来源：《基督科学箴言报》
原文刊登日期：2021年5月4日
本文适合英语二考生
After a year of staying at home during the pandemic, more than half of Americans have picked up a new creative pastime, according to one survey. More than half say they are working more collaboratively from home than in the workplace. Another survey shows a boom in patents for new technologies to assist at-home work. And unlike previous recessions, the United States has seen more than 4.4 million new businesses created over the past year.
一项调查显示，疫情期间在家呆了一年之后，超过一半的美国人开始了一项新的创造性消遣。超过一半的人表示，他们在家工作比在办公室更能协作。另一项调查显示，辅助在家工作的新技术专利数量激增。与以往的经济衰退不同，美国在过去的一年里新增了440多万家企业。
In Europe, meanwhile, a survey of managers and employees found 82% say their productivity rate held steady or increased after learning to work remotely. A majority said remote work is a powerful way to retain top talent. In both Europe and the U.S., productivity is expected to increase 1.5% a year until 2024 – or double the pre-pandemic rate, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.
与此同时，在欧洲，一项针对经理和员工的调查发现，82%的人表示，在学会远程工作后，他们的生产率保持稳定或有所提高。大多数人表示，远程工作是留住顶尖人才的有力途径。麦肯锡全球研究所的数据显示，到2024年，欧洲和美国的生产率预计将以每年1.5%的速度增长，是疫情前的两倍。
All this was not expected a year ago. The great disruption of COVID-19 has led to a great burst of creativity or, at the least, a search for ways to foster and manage creativity.
所有这一切在一年前都没有预料到。新冠病毒的巨大破坏导致了创造力的大爆发，或者至少是对培养和管理创造力的方法的探索。
According to the World Economic Forum, the pace of change in industries will require more than half of employees to acquire new skills by 2025. And what skills are most needed? They are creativity, active learning, innovative thinking, and originality. The shifts caused by the pandemic “have accelerated the need for reskilling, upskilling and learning,” according to the WEF.
根据世界经济论坛的数据，到2025年，产业界的变化速度将要求超过一半的员工掌握新技能。哪些技能是最需要的？它们是创造力、主动学习、创新思维和原创性。世界经济论坛称，疫情造成的转变“扩大了对再培训、提高技能和学习的需求”。
“We have learned skills that we didn’t have,” said Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, at a recent Aspen Security Forum. “We have experienced remote working relationships, we have not lost much in terms of productivity, quite, sometimes, to the contrary.”
欧洲央行行长克里斯蒂娜•拉加德最近在阿斯彭安全论坛上表示:“我们学会了以前没有的技能，我们体验了远程工作关系，在生产率方面我们并没有损失太多，有时甚至有所提高。”
One change is most noticeable, according to Jon Friedman, Microsoft’s vice president for design and research: Companies no longer define productivity as how much a worker produces in a period of time. Rather, workers are judged for creativity and innovation. By that standard, many of the limits once set for work and for workers are coming off.
微软负责设计和研究的副总裁乔恩·弗里德曼表示，一个最引人注目的变化是：公司不再把生产力定义为员工在一段时间内的生产能力。相反，评判员工的标准是创造力和创新能力。按照这一标准，许多曾经为工作和工人设定的限制正在解除。
As poet Maya Angelou said, “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” For all the finite restrictions imposed by the pandemic, people have chosen to tap into an infinitely renewable resource.
正如诗人玛雅·安杰洛所说:“你无法耗尽创造力，你用的越多，你拥有的就越多。”尽管大流行带来了有限的限制，但人们选择了开发无限的创造了这一可再生资源。