱能买到的东西生活：“货物”如食物和衣服，以及“服务”如交通和娱乐。一个国家创造财富的能力取决于许多因素，其中大多数因素是相互影响的。

财富在很大程度上取决于一个国家的自然资源，如煤炭、黄金和其他矿物、水资源等。世界上有些地区煤炭和矿物供应充足，土壤肥沃，气候宜人；有些地区也许只有这些东西中的一种，有些地区没有。美国是世界上最富裕的地区之一，因为它拥有丰富的自然资源，土壤肥沃，气候多变。另一方面，撒哈拉沙漠是最不富裕的地区之一。

仅次于自然资源的是将其转化为可利用资源的能力。在自然资源方面，中国也许和美国一样富裕，但多年来饱受内战和外部战争之苦，因此无法开发自己的资源。良好和稳定的政治条件，以及免受外国入侵的自由，使一个国家能够和平和稳定地开发其自然资源，并产生比另一个自然条件同样良好但秩序较差的国家更多的财富。另一个重要因素是一个国家人民的技术效率。几个世纪以来，那些培养了大量熟练工匠和技术人员的古老国家，比那些工人基本上不熟练的国家更适合创造财富。财富也会产生财富。当一个国家变得更富裕时，它的人民有很大的储蓄空间，可以把他们的储蓄投入工厂和机器，帮助工人在工作日生产更多的商品。

standard of living
生活水平
goods and services
货物及劳务，商品和服务
first and foremost
首先;首要的是
have an effect on
对…有影响
natural resources
天然资源;自然资源
water supply
给水;供水;给水系统;供水系统