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Finance & economics
财经版块
Cognitive skills
认知技能
Off the books
离开书本
Are adults forgetting how to read?
成年人正忘记如何阅读吗？
Are you smarter than a ten-year-old?
你比十岁的孩子更聪明吗？
New data suggest that a shockingly large portion of adults in the rich world might not be.
新数据表明，富裕国家中相当大部分的成年人可能并不是。
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.
根据经济合作与发展组织（主要由富裕国家组成的集团）于12月10日发布的一项研究，在16岁至65岁的人群中，大约有五分之一的人在数学和阅读测试中的表现并不比将要小学毕业的学生更好。
Worse still, adults in many places have grown less literate over the past ten years.
更糟糕的是，在过去十年里，许多地方的成年人的读写能力变得更差了。
The OECD’s “Survey of Adult Skills” is carried out only once a decade.
经合组织的“成人技能调查”每十年才进行一次。
The researchers arranged for 160,000 adults in 31 countries and regions to sit short tests in numeracy, literacy and problem-solving.
研究人员安排31个国家和地区的16万名成年人参加算术、读写、解决问题的简短测试。
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.
这些测试旨在衡量他们是否具备保住工作、参与公民生活、在现实世界中好好生活的技能。
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.
在最基本的层面上，测试会发现人们对阿司匹林包装背面的警告语理解程度如何，或者对于一个房间需要贴多少墙纸的计算能力如何。
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.
在更高级的层面上，测试探索对于人们可能在流行的时事杂志中偶然看到的分析和图表，人们从中推断出正确结论的能力如何。
Finland will rejoice at the results: it posts the highest average score in all three fields.
芬兰将为测试结果感到高兴：该国在所有三个领域都获得了最高的平均分。
People in the Netherlands, Norway and Japan, who performed better than average across the disciplines, will also be pleased.
荷兰、挪威、日本也会感到高兴，这三国在各个学科上的表现都优于平均水平。
England has risen up the league table in the ten years since the tests were last run, owing to better performances among young adults.
英国自十年前上次测试以来排名有所上升，这是由于年轻成年人表现更好。
By contrast, America’s results are heading south.
相比之下，美国的成绩正在走下坡路。
Similarly, Chile, Italy, Poland and Portugal all boast a high share of people who score below the norm.
同样地，智利、意大利、波兰、葡萄牙都有很高比例的人得分低于正常水平。
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.
几乎一半的智利人在数学和阅读方面的得分都很差，排名为最末的两类，而日本人的比例只有8%。
Zoom out, and the picture is one of worsening basic skills.
放眼全局，这幅图景表明基本技能在变得越来越差。
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.
在过去十年中，每有一个在算术方面得分显著提高的国家，几乎就有一个得分下降的国家。
When it comes to literacy, countries with falling scores outnumber those making significant progress.
对于读写能力，分数下降的国家数量超过了取得显著进步的国家数量。
This is the case even though more people are completing secondary school, and many more are getting degrees.
尽管有更多人完成了中学学业，还有更多人获得了大学学位，但情况依旧是这样。
The declines are concentrated among the least proficient, who seem to be scoring even lower than they did before.
分数下降集中在技能最差的人群中，他们的得分似乎比以前更低了。
In many countries, the gap between the most- and least-skilled people is widening.
在许多国家，最有技能的人和最没有技能的人之间的差距正在扩大。
Increased migration offers some explanation.
移民增加是部分原因。
Non-native speakers tend to do worse in tests that involve juggling words.
非母语人士在涉及文字游戏的测试中往往表现更差。
Ageing populations do not help: the data suggest that numeracy and literacy peak at 30 or so.
人口老龄化也不利于成绩提高：数据表明，计算能力和读写能力在30岁左右达到顶峰。
But even when these changes are accounted for, literacy scores in lots of countries are falling.
但是即使考虑到这些变化，许多国家的读写分数仍在下降。
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.
经合组织教育与技能部门负责人安德烈亚斯·施莱歇尔推测，成年人现在对长篇复杂文本的阅读练习比过去少了。
Blame TikTok.
这都怪抖音。
The OECD’s study is not the only one to suggest that improvements in cognitive skills might now be stalling.
经合组织的研究并不是唯一一个表明认知技能的提升现在可能出现停滞的研究。
Throughout the 20th century, psychometrists observed that IQ scores were rising reliably, as part of a phenomenon named the “Flynn effect”.
在整个20世纪，心理测量学家观察到智商分数在稳定上升，这是“弗林效应”的一部分。（注：弗林效应指一代比一代聪明。）
More recently, the trend in some countries has been that of stagnation or decline.
最近，一些国家的智商分数趋势是停滞或下降。
The cause of this is hotly debated.
这一现象的原因引起了激烈的争论。
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.
没有人怀疑的是，头脑灵活的人更容易避开生活中最严重的不幸，也更有可能享受最好的结果。
Surveys carried out alongside the OECD’s tests appear to confirm as much.
与经合组织的测试同时进行的调查似乎证实了这一点。
People who perform best in the tests boast wages that are 75% higher than those with the worst scores.
在测试中表现最好的人所拥有的工资比得分最差的人高75%。
And returns to good numeracy and literacy seem to be more than just financial.
而且良好的计算能力和读写能力带来的回报似乎不仅仅是经济上的。
High scorers report that they are happier and in better health.
高分者报告说，他们更幸福，身体也更健康。
Low scorers seem to be more suspicious of others, and more likely to report feeling alienated from politics.
低分者似乎更容易怀疑他人，也更有可能报告说感到与政治疏远。
You do not need a first-rate mind to sense trouble ahead.
你不需要有一流的头脑就能感觉到未来的麻烦。
