那么哪几个国家或地区将会出现在这两个数据的前几位呢？

　　Singapore, South Korea, China (Taiwan), Hong Kong, and Japan.

　　没有任何悬念，他们分别是新加坡、韩国、中国台湾、中国香港和日本。

　　What those five have in common, of course, is that they are all cultures shaped by the tradition of wet-rice agriculture and meaningful work.

　　当然，这五个地方都有共同的一点：

　　They are the kinds of places where, for hundreds of years, penniless peasants, slaving away in the rice paddies, three thousands hours a year,

　　几百年来，贫穷的农民每天都在稻田里辛勤劳作十几个小时，

　　with say things to each other like "No one who can rise before dawn three hundred and sixty days a year fails to make his family rich."

　　或许只有这样，他们才可以对其他人说：“早起的鸟有食吃。”

　　Chapter NINEMarita's Bargain

　　第九章 玛丽塔的契约

　　"ALL MY FRIENDS ARE FROM KIPP"

　　“现在我所有的朋友都毕业于KIPP。”

　　In the mid-1990s, an experimental public school called the KIPP Academy opened on the fourth floor of Lou Gehrig Junior High School in New York City.

　　20世纪90年代中期，试验性公立学校KIPP在纽约的卢格里克中学的教学楼四层开办。

　　Lou Gehrig in the seventh school district, otherwise known as the South Bronx, one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City.

　　卢格里克高中属于第七校区，另外，它所在的布朗克斯南部，是纽约市最落魄的地方之一。

　　It's a squat, grey, 1960s-era building across the street from a bleak collection of high-rises.

　　在满是白色高楼的街上，学校那些建造于20世纪60年代的低矮建筑穿插其间，灰灰的，毫不起眼。

　　A few blocks over is Grand Concourse, the borough's main thoroughfare.

　　几个街区旁边是格兰特大街，它是这个自治市最主要的大街。

　　These are not streets that you'd happily work down, alone, after dark.

　　在天黑以后，你不会愿意独自走在这几条街上。

　　KIPP is a middle school. Classes are large: the fifth grade has two sections of thirty-five students each. There're no entrance exams or admissions requirements.

　　KIPP是一所中学。班级人数众多：五年级有两个班，每班35名学生。无须入学考试或申请入读。

　　Students are chosen by lottery, with any fourth grader living in the Bronx eligible to apply.

　　孩子们被随机抽选，任何住在布朗克斯四年级的孩子都可以申请。

　　Roughly half of the students are African American; the rest, Hispanic. Three-quarters of the students come from single-parent homes.

　　大概一半的申请学生是非洲裔美国人，其余的是拉丁美洲人；四分之三的孩子来自单亲家庭；

　　Ninety percent qualify for "free or reduced lunch," which is to say that their families earn so little that the federal government chips in so they can eat properly at lunchtime.

　　有90%的孩子是“不吃午饭或午饭减量”的，这说明他们的家庭收入很低，依靠联邦政府捐款，孩子们才能正常地吃午饭。