VOA慢速英语:Paying Tech Talents to Drop Out of College

短语讲解：

1. What do Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison have in common?

in common共用，共有，共同
例句：We have something in common.
我们有许多相同之处。

2. Peter Thiel is paying them to drop out or at least to "stop out" of higher education temporarily to work on their interests.

drop out离开, 退出
例句：He says he has dropped out, and won't attend college any more.
他说他退了学, 以后也不会去上大学了。
higher education高等教育
work on致力于…
例句：He has been working on a new novel for over a year now.
近一年多来, 他一直在写一部新小说。

3. We selected people on the basis of a combination of having demonstrated intense passion about science and technology and then having the drive to try to carry it forward in the years ahead.

on the basis of根据，在……的基础上
例句：We drew this conclusion on the basis of experiments.
我们是在试验的基础上得出这个结论的。

4. There are twenty-four people to be exact, because a couple of projects involve more than one person.

a couple of两个, 几个
例句：They walked a couple of miles.
他们步行了几英里。

5. Now, at seventeen, she has already graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

graduate from从…毕业
例句：He graduated from Taipei University.
他毕业于台北大学。

6. And so, if you look at how much college costs have gone up, you now have people graduating with a quarter million dollars worth of debt and they end up having to spend years or decades paying the debt off.

go up上升, 上涨, 提高, 增加, 增高
例句：The goods have gone up in price.
这些商品的价格已经上涨。
end up (以…)结束; 最终成为〔变得〕
例句：Wasteful people usually end up in debt.
挥霍浪费者最后往往负债。
pay off付清, 还清
例句：You must pay off your old loan before you can obtain a new one.
你必须还清旧账, 然后才能再借款。

7. Where education and higher education becomes almost this way for not thinking and avoiding thinking about what you’re going to do with your life.

do with处理;对待
例句：I don't know what to do with it.
我不知道这件事该怎么处理。

8. At the very least, he says, they will gain experience to take back to school if that is what they decide to do.

take back (使)回忆起
例句：The book took him back to the days when he had been in the countryside.
这本书使他回忆起在乡下的日子。

9. More than four hundred people from twenty countries applied to the program.

apply to运用
例句：In this way they can better apply theory to practice.
这样他们就能更好地把理论运用到实践中去。