Are adults forgetting how to read?
昔年捧卷讀書,今朝指尖輕劃
英文部分選自經濟學人20241214期財經板塊
Finance & economics | Remedial classes required
Are adults forgetting how to read?
A survey by the OECD suggests so
Are yousmarter than a ten-year-old? New data suggest that a shockingly large portion of adults in the rich world might not be. Roughly one-fifth of people aged 16 to 65 perform no better in tests of maths and reading than would be expected of a pupil coming to the end of their time at primary school, according to a study released on December 10th by the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries. Worse still, adults in many places have grown less literate over the past ten years.
你比一個十歲的孩子更聰明嗎?最新資料顯示,富裕國家中有相當大比例的成年人可能並不比十歲孩童更強。經合組織(OECD)在12月10日釋出的一項研究顯示,約五分之一的16至65歲人群在數學和閱讀測試中的表現,僅與小學快畢業的學生相當。更糟糕的是,這十年裡,許多地區的成年人讀寫能力有所下降。
The OECD’s “Survey of Adult Skills” is carried out only once a decade. The researchers arranged for 160,000 adults in 31 countries and regions to sit short tests in numeracy, literacy and problem-solving. These aim to gauge if they have the skills to hold down a job, participate in civic life and generally thrive in the real world. At their most basic, they find out how well people can make sense of the warnings on the back of an aspirin packet, or work out how much wallpaper is needed to cover a room. At more advanced levels, they explore how well people can draw sound conclusions from analysis and charts of the sort one might stumble across in, say, a popular current-affairs magazine.
經合組織的《成人技能調查》每十年才進行一次。研究人員邀請了來自31個國家和地區的16萬名成年人,參與關於計算能力、讀寫能力和問題解決能力的簡短測試。這些測試旨在評估人們是否具備保住工作、參與社會生活以及在現實世界中取得成功的技能。其中最簡單的測試會考察人們能否理解阿司匹林包裝背面的警示資訊,或計算出需要多少桌布來貼滿一個房間。難一點的題目會測試人們是否能夠從分析和圖表中得出合理結論,這些內容可能出現在一份流行時事雜誌中。
註釋:
1. gauge: v. to determine the capacity or contents of 測試;評估
Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gauge
2.stumble across: v. to find or learn about (something) unexpectedly
Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stumble%20across
Finland will rejoice at the results: it posts the highest average score in all three fields. People in the Netherlands, Norway and Japan, who performed better than average across the disciplines, will also be pleased. England has risen up the league table in the ten years since the tests were last run, owing to better performances among young adults. By contrast, America’s results are heading south. Similarly, Chile, Italy, Poland and Portugal all boast a high share of people who score below the norm. Almost half of Chileans score badly enough to place in the bottom two categories in both maths and reading, compared with just 8% of Japanese people.
芬蘭對於結果將感到欣喜:在計算能力、讀寫能力和問題解決能力三個方面都取得了最高平均分。荷蘭、挪威和日本的表現也高於平均水平,值得稱道。英格蘭自十年前上次測試以來,排名有所上升,這得益於年輕成年人表現的提升。相比之下,美國的成績卻在下滑。同樣地,智利、義大利、波蘭和葡萄牙有很大比例的人分數低於平均水平。尤其是智利,近半的人在數學和閱讀兩項中表現糟糕,落入在倒數兩個檔次;而在日本,這一比例僅為8%。
Zoom out, and the picture is one of worsening basic skills. For almost every country that has seen its score in numeracy rise significantly over the past ten years, there is another that has seen its score fall. When it comes to literacy, countries with falling scores outnumber those making significant progress. This is the case even though more people are completing secondary school, and many more are getting degrees. The declines are concentrated among the least proficient, who seem to be scoring even lower than they did before. In many countries, the gap between the most- and least-skilled people is widening.
從整體來看,成年人的基礎技能水平其實正在惡化。在過去十年中,一個國家計算能力得分顯著上升,就會有另一個國家得分下降。在讀寫能力方面,得分下降的國家數量多於取得顯著進步的國家,哪怕現在完成中學教育和獲得大學學位的人越來越多。特別是那些本來就沒什麼技能的人,他們的成績比以前還更糟糕了。在許多國家,技能最強和最弱人群之間的差距正在拉大。
Increased migration offers some explanation. Non-native speakers tend to do worse in tests that involve juggling words. Ageing populations do not help: the data suggest that numeracy and literacy peak at 30 or so. But even when these changes are accounted for, literacy scores in lots of countries are falling. Andreas Schleicher, head of education and skills at the OECD, speculates that adults are now getting less practice than they used to at reading long and complex texts. Blame TikTok.
移民的增長可以部分解釋這一現象。非母語人士一般在涉及複雜單詞的考試時表現較差。人口老齡化也造成一定負面影響:資料表明,計算能力和讀寫能力在30歲左右達到峰值。但是即使考慮這些變化,讀寫能力在許多國家仍在下降。OECD教育和技能主管安德烈亞斯·施萊謝爾(Andreas Schleicher)推測,現在成年人甚少像以前那樣閱讀長篇複雜文字。都怪TikTok。
註釋:
The OECD’s study is not the only one to suggest that improvements in cognitive skills might now be stalling. Throughout the 20th century, psychometrists observed that iq scores were rising reliably, as part of a phenomenon named the “Flynn effect”. More recently, the trend in some countries has been that of stagnation or decline. The cause of this is hotly debated. What no one much doubts is that people with nimble brains find it rather easier to swerve life’s worst misfortunes, and are more likely to enjoy the best outcomes.
OECD的這項研究並不是唯一一項發現認知技能的提升可能陷入停滯的研究。縱觀整個20世紀,心理測量學家發現人類的智商分數確實在上升,這是一種被稱為“弗林效應”(“Flynn effect”)的現象。但是最近,一些國家出現了停滯甚至下降的趨勢。背後的原因引發了激烈的爭論,但大家有共識的一點是:頭腦敏捷的人更容易閃避生活中最糟糕的不幸,也更有可能獲得最好的結果。
註釋:
1.Flynn effect:指智商測試的結果逐年增加的現象。可能原因包括近親通婚減少,營養增加,顱頂增大,更多人受到教育,社會複雜度提高等等。
2.Swerve:If a vehicle or other moving thing swerves or if you swerve it, it suddenly changes direction, often in order to avoid hitting something. 使突然轉向; 突然轉向
Surveys carried out alongside the OECD’s tests appear to confirm as much. People who perform best in the tests boast wages that are 75% higher than those with the worst scores. And returns to good numeracy and literacy seem to be more than just financial. High scorers report that they are happier and in better health. Low scorers seem to be more suspicious of others, and more likely to report feeling alienated from politics. You do not need a first-rate mind to sense trouble ahead.
與OECD的測試同時進行的調查似乎也證實了這一點。在測試中表現最出色的人的工資比最差勁的人高出75%。除了經濟層面以外,計算和讀寫能力更為優秀的人們在調查中反饋他們過得更快樂,身體也更健康。能力測試得分較低的人們似乎對他人更加懷疑,還覺得自己在政治上被忽略了。即使不是特別聰明的人,也能感覺到這種趨勢可能會帶來問題。
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