3-b-1
Truth be told, the Bracey critique is not entirely misplaced. Most commentators rely more on the commonsense understanding that countries must have good schools to succeed economically rather than presenting conclusive empirical evidence that connects what students learn in school to what subsequently happens in a nation’s economy. Even economists, the people who think most systematically about the way in which “human capital” affects a nation’s economic future, have skirted the heart of the question by looking only at “school attainment, ” namely the average number of years students remain in school.
misplaced : [ˌmɪsˈpleɪst] adj. 不合时宜的；不合适的
commentator : ['kɒmənteɪtə]
n. 评论员，解说员；实况播音员；时事评论者
commonsense : ['kɔmən'sens] adj. 常识的；具有常识的
conclusive ： [kən'kluːsɪv]
adj. 决定性的；最后的；确实的；确定性的
Empirical: [em'pɪrɪk(ə)l; ɪm-]
adj. 经验主义的，完全根据经验的；实证的
human capital:人力资本，技能资本
skirt: ['skə:t]: adj. 绕开、避开
说实话，布里斯的批评并不是完全错误的，大多数评论家更依赖于常识性的理解，认为国家必须有好的学校(教育)才能在经济上取得成功，而不是提供确凿的实证性的证据，将学生在学校所学到的知识与随后国家经济相联系。即使是经济学家，那些最系统的思考“人力资本”如何影响一个国家经济未来的人，也回避问题的核心，只是关注（学生）在学校的学习年限，即学生在校学习的平均年限（时长）。
3-b-2
A more direct measure of a country’s human capital is the performance of students on tests in math and science, something that might be called the average level of “cognitive skills” among those entering a country’s work force. At one time, internationally comparable information on student performance was not available for a sufficient number of countries over a long enough period of time to allow for systematic study, which is why economists relied upon the less informative measures of school attainment. Now that test-score data for many countries over an extended period of time are readily available, it is possible to supplement measures of educational attainment with these more direct measures of cognitive skills.
cognitive adj. 认知的; 认识的;
entering 成为……的一部分
supplement vt. 增补，补充;
n. 增补，补充; 补充物; 增刊，副刊;
衡量一个国家人力资本的直接指标是学生在数学和科学测试中的表现，即那些国家劳动力技能中、可以称之为“认知技能”平均水平的东西。从前，国际上没有做够多的国家，足够长时间的可比资料以便进行系统研究，因此经济学家们依赖信息量较少的就读年限这一指标。现在很容易得到许多国家一段较长时间内的测试成绩数据，因此有可能通过这些更直接的认知技能数据补充对教育成就的衡量。
3-b-3
Fortunately, we could construct that norm by using information from tests in the United States, the country that has had the earliest, most sophisticated, and most comprehensive system of testing. The United States has participated in all of the international tests since 1964, and it has also maintained a separate longitudinal testing system of its own, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). With that information in hand, it was possible to calibrate scores on each of the separate international tests to one another via the connection of those tests to the NAEP. To obtain further precision, we used the variation in scores across a subset of the more-advanced developed countries to obtain an estimate of the spread in scores across countries. By following these two steps, we were able to aggregate all available scores for each country into measures of average cognitive skill levels for each country.
Sophisticated : adj. 复杂的；精致的；久经世故的；富有经验的 v. 使变得世故；使迷惑；篡改（sophisticate的过去分词形longitudinal : adj. 长度的，纵向的；经线的
calibrate ： vt. 校正；调整；测定口径 [ 过去式 calibrated 过去分词 calibrated 现在分词 calibrating ]
precision : n. 精度,[数] 精密度；精确adj. 精密的，精确的
subset n. [数] 子集；子设备；小团体
aggregate ：vi. 集合；聚集合计 vt. 集合；聚集；合计n. 合计；集合体；总计adj. 聚合的；集合的；合计的[ 过去式 aggregated 过去分词 aggregated 现在分词 aggregating ]
cognitive ：adj. 认知的，认识的
幸运的是，我们可采用美国所拥有的最早的，最精尖的，最综合的测试系统的测试信息来构建那个标准。从1964年以来，美国已经参与了所有的国际测试。同时它也保留了其独有的纵向测试系统，即国家教育进展评估（NAEP)。现在有了这些信息，通过将这些测试与国家教育进展评估相连接，就有可能权衡从每一个单独的国际测试到另一个的分数。为了获得更高的精度，我们使用了更先进发达国家一个子集的分数变化以获取各国分数分布的估计。通过这两个步骤，我们能够将每一个国家可以利用的分数汇总成为每个国家的平均认知技能水平测量。
3-b-4
If one country‘s test-score performance was 0.5 standard deviations higher than another country during the 1960s, the first country's growth rate was, on average, one full percentage point higher annually over the following 40-year period than the second country's growth rate. Further, once the impact of higher levels of cognitive skills are taken into account, the significance for economic growth of school attainment, i.e., additional years of schooling, dwindles to nothing. A country benefits from asking its students to remain in school for a longer period of time only if the students are learning something as a consequence.
deviation：[ˌdi:viˈeɪʃn] n.背离，偏离；(统计学中的)离差，偏差
In statistics, deviation is the difference between the value of one number in a series of numbers and the average value of all the numbers in the series.
attainment：[əˈteɪnmənt] n.达到；成就
An attainment is a skill you have learned or something you have achieved.
dwindle：[ˈdwɪndl] v.减少；缩小
如果一个国家的测试成绩在二十世纪60年代比另一国家高出0.5个标准差，那么这个国家的经济增长率在未来40年内平均每年要比另一个国家的经济增长率整整高出一个百分点。此外，一旦考虑到较高的认知技能水平的影响，教育年限对经济增长的意义，即受教育的附加年限，就会减少到一无所有。一个国家若要通过要求其学生留在学校更长一段时间而从中受益，只有在学生因此而学习某些东西的时候才能实现。
3-b-5
To gain additional insight into the relationship between cognitive skills and economic growth, we examined the separate impact of improvements at different levels of a nation’s distribution of skills. Loosely speaking, is it a few “rocket scientists” at the very top of the distribution who spur economic growth, or is it “education for all” that is needed？
Which is more important for growth—having a substantial cadre of high performers or bringing everyone up to a basic level of performance？The answer, it seems, is not one or the other but both! When we estimated the importance of each within the same model, we found each of them to be separately important to economic growth. That is, both the performance of countries in ensuring that almost all students achieve at basic levels and their performance in producing high achieving students seem to matter.
rocket scientists: 1. <俚>穿梭于金融市场的行家;
2. 极其聪明的人;智商高的人
spur: v.促进、加速、刺激（某事发生）
cadre： n.干部、骨干
Estimate n. & v. 估计，预测; 报价，预算书; 评价，判断;
Separately adv. 分别地，另行; 分开，单独; 分离地; 个别地;
为了深入了解认知技能与经济增长之间的关系，我们分别考察了国家技能分布的不同层次对改进的不同影响。宽泛地说，激励经济增长的是最高层的少数“精英”，还是“需要全民教育”？
哪一项对增长更重要？拥有大量高素质干部队伍或将每个人都提升到基本的绩效水平？看起来，答案不是非此即彼，而是两者都需要！当我们估计同一模型中每种类型的重要性时，我们发现它们中的每一种对经济增长都是重要的。也就是说，国家在确保几乎所有学生达到基本水平以及他们在培养高材学生的表现似乎都很重要。
3-b-6
The United States has never done well on international assessments of student achievement. Instead, its level of cognitive skills is only about average among the developed countries. Yet the country’s GDP growth rate has been higher than average over the past century. If cognitive skills are so important to economic growth, how can we explain the puzzling case of the U.S.？
Part of the answer is that the United States may be resting on its historic record as the world’s leader in educational attainment. In addition, the United States has other advantages, some of which are entirely separate and apart from the quality of its schooling. The U.S. maintains generally freer labor and product markets than most countries in the world. There is less government regulation of firms, and trade unions are less powerful than in many other countries. Put more broadly, the U.S. has generally less intrusion of government in the operation of the economy, including lower tax rates and minimal government production through nationalized industries. Taken together, these characteristics of the U.S. economy encourage investment, permit the rapid development of new products and activities by firms, and allow U.S. workers to adjust to new opportunities.
instrusion: n.侵扰性的事物、扰乱、侵犯
在学生成绩的国际评估上，美国一直做得不好。相反，其认知技能水平在发达国家中仅为平均水平。然而，在过去的一个世纪里，美国的GDP增长率高于平均水平。如果认知技能对经济增长如此重要，我们如何解释美国令人费解的情况呢？
部分原因可能是，美国的教育成就在历史上处于世界领先地位。此外，美国还有其他优势，其中一些是完全独立的，与学校教育质量无关。美国的劳动力和产品市场普遍比世界上大多数国家都要自由。政府对企业的监管较少，工会的力量比其他许多国家都要小。更广泛地说，美国在经济运行中一般较少受到政府干预，包括通过国有化产业来降低税率和减少政府生产。总之，美国经济的这些特点鼓励了投资，允许公司迅速发展新产品和活动，并允许美国工人适应新的机遇。
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