当研究的重点被置于科学、教育或者其他领域中时，最重要的问题就是要考虑如果研究获得成功会有多少人的生活得以改善。

I agree insofar as areas of research certain to result in immediate and significant benefits for society should continue to be a priority. Yet, strictly followed, the speaker’s recommendation would have a harmful chilling effect on research and new knowledge.

1. Admittedly, scientific research whose societal benefits are immediate, predictable, and profound should continue to be a high priority.

2. However, this is not to say that research whose benefits are less immediate or clear should be given lower priority. First of all, if we strictly follow the speaker’s suggestion, who would decide which areas of research are more worthwhile than others? Researchers cannot be left to decide.

3. Secondly, to compel all researchers to focus only on certain areas would be to force many to waste their true talents.

4. Thirdly, it is difficult to predict which research avenues will ultimately lead to the greatest contributions to society.

技术进步之改善人民生活

方便食品、即时通讯、更快捷的交通----所有这些最新的发展都是为了节省时间。具有讽刺意味的是，这样的发展并没有带来更过的休闲时间，反而使人们的生活节奏前所未有的匆忙和混乱。

While I agree that leisure time is declining as a result of efficiencies which technology has brought about, whether the irony to which the speaker refers is real or imagined depends on what one considers to be the chief aim of technology.

1. Few would disagree that technology has enhanced the speed and efficiency with which we travel, prepare our food, plan and coordinate projects, and communicate with one another.

2. What explains the irony—this decline in leisure despite increase in efficiency that new technologies have brought about? I agree that technology itself is the culprit. We use the additional free time that technology affords us not for leisure but rather for work.

3. Yet there are far more vital concerns which technology seeks to address; therefore, the above-mentioned irony does not seem so ironic after all.

技术进步之生活节奏