VOA慢速英语2012 Education Report - Young, and Training for a Good Job -- at Sea

 

Education Report - Young, and Training for a Good Job -- at Sea

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Many new college graduates in the United States have trouble finding a job in the weak economy. But not graduates from the California Maritime¹ Academy.

The academy is the only school of its kind on the West Coast. Students attend classes on the university campus in northern California. But they also gain experience by going to sea in a floating classroom, the training ship Golden Bear.

Two hundred eighty-eight cadets recently sailed on a two-month international training cruise. The ship travels south to the Panama Canal. Along the way, it visits countries in Central America and the Caribbean.

Vasile Tudoran is a mechanical engineering student at the California Maritime Academy.

He spends much of his time working deep in the heart of the ship.

VASILE TUDORAN: “I knew I wanted to fix stuff since I was a little kid.”

He says he is not worried about finding a job.

VASILE TUDORAN: “When we get out of school you are basically guaranteed a job. There are not enough bodies for the positions that are needed to be filled.”

Robert Jackson is one of his teachers.

ROBERT JACKSON: “I would say the majority of our students have between one to two job offers before they graduate."

He says most of those job offers are between sixty and one hundred twenty thousand dollars a year. In addition to working on ships, he says, engineering graduates from the academy also get jobs with power companies and satellite companies.

Instructor² Bill Schmid says the situation for marine³ transportation students is not as bright as it was before the economic downturn, but it is recovering.

BILL SCHMID: “I think probably the vast majority of our graduates are employed in the industry, if they want to be, now.”

He says the coursework is demanding because ship's officers are kind of like surgeons or airplane pilots.

BILL SCHMID: “You do not want them to be right only seventy percent of the time. We pretty much have to be right all the time, so that is a hard thing to teach young people, that there is zero tolerance⁴ for mistakes.”

The California Maritime Academy has a ninety-four percent job placement rate. Still, only about nine hundred students are currently studying there. Cadet Andrew Di Tucci says he understands why.

ANDREW DI TUCCI: “The school, it is not like your normal college experience would be. We are a paramilitary school. We have uniforms. We have formations. Just disciplining yourself to show up and keep grooming⁵ standards and be where you need to be, sit down, buckle⁶ your belt and study.”

Andrew Di Tucci is majoring in marine transportation. He says when he was growing up, he was always told it takes a special person to want to go to sea for a living.

ANDREW DI TUCCI: “My favorite thing about it is waking up every morning and seeing nothing but the ocean on all sides of you. I get a thrill out of that.”

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report. To read and listen to more programs for people learning English, go to www.voanews.cn. We have a video about the California Maritime Academy. You can also find our captioned⁷ videos at the VOA Learning English Channel on YouTube. I'm Jim Tedder⁸.

1 maritime   

adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的

参考例句：

• Many maritime people are fishermen.许多居于海滨的人是渔夫。
• The temperature change in winter is less in maritime areas.冬季沿海的温差较小。

2 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

3 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

4 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

5 grooming   

n. 修饰, 美容，（动物）梳理毛发

参考例句：

• You should always pay attention to personal grooming. 你应随时注意个人仪容。
• We watched two apes grooming each other. 我们看两只猩猩在互相理毛。

6 buckle   

n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲

参考例句：

• The two ends buckle at the back.带子两端在背后扣起来。
• She found it hard to buckle down.她很难专心做一件事情。

7 captioned   

a.标题项下的； 标题所说的

参考例句：

• This paper reviews the production, development and nationalization of the captioned materials. 本文就铜系合金引线框架材料的生产、发展和国产化进程作一论述。
• Please advise other considerable hotels for this captioned group. 请推荐其它一些高级的旅馆给这一群打标语的人。

8 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网