GRE阅读练习：美军造价昂贵的废柴迷彩服.docx

Word文档下载后（可任意编辑） GRE阅读练习：美军造价昂贵的废柴迷彩服GRE阅读文章：GRE阅读练习：美军造价昂贵的废柴迷彩服 GRE考试精品课程训练 “I WEAR camo so I can feel safe,” says Sean, a member of the navyreserve. He cannot quite fathom why his combat uniform is different from thatof other American servicemen in the field, depending on whether they aremembers of the army, the air force or the marines. And soon it may be differentno longer; for after years of ludicrously expensive design rivalry, the defenceappropriation for 2014 prohibits the services from designing new uniforms,unless they will be used by all members of the armed forces. 海军预备役成员肖恩说：“迷彩让我觉得安全。

他始终不能理解，为何根据军种的不同，作战的陆军、空军和海军的作战服样式不同但这种现状即将改变，在数年荒唐可笑、花费巨大的设计竞赛之后，2014年国防拨款严禁军队设计新制服，除非该种制服能够用于全军 Remarkably, the Department of Defence has no single departmentdedicated to researching, developing and procuring the best uniforms for alltroops. This caused no problems before2002, when nearly every serviceman had achoice between a greenish camouflage uniform or a “coffee stain” desertpattern. But over the past 12 years the services have each created their ownstyle of camouflage. The effect has been both costly, and occasionallyembarrassing. 但请注意，国防部并无专门部门负责研发和生产适用于全军的服装。

在2002年之前，这不是问题，因此那时每个军人只有两种选择---绿色迷彩服或者咖色沙漠迷彩但十二年过去了，各个军队都设计了自己的迷彩服这不仅带来了浪费，有时还意味着尴尬 The marines led the way in 2002 with a versatile and effective newcombat uniform, which also served to boost corps morale because the marineinsignia was embedded in the design. This inspired a cascade of one-ups manshipamong the other services. The air force, for instance, spent several years andmore than $3m designing a new “tiger-stripe” uniform that proved unsuitable forcombat—the camouflage was ineffective, the trousers were uncomfortable and thefabric was too heavy, leading to “heat build-up”. The navy spent a lot lessmoney developing the “aquaflage” uniform; but that is a silly blue ensemblethat works best where sailors may least wish to blend, in the water. 海军陆战队在2002年率先发布了一款全能高效的新型作战服，该款服饰的设计包含了海军陆战队的队徽，因此对鼓舞士气也有奇效。

这在全军掀起了一股争先浪潮比如，空军部队耗时数年，斥资逾300万美元，设计了一种新型“虎纹”制服，但这种制服却不适合作战---它的保护色无用，裤装不舒适，布料太厚不利散热海军用较少的花费，设计了所谓的“水蓝”军服(aquaflage)，这套愚蠢的蓝色制服看上去只有在水中—海军最不愿意隐藏的地方—隐藏效果最 好 The worst offender has been the army. The service spent years andabout $3.2m developing its own “universal” camouflage. This pattern wasdesigned to work anywhere, but proved useless nearly everywhere. Soon after itwas introduced in 2005, soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan began complaining thatthe pattern turned them into targets. Troops from Syria and China were clearlybetter equipped. Reports suggest that a high-ranking military official had chosenthe pattern without consulting the data from years of studies. The army is saidto have spent at least $5 billion on uniforms and equipment printed in thiscamouflage, which is still in use. In an emergency measure, the army kitted outsoldiers in Afghanistan in a new pattern starting in 2010, spending more than$38.8m on replacement gear in fiscal 2010and 2011. 最糟糕的设计来自陆军。

陆军花费数年和约320万美元设计了一种所谓的“通用”迷彩按照设计，它本该适用所有地形，但最终发现，它几乎在所有地形都派不上用场2005年，在该种迷彩推出后不久，伊拉克和阿富汗的美国士兵就开始抱怨，说这种制服使他们成了活靶子连叙利亚和中国的军队都明显比美军军备精良调查显示，一位位居高位的军官在没有参考多年调查数据的情况下就选定了这种设计据称，陆军至少砸了50亿美元在该种制服和迷彩上印的设备上目前，这种迷彩仍在使用中2010年，作为应急措施之一，陆军为驻伊拉克的士兵换上了新型样式的服装，据称这个过程花费了2010、2011年的财政中的388万美元 Part of the problem, explains Timothy ONeill, a retiredlieutenant-colonel and camouflage expert, is that officers can be a bit toopreoccupied with a uniforms “CDI [chicks dig it] factor”. This vanity,together with bungled trials, missteps and a lack of co-operation, put the costof developing these uniforms at more than $12m, according to a report from theGovernment Accountability Office (GAO) in 2012. This does not include the extracosts—which the GAO estimates in the tens of millions of dollars—of managingthe stock and supply of so many different combat uniforms. Nor does it includethe high costs of replacing ineffective camouflage in the field. The armedforces spent around $300m on camouflage uniforms in2011 alone. 退休上校、迷彩专家蒂莫西奥尼尔指出，问题一部分出在军官们过于关注军装华而不实的效果。

根据美国政府问责局(GAO)2012年的一份报告，这种虚荣心，加上被搞砸的实验，失误和欠缺合作，使得开发这些制服的费用超过了1200万美元这还不涵盖其他额外费用(根据政府问责局估计，单单这一块费用就数以百万)，包括管理这些种类繁多的作战服的储存和供应更不要提替换在战场上效果不佳的迷彩服的费用了仅仅在2011年一年，全军花费在迷彩服上的费用就高达3亿美元 Stunned by these price tags, Congress in 2010 directed theDepartment of Defence to raise standards and cut costs. But little has beendone. Many soldiers see the wisdom of returning to a shared uniform. But notthe marines, who will stick to their pattern “like a hobo on a ham sandwich”,in the words of General James Amos, commandant of the marine corps. 被这些价格标签吓到，国会在2011年令国防部提高标准，降低成本。

但应对措施不多许多士兵看到了重新开始共享同款军服的好处但海军陆战队不这么想，海军陆战队总司令、上校詹姆斯阿莫斯说，海军陆战队队员对他们自己的设计就像“流浪汉对火腿三明治” It is unclear what all this means for the army, which has beenspending millions of dollars testing different patterns for a new camouflagesince 2010. It recently started tests for possible new uniforms, which。