女生要美貌还是学识？
      

My 15-year-old is disinclined to work for her GCSEs, saying her time is better spent preening herself in preparation for assignations with her delightful, diligent, privately educated, moneyed boyfriend. She insists the money spent on nail-painting, hair-colouring and the like is an investment and will be more than repaid when he marries her. Is she deluding herself?

　　A curious mother

　　我15岁的女儿不愿为拿到英国普通中等教育证书(GCSE)而努力学习，称自己把时间花在穿着打扮上更有意义，为的是与她那个讨人喜欢、勤奋、上私立学校的有钱男友约会。她坚称，花在美甲和染发等方面的钱是一种投资，在男友迎娶自己时就会获得更多的回报。她是在欺骗自己吗？
        
       一位好奇的母亲

　　Dear Curious Mother, 

　　Surprising as this may seem in the 21st century, your daughter’s strategy is not unusual. Evidence on speed-dating gathered by the economists Michèle Belot and Marco Francesconi shows that women are attracted by rich men, while men focus more on a woman’s physical appearance. Lena Edlund, another economist, has found that in the areas of her native Sweden where the wealthiest men live, women of prime marriageable age are over-represented.