①Invention and innovation have been quintessentially American puisuits from the earliest days of the republic. BenjaminFranklin was a world-famous scientist and inventor. Cyrus McCormick and his harvester, Samuel F.B. Morse and the telegraph, Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone—the 19th century produced a string of inventors and their world-changing creations. And then there was the greatest of them all, Thomas Alva Edisonl. He came up with the crucial devices that would give birth to three enduring American industries: electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures.
②Much of the world we live in today is a legacy of Edison and of his devotion to science and innovation. Edison taught us to invent, and for decades we were the best in the world. But today, more than 160 years after Edison’s birth, America is losing its scientific edge. A landmark report released in May by the National Science Board lays out the numbers: while U.S. investment in R&D as a share of total GDP has remained relatively constant since the mid-1980s at 2.7%, the federal share of R&D has been consistently declining—even as Asian nations like Japan and South Korea have rapidly increased that ratio. At the same time, American students seem to be losing interest in science. Only about one-third of U.S. bachelor’s degrees are in science or engineering now, compared with 63% in Japan and 53% in China.
③It’s ironic that nowhere is America’s position in science and technology more threatened than in the industry that Edison essentially invented: energy. Clean power could be to the 21st century what aeronautics and the computer were to the 20th, but the U.S. is already falling behind. Meanwhile, Congress remains largely paralyzed. Though in May the House of Representatives was finally able to pass the $86 billion America Competes Reauthorization Act, which would double the budgets of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Energy Department’s Office of Science, the bill’s fate is cloudy in the deadlocked Senate. “At this rate…we’ll be buying most of our wind generators and photovoltaic panels from other countries,” former NSF head Arden L. Bement said at a congressional hearing recently. “That’s what keeps me awake something at night.”
④Some erosion of the U.S.’s scientific dominance is inevitable in a globalized world and might not even be a bad thing. Tomorrow’s innovators could arise in Shanghai or Seoul or Bangalore. And Edison would counsel against panic—as he put it once, “Whatever setbacks America has encountered, it has always emerged as a stronger and more prosperous nation.” But the U.S. will inevitably decline unless we invest in the education and research necessary to maintain the American edge. The next generation of Edisons could be waiting. But unless we move quickly, they won’t have the tools they need to thrive.
Whatever setbacks America has encountered, it has always emerged as a stronger and more prosperous nation.(不论美国遇到什么挫折困难，克服之后他都会成为一个更加坚强和繁荣的国度。)这个句型多么简洁好用!可用在表达“无论……,结果都会是更……。”意义的时侯。我们在写考研作文的时候，常要用到这样积极表达正面意义的句型。
还有最后两句话中都出现了“unless”这个连接词。在考研英语作文部分，如果你能正确和恰当的使用这个连接词，来构成一个复合句。你的作文结构将显得很“高级”和英语逻辑感很地道。But the U.S. will inevitably decline unless we invest in the education and research necessary to maintain the American edge. . But unless we move quickly, they won’t have the tools they need to thrive.