VOA标准英语2011--Students Play the Money Game

Students Play the Money Game

 

In today’s uncertain economic times, understanding money matters is more important than ever. But America’s education system is not doing a good job of teaching financial literacy. Past surveys show high school seniors answer only around half of basic questions about stocks, bonds and credit cards correctly.

The inventors of a board game called Ne$t Egg hope their approach can get high school students off on the right financial foot.

Most of the 13 New York City high school kids who recently gathered around a table to play Ne$t Egg had never thought about personal finance before. They were in an office at the City’s Department of Youth and Community Development, dice¹ at the ready.

Erin Kanter, head of marketing² for Ne$t Egg, acts as the banker during the game. The kids form small teams and each team acts as a financial advisor³ for a fictional⁴ young couple that wants to buy a home, set up a college fund for their child, and retire 30 years from now, debt free.

It’s up to the players to help them build their savings⁵ for the future - their ‘nest egg’ - and achieve those goals. A roll of the dice can bring a windfall or a disaster.

New York City students play Ne$t Egg at the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development.

“You know stocks go up and down, bonds, money markets, they are all part of the game,” says one of the game’s inventors, Vladimir Fichtner, who is from the Czech Republic. He and some friends came up with the idea for Ne$t Egg in the 1990s. After decades under Communism, when the state took care of everything and there were no stock or bond markets, Czech citizens were suddenly grappling with how to handle their own finances. Today, Ne$t Egg is played in hundreds of schools in the Czech Republic and by trainee⁶ bankers at the country’s largest bank.

In New York, the Department of Youth and Community Development is experimenting with the game. If today’s pilot goes well, Ne$t Egg could be played in after-school community centers and possibly in high schools later on.

The department’s Luis Osorio says the kids who hang out at community centers tend to come from poorer families and really need financial coaching. “Kids don’t sit down and say, ‘Dad, how much do you make? Do we have insurance, do we have investments?’”

Osorio and his colleagues say poor money management is at least part of the reason for this sobering statistic⁷: 40 percent of New York City public school graduates who go on to one of the city’s colleges drop out within two years.

Ne$t Egg has already been introduced into the high school curriculum 3,000 kilometers away in Corpus Christi, Texas. Carol Loeb teaches economics at King High School and says it used to be hard to get her students to grasp concepts they had no experience with. But that all changed with Ne$t Egg. She recalls one student who was failing when his class started playing the game.

“That was the first time the whole semester this kid had come alive," Loeb says. "He could not wait to get in the classroom. He came in and told me what he had thought about the night before, what he wanted to do, what he wanted to invest in, and he was totally, totally engaged.”

The games teaches some hard life lessons. Back in New York, Brendis Gonzalez and her teammates wanted to make $300,000 for their fictional couple’s retirement⁸. They ended up with far less because they drew an accident card, and hadn’t bought disability insurance. Their family went bankrupt and had to start from scratch.

Afterwards, Gonzalez says she learned from some of the big mistakes she made during the game. She’d like to use her newfound financial knowledge to help her widowed mother, a home health aide.

“I’ve seen how much money has been a problem and I never even thought that like bonds could help you or that you could invest to make like your own money grow,” Gonzalez says.

She’s never spoken to her mother about money, she says, but she’s about to start.

1 dice   

n.骰子；vt.把（食物）切成小方块，冒险

参考例句：

• They were playing dice.他们在玩掷骰子游戏。
• A dice is a cube.骰子是立方体。

2 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

3 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

4 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

5 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

6 trainee   

n.受训练者

参考例句：

• The trainee checked out all right on his first flight.受训者第一次飞行完全合格。
• Few of the trainee footballers make it to the top.足球受训人员中没有几个能达到顶级水平。

7 statistic   

n.统计量；adj.统计的，统计学的

参考例句：

• Official statistics show real wages declining by 24%.官方统计数字表明实际工资下降了24%。
• There are no reliable statistics for the number of deaths in the battle.关于阵亡人数没有可靠的统计数字。

8 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。