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If you divide the Termites into two groups, with those born between 1903 and 1911 on one side, and those born between 1912 and 1917 on the other,
將“特曼人”分為兩組，把1903年至1911年出生的“特曼人”歸為一組，然后再把1912年至1917年出生的“特曼人”歸為另一組，
it turns out that the Termite failures are far more likely to have been born in the earlier group.
或許就可以明顯看出，那些來自出生年份較早的群體中的“特曼人”更可能失敗。
The explanation has to do with two of the great cataclysmic events of the twentieth century:
這種解釋與20世紀的兩大災難事件有關(guān)：
the Great Depression and World War II. If you were born after 1912, say in 1915, you got out of college after the worst of the Depression was over, and you were drafted at a young enough age that going away to war for three or four years was as much an opportunity as it was a disruption (provided you weren't killed in combat, of course.)
經(jīng)濟大蕭條和第二次世界大戰(zhàn)。如果你是1912年以后出生，比如1915年，你大學畢業(yè)時，經(jīng)濟大蕭條的最壞時期已經(jīng)結(jié)束，此后，你被選去服三四年的兵役，這就成了你人生中的一個斷點（當然，假設(shè)你沒有在戰(zhàn)爭中犧牲的話）。
The Termites born before 1911, though, graduated from college at the height of the Depression,
1911年以前出生的、成為“特曼人”的孩子，在經(jīng)濟大蕭條最嚴重的時期剛好大學畢業(yè)，
when job opportunities were scarce, and they were already in their late thirties when the Second World War hit,
那時工作機會很少，并且在第二次世界大戰(zhàn)爆發(fā)時他們已經(jīng)快40歲了，
meaning that when they were drafted, they had to disrupt career and families and adult lives that were already well under way.
也就是說，當他們被選去服兵役時，他們不得不中斷本已步入正軌的事業(yè)及家庭生活。
To have been born before 1911 is to have been demographically unlucky.
從人口統(tǒng)計學角度來講，1911年以前出生的人幾乎都是不幸運的。
The most devastating event of the twentieth century hits you exactly at the wrong time.
20世紀最大的災難在不該來的時候恰恰砸中了你。
The same demographic logic applies to Jewish lawyers in New York like Maurice Janklow.
同樣，這種人口統(tǒng)計學的邏輯也可以適用到紐約的猶太裔律師身上，比如說莫里斯·詹克洛。
The doors were closed to them at the big downtown law firms. So they were overwhelmingly solo practitioners, handling wills and divorces and contracts and minor disputes, and in the Depression, the work of the solo practitioner all but disappeared.
市中心律師事務(wù)所的門是不會向他們敞開的，所以他們蜂擁著獨自創(chuàng)業(yè)，處理關(guān)于遺產(chǎn)、離婚、合同及其它一些小糾紛的案子。在經(jīng)濟大蕭條時期，幾乎所有的獨自創(chuàng)業(yè)者都從人們視野中消失了。
"Nearly half of the members of the metropolitan bar earned less than the minimum subsistence level for American families,"
“大城市中，幾乎一半的律師從業(yè)人員都掙不到能夠維持當時美國家庭生活標準的錢，”
Jerold Auerbach writes of the Depression years in New York.
杰羅德·奧爾巴赫（JeroldAuerbach）在講到紐約大蕭條時期，這樣寫道，
"One year later, fifteen hundred lawyers were prepared to take the pauper's oath to qualify for work relief.
“一年以后，1500名律師準備像乞丐一樣向社會要求給予相應(yīng)的救助。
Jewish lawyers (approximately half of the metropolitan bar) discovered that
猶太律師們（大約是市內(nèi)律師從業(yè)人數(shù)的一半）覺得
their practice had become a 'dignified road to starvation.'"
像他們這樣繼續(xù)開業(yè)，儼然是‘有尊嚴地餓死’”。
Regardless of the number of years they spent in practice, their income was "strikingly less" than that of their Christian colleagues.
暫不說他們花了多少年苦心經(jīng)營，和那些基督同行們相比，他們的收入“少得可憐”。
