caronmi
Junior Member
- Joined
- May 18, 2010
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Chinese
- Home Country
- China
- Current Location
- China
Please help me understand the last sentence. (The rest part of this article is just for your reference).
Low levels of literacy and numeracy have a damaging impact on almost every aspect of adult life, according to a survey published yesterday, which offers evidence of a developing underclass. Tests and interviews with hundreds of people born in a single week in 1958 clearly illustrated the handicap of educational underachievement. The effects were seen in unemployment, low incomes, depression and social inactivity.
Those who left school at 16 with poor basic skills had been employed for up to four years less than good readers at the time they reached 37. Professor John Bynner, of City University, who carried out the research, said that today's unqualified people would face even greater problems because the supply of manual jobs had dried up. Poor readers were twice as likely to be on a low wage and four times as likely to live in a household where neither partner worked. Women in this position were five times as likely to be classified as depressed, while both sexes tended to feel they had no control over their lives, and to be doubtful of others. Those with low literacy and numeracy skills were seldom involved in any community organization and much less likely than others to have voted in a general election. There had been no improvement in the level of interviewees since the sample was surveyed at the age of 21.
I wonder "since" here means "from then on" or "because". And I don't understand why the author choose the age of 21 as a dividing line.
Thanks in advance.
Low levels of literacy and numeracy have a damaging impact on almost every aspect of adult life, according to a survey published yesterday, which offers evidence of a developing underclass. Tests and interviews with hundreds of people born in a single week in 1958 clearly illustrated the handicap of educational underachievement. The effects were seen in unemployment, low incomes, depression and social inactivity.
Those who left school at 16 with poor basic skills had been employed for up to four years less than good readers at the time they reached 37. Professor John Bynner, of City University, who carried out the research, said that today's unqualified people would face even greater problems because the supply of manual jobs had dried up. Poor readers were twice as likely to be on a low wage and four times as likely to live in a household where neither partner worked. Women in this position were five times as likely to be classified as depressed, while both sexes tended to feel they had no control over their lives, and to be doubtful of others. Those with low literacy and numeracy skills were seldom involved in any community organization and much less likely than others to have voted in a general election. There had been no improvement in the level of interviewees since the sample was surveyed at the age of 21.
I wonder "since" here means "from then on" or "because". And I don't understand why the author choose the age of 21 as a dividing line.
Thanks in advance.