考研英语真题精读专栏正式回归！

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2013 Text 1

In the 2006 film version of The Devil Wears Prada ,Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Strep, scolds her unattractive assistant for imagining that high fashion doesn’t affect her. Priestly explains how the deep blue color of the assistant’s sweater descended over the years from fashion shows to departments stores and to the bargain bin in which the poor girl doubtless found her garment.

This top-down conception of the fashion business couldn’t be more out of date or at odds with the feverish world described in Overdressed, Eliazabeth Cline’s three-year indictment of “fast fashion”.In the last decade or so, advances in technology have allowed mass-market labels such as Zara ,H&M, and Uniqlo to react to trends more quickly and anticipate demand more precisely. Quicker turnarounds mean less wasted inventory, more frequent release, and more profit. These labels encourage style-conscious consumers to see clothes as disposable-meant to last only a wash or two, although they don’t advertise that –and to renew their wardrobe every few weeks. By offering on-trend items at dirt-cheap prices, Cline argues, these brands have hijacked fashion cycles,shaking an industry long accustomed to a seasonal pace.

📒语篇分析： 首段引入话题。 ① 句以经典电影《穿普拉达的女魔头》的情节引入话题。 ② 句借Miranda 的解释，说明时尚自上而下的趋势。

• scold sb for sth 表示“训斥，责骂” (to speak angrily to sb, especially a child, because they have done sth wrong) ，比如 ◇Her father scolded her for upsetting her mother. 父亲斥责她惹母亲生气。近义表达还有 reprimand , rebuke , reproach , reprove ，这些词汇都是外刊高频词，学有余力的同学可以一起记忆。
• high fashion 指“最新款式”。
• descend [dɪˈsend] 本义是“下降”，短语 descend to sth 引申为“降低身份，堕落，沦落” (If you say that someone descends to behaviour which you consider unacceptable, you are expressing your disapproval of the fact that they do it) ，比如 ◇She's got too much dignity to descend to writing anonymous letters. 她是个自尊心很强的人，绝不会自贬身份去写匿名信。

• descendant [dɪˈsendənt] 表示“后裔；后代；子孙” (someone who is related to a person who lived a long time ago, or to a family, group of people etc that existed in the past )， 反义词为 ancestor 。

• departments stores 指“百货商场”。
• barg ain bin 表示“折扣商品区，打折区” (a container in a shop, with things in it that you can buy at a reduced price) 。

• bin 还可表示“垃圾箱”，比如《经济学人》一篇关于垃圾分类的文章有这样一句话： Residents must divide their waste into four separate categories and toss it into specific public bins. 上海居民必须将垃圾分为四类并扔进特定的公共垃圾桶。

• garment [ˈgɑːmənt] 指“衣服” (a piece of clothing) ，比如《经济学人》一篇关于快时尚行业的文章有这样一句话： Style is supposedly for ever. But the garments needed to conjure up eternal chic are spending less time on shop racks and in homes than ever before. 人们认为风格一般是永恒。但是打造永恒风格所需的服装在货架和人们家中停留的时间都比以往都更短了。

📒 语篇分析： 第二段阐述快时尚兴起的原因及其本质。 ① 句引入书籍Overdressed. ② ③ ④ 句快时尚兴起的原因： 科技发展（ ② 句），快速周转（ ③ 句），大众品牌的鼓励（ ④ 句）。 ⑤ 句点明快时尚的本质并说明其负面影响。

• conception 指“构思；构想” (the process of forming an idea or a plan) ，还可表示“怀孕，受孕”。
• out of date 表示“过时的，陈旧的” (Something that is out of date is old-fashioned and no longer useful) 。近义表达还有 out of style , out of fashion 。
  
• at odds with sth 表示“与…有差异，有矛盾” (to be different from sth, when the ten things should be the same) ，这也是一个外刊高频短语，比如 ◇These findings are at odds with what is going on in the rest of the country. 这些研究结果与国内其他地区的实际情况并不相符。

• odds 本义是“可能性，概率” (the degree to which sth is likely to happen) ，比如《经济学人》一篇关于美国商业的文章提到： A very profitable American firm has an 80% chance of being that way ten years later. In the 1990s the odds were only about 50%. 目前，一家获利非常丰厚的公司在十年后仍能一如既往的可能性为80%，而在上世纪90年代这种概率仅为50%左右。
• What are the odds? 是一个惯用句型，字面义是“几率有多大？”，用于感叹“太巧了”。

• feverish [ˈfiː.vərɪʃ] 来自于名词fever，本义是“发烧的，发烧引起的”，引申为“激动的，焦虑不安的” (showing strong feelings of excitement or worry, often with a lot of activity or quick movements) 。
• indictment [ɪnˈdaɪtmənt] 表示“控诉，谴责” (the act of officially charging someone with a criminal offence) 。比如《经济学人》一篇关于中国知识产权的文章提到： IP is one of the main fronts in President Donald Trump’s trade war against China. It is also the crux of an indictment in America against Huawei, a Chinese tech giant. 知识产权是美国总统特朗普对华贸易战的主战场之一，也是美国对中国科技巨头华为提起诉讼的关键所在。
• or so 指“大约”，相当于 about, approximately ，是外刊和口语中高频使用的词汇，比如我们在精读社学过一篇关于亚马逊雨林的文章，文中提到： As the vast Amazonian store of carbon burned and rotted, the world could heat up by as much as 0.1°C by 2100—not a lot, you may think, but the preferred target of the Paris climate agreement allows further warming of only 0.5°C or so. 随着大量储存着碳的亚马逊雨林被焚烧和腐烂，到 2100 年，全球可能会升温 0.1°C 。你可能会觉得这并不是很多，但《巴黎协定》的首选目标只允许进一步升温 0.5°C 左右。
  
• advances in technology 表示“科技发展”，我们可以积累下来用在自己的作文里，与 technological advances/development 互换。
• mass-market labels 指"大众品牌"。
• precisely 义为“恰好，正是”，表示强调。我们在2012 Text1里也遇到过，回顾一下真题原句： Instead, the company has done precisely what it had long promised it would not challenge the constitutionality of Vermont’s rules in the federal court, as part of a desperate effort to keep its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant running. 2It’s a stunning move. 然而，Entergy公司恰恰做出了它过去一直承诺不会做的事情:在联邦法院质疑佛蒙特州核规则是否符合宪法。这是它为了使其佛蒙特扬基核电厂能够继续运营而作出的拼死努力的一部分。这真是惊人之举！
• turnaround 表示“周转时间” (the amount of time it takes to do a piece of work that you have been given and return it) 。
• inventory [ˈɪnvəntri] 为不可数名词，表示“库存” (all the goods in a shop) 。注意单词的重音。
• release 作名词可表示“新发行的东西”，比如 ◇the latest new releases 最新发行的产品

• release 作动词，基本含义是“释放，放走” (to let sb / sth come out of a place where they have been kept or trapped) ，可联系起来记忆。

• disposable 作形容词表示“一次性的” (made to be thrown away after use) ，比如我们在精读社学过一篇关于垃圾分类的文章，里面有这样一句话： The waste, meanwhile, just keeps piling up. China churns out 80bn pairs of disposable chopsticks a year. 同时垃圾却在不断堆积，中国每年仅一次性筷子的产量就高达 800 亿双。
• last 作动词表示“持续，维持” (to continue to exist, be effective, or remain in good condition for a long time) 。
• a … or two 表示“一两…”，比如一两天： a day or two ，一两周 a week or two 。
  

• dirt-cheap 相当于very cheap，表示“非常便宜的”。 dirt cheap 也可作副词，比如 ◇I got these shoes dirt cheap. 这双鞋我买得便宜极了。 考研英语2010 Text2中也出现过这个单词，可见研究真题是多么重要的事。原句是 ： We are even farther removed from the unfocused newspaper reviews published in England between the turn of the 20th century and the eve of World War II, at a time when newsprint was dirt-cheap and stylish arts criticism was considered an ornament to the publications in which it appeared. 我们 现在的报纸评论与从 20 世纪初到第二次世界大战前夕英国内容广泛的报纸评论大相径庭。当时的新闻用纸非常便宜，时尚高雅的艺术评论被当做是刊登它的出版物的装饰品。
• hijack 本义是“劫持”，引申为“控制，操纵” (to take control of something and use it for your own purposes) 。
• shape 本义是“形成，塑造”，引申为“决定…的形成；影响…的发展” (to have an important influence on the way that sb / sth develops) ，是外刊的高频词。
• long 作副词，表示“长期的，长久的” (for a long time) ，比如 ◇Metropolitan goliaths have long been melting-pots, within which those early on in their adult lives link up with jobs, friends and mates. 大都市始终是大熔炉，其中的年轻人通过工作、朋友、伴侣互相结识。
• on-trend 指“时尚的，流行的” (very fashionable) 。
• item 指“一件商品或物品” (a single article or object) 。
• be accustomed to sth 表示“习惯于做某事” (familiar with sth and accepting it as normal or usual) 。
• seasonal 表示“季节性的，随季节变化的” (happening or needed during a particular season; varying with the seasons) 。
• -conscious 表示“对…感兴趣的，对…关注的” (being particularly interested in sth) ，比如 ◇environmentally-conscious 有环保意识的 ◇health-conscious 有健康意识的