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《经济学人》是怎么描述高考的?

Soren 经济学人双语精读 2022-06-09

又到一年一度的高考日,今天我们读几段《经济学人》中有关高考的报道。这些报道都选自不同的年份,最早的到2012年,最晚的是今年2月份。我们首先看一下最近的文章。


这篇文章选自《经济学人》2018年2月3日的文章,题目叫:All must have degrees: Going to university is more important than ever for young people(所有人都要有学位:对年轻人来说,上大学愈加重要)。文章开头描画了韩国高中生拼命准备高考(suneung)的场景,酷似天朝高考制度下的莘莘学子。我们可以从中借鉴,稍作修改,来向老外介绍我们中国的高考。


原文


①IN A classroom in Seoul a throng of teenagers sit hunched over their desks. ②In total silence, they flick through a past exam paper. ③Stacks of brightly coloured textbooks are close to hand. ④Study begins at 8am and ends at 4.30pm, but some will not go home until 10pm. ⑤Like hundreds of thousands of South Koreans, they are preparing for the suneung, the multiple-choice test that will largely determine whether they go to a good university or a bad one, or to university at all.


本段有五句话,讲了韩国高考的重要性,以及考生准备高考的辛苦与不易。


其中前三句整体上属于静态描写,从视听角度描绘出莘莘学子一心备战的紧张环境,动静结合,让画面更真实、生动。


第一句中,in a classroom in Seoul 点明了地点:在首尔的一间教室里,a throng of teenagers 点明了人物:一群青少年,sit 是这句话的谓语动词,也是对青少年的动作描写,而后面的 hunched over their desks 是状语成分,讲的是这群青少年坐在凳子上的状态:伏在桌子上。如图:


第二句话,in total silence 从听觉角度体现了环境之静,进而从侧面体现出学子的埋头苦读与心无旁骛。而这种静又反衬出 flick through a past exam paper 这一动作——快速浏览过去的试卷。这叫“以动衬静”。而 flick 比 see 动作更快捷,体现了紧张的气氛,从中可以看出《经济学人》用词的考究。


第三句话,Stacks of brightly coloured textbooks are close to hand 一堆一堆的五颜六色的教科书就在手边放着,如图所示,画面再熟悉不过了:


第四句话:Study begins at 8am and ends at 4.30pm, but some will not go home until 10pm. 直接写出这些学生的紧张与劳累,简单粗暴。


而第五句话由小到大,从 IN A classroom in Seoul 过渡到 hundreds of thousands of South Koreans,读起来感觉作者在拿着一个长焦镜头,先对准一个具体的目标,进行细致的描画,之后逐渐拉远,给读者呈现出一张全景图。

suneung 指韩国的高考,写中国的时候,我们可以把 suneung 改成 college entrance exam 或 gaokao.


这段话不妨复述一下,再和原文对比、复盘,如果复述有困难的话,建议直接背过。




接下来我们看一篇2012年6月13日的《经济学人》:


AT THE gates of Shanghai  Beijiao Middle School on the morning of the gaokao, students thumb their textbooks frantically. The number sitting China's notoriously tough university-entrance exam each year is falling (6,000 fewer students took the exam in Shanghai this year; an effect of the one-child policy). But the atmosphere is as panicked as ever. A makeshift table sells traditional Chinese medicine to soothe nerves. Across China each year counselling hotlines are buzzing. Birth-control pills are administered to female students who fear menstruating on an inopportune day. Last month the Chinese media was ablaze with photos of students hooked to energy-boosting intravenous drips.


这段话我们学一些表达:


第一句话中,students thumb their textbooks frantically,thumb (through) their textbooks 和第一篇文章中的 flick through their textbooks 都是同义替换,表示“快速浏览...”。Frantically 一词体现了考生极度紧张的状态。


第二句话,The number sitting China's notoriously tough university-entrance exam,notoriously tough 体现了高考的残酷。


Across China each year counselling hotlines are buzzing. Buzz 嗡嗡响,可以用来描述电话线繁忙的状态。


Birth-control pills are administered to female students who fear menstruating on an inopportune day. Administer 有"give"的意思,比如 administer punishment 惩罚,administer the poison 下毒。

menstruate 就是我们平时说的“来姨妈”。

on an inopportune day,即使不知道 inopportune 是什么意思,我们也能大概猜出来,表示“inappropriate”——在不该来的时候来了姨妈。


the Chinese media was ablaze with photos of students hooked to energy-boosting intravenous drips,ablaze 的意思是“闪亮的”,我们可以用"media was ablaze with..."来表示“媒体大量报道了...”,另外,"Much ink has been spilled over..."也可以表示“大量报道...”,这两个句型都可以用在写作的开头,介绍时代背景、引出话题。比如:

Recently, the Chinese media was ablaze with articles of whether AI will replace human beings in the future.

或者:

Recently, much ink has been spilled over whether AI will replace human beings in the future.

最近,媒体大量报道了有关人工智能能否取代人类的文章。

 

还有一篇《经济学人》是这么写的:

The Chinese media and internet are also obsessed with the exam.

be obsessed with... 痴迷于报道...,其实也可以表示“大量报道”的意思,方向都是一样的。


Hook 作名词是“钩子”的意思,be hooked to/on 相当于 be addicted to... 对...上瘾,很形象的表达。文中 hooked to 是过去分词作后置定语,修饰students. 




我们最后看一下2013年7月的《经济学人》,文章题目叫 Zero mark essay 零分作文。文章第一段写到:


RESULTS are in from China’s notoriously gruelling university entrance exams, the gaokao. After 12 years of school, students (and their anxious parents) finally know the single mark—a score, up to a maximum of 750—that determines which university they can hope to enter. Any given test-taker was competing against 9m others who sat the exam this year.


第一句话中,notoriously gruelling 和上一段的 notoriously tough 很形似,它们的意思都一样。Gruelling 相当于 difficult,下次写作的时候,不妨用 gruelling 来替换。


我们经常说“一考定终身”,本段就出现了它的表达:the single mark that determines which university they can hope to enter.

我们可以把 which university they can hope to enter 改成 which path in life they take,让表述更加精准。不过,我并不相信什么“一考定终身”,这只是对高考重要性的一个变态夸大,人生是一场马拉松,不是百米赛跑,路上有很多转折点,而高考只是其中一个。我更喜欢毛爷爷的“五岭逶迤腾细浪,乌蒙磅礴走泥丸”这句诗,在战略上藐视敌人,战术上重视敌人,主观态度上要充满自信,行动中要实事求是踏踏实实的去做。




高考结束后,最令人激动的莫过于“撕书”了,6年压抑终于得到一次集中发泄。


在备战高考的过程中,你有哪些难忘的经历?欢迎在下方我留言区和我们一同分享~

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