“

富貴，如果是可以代代相傳的呢？

我們常說(shuō)富不過(guò)三代，但是今天的美國(guó)人民卻發(fā)現(xiàn)，他們的精英人士可能會(huì)把自己的成功遺傳下去……

”

America's new aristocracy

美國(guó)的新貴族

As the importance of intellectual capital grows, privilege has become increasingly heritable.

隨著知識(shí)資本越來(lái)越重要，特權(quán)也越來(lái)越具可繼承性。

【1】When the candidates for the Republican presidential?nomination?line up on stage for their first debate in August, there may be three?contenders?whose fathers also ran for president. Whoever wins may face the wife of a former president next year. It is?odd?that a country founded on the principle of?hostility?to inherited status should be so tolerant of?dynasties.Because America never had kings or lords, it sometimes seems less inclined to worry about signs that its?elite?is?calcifying.

privilege：特權(quán)

heritable：可繼承的，可遺傳的。herit是一個(gè)詞根，表示繼承，inherit是動(dòng)詞（人）繼承，disinherit是剝奪繼承權(quán)，剝奪應(yīng)有的權(quán)力，inheritance是名詞遺傳、繼承。另外heir是繼承人的意思。

nomination：提名，任命

contender：爭(zhēng)奪者，競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者

odd：古怪的，怪異的；可用的

hostility：敵意，敵對(duì)狀態(tài)

dynasties：朝代；王朝( dynasty的名詞復(fù)數(shù) )

elite：精英

calcify：（使）鈣化，（使）硬化( calcify的現(xiàn)在分詞

獲得共和黨總統(tǒng)提名的候選人在八月即將迎來(lái)他們首輪公開(kāi)辯論，其中三位參選者的父親也曾參選總統(tǒng)。無(wú)論誰(shuí)贏，屆時(shí)都可能應(yīng)戰(zhàn)一位前總統(tǒng)夫人。這很奇怪，美國(guó)一向仇視繼承來(lái)的地位，這樣一個(gè)國(guó)家竟對(duì)家族政治如此容忍。因?yàn)槊绹?guó)從來(lái)沒(méi)有國(guó)王或貴族，他們似乎并不太擔(dān)心精英階層的逐漸固化。

［2］Tomas Jefferson?drew a distinction?between a natural?aristocracy?of the?virtuous?and talented, which was a?blessing?to a nation, and an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, which would slowly strangle it. Jefferson himself was a?hybrid?of these tow types --- a brilliant lawyer who inherited 11,000 acres and 135 slaves from his?father-in-law--- but the distinction proved?durable. When the?robber barons?accumulated fortunes that made European princes envious, the combination of their own?philanthropy, their children’s?extravagance?and federal?trust-busting?meant that Americans never discovered where the elite could?reliably?reproduce themselves.

draw a distinction：進(jìn)行區(qū)分，加以區(qū)別。

I don't think you can draw a distinction between Lucy and Lily.

我認(rèn)為你沒(méi)法把lucy和lily倆區(qū)分開(kāi)來(lái)。

aristocracy：貴族，貴族品質(zhì)，上層社會(huì)

virtuous：善良的，有道德的

blessing：（上帝的）祝福；祝圣( bless的現(xiàn)在分詞)

hybrid：雜種；混合的

father-in-law：岳父，公公，繼父；類(lèi)似的mother-in-law就是岳母，婆婆。

durable：耐用的；持久的

robber barons：強(qiáng)盜式資本家，強(qiáng)盜式貴族

philanthropy：博愛(ài)；慈善活動(dòng)，慈善事業(yè)

extravagance：奢侈品，奢侈，揮霍

trust-busting：反托拉斯活動(dòng)

reliably：可靠地，確實(shí)地

湯姆斯?杰佛遜認(rèn)為貴族分兩種，一種是天生的貴族，他們高尚而且聰慧，是國(guó)家之福；另一種是人造的貴族，他們的貴氣來(lái)自他們的財(cái)富和出身，而這些反過(guò)來(lái)會(huì)扼殺他們的貴氣。杰佛遜本人則是這兩種貴族的結(jié)合——一個(gè)從其岳父那里繼承了11，000英畝土地和135名奴隸的杰出律師——但是這一區(qū)分仍被長(zhǎng)期接受。當(dāng)那些強(qiáng)盜式資本家積累的財(cái)富足以讓歐洲貴族都忌妒的時(shí)候，他們熱衷慈善，但又縱容自己的孩子們過(guò)度奢侈，再加上聯(lián)邦反托拉斯活動(dòng)，三者形成了一股合力，使美國(guó)人相信精英們不可能自我復(fù)制。

［3］Now they are beginning to find out, because today’s rich increasingly pass on to their children an asset that cannot be?frittered away?in a few nights at a?casino. It is far more useful than wealth, and?invulnerable?to inheritance tax. It is brains.

fritter away：消磨，浪費(fèi)，揮霍一空

Don't fritter away your money on things you do not really need.

不要把錢(qián)浪費(fèi)在你并不真正需要的東西上。

casino：賭場(chǎng)，俱樂(lè)部，娛樂(lè)城

invulnerable：vulnerable是脆弱的，易受傷的，in作為前綴表示否定，invulnerable就是不易受傷的，刀槍不入的，無(wú)懈可擊的。近義詞有impregnable。able是常見(jiàn)的形容詞后綴，表示能……的，會(huì)……的，像是avoidable可避免的，acceptable，可接受的。invulnerable position是不敗之地。

No one still thinks iOS is invulnerable to malware, right?

沒(méi)有人還認(rèn)為iOS不會(huì)受到惡意軟件的攻擊，對(duì)吧？

現(xiàn)在他們漸漸意識(shí)到，今天的富人們?cè)絹?lái)越多傳給他們孩子的資產(chǎn)不再是幾個(gè)晚上在賭場(chǎng)就能揮霍一空的錢(qián)財(cái)，而是更有用的，還不用交遺產(chǎn)稅的真正的財(cái)富。它就是頭腦。

Matches made in New Haven

紐黑文的“門(mén)當(dāng)戶對(duì)”

［4］Intellectual capital drives the knowledge economy, so those who have lots of it get?a fat slice of the pie. And it is increasingly heritable.Far more than?in previous generations, clever, successful men marry clever, successful women. Such "assortative mating" increases inequality by 25%, by one estimate, since two-degree households typically enjoy two large incomes. Power couples?conceive?bright children and bring them up in stable homes --- only 9% of college-educated mothers who give birth each year are unmarried, compared with 61% of high-school?dropouts. They stimulate them?relentlessly: children of professionals hear 32m more words by the age of four than those parents on welfare. They move to?pricey?neighbourhoods with good schools, spend a packet on?flute?lessons and?pull strings?to get junior into a?top-notch?college.

a slice of the pie：分一杯羹，前面常加get、grab。

Far more than：許多，多得多的；何止

assortative mating：門(mén)當(dāng)戶對(duì)；同型交配

conceive：懷孕，構(gòu)想

dropout：輟學(xué)者，退學(xué)者

relentlessly：不斷地，無(wú)情地，不懈地

She always questioned me relentlessly.

她總是沒(méi)完沒(méi)了地問(wèn)我問(wèn)題。

pricey：（非正式）價(jià)格昂貴

flute：長(zhǎng)笛，長(zhǎng)笛吹奏者

pull strings：在幕后牽線，暗中操縱，從事幕后活動(dòng)

top-notch：notch是檔次位階的意思，top-notch是非正式說(shuō)法，表示一流的，頂尖的。

知識(shí)資本驅(qū)使知識(shí)經(jīng)濟(jì)，因此那些掌握越多知識(shí)的人分得的餅也就越豐厚，其繼承性越高。與上幾代人相比，更多聰明成功的男人娶了聰明成功的女人。據(jù)估計(jì)，這種“門(mén)當(dāng)戶對(duì)”造成的不平等性提高了25%，因?yàn)榉蚱迋z都擁有學(xué)位的家庭一般會(huì)享受到雙份高收入。有能力的夫妻能夠在穩(wěn)定的家庭中養(yǎng)育他們聰明的孩子——每年大學(xué)學(xué)歷的母親中只有9%是單身，而高中輟學(xué)生中是61%。有能力的父母會(huì)不懈地激勵(lì)他們的孩子：同樣4歲的孩子，富裕家庭的孩子比靠救濟(jì)生活家庭的孩子多聽(tīng)到了三千二百萬(wàn)個(gè)單詞。有能力的家庭會(huì)搬到有好學(xué)校的高檔小區(qū)，花大把錢(qián)送孩子上長(zhǎng)笛課，走后門(mén)托關(guān)系送孩子上頂級(jí)大學(xué)。

［5］The universities that?mould?the American elite seek out talented?recruits?from all backgrounds, and clever poor children who make it to the Ivy?League?may have their fees?waived?entirely. But middle-class students have to rack up huge debts to attend college, especially if they want a post-graduate degree, which many desirable jobs now require. The link between parental income and a child's academic success has grown stronger, as clever people become richer and splash out on their daughter's?Mandarin tutor, and education matters more than it used to, because the demand for brainpower has soared. A young college graduate earns 63% more than a high-school graduate if both work full-time --- and the high-school graduate is much less likely to work at all. For those at the top of the pile, moving straight from the best universities into the best jobs, the potential rewards are greater than they have ever been.

mould：塑造；模具，（獨(dú)特）個(gè)性、風(fēng)格

recruit：新兵，新學(xué)員；招募

League：等級(jí)，級(jí)別；聯(lián)賽

waive：宣布放棄，擱置，推遲，放棄

Mandarin tutor：普通話教師，家庭教師

對(duì)美國(guó)精英有著巨大影響的大學(xué)招收人才不分背景，考取常春滕大學(xué)的貧困生還可能獲得免除學(xué)費(fèi)的待遇。但即使來(lái)自中產(chǎn)家庭的學(xué)生還是不得不為學(xué)業(yè)舉債，尤其是如果他們想取得研究生學(xué)歷的話。而現(xiàn)在研究生學(xué)歷是許多好工作的必要條件。父母收入與孩子學(xué)業(yè)成就的聯(lián)系越來(lái)越緊密，高智商人群越來(lái)越富有并花大把銀子給他們的女兒請(qǐng)中文家教。因?yàn)閷?duì)腦力的要求大幅提高，教育比以前更重要。如果都能找到全職的工作的話，大學(xué)畢業(yè)生比高中畢業(yè)生的工資高63%，而實(shí)際上高中畢業(yè)生很難找到工作。對(duì)于那些從最好的大學(xué)畢業(yè)直接找到最好的工作的頂尖人才來(lái)說(shuō)，獲得的回報(bào)也是前所未有的。

［6］None of this is peculiar to America, but the trend is most visible there. This is partly because the gap between rich and poor is bigger than anywhere else in the rich world --- a problem Barack Obama alluded to repeatedly in his state-of-the-union address on January 20th. It is also because its education system favours the well-off more than anywhere else in the rich world. Thanks to hyperlocal funding, America is one of only three advanced countries where the government spends more on schools in rich areas than in poor ones. Its university fees have risen 17 times as fast as median incomes since 1980s, partly to pay for pointless bureaucracy and flashy buildings. And many universities offer "legacy" preferences, favoring the children of alumni in admissions.

peculiar：奇怪的，古怪的，特有的

the gap between rich and poor：貧富差距

well-off：富裕的，家境好的

pointless：無(wú)意義的，烏木鏢的

bureaucracy： 官僚主義，官僚機(jī)構(gòu)

flashy：浮華的，俗麗的

alumni：校友

這些現(xiàn)象并非美國(guó)獨(dú)有，但在美國(guó)這一趨勢(shì)絕對(duì)是最顯著的。一方面因?yàn)槊绹?guó)的貧富差距為發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家之首，這一點(diǎn)巴拉克?奧巴馬在1月20號(hào)發(fā)表的國(guó)情咨文中曾反復(fù)提及。另一方面也是因?yàn)槊绹?guó)教育系統(tǒng)是發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家中給予富人最多特權(quán)的一個(gè)。因?yàn)榻逃Y金絕大多數(shù)來(lái)自地方性融資，美國(guó)政府在富人區(qū)學(xué)校的教育投入遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過(guò)在貧困地區(qū)的學(xué)校的投入，全世界發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家中僅有三個(gè)國(guó)家出現(xiàn)如此做法。20世紀(jì)80年代以來(lái)美國(guó)大學(xué)學(xué)費(fèi)的增長(zhǎng)速度是中等家庭收入增長(zhǎng)速度的17倍。這些學(xué)費(fèi)的一部分卻花在了毫無(wú)意義的官僚機(jī)構(gòu)和花哨的樓宇建設(shè)上面。許多學(xué)校還存在“贈(zèng)與”優(yōu)先權(quán)，也就是曾向?qū)W校捐贈(zèng)的校友的子女有優(yōu)先錄取的特權(quán)。

Nurseries, not tumbrels

托兒所，而不是囚車(chē)

［7］The solution is not to?discourage rich people from?investing in their children, but to do a lot more to help clever kids who failed to pick?posh?parents. The moment to start is in early childhood, when the brain is most?malleable?and the right kind of stimulation has the largest effect. There is no substitute for parents who talk and read to their babies, but good nurseries can help, especially for the most struggling families; and America scores poorly by international standards. Improving early child care in the poorest American neighbourhoods yields returns of ten to one or more; few other government investments pay off so?handsomely.

Nurseries：托兒所，幼兒園

tumbrels：囚車(chē)，糞車(chē)

discourage sb from doing sth：阻止某人做某事

posh：（人）上流社會(huì)的；豪華的

malleable：可塑的

handsomely：（金額）相當(dāng)大，相當(dāng)可觀的；英俊的；（獲勝）比分懸殊的；（建筑）雄偉的

解決方法當(dāng)然不是阻止富人為子女教育投資，而是應(yīng)該更多幫助那些沒(méi)趕上有錢(qián)爸媽的聰明孩子。從幼教開(kāi)始，這個(gè)時(shí)期大腦的可塑性最強(qiáng)，正向刺激的作用力也是最大的。能夠跟孩子說(shuō)話，給孩子讀書(shū)的父母當(dāng)然是無(wú)可取代的，但良好的幼教機(jī)構(gòu)是有所幫助的，尤其是對(duì)于那些為了家庭疲于奔命的夫妻來(lái)說(shuō)，而美國(guó)在這方面的表現(xiàn)遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)低于國(guó)際標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。改善最貧窮區(qū)域的早期教育現(xiàn)狀的回報(bào)值可達(dá)到10倍甚至更多；其他政府投資的回報(bào)率很少如此之高。

［8］Many schools are in the grip of one of the most?anti-meritocratic?forces in America: the teachers' unions, which resist any?hint?that good teaching should be rewarded or bad teachers fired. To fix this, and the scandal of?inequitable?funding, the system should become both more and less local. Per-pupil funding should be set at the state level and tilted to favor the poor. Dollars should follow pupils, through a big expansion of?voucher?schemes or charter schools. In this way, good schools that attract more pupils will grow; bad ones will close or be taken over. Unions and their Democratic Party allies will?howl, but experiments in cities such as?battered?New Orleans have shown that school choice works.

anti-meritocratic：反精英管理的

hint：暗示，征兆

I'd dropped a hint about having an exhibition of his work up here.

我已經(jīng)暗示要在這里舉辦一次他的作品展。

inequitable：不公平的，不公正的

voucher：憑證，代金券

howl：哀號(hào)，吼叫，咆哮

battered：破舊的，破損的

在美國(guó)，許多學(xué)校由最反精英的力量之一——教師工會(huì)——掌控。這一組織反對(duì)任何優(yōu)秀教師獲得獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)或是差勁的教師被解雇。如果想修正這一缺點(diǎn)，并消除資助不平等的丑聞，教育系統(tǒng)應(yīng)該既強(qiáng)調(diào)地方化同時(shí)去地方化。針對(duì)每個(gè)學(xué)生的專(zhuān)項(xiàng)資金應(yīng)由州一級(jí)政府管理，并且政策應(yīng)向貧困家庭傾斜。通過(guò)學(xué)券制和特許學(xué)校的推廣，資金應(yīng)該發(fā)放到每一個(gè)學(xué)生手中。通過(guò)這一方式，吸引更多學(xué)生的聲譽(yù)好的學(xué)校將進(jìn)一步發(fā)展，差學(xué)校則面臨倒閉或被接收。這一定會(huì)激怒工會(huì)和他們的民主黨同盟，但落破的新奧爾良等試點(diǎn)城市的成功證明擇校是可行的。

［9］Finally, America's universities need an injection of?meritocracy. Only a handful, such as Caltech, admits applicants?solely?on academic merit. All should. And colleges should make more effort to offer value for money. With cheaper online courses gaining?momentum, traditional institutions must cut costs or?perish. The state can help by demanding more transparency from universities about the return that graduates earn on their degrees.

meritocracy：?精英管理（制度）；賢能統(tǒng)治（社會(huì)）

solely：僅僅;純粹;唯一地;獨(dú)一無(wú)二地

merit：價(jià)值，優(yōu)點(diǎn)；功德

momentum：勢(shì)頭，動(dòng)力；要素，契機(jī)

perish：毀滅;死亡，喪生;腐爛，枯萎，老化

美國(guó)高校最終還是需要引入精英教育制度。現(xiàn)在只有少數(shù)學(xué)校，如加洲理工學(xué)院，只根據(jù)學(xué)業(yè)成績(jī)招收求學(xué)者。所有大學(xué)都應(yīng)該這樣做。而且大學(xué)教育應(yīng)更物有所值。現(xiàn)在低廉的在線課程勢(shì)頭正勁，傳統(tǒng)教育機(jī)構(gòu)勢(shì)必削減成本否則無(wú)法生存。政府應(yīng)提供適當(dāng)援助，但要求學(xué)校在各學(xué)歷程度畢業(yè)生的薪資回報(bào)率方面更高的透明度。

［10］Loosening?the link between birth and success would make America richer --- far too much talent is currently wasted. It might also make the nation more?cohesive. If Americans suspect that the game is rigged, they may be tempted to vote for?demagogues?of the right or left --- especially if the grown-up alternative is another Clinton or yet another Bush.

Loosening：放松，松弛，解開(kāi)（loosen的現(xiàn)在分詞）

cohesive：有黏著力的;緊密結(jié)合的

demagogue：煽動(dòng)者，蠱惑民心的政客

不問(wèn)出身的成功會(huì)使美國(guó)更富裕更有凝聚力，現(xiàn)在太多的人才被浪費(fèi)了。如果美國(guó)人懷疑這是一場(chǎng)受到操縱的游戲的話，他們很可能把票投給或左或右的煽動(dòng)者，尤其是當(dāng)備選項(xiàng)是另一位克林頓或另一位布什。

在所有的資源中，人才的浪費(fèi)無(wú)疑是最讓人心痛的。因?yàn)榻逃贫鹊牟缓侠恚沟脧V大寒門(mén)學(xué)子無(wú)從獲得知識(shí)進(jìn)而改變出身帶來(lái)的貧困，對(duì)國(guó)家無(wú)疑也是巨大的損失。我國(guó)也應(yīng)該重視這個(gè)問(wèn)題，雖然已經(jīng)有貧困家庭補(bǔ)助，但像是留守兒童的權(quán)益、教育資源不均衡等現(xiàn)象，仍然在加劇著貧富差距，阻礙著孩子們的求學(xué)之路。