首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
(1) It is easy to forget that even the most trivial commercial transactions rely on small acts of trust. Laws encourage good beh
(1) It is easy to forget that even the most trivial commercial transactions rely on small acts of trust. Laws encourage good beh
admin
2018-05-14
26
问题
(1) It is easy to forget that even the most trivial commercial transactions rely on small acts of trust. Laws encourage good behaviour, but states lack the resources to force everyone to be good all the time. Trust keeps society running. Just ordering a pizza requires faith that the dough will be well made, that the pizzeria will not abuse the customer’s credit-card information, and that the delivery man will not abscond with the cargo. More complex partnerships, of the sort that make long-run economic growth possible, require much higher degrees of trust. New technologies, from sharing-economy apps to the blockchain, offer routes around some of the trust deficits that stand in the way of growth. Yet whether such solutions to problems of mistrust build on or undermine social ties is no easy question to answer.
(2) Trust in society is not just a nicety. It makes possible, as one paper on the subject has it, "the commitment of resources to an activity where the outcome depends upon the co-operative behaviour of others". Low-trust societies waste piles of time and money working out who can be counted on, defending vulnerable stores of wealth, and guarding against con men. Such places are infertile ground for long-run investment, the gains from which could be grabbed by rivals or stolen by government. Meanwhile trust is highest, and defences against chicanery lowest, within some of world’s wealthiest countries. Studies of the relationship between measures of trust and economic growth find a close link between the two. That does not necessarily mean one causes the other. But research also suggests that trust boosts trade, participation in financial markets and investment, suggesting that greater trust spurs the activities that make a place richer.
(3) Sadly, cultivating trust is hard. It is a sort of social capital which must be built through time and effort. Repeated positive interactions and demonstrations of trustworthiness create a foundation of mutual confidence. Within close communities, emotional cues like praise and shame effectively discourage antisocial activity. In environments rich in social capital, the return for co-operative behaviour is high; you can make more money playing by the rules and building a business, for instance, than by reneging on a contract at the first opportunity. In the same way, trustworthiness is rarely rewarded in low-trust societies; both high-trust and low-trust states of the world are sticky.
(4) Inventive humans are good at finding ways around trust bottlenecks. Reliance on families or tribes— groups whose members’ interests are more closely aligned, presumably, than those of the population as a whole—is a common strategy. Yet by their nature, such workarounds are limited in scope, and leave many members of society isolated. New technologies offer a more promising approach. A company’s ability to use the Internet to monitor production in a factory half a world away means that firms need not establish deep relationships with foreign suppliers before opening a distant plant. Network connections between retailers and banks can help verify a customer’s ability to pay; the blockchain, a shared, public and trusted digital of transactions, eliminates the need for a central counterparty altogether.
(5) Historically, however, technology has done more to open up society than to segregate it. New technologies make it easier to trust unfamiliar groups. Public ratings, for instance, can undercut discrimination. Taxi drivers who might normally speed past members of a different race may feel more comfortable picking up a diverse set of riders given good ratings on Uber. A survey conducted by BlaBlaCar, a popular ridesharing service, found that 88% of its members reported a high level of trust in fellow users—higher than that reported for colleagues or neighbours. In a study in America, Alberto Alesina, of Harvard University, and Eliana La Ferrara, of Bocconi University in Milan, found that places with higher levels of racial and income diversity have lower levels of trust. By arranging interactions across such boundaries, technology may widen the circle of trust.
(6) Apps often encourage good behaviour as well. Public ratings, like the ones that Uber presents for its drivers or that Yelp collects for businesses, mean that good customer service is increasingly important in capturing new business. Firms and customers that behave badly risk a permanent stain on their reputation.
(7) It is one thing to use Airbnb to rent a spare room from someone of a different background, and quite another to build the deep social bonds needed to support long-run investments. For big commitments, people will not suddenly let down their guard, however impressive technology becomes. Yet trust is a habit. New technologies that encourage co-operation in some spheres of life contribute to social capital rather than weaken it.
In Para. 3, the word "reneging" probably means______.
选项
A、eating one’s word
B、making amendment
C、lying to somebody
D、jumping to conclusion
答案
A
解析
语义题。reneging出现在原文第三段倒数第二句,其前半句意思是,做生意遵守规则可以带来更多的收益,与后半句形成对比,句义相反,因此可以猜测reneging的意思应该与playing by the rules相反,故[A]“食言”,即违反规则为答案。[B]“做出修改”、[D]“过早下结论”都与文意不符,故排除;[C]“对某人说谎”,文中reneging与contract连用,其对象并不是人,故排除。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/LyxK777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
(1)ThegovernmentandMicrosoftplantosellaroundtheworldBritain’snewsystemforonlinetransactionsbetweencitizensand
(1)ThegovernmentandMicrosoftplantosellaroundtheworldBritain’snewsystemforonlinetransactionsbetweencitizensand
(1)SpanningtheoceandividebetweentheU.S.andRussia,itisoneoftherichestandmostcommerciallyproductivemarineenvir
(1)For12dayseveryspring,theinhabitantsofErlangen,auniversitytownnearNuremberg,forgettheirdailyroutinesanddevo
(1)For12dayseveryspring,theinhabitantsofErlangen,auniversitytownnearNuremberg,forgettheirdailyroutinesanddevo
Inanefforttosustaincommercialandrecreationalfishingforthenextseveraldecades,theUnitedStatesthisyearwillbecom
Whenitcomestotheendofthemeeting,don’tforgettomakeaconclusion,_______?
A、Strange.B、Dangerous.C、Harmless.D、Unforgettable.A在对话中,女士说当时她手里拿着提包,里面有手机和钱包,但那个人只抢了她左脚的鞋子,因此她觉得这件事很奇怪(Bizarre)。由此可见,A项Stran
随机试题
England’sbinge-drinkinghabitisoneofthemostentrenchedinEurope—evenRomaninvaderswroteaboutitwithhorror.Manyfear
企业与政府的电子商务模式包括()。
中国当代的美学理论以_________为哲学基础。
男,5岁,反复发作性意识丧失伴全身节律性抽动2年,每次发作持续3~4分钟,每1~2周发作一次,查体无异常。最有意义的检查是
男性,25岁,发现高血压半年,因头痛,心悸,气急,多汗伴烦躁来院急诊,诊断为高血压危象。急诊处理后,血压降至16.9/11kPa(121/82.5mmHg),嘱患者应
以下属于项目经理权限的是()。
纳税义务人向海关缴纳税款的方式主要有:进出口地纳税、属地纳税、进口后纳税。
现在时间为4点分,此时时针与分针成什么角度?()
列宁说:“以为只有诗人才需要想象,这是没有道理的,这是愚蠢的偏见!甚至在数学上也需要想象,甚至微积分的发现没有想象也是不可能的。”这段话肯定了非理性因素在认识发展中的作用。其作用具体表现为
A、Ithasnothingtodowiththeman’spresentation.B、Itfocusesonyoungmenandmobilephones.C、Itshowshowimportantmobile
最新回复
(
0
)