The generation game(代际游戏）
The Generation Game最早是指英国广播公司制作的综艺节目(类似中国年代秀），来自同一个家庭但不同辈分的两人一组，共四组，互相竞争赢奖品。
In just a few decades childhood has changed out of all recognition, says Barbara Beck. What does that mean for children, parents and society at large?
芭芭拉.贝克说，在仅短短几十年的时间，童年生活发生了翻天覆地的变化 。这种变化对于儿童、父母和整个社会而言意味着什么？
“When i was a kid, we were out and about all the time, playing with our friends, in and out of each other’s houses,sandwich in pocket, making our own entertainment. Our parents hardly saw us from morning to night. We didn’t have much stuff, but we came and went as we liked and had lots of adventures.”This is roughly what you will hear if you ask anyone over 30 about their childhood in a rich country. The adventures were usually of a homely kind, more Winnie the Pooh than Star Wars, but the freedom and the companionship were real.
在我小时候，我们总是一直在外面和朋友一起玩，进进出出每个人的家，口袋里放着三明治，自娱自乐。我们父母几乎从早到晚看不到我们。我们并没有太多小玩意但是我们自由自在并且还有很多冒险的经历。在富裕国家，当你询问任何一个超过30岁的人关于他的童年生活，听到的答案基本都是一致的。这些冒险很普遍，更像小熊维尼而不是星球大战，但那种自由和友谊是真的。
单词解析：
stuff：n.东西、材料、填充物
近义词：[n.] substance, matter, object, physical object, personal property, personal estate, personalty
解析：
material: 通常指组成客观存在物的部分或其原料。
matter: 通常指构成实物的物质，与精神相对立。在科学上，指占有空间，并能以某种方式被感官觉察的一切东西。
substance: 多指某一种形式的物质，既可指元素也可指化合物。
stuff: 多用于日常生活中，非正式用词。常指构成整体的所有部分、物体或项目。有时指劣等材料，含轻蔑意味。
roughly：adv. 粗糙地；概略地
companionship：n. 伙伴关系;友情,友谊
近义词：[n.] friendship, friendly relationship
Today such children will spend most of their time indoors, often with adults rather than with siblings or friends, be supervised more closely, be driven everywhere rather than walk or cycle, take part in many more organised activities and, probably for several hours everyday,engage with a screen of some kind.All this is done with the best of intentions. Parents want to protect their offspring from traffic, crime and other hazards in what they see as a more dangerous world, and to give them every opportunity to flourish.
现在的小孩子大部分时间呆在室内，经常和父母而不是和兄弟姐妹或者朋友一起，被父母亲切地监督着，去哪里都有车接送而不是步行或骑自行车，参加多得多的有组织的活动。还可能每天要花好几个小时在各种屏幕面前。所有的这些都是处于好意。父母在一个他们看来更加危险的世界里保护自己的后代免受交通事故、犯罪或者其他不良危险，并且给他们一切可以茁壮成长的机会。
siblings：兄弟姐妹
supervised：监督、管理、指导
intentions：意图、目的
offspring：后代
hazards：危险物、危害物
flourish：vi. 茂盛, 繁荣；兴旺发达；vt. 挥动
And indeed in many ways children are better off than they were a generation or two ago. Child mortality rates even in rich countries are still dropping. Fewer kids suffer neglect or go hungry. They generally get more attention and support from their parents, and many governments are offering extra help to very young children from disadvantaged backgrounds. As adolescents, fewer become delinquents, take up smoking and drinking or become teenage parents. And more of them finish and go on to higher education.
确实，在某些方面，孩子们比他们前一两代人过得更好了。即使在富裕国家，儿童死亡率仍在下降。得不到照顾或挨饿的孩子更少了。他们通常获得父母更多的关注和支持，还有许多政府为来自弱势背景的幼儿提供额外帮助。在青少年当中，犯罪、吸烟、饮酒或十几岁就做了父母的人更少了。
better off adj. 状况好的；经济状况好的，富裕的
Child mortality rates 儿童死亡率
disadvantaged backgrounds 弱势背景、贫困家庭
delinquents：.违法的;有过失的；(债务、账目等)拖欠的, 到期未付的；n. (尤指青少年)有过失的人, 违法的人
juvenile delinquent 少年犯
The children themselves seem fairly happy with their lot. In a survey across the OECD in2015,15-year-olds were asked to rate their satisfaction with their life on a scale from zero to ten. The average The Economist January 5th 2019 3score was 7.3, with Finnish kids the sunniest, at nearly 7.9, and Turkish ones the gloomiest, at 6.1. Boys were happier than girls, and children from affluent families scored higher than the rest.
孩子们自己似乎对命运较为满意。2015年经合组织的一项调查让15岁的孩子按0到10分给自己的生活满意度打分。平均得分为7.3分，其中芬兰小孩最阳光，接近7.9分，土耳其小孩最忧愁，为6.1分。男孩比女孩更快乐，富裕家庭的孩子得分高于其他孩子。
OECD 经济合作与发展组织
（Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development）
affluent families 富裕家庭
That is not surprising. Prosperous parents these days, especially in America, invest an unprecedented amount of time and money in their children to ensure that they will do at least as well as the parents themselves have done, and preferably better. Those endless rounds of extra tutoring, music lessons, sports sessions and educational visits, together with lively discussions at home about every subject under the sun, have proved highly effective at securing the good grades and social graces that will open the doors to top universities and well-paid jobs.
这并不奇怪。如今，富裕的父母，特别是在美国，为他们的孩子投入了前所未有的时间和金钱，以确保孩子们至少能和自己过得一样好，最好是更好。那些无休止的额外辅导、音乐课、体育锻炼和各种教育参观之旅，以及在家里热烈讨论天底下的每个话题，已经证明非常有效地确保了良好的成绩和社交礼节，打开了通向顶尖大学和高薪工作的大门。
Prosperous parents 富裕的父母
unprecedentedadj. 前所未有的, 无前例的
under the sun 天下
well-paid jobs 高薪工作
Working-class parents in America, for their part, lack the wherewithal to engage in such intensive parenting. As a result, social divisions from one generation to the next are set to widen. Not so no long ago “American dream”held out the prospect that everyone, however humble their background, could succeed if they tried hard enough. But a recent report by the World Bank showed that intergenerational social mobility (the chance that the next generation will end up in a different social class from the previous one) in the land of dreams is now among the lowest in all rich countries. And that is before many of the social effects of the new parenting gap have had time to show up yet.
美国的工薪阶层父母则缺乏必要的资金来如此细心地养育孩子。其结果是，从一代人到下一代人的社会分裂必将扩大。就在不久之前，“美国梦”还描绘了一幅图景，即每个人，无论背景多么卑微，只要足够努力都会成功。但世界银行最近的一份报告显示，在所有富裕国家中，“梦想之地”的代际社会流动性（即下一代最终处于与上一代不同的社会阶层的可能性）位于最低之列。而此时新的育儿差异带来的诸多社会影响还没来得及显现。
Working-class parents 工薪阶层的父母
wherewithal 必要的资金（或手段）; adv. 用以; conj. 用以;
financial wherewithal 资金; 财政资源; 金融手段;
Wherewithal The means 为做某事而需要的钱
social divisions 社会分裂
humble 谦逊的, 谦虚的；低下的, 卑微的；简陋的, 低劣的；vt. 使谦恭, 使卑下
intergenerational social mobility 代际社会流动
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