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今日精讀The Economist《經濟學人》2020年2月29日-3月6日這期34頁文章。看經濟學人如何報道我們的 “停課不停學”。
原文截圖
Gettting to know your teacher瞭解你的老師
Education has been badly disrupted by covid-19. There are upsides.
新冠病毒嚴重影響了教育開展。總歸也有好的方面。
文章脈絡
妙詞佳句
1.To curb the spread of covid-19, the authorities have closed schools and universities indefinitely.
為了遏制住新冠病毒的傳播，各地教育局無限期關閉學校。
1）Curb，相當於是stop的高級版。
V-T If you curb something, you control it and keep it within limits. 抑制
2）authority，用單數可以指政府這樣的當權機構，也可以指某個權威人士。還可以形容人的權威度。
例：He had no natural authority and no capacity for imposing his will on others. 他天生沒有威信，也沒有將其意志強加於他人的能力。
用複數指決策者，當權者。school authorities指校方。
The authorities are the people who have the power to make decisions and to make sure that laws are obeyed. 當局
3）schools and universities 指中小學到大學。
2.With sitdown exams now impossible, his grading system places more emphasis on how students perform in classroom discussions, Mr Liu explains.
坐教室裡考試現如今已是不可能，劉老師解釋說，他給學生評分時更看重課堂討論中學生們的表現。
4）With sitdown exams now impossible是with作介詞，後面接名詞（sitdown exams）賓語，再接其他詞（now impossible）來修飾這個名詞，作賓補。這種複合結構有時蠻萬能的。
比如，The teacher came into the classroom with a laptop in his hand. 老師手拿筆記本進了教室。
5）to place emphasis on強調/重視...
3.Slow internet speeds at home are no excuse for shirking, says Yue Qiu, a secondary-school teacher in Beijing.
北京一名中學老師邱月說，家裡網速慢並不能作為偷懶的藉口。
6) shirk，相當於是lazy這個形容詞的動詞版。
to avoid doing sth you should do, especially because you are too lazy 逃避（工作）；偷懶
本篇後面還出現一個動詞短語slack off，表示懈怠或懶惰。比如我們說學渣，很多所謂的學渣並不是傻，而是太懶了，所以也為了不傷人，我們可以用study slacker來形容。
4.In poor rural areas, where some households lack internet access, instruction by television fills the void.
在貧困農村地區，有些家庭沒有通網，通過電視開展教育填補學習空白。
7) lack，缺乏，很多人知道意思但是用不對，比如上面那句會被寫成some households are lack of internet access。lack可以直接作動詞用，而用lack of這個短語其實是作名詞時，而且也得有冠詞a在前面。比如A lack of money makes me unhappy. 沒錢我不開心。
8) fill the void，填補空白，比如今年科比的去世，我們可以說：His death has left a void in the basketball world that can never be filled. 他的去世在籃球界留下了一個永遠無法填補的空白。
5.Many parents fret that online learning is a poor substitute for classroom instruction.
很多父母擔心網絡教學實難替代實體課堂教學。
9)substitute可動可名。
Nothing can substitute for the advice your doctor is able to give you. 大夫所能給你的忠告是無可替代的。
She is seeking a substitute for the very man whose departure made her cry. 他在尋找一個男人的替代者，這個男人的離去曾使她傷心落淚。
10) fret，字母少而很實用。
V-T/V-I If you fret about something, you worry about it. 擔心
Fretting about it won't help. 苦惱於事無補
6.Kaixuan observes that some of them study just as hard at home as in school, and take perverse pleasure in the fact that others must be slacking off.
愷軒說，有些同學在家學習跟在學校一樣刻苦，而且一想到其他人肯定在偷懶，反倒開心了起來。
11) perverse，這個詞在這裡用得真相了，
showing deliberate determination to behave in a way that most people think is wrong, unacceptable or unreasonable 執拗的；任性的；不通情理的
簡直完美反映了學生的 “變態”心理，一想到別的同學在家學習會偷懶，成績下滑，自己一直這麼刻苦，那開學之後甩他們幾條街。難怪會take perverse pleasure。
我反正學生時代也有過這樣的心態，從另一個角度想，也是學生單純的一面，一門心思撲在學習上。只要不耍壞心思惡意影響別人學習，這樣希望自己比對手更好的心態也算人之常情。
表達集錦
*上老師的直播課 to live-stream lectures delivered by schoolteachers
*停課不停學 study must no stop
*線上學習/遠程學習 remote learning
*教育部 education ministry
*被網絡遊戲分心 be distracted by online games
*視頻會議或授課平臺 video-conferencing platform
*網速慢 slow internet speed
*網絡連接不穩定 (internet) connections are wobbly
*父母監督 parental supervision
*(電臺或電視)播放課程 broadcast classes
*重新開學 re-opening of schools；schools and universities re-open
*高考 gaokao, the notoriously hard university-entrance exam（雖然notorious我們翻譯成臭名昭著的，但實際上這個詞並沒有我們想象的那麼貶義To be notorious means to be well known for something bad.）
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