For London-based Michelle Brideau, 10 years in the travel industry felt like an eternity(永恒). What started as low pay and high stress — but great perks(外快) — had evolved(进化) into low pay, high stress, no perks and lots of competition from the internet. (开始的时候收入低，压力大，但是有不少外快，后来演变成了收入低，压力大，却没有了外快，而且还要面临来自因特网的巨大竞争。)

　　Brideau was ready for a change. She considered running a mobile coffee cart for commuters(定期上下班的人)in her neighborhood but the idea of London winters spent outside quickly nixed(对……说不;否决)those plans. (她考虑针对定期上下班的人搞一个咖啡推车，但是想到要在外面度过伦敦的冬天，她很快就否决了这些计划。)She decided on a career in technology.

　　The problem: no experience.

　　At some point in almost everyone’s career comes the desire to change fields and try something completely different. But one of the most common stumbling blocks(绊脚石)to making a dramatic career change is a lack of experience in the new field. Gaining that experience often means taking what can feel like a giant step backwards in your career, whether it’s by re-entering the student world or signing on for an internship(见习). (为了获得经验，你要没有重新进入学生的世界，或者报名参加实习，这都会让你感觉自己的事业往后退了一大步。)Choices like these can be financially draining(耗尽的) in the short term, but the long-term hope is that they will pay off before too long.

　　Back to basics

　　Brideau needed to learn to code if she was going to launch a career in technology. But she’d been under the impression it would take years of schoolwork to learn what she needed to in order to make the switch, she said in an email. Then she heard about the Makers Academy, a highly selective coding program in London that teaches web development. The intensive(密集的，高强度的) 10-week program, (it now costs £7200 and is three months long) meant Brideau was studying code whenever she “wasn’t eating or sleeping.”

　　With the coding experience under her belt, Brideau spent two months looking for the right job or internship. “I made sure to get out into the developer community as much as possible: meet ups, events, conferences, job fairs and such,” she said. “I also went to interviews, was invited to do code exercises as part of the job application process and I continued to study at home.”

　　Eventually, through the connections she made, Brideau landed a six-month paid code-writing internship at London-based Enternships, which places students and recent graduates in positions with starts ups(刚成立的公司) and small businesses. Once her internship is over, she hopes to find a position as a junior coder.

　　“The hardest part was taking the leap to doing something so completely different than I have ever done previously,” said Brideau. She likened(将……比作)it to the move she had made from Canada to the UK. “You keep moving forward with a lot of unanswered questions not knowing how it will all turn out until one day you find yourself at home in your new surroundings.”(你一直往前走，心里有很多无解的问题，也不知道终点在哪里，直到有一天，你发现自己熟悉了新的环境。)

　　Internships represent one of the best ways to gain experience and get a foot in the door(加入，进入) in today’s project-based economy, said Larry Stybel, a principal at Stybel Peabody & Associates Inc, a leadership coaching and senior outplacement firm in Waltham, Massachusetts.

　　It’s important to define your “compensation”(补偿) before starting an internship, according to Stybel. It can be more than monetary(金钱的). “It could be a title for your resume or a commitment for a good reference,” he said. If you don’t ask for what you want, at some point you are going to “feel like you’re being taken advantage of.

　　Get experience in less time-intensive ways

　　Obviously, not everyone can afford to pay thousands of dollars or euros for a three-month class — or take the time off for coursework or a full-time internship. But you can still get valuable experience. Many jobs have become more project-oriented in recent years, said Stybel. So, for example, helping out or learning the ropes(找窍门，熟悉情况) by working on the company’s website, therefore, can be done during off hours or on the weekends and from home.

　　Work shadowing(跟学) and volunteer positions are other ways to build up experience without leaving your current position, according to Sab Byrne, online editor of Careershifters.org, a London-based career-change advice website. If someone in your organisation is working at a role that interests you, ask if you can shadow them for a few hours or offer to help out on a short-term project. You can also reach out to people in your networks or your university alumni association(校友会) for recommendations of people who might be willing to have you shadow them.

　　“People are generally amenable(顺从的，愿意的)to this if they think you will help them, rather than get in the way,” said Byrne in an email. “This 'informal' work shadowing is a great way to build up contacts, test drive a career option to see if it is right for you and start to build up some experience.”

　　Another low-cost, low-time way to gain skills and experience: tutorial websites, both free and subscription-based, can help you become an “expert” in specific skills in a short time. Consider a tutorial on how to create a blog or website to showcase(展示) your work and expertise(专业技能).

　　“You could even create mini-projects for yourself that you treat as work to build up your portfolio(求职时的整套资料), so you have something to show employers,” said Byrne.

　　Vocabulary

　　eternity 永远;永恒(eternal，永远的)

　　perk 外快;额外的收入

　　evolve 进化

　　commuter 定期上下班的人

　　stumbling block 绊脚石

　　internship 实习;见习

　　draining 耗尽的

　　intensive 高强度的;密集的

　　start up 刚开的公司

　　liken ... to... 把......比作......

　　get a foot in the door in... 加入......

　　compensation 补偿

　　monetary 金钱的

　　learn the ropes 学习窍门，熟悉情况

　　shadow sb. 跟学......

　　alumni 校友

　　amenable 顺从的，愿意的

　　showcase 展示

　　expertise 专业知识;专业技能

　　portfolio 求职的整套资料;档案袋

　　Comprehension Questions

　　What do you think are the reason why people want to change their career?

　　Gaining experience can be very time-costly. What are the less time-intensive ways suggested by Byrne to gain work experience?

　　读真题，记词汇

　　1. Ghlorophyll, although exquisitely evolved to capture the energy of sunlight, can sometimes be overwhelmed by it, especially in situations of drought, low temperatures, or nutrient deficiency. (剑10T3P2)

　　参考译文：叶绿素虽进化为专门吸收太阳能，但是尤其是在干旱、低温或是养分不足的情况下，容易受损。

　　2. A modern hard-core sociobiologist might even go so far as to claim that this aggressive instinct evolved as an advantageous trait, having been of survival value to our ancestors in their struggle against the hardships of life on the plains and in the caves, ultimately finding its way into our genetic make-up as a remnant of our ancient animal ways.(剑5T1P2)

　　参考译文：现代社会生物学家的中坚分子甚至会称这种侵略性的本能是作为一种优势特征进化而来的，当我们的祖先在岩洞中和平原上与艰苦的生活作斗争时，这种本能对他们的生存起到了重要的作用。因此，这种本能最终作为远古时人类动物行为的遗留产物融入到我们的基因当中。

　　3. There appears to be a qualitative difference in the way the intellectually highly able think, compared with more average-ability or older pupils, for whom external regulation by the teacher often compensates for lack of internal regulation.(剑10T2P2)

　　参考译文：相比于能力中等的学生或者更大的学生，智商高的学生的思考方式似乎有本质上的差别，对于中等学生来说，老师的外部监管通常能弥补他们自控的不足。

　　4. This phenomenon has been emphasized by the relocation of some industries, particularly those which are labour intensive, to reduce production costs, even though the production site is hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away from the final assembly plant or away from users.(剑10T1P2)

　　参考译文：一些企业为了减少生产成本而重新选址的做法强化了这个现象，特别是那些劳动密集型的企业，即使生产地距离最后的装配工厂或者消费者几百甚至几千公里。