看经济学人学雅思写作--婚姻经济学（一）

摘要：本文为大家详细分析一篇经济学人杂志的文章，不仅有中文翻译，还总结了大量适用于雅思写作的万用经典句式和高分词汇，对于正在备考雅思写作的同学们来说是绝佳的复习资料。详情见文章。

AS a high-powered media executive in New York city,Leah had been wary of marriage.After seeing other women get “mommy-tracked” at work, she was ambivalent about letting children compromise her career. But love has a way of making a hash of plans, and these days she and her husband manage two full-timejobs and the care of their 18-month-old daughter. Leah still works nearly 50 hours a week and earns a bit more than her husband, but she also handles most of the routine caregiving, cooking and cleaning at home. Juggling everything often leaves her feeling “inadequate,” she admits, but she chalks it up to the struggle of trying to have it all. “Rich world problems, right?” she says with a chuckle.

作为纽约市一位工作忙碌的媒体主管，Leah对婚姻一直十分小心。见到其他女同事在工作时还要为孩子操心，她对是否要孩子感到矛盾。但爱总能想方设法做出一堆糟乱的计划，如今她与丈夫各有一份全职工作，同时还养育他们18个月大的女儿。Leah每周工作50个小时，收入比丈夫略高，但家里照顾女儿，做饭和家务的责任也主要由她承担。她承认，同时做这一切时常让自己觉得“不称职”，但她把这看成是为了同时拥有家庭和事业的努力。“富人的问题，不是吗?”她轻笑着说道。

【经典句式】

executive高管

be wary of 谨慎的

ambivalent矛盾的

compromise危害

full-time job 全职工作

handle处理

routine惯例

caregiving照顾

jungle同时做……

inadequate不足够的

admit承认

struggle挣扎;努力

chuckle轻笑

While fewer women are marching to the altar—the proportion of those married before the age of 30 has fallen from 50% in1960 to around 20% today—the ones that do increasingly look like Leah. Highly educated, financially independent women were once among the least likely to get hitched. Now they are getting married at a faster rate than their lesser-educated peers, and often to highly educated men. These unions are not only the most common, butalso the most harmonious.New data show that America’s divorce rate has continued its plunge from its 1981 peak—from 5.3 to 3.2 divorces per 1,000 people in 2014—but this decline is largely concentrated among the better-educated. Among college graduates who married in the early 2000s, only around 11% divorced within seven years, according to data from Justin Wolfers of the University of Michigan.

迈入婚姻的女人越来越少——30岁前结婚的女性人数比例由1960年的50%下降至如今的约20%——而这些已婚女性则越来越像leah的情况。受过高等教育，经济独立的女人曾经是最无人问津的对象。如今她们比受教育更少的女性更早结婚，对象常是同样受高等教育的男性。这类结合不仅最常见，也常是最和谐的。新的数据表明美国的离婚率持续降低——自1981年离婚高峰的0.53%下降至2014年0.32%——但这一降幅主要集中在受教育水平更高的群体中。据密西根大学的贾斯汀沃尔佛表示，21世纪初结婚的大学毕业生中，只有11%左右的人在7年内离婚。

【经典句式】

march行军;走向……

altar祭坛

highly educated受过高等教育的

financially independent经济独立的

once曾经

rate速度

lesser-educated受教育更少的

peer同辈

harmonious和谐的

data数据

divorce rate离婚率

the better-educated受教育水平更高的人

college graduate大学毕业生

【小作文数据表达】

The proportion of … has fallen from xx% in … to around xx%.…的比例由…年的xx%下降至约xx%。

…’s … has continued its plunge from its … peak—from xxx to xxx in …—but this decline is largely concentrated among ……的…持续降低-自…年高峰…的xxx下降至…的xxx，…但这一降幅主要集中在……群体中。

This has created a fairly uneven marriage market. Although the returns to a college education have risen sharply in recent decades, America’s college-graduation rate has been inching up slowly, and now hovers at around 40%. Women make up a growing share: those born in 1975, for example, were around 20% more likely to complete a four-year degree than their male counterparts. Meanwhile, women with less education are stuck with a stock of less-appealingmen. Women of nearly all levels of education have seen their earning power climb since the 1970s, while the earnings of men without a college degree have fallen between 5% and 25%, according to David Autor and Melanie Wasserman, both economists at MIT. Less-educated men also tendto have more anachronistic views about who should do what at home: they are not only less comfortable with partnerships in which women earn more, they also tend to be less-attentive parents and less helpful around the house than their better-educated peers.

这导致婚姻市场变得相当地不公平。虽然近几十年来大学教育的回报大幅增高，美国的本科毕业率仍上升缓慢，目前浮动在40%左右。女性所占比例越来越高：例如1975年出生的女性，完成四年学习的可能性比他们的男同学高出20%。与此同时，受更少教育的女性无法摆脱大量缺乏吸引力的男性。据两位MIT的经济学家, 大卫奥图和美琳沃森曼表示，自20世纪70年代来，不同受教育水平的女性都感受到了收入的上升，但学历低于本科的男性收入下降了5%到25%。受教育程度低的男性对男女在家庭中的分工也更容易有过时的观念：他们中更多人会在女性收入高的关系中感到不舒服，相较受教育更多的男性而言，他们更少参与子女教育，做家务活也更少。

【经典句式】

fairly相当地

return回报

college-graduation rate本科毕业率

counterpart等同物

astock of 大量的

appealing吸引人的

tend to往往;倾向于

anachronistic view过时的观念

anachronistic时代错误的

peer同辈

【小作文数据表达】

inch up slowly缓慢上升

hover at around …在……上下浮动

make up a growing share所占比例越来越高

… have seen … climb since…, while … of … have fallen between … and …自……以来，…的…上升，而…的…降了…到…。

【犀利观点】教育塑造更好的伴侣：

Less-educated men also tendto have more anachronistic views about who should do what at home: they are not only less comfortable with partnerships in which women earn more, they also tend to be less-attentive parents and less helpful around the house than their better-educated peers.