|
The best escalator to opportunity in America is education. But a new study underscores that the escalator is broken. 在美国，机遇的最佳升降机是教育。但从一项新研究可以明显看出，升降机坏了。 We expect each generation to do better, but, currently, more young American men have less education (29 percent) than their parents than have more education (20 percent). 我们希望每一代人都能更好，然而，当前一代美国年轻人中，受教育程度低于其父母的（29%）要比高于其父母的（20%）更多。 Among young Americans whose parents didn’t graduate from high school, only 5 percent make it through college themselves. In other rich countries, the figure is 23 percent. 在父母没有读完高中的年轻美国人中，自己能够读完大学的只有5%。而在其他富有国家，这个数字是23%。 The United States is devoting billions of dollars to compete with Russia militarily, but maybe we should try to compete educationally. Russia now has the largest percentage of adults with a university education of any industrialized country — a position once held by the United States, although we’re plunging in that roster. 美国在军事上投入数以十亿计的美元与俄罗斯抗衡，但也许我们应该在教育上比一比。俄罗斯成年人中拥有大学学历的比例是所有工业化国家里最高的——这个位置曾经属于美国，然而现在我们在这项排名里一直往下掉。 | 
