经济学人482:学生的压力

 　　The burden on students

　　学生的压力

　　Must not try harder

　　不能更努力了

　　The education ministry¹ tries to ban homework

　　教育部尝试禁止家庭作业。

　　Sep 7th 2013 | BEIJING |From the print editionPURGES may be what political junkies are talking about, but for Chinese families the big issue recently has been homework. Children across the country have returned to their classrooms this week just as the education ministry has put forward plans to decrease the amount of homework pupils must do each day.

　　清洗行动可能会用在政治犯身上，但是对中国家庭来说，最近的大事儿是家庭作业。中国的孩子本周回到学校，同时教育部计划减少小学生每天必做作业的量。

　　The ministry’s proposed guidelines, issued on August 22nd, would ban written homework for any child up to the age of 12, and ban exams for children up to the age of nine. It also said that primary schools should organise² more extra-curricular activities, such as visits to museums and places of cultural interest, and “cultivate pupils’ hands-on capabilities³ through handicrafts or farm work”.

　　教育部在8月22日发布了拟定规定，规定禁止向12岁以下的儿童布置任何书面作业，禁止9岁以下儿童参加考试。同时规定中学应该组织更多的课外活动，比如参观博物馆，文化景点以及通过手工活动和农业活动培养小学生的动手能力。

　　Amid intense competition for university places and jobs, Chinese schoolchildren spend hours on homework each night. Pressure from an early age is the cause of constant hand-wringing in the press. Yet the very notion of lightening the burden has met opposition⁴ from the people who complain most: parents. Last spring Beijing attempted its own homework restrictions⁵, but workloads⁶ crept back up as insistent⁷ parents worried about their children falling behind.

　　在对大学名额和工作的激烈竞争中，中国学生每晚花费数小时完成家庭作业。少年儿童的压力是各媒体持续劝说政府的原因。然而，减负的观念遭到了对压力抱怨最多的家长的反对。上个春天，北京尝试出台了自己的家庭作业规范，但是由于固执的家长担心自己的孩子会落后，使得作业又回到之前状态。

　　The new proposals have drawn⁸ tens of thousands of comments on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, with older children saying they heard similar ideas of reform when they were at school ten years ago, but nothing changed. On his microblog Wang Xiaodong, co-author of a book called “Unhappy China”, suggested that the ministry stop micro-managing every element of basic education and leave the work to teachers and students. But that idea might lead to more homework, if current patterns hold. The biggest contribution education officials could make, wrote Mr Wang, was “to give themselves a six-month holiday”.

　　新提议在微博上收到了数万条评论，年龄稍大的孩子们说十年前他们在学校的时候也听到过类似的改革，但是没什么变化。《中国不高兴》的一个作者王小东在微博上建议教育部停止管理基础教育的细节，将这些工作让给老师和学生。但是如果保持现在这种模式，作业可能会变得更多。王说，教育部干部能做的最大贡献是先给自己放半年假。

　　The real problem is the underlying⁹ system. As one microblogger wrote: “If the employment environment remains¹⁰ the same, if the gaokao [entrance exam] is not cancelled, if the top universities still enroll¹¹ only the students with the highest score, it is impossible to reduce pupils’ burdens”. All those worries are compounded by corruption¹², inequity and disparity in teacher-training and compensation. Few believe such deep structural¹³ problems can be countered simply by a call for less homework.

　　真正的问题是深层制度。一个微博用户写道：“如果就业环境还是维持现状，如果高考不取消，如果顶尖大学还是只招收成绩最好的学生，小学生减负是无稽之谈。”这些担忧来自腐败，不公平，教师培训和补助的不均。几乎没人相信这种深层结构问题会通过减少家庭作业得到解决。

1 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

2 organise   

vt.组织，安排，筹办

参考例句：

• He has the ability to organise.他很有组织才能。
• It's my job to organise all the ceremonial events.由我来组织所有的仪式。

3 capabilities   

n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities. 他有点自大，自视甚高。 来自辞典例句
• Some programmers use tabs to break complex product capabilities into smaller chunks. 一些程序员认为，标签可以将复杂的功能分为每个窗格一组简单的功能。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

4 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

5 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

6 workloads   

（某一人或组织）工作量，工作负担( workload的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Project management software can provide such visibility into everyone's skills and workloads. 项目管理软件可以提供这样的能见度到每个人的技能和工作量。
• Doctors have complained of heavy workloads. 医生投诉工作越来越繁重。

7 insistent   

adj.迫切的，坚持的

参考例句：

• There was an insistent knock on my door.我听到一阵急促的敲门声。
• He is most insistent on this point.他在这点上很坚持。

8 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

9 underlying   

adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的

参考例句：

• The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
• This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。

10 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

11 enroll   

v.招收；登记；入学；参军；成为会员（英)enrol

参考例句：

• I should like to enroll all my children in the swimming class.我愿意让我的孩子们都参加游泳班。
• They enroll him as a member of the club.他们吸收他为俱乐部会员。

12 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

13 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。