新奇事件簿 无法作答的考试

Final-year students at a university in England are angry after they took an economics¹ exam. Students from the University of Sheffield have signed a petition² to say the exam questions were 'impossible' to answer. Nearly all of the 100 students who took the exam complained and signed the online petition. They want the university to look into this. The students say the exam contained questions on topics that were not in their course. They also say the questions included a lot of difficult maths that they had not been taught. One student said a lecturer³ told them they would only need 'simple' maths. They are now worried that they will get low test scores, and that this will affect what kind of degree they get.

一所英格兰大学的经济期末考试让学生大为恼火。谢菲尔德大学的学生提交了一份请愿书，他们认为期末考试的题目无法回答。参加这项考试的100名学生都对此抱怨不已，并参加了网上的请愿活动。他们希望学校能为此事作出调查。学生说考试中的题目超出了课程的范围。他们还说问题中包含了许多他们没有讲过的数学题。一位学生说老师告诉我们只需要简单的数学问题。他们现在很担心自己会得低分，这将影响他们获得证书的种类。

The head of the economics department, professor Andy Dickerson, told the BBC⁴ that the exam was fair. He said not all the questions needed maths. He said the level of maths in the exams was the same as the level taught to students on the course. Professor Dickerson also said all the exam questions were on topics the students had studied. He said: "All questions were based on topics taught in the course and for which further reading was provided⁵." He added⁶ that one question in the exam used a term that students may not have seen before. He said this was no problem because the question explained the meaning of the term. The university said it would look carefully at the results.

经济系主任安迪·迪肯斯告诉BBC说，这个考试是公平的。他说并不是所有的考试都需要数学。他说考试中的数学测试与课堂上教授的水平相当。迪肯斯认为考试的所有题目都是学生在课堂上学过的。他说：“所有的问题都是基于课本之上的，而且还提供了深度阅读。”他还说到问题中有一个术语是学生没有见过的。他说这不是问题，因为问题本身已经解释了术语的意思。大学将对考试结果做出深入的研究。

1 economics   

n.经济学，经济情况

参考例句：

• He is studying economics,which subject is very important.他正在学习经济学，该学科是很重要的。
• One can't separate politics from economics.不能把政治与经济割裂开来。

2 petition   

n.请愿书，申请书，诉状；v.请愿，正式请求

参考例句：

• Thousands of citizens subscribed the petition.几千名公民在请愿书上签名。
• The number of signers of the petition for a new school snowballed.要求增设新学校而签名的人像滚雪球似的越来越多。

3 lecturer   

n.讲演者

参考例句：

• The lecturer tried to settle the audience down.那位演讲者试图让听众静下来。
• The lecturer is booked for every night of the week.这位讲演人本星期每晚都有预约。

4 BBC   

abbr.（=British Broadcasting Corporation）英国广播公司

参考例句：

• She works for the BBC.她为英国广播公司工作。
• The BBC was founded in 1922.英国广播公司建于1922年。

5 provided   

conj.假如，若是；adj.预备好的，由...供给的

参考例句：

• Provided it's fine we will have a pleasant holiday.如果天气良好，我们的假日将过得非常愉快。
• I will come provided that it's not raining tomorrow.如果明天不下雨，我就来。

6 added   

adj.更多的，附加的，额外的

参考例句：

• They have added a new scene at the beginning.在开头他们又增加了一场戏。
• The pop music added to our enjoyment of the film.片中的流行音乐使我们对这部电影更加喜爱。