2021325阅读摘录

https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1006971/forget-leftover-women.-lets-talk-about-the-women-being-left-out.

文中标记词汇释义均来自权威词典。

1.

With media outlets and policymakers focused on unmarried, highly educated women, the challenges faced by those who marry early often go overlooked.

 

2.

Not everyone agrees. There is still a stigma attached to being a single, highly educated woman in China, 14 years after the Ministry of Education first formally adopted the popular buzzword “leftover women” to refer to our supposed plight. Just last month, for example, an expert suggested governments in rural areas sign local unmarried men up for skills trainings and then “export” them to cities where they could pair up with leftover women.

 

Stigma: 在社会上被认为不好、丢脸的事，恶名

feelings of disapproval that people have about particular illnesses or ways of behaving.

 

Buzzword: 热词、流行语

 a word or expression from a particular subject area, that has become fashionable by being used a lot, especially on television and in the newspapers.

 

3.

My own mother, when I first told her that I wanted to pursue a doctorate, responded angrily: “You would be better off just marrying someone than applying for a useless Ph.D. in sociology.” Enticed by the prospect of my one day becoming a university professor, she ultimately did not stand in my way, but over the years, my relatives, my parents’ friends, and even their colleagues have all constantly nagged us, urging me to find a husband, or at least get a boyfriend.

 

Entice: （哄骗）

[with obj.] attract or tempt by offering pleasure or advantage

 

Nag: (唠叨)

To annoy by constant scolding, complaining, or urging.

 

4.

According to data from the 2010 census, college-educated women（大学毕业的女性，这个表达很高效） aged 25 to 29 were roughly three times more likely to be unmarried than（经典倍数表达法） similarly aged women with less than a high school education. The term “leftover women” reflects society’s anxieties over this demographic phenomenon, exacerbated by the patriarchal norm that men should “marry down” — that is, marry women younger and less educated than themselves. According to this logic, female Ph.D. graduates could be seen as too qualified to get married. The shame and anxiety of this label has been reinforced（exacerbate的替换） by stereotypical depictions of leftover women in film and television, where women with higher education levels are portrayed（depiction的替换） as undesirable and a woman’s value is defined by her ability to play the dual roles of wife and mother.

 

Demographic

   Demography：the statistical study of human populations especially with reference to size and density, distribution, and vital statistics

 

Exacerbate：（让原有的坏情况更糟，加重疾病等）

 to make something which is already bad worse.

 

Patriarchal:(男权社会下的)

Patriarchy: a society in which the oldest male is the leader of the family, or a society controlled by men in which men use their power to their own advantage.

 

 

5.

Their education doesn’t restrict their options. If anything, it gives these women a bigger say in their marital choices. Conversely, the very real marital challenges faced by less-educated women are often left out of mainstream discourse. Just because they’re married, however, doesn’t mean their problems are over.

 

If anything:

 used for saying how someone or something is different when you are not sure whether there really is any change or difference
      The situation is, if anything, worsening rather than improving.
      If anything, he looks younger and fitter than he did before.
      Thesaurus: ways of saying you are not sure

 

used to make a statement that strongly disagrees or contrasts with a preceding statement
   We don't see each other too often–if anything we don't see each other often enough!
   The economy has not improved. It has gotten worse, if anything.

 

6.

If anything, research has shown that higher education indicates more favorable marriage prospects in China, as education increasingly stratifies the country’s marriage market. Highly educated individuals, both men and women, now have stringent preferences for their partners’ education levels. There are even dating platforms that only accept graduates from top universities. Women actively navigate these apps’ highly educated dating pools and strategically choose their partners according to their own criteria, screening partners for shared cultural values, worldviews, and financial situations.(三观的说法) And in contrast to the belief that men prefer to marry down, many highly educated men are also looking for highly educated partners — although their logic is sometimes quite retrograde, presuming a link between high education levels and being good “mom material.”

In my case, my education has certainly been a privilege. As a Ph.D. student overseas, my parents know little about my field and are in no position to exert control over my career choices. （张璐答记者问的翻译： 我们随时准备出台新政策 → we are in a strong position to launch new policies）They may have ideas about my love life, but they(这个they 指代ideas) remain suggestions.

 

Stratify:

To arrange or separate into castes, classes, or social levels.

 

Retrograde:

returning to older and worse conditions, methods, ideas, etc:

 

 

7.

Yet a conversation with my mother reminded me of a group of women who have almost disappeared from the public discussion(out of mainstream discourse的替换) about marriage. My mother is a regular at a beauty salon（美容院）, where she became acquainted with several young beauticians.

 

8.

While the media, the public, and even academics seem preoccupied with（关注的另类说法，不一定要用focus on） highly educated women and their supposed marital quandaries（前文plight的替换）, the challenges faced by these less-educated women often go ignored（从公众视野中消失的第三种表达法）.

 

9.

This focus on “leftovers” treats marriage as a market, one whose problems stem from（originate in / be caused by） a mismatch of supply and demand(供给失衡). The problems that crop up（appear or occur unexpectedly.） after marriage, meanwhile, are neglected. Marriage is not a panacea（a remedy for all ills or difficulties：cure-all 灵丹妙药）, yet few are asking questions about what life is like for the marriage market’s supposed “winners.”

 

10．

Premarital pregnancy is a frequent contributor to such matches, as many young Chinese lack awareness of and knowledge about contraception.