十岁孩子文学水平都比我们强？| 经济学人

财富 2024-12-15 12:11 美国

写在前面

1.重点单词

Literacy - 读写能力

Numeracy - 计算能力

Brainteasers - 脑筋急转弯

Unnerving - 使人不安的

Acuity - 敏锐度

Misfired - 失败了

Unfashionable - 不时髦的

Fuddy-duddy - 守旧的人

Upheaval - 剧变

Ace - 擅长

Writ large - 放大来看

Paltry - 微不足道的

Trickiness - 棘手

Mania - 狂热

2.词组

Brain drain - 人才流失

Rich countries - 富裕国家

Mental arithmetic - 心算

Direction of travel - 发展趋势

Educational qualifications - 教育资格

Demographic change - 人口变化

Native-born - 本地出生的

Soft skills - 软技能

Generative artificial intelligence - 生成式人工智能

Technological upheaval - 技术变革

League table - 排行榜

3.固定搭配

Carry out tests - 进行测试

Make sense of - 理解

Hold qualifications - 拥有资格

Adjust for - 针对...进行调整

Harp on about - 喋喋不休地谈论

Do badly in - 表现不佳

Lead nowhere good - 不会有好结果

Creep up - 缓慢上升

Junking tests - 废弃测试

Underestimate the trickiness - 低估难度

Sap funding - 消耗资金

Embark on courses - 开始课程

4.文章概述：

最新的OECD数据显示，富国中的成人文学和数理能力在过去十年中大幅下滑。约五分之一的成人在数学和阅读方面的表现不超过小学生的水平。尽管成人教育资格不断提高，文学水平却在许多国家下降。人口老龄化和新移民语言困难部分解释了这一现象，但教育和培训系统的失败也是一大原因。缺乏基本的数理和文学能力不仅影响个人收入和健康，还导致社会满意度和政治参与度下降。改进儿童教育和成人教育系统是解决这一问题的关键，尤其是为弱势群体提供第二次机会和职业培训。

5.问题（如何读完文章能很快回答这几个问题，证明我们真正读懂了这篇文章）：

Q1: What changes have been observed in the literacy and numeracy skills of adults in rich countries according to the latest OECD data?

A: Many countries have seen a decline in literacy and numeracy skills over the past decade, with about one-fifth of adults performing no better than primary school children.

Q2: What factors might be contributing to the decline in adult literacy levels?

A: Factors include demographic changes such as aging populations and new immigrants struggling with language, as well as failures in education and training systems.

Q3: What are the consequences of lacking basic numeracy and literacy skills?

A: It affects personal income, health, social satisfaction, and political participation, and widens the skill gap between the highest- and lowest-skilled adults.

精读|翻译|词组

Leaders | Brain drain

Can you read as well as a ten-year-old?

Adults in rich countries are less literate than they were a decade ago. That requires attention

Does it often feel as if the world is getting stupider? Data released on December 10th by the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, suggest this may not be all in your head. Roughly every ten years the organisation asks adults in dozens of places to sit tests in numeracy and literacy. The questions it poses are not abstract brainteasers, spelling tests or mental arithmetic. They aim to mimic problems people aged 16-65 face in daily life, whether they are working in a factory or an office, or simply trying to make sense of the news.

The latest tests were carried out in 31 rich countries, and their findings are unnerving. They suggest that a fifth of adults do no better in maths and reading than might be expected of a primary-school child. The direction of travel is even less encouraging. In maths, average scores have risen in a few places over the past ten years, but fallen in almost as many. In literacy, a lot more countries have seen scores decline than advance, despite the fact that adults hold more and higher educational qualifications than ever before.

Demographic change offers some explanation. New immigrants often struggle with a new language. The native-born have ageing brains. But even after adjusting for this, trends remain gloomy, especially in literacy. Some speculate that Netflix, video games and social media are sapping acuity. It is just as likely that education and training systems have misfired.

These disappointing results deserve more attention than they are likely to get. Basic numeracy and literacy are oddly unfashionable causes—especially when adults lack them. Students of education prefer to debate how to teach fashionable “soft skills”. Hype around generative artificial intelligence does not help: harping on about the importance of times-tables seems even more fuddy-duddy when talking robots promise to do all the hard work.

Yet a century of technological upheaval has not cut demand for people who are good with numbers, or who have a way with words. Adults who do badly in the OECD’s tests earn vastly less than those who ace them. They are also in poorer health, less satisfied with their life, less trusting of others and more likely to feel that they have no voice in politics. In many countries the gap in ability between the highest- and lowest-skilled grown-ups is widening (not because smarty-pants are doing better, but because the least able are doing worse). Writ large, such trends lead nowhere good.

What to do? Improving lessons for children is the surest way of creating more capable grown-ups; governments ought to start there. England’s adults have crept up the OECD’s league table, mostly because the youngest ones (aged 16-24) are scoring better than before. That may reflect reforms which have made exams for older teenagers more difficult, and begun requiring youngsters who fail them to try again. In America, which has done fairly badly, states are junking tests that were in the past used to determine who graduated from high school. Grades there are inflating unchecked.

The second task is to oil creaking systems for educating adults. These hand dropouts second chances; they also serve people who change careers and help migrants integrate. Yet politicians grant them paltry budgets, in part because they underestimate the trickiness of what they are being asked to accomplish. People with the weakest skills tend to have the least time and money for self-improvement. They are less likely to attend adult classes, or get training, even though they are the most in need.

In too many places a mania for universities has sapped funding and focus from all the other kinds of lessons that people aged 18 and above could be offered. Degrees are becoming less meaningful: the OECD has found that even some university graduates post numeracy and literacy scores that might embarrass a child. Meanwhile, oldies who want to return to class without embarking on long, expensive university courses often find good alternatives are lacking. Accelerating efforts to fix all these problems seems like a bright idea.

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Dictionary.com2024年年度词汇——Demure

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