修改的有：

第1句和第5句；另外做了句型分類，希望比較好讀好寫。

如果您要考TOEIC，IELTS，TOEFL之類貴鬆鬆的考試，最好準備充分，免得花錢傷心。考題常客之一，就是要考生聽懂、讀懂比較兩者差異的文字。

如果您需要寫財經方面的英文，想必少不了「比…」、「最…」、「增加」、「減少」、「不變」這些概念。除了使用豐富生動的詞彙來增添文字的可讀性之外，這些概念的表達都有一定的句子架構。

這篇引自5月6日 The New York Times International Weekly 的報導（依然是聯合報週二特刊），處處都有可供借鏡的句子，相信可以給學習者很多想法，篇幅長度雖不短，但是值得挑戰。

可能因為時間久了，在該報網站上找不到，所以我就兼任打字和校稿。萬一還是有打錯字，都是我的錯…

文中藍字是雙方比較的重點，藍色上標是包含該字的句子編號。

U.S. Wages Fall From Top Spot

By David Leonhardt and Kevin Quealy

        The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction.

        While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that ¹across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades.

        ²After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada – substantially behind in 2000 – now appear to be higher than in the United States. ³The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans.

        Most American families are paying a steep price for high and rising income inequality, surveys show.

        Although ⁴economic growth in the United States continues to be as strong as in many other countries, a small percentage of American households is fully benefiting from it. Median income in Canada pulled into a tie with median United States income in 2010 and has most likely surpassed it since then. Median incomes in Western European countries still trail those in America, but ⁵the gap in several – including Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden – is much smaller than a decade ago. In European countries hit hardest by financial crisis, such as Greece and Portugal, incomes have of course fallen sharply.

        ⁶The struggles of the poor in the United States are even starker than those of the middle class. ⁷A family at the 20^th percentile of the income distribution in this country makes much less money than a similar family in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland or the Netherlands. Thirty-five years ago, the reverse was true.

        Measures of per capita gross domestic product continue to show that the United States has maintained its lead as the world’s richest large country. But with a big share of income gains in this country flowing to a relatively small slice of high-earning households, most Americans are not keeping pace with their counterparts around the world.

        “The idea that ⁸the median American has so much more income than the middle class in all other parts of the world is not true these days,” said Lawrence Katz, A Harvard University economist. “⁹In 1960, we were massively richer than anyone else. In 1980, we were richer. In the 1990s, we were still richer.” That is no longer true, he added.

        Median per capita income was $18,700 in the United States in 2010 (which translates to about $75,000 for a family of four after taxes), up 20 percent since 1980 but virtually unchanged since 2000, after adjusting for inflation. The same measure, by comparison, rose about 20 percent in Britain between 2000 and 2010 and 14 percent in the Netherlands. Median income also rose 20 percent in Canada between 2000 and 2010, to the equivalent of $18, 700.

        ¹⁰Pay in several European countries has risen faster since 2010 than it has in the United States.

        Three broad factors appear to be driving much of the weak income performance in the United States. First, ¹¹educational attainment in the United States has risen far more slowly than in much of the industrialized world over the last three decades, making it harder for the American economy to maintain its share of highly skilled, well-paying jobs.

        Americans between the ages of 55 and 65 have literacy, numeracy and technology skills that are above average relative to 55- to 65-year-olds in rest of the industrialized world, according to a recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international group. Younger Americans, though, are not keeping pace: Those between 16 and 24 rank near the bottom among rich countries, well behind their counterparts in Canada, Australia, Japan and Scandinavia and close to those in Italy and Spain.

        A second factor is that ¹²companies in the United States economy distribute smaller share of their bounty to the middle class and poor than similar companies elsewhere. ¹³Top executives make substantially more money in the United States than in other wealthy countries. ¹⁴The minimum wage is lower. ¹⁵Labor unions are weaker.

        Opinion surveys and interviews suggest that ¹⁶the public mood in Canada and Northern Europe is less sour than in the United States today.

        “The crisis had no effect on our lives,” Jonas Frojelin, 37, a Swedish firefighter said, referring to the global financial crises that began in 2007. He lives with his wife, Malin, a nurse, in a seaside town a half-hour drive from Gothenburg, Sweden’s second-largest city.

        They each have five weeks of vacation and comprehensive health benefits. They benefited from almost three years of paid leave, between them, after their children, now 3 and 6 years old, were born.

        Even with a large welfare state in Sweden, ¹⁷per capita G.D.P. there has grown more quickly than in the United States over almost any extended recent period – a decade, 20 years, 30 years.

        ¹⁸Elsewhere in Europe, economic growth has been slower in the last few years than in the United States, as the Continent has struggled to escape the financial crisis. But incomes for most families in Sweden and several other Northern European countries have still outpaced those in the United States, where much of the fruit of recent economic growth have flowed into corporate profits or top incomes.

        One large European country where income has stagnated over the past 15 years is Germany, according to the data. Policy makers in Germany have taken a series of steps to hold down the cost of exports, including restraining wage growth.

        ¹⁹Even in Germany, though, the poor have fared better than in the United States, where per capita income has declined between 2000 and 2010 at the 40^th percentile, as well as at the 30^th, 20^th, 10^th and 5^th.

        In American the stagnation of income has left many Americans dissatisfied with the state of the country. Only about 30 percent of people believe the country is headed in the right direction, polls show.

        “Things are pretty flat,” said Kathy Washburn, 59, Of Mount Vernon, Iowa, who earns $33,000 a year at a hardware store where she has worked for 23 years. “You have mostly lower level and high and not a lot in between. People need to start in between to work their way up.” (1,019 words)

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比較級的句子要寫得清楚，最要緊的是所比的兩者要「對稱」：

a. My dad is taller than yours. (我爹比你爹)

b. Property in Taipei is more expensive than that (=property) in other parts of Taiwan. (台北的房產比起台灣其他地方的房產)

c. Property in Taipei is more expensive than in other parts of Taiwan. (在台北比起在台灣其他地方)

d. Property in Taipei is more expensive than other parts of Taiwan. (寫得不好)

粗黑斜體字就是比較的雙方，格式要一致。

我們來看文中的比較句。這幾句比較單純：

句型一：主詞 in 甲地 + 動詞 + as 原級 as in 乙地  

4. economic growth in the United States continues to be as strong as in many other countries (雙方相等)

句型二：主詞 1 + 動詞 + 比較級 + than 主詞2  

3. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans.

9. In 1960, we were massively richer than anyone else.

6. The struggles of the poor in the United States are even starker than those of the middle class.

句型三：主詞 in 甲地 + 動詞 + 比較級 + than in 乙地  

2. After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada…now appear to be higher than in the United States.

8. the median American has so much more income than the middle class in all other parts of the world

11. educational attainment in the United States has risen far more slowly than in much of the industrialized world over the last three decades

16. the public mood in Canada and Northern Europe is less sour than in the United States today

句型三變形：In 甲地，主詞 + 動詞 + 比較級 + than in 乙地  

18. Elsewhere in Europe, economic growth has been slower in the last few years than in the United States

19. Even in Germany, though, the poor have fared better than in the United States

句型三變形：主詞 + 動詞 + 比較級 + in 甲地 + than in 乙地  

13. Top executives make substantially more money in the United States than in other wealthy countries.

14. The minimum wage (in the United States) is lower (than in other wealthy countries).

15. Labor unions (in the United States) are weaker (than in other wealthy countries). (13~15 為連續一組，所以省略括弧中重複的內容)

這幾句也依循句型三，多了一些元素：

7. A family at the 20th percentile of the income distribution in this country makes much less money than a similar family in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland or the Netherlands.

  主詞 a family 之後有兩個修飾語，一是 in the country，和後面的 in Canada…對照；二是 at the 20th percentile / of the income distribution（所得分配位於第二十個百分位數的），後文以 similar 呼應。

10. Pay in several European countries has risen faster since 2010 than it has in the United States.

  後半句主詞也是 pay，改成代名詞 it，動詞 has risen 則留下助動詞部分 has。

12. companies in the United States economy distribute smaller share of their bounty to the middle class and poor than similar companies elsewhere

  運用了動詞的句型：distribute something to someone

這幾句還是依循句型三，但是要注意前文才找得出比較雙方：

1. While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers,…across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades (than Americans across the lower- and middle-income tiers).

  此句只寫出比較的前半（主詞 citizens + 動詞 have received），根據 While…tiers，得知省略不語的後半如括弧內所示。

5. Median incomes in Western European countries still trail those in America, but the gap in several– including Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden – is much smaller than (it was) a decade ago.

  類似第10句，後半句的主詞 the gap 以 it 取而代之，而動詞是配合 a decade ago 的 was。

17. Even with a large welfare state in Sweden, per capita G.D.P. there (=in Sweden) has grown more quickly than in the United States over almost any extended recent period – a decade, 20 years, 30 years.