外刊阅读
本文选自《纽约时报》,大家慢慢“食用”~可以尝试自己做精读,当然也可以直接泛读了解一下相关资讯就可以。
这是英语书架的外刊泛读专栏,不定期分享一些有意思的文章,供大家阅读涨姿势~
今天跟随《纽约时报》的脚步,
了解一下双减政策:
China Targets Costly Tutoring Classes.
Parents Want to Save Them.
Zhang Hongchun worries that his 10-year-old daughter isn’t getting enough sleep. Between school, homework and after-school guitar, clarinet and calligraphy practice, most nights she doesn’t get to bed before 11. Some of her classmates keep going until midnight.
张洪春(音)担心10岁大的女儿得不到充分的睡眠。她要上学、做作业,放学后要练习吉他、单簧管和书法,多数晚上无法做到11点之前睡觉。她的一些同学要到午夜才能睡下。
“Everyone wants to follow suit,” Mr. Zhang said. “No one wants to lose at the starting line.”
“大家都有从众的心理,”张说。“都不想输在起跑线。”
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follow suit跟着做,照着做,仿效:to do the same as someone else has done,举个例子:•Budget companies have been so successful that other airlines have had to follow suit and lower their fares.廉价航空公司很成功,其他航空公司只得仿效,降低票价。
In China, the competitive pursuit of education — and the better life it promises — is relentless. So are the financial pressures it adds to families already dealing with climbing house prices, caring for aging parents and costly health care.
在中国,围绕教育——及其承诺的更好的生活——的竞争十分残酷。本已经需要面对居高不下的房价、赡养老人和高昂医疗费用的家庭承受了更大的压力。
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relentless严格的; 无情的; 坚决的: strict, cruel, or determined, without ever stopping,举个例子:•her relentless determination to succeed她要成功的坚定决心
The burden of this pursuit has caught the attention of officials who want couples to have more children. China has tried to slow the education treadmill. It has banned homework, curbed livestreaming hours of online tutors and created more coveted slots at top universities.
这些负担引起了希望夫妇生更多孩子的官员的注意。中国一直在试图让教育的运转慢下来。此前它禁止了家庭作业、限制了在线教学直播的时间,并在顶尖大学里创造了更多有吸引力的名额。
Last week, it tried something bigger: barring private companies that offer after-school tutoring and targeting China’s $100 billion for-profit test-prep industry. The first limits are set to take place during the coming year, to be carried out by local governments.
上周,它尝试了更大的举措:禁止私营公司提供校外辅导,这是在针对中国这个1000亿美元的盈利性补课备考产业。第一批限制将在明年生效,由地方政府负责执行。
The move is aimed at making life easier for parents who are overwhelmed by the financial pressures of educating their children. Yet parents and experts are skeptical it will work. The wealthy, they point out, will simply hire expensive private tutors, making education even more competitive and ultimately widening China’s yawning wealth gap.
该措施为了教育子女而承受巨大财务压力的家长能轻松一些。然而家长和专家对此表示怀疑。他们认为,富人会直接聘用昂贵的私人家教,使得教育的竞争更加激烈,最终扩大本已十分巨大的贫富差距。
For Mr. Zhang, who sells chemistry lab equipment in the southern Chinese city of Kunming, banning after-school tutoring does little to address his broader concerns. “As long as there is competition, parents will still have their anxiety,” he said.
对于在中国南方城市昆明销售化学实验室设备的张洪春来说,禁止校外辅导并不能解决他更广泛的担忧。“只要竞争存在,家长的焦虑仍然会存在,”他说。
The education overhaul is also part of the country’s effort to encourage an overwhelmingly reluctant population to have bigger families and address a looming demographic crisis. In May, China changed its two-child policy to allow married couples to have three children. It promised to increase maternity leave and ease workplace pressures.
教育改革也是更大范围内的一项行动的一部分,意在让绝大多数不愿意生更多孩子的国民组建更大的家庭,从而应对迫在眉睫的人口危机。今年5月,中国改变了“两孩”政策,允许已婚夫妇生育三个孩子。政府还承诺增加产假,减轻工作压力。
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overhaul 可以用作名词或者动词,表示〔制度或方法的〕彻底改革: when a system or method is changed in order to improve it,比如:•an overhaul of the tax system税收制度的全面改革。•All the community's decision-making institutions need to be overhauled.社区的所有决策机构都需要进行彻底改革。
“Everyone is pushed into this vicious cycle. You spend what you can on education,” said Siqi Tu, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen, Germany. For Chinese students hoping to get a spot at a prestigious university, everything hinges on the gaokao, a single exam that many children are primed for before they even learn how to write.
“每个人都被推进这个恶性循环,在教育上能花多少就花多少,”德国哥根廷的马克斯·普朗克宗教和种族多样性研究所(Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity)博士后研究员屠思齐说。对于希望进入名牌大学的中国学生来说,一切都取决于高考,许多孩子甚至在学写字之前就已经在为它做准备。
原文始发于微信公众号(英语书架):禁止补课,家长真的就松了一口气?| 纽约时报
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