来自《耶鲁大学开放课程：现代早期英国社会第2集第2集》

but most of them relied upon wages for

但是绝大部分是依靠
at least a significant part of their income,

他们工钱维持生活
working as farm laborers on the holdings of bigger tenants.

他们在那些农场里干体力活
Well, one can generalize in that kind of way,

可以这么说以上的人是农村地区的情况
but the proportions of the rural population that fell into

但是各种群体在农村人口所占的比例
these different groups varied enormously from place to place.

在各个村子里面是大有不同的
What you can say in general is that

可以这么概括地说
rural society was highly differentiated.

农村社会是高度分化的
A large minority of big yeomen farmers,

一部分是自耕农
a broad middle band of people who could get a secure living

社会的中层是一大批处于温饱状态的人
as craftsmen or as husbandmen, and another large minority,

例如工匠和农夫而还有一部分人
probably about a quarter in the early sixteenth century,

大约占到十六世纪人口总数的四分之一