中國學(xué)生留學(xué)美國所做的努力.

　　據(jù)路透社報(bào)道，學(xué)生們在完成香港亞洲國際博覽館舉行的學(xué)術(shù)評估測試(SAT)后離開。在美國大學(xué)的中國學(xué)生數(shù)量已經(jīng)超過其他任何國家，進(jìn)入美國精英學(xué)校變得更加殘酷，而學(xué)生們以各種奇怪的方式面對這樣的挑戰(zhàn)。想想看：買黃牛票參加考試，謊稱自己去國外探險(xiǎn)過，以及凌晨1點(diǎn)鐘就開始接受課程輔導(dǎo)。詳細(xì)請看下面的雙語信息：

　　China is already known for one rigorous exam that students spend years preparing for – thegaokao. The determining factor in a high school student's college placement, the gaokao is thecause of pressure, stress, and occasionally cheating among test takers.

　　中國學(xué)生奮戰(zhàn)高考這個(gè)嚴(yán)格的測試已家喻戶曉。高考，這個(gè)高中學(xué)生進(jìn)入大學(xué)的決定性因素，并為壓力產(chǎn)生的罪魁禍?zhǔn)祝紶栆矔霈F(xiàn)作弊現(xiàn)象。

　　But as graduates emerge from Chinese universities without jobs, more high school studentsare directing their forts overseas. Chinese students now make up 31 percent of allinternational college students at U.S. universities, according to data from the Institute ofInternational Education.

　　但是由于中國大學(xué)畢業(yè)生們離校后找不到工作，更多的高中生直接開啟他們的海外求學(xué)之旅。來自國際教育學(xué)院的資料統(tǒng)計(jì)表明，在美國大學(xué)的外國學(xué)生中，中國學(xué)生占到31%。

　　In contrast, gaokao test takers reached a low in 2012 of about nine million since its peak of10.5 million in 2008. The Financial Times reported that an additional million students backedout of the test last minute in 2013.

　　與此相比，2012高考考生達(dá)到最低，大概9百萬，而2008年的最高為1050萬?！督鹑跁r(shí)報(bào)》報(bào)道有100萬學(xué)生在2013年高考的最后時(shí)刻放棄了。

　　The pressure that once came with the gaokao now falls for some students to the SAT, ACT,and TOEFL.

　　對于某些學(xué)生來說，以前高考的壓力如今變成了SAT，ACT和TOEFL等考試的壓力。

　　.Scott Wang, a high school teacher who works with students applying to U.S. universities, saidthe amount of studying that goes into these forts has intensified.

　　Scott Wang，一名幫助他的學(xué)生申請去美國大學(xué)讀書的高中老師，說道現(xiàn)在想要去美國讀書而在不斷努力的人在激增。

　　"Five years ago, I couldn't convince a single person to even consider taking the ACT," Wangsaid. "I begged, I was like ‘I will even pay for your testing fee if you take the test and get agood score, because I know you can,' – nothing. This year, half the students are ACT take.

　　王老師說："五年前，我甚至無法說服一個(gè)人參加ACT(美國大學(xué)入學(xué)考試)考試，我懇求我的學(xué)生，我甚至和他們說，你們?nèi)タ荚囐M(fèi)用我來出，只要你們?nèi)⒓硬⑷〉煤贸煽?，我知道你們一定可以?但是一點(diǎn)效果也沒有。然而今年，一半的學(xué)生選擇參加ACT考試。

　　Wang said wealthy parents especially have become more zealous about getting their childrenadmitted to US. universities.

　　王老師說富人孩子的父母對于讓自己孩子去美國大學(xué)深造變得更加熱情。

　　One family rused anything less than a one-on-one tutoring session, asking Wang to tutorfrom 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. – the only free time the student had. Another family sent their child to anSAT boot camp u nder the guise that they were going on vacation to Korea, Wang said.

　　有個(gè)家庭除了一對一的輔導(dǎo)其他都不接受，他們請王老師從凌層一點(diǎn)到三點(diǎn)專門輔導(dǎo)他們家的孩子，這是那個(gè)學(xué)生唯一空閑的時(shí)間。王老師兌，另一個(gè)家庭，他們通過假裝帶孩子去韓國玩把自己的孩子送去了SAT訓(xùn)練營。

　　Parents have also hired multiple college application specialists at once. Wang said one of hisstudents from last year went to three different tutoring companies for SAT training alone.

　　王說，家長們同時(shí)一次性找了很多申請美國學(xué)校的專業(yè)顧問。去年她的一名學(xué)生單單為了SAT培訓(xùn)就去了三家不同的培訓(xùn)機(jī)構(gòu)上課。

　　"Why are you bothering?" Wang had asked him. "He said, 'Well, my parents just want to bethorough."

　　"你為什么要這么做?"王老師問這個(gè)學(xué)生，學(xué)生回答道："我的父母就只希望萬事周密。"

　　Trying to stand out

　　努力變得出類拔萃

　　The intense measures Chinese students go to during college applications is onlyrepresentative of a fraction of the population. However, stories traded around the educationindustry highlight the competition that comes with wanting an education abroad.

　　這些中國學(xué)生為了大學(xué)申請而采用的這些極端方法只是代表了一部分人。但是，圍繞教育產(chǎn)業(yè)的新聞凸顯了人們想要海外深造而產(chǎn)生的激烈競爭。

　　Traditionally, Chinese students have always been rigorous when it comes to academics andtest-taking. For those that are doing everything to get into a U.S. university, the sheer numberof high test scores has made standing out even harder.

　　在學(xué)術(shù)和應(yīng)試方面中國學(xué)生歷來非常嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)認(rèn)真。很多人通過各方面的努力想要進(jìn)入美國大學(xué)，但單分?jǐn)?shù)方面就對手如林，難以脫穎而出。

　　Cheng Ho, a Harvard graduate who has interviewed Chinese prospective students in Beijing,said he talked to tons of students with similar qualifications. If one student said she went toAfrica to volunteer, a thousand other students will soon have the exact same thing on theirresumes as well. Ho said.

　　一名哈佛畢業(yè)生,他在北京采訪了很多很多準(zhǔn)備去海外深造的學(xué)生,發(fā)現(xiàn)他們都有類似的申請條件。如果一名學(xué)生說她到非洲當(dāng)過志愿者，其他1000個(gè)學(xué)生的簡歷上很快就會出現(xiàn)完全一樣的內(nèi)容，Ho說道。

　　"Chinese students are no different, they all have great grades," he said. "All they were evertaught was ,'You gotta do this, you gotta be number one, you still have to be number one."'

　　“中國學(xué)生沒有區(qū)別，他們成績都很好?！彼f,“他們都被教育‘你必領(lǐng)這么做，你一定要成為第一名，你現(xiàn)在還是要做第一名?！?/p>

　　Another challenge facing students and schools is the difficulty in accurately evaluating allapplicants. A student's aptitude for test taking may mask diciencies in actual English or othercapabilities, Guy Sivan said. Sivan is the COO of Vericant, a company that offers videointerviewing services and identification verification for U.S. college and boarding schoolapplicants.

　　學(xué)生和學(xué)校遇到的另一個(gè)挑戰(zhàn)是很難對申請人進(jìn)行正確的評估。蓋伊希文說一個(gè)學(xué)生的應(yīng)試能力可能會掩蓋其在實(shí)際英文應(yīng)用或其他方面能力的缺陷。希文是一家叫維立克機(jī)構(gòu)的首席運(yùn)營官，這家機(jī)構(gòu)是為那些美國大學(xué)和寄宿學(xué)校的申請者們提供視頻面試和身份驗(yàn)證的。

　　In their time at Vericant, Sivan and China director Kelly Yang have heard many reasons whysuch a service is necessary.

　　當(dāng)他們在維立克機(jī)構(gòu)時(shí)，希文以及中國區(qū)的楊凱利總監(jiān)就已經(jīng)聽說了許多為啥需要這類服務(wù)的原因。

　　One admissions officer, while speaking with a Chinese student over Skype, thought it wasstrange that the student had a black cat in her lap during the interview. Several minutes intothe interview, the admissions officer realized that it wasn't a cat, but the hair from hermother's head as she whispered answers to the applicant.

　　一位招生負(fù)責(zé)人在通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)電話對一個(gè)中國學(xué)生進(jìn)行面試時(shí)覺得很奇怪，因?yàn)橛幸恢缓谪堅(jiān)谒南ドw上。隨著面試的進(jìn)行，幾分鐘后，招生負(fù)責(zé)人發(fā)現(xiàn)這并非一只貓，而是她媽媽把答案輕聲告訴她時(shí)所露出的頭發(fā)。

　　Another admissions office received ten applications from students of the same school, allclaiming to be the top student at the school. Sivan said this kind of occurrence is verycommon.

　　另一位負(fù)責(zé)人則是收到了十份來自同一所學(xué)校學(xué)生的申請，他們都聲稱自己是這所學(xué)校的優(yōu)等生。希文告訴我們這種現(xiàn)象是很普遍的。

　　"It's very, very high stakes, it's basically your path of life," Sivan said. "And people havedifferent senses of what's possible or not possible to do."

　　"這有著很高的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，基本上決定了你的人生軌跡，"希文說，"但是那些人對什么可以做、什么不可以做有著不同的認(rèn)知。"

　　Giving admissions officers personalized books cataloging students' achievements has alsobecome a common practice. Sivan remembered seeing one hardcover book that charted astudent's arctic expedition. Unfortunately, because these additional materials are hard toverify, they often only carry entertainment value, piled into a corner of the admissions office.

　　給招生官員具有個(gè)性化編錄了學(xué)生成績的圖書已經(jīng)成為慣例。Sivan 記得看到過一本精裝書，描述了學(xué)生的北極探險(xiǎn)。不幸的是，由于這些材料難于核實(shí)，這些書只是有些娛樂的價(jià)值，被堆積到招生辦公室的一角。

　　"From the student's point of view, this is a way to get the attention of the admissions officer,to show something very, very impressive," Sivan said. "It's sad, but I think in most cases it'snot really honest, and that's why the admissions officers ... they already kind of figure out,'We can't really take it seriously, we can't really consider it.'"

　　從學(xué)生的角度，通過這種方式引起招生官員們的注意，展示一些給人印象深刻的東西。Sivan說。"很遺憾，但是我認(rèn)為在一定程度上這是不誠實(shí)的，這就是為什么招生官員…他們總是善于發(fā)現(xiàn)，我們不能來真的，我們不能認(rèn)真考慮。

　　Money for the middleman. Wealthier families have an inherent advantage in the landscape,since they are able to afford the test fees and services that will make a student morecompetitive. Because of this, there's a lot of money to be made by those in the industry.

　　給錢給中間人較為富裕的家庭在這方面有著內(nèi)在的優(yōu)勢，因?yàn)樗麄兡軌蛑Ц犊荚囐M(fèi)用和讓學(xué)生更有競爭力的服務(wù)。因此，在這領(lǐng)域有很多錢可賺。

　　In the frenzy to get the best scores, some students ends up taking tests like the TOEFLmultiple times in a few months. This makes it very difficult to get a testing seat, so studentshave to travel to remote areas of the country in order to take the exam.

　　對于最好成績的狂熱，一些學(xué)生在幾個(gè)月內(nèi)進(jìn)行了多次的像托福這樣的考試。這就使得考試變得一席難求，學(xué)生不得不輾轉(zhuǎn)到其他地區(qū)考試。

　　Kelly Yang said the demand has turned into a market for scalping test seat tickets.

　　Kelly Yang說道，這需求轉(zhuǎn)變成了倒賣考試座位票的市場。

　　Rerred to as huangniu, literally translated to 'yellow cow,' ticket scalpers buy up seats fortests, then sell them at a higher price, Yang said. Although she said it was most common withsporting event tickets, the operations had recently moved over to student exams.

　　提到huangniu ,字面翻譯成‘黃牛'票的倒賣者，買斷考試資格，然后高價(jià)賣出，yang說，盡管她說這在體育賽事門票中是普遍的現(xiàn)象，但是現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)轉(zhuǎn)到了學(xué)生的考試領(lǐng)域中。

　　Yang discovered the trend while helping someone look for a September TOEFL test seat, andcouldn't find any earlier than December.

　　Yang之所以發(fā)現(xiàn)了這種趨勢，是因?yàn)楫?dāng)幫助別人尋找一張九月份的托?？荚囬T票，找不到早于十二月份的。

　　"We searched online and said, 'What if I can't get the test date I want?' she said. "It said 'Go tohuangniu.'"

　　"我們上網(wǎng)輸入‘要是買不到考試門票怎么辦'網(wǎng)絡(luò)上的答案是""找黃牛"

　　While some parents and students have become very well-versed in U.S. college admissions,others are willing to pay high premiums for agents and consultants to do all the work. This hascreated an environment in which it is very easy to take advantage of hopul students andparents.

　　雖然一些家長和學(xué)生都很了解美國的大學(xué)招生，但是他們愿意付更高的酬金給代理和顧問去做全部的工作。這樣就創(chuàng)造了一個(gè)環(huán)境，在這樣的環(huán)境里滿懷希望的家長和學(xué)生很容易被利用。

　　As a result, some companies may end up over-promising.

　　結(jié)果，一些公司可能會給家長過高的承諾。

　　With expectations rising, teacher Scott Wang said he's seen parents demand their child get intoa top school with an average GPA and SAT score, even though the likelihood is very low.

　　期望在增長，Wcott Wang老師說家長們在自己孩子GPA和SAT分?jǐn)?shù)一般的情況下要求把他們送入頂尖學(xué)校，盡管可能性很小。

　　"The problem is that in this city there's always going to be somebody out there who's like,'Yeah, we can make that happen,'" Wang said. "And they'll go there, hoping against hope thatsomething's going to be possible when it's not."

　　"問題在于在這個(gè)城市里總有一些機(jī)構(gòu)稱自己無所不能，所以家長就抱有一線希望，其實(shí)根本無法實(shí)現(xiàn)。"