Whyte, M. K., & Im, D. K. (2014). Is the social volcano still dormant? Trends in Chinese attitudes toward inequality. Social science research, 48, 62-76.
Introduction 9
Despite china’s extraordinary success over more than three decades in generating economic growth, raising popular standards of living, and reducing poverty, one other trend has worried analysts and Chinese leaders since the late 1990s — the sharply increased income gaps that have accompanied China’s growth.
在本段使用了一个转折，despite…. one other trend has worried……success in generating economic growth, raising standards of living 和 the sharply increased gaps是一对对比。
During the reform era, China has gone from being a relatively equal to a quite unequal society, as shown by the trend lines in the Gini statistics of household income distribution for selected countries displayed in fig. 1.
进一步描述所要表达的社会情况，gone from …to…. Trend line in the Gini statistics 是一种描述方法。
Many worried that popular anger over rising income gaps and unequal mobility opportunities may threaten China’s political stability. For example, in an article in the New York Times, Kahn stated “because many people believe that wealth flows from access to power more than it does from talent or risk-taking, the wealth gap has incited outrage and is viewed as at least partly responsible for tens of thousands of mass protests around the country in recent years”
在这一段里进一步描述人们对这社会情况的担心，为下文的实际结论的转折做铺垫。Anger over rising income gap and unequal mobility opportunities 通过引用纽约时报一名作者的评价来展示这种worry，我觉得通过阅读国外知名媒体对中国的报道，可以了解当下国际关心中国的焦点，这是寻找研究问题的一种好办法，可是，哎，老夫至今还没有养成阅读国外新闻的习惯。
In 2004 Whyte and colleagues conducted the first national survey designed to examine the accuracy of this “social volcano scenario”— the claims that most Chinese are increasingly angry about high and rising levels of inequality, that the disadvantaged are particularly angry, and that such anger is likely to pose a threat to China’s political stability.
讲述了自己研究的目的 examine the accuracy of this “social volcano scenerio” 可以看出，本篇研究是就一热点社会现象开始谈起，这样的开始，首先要对这个社会现象比较了解，其次要对各方观点比较了解，然后就是科学的调研发现的结论是什么，对一般人所认识的结论是有差异， 有冲突，或者印证。 确切的说，这是一个claim that….
The survey results showed that in 2004 the social volcano scenario was a myth, or at least that the distributive injustice volcano was then quite dormant.
果不其然，后面就介绍了一个证明人们的认知是一个myth的结论， 一个myth用得真好啊，恰恰把我想表达的东西表达清楚了。
Specifically, regarding most aspects of income inequality and chances for ordinary citizens to get ahead, predominant views of Chinese citizens were acceptance and optimism, with more favorable attitudes than found in comparable surveys in other countries.
具体的来讲，实际的一个结论，regarding….. predominant views of Chinese citizens were…., with …..使用with来形容这样一个结论。
In addition, the social contours of inequality attitudes in 2004 were quite different from the usual pattern found in surveys in other societies. Most studies else where report the prevalence of a “self-serving attribution bias”(or simply the self-interest principle), with individuals with high social status or who have been upwardly mobile tending to view current patterns of inequality as fair (justifying their success), while low status and downwardly mobile individuals view them as unfair (with their poor standing underserved) – see, for example.
这里又进一步讲了一个与众不同的结论，whyte martin 大佬擅长去发现与众不同，或者与常识不同的结论和解释，在社会学中这叫debunking，例如他有一篇研究关于中国人口与计划生育的，常识会认为是计划生育导致了人口出生率下降，然而他用历史资料指出，其实早在实施计划生育之前，中国的fertility rate已经开始下降，所以中国人口下降最大的因素应该是经济发展，现代化的过程导致的，而非计划生育政策。
在本部分，他debunk了一个self-serving attributional bias, 通常而言应该是既得利益获得者更容易满足，更觉得社会公平，然而在中国却不是这样的，恰恰是disadvantage的人最大程度觉得社会的公平性，我想着也与整个经济是上升的有关系，每个人都是既得利益获得者，大家并不会整个社会水平比较，而是跟自己的过去，以及跟自己相近的人做比较，因而也比较容易得出那些整个社会比较disadvantage的人却感受到了最大公平的人群。
注意小词汇 individuals with high social status or who have been upwardly mobile
Low status and downwardly mobile individuals
In analyzing the 2004 survey results, however, we found that objective status measures were generally poor predictions of inequality attitudes, while in some instances our findings were directly contrary to what one would expect based on the principle of self-interest.
In analyzing … we found that 直白的描述即可以 while in some instances our findings were directly contrary to what….
The most dramatic and unexpected departure from conventional patterns was that on may inequality attitudes measures, favored urbanities had somewhat more critical attitudes, while highly disadvantaged rural respondents had relatively more positive attitudes.
在这一段我学会两个对我来说很有用的小单词是，critical attitudes and positive attitudes, 此外， 我们也可以看到使用most dramatic and unexpected departure from conventional patterns 能够给读者带来的冲击力。…. While….作为对比状态出现。
These findings provided the basis not only for viewing the social volcano scenario as a myth, but also for concluding that it was a mistake to view rising income gaps and unequal mobility opportunities as a primary source of the popular anger that has often erupted to the surface in China in recent years.
这样的finding 给我们带来什么样的implication，整个文章下来是如云流水，很是舒服。Provide the basis not only for ….but also for concluding…..
文章的结构是这样的：
Despite China’s extraordinary success over….., one other trend has worried ……during…china has gone from….to…. many worried that ,,,, for example……
In 2004 …. Conducted the ……to examine….the claims that ….. the survey results showed that ….specifically, regarding….the predominant view of …..were … with more…..
In addition, ….were quite different from the usual pattern found in ……most studies elsewhere f reported the prevalence of …. In analyzing …., however, we found that …..while….the most dramatic and unexpected departure from conventional patterns was that … these findings provided the basis not only for viewing…., but also for concluding that …..
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