国外总是觉得独生子女（only children 这是固定表达）不利于孩子的成长，独生子女通常会有各种各样的毛病。（这也是西方世界对我们的这样一个独生子女大国感到不解的一个原因。）但是现在已经有大量的研究表明独生子女和其他有兄弟姐妹的孩子是一样的，但是让你们固有的看法还是很难改变。

今天的句子：

Such stereotypes about spoiled, lonely and peculiar only children have endured for more than a century, despite a wealth of research showing lone children are usually none of those things and often do better in many areas than children with siblings. But despite one-child families becoming far more common, our fascination with their implied unusualness endures. 

思考题：

The discrimination against the only children still persists nowadays.

词汇突破：

1.stereotypes 刻板印象；模式化观念(或形象)；老一套；（我们对A有stereotypes就等于说我们对A有discrimination，这是构成同意替换的。）

2.spoiled 被宠坏的

3.peculiar 古怪的

4.lone 独身，独自

5.sibling 兄弟姐妹

6.far more common 更加普遍

7.fascination 着迷，执着的想法

8.unusualness 不同之处

9.endure 存在= persist

10. a wealth of research 大量研究

第一句：

Such stereotypes about spoiled, lonely and peculiar only children have endured for more than a century, despite a wealth of research showing lone children are usually none of those things and often do better in many areas than children with siblings.

切分：

1.Such stereotypes about spoiled, lonely and peculiar only children have endured for more than a century, 

2.despite a wealth of research showing 

3.lone children are usually none of those things 

4.and（ lone children） often do better in many areas than children with siblings.

参考译文：这种关于独生子女被宠坏的、孤独的和古怪的刻板印象已经持续了一个多世纪，尽管已经有大量的研究表明，独生子女通常不是这样的，而且在许多领域，他们往往比有兄弟姐妹的孩子做得更好

第二句：

But despite one-child families becoming far more common, our fascination with their implied unusualness endures.

参考译文：（而且）尽管独生子女家庭变得越来越普遍，但那些暗示独生子女与众不同的执念却依然存在。

明天的句子：

President Trump is increasingly intervening in the economy, making decisions about corporate winners and losers in ways that Republicans for decades have insisted should be left to free markets — not the government.

思考题：

The orthodox way of Republicans holds corporate boom and doom should be independent of political factors.

周末加餐：

第一题：

Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could re-create the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the U.S., when the Standard Oil Trust was broken up.

思考题:

the Standard Oil Trust might have threatened competition

第二题：

Anyway, the townsfolk can’t understand why the Royal Shakespeare Company needs a subsidy. (The theatre has broken attendance records for three years in a row. Last year its 1,431 seats were 94 percent occupied all year long and this year they’ll do better.) The reason, of course, is that costs have rocketed and ticket prices have stayed low.

思考题：

According to the townsfolk, the RSC deserves no subsidy because the theatre attendance is on the rise.