词汇大师-- How a Child's Ability

　　AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: age and the economics of learning English.
RS: Our guest is Hoyt Bleakley, an economist¹ at the University of Chicago. He and Aimee Chin at the University of Houston have studied the effects of age on the earnings² of immigrants to the United States.

　　HOYT BLEAKLEY: "We found when we looked at people who had come to the country, when they were brought as children by their parents, that it had a substantial impact -- on the order of, using our design, looking at numbers like ten, fifteen, twenty percent differences between people who were brought early enough that they could acquire English at essentially³ a native level, versus⁴ people who were brought later.
"The idea is that before puberty, certain maturation changes happen in your brain that makes it more difficult to learn language, makes it sort of almost impossible to get, to acquire the language to the point where you have no accent, but even difficulty in understanding the grammatical structures and acquiring vocabulary. And, as I say, this happens sometimes before puberty, different ages for different people, but maybe nine, ten, eleven isn't such a bad number."
RS: "What message, would you say, does this have for the public policy debate about the teaching of English as a foreign or second language in our public schools?"
HOYT BLEAKLEY: "When you consider that a difference of five or so years makes a difference of five to ten to fifteen percent in your wages and also, in effect, makes that person a first-generation instead of a second-generation immigrant -- then policies that can accelerate the process by which families with children can come into the country at younger ages I think are worth considering.
"So I would suggest that a lot of the people who are here who haven't really been able to learn, it's maybe because it's very difficult for them to do so. Why else would they apparently⁵ leave this money on the table and not decide to learn it facing these big incentives⁷?"
RS: "The incentive⁶ is there, but if they can't speak the language, they can't get the jobs."
HOYT BLEAKLEY: "That's right. And so part of the kind of compact or bargain that traditionally we've had with regard to immigrants is that their children will be given a fair shot. And so a lot of people come maybe even accepting that their own status is going to be relatively⁸ low, but on the other hand their children will have these terrific opportunities.
"That actually ties into the second study that we've done which is actually looking at the group that we mentioned before, the sort of early and late 鈥?arrivers, and looking at their children. And the idea being: Is there something about being in a household that has a strong English speaker versus a weak English speaker which actually helps children in their realization⁹ as well, both educationally and in terms of integration¹⁰ into the language and culture of the U.S.?"
AA: "And what did you find there?"
HOYT BLEAKLEY: "There we find that even though these children are natives, of course a lot of their language environment comes from the home, and so they're enrolling¹¹ in school with language deficiencies. And that's certainly an issue, maybe not in preschool or kindergarten where you're perhaps not learning anything besides social interaction. But once you start learning hard skills like arithmetic and reading and so forth¹² in primary school, it's very important to really be up to speed on the language."
RS: Hoyt Bleakley is a professor in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. The second study he mentioned is not yet published, but the first appeared in the Review of Economics and Statistics.
AA: Now to follow up on our recent segment about what to call people who are in the United States without following immigration laws -- which is currently classified as a civil rather than a criminal offense¹³. We talked to linguist¹⁴ Otto Santa Ana at the University of California, Los Angeles. He says "illegal immigrant" is a biased¹⁵ political term, and that a neutral term like "undocumented immigrant" is better.
RS: Listener James Metcalf in Durban, South Africa, disagrees. He writes: "It's a long time since I heard such specious¹⁶ arguments, but it's the kind of thing one expects from left-of-center liberals from U.S. universities. It is illegal to enter the U.S. (or any other country) without proper permits. Ipso facto, they are therefore illegal immigrants."
AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. If you have a comment, or a question, we'd love to hear it. Write to [email protected]. And you can download all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

2 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

3 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

4 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

5 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

6 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

7 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

8 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

9 realization   

n.实现；认识到，深刻了解

参考例句：

• We shall gladly lend every effort in our power toward its realization.我们将乐意为它的实现而竭尽全力。
• He came to the realization that he would never make a good teacher.他逐渐认识到自己永远不会成为好老师。

10 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

11 enrolling   

v.招收( enrol的现在分词 )；吸收；入学；加入；[亦作enrol]( enroll的现在分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They lashed out at the university enrolling system. 他们猛烈抨击大学的招生制度。 来自辞典例句
• You're enrolling in a country club, Billy. 你是注册加入乡村俱乐部了，比利。 来自辞典例句

12 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

13 offense   

n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪

参考例句：

• I hope you will not take any offense at my words. 对我讲的话请别见怪。
• His words gave great offense to everybody present.他的发言冲犯了在场的所有人。

14 linguist   

n.语言学家；精通数种外国语言者

参考例句：

• I used to be a linguist till I become a writer.过去我是个语言学家，后来成了作家。
• Professor Cui has a high reputation as a linguist.崔教授作为语言学家名声很高。

15 biased   

a.有偏见的

参考例句：

• a school biased towards music and art 一所偏重音乐和艺术的学校
• The Methods: They employed were heavily biased in the gentry's favour. 他们采用的方法严重偏袒中上阶级。

16 specious   

adj.似是而非的；adv.似是而非地

参考例句：

• Such talk is actually specious and groundless.这些话实际上毫无根据，似是而非的。
• It is unlikely that the Duke was convinced by such specious arguments.公爵不太可能相信这种似是而非的论点。