VOA慢速英语:For Some Teens, a Busy Life Takes Fun Out of High School

For years the University of California, Los Angeles, has done a national survey of first-year college students. Some of the questions in the Freshman Survey relate to emotional health and stress. Last year, twenty-nine percent said they often felt "overwhelmed" by all they had to do in their last year of high school. That was two percentage points higher than the year before.
多年来，美国加州大学洛杉矶分校对全国范围大学一年级学生进行了调查。这项新生调查的一些问题涉及精神健康和压力等内容。去年，29%的受调查者称，他们经常为高中最后一年不得不学习的内容感到“不堪重负”，比前一年高出两个百分点。

There was a big difference between men and women. Almost forty percent of women reported feeling that level of stress, compared to just eighteen percent of men.
男生和女生之间有一个很大的区别。接近40%的女生说感到那种压力，男生仅有18%。

Deborah Stipek is dean of the School of Education at Stanford University in California. She says a lot of students are under too much pressure from parents and schools.
Deborah Stipek是加州斯坦福大学教育学院院长。她表示，许多学生受到来自家长和学校的过多压力。

DEBORAH STIPEK: "They are not enjoying what can be the incredible satisfaction of learning and developing understandings and skills. Leaning can be an adventure. But instead of an adventure, it’s really about the test, it’s about the college application."
Deborah Stipek：“他们并没有享受到学习和发展技能过程中获得的难以置信的满足感。学习本来是一项探险。然而，他们的学习仅仅是测验，是大学申请。”

Professor Stipek recently wrote about this issue in the journal Science. She used the example of her own daughter in high school. Her daughter has taken advancement placement, or AP, courses in French to earn credit toward college. She told her mother she would be happy to never speak French again.
Stipek教授最近在《科学》期刊上写到了这个问题。她用自己正在读高中的女儿为例子。她的女儿参加了法语的预科，为进入大学获得学分。她告诉母亲，如果她可以永远不再说法语，她会感到非常高兴。

DEBORAH STIPEK: "I think that revealed the real basic problem, which is the AP courses that she was taking in French were not about learning French, not about being able to communicate with a different culture, or to travel, or to have a skill that could be useful in life. It was about getting a score on an AP test that would help her get into the college of her choice.”
Deborah Stipek：“我认为这反映了最基本的问题，她学习的法语预科与学习法语无关，与能够了解不同的文化，到法国旅游，掌握一门生活中有用的技能完全无关。这门课程只是在测验中获得分数，帮助她进入自己选择的大学。”

Professor Stipek says high schools should listen to their students.
Stipek教授称，各高校应当听取学生的意见.

DEBORAH STIPEK: "One of the things that schools are doing that we’re working with is doing yearly surveys of students to find out what their sources of stress and anxiety [are], and get their ideas on what the school can do, what kinds of policies can be supportive of them. And this has been actually amazing, because we’ve gone into schools where they say 'This isn’t a problem.' And then they do a survey of the students, and they are just blown away by what they get back from the students when the students are actually asked."
Deborah Stipek：“我们的学校所做的就是每年对学生进行调查，发现他们的压力和焦虑的来源，由此总结出学校应该怎样做，应该支持什么样的政策。这真的非常不可思议。因为我们遇到过有的学校说，这完全不是问题。后来他们自己对学生进行了调查，当他们直接从学生那里得到的答案的时候他们才相信。”

In two thousand nine, a documentary film looked at the pressure on many students to succeed in school and in lives busy with activities and homework. The film is called "Race to Nowhere."
在2009年，一部纪录片观察了许多想要在学校和生活中获得成功的学生忙于活动和家庭作业所面临的压力。这部影片名叫《没有出路的比赛》。

STUDENTS: "If you were dedicating your whole life to your grades, you have to be smart. And you have to be involved in the arts. I have soccer practice every day. Plus the homework on top of that. Produce, produce, produce. It's impossible. I couldn't cope."
学生们：“如果你的整个生命都献给你的成绩，你必须要聪明。你必须学好文科。我每天都有足球训练。当然还有最重要的家庭作业要做。一直学习是不可能的。我承受不了。”

Deborak Stipek says the film shows that many students today are not experiencing the joys of learning.
Deborak Stipek称，这部影片表明，今天的许多学生并不能感受到学习的乐趣。

DEBORAK STIPEK: "I was interviewed in it, as many others were, and I think the most compelling interviews were of the students. These are students who felt under enormous pressure to perform, and I want to underscore the word 'perform,' as opposed to 'learn.'"
Deborak Stipek：“我也接受过采访，像其他许多人一样。我认为，最有说服力的是对学生进行的采访。他们受到的要求好表现的压力很大。我想用”表现”这个词，而不是用”学习”这个词。”

She says the hardest lesson for society may be that young people will grow up lacking interest in learning.
她说，社会应该从中得到的最严厉的教训就是，年轻人长大后可能会缺乏学习的兴趣。