2017考研英语拓展阅读：奥巴马两个多月后将卸任

　　考研英语阅读能力提升需要不断地积累练习，通过阅读来积累词汇量，提升阅读速度和理解能力。冲刺阶段，阅读力度要加大，新东方在线持续分享一些有关政治、经济、文化、生活、体育、科技等方面的文章，大家要多多拓展。下面一篇文章是关于奥巴马两个多月后将卸任。

　　2017考研英语拓展阅读：奥巴马两个多月后将卸任

　　Washington, Oct 26 – Staring intently at the dual screens inside a flight simulator this month at the University of Pittsburgh, President Barack Obama tapped the controls in front of him, firing faux thrusters as he pretended to manoeuvre his space shuttle toward the International Space Station. Pulse up. Pulse to the right. Left. Down. Down. Left. Left.

　　华盛顿 10月26日电——本月，在美国匹兹堡大学的一个飞行模拟器里，总统奥巴马专注的盯着两块屏幕，操作着面前的控制装置，启动着模拟推进器。他是在假装驾驶着自己的航天飞机飞向国际空间站。逐渐向上。向右渐转。左。下。下。左。左。

　　“Uber shuttle,” the beaming president told reporters after a brief but successful docking mission, joking that the next market for Uber would be outer space. “In case anyone calls, we’ll be there in five minutes.”

　　在结束了短暂而成功的任务对接后，满脸笑容的奥巴马对记者说，“优步飞机”。并开玩笑称优步的下一个市场是外太空，“万一有人约飞机，我们可以在五分钟内赶到。”

　　For nearly eight years, the presidency has been Obama’s science and technology playground, a place where he sought to become the advocate in chief for industries pushing advanced batteries, powerful medical devices and cutting-edge research.

　　在近八年的任期内，总统职位成了奥巴马的科技游乐场。在这个职位上，他试图成为推行先进的电池、强大的医疗设备和前沿研究的首席倡导者。

　　“I’m a nerd, and I don’t make any apologies for it,” Obama said after his faux shuttle flight. He added: “It’s cool stuff. And it is that thing that sets us apart, that ability to imagine and hypothesise, and then test and figure stuff out, and tinker and make things and make them better, and then break them down and rework them.”

　　在模拟飞行任务结束后，奥巴马说，“我是个书呆子，对此我没有丝毫的歉意。”他补充道，“这是件很酷的事。正是这件事——这种想象和假设的能力，接着去试验并弄明白，不断修改、发明、创造，逐步改善，再把它们拆散重做——正是这些让我们与众不同。”

　　With less than three months left in his presidency, Obama is preparing for a life after the White House that will most likely include a close relationship with Silicon Valley. Officials running Obama’s presidential foundation have made about 10 trips to tech strongholds in California in the past year as they help him plot his next steps.

　　总统任期只剩下不到三个月，奥巴马正在为离开白宫后的生活做准备。卸任后的生活极有可能涉及到他与硅谷的亲密关系。过去一年里，奥巴马的总统基金会的负责人前往加利福尼亚州的科技要塞大约十次，帮他部署接下来的相关事项。

　　“I wouldn’t be surprised if that was one of the key focus areas for him post-presidency,” said Steve Case, a co-founder of AOL.

　　美国在线联合创始人史蒂夫说，“如果那是他卸任后的重点关注领域之一，我并不惊讶。”

　　The path from the Obama White House to the tech giants — many of them major political donors to Obama — is already well worn.

　　从奥巴马领导的白宫到科技巨头(其中很多都是奥巴马重要的政治捐助者)已经是一条老路了。

　　David Plouffe, the architect of Obama’s 2008 campaign, is at Uber. Jay Carney, his one-time press secretary, is at Amazon. Dan Pfeiffer, the former communications guru, is at GoFundMe. Lisa Jackson, who once led Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency, is a senior executive at Apple. Last year, Chris Lehane, an alumnus of Bill Clinton’s White House, took a job at Airbnb, which offers short-term home rentals.

　　奥巴马2008年竞选活动的设计师戴维.普洛夫目前就职于优步。曾担任奥巴马的新闻发言人的杰伊.卡尼在亚马逊任职，前通讯联络主任丹.法伊弗在GOFUNDME工作。曾担任奥巴马的环境保护局局长的莉萨.杰克逊现在是苹果的高管。去年，曾在比尔.克林顿时期的白宫任职的克里斯.勒汉入职了提供短期房屋租赁服务的爱本卜。

　　“This place is becoming an assisted living facility for political vets,” said Matt McKenna, a former spokesman for Clinton who decamped last year to Uber and now runs a boutique public relations firm in the centre of the tech world.

　　“这个地方正在成为资深政界人士的辅助生活设施。”曾任比尔.克林顿发言人的马特.麦克纳说。他去年加入优步，如今在这个科技世界中心管理着一家高端公关公司。

　　Suspicions that Obama harbours some dreams of joining them — at least in some capacity — were given new life during the past several weeks. The president’s flight-simulator moment in Pittsburgh capped a recent flurry of White House activity highlighting American technology.

　　有关奥巴马正梦想——至少以某种身份——加入那里的猜测，最近几周再次受到热议。总统在匹兹堡大学使用飞行模拟器的举动，成为白宫最近一系列突显美国科技的活动的高潮。

　　In the course of just one week this month, Obama promoted new frontiers in space on CNN.com, writing that government and industry should collaborate to send a manned mission to Mars by 2030. He guest-edited an issue of Wired magazine, challenging Silicon Valley to tackle inequality and civic participation. And, with the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, he hosted the White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh.

　　本月，在短短一周的时间里，奥巴马在CNN上宣传新的太空领域，撰文称政府和企业应该携手，在2030年前实现载人火星任务。他为一期《连线》杂志担任客座编辑，激励硅谷解决不平等和公民参与问题。此外，他还和匹兹堡大学及卡耐基.梅隆大学在匹兹堡共同主办了白宫前沿会议。

　　“I would be surprised if he did not spend a significant amount of his post-presidency time and effort connecting the resources and ideas and capabilities that he has learnt about in Silicon Valley with the kinds of causes that he will choose,” said Reid Hoffman, the executive chairman and co-founder of LinkedIn and a top political donor to Obama.

　　领英执行主席兼联合创始人、奥巴马最重要的政治捐赠者之一雷德.霍夫曼说，“如果他卸任后不花大量时间和精力把他在硅谷了解到的资源、想法和能力同他将要选择的事业结合起来，我倒是会感到惊讶。”

　　White House aides declined to comment on the president’s plans for Jan. 21 and beyond. But Phil Larson, who was one of Obama’s advisers at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, called him “a true geek president.”

　　奥巴马在白宫的助手拒绝透露总统1月21日及以后的安排。但曾在科技政策办公室为奥巴马担任顾问的菲尔.拉森称，奥巴马是“一个真正的极客总统”。

　　Larson, who is now at SpaceX, the rocket company founded by the billionaire Elon Musk, said Obama “loves sitting back and having scientists say magical things about the future.”

　　拉森现就职于亿万富翁埃隆.马斯克创办的火箭公司SpaceX，他表示，奥巴马“喜欢闲坐着，听科学家讲述未来的神奇事物。”

【英语阅读资料】这里有↑↑↑