??择要：大师都晓得，《经济学人》中的文章一向很受考研英语出题人喜好，反复呈现在积年的考研英语浏览理解试题中。以是，列位考研的小火伴们可以提前看看经济学中的文章。

Social change

　　社会的扭转

　　The weaker sex

　　弱男人

　　Blue-collar men in rich countries are in trouble. Theymust learn to adapt

　　在发财国度的蓝领男性群体正处于窘境中，他们必需学会顺应。

　　AT FIRST glance the patriarchy appears to be thriving. More than 90% of presidents andprime ministers are male, as are nearly all big corporate bosses. Men dominate finance,technology, films, sports, music and even stand-up comedy. In much of the world they stillenjoysocial and legal privileges simply because they have a Y chromosome. So it might seemodd to worry about the plight of men.

　　父系社会如今咋一看彷佛正昌盛。跨越90%的国度总统总理，和几近所有大型公司的大boss都是男性。男性统治着经济，科技，企业，体育，音乐，乃至连说相声的都根基是男的。在大大都国度里汉子仅仅由于具有一条Y染色体便享有在社会和法令上的特权，如许看来，担忧男性的“悲催运气”般的窘境彷佛是在庸人自扰。

　　Yet there is plenty of cause for concern. Men cluster at the bottom as well as the top. They arefar more likely than women to be jailed, estranged from their children, or to kill themselves.They earn fewer university degrees than women. Boys in the developed world are 50% morelikely to flunk basic maths, reading and science entirely.

　　但有却又大量的起因让人不能不担忧。男性群体从渣男到精英男，他们在被关进牢狱啊，被他们的孩子冷淡厌弃啊，或自尽率啊都远弘远于女性，却在获得更多的大学学位上败给了女性。在发财国度中，有50%摆布的男孩会在根本数学，浏览和科学学科上挂掉。

　　One group in particular is suffering. Poorly educated men in rich countries have had difficultycoping with the enormous changes in the labour market and the home over the past half-century. As technology and trade have devalued brawn, less-educated men have struggled tofind a role in the workplace. Women, on the other hand, are surging into expanding sectorssuch as health care and education, helped by their superior skills. As education has becomemore important, boys have also fallen behind girls in school (except at the very top). Men wholose jobs in manufacturing often never work again. And men without work find it hard to attracta permanent mate. The result, for low-skilled men, is a poisonous combination of no job, nofamily and no prospects.

　　在男性群体中又有一类人特别遭罪。在曩昔的半个世纪里，发财国度里的受教诲水平低的男性已很是难应答产生了剧变的劳工市场和家庭。现代技能改造和商业已使本来的靠劳力情势的肌肉男的价值直线降低，缺乏教诲的男性，不能不在职场中苦苦挣扎，才能赢得一席之地。相反的，女性却寄托着本身出众的技术，在像医疗卫生和教诲如许的范畴里大放异彩。教诲已酿成更首要的事变，而男孩却黉舍里被女孩甩在了死后(尖端范畴学科除外)。从工场赋闲的男性常从此再也不去事情。而没有事情的男性会发明去吸引永恒的朋友是件很是难的事。由此致使低技能的男性被无事情，无家庭，无远景的“三无”剧毒环环围住。

　　From nuclear families to fissile ones

　　从焦点家庭到易碎家庭

　　Those on the political left tend to focus on economics. Shrinking job opportunities for men,they say, are entrenching poverty and destroying families. In America pay for men with only ahigh-school certificate fell by 21% in real terms between 1979 and 2013; for women with similarqualifications it rose by 3%. Around a fifth of working-age American men with only a high-school diploma have no job.

　　支撑左翼 的人偏向于专注于经济，他们认为削减男性事情的机遇会加重贫困，并，并捣毁家庭。在美国，只有高中学历的男性的现实收入，从1979年到2013年减低了21%，而等同学历的女性，在此时代的现实收入却提高了3%。约有5分之一的只有高中学历的处在事情适龄的男性，处在赋闲中。

　　Those on the right worry about the collapse of the family. The vast majority of women wouldprefer to have a partner who does his bit both financially and domestically. But they wouldrather do without one than team up with a layabout, which may be all that is on offer: Americanmen without jobs spend only half as much time on housework and caring for others as dowomen in the same situation, and much more time watching television.

　　支撑右翼的人担忧着家庭的解体。绝大大都的女性偏向于和愿分身家里财务收入本能机能和家务劳动本能机能的男性成为两口儿。她们甘愿独身也不肯随意和一个不务正业的卢瑟委曲过一生，而这是有根据的：美国赋闲男性仅仅只支出等同前提下赋闲女性的一半的时候来做家务事和赐顾帮衬相互的糊口，这些汉子会花更多的时候来看电视。

　　Hence the unravelling of working-class families. The two-parent family, still the norm among theelite, is vanishing among the poor. In rich countries the proportion of births outside marriagehas trebled since 1980, to 33%. In some areas where traditional manufacturing has collapsed,it has reached 70% or more. Children raised in broken homes learn less at school, are morelikely to drop out and earn less later on than children from intact ones. They are also not verygood at forming stable families of their own.

　　是以工人阶层的家庭变的更容易崩溃。双亲家庭这类情势仍是精英阶级的标配，而这类家庭情势却在贫民中正在消散。在发财国度，非婚生子占复活儿的比重比1980年超过跨过了3倍，已到达了33%。而在一些传统制造业崩坏的地域，这一比例到达70%乃至更高。糊口在破裂家庭里的孩子比起一般家庭的孩子而言，在黉舍里会学的更少，更可能停学和收入较低。同时，由于不长于处置家庭问题，他们本身往后的家庭也趋于不不乱(简言之单亲家庭的孩子长大后更容易于构成新的单亲家庭)。

　　These two sides often talk past each other. But their explanations are not contradictory: botheconomics and social change are to blame, and the two causes reinforce each other.Moreover, these problems are likely to get worse. Technology will disrupt more industries,creating benefits for society but rendering workers who fail to update their skills redundant.The OECD, a think-tank, predicts that the absolute number of single-parent households willcontinue to rise in nearly all rich countries. Boys who grow up without fathers are more likely tohave trouble forming lasting relationships, creating a cycle of male dysfunction.

　　这两种政治偏向的会商话题常常会互相交织堆叠。但两者的概念却其实不抵牾：经济状态和社会这两者的变化都是造成此类近况的缘由，而这两者还互为因果，构成恶性轮回。别的，这些问题可能变得更糟。科技将崩溃更多的行业，为社会缔造更多的价值，但也将使更多的没法进级本身技术的劳动者赋闲。 经济互助与成长组织里的一个诸葛天团展望单亲家庭的比例定会继续在所有发财国度中上升。在没有父性脚色的家庭长大的男孩，将更可能不克不及处置好久长瓜葛(如伉俪瓜葛)以致于构成新的单亲家庭，由此构成一个男性功效混乱的死轮回。

　　Tinker, tailor, soldier, hairdresser

　　锅匠，成衣，兵士和美发师

　　What can be done? Part of the solution lies in a change in cultural attitudes. Over the pastgeneration, middle-class men have learned that they need to help with child care, and havechanged their behaviour. Working-class men need to catch up. Women have learned that theycan be surgeons and physicists without losing their femininity. Men need to understand thattraditional manual jobs are not coming back, and that they can be nurses or hairdresserswithout losing their masculinity.

　　那末问题来了，咱们能做甚么呢?其一在于扭转文化立场。在曩昔的一代，中产阶级的男士通晓了他们必要帮手照看小孩，并由此扭转了他们的举动。工人阶级的男士们必要抓紧脚步遇上来了。密斯通晓了她们可以成为外科医师和物理学家而不失其女性魅力。汉子们必要大白传统的体力事情一去不复返，他们可以成为护士或美发师而不失其男性霸气侧漏之美。

　　Policymakers

also need to lend a hand, because foolish laws are making the problem worse.America reduces the supply of marriageable men by locking up millions of young males for non-violent offences and then making it hard for them to find work when they get out (in Georgia,for example, felons are barred from feeding pigs, fighting fires or working in funeral homes). Anumber of rich countries discourage poor people from marrying or cohabiting by cutting theirbenefits if they do.

　　当局决议计划人也需搭把手，由于愚笨的法律会令问题变得更糟。美国削减了对被关押的以百万数计的非暴力犯法的处于适婚春秋的年青男人的支撑，并在他们出狱后找事情这类事上还要制绊脚石造(以乔治亚州为例，罪犯被制止从事养猪，救火或在殡葬馆事情)。在一些发财国度，为了阻拦贫民成婚或同居这一目标，经由过程若是他们这么干的话就砍掉他们的福利这类手腕来到达。

　　Even more important than scrapping foolish policies is retooling the educational system, whichwas designed in an age when most men worked with their muscles. Politicians need to recognisethat

boys’underachievement is a serious problem, and set about fixing it. Some sensiblepolicies that are good for everybody are particularly good for boys. Early-childhood educationprovides boys with more structure and a better chance of developing verbal and social skills.Countries with successful vocational systems such as Germany have done a better job thanAnglo-Saxon countries of motivating non-academic boys and guiding them into jobs, butpolicymakers need to reinvent vocational education for an age when trainees are more likely toget jobs in hospitals than factories.

　　不外比起烧毁愚笨的政策，鼎新设计于大大都汉子都是用肌肉(而非脑)事情的年月的教诲体系显得更加首要。政治家门应当意想到男孩们的进修成就不良师一个很严重的问题，并应安身于改良之。一些明智的政策是为每小我都好，出格是对男孩。初期儿童教诲会供给男孩们更体系并更能更好的成长他们的白话能力和社会技术。有着乐成的职业教诲体系的国度如德国，在鼓动勉励男孩去学术化，重职业化，并引导他们事情上，已做的比起盎格鲁-撒克逊国度而言要好的多了。但政策制订者应将规复职业教诲的重心放在使受训者更偏向于往后在病院事情而不是在工场事情这类

期间请求上。

　　More generally, schools need to become more boy-friendly. They should recognise that boys liketo rush around more than girls do: it’s better to give them lots of organised sports andenergy-eating games than to dose them with Ritalin or tell them off for fidgeting. They need toprovide more male role models: employing more male teachers in primary schools will bothsupply boys with a male to whom they can relate and demonstrate that men can be teachersas well as firefighters.

　　更遍及而言，黉舍必要变得更亲男孩化一些。他们应当意想到男孩比起女孩而言就是会更可能处处肇事：比起给他们吃药或警告他们不要乱动而言，最佳仍是提供应他们一些有组织的活动和花费精神的游戏。他们必要男性楷模脚色：在小学阶段，雇佣更多的男性西席，这不单可以给男孩子供给他们可以认同的男性脚色，还可觉得汉子可以像成为救火员同样的成为西席供给实证。

　　The growing equality of the sexes is one of the biggest achievements of the post-war era:people have greater opportunities than ever before to achieve their ambitions regardless oftheir gender. But some men have failed to cope with this new world. It is time to give them ahand.

　　男女愈来愈同等是战后咱们获得的重大成绩之一：比起之前，当今人们非论性别均可以具有更好的机遇去实现他们的空想。可是一些男士未能顺应这个新的世界，是时辰对他们伸出援手了。

　　【重点讲授】

　　一、learn to 得悉;学会

　　例句:Eventually, you’ll learn to cry that on theinside.

　　终有一天，你会学会让泪往内心流。

　　二、appear to 彷佛;仿佛

　　例句:By all accounts, Rodger would appear to be afine fellow.

　　听说，罗杰是个好小伙。

　　三、plenty of 很多;大量的

　　例句:There were plenty of servants to wait on her.

　　有不少家丁奉养她。

　　四、likely to 偏向于;可能要

　　例句:The fires are likely to permanently deforest the land.

　　这些火警极可能会完全毁掉这片地皮上的丛林。