Tuesday Time-Waster: Match the excerpt to the source. Half are from from the Times' current series on class. The others are from from their advertising kit. The results may surprise you — no cheating!

1)"Being born in the elite in the U.S. gives you a constellation of privileges that very few people in the world have ever experienced," Professor Levine said. "Being born poor in the U.S. gives you disadvantages unlike anything in Western Europe and Japan and Canada."

2)Affluent U.S. readers of the New York Times are 39% more likely than the average affluent adult to hold a college or postgraduate degree, 90% more likely to have a household income exceeding $150,000 and 46% more likely to be a top manager.

The rest, and the exciting answers, after the jump.

3) But merit, it turns out, is at least partly class-based. Parents with money, education and connections cultivate in their children the habits that the meritocracy rewards. When their children then succeed, their success is seen as earned.

4) U.S. readers of The New York Times are over two and a half times as likely as the average U.S. adult to have a college or post-graduate degree, over twice as likely to be a professional/managerial and over twice as likely to have a household income exceeding $100,000.*
Source: 2004 Spring MRI

5) One study, by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, found that fewer families moved from one quintile, or fifth, of the income ladder to another during the 1980's than during the 1970's and that still fewer moved in the 90's than in the 80's. A study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics also found that mobility declined from the 80's to the 90's.

6) In the NY DMA, readers of The New York Times are nearly twice as likely as the average adult to have a college degree or higher; 52% more likely to hold a professional/managerial position; 63% more likely to have a household income exceeding $100,000.

7) At a time when education matters more than ever, success in school remains linked tightly to class. At a time when the country is increasingly integrated racially, the rich are isolating themselves more and more. At a time of extraordinary advances in medicine, class differences in health and lifespan are wide and appear to be widening.

And new research on mobility, the movement of families up and down the economic ladder, shows there is far less of it than economists once thought and less than most people believe. In fact, mobility, which once buoyed the working lives of Americans as it rose in the decades after World War II, has lately flattened out or possibly even declined, many researchers say.

8) The New York Times attracts some of the most educated, affluent and influential readers anywhere.

Answer key:
If you are a Times subscriber, congratulations! You win! -AP

Shadowy Lines That Still Divide [NYT]
The Power of Our Brand and Our Audience [NYT Co.]