VOA标准英语2008年-More Lasers Than Lathes Mark Today's Vocational

Last month, Washington, D.C., opened a new kind of trade school of which it is immensely proud. This is not one of the old-fashioned vocational schools that taught literal nuts-and-bolts repair work or hands-on career training in fields like auto¹ repair and cosmetology. This is a sophisticated, technically² amazing place with a long, fancy name – the Phelps Architecture, Construction, and Engineering High School. Local companies largely financed a $63 million renovation³ of an old schoolhouse to create the first high school in America devoted⁴ to those three career fields.
　
Students from Lehigh Career and Technical Institute in Schnecksville, Pa., work in a "clean room" during an electronics technology and "nanofabrication" class

Phelps, and many more new training schools across the country, are highly specialized⁵ and demanding. Phelps focuses on professions like architecture simply because that's where the jobs are in Washington. You see a whole lot more new office buildings than steel mills or airplane plants in the nation's capital.
　
As these Goochland, Va., high school students in a video-production control room show, the technical side of television is a growing part of today's career education

Since computers now generate almost every formula and blueprint⁶, today's architects and engineering firms need computer-savvy thinkers, not just draftsmen. They also want young people with so-called "soft skills" who can work in teams, solve problems, and behave ethically⁷ – not just follow orders from a supervisor⁸. Some Phelps graduates will go to college and learn to become managers, but they'll know every technical task they ask others to do.
　
This beauticians' class, photographed in Middlesex, N.J., in 1940, was a typical, and not very hi-tech, vocational-
education example in earlier days

Old-fashioned "vocational schools" have given way to what's now called "career and technical education" in high schools, two-year community colleges, and intensive training programs sponsored by management and labor⁹ unions.

Students seem to like this blend of hands-on and cerebral¹⁰ learning. The dropout¹¹ rate is way down in high schools that offer it. And if students do well applying abstract concepts to things they design and make, college or well-paying jobs await.

1 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

2 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

3 renovation   

n.革新，整修

参考例句：

• The cinema will reopen next week after the renovation.电影院修缮后，将于下星期开业。
• The building has undergone major renovation.这座大楼已进行大整修。

4 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

5 specialized   

adj.专门的，专业化的

参考例句：

• There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
• These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。

6 blueprint   

n.蓝图，设计图，计划；vt.制成蓝图，计划

参考例句：

• All the machine parts on a blueprint must answer each other.设计图上所有的机器部件都应互相配合。
• The documents contain a blueprint for a nuclear device.文件内附有一张核装置的设计蓝图。

7 ethically   

adv.在伦理上，道德上

参考例句：

• Ethically , we have nothing to be ashamed about . 从伦理上说，我们没有什么好羞愧的。
• Describe the appropriate action to take in an ethically ambiguous situation. 描述适当行为采取在一个道德地模棱两可的情况。

8 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。

9 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

10 cerebral   

adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的

参考例句：

• Your left cerebral hemisphere controls the right-hand side of your body.你的左半脑控制身体的右半身。
• He is a precise,methodical,cerebral man who carefully chooses his words.他是一个一丝不苟、有条理和理智的人，措辞谨慎。

11 dropout   

n.退学的学生；退学；退出者

参考例句：

• There is a high dropout rate from some college courses.有些大学课程的退出率很高。
• In the long haul,she'll regret having been a school dropout.她终归会后悔不该中途辍学。