大城市,拼搏者的天下?_BEC初级作文

大城市,拼搏者的天下?

It may be the defining London sight: people walking up escalators at Tube stations. In this city only tourists stand goggling blankly into space. That's because London — like Manhattan, Hong Kong and other great cities — has fallen into the hands of strivers. They are driving everyone else out of town.

这也许算是伦敦的标志性景象：人们沿着地铁站的自动扶梯向上爬。在这个城市，只有游客才会傻站着发呆。这是因为伦敦和曼哈顿、香港以及其他大城市一样，已经成为拼搏者的天下。他们正把所有其他人赶出城中心。

Philosophers and pop psychologists spent centuries trying to explain humankind, but only in 1996 did the South African novelist Jo-Anne Richards and I finally identify the three basic human types: strivers, slackers and fantasists.

哲学家和大众心理学家花费了数百年时间，试图理解人类，但直到1996年，南非小说家约-安妮•理查兹(Jo-Anne Richards)和我才终于确定，人类有三种基本类型：拼搏者、游手好闲者和幻想者。

Strivers are restless overachievers who walk up escalators. Their habitats include the City of London and Davos. Almost all political leaders are strivers, except ones who inherited their position, such as George W. Bush. As Richards explains in a now-dead book proposal: "Strivers start companies, build skyscrapers and finish marathons. But not all strivers rule the world. They also make the trains run on time, and organise charities." A working-class female striver might become a head nurse. If the job market sidelines women altogether, she will strive vicariously, through her children. "Strivers," writes Richards, "have the energy and discipline to make other people's dreams come true." Strivers make every minute count, and devote their leisure-time to self-improvement. Their drugs of choice are accelerators: coffee and cocaine.