能够读懂文章既是学英语的目的之一，也是英语水平和能力的标志之一。然而，很多高考学生并没有静下心来认真扎实地读过几篇文章，因此，尽管有一定的词汇量和语法分析能力，但对于长难句、段落乃至篇章的阅读理解却仍然感到很困难，其原因在于他们所学的词汇和语法主要的是就词汇和语法学习而学习，并不是通过阅读等语境化的学习获得的，因而他们所拥有的词汇和语法知识等是单一孤立地学来的而不是有关联的通过应用学来的，因此，看不进去文章和读不懂文章是很多考生的通病。那么，我们需要做的就是大量阅读，通过阅读文章寻找生词，挖掘难句，积累词汇和句型，把文章作为语境，把阅读当作应用，既可以在词汇和句子层面上大有暂获，又可以在篇章上取得长足进步。

以下是一篇关于5G网络的评论文章，我们可以通过阅读从中选取常用的有意义的词汇和句型进行学习，同时通过解析难句和翻译整篇文章进行反复阅读、反复理解、反复比较辨析英汉语言的异同，进而提高读懂读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、词汇释义

relentlessly：不懈地

extol：称赞，赞扬

advocate：提倡

fret：焦虑，烦躁

dominate：支配，主导

lose out：失败

pundit：权威，专家

declare：宣布，宣称

thrilling：令人兴奋的

hype：炒作

over time：随着时间的推移

represent：代表

radical：根本的，彻底的，完全的

carrier：运营商

stretch：伸展，延申

panic：恐慌，惊慌

count：认为，看作是

as with：正如，就像

rollout：展示，推出

upgrade：提高，改进

gear：设置，设备，装备

a leg up on：在…上有优势

sustainable：可持续性的

dominant：主要的，支配的，显著的

deliver：提供，实施，履行

surveillance：监视

tilt：（使）倾斜

gut：内部

rhetoric：说辞

herald：预示

misconception：错误认知，误解

claim：宣称，声称

performance：性能，功能

variation：变化

spectrum：光谱

penetrate：穿透

foliage：（植物的）枝叶

frequency：频率

hurdle：障碍

gigabit：千兆

dense：密集的

cost-prohibitive：成本过高的

torrent：连串，大量

augmented：增强的

suit：适合，适宜

fleet：车队

constantly：不断地

surgery：手术

feature：特征

must：必须做的事

immediate：直接的

slice：切片

deploy：使用

reconfigure：重新配置

guarantee：保证

access：进入，使用，访问

Nirvana：涅槃

三、难句解析

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引导的定语介词短语偏长，significantly是副词作状语修饰faster，faster和average是形容词作定语，fixed broadband connections是专业术语，faster和than构成比较级，yet是连接词连接两个并列句，concerned可看作是形容词或过去分词，其后接从句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. —— 本句中定语从句偏长，含两个并列句，其中，第二个并列句中used是过去分词作定语修饰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是介词短语作定语修饰a gigabit per second，able to move traffic…是形容词加动词不定式作定语修饰network，which doesn't exist today是非限定性定语修饰主句。

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作为连接词连用，含有两个并列句，5G will be a must是主句后置。

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是关系代词作主语表示“正如，正像”，引导非限定性定语从句，其中that appear in science fiction是定语从句修饰worlds。

四、译文

电信运营商不遗余力地称赞第五代（5G）无线技术的强大。政府官员和政策倡导者担心，"5G竞赛"的获胜者将主导互联网的未来，因此他们输不起。权威人士宣称，5G将彻底改变数字世界。这一切听起来都令人非常兴奋。但不幸的是，这种炒作已经走得太远了。

随着时间的推移，5G系统将取代今天的4G，正像明年的iPhone12将在今年的iPhone11基础上有所改进一样。5G网络明显能够更大的传输容量。然而，这些全都是炒作，不能代表5G网络可以彻底摆脱目前的移动体验。

首先，"5G竞赛"只是一个神话。5G只是运营商可以使之扩展应用于各种网络的一系列技术的营销术语。由于其技术标准仍在制定过程中，因此人们所认为的"真正"的5G是有争议的。与4G一样，5G的推出需要数年时间，因为运营商需要新设备升级网络而用户需要购买新手机。正如与现在做的一样，当用户离发射塔不够近或网络超载时，网络连接将回落到较慢的速度。即使一家运营商或一个国家"拥有"5G也不会产生神奇的时刻。

即使有一场竞赛，竞赛已经结束了：韩国和中国已经建立了比美国更为广泛的5G网络。但这不应该引起恐慌。这些国家的客户在更快的连接上可能会有优势，但这不一定能创造可持续的战略优势。罗马尼亚是固定宽带平均连接速度明显快于美国的十个国家之一，但华盛顿似乎没有人担心这会给罗马尼亚公司带来显著优势。为世界提供创新数字服务的主要技术平台仍以美国和中国为基地。有人非常担心中国网络公司华为会出于监控目的或为使运营商的设备市场向中国制定的标准倾斜而安装后门。然而，你的5G用户体验并不取决于谁在网络内部安装设置。

这些过热的说辞是源于一种关于5G预示着为最终用户提供服务的新时代的错误认知。在现实中，人们所声称的性能——每秒数百兆位甚至千兆位——具有误导性。平均值和理想数字掩盖了巨大的变化取决于天线的距离、障碍物、天气和其他因素等的事实。最快速度需要的“毫米波"光谱很难穿透墙壁或树叶，而且通常不如目前使用的低频率可靠。毫米波需要更密集的天线网络，在密集的城市地区之外，天线网络可能成本高昂。即使克服了这一障碍，连接数百万部电话还是需要以每秒一千兆位的速度而且可以端到端地传输容量的网络，但目前这种速度并不存在。

那么，需要比4G提供更多容量的应用程序是什么？我们已经在使用如水晶般清晰的视频聊天应用程序，例如抖音、精灵宝可梦增强现实软件和要塞英雄游戏等大量应用程序。是的，网络性能的每一次进步都开辟了以前似乎微不足道的新用途，但5G的新功能最适合非消费类应用。

如果而且当自动驾驶车辆车队不断相互通信或远程机器人手术成为当地医院的标准特征时，5G 将是必须的。但是这些下一代"物联网"景象是未来几年才能出现的，正如科幻小说中出现的虚拟和增强现实世界那样。

5G 最直接的应用是"网络切片"，即快速部署和重新配置用于金融、医疗保健和其他应用程序的专用网络。企业需要的服务质量保证是可以访问网络容量的虚拟"切片"，而不是构建单独的网络。这对运营商和大公司来说意义重大。对于普通消费者来说，这却不是那么吸引人的。

当我们回顾2030年时，数字世界的变化将是巨大的。5G平台将支持这些变化，就像 2G、3G 和 无线4G在过去几十年中所做的那样。然而，2019-2021年所预言的创新似乎微不足道。

新5G手机到来时就尽情享受吧。只是不要指望它给你带来无线涅磐。