【雅思精读】卫报:由新冠疫情引发的教育不平等

　　本文我们为同学们继续分享外刊阅读，帮助同学们更好的备考雅思！本文来自英国卫报，内容是有关讨论公平的受教育环境（学校），这篇文章的副标题是：Ten million British children are about to get a taste of home schooling. Increased inequality will be the result.整整一千万英国儿童（因疫情隔离）将接受家庭教育而会加剧了教育的不平等。

　　注意这里 children are about to get a taste of home schooling 是表达学生将会（将来时态）在家学习。

　　正文来了

　　ONE

　　What was, just a few days ago, the object of excited speculation among British children has become a reality. Schools are shut. For an unspecified period, learning will take place at home, except for a minority of pupils who are deemed to be vulnerable, or whose parents are key workers. Closing schools was a necessary step that should have been taken sooner, as it was in other countries. But the change in our national life that will begin on Monday morning, when more than 10 million children – 8.8 million of them in England – have nowhere to go, should not be underestimated. Across the world, school is part of the rhythm of life – for parents and teachers as well as pupils. Because of coronavirus, an estimated 800 million children globally are now having their education interrupted.

　　几天前，英国小孩子们兴奋议论的话题成为了事实——学校停课了。在未来这段不确定的时期内，学生们要在家里学习了，除了少数易受影响或父母是社会支柱工作者的学生。关闭学校是和其他国家一样，早就应该采取的必要措施，但是周一早上我们的生活就会有所改变，届时会超过1000万儿童无处可去——其中880万孩子都在英格兰，我们不应该轻视这一变化。在世界各地，学校早已成为生活节奏的一部分，对家长、老师和孩子来说都是如此。由于新冠病毒，全球估计有8亿儿童将会中断上学。

　　Object

　　这个单词意思很多，这里理解成孩子们都在讨论猜测的“东西”，我把它翻译成了“话题”，其实就是后文的 schools are shut 这个事。它本意可以用来指什么物体，句子成分里的“宾语”也是object。看律政剧的时候，法庭上辩方和控方用来提出异见、表示反对时会喊“objection! your honor/lordship…”，一般会翻译成“反对！法官大人（+反对的理由）”，object做动词可以表达“反对、拒绝”。

　　Speculation

　　这里表示孩子们“猜测”学校会不会停课，值得注意的是它还会出现在经济政治类文章里，表示“投机、炒股”（是个GRE词汇，大家眼熟即可）

　　Pupil

　　Pupil就是指学生、未成年人。它还有一个意思是瞳孔。

　　Underestimate

　　Underestimate + sb. 表示低估某人；underestimate + sth. 表示低估某事。相信大家对underestimate特别眼熟！但是眼熟不够，这是个考研词汇，所以要会用。

　　TWO

　　Some may welcome this, at least at first. Nobody wants to catch Covid-19, or be responsible for spreading it. British schooling has become narrowly exam-focused and in the run-up to primary school Sats, GCSEs and A-levels, lessons can be more like drills than investigations. Some parents have already begun sharing plans (and jokes) about home schooling. There is an undoubted novelty factor.

　　有些人可能挺开心的，至少刚开始是会。没人想染上病毒，也没人想对病毒的传播负责。英国的学校教育已经狭隘地以考试为重点，在小学入学考试、普通中学教育和高级考试的准备阶段，课程更像是灌输式练习，而不是教学钻研。一些家长已经开始分享在家学习的计划（还有笑话）。这确实是一件新鲜的趣事。

　　Run-up

　　这个词可指什么事情之前的“准备阶段”，字典上会翻译成“助跑、预备阶段”，挺直白的，它还系统、机器的“运转”。

　　Drill

　　Drill做名词或动词基础意思就是“钻孔”，还可以用来表示“（军事）演练、操练、练习、教学”等等。

　　THREE

　　Most parents will feel less well equipped to teach older children. On Friday, the UK government announced that teacher assessments would determine grades for GCSE and A-level pupils, along with the option of sitting exams late. Such clarity was badly needed by students, some of whom have spoken powerfully of feeling that their entire secondary schooling has led to a dead end.

　　大多数父母会认为自己没有能力教大一点的孩子。上周五，英政府宣布教师评估将决定普通中等教育和高级水平考试学生的成绩，同时决定推迟考试。学生们非常需要这种清醒的决策，有些人曾强烈地表达出认为他们的整个中学教育已经走进了死胡同的观点。

　　along with the option of sitting exams late

　　Along with 简单理解就是“和”，在这里表示英政府宣布了老师评估决定成绩，也宣布了推迟考试；the option of …就是做出了……的选择；…sitting exam late 表示推迟考试。

　　FOUR

　　The social impact of being separated from peers also varies for different age groups. Almost all children, including some who find school difficult, benefit from the social experiences that it offers. But for teenagers, whose emotional development requires them to become more separate from their parents and carers, being forced back into the family nest carries particular stresses.

　　与同龄人分开的社交影响也因年龄而异，几乎对所有孩子而言，哪怕是觉得上学很困难的孩子，都能从学校提供的社会经验中受益。但是对于青少年来说，他们的情感发展需要他们和家长以及监护人有更多的距离，被迫回到家会增加特殊的压力。

　　Peer

　　同龄人、同等级别、地位的人。

　　FIVE

　　But economic inequality will be the biggest variable between the experiences of British children over the next few months, and between richer and poorer children in other countries. Even in a society that is starkly unequal, and an education system that does worse by disadvantaged pupils than by advantaged ones, school is a leveller. When they are there, pupils share the same spaces, lessons, menus and teachers. At home, children of well-off parents invariably live in bigger houses, are more likely to have their own bedrooms, two parents rather than one to support them, and better access to technology as well as books and other learning resources, and food.

　　但在未来几个月里，经济的不平等将是英国儿童和其他国家来自富裕和贫穷家庭儿童之间最大的变量。即使在一个完全不平等的社会，以及对待弱势学生更糟糕的教育体系中，学校仍能够起到平衡的作用。当他们在那里时，学生们共享同样的空间、课程、菜单和老师。富裕家庭中[CE2] 的孩子总是住在更大的房子里，更可能有自己的卧室，有双亲的抚育，而不是单亲，更容易获得学习设备、书籍、其他学习资源和食物。

　　Variable

　　做形容词时可表示“可变的、多变的、易变的、畸变的（生物）”；做名词可指“可变因素、变量（数学）”。这里很显然也是用做了名词，我把它翻译成了变量。

　　Even in a society that is starkly unequal, and an education system that does worse by disadvantaged pupils than by advantaged ones, school is a leveller.

　　Starkly

　　是不是看起来是十分眼熟哈哈哈，stark做形容词或副词可以表示“荒凉的（地）、粗糙的（地）、严酷的（地）、明显的（地）”，starkly差不多也是这个意思。这句话是在说，哪怕是处在一个十分不平等的社会（贫富差距大、教育资源分布不均匀），一个教育系统，怎么样的系统呢？哪怕这个系统里弱势学生比优势学生表现更差，学校也是平等的。

　　这句话为什么看住真不得劲？我们来一点点看，and在这里不仅仅是连接两个句子，还并列了两个句子（的结构），为了对照工整。后面 do by的意思我们可以理解成“对待（treat）”，那这句话其实就相当于education system treat disadvantaged pupils worse than advantaged ones.

　　SIX

　　We must all do our best over the coming months, and no one should begrudge those who are looking forward to lessons, or weekday lunches, with their children. But during this strange, frightening period, the government must do everything in its power to ensure that more vulnerable children and families do not lose out. When things get back to normal, any who have fallen behind must be helped to catch up.

　　在接下来的几个月里，我们都必须尽最大的努力，没有人应该对那些期待上课，或者期待在工作日与孩子共进午餐的人不满。但在这个奇怪而可怕的时期，政府必须尽其所能，确保更脆弱的儿童和家庭不会受到损失。当一切恢复正常时，政府也应该帮助处于落后的学生来赶上学习进度。

　　Begrudge

　　动词 就是“妒忌、羡慕、吝惜”