VOA慢速英语2018 奥运选手西蒙娜有一个新头衔:大学生（在线收听）

Olympian Simone Biles Has a New Title: College Student

Simone Biles has won more World Championship and Olympic medals than any other American gymnast in history.

西蒙·拜尔斯(Simone Biles)获得的世界冠军和奥运金牌超过了历史上任何其他美国体操运动员。

She won four golds at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She wrote a book about her life, which was recently turned into a movie.

她在2016年奥运会上获得了4枚金牌。她撰写了一本自传，并在最近拍成了电影。

But one thing Biles does not have is a college education.

但是拜尔斯并没有获得大学学位。

That will soon change.

这一点也即将改变。

Biles had planned to go to the University of California Los Angeles after competing at the 2016 Olympics. But her very busy life made studying full-time at a university nearly impossible.

拜尔斯曾经计划参加完2016年奥运会后到加州大学洛杉矶分校上学。但是她异常忙碌的生活使得她几乎不可能到大学里全职学习。

Instead, she has started taking classes at the University of the People, a nonprofit, online university. She is working toward a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

相反，她已经在民众大学上课，这是一家非营利性的网络学校。她正在攻读工商管理学士学位。

Biles, who is 20 years old, has also become the university’s global ambassador.

20岁的拜尔斯还成为了这所大学的全球大使。

Shai Reshef, an Israeli-born businessman, set up the University of the People in 2009. The school offers undergraduate and graduate level degree programs. Students are not required to pay to take the university’s classes. The cost is free, because of private and public donations.

以色列出生的商人赛·雷瑟夫（Shai Reshef）于2009年创建了民众大学。这所大学提供本科和研究生学位课程。学生就读该大学的课程无需支付费用。由于私人和公共捐赠，这些费用全免。

More than 6,000 educators and administrators from schools such as Yale University and New York University volunteer their time and expertise.

来自耶鲁大学和纽约大学等学校的6000多名教育工作者和管理人员志愿投入了他们的时间和专业知识。

While there are no tuition costs, students must pay $100 for each exam they take. The university estimates that getting a bachelor’s degree costs about $4,060.

虽然没有学费，学生们参加每门考试需要缴纳100美元。该大学估计获得学士学位需要大约4060美元。

Biles has established a special scholarship in her name to help students with those costs. It is meant to help students who have been in foster care, like Biles herself.

拜尔斯以她的名义设立了一项特殊奖学金用于帮助学生们支付这些费用。它旨在帮助那些寄养家庭的学生，例如拜尔斯本人。

The school’s nontraditional methods work well for Biles, whose life so far has been anything but normal.

该校的非传统方式对有着非凡人生经历的拜尔斯来说是最适合不过了。

“I haven’t had a traditional school experience for a while, actually going into a classroom and sitting down...and the traditional way won’t work for me and I understand that. So it’s okay. Online it is!”

她说：“我已经有一阵子没有在传统学校学习、坐在一间真正的教室里的经验了……传统的方式对我行不通，我也明白。所以好吧，那就网上学习吧。”

Biles was home-schooled during her high school years to make more time for her gymnastics training.

拜尔斯高中期间在家里接受教育，以便为体操训练留出更多时间。

Biles spoke with VOA and other media about her involvement at University of the People. She also spoke about the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal involving team doctor Larry Nassar. Biles has said she is among the more than 250 women and girls that he abused.

拜尔斯跟美国之音等媒体谈到了她在民众大学的学习情况。她还谈到了涉及前队医拉里·纳萨尔（Larry Nassar）的美国体操性侵犯丑闻。拜尔斯说她是250多名受侵害女生之一。

Nassar has admitted guilt to numerous sex crimes.

纳萨尔已经承认了众多性侵犯的罪名。

Biles says she hopes that once she returns to competition, people will talk about her abilities as a gymnast, and not her connection to Nassar’s abuse.

拜尔斯表示，她希望一旦她重新参赛，人们会谈到她作为体操运动员的能力，而不是被牵扯进纳萨尔的性侵犯丑闻。

“I didn’t want the headlines, once I go out and compete again, to be -- you know -- that be the title of me, rather than what I have to offer for this sport."

她说：”我不希望一旦我再度去参赛，新闻头条上我的头衔是那个，而不是我给这个体育项目带来的东西。”

Biles says the same drive and hard work that shaped her gymnastics career will help her in her studies as well.

拜尔斯表示，她的干劲和努力塑造了她的体操生涯，而这些也会在学习上给她提供帮助。

I’m Ashley Thompson.

Words in This Story

bachelor's degree - n. a degree that is given to a student by a college or university usually after four years of study

online - adj. connected to a computer, a computer network, or the Internet

global - adj. involving the entire world

undergraduate - adj. of or relating to a course of studies at a college or university that leads to a bachelor's degree

graduate - adj. ?of or relating to a course of studies taken at a college or university after earning a bachelor's degree or other first degree?

scholarship - n. an amount of money that is given by a school, an organization, etc., to a student to help pay for the student's education

foster - adj. ?used to describe a situation in which for a period of time a child lives with and is cared for by people who are not the child's parents?

scandal - n. an occurrence in which people are shocked and upset because of behavior that is morally or legally wrong

headlines - n. the major news stories reported in newspapers, magazines, or television news programs