2013年自考英語(yǔ)（二）課文譯文：美國(guó)教育的變化

美國(guó)教育的變化

　　The biggest "infrastructure" challenge for the United States in the next decade is not the billions needed for railroads, highways and energy. It is the American school system, from kindergarten through the Ph.D. program and the postgraduate education of adults. And it requires something far scarcer than money -- thinking and risk-taking.

　　在下一個(gè)十年中，美國(guó)所遇到的最大的“基礎(chǔ)結(jié)構(gòu)”的挑戰(zhàn)并不是花費(fèi)幾十億美元用于鐵路、公路和能源，而是美國(guó)的教育制度――從幼兒園到博士的培養(yǎng)計(jì)劃以及成人的教育。這需要的是比金錢(qián)更寶貴的東西――思考和冒險(xiǎn)。

　　The challenge is not one of expansion. On the contrary, the rapid growth in enrollment over the last 40 years has come to an end. By 1978, more than 93 percent of young people entering the labor force had at least an eighth-grade education. So even if the birthrate should rise somewhat, little expansion is possible for elementary and secondary school enrollments.

　　這種挑戰(zhàn)不是推廣教育的挑戰(zhàn);相反的情況是過(guò)去40年里入學(xué)人數(shù)的快速增長(zhǎng)已經(jīng)結(jié)束。到1978年，進(jìn)入勞動(dòng)大軍的93%以上的青年人都至少受過(guò)8年教育。所以，即使人口出生率有所上升，小學(xué)和中學(xué)的入學(xué)人數(shù)也只是小幅度的增長(zhǎng)。

　　The last 30 years of social upheaval are also over. Busing will continue to be a highly emotional issue in a good many large cities. And there will still be efforts to use schools to bring women into fields such as engineering that have traditionally been considered "male." But this shift has already been accomplished in many fields: half or more of the accounting students in graduate schools of business, for example, are now women. As for most other social issues, the country will no longer try to use schools to bring about social reform. It's becoming increasingly clear to policy makers that schools cannot solve all the problems of the larger community.

　　過(guò)去30年的社會(huì)動(dòng)蕩已經(jīng)結(jié)束。用校車(chē)接送學(xué)生在許多大城市里仍將是一個(gè)帶有高度感情色彩的問(wèn)題。人們還將繼續(xù)努力通過(guò)學(xué)校教育讓婦女進(jìn)軍一些傳統(tǒng)上被認(rèn)為是屬于“男性”的領(lǐng)域，如工程領(lǐng)域。但這種轉(zhuǎn)換在許多領(lǐng)域已經(jīng)完成。例如，現(xiàn)在在商學(xué)院會(huì)計(jì)專(zhuān)業(yè)的學(xué)生中，半數(shù)或半數(shù)以上的是女生。至于大部分別的社會(huì)問(wèn)題，國(guó)家不會(huì)再利用學(xué)校來(lái)帶動(dòng)社會(huì)變革。決策者們愈加清晰：學(xué)校不能解決事關(guān)較大社會(huì)范圍的全部問(wèn)題。

　　Instead, the battle cry for the '90s will be the demand for performance and accountability. For 30 years, employers have been hiring graduates for their degrees rather than their abilities; employment, pay and often even promotion have depended on one's diploma. Now many major employers are beginning to demand more than the completion of school. Some of the major banks, for example, are studying the possibility of entrance examinations that would test the knowledge and abilities of graduates applying for jobs.

　　相反，90年代的強(qiáng)烈呼聲將是要求工作表現(xiàn)和能承擔(dān)責(zé)任。30年來(lái)，雇主們雇傭畢業(yè)生時(shí)只考慮學(xué)位而不是他們的能力;就業(yè)、薪水、甚至是提升常取決于文憑。現(xiàn)在，許多大雇主已經(jīng)開(kāi)始不僅僅看重完成學(xué)業(yè)。例如，一些大銀行正在研究進(jìn)行求職考試的可行性以便測(cè)試畢業(yè)生的知識(shí)和能力。

　　Students and parents, too, will demand greater accountability from schools, on all levels. It will be increasingly common to go to law against school districts and colleges for awarding degrees without imparting the skills that are supposed to go along with them. And many young people are already switching to practical "hard" subjects. Caring little about the so-called "youth culture" and the media, they have been shifting from psychology into medicine, from sociology into accounting and from black studies into computer programming.

　　學(xué)生和家長(zhǎng)也對(duì)各類(lèi)學(xué)校提出了更高的要求。將學(xué)區(qū)和學(xué)院告到法庭，因?yàn)樗鼈冎皇谟鑼W(xué)位而沒(méi)有傳授學(xué)位所要求的技能，這種情況將會(huì)越來(lái)越多。許多年輕人已經(jīng)開(kāi)始轉(zhuǎn)向?qū)嵱玫摹坝布闭n程，他們很少關(guān)心所謂的“青年文化”和媒體報(bào)道，已經(jīng)從心理學(xué)轉(zhuǎn)向醫(yī)學(xué)，從社會(huì)學(xué)轉(zhuǎn)到會(huì)計(jì)學(xué)，從黑人研究轉(zhuǎn)向計(jì)算機(jī)程序設(shè)計(jì)。

　　Demand for education is actually going up, not down. What is going down, and fairly fast, is demand for traditional education in traditional schools.

　　對(duì)于教育的需要事實(shí)上是在上升而不是在下降。正在下降而且下降得相當(dāng)快的是對(duì)傳統(tǒng)學(xué)校的傳統(tǒng)教育的需求。

　　Indeed, the fastest growing industry in America today may be the continuing professional education of highly schooled adults. Much of it takes place outside the education establishment -- through companies, hospitals and government departments that run courses for managerial and professional employees; or through management associations and trade associations. In the meantime, any number of private enterprises are organizing courses, producing training films and tapes and otherwise taking advantage of growth opportunities that universities shy away from.

　　實(shí)際上，當(dāng)今美國(guó)增長(zhǎng)最快的產(chǎn)業(yè)可能是已上了不少學(xué)的成年人的繼續(xù)職業(yè)教育。這種教育大多是在教育機(jī)構(gòu)進(jìn)行的，通過(guò)公司、醫(yī)院和政府部門(mén)進(jìn)行的，這些單位為其聘用的管理人員和專(zhuān)業(yè)人員開(kāi)設(shè)課程，或者通過(guò)管理協(xié)會(huì)或行業(yè)協(xié)會(huì)進(jìn)行。與此同時(shí)，許多私人企業(yè)安排課程，制作用于培訓(xùn)的電影和磁帶，并以其他方式利用著各種增長(zhǎng)的機(jī)會(huì)，而這些機(jī)會(huì)是大學(xué)避而不用的。

　　The demand for continuing education does not take the form that most observers, including this writer, originally expected -- namely, "Great Books" classes for adults wanting to learn about the humanities, the arts, the "life of the mind." We face instead a growing demand for advanced professional education: in engineering and medicine, in accounting and journalism, in law and in administration and management.

　　對(duì)繼續(xù)教育的要求不是采取大多數(shù)觀察者、包括本文作者原來(lái)預(yù)期的形式――即給想了解人文學(xué)科、藝術(shù)和心理的活動(dòng)的成年人用“大部頭書(shū)”上課。相反，我們面對(duì)的是對(duì)高級(jí)職業(yè)教育提出的日益增長(zhǎng)的要求。如在工程和醫(yī)療、會(huì)計(jì)和新聞、法律和行政管理及經(jīng)營(yíng)方面。

　　Yet the adults who come back for such studies also demand what teachers of professional subjects are so rarely able to supply: a humanistic perspective that can integrate advanced professional and technical knowledge into a broader universe of experience and learning. Since these new students also need unconventional hours -- evenings, weekends or high-intensity courses that stuff a term's work into two weeks ?their demands for learning bring a vague but real threat to the school establishment.

　　然而，重返學(xué)校進(jìn)行這類(lèi)學(xué)習(xí)的成年人所要求的東西，卻是專(zhuān)業(yè)課的老師幾乎不能提供的：一種能把先進(jìn)的專(zhuān)業(yè)技術(shù)知識(shí)匯集到經(jīng)驗(yàn)和學(xué)識(shí)的更廣闊的普遍體系中的人文主義的觀點(diǎn)。由于這些學(xué)生需要利用業(yè)余時(shí)間學(xué)習(xí)，如晚上、周未或者說(shuō)把一學(xué)期的內(nèi)容濃縮成兩周的高強(qiáng)度的課程――他們對(duì)知識(shí)的需求給學(xué)校體制帶來(lái)不易察覺(jué)但卻真實(shí)的威脅。

　　The greatest challenge to education is likely to come from our new opportunities for diversity. We now have the chance to apply the basic findings of psychological, developmental and educational research over the last 100 years: namely, that no one educational method fits all children.

　　教育的最大挑戰(zhàn)很可能源于我們對(duì)多樣性選擇的新機(jī)遇之中。我們現(xiàn)在可以應(yīng)用過(guò)去100年中心理、發(fā)展教育等方面研究的成果，但任何一種教育方法不可能適合所有的兒童。

　　Almost all children are capable of attaining the same standards within a reasonable period of time. All but a few babies, for instance, learn to walk by the age of two and to talk by the age of three, but no two get there quite the same way.

　　幾乎所有的兒童都能夠在一個(gè)合理的時(shí)間內(nèi)達(dá)到同樣的水平。例如，除了極個(gè)別嬰兒外，所有的孩子兩歲學(xué)會(huì)走路，三歲會(huì)說(shuō)話，但決沒(méi)有兩個(gè)孩子會(huì)按照完全一樣的步驟獲得這兩種技能。

　　So too at higher levels. Some children learn best by rote, in structured environments with high certainty and strict discipline. Others gain success in the less structured "permissive" atmosphere of a "progressive” school. Some adults learn out of books, some learn by doing, some learn best by listening. Some students need prescribed daily doses of information; others need challenge and a high degree of responsibility for the design of their own work. But for too long, teachers have insisted that there is one best way to teach and learn, even though they have disagreed about what that way is.

　　在更高一級(jí)的水平上也是如此。一些孩子最適宜在非常穩(wěn)定、紀(jì)律嚴(yán)明和規(guī)程嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)?shù)沫h(huán)境中，靠死記硬背學(xué)習(xí);而另一些孩子則能夠在“進(jìn)步的”學(xué)校里那種規(guī)程不甚嚴(yán)格的“隨意”氣氛中取得成功。有些成年人學(xué)習(xí)依靠書(shū)本，另一些人則靠動(dòng)手，還有一些人靠聽(tīng)。因此學(xué)生規(guī)定出每天獲取的信息量;而另外一些學(xué)生需要挑戰(zhàn)性的壓力，需要給自己的學(xué)習(xí)規(guī)劃提出高標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的要求。但是長(zhǎng)久以來(lái)，教師們堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為有一種最好的學(xué)習(xí)方法，盡管他們對(duì)于這種方法仍然各持己見(jiàn)。

　　A century ago, the greatest majority of Americans lived in communities so small that only one one-room schoolhouse was within walking distance of small children. Then there had to be "one right method" for everybody to learn.

　　100年前，絕大多數(shù)美國(guó)人居住在狹小的社區(qū)中，這社區(qū)小到只有一間校舍，連很小的孩子都可以步行上學(xué)。那時(shí)，也只能有“一種正確的方法”來(lái)讓學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)。

　　Today the great majority of pupils in the United States (and all developed countries) live in big cities with such density that there can easily be three or four elementary schools -- as well as secondary schools within each child's walking or bicycling distance. This enables students and their parents to choose between alternative routes to learning offered by competing schools.

　　現(xiàn)在，在美國(guó)(和其他發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家)大部分的小學(xué)生都生活在人口稠密的大城市中。在這些城市中，每個(gè)孩子步行或騎自行車(chē)的距離內(nèi)，非常容易地也可以找到三四所小學(xué)或中學(xué)。幾所學(xué)校相互競(jìng)爭(zhēng)使得學(xué)生和家長(zhǎng)們可以擇校就學(xué)。

　　Indeed, competition and choice are already beginning to infiltrate the school system. Private schools and colleges have shown an unusual ability to survive and develop during a period of rising costs and dropping enrollments elsewhere. All this presents, of course, a true threat to the public school establishment. But economics, student needs and our new understanding of how people learn are bound to break the traditional education monopoly just as trucks and airplanes broke the monopoly of the railroads, and computers and "chips" are breaking the telephone monopoly.

　　的確，競(jìng)爭(zhēng)和選擇已經(jīng)開(kāi)始參透到學(xué)校體制中，在別的學(xué)校費(fèi)用上漲、入學(xué)人數(shù)下降之時(shí)，私立學(xué)校和學(xué)院卻呈現(xiàn)出非凡的生存和發(fā)展能力。這對(duì)公立教育體制構(gòu)成了真正的威脅。但正如卡車(chē)和飛機(jī)打破了鐵路的壟斷，計(jì)算機(jī)和“芯片”打破了電話的壟斷一樣，經(jīng)濟(jì)條件、學(xué)生需要和我們對(duì)于學(xué)習(xí)過(guò)程的新的認(rèn)識(shí)，肯定會(huì)打破傳統(tǒng)教育的壟斷。

　　In the next 10 or 15 years we will almost certainly see strong pressures to make schools responsible for thinking through what kind of learning methods are appropriate for each child. We will almost certainly see great pressure, from parents and students alike, for result-focused education and for accountability in meeting objectives set for individual students. The continuing professional education of highly educated adults will become a third tier in addition to undergraduate and professional or graduate work. Above all, attention will shift back to schools and education as the central capital investment and infrastructure of a “knowledge society.”

　　在今后的10～15年中，我們肯定會(huì)看到：強(qiáng)大的壓力能迫使學(xué)校去思考并找出適用于每個(gè)孩子的學(xué)習(xí)方法。我們肯定也會(huì)看到來(lái)自學(xué)生和家長(zhǎng)方面的壓力：他們要求重結(jié)果型的教育，要求學(xué)校要為達(dá)到給每個(gè)學(xué)生制定的目標(biāo)負(fù)起責(zé)任來(lái)。在本科教育、專(zhuān)職和研究生教育之后還要有高學(xué)歷成人的繼續(xù)專(zhuān)職教育，這是第三種教育。畢竟，注意力將轉(zhuǎn)回學(xué)校和教育上，把它們看作“知識(shí)社會(huì)”的重要的基本投資和基礎(chǔ)結(jié)構(gòu)。

?2013年7月各省市自考成績(jī)查詢?nèi)肟趨R總

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