本帖最后由 252132618 于 2013-8-31 17:26 编辑
Yet in recent years economic progress has stalled[k1] . Between 2000 and2011, black median household income fell from 64% to 58% of the white figure. The wealth gap is even more alarming. Because mortgaged homes make up more of poorer people’s wealth, the gap widened dramatically after the housing bubble burst. In 2005 white families’ median net worth was 11 times that of blacks; in 2009 it was 20 times. On other measures, too, blacks fare[k2] poorly.
Many struggle in school: the average black 17-year-old reads and manipulates numbers about as well as a white13-year-old.[k3] Many fall foul of the law: by the age of 30-34 one black man in ten is behind bars[k4] ; the figure for white men is one in 61. And the traditional black family has collapsed since King’s day. In the 1960s many thought it a crisis that nearly 25% of black children were born out of wedlock. Today it is 72% (forwhites, 29%), and most of these children are being raised by mothers who are truly alone, not cohabiting.
Explanations of these figures tend to fall into two camps. Some stress the lingering effects of racism. Black schools are underfunded; employers overlook black job applicants; the criminal-justice system is biased against blacks.[k5]
[k1]aprocess stalls, or someone or something stalls sth [k2]英文释义:If yousay that someone or something fares well or badly, you are referring to thedegree of success they achieve in a particular situation or activity [k3]这个可以作文农村孩子和城市孩子教育水平的比较例子 [k4]第二次看到 behindbars 补充一下其他有关犯罪的词伙 under "correctional supervision"(劳动改造),locked up(关起来), on probation(缓刑) or parole(假释) [k5]可以用来做开头 |