能夠讀懂文章既是學英語的目的之一，也是英語水平和能力的標誌之一。然而，很多高考學生並沒有靜下心來認真紮實地讀過幾篇文章，因此，儘管有一定的詞彙量和語法分析能力，但對於長難句、段落乃至篇章的閱讀理解卻仍然感到很困難，其原因在於他們所學的詞彙和語法主要的是就詞彙和語法學習而學習，並不是通過閱讀等語境化的學習獲得的，因而他們所擁有的詞彙和語法知識等是單一孤立地學來的而不是有關聯的通過應用學來的，因此，看不進去文章和讀不懂文章是很多考生的通病。那麼，我們需要做的就是大量閱讀，通過閱讀文章尋找生詞，挖掘難句，積累詞彙和句型，把文章作為語境，把閱讀當作應用，既可以在詞彙和句子層面上大有暫獲，又可以在篇章上取得長足進步。
以下是一篇關於5G網絡的評論文章，我們可以通過閱讀從中選取常用的有意義的詞彙和句型進行學習，同時通過解析難句和翻譯整篇文章進行反覆閱讀、反覆理解、反覆比較辨析英漢語言的異同，進而提高讀懂讀透文章的水平和能力。
一、原文
The 'race to 5G' is a myth
Telecommunications providers relentlessly extol the power of fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology. Government officials and policy advocates fret that the winner of the "5G race" will dominate the internet of the future, so they cannot afford to lose out. Pundits declare that 5G will revolutionize the digital world. It all sounds very thrilling. Unfortunately, the hype has gone too far.
5G systems will, over time, replace today's 4G, just as next year's iPhone 12 will improve on this year's 11. 5G networks offer significantly greater transmission capacity. However, despite all the hype, they won't represent a radical break from the current mobile experience.
First of all, the "race to 5G" is a myth. 5G is a marketing term for a family of technologies, which carriers can stretch to cover a variety of networks. The technical standards are still under development, so what counts as "true" 5G is arguable. As with 4G, the 5G rollout will take years, as carriers upgrade their networks with new gear and users buy new phones. Just as they do today, connections will fall back to slower speeds when users aren't near enough to a tower, or if the network is overloaded. There's no magic moment when a carrier, or a nation, "has" 5G.
Even if there was a race, it's over: South Korea and China have already built much more extensive 5G networks than the United States. But that shouldn't be cause for panic. Customers in those countries may have a leg up on faster connections, but that doesn't necessarily create a sustainable strategic advantage. Romania is one of 10 countries with significantly faster average fixed broadband connections than America today, yet no one in Washington seems concerned that will give Romanian firms a dominant advantage. The major tech platforms delivering innovative digital services to the world are still based in the United States and China. There are important concerns about the Chinese networking firm Huawei creating backdoors for surveillance or tilting the carrier equipment market toward Chinese-defined standards. Your 5G user experience, however, won't depend on who makes the gear in the guts of the network.
The overheated rhetoric is based on the misconception that 5G heralds a new era of services for end-users. In reality, the claimed performance — hundreds of megabits or even gigabits per second — is misleading. Averages and ideal numbers mask huge variations depending on distance to an antenna, obstructions, weather and other factors. The fastest speeds require "millimeter wave" spectrum, which doesn't penetrate walls or foliage well, and is generally less reliable than the lower frequencies used today. Millimeter wave requires a much denser network of antennas, which could be cost-prohibitive outside dense urban areas. Even if that hurdle is overcome, a gigabit per second to millions of phones requires a network able to move traffic at that speed end-to-end, which doesn't exist today.
And just what are the applications that need more capacity than 4G offers? We already get crystal-clear video chats, a torrent of TikToks, Pokemon Go augmented reality, and massive Fortnite battles. Yes, every advance in network performance opened up new uses that seemed insignificant before, but the new capabilities of 5G are best suited to non-consumer applications.
If and when fleets of self-driving vehicles communicate constantly with each other or remote robotic surgery is a standard feature in local hospitals, 5G will be a must. But these next-generation "internet of things" scenarios are years in the future, as are the kinds of virtual and augmented reality worlds that appear in science fiction.
The most immediate use of 5G is "network slicing" to rapidly deploy and reconfigure specialized networks for financial, health care and other applications. Enterprises that need quality of service guarantees can access a virtual "slice" of capacity, rather than building a separate network. It's a big deal for carriers and large companies. Not so sexy for ordinary consumers.
When we look back from 2030, the changes in the digital world will be dramatic. The 5G platform will support those changes, just as 2G, 3G, and 4G wireless did in prior decades. However, the heralded innovations of 2019 to 2021 will seem insignificant.
Enjoy your new 5G phone when it arrives. Just don't expect it to bring you to wireless nirvana.
二、詞彙釋義
relentlessly：不懈地
extol：稱讚，讚揚
advocate：提倡
fret：焦慮，煩躁
dominate：支配，主導
lose out：失敗
pundit：權威，專家
declare：宣佈，宣稱
thrilling：令人興奮的
hype：炒作
over time：隨著時間的推移
represent：代表
radical：根本的，徹底的，完全的
carrier：運營商
stretch：伸展，延申
panic：恐慌，驚慌
count：認為，看作是
as with：正如，就像
rollout：展示，推出
upgrade：提高，改進
gear：設置，設備，裝備
a leg up on：在…上有優勢
sustainable：可持續性的
dominant：主要的，支配的，顯著的
deliver：提供，實施，履行
surveillance：監視
tilt：（使）傾斜
gut：內部
rhetoric：說辭
herald：預示
misconception：錯誤認知，誤解
claim：宣稱，聲稱
performance：性能，功能
variation：變化
spectrum：光譜
penetrate：穿透
foliage：（植物的）枝葉
frequency：頻率
hurdle：障礙
gigabit：千兆
dense：密集的
cost-prohibitive：成本過高的
torrent：連串，大量
augmented：增強的
suit：適合，適宜
fleet：車隊
constantly：不斷地
surgery：手術
feature：特徵
must：必須做的事
immediate：直接的
slice：切片
deploy：使用
reconfigure：重新配置
guarantee：保證
access：進入，使用，訪問
Nirvana：涅槃
三、難句解析
1. Romania is one of 10 countries with significantly faster average fixed broadband connections than America today, yet no one in Washington seems concerned that will give Romanian firms a dominant advantage. —— 本句中由with引導的定語介詞短語偏長，significantly是副詞作狀語修飾faster，faster和average是形容詞作定語，fixed broadband connections是專業術語，faster和than構成比較級，yet是連接詞連接兩個並列句，concerned可看作是形容詞或過去分詞，其後接從句that will give…s 。
2. The fastest speeds require "millimeter wave" spectrum, which doesn't penetrate walls or foliage well, and is generally less reliable than the lower frequencies used today. —— 本句中定語從句偏長，含兩個並列句，其中，第二個並列句中used是過去分詞作定語修飾frequency。
3. Even if that hurdle is overcome, a gigabit per second to millions of phones requires a network able to move traffic at that speed end-to-end, which doesn't exist today. —— 本句中，to millions of phones是介詞短語作定語修飾a gigabit per second，able to move traffic…是形容詞加動詞不定式作定語修飾network，which doesn't exist today是非限定性定語修飾主句。
4. If and when fleets of self-driving vehicles communicate constantly with each other or remote robotic surgery is a standard feature in local hospitals, 5G will be a must. —— 本句中，if和when作為連接詞連用，含有兩個並列句，5G will be a must是主句後置。
5. But these next-generation "internet of things" scenarios are years in the future, as are the kinds of virtual and augmented reality worlds that appear in science fiction. —— 本句中，as是關係代詞作主語表示“正如，正像”，引導非限定性定語從句，其中that appear in science fiction是定語從句修飾worlds。
四、譯文
電信運營商不遺餘力地稱讚第五代（5G）無線技術的強大。政府官員和政策倡導者擔心，"5G競賽"的獲勝者將主導互聯網的未來，因此他們輸不起。權威人士宣稱，5G將徹底改變數字世界。這一切聽起來都令人非常興奮。但不幸的是，這種炒作已經走得太遠了。
隨著時間的推移，5G系統將取代今天的4G，正像明年的iPhone12將在今年的iPhone11基礎上有所改進一樣。5G網絡明顯能夠更大的傳輸容量。然而，這些全都是炒作，不能代表5G網絡可以徹底擺脫目前的移動體驗。
首先，"5G競賽"只是一個神話。5G只是運營商可以使之擴展應用於各種網絡的一系列技術的營銷術語。由於其技術標準仍在制定過程中，因此人們所認為的"真正"的5G是有爭議的。與4G一樣，5G的推出需要數年時間，因為運營商需要新設備升級網絡而用戶需要購買新手機。正如與現在做的一樣，當用戶離發射塔不夠近或網絡超載時，網絡連接將回落到較慢的速度。即使一家運營商或一個國家"擁有"5G也不會產生神奇的時刻。
即使有一場競賽，競賽已經結束了：韓國和中國已經建立了比美國更為廣泛的5G網絡。但這不應該引起恐慌。這些國家的客戶在更快的連接上可能會有優勢，但這不一定能創造可持續的戰略優勢。羅馬尼亞是固定寬帶平均連接速度明顯快於美國的十個國家之一，但華盛頓似乎沒有人擔心這會給羅馬尼亞公司帶來顯著優勢。為世界提供創新數字服務的主要技術平臺仍以美國和中國為基地。有人非常擔心中國網絡公司華為會出於監控目的或為使運營商的設備市場向中國製定的標準傾斜而安裝後門。然而，你的5G用戶體驗並不取決於誰在網絡內部安裝設置。
這些過熱的說辭是源於一種關於5G預示著為最終用戶提供服務的新時代的錯誤認知。在現實中，人們所聲稱的性能——每秒數百兆位甚至千兆位——具有誤導性。平均值和理想數字掩蓋了巨大的變化取決於天線的距離、障礙物、天氣和其他因素等的事實。最快速度需要的“毫米波"光譜很難穿透牆壁或樹葉，而且通常不如目前使用的低頻率可靠。毫米波需要更密集的天線網絡，在密集的城市地區之外，天線網絡可能成本高昂。即使克服了這一障礙，連接數百萬部電話還是需要以每秒一千兆位的速度而且可以端到端地傳輸容量的網絡，但目前這種速度並不存在。
那麼，需要比4G提供更多容量的應用程序是什麼？我們已經在使用如水晶般清晰的視頻聊天應用程序，例如抖音、精靈寶可夢增強現實軟件和要塞英雄遊戲等大量應用程序。是的，網絡性能的每一次進步都開闢了以前似乎微不足道的新用途，但5G的新功能最適合非消費類應用。
如果而且當自動駕駛車輛車隊不斷相互通信或遠程機器人手術成為當地醫院的標準特徵時，5G 將是必須的。但是這些下一代"物聯網"景象是未來幾年才能出現的，正如科幻小說中出現的虛擬和增強現實世界那樣。
5G 最直接的應用是"網絡切片"，即快速部署和重新配置用於金融、醫療保健和其他應用程序的專用網絡。企業需要的服務質量保證是可以訪問網絡容量的虛擬"切片"，而不是構建單獨的網絡。這對運營商和大公司來說意義重大。對於普通消費者來說，這卻不是那麼吸引人的。
當我們回顧2030年時，數字世界的變化將是巨大的。5G平臺將支持這些變化，就像 2G、3G 和 無線4G在過去幾十年中所做的那樣。然而，2019-2021年所預言的創新似乎微不足道。
新5G手機到來時就盡情享受吧。只是不要指望它給你帶來無線涅磐。
閱讀更多 老韓說英語 的文章
