英語小短文帶翻譯：會多種語言的人更聰明嗎?
Are People Who Speak More than One Language Smarter?
In the early nineteen fifties, researchers found that people scored lower on intelligence tests if they spoke more than one language. Research in the sixties found the opposite. Bilingual people scored higher than monolinguals-people who speak only one language. So which is it?
20世紀50年代早期，研究人員發現掌握超過壹門語言的人在智力測試上得分更低。而60年代研究的發現則恰恰相反，“雙語者”比只懂壹種語言的“單語者”得分更高。那麽，哪個發現是正確的呢?
Researchers presented their newest studies last month at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The latest evidence shows that being bilingual does not necessarily make people *** arter. But researcher Ellen Bialystock says it probably does make you better at certain skills.
研究人員上個月在美國科學促進會的壹次會議上介紹了他們的最新研究成果。最新證據表明，通曉雙語並不能使人更聰明。但研究人員艾倫·比亞斯表示，它會使妳在某些技能上表現更好。
Ellen Bialystock:"Imagine driving down the highway. There are many things that could capture your attention and you really need to be able to monitor all of them. Why would bilinguali *** make you any better at that?"
比雅利斯托克：“想像壹下在高速公路上開車，可能會有很多吸引妳註意力的東西，妳必須能夠同時關註所有這壹些。為什麽雙語環境可能會讓妳在這方面表現更好呢?”
And the answer, she says, is that bilingual people are often better at controlling their attention - a function called the executive control system.
她表示，答案就是“雙語者”更善於控制自己的註意力，這種能力也被稱為行為控制系統。
Ellen Biaystock:'It's quite possibly the most important cognitive system we have because it's where all of your decisions about what to attend to, what to ignore, what to process are made."
艾倫·比亞斯托：“這可能是人類具備的最重要的認知系統。因為妳做出專註、忽略、執行的決定時都離不開它。”
Ms. Biaystock is a psychology professor at York University in Toronto, Canada. She says the best method to measure the executive control system is called the Stroop Test. A person is shown words in different colors. The person has to ignore the word but say the color. The problem is that the words are all names of colors.
比亞斯托是加拿大約克大學的心理學教授。她表示，衡量行為控制系統能力最好的辦法是斯特魯測驗***Stroop Test***。該測試向被測試者展示各種不同顏色的單詞。被測試者需要忽略單詞本身，說出字型的顏色。難點在於，這些單詞都是壹些顏色的名稱。
Ellen Bialystock:"So you would have the word blue written in red, but you have to say red. But blue is so salient, it's just lighting up all these circuits in your brain, and you really want to say blue. So you need a mechani *** to override that so that you can say red. That's the executive control system."
艾倫·比亞斯托：“因此，‘藍色’這個單詞可能是用紅色書寫的，而妳必須說‘紅色’。但‘藍色’這兩個字非常突出，它壹直閃現在妳的大腦中，妳很想說‘藍色’。這時妳就需要壹種抑制該想法的系統，妳才能說出‘紅色’。這就是行為控制系統。”
Her work shows that bilingual people continually practice this function. They have to, because both languages are active in their brain at the same time. They need to suppress one to be able to speak in the other.
她的研究表明，“雙語者”在不斷鍛煉這種能力，因為兩種語言同時都在他們大腦中活躍，他們必須抑制壹種語言，才能用另壹種語言表達。
英語小短文帶翻譯：網路虛擬學校到底好不好?
Is Network Virtual Schools Really Well?
Forty-two of the fifty American states offered some kind of public online learning this past school year. One state, Michigan, now requires all students to have an online learning experience before they finish high school.
過去的壹個學年，美國50個州中有42個州提供了某種形式的公***網上學習。現在，密歇根州要求所有學生在高中畢業之前都有網路學習經歷。
Even the idea of a school has changed since the rise of the Internet in the nineteen nineties.
自90年代網際網路興起以來，學校的理念甚至都已經發生了變化。
A new report from the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University says eighteen states have full-time virtual schools. There are no buildings. All classes are online.
印第安納大學評估和教育政策中心壹份新的報告稱，18個州擁有全日制虛擬學校，沒有校舍，所有的課程都是在網路上學習。
Online learners might work at different times. But there might be set times for class discussions — by text, voice or video — and virtual office hours for teachers.
網路學院可以在不同的時間學習，但是課堂討論必須在既定的時間進行——通過簡訊、音訊或視訊——對於教師來說也有固定的虛擬工作時間。
Flofida started the first statewide public virtual school in the United States in nineteen ninety-seven.
1997年，佛羅裏達開設了美國首個全州範圍的公裏虛擬學校。
Today, the Florida Virtual School offers more than ninety courses. Fifty-six thousand students were enrolled as of December. Almost sixty percent were female. The school's Web site says each student was enrolled in an average of two classes.
今天，佛羅裏達虛擬學校提供了90多門課程。截止到12月份，已有5.6萬名學生入學，其中接近60%的學生是女性。該學校網站稱，每個學生都參加平均兩個班級。
Two-thirds were also enrolled in public or charter schools. Charter schools are privately operated with public money. Other students are home-schooled or in private school.
三分之二的學生同時還在公立學校或 *** 特許學校就讀。 *** 特許學校由私人運營，但是由公眾提供資金。其他學生則在家接受教育或在私立學校就讀。
Florida Virtual School has now opened the Florida Virtual Global School. Students in other countries pay for classes. Janet Heiking teaches an English class. She lives in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her students live as far away as Africa and Japan.
佛羅裏達虛擬學校現在開設了佛羅裏達虛擬全球學校。其他國家的學生繳納費用來學習。珍妮特·海靖是壹個英語班的教師。她住在印第安納州的印第安納波利斯。她的學生則遠在非洲甚至日本。
So how good are virtual schools? Students have shown mixed results, as that new report from Indiana University notes.
那麽，虛擬學校到底怎麽樣呢?印第安納大學這份報告指出，研究表明，表明學校水平參差不齊。
For example, students at Florida Virtual School earned higher grades than those taking the same courses the traditional way. And they scored higher on a statewide test.
例如，佛羅裏達虛擬學校的學生比按照傳統方法學習同樣課程的學生取得的分數更高。在全州的考試中，他們的分數也更高。
But virtual school students in Kansas and Colorado had lower test scores or performed at a lower level than traditional learners.
但是，堪薩斯和科羅拉多虛擬學校的學生則比傳統的學生得分更低，表現更差。
Educaiton experts say the mixed results suggest the need for more research to find the best ways to teach in virtual schools. Also, they say schools of education need to train more teachers to work in both physical and virtual classrooms.
教育專家表示，這些表現不壹的結果表明，需要進行更多的研究來發現最佳的虛擬學校教學方法。同時，他們說，教育類學校需要培養更多教師，能夠同時在實體和虛擬教室授課。
英語小短文帶翻譯：環境運動的勇士
A Top Gun for the Environmental Movement
Wilma Subra had no intention of being a public speaker. After graduating from college with degress in chemistry and microbiology, she went to work at Gulf South Research Institute in Louisiana.
威爾瑪·蘇夫拉原來沒有想過要成為壹名公***演說家。她大學畢業拿到了化學和微生物學學位後，就職於路易斯安那州南海灣研究所。
As part of her job, she conducted field research on toxic substances in the environment, often in minority munities located near large industrial pollutrs. She found many families were being exposed to high, sometimes deadly levels of chemicals and other toxic substances. But she was not allowed to make her information public.
作為工作職責的壹部分，她從事環境有害物質方面的土地研究，調研地區經常是大型工業汙染源附近的少數族裔社群。她發現許多家庭暴露於高度的，甚至是致命的化學物和其他有害物質中。但是她無權將她的資訊公之於眾。
Frustrated by these restrictions, Subra left her job in 1981, created her own pany and has devoted the past two decades to helping people fight back against giant industrial polluters. She works with families and munity groups to conduct environmental tests and hybrid test results, and organize for change.
受困於這些制約，蘇夫拉在1981年離開了她的工作，創立了自己的公司，並且在過去的20年中幫助人們與大型工業汙染源抗爭。她與居民家庭和社群團體壹起努力進行環境測試，混合測試結果，組織活動以改變環境。
Because of her efforts, dozens of toxic sites across the counry have been cleaned up. And one chemical industry spokesperson calls her "a top gun" for the environmental movement.
因為她的努力，遍及全國的大量有害地區被清理幹凈了。壹家化工企業的發言人稱她是環境運動的“勇士”。
How has Subra achieved all this? Partly through her scientific training, partly through her mitment to environmental justice. But just as important is her ability to municate with people through public speaking. "Public speaking," she says, "is the primary vehicle I use for reaching people."
蘇夫拉是怎樣做到這壹切的呢?部分原因是她科學的訓練，部分是因為她追求環境公平的奉獻精神。但是，同樣重要的原因還有她借助公***演說與他人交流的能力。“公***演說，”她談到，“是我與人們溝通的主要工具。”
If you had asked Subra before 1981, do you see yourself as a major public speaker? She would have laughed at the idea. Yet today she gives more than one hundred presentations a year. Along the way, she's lectured at Harvard, testified before congress, and addressed audiences in 40 states, as well as in Mexico, Canada, and Japan.
如果在1981年之前，我問蘇夫拉，妳認為自己是壹位重要的公***演說家嗎?她可能會對此壹笑置之。然而，在今天，她每年要進行100多場演講。她壹直堅持這條路，她在哈佛大學發表演說，在國會發表宣告，向來自於美國40個州，以及墨西哥、加拿大和日本的觀眾進行演說。