But there’s an exception. Asian-American boys match the grades of Asian-American girls in elementary school, a new study has found. For them, the gender achievement gap doesn’t appear until adolescence — at which point they start doing worse as a group than Asian-American girls.

但也有例外。一项新的研究发现，亚裔美国男孩在小学阶段和亚裔美国女孩成绩相当。对于他们，性别成绩差异直到青春期才出现——此时他们的整体表现开始逊色于亚裔美国女孩。

match

表示“比得上”，英文解释为“If you match something, you are as good as it or equal to it, for example in speed, size, or quality.”举个：

They played some fine offensive football, but I think we matched them in every department.

他们踢了一些漂亮的攻势足球，但我认为我们各方面都比得上他们。

The study adds to a growing body of research suggesting that boys’ underperformance is not because of anything innate to boys. Instead, it seems, it’s largely because of something external: their school environments and peer influences.

越来越多的研究表明，男生表现不佳不是因为男生内在的任何原因，此项研究进一步巩固了这一观点。看起来，其原因很大程度上来自于外部：他们学校环境和同伴影响。

innate

1) 表示“（素质）天生的，与生俱来的”，英文解释为“an innate quality or ability is something you are born with”，举个：

Children have an innate ability to learn language.

儿童学习语言的能力是与生俱来的。

2) 表示“（信仰）根深蒂固的”，英文解释为“an innate belief is something you feel strongly about and are unlikely to change”，如：the innate conservatism of the farming community 农业社区固有的保守主义。

Girls are encouraged to be diligent, cooperative and ambitious — all things that serve them well in school. Boys are more sensitive than girls to environmental influences, according to a variety of research, and they feel pressure to be strong, tough and athletic. They get the message that doing well in school is not masculine, social scientists say. Even in peer groups that prize good grades, it’s considered uncool to seem to try hard to earn them.

女性被鼓励要勤奋、合作、有志向——所有这些都对她们在学校很有好处。根据各类研究，男生对于环境的影响比女生更敏感，要强壮、坚韧、擅长运动也让他们倍感压力。社会科学家表示，他们得到的信息是，成绩好是有失男子气概的。即使是在好成绩会获嘉奖的同伴群体中，表现出努力要得奖也被认为不怎么酷。

prize

作动词，表示“珍视，高度重视”，英文解释为“to think that someone or something is very important or valuable ”，举个：

He is someone who prizes truth and decency above all things.

他把真理和正派看得高于一切。

The company’s shoes are highly prized by fashion conscious youngsters.

该公司的鞋备受时尚年轻人的青睐。

Asian-American boys are somehow sheltered from that message in early childhood. The reasons could give parents and teachers information about how to help boys of all races reach their full potential.

出于一些原因，亚裔美国男孩

“These findings show it doesn’t have to be this way, that boys necessarily have to underachieve,” said Amy Hsin, the paper’s author and a sociologist at Queens College in New York. “How we parent, how we help children think about their masculinity, and school culture and peer norms have effects on their performance in school.”

“这些研究结果表明，不一定非得是这样，即男生一定要表现稍逊，”该论文作者、纽约市立大学皇后学院(Queens College in New York)社会学家艾米·辛(Amy Hsin)说。“我们如何养育孩子，如何帮助孩子思考他们的男子气概，以及学校的文化和同伴准则都对他们在学校的表现有影响。”

parent

很罕见的一种用法，作动词，表示“养育”，英文解释为“to be or act as the parent (of)”.

Looking at grade point averages of white and Asian-American students, she found that unlike white students, Asian-American boys and girls have no significant grade differences until ninth grade. Then, boys fall behind girls by the equivalent of one-third of a letter grade, about the same as the gender difference in white students’ grades, according to the new study, published last month in the journal Sociological Science.

她看着白人和亚裔美国学生的平均绩点，发现和白人学生不同，亚裔美国男生和女生在九年级之前没有明显的成绩差别。其后，根据上月发表在《社会科学》(Sociological Science)期刊上的该项新研究，男生落后女生相当于一个字母分数三分之一的成绩，与白人学生成绩的性别差异几乎一样。

a letter grade

表示国外的ABCDF的等级制度，即A+,A,A-,B+,B,B-...所以这里提到“one-third of a letter grade”（一个字母分数三分之一的成绩

It used data on about 9,200 white and 1,700 Asian-American students from two national studies that followed the same students over time (the groups were too small to analyze differences among Asian ethnic groups.) The results are not definitive. The sample size is relatively small, and the analysis uses grades, which, unlike test scores, are influenced by teachers’ subjective assessments of students. Yet the results fit with other research that shows the effect of outside influences on academic performance, particularly for boys.

该研究使用了取自两项全国性研究的约9200名白人、1700名亚裔美国学生的数据，后者对同一批学生跟踪了一段时间（所选群体规模太小，不足以分析亚裔群体之间的差异）。其结果是不具决定性的。样本规模相对较小，分析过程使用了等级评分，和考试分数不同的是，它是受教师对学生的主观评定影响的。然而研究结果与其他研究相符，表明了外界对学业成绩，尤其是男生成绩的影响。

One reason Asian-American children do so well as a group is that Asian immigrant families tend to be very focused on education, as the sociologists Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou described in their book, “The Asian American Achievement Paradox.”

亚裔美国孩子作为一个群体有如此良好的表现，原因之一在于亚洲移民家庭倾向于非常注重教育，如社会学家李智英(Jennifer Lee)和周敏在她们的著作《亚裔美国人成就的悖论》(The Asian American Achievement Paradox)中所描述的那样。

One goal of a 1965 U.S. immigration law, which also abolished severe restrictions against immigration from regions such as Asia, was to give preference to professionals with specialized skills. Partly as a result, a little more than half of Chinese immigrants to the United States have a college degree or higher, versus less than 10 percent of adults in China in recent years, Ms. Lee said. They have tended to prioritize that their children earn straight As; attend a good college; and become a doctor, lawyer, scientist or engineer, the authors wrote. They have also shared information about things like SAT tutors and A.P. courses with their less educated Asian-American peers.

1965年美国移民法的一项目标便是优先选择有专门技能的专业人士。该法律还废除了针对来自亚洲等地区移民的严格限制。部分基于这个原因，移民到美国的中国人中有一半多一点儿拥有大学或更高学位，而近年来中国成年人的这一比例则不到10%。作者写道，他们倾向于优先考虑他们的孩子能拿到全A成绩；上一所好大学；然后成为医生、律师、科学家或工程师。他们还会把诸如SAT指导老师、进阶先修课程等信息分享给受教育程度较低的亚裔美国同伴。

versus

作介词，表示“与…相对”，英文解释为“You use versus to indicate that two figures, ideas, or choices are opposed.”举个：

Only 18.8% of the class of 2010 had some kind of diploma four years after high school, versus 45% of the class of 2012.

相对于2012届学生中有45%在中学毕业4年后获得了某种文凭来说，2010届学生的这一比例只有18.8%。

straight

表示“连续的”，英文解释为“Straight means following one after the other, with no gaps or intervals.”举个：

They'd won 5 straight games before they lost.

他们在输掉之前已赢了连续5场比赛。

Another factor is the so-called model minority stereotype

另一个因素是所谓的模范少数族裔刻板印象——作为群体的亚裔理应聪明、成功、勤奋。这一形象掩盖了一些亚洲少数族群的高贫困率和辍学率，但同所有的刻板印象一样，它会导致人们偏颇行事。研究人员发现，老师往往会给亚裔美国学生更高的分数，让他们参与进阶课程。通常情况下，表现较差的学生会发奋，以求满足对他们的这些期望，社会科学家将这种效果称为刻板印象承诺。

mask

表示“掩饰，隐瞒，掩盖”，英文解释为“to hide your feelings or the truth about a situation”，举个：

Men often mask their true feelings with humour.

男人常常用幽默来掩饰他们真实的情感。

funnel

表示“传送（资金、商品、信息等）”，英文解释为“If you funnel money, goods, or information from one place or group to another, you cause it to be sent there as it becomes available.”举个：

He secretly funnelled credit-card information to counterfeiters.

他秘密地将信用卡信息传送给了伪造者们。

For Asian-American boys, these influences change in adolescence, Ms. Hsin found, a time when children become more aware of their gender identity and are more influenced by peers. They also have to fight a pernicious perception that they are not masculine enough.

艾米·辛发现，对于亚裔美国男孩来说，这些影响会在青春期发生变化，在这个阶段，孩子们会更加意识到自己的性别身份，也更容易受到同龄人的影响。他们还必须与一种有害的观念作斗争，即他们的男性气概不够。

pernicious

pernicious /pə'nɪʃəs,pɚˋnɪʃəs/ 表示“极为有害的”，英文解释为“If you describe something as pernicious, you mean that it is very harmful.”举个：

I did what I could, but her mother's influence was pernicious.

我已尽我所能，但她母亲造成的影响是很极为不利的。

“The model minority myth frames Asian boys as being kind of nerdy, caring too much about doing well, so that may cause them to become less academically attached,” Ms. Hsin said. “It’s not as stigmatizing for Asian girls because if you’re good at school and you really care, that kind of plays along with what you should be doing as a girl anyway.”

“模范少数族裔的迷思把亚洲男孩塑造成有点书呆子气，太希望自己表现好，这样可能会让他们不那么喜欢学习，”艾米·辛说。“对亚洲女孩来说，这并不丢脸，因为如果你在学校表现出色，而且你真的在乎自己的表现，这符合你身为女孩应该做的事情。”

attached

表示“非常喜欢…的”，英文解释为“If you are attached to someone or something, you like them very much.

She is very attached to her family and friends.

她非常喜欢她的家人和朋友。

The new study offers a clue about how much school environments affect boys’ academic achievement. Ms. Hsin found that the gender gap for Asian-Americans in high school was smaller in schools that were less sports-focused, and where boys did better over all.

这项新研究为了解学校环境对男孩学习成绩的影响程度提供了线索。艾米·辛发现，在不那么关注体育活动、男生总体表现较好的学校，亚裔学生在高中阶段的性别差距较小。

Other studies have also pinpointed the importance of the school and social environments, especially for boys.

其他研究也指出了学校和社会环境的重要性，尤其是对男孩。

pinpoint

1）表示“查明，准确地说出，描述（事实真相）”，英文解释为“to discover or explain exactly the real facts about something or the cause of a problem”，举个：

It's difficult to pinpoint the cause of the accident.

事故原因很难查明。

2）表示“准确地找出（某物的位置）；为…准确定位”，英文解释为“to find or show the exact position of something”，举个：

Rescue teams have now pinpointed the location of the ship.

救援队现在已经找出那艘船的准确位置。

One working paper found that the best-performing students had a combination of behaviors typically considered male and female. It used nationally representative survey data about gender norms for about 12,000 high school students, linked with their high school transcripts. The most traditionally feminine girls and the most masculine boys had the lowest grades.

一份研究报告发现，表现最好的学生通常会同时表现出人们心目中男性和女性的典型特点。它使用了关于1.2万名高中生的性别状态与其高中成绩相关联的全国代表性调查数据。传统上最女性化的女孩和最男性化的男孩成绩最低。

The messages boys receive about how to be masculine come from local influences in their schools and communities and are often tied to to socioeconomic status, other research has shown. Boys perform better in school when achievement is considered to be desirable, and when they believe successful men get their power from education versus strength and toughness. Boys in high-income communities are more likely to get those messages, research has shown.

另一项研究表明，男孩获得的关于如何更有男子气概的信息来自他们所在学校和社区的当地影响，而且往往与社会经济地位

Teachers' expectations of students — and the biases behind them — also influence children's performance. For example, white teachers are less likely than black teachers to refer black students to gifted programs, or to have high expectations for their potential. Yet as with Asian-American students, research shows that when teachers have high expectations for black students, they rise to meet them.

教师对学生的期望——及其背后的偏见——也会影响孩子的表现。例如，白人教师推荐黑人学生参加天才项目或对他们的潜力抱有高期待的可能性低于黑人老师。然而，就像亚裔学生一样，研究表明，当老师对黑人学生抱有很高的期待时，他们就会努力去达到这些期待。

The fact that boys’ achievement varies in different school environments is a hopeful sign for parents and educators, Ms. Hsin said, because it suggests ways to help all students.

艾米·辛说，男孩在不同学校环境下的成绩有所不同，让家长和教育工作者看到了希望，因为这提示了帮助所有学生的方法。

Encourage academic achievement, she said, and talk about how it leads to success.

她说，那就是鼓励学生取得优秀学习成绩，并讨论优秀的成绩如何令人走向成功。

Researchers have other suggestions. Show them role models who got where they are by doing well in school. Emphasize the importance of hard work and daily practice, not innate skill. Encourage both boys and girls to embrace a full range of character traits, and not to feel limited by stereotypical gender roles. Place high expectations on children, and give them opportunities to meet them — regardless of skin color.

研究人员还有其他建议。向学生展示通过在学校表现出色而获得成功的榜样。强调努力学习和每天练习的重要性，而不是天生的技能。鼓励男孩和女孩接纳各种各样的性格特征，不要觉得自己被刻板的性别角色所限制。对孩子寄予厚望，并且给他们机会去达到这些期望——不管他们的肤色是什么。

By Claire Cain Miller

翻译：晋其角、李建芳

相关阅读 · 中文报道

加拿大新布伦瑞克大学研究员沃耶尓夫妇发布的研究报告称，女孩比男孩成绩好的现象已持续了100多年，且放之四海而皆准。

沃耶尓夫妇对涉及110多万名学生的308项研究进行了汇总和回顾，这些研究从1914年到2011年，范围包括不同国家和不同学科。整体来说，女生领先男生最多的是外语和语文，但在普遍认为男生有优势的数理化，女生的表现仍好过男生。这样的优势从幼儿园就开始了，一直持续到大学毕业。

详见：http://t.cn/R7LIQAn

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