2021年经济学人 寒门更难出贵子(1)

China

中国板块

Inequality in education

教育不平等

Serve the rich

为富人服务

It is becoming even harder for poor students to get into a good university

寒门子弟越来越难进入好大学。

After xiong xuan’ang gained the capital’s best score in China’s university-entrance exam in 2017, he was interviewed by Beijing’s media. The son of diplomats¹, Mr Xiong acknowledged that his upbringing had been privileged. “All the top scorers now come from wealthy families,” he said. “It is becoming very difficult for students from rural areas to get into good universities.” His honesty drew much praise online.

熊轩昂在2017年获得高考状元之后，接受了北京媒体的采访。作为外交官之子，熊轩昂承认自己的成长过程受到了优待。熊轩昂表示：“现在所有的状元都出生于富裕家庭。农村学生越来越难考上好大学了。”他的诚实在网上赢得了很多赞誉。

Since 1998, when China began a huge expansion of university enrolment, the number of students admitted annually² has quadrupled to nearly 10m. About one third of high-school students now proceed to undergraduate courses. Data are patchy, but experts agree that the share of rural students at China’s best universities (the top 1%) has shrunk. Only 0.3% of rural students make it into them, compared with 2.8% of urban ones. Most other tertiary institutions are far inferior.

中国大学自1998年以来开始大规模扩招，每年录取的学生数量翻了一番，达到了近1000万人。现在大约有三分之一的高中生考入本科。虽然数据不完整，但专家们一致认为，就读于中国最好的大学（前1%）的农村学生比例有所下降。只有0.3%的农村学生能够就读于顶级大学，相比之下，城市学生的比例为2.8%。大多数其他高等教育机构都远不及那些顶级大学。

Around the world, students from poor backgrounds struggle to compete with their richer counterparts. In China the divide is particularly stark³. The main cause is the hukou system, which makes it very difficult to gain free access to state-provided services outside the place where one’s household is registered. This means that in cities, the children of migrants from the countryside are usually shut out of local state schools. They have to attend shoddy private ones that charge fees, or go to their parents’ village for an education that is free but also bare-bones.

世界各地的寒门子弟都在努力与出身富裕家庭的学生竞争。这种分歧在中国尤为明显。主要原因在于户口制度，学生们很难在户籍地以外的地方免费获得国家提供的服务。这意味着流动到城市里的农村孩子通常会被当地的公立学校拒之门外。这些孩子被迫就读于收费的劣质私立学校，或者回老家接受免费但贫乏的教育。

The situation is made worse by the way that university places are allocated⁴. The best universities are concentrated in the biggest and richest cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. They offer a disproportionate number of places to students with local hukou. China’s two most prestigious⁵ universities, Peking University and Tsinghua, are in Beijing. Their acceptance rate is around 1% for local students but only a tenth of that for applicants⁶ from places outside the capital, according to state television. More students from Beijing are admitted to Tsinghua every year than the combined number of successful applicants from Guangdong and Shandong. The population of those two provinces is ten times bigger than Beijing’s.

大学招生名额的分配方式使情况变得更糟。顶级大学集中在北京和上海等最大且最富裕的城市。他们为有当地户口的学生提供了远超比例的招生名额。北大和清华这两所中国最著名的大学都位于北京。据官媒报道，这两所大学在当地的录取率在1%左右，但首都以外地区的学生录取率只有这个数的十分之一。清华每年招收的北京学生比广东和山东的录取总数还要多。而这两个省的人口却是北京的十倍。

1 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 annually   

adv.一年一次，每年

参考例句：

• Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。

3 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

4 allocated   

adj. 分配的 动词allocate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The Ford Foundation allocated millions of dollars for cancer research. 福特基金会拨款数百万美元用于癌症研究。
• More funds will now be allocated to charitable organizations. 现在会拨更多的资金给慈善组织。

5 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

6 applicants   

申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were over 500 applicants for the job. 有500多人申请这份工作。
• He was impressed by the high calibre of applicants for the job. 求职人员出色的能力给他留下了深刻印象。