❶ 考研英語真題：閱讀理解
考研英語真題：閱讀理解
Text 1
A group of labour MPs, among them Yvette Cooper, are bringing in the new year with a call to institute a UK "town of culture" award. The proposal is that it should sit alongside the existing city of culture title, which was held by Hull in 2017 and has been awarded to Coventry for zozl. Cooper and her colleagues argue that the success of the crown for Hull, where it brought in E220m of investment and an avalache of arts, out not to be confined to cities. Britain' town, it is true are not prevented from applying, but they generally lack the resources to put together a bit to beat their bigger competitions. A town of culture award could, it is argued, become an annual event, attracting funding and creating jobs.
Some might see the proposal as a boo by prize for the fact that Britain is no longer be able to apply for the much more prestigious title of European capital of culture, a sought-after award bagged by Glasgow in 1990 and Livorpool in 2008. A cynic might speculate that the UK is on the verge of disappearing into an endless fever of self-celebration in its desperation to reinvent itself for, the post-Brexit world: after town of culture, who knows that will follow- village of culture ? Suburb of culture? Hamlet of culture?
It is also wise to recall that such titles are not a cure-all. A badly run "year of culture" washes in and out of a place like the tide, bringing prominence for a spell but leaving no lasting benefits to the community . The really successful holders of such titles are those that do a great deal more than fill hotel bedrooms and bring in high-profile arts events and good press for a year. They transform the aspirations of the people who live there; they nudge the self image of the city into a bolder and more optimistic light.
It is hard to get right, and requires a remarkable degree of vision, as well as cooperation between city authorities, the private sector, community groups and cultural organizations. But it can be done : Glasgow' s year as European capital of culture can certainly be seen as one of complex series of factors that have turned the city into the power of art, music and theatre that it remains today.
A "town of culture" could be not just about the arts but about honouring a town's
peculiarities-helping sustain its high street, supporting local facilities and above all celebrating its people and turn it into action.
21. Cooper and her colleagues argue that a "town of culture" award could________
[A] consolidate the town-city ties in Britain.
[B] promote cooperation among Britain's towns.
[C] increase the economic strength of Britain's towns.
[D] focus Britain's limited resources on cultural events.
22. According to Paragraph 2, the proposal might be regarded by some as________
[A] a sensible compromise.
[B] a self-deceiving attempt.
[C] an eye-catching bonus.
[D] an inaccessible target.
23. The author suggests that a title holder is successful only if it________
[A] endeavours to maintain its image.
[B] meets the aspirations of its people.
[C] brings its local arts to prominence.
D] commits to its long-term growth.
24. Glasgow is mentioned in Paragraph 3 to present________
[A] a contrasting case.
[B] a supporting example.
[C] a background story,
[D] a related topic.
25. What is the author's attitude towards the proposal ?
[A] Skeptical
[B] Objective
[C] Favourable
[D] Critical
Text 2
Scientific publishing has long been a licence to print money. Scientists need joumals in which to publish
their research, so they will supply the articles without monetary reward. Other scientists perform the specialised work of peer review also for free, because it is a central element in the acquisition of status and the proction of scientific knowledge.
With the content of papers secured for free, the publisher needs only fnd a market for its journal. Until this century, university libraries were not very price sensitive. Scientific publishers routinely report profit margins approaching 40% on their operations, at a time when the rest of the publishing instry is in an existential crisis.
The Dutch giant Elsevier, which claims to publish 25% of the scientific papers proced in the world,made profits of more than £900m last year, while UK universities alone spent more than £210m in 2016 toenable researchers to access their own publicly funded research; both figures seem to rise unstoppably despite increasingly desperate efforts to change them.
The most drastic, and thoroughly illegal, reaction has been the emergence of Sci-Hub, a kind of global photocopier for scientific papers, set up in 2012, which now claims to offer access to every paywalled article published since 2015. The success of Sci-Hub, which relies on researchers passing on copies they have themselves legally accessed, shows the legal ecosystem has lost legitimacy among its users and must be transformed so that it works for all participants.
In Britain the move towards open access publishing has been driven by funding bodies. In some ways it has been very successful. More than half of all British scientific research is now published under open access terms: either freely available from the moment of publication, or paywalled for a year or more so that the publishers can make a profit before being placed on general release.
Yet the new system has not worked out any cheaper for the universities. Publishers have responded to the demand that they make their proct free to readers by charging their writers fees to cover the costs of preparing an article. These range from around ￡500 to $5,000. A report last year pointed out that the costs both of subscriptions and of these’’article preparation costs’’ had been steadily rising at a rate above inflation. In some ways the scientific publishing model resembles the economy of the social internet: labour is provided free in exchange for the hope of status, while huge profits are made by a few big firms who run the market places. In both cases, we need a rebalancing of power.
26. Scientific publishing is seen as“a licence to print money" partly because________
[A] its funding has enjoyed a steady increase .
[B] its marketing strategy has been successful.
[C] its payment for peer review is reced.
[D] its content acquisition costs nothing.
27. According to Paragraphs 2 and 3, scientific publishers Elsevier have________
[A] thrived mainly on university libraries.
[B] gone through an existential crisis.
[C] revived the publishing instry.
[D] financed researchers generously.
28. How does the author feel about the success of Sci-Hub?
[A] Relieved.
[B] Puzzled.
[C] Concerned
[D] Encouraged.
29. It can be learned from Paragraphs 5 and 6 that open access terms________
[A]allow publishers some room to make money.
[B] render publishing much easier for scientists.
[C] rece the cost of publication substantially.
[D] free universities from financial burdens.
30. Which of the following characterises the scientific publishing model?
[A] Trial subscription is offered.
[B] Labour triumphs over status.
[C] Costs are well controlled.
D] The few feed on the many.
Text 3
Progressives often support diversity mandates as a path to equality and a way to level the playing field. But all too often such policies are an insincere form of virtue-signaling that benefits only the most privileged and does little to help average people.
A pair of bills sponsored by Massachusetts state Senator Jason Lewis and House Speaker Pro Tempore Patricia Haddad, to ensure "gender parity" on boards and commissions, provide a case in point.
Haddad and Lewis are concerned that more than half the state-government boards are less than 40 percent female. In order to ensure that elite women have more such opportunities, they have proposed imposing government quotas. If the bills become law, state boards and commissions will be required to set aside 50 percent of board seats for women by 2022.
The bills are similar to a measure recently adopted in Califomia, which last year became the first state to require gender quotas for private companies. In signing the measure, California Governor Jerry Brown admitted that the law, which expressly classifies people on the basis of sex, is probably unconstitutional.
The US Supreme Court frowns on sex-based classifications unless they are designed to address an "important" policy interest, Because the California law applies to all boards, even where there is no history of prior discrimination, courts are likely to rule that the law violates the constitutional guarantee of "equal protection".
But are such government mandates even necessary? Female participation on corporate boards may not currently mirror the pereentage of women in the general population, but so what?
The number of women on corporate boards has been steadily increasing without government interference. According to a study by Catalyst, between 2010 and 2015 the share of women on the boards of global corporations increased by 54 percent.
Requiring companies to make gender the primary qualification for board membership will inevitably lead to less experienced private sector boards. That is exactly what happened when Norway adopted a nationwide corporate gender quota.
Wrting in The New Republic, Alice Lee notes that increasing the number of opportunities for board membership without increasing the pool of qualified women to serve on such boards has led to a"golden skirt "phenomenon, where the same clite women scoop up multiple seats on a variety of boards.
Next time somebody pushes corporate quotas as a way to promote gender equity, remember that such policies are largely self-serving measures that make their sponsors feel good but do litle to help average women.
31. The author believes that the bills sponsored by Lewis and Haddad wills________
[A] help little to rece gender bias.
[B] pose a threat to the state government.
[C] raise women's position in politics.
[D] greatly broaden career options.
32. Which of the following is true of the California measure?
[A] It has irritated private business owners.
[B] It is welcomed by the Supreme Court,
[C] It may go against the Constitution.
[D] It will settle the prior controversies.
33. The author mentions the study by Catalyst to ilustrate____
[A] the harm from arbitrary board decision.
[B] the importance of constitutional guaranees.
[C] the pressure on women in global corporations.
[D] the needlessness of government interventions.
34. Norway's adoption of a nationwide corporate gender quota has led to____
[A] the underestimation of elite women's role.
[B] the objection to female participation on boards.
[C] the entry of unqualified candidates into the board.
[D] the growing tension between labor and management.
35. Which of the following can be inferred from the text?
[A] Women's need in employment should be considered.
[B] Feasibility should be a prime concern in policymaking.
[C] Everyone should try hard to promote social justice.
[D] Major social issues should be the focus of legislation.
Text 4
Last Thursday, the French Senate passed a digital services tax, which would impose an entirely new tax
on large multinationals that provide digital services to consumers or users in France. Digital services include everything from providing a platform for selling goods and services online to targeting advertising based on user data, and the tax applies to gross revenue from such servces. Many French politicians and media outlets have referred to this as a“GAFA tax," meaning that it is designed to apply primarily to companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon- in other words, multiational tech companies based in the United States.
The digital services tax now awaits the signature of President Emmanuel Macron, who has expressed support for the measure, and it could go into effect within the next few weeks. But it has already sparked significant controversy, with the Unite Sates trade representative opening an investigation into whether the tax discriminates against American companies, which in turn could lead to trade sanctions against France.
The French tax is not just a unilateral move by one country in need of revenue. Instead, the digital services tax is part of a much larger trend, with countries over the past few years proposing or putting in place an alphabet soup of new international tax provisions. These have included Britain's DPT (diverted profits tax), Australia's MAAL (multinational antiavoidance law), and India's SEP (significant economic presence) test, to name but a few. At the same time, the European Union, Spain, Britain and several other countries have all seriously contemplated digital services taxes.
These unilateral developments differ in their specifics, but they are all designed to tax multinationals on income and revenue that countries believe they should have a right to tax, even if international tax rules do not grant them that right. In other words, they all share a view that the international tax system has failed to keep ;up with the current economy.
In response to these many unilateral measures, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is currently working with 131 countries to reach a consensus by the end of 2020 on an international solution. Both France and the United States are involved in the organization' s work, but France's digital services tax and the American response raise questions about what the future holds for the international tax system.
France‘s planned tax is a clear warning: Unless a broad consensus can be reached on reforming the international tax system, other nations are likely to follow suit, and American companies will face a cascade of different taxes from dozens of nations that will prove burdensome and costly.
36. The French Senate has passed a bill to_____
[A] regulate digital services platforms.
[B] protect French companies' interests .
[C] impose a levy on tech multinationals.
[D] curb the influence of advertising.
37. It can be learned from Paragraph 2 that the digital services tax _____
[A] may trigger countermeasures against France.
[B] is apt to arouse criticism at home and abroad.
[C] aims to ease international trade tensions.
[D] will prompt the tech giants to quit France.
38. The countries adopting the unilateral measures share the opinion that _____
[A] redistribution of tech giants' revenue must be ensured.
[B] the current international tax system needs upgrading.
[C] tech multinationals' monopoly should be prevented.
[D] all countries ought to enjoy equal taxing rights.
39. It can be learned from Para 5 that the OECO's current work_____
[A] is being resisted by US companies.
[B] needs to be readjusted immediately.
[C] is faced with uncertain prospects.
[D] needs to in involve more countries.
40. Which of the following might be the. best title for this text?
[A] France Is Confronted with Trade Sanctions
[B] France leads the charge on Digital Tax
[C] France Says "NO" to Tech Multinationals
[D] France Demands a Role in the Digital Economy
考研英語真題：閱讀理解的內容小編就說到這里了，更多關於考研備考技巧，報名入口，報名時間，考研成績查詢，報名費用，准考證列印入口及時間等問題，小編會及時更新。希望各位考生都能進入自己的理想考研院校。希望大家能好好復習。取得佳績。
❷ 現在離考研還有150 天，剛做了2008年英語一真題和2007年英語一真題，閱讀
既然要考研了，希抄望讀研究生，心態就不能這么急躁，平心靜氣的備考才能有最好的結果。1，離初試還有5個月左右，你現在就期望英語達到臨考的狀態，那你剩下幾個月就不復習了？考研英語絕對是有難度的，要科學備考，消滅知識盲點和錯題，按照時間計劃一步一步來備考才好。
2，真題不建議做太久遠的，07，08這都10年了，到現在考試大綱都不同了，出題人也不同了，思路也不同了，你再做意義不大。建議做近三五年的真題，反復研究出題思路和考察知識點，不是單純做題而做題。
3，也不要想著英語占優勢考高分，因為英語分值太低，並且難度大，很難拉開分數，你就想即使你考了70，國家線一般都是45，985等還要求55左右，那你只能拉開分值15分，都不夠高數一個大題的分數。反而高數，專業課這些才是大頭，分值高，要扎實復習，考高分才能保證你初試成績是高的。建議你不要捨本逐末。
綜上，現在做真題暴露的問題就是你後面幾個月要重點攻克的，已經掌握或很熟練的知識點通過適當訓練繼續保持，這樣才可能考出高分。再有備考心態一定要平和，不要太急躁，相信積累的力量。祝你好運。
❸ 08年考研英語閱讀理解第三篇翻譯
08年考研英語閱讀理解第三篇翻譯：
在世紀60年代早期，Wilt Chamberlain是美國國家籃球協會中僅有的身高超過7英尺的三個人之一。可是如果他參加了上個賽季的話，他就變成了42分之一了。這些年來在較大的職業體育運動中的運動員的身體狀況發生了很大的改變，而他們的經理人也更願意調整隊員的運動服來適應隊員們更大，更高的身材。
雖然體育界的這種趨勢可能蒙蔽了一個沒有被承認的現實：美國人基本上停止生長了。雖然現在人們比140年前高了2英寸，特別是那些出生在已移民美國很多代的那些人，但是明顯的，在二十世紀60年代早期，已經到達了他們的身高的極限。他們已經不可能再長得更高了。「在這個基因和環境的條件下，現在整體的人們已經長到我們能夠達到的范圍了，」Wright州大學的人類學家William Cameron Chumlea說道。拿NBA球員來說，他們身高的增加主要由於從世界各地招募到了球員。
身高的增長一般在20歲以後就停止了，而發育是需要能量和營養的，其中的蛋白質用來供給組織的生長。在20世紀初，營養不良和兒童疾病妨礙了整體的發育。但是當飲食和健康的促進，兒童和青少年平均每20年都增長了大概1.5英寸，這就是長高的趨勢。根據疾病防治中心，從1960年開始，人們的平均身高，男性5英尺9英寸，女性5英尺4英寸，就沒有怎麼改變了。
總的說來，避免太高的身高是有很多優點的。在生產時，較大的嬰兒通過產道是有更多的問題的。而且，就算人類已經直立行走已經幾百萬年了，我們的腳和背部繼續對抗著巨大的壓力，這些壓力來源於雙足直立的姿勢和巨大的肢體。「有一些限制是個體器官的基因結構導致的。」西北大學的人類學家William Leonard說道。
基因的最大化可以改變，但是不要期待它會馬上就能發生。Mass州的Natick的軍隊研究中心的高級人類學家Claire C. Gordon確信百分之九十的入伍新兵不需要更換新的制服和工作站。她說，不像那些籃球制服，軍隊的制服長度很長時間都沒有改變了。如果你需要在不遠的將來預測人類的身高而去設計一款新的設備，Gordon說基本上，「你都能夠使用現在的數據並且覺得非常地自信。」
Text 3
In the early 1960s Wilt Chamberlain was one of only three players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) listed at over seven feet. If he had played last season, however, he would have been one of 42. The bodies playing major professional sports have changed dramatically over the years, and managers have been more than willing to adjust team uniforms to fit the growing numbers of bigger, longer frames.
The trend in sports, though, may be obscuring an unrecognized reality: Americans have generally stopped growing. Though typically about two inches taller now than 140 years ago, today』s people – especially those born to families who have lived in the U.S. for many generations – apparently reached their limit in the early 1960s. And they aren』t likely to get any taller. 「In the general population today, at this genetic, environmental level, we』ve pretty much gone as far as we can go,」 says anthropologist William Cameron Chumlea of Wright State University. In the case of NBA players, their increase in height appears to result from the increasingly common practice of recruiting players from all over the world.
Growth, which rarely continues beyond the age of 20, demands calories and nutrients – notably, protein – to feed expanding tissues. At the start of the 20th century, under-nutrition and childhood infections got in the way. But as diet and health improved, children and adolescents have, on average, increased in height by about an inch and a half every 20 years, a pattern known as the secular trend in height. Yet according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, average height – 5′9″ for men, 5′4″ for women – hasn』t really changed since 1960.
Genetically speaking, there are advantages to avoiding substantial height. During childbirth, larger babies have more difficulty passing through the birth canal. Moreover, even though humans have been upright for millions of years, our feet and back continue to struggle with bipedal posture and cannot easily withstand repeated strain imposed by oversize limbs. 「There are some real constraints that are set by the genetic architecture of the indivial organism,」 says anthropologist William Leonard of Northwestern University.
Genetic maximums can change, but don』t expect this to happen soon. Claire C. Gordon, senior anthropologist at the Army Research Center in Natick, Mass., ensures that 90 percent of the uniforms and workstations fit recruits without alteration. She says that, unlike those for basketball, the length of military uniforms has not changed for some time. And if you need to predict human height in the near future to design a piece of equipment, Gordon says that by and large, 「you could use today』s data and feel fairly confident.」
❹ 1998年考研英語一第三篇閱讀理解。
樓主現在應該已經很清楚了 但是還是說一下嘿嘿 樓主只截取這一句話是很難判專斷的 但是這句話句首有一個屬BUT 也就是說內容跟前面相反 後面接著說這並不意味著環保主義者是反科學的 說明前面應該是在說什麼什麼是反科學的，最後又說但是去年5月發表的us news 卻似乎是這樣暗示的 連起來就是這句話之前說的是應該是有關反科學的 作者又表明態度說環保主義者不在此列 後面又說這個雜志卻似乎是這樣暗示的 顯而易見就是在暗諷這個雜志胡說八道 所以雜志應該認為環保主義者是反科學的 不知道這樣說是不是清楚 如果有什麼錯誤就是我水平低哈哈
❺ 考研英語一有多少篇閱讀理解
您好，總共180分鍾4篇閱讀理解 每篇5個選擇 每個選擇2分
------------------天津VIP考研為您解答
❻ 2008年考研英語真題的閱讀，大家感覺難還是容易，得分多少
感覺還好2010年比較難
❼ 誰有01年到08年考研英語真題閱讀理解的翻譯
http://www.docin.com/p-152299190.html 這個抄網站里都有，可惜只能在線看，下載要錢的吧！
❽ 是不是從08年以後考研英語閱讀理解變難了
是的，命題組換了，清一色海歸，文章全部選自國外報紙雜志，推薦個視頻版
2014 考研英權語一閱讀分析
http://my.tv.sohu.com/us/231057940/74386390.shtml
❾ 考研英語閱讀及翻譯題的來源
一、年考研英語文章出處 摘選自《2011年考研英語大逆轉》
1.完形填空 紐約時報（The New York Times） The Cost of Smarts
www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/opinion/07wed4.html
2.閱讀第一篇 紐約時報（The New York Times） Can You Become a Creature of New Habits？
www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/opinion/07wed4.html
3.閱讀第二篇 科學美國人（Scientific American） Who』』s Your Daddy？ The Answer May Be at the Drugstore
www.sciam.com/article.cfm？id=who-is-your-daddy-the-answer-may-be-at-the-drugstore
4.閱讀第三篇 麥肯錫季刊（The Mckinsey Quarterly） Ecating global workers
www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Ecating_global_workers_1375
5..新題型
encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761561730_6/Culture.html
二、2010年考研英語閱讀及翻譯題的來源
2010年知識運用試題來源：
考研英語完型填空部分，使用了2009年6月6日 Economist 《經濟學人》雜志上的一篇文章，文章主要內容，是對社會學上一個經典的理論：霍桑效應的批判和反思。文章難度適中。命題專家在出題的時候也進行了一定程度的改寫。
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_569c4e040100dmkj.html questioning the Hawthorne effect 或Light work; Questioning the Hawthorne effect，June 6, 2009
2010年考研英語閱讀真題出處：
第二篇閱讀文章
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_09/b4073068471067.htm
第三篇閱讀文章：
Harvard_Business_Review200702，標題是：The Accidental Influentials
第四篇閱讀文章
Accounting rules are under attack. Standard-setters should defend them. Politicians and banks should back off. Economist Staff - The Economist《經濟學人》雜志，April 10, 2009
新題型試題的來源：
http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=104383，A Wholesale Shift in European Groceries
2010年翻譯真題出處：
原文選自李奧帕德的《沙郡歲月：李奧帕德的自然沉思》，本書是環保生態的經典著作，中譯本由吳美真翻譯，中國社會科學出版社出版。
給2011年參加考研的學生的幾點建議：
1．打好基礎，從文章的改寫情況和考試命題趨勢來看，考研對於大綱詞彙要求還是很嚴格的，所以在准備考試之初就要背好單詞，突破單詞關。
2．選擇較新的輔導材料和語言素材，從最近幾年的考試來看，考研閱讀理解部分的文章和 考題的風格緊扣時代的節奏，主題很鮮明突出。因此選擇合適的考研閱讀素材來加強閱讀顯得非常重要。
三、2010年1月MBA翻譯題的來源：摘選自《決勝MBA英語高級篇》
原文是來自一份雜志，叫「experience life」，出題人做了部分改動，原文和改動的文章如下：
Sustainability has become something of a buzzword（出題人把這個單詞改為popular word） these days, but to Ted Ning, the concept will always have personal meaning. Having enred a painful period of unsustainability in his own life made it clear to him that sustainability-oriented values must be expressed through everyday action and choice.
Ning, director of LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability), the Boulder, Colo.–based information clearinghouse on sustainable living, recalls spending a tumultuous（出題人把這個詞改為了confusing） year in the late 』90s selling insurance. He』d been through the dot-com boom and bust（出題人似乎把這個詞改為burst了） and, desperate for a job, signed on with a Boulder agency.
It didn』t go well. 「It was a really bad move because that』s not my passion,」 says Ning, whose ambivalence about the job translated, predictably, into a lack of sales. 「I was miserable. I had so much anxiety that I would pull alongside of the highway and vomit, or wake up in the middle of the night and stare at the ceiling. I had no money and needed the job. Everyone said, 『Just wait, you』ll turn the corner, give it some time.』」
Ning stuck it out for a year because he simply didn』t know what else to do, but felt his happiness and health suffer as a result. He eventually quit and stumbled upon LOHAS in a help-wanted ad for a data analyst. 「I didn』t know what LOHAS was,」 he says, 「but it sounded kinda neat.」 It turned out to be a better fit than he could have ever imagined.
At the time, the LOHAS organization did little more than host a small annual conference in Boulder. It was a forum where progressive-minded companies could gather to compare notes on how to reach a values-driven segment of consumers — the LOHAS market — who seemed attracted to procts and services that mirrored their interest in health, environmental stewardship, social justice, personal development and sustainable living.
In contrast with his disastrous foray into the insurance business, Ning』s new job felt like coming home. Growing up in the foothills of the Rockies outside of Denver, he』d developed a love of the outdoors and a respect for the earth, while his parents provided a model of social activism — the family traveled widely, and at one point his parents created and operated a nonprofit that offered microcredit loans to small businesses in Vietnam and Guatemala. He has three adopted sisters from Vietnam and Korea. He studied international relations and Chinese at Colorado University and slipped easily into the Boulder lifestyle — commuting by bike, eating organics, buying local and the rest — though he stopped short of the patchouli-and-dreadlocks phase embraced by many of his peers. (He opted instead for the university』s ski team and, after graating, wound up coaching the Japanese development team ring the Nagano Olympics in 1998.)
From his ground-level job, Ning moved quickly up the ranks in the organization, becoming its executive director in 2006. 「When I got the job, LOHAS was a sleepy conference in Boulder,」 says Ning. Today, the forum is booming, the organization is expanding and the market is evolving. Ning has more than grown into the position he stumbled on in the want ads. 「I don』t consider this a job. It is really more of a calling.」
Ning, 41, coordinates the conference and oversees the organization』s annual journal and Web site (www.lohas.com), while compiling research on trends and opportunities for businesses. He also travels the country promoting — and explaining — the LOHAS concept and the burgeoning market it represents.
First identified by sociologist Paul Ray in the mid-1990s as 「cultural creatives,」 the U.S. market segment that embraces LOHAS today has grown to about 41 million consumers, or roughly 19 percent of American alts. But those LOHAS consumers are powerfully influencing the attitudes and behaviors of others (witness the rise of interest in yoga, all-natural procts, simplicity and hybrid vehicles). Which is why LOHAS-related procts now generate an estimated $209 billion annually.
「Over the last two years a green tidal wave has come over us,」 says Ning. Riding that wave, says Ning, is not about jumping on a trend bandwagon. It』s connecting with — and acting on — a set of shared, instrinsic values. 「People know what is authentic. You can』t preach this lifestyle and not live it,」 he says. He and his wife, Jenifer, live in a solar-powered home, raise organic vegetables in their backyard and drive a car that gets 48 miles to the gallon. He even buys carbon offsets to negate the global warming impact of his cell phone.
Ning emphasizes that there are many different ways of 「living LOHAS.」 Ultimately, it』s really about finding a way of life that makes sense and feels good — now and for the long haul. 「People are looking internally,」 he says, 「asking themselves, 『What really makes me happy?』 Is it the fact that I can go out and buy that giant flat-screen TV, or is it that I can have a quiet evening with my family just hanging out and playing a game of Scrabble?」
For Ning, it』s a no-brainer. He』ll take Scrabble every time.