实战口语情景对话 第474期:High School 高中

Todd: So, Tres can you talk about American high school. What was high school like for you? What is American high school like?
托德：特雷斯，你谈谈美国的高中吧。你念的高中是什么样的？美国的高中是什么样的？

Tres: That's a very good question. When one says "an American high school", to some people maybe movies that depict high school life come to mind. But the most thing I would like people to keep in mind is that depending on the school district, the state, the area of the state in which you live, the high school you go to can vary extremely. There are many poor schools in poor districts. And there are very rich schools similar to the "Beverly Hills 90210" television show, that's quite popular around the world. I was fortunate to go to a high school that was a public school under a magnet program. And the idea was that you have a test to get in to the school. You have to excel academically. And the school would try to suck in, or attract students from all over the state, students that excelled in the math and sciences, sports, English, literature, foreign languages, and tried to bring those students together. Not only that, the idea of the school was to create an atmosphere that was "biologically diverse". That just sounds better than "racially diverse". So we had students of various socioeconomic backgrounds, meaning we had students of various races. Even though I don't think "race" truly exist. But sociologically speaking, we had students of various races. At the school you could take classes from Italian to classical English. Many of our teachers had Ph.D.s so it was just a great academic atmosphere to be in. And then, we had a lot of fun on top of that. The first few years I went there, we had an open campus, which meant that during our lunch, we were able to get in our cars because we all drove to school. Get in our cars and drive home or drive to our friend's house or drive to a restaurant during our lunch period. So we didn't have to stay at school for lunch. We were completely free. And the school was very liberal. So the teachers had a very open idea of how students learn, and they wanted to make sure that we were learning in a way that was best for us. Now that doesn't mean that they were not strict on us. When we did something bad, when we were in trouble, they let us know. But still many of our teachers were very open, and they would give us hugs if we needed hugs.
特雷斯：这是个好问题。当提到“美国高中”时，有些人可能会想到电影中描写的那种高中生活。不过我希望人们记住，高中生活要取决于学区、州和你生活的那个地区，这些因素使各高中产生极大的不同。贫穷地区有许多糟糕的学校，而也有很多与电视剧《新飞越比佛利》类似的奢侈高中，这部电视剧在全世界非常受欢迎。我很幸运，我上的高中是加入磁石计划的公立学校。在被学校录取前要进行测试。你要有优异的学业成绩。学校会试图从全州吸引在数学和科技、体育、英语、文学以及外语方面表现优异的学生，并试图把这些学生整合在一起。不仅如此，这类学校的理念是营造一种“生物多样性”的氛围。这种说法听起来比“种族多样性”好多了。我们学校的学生有不同的社会经济背景，有不同的种族。虽然我不认为“种族”真实存在，但是从社会学的角度来看，我们学校的学生确实来自不同种族。学校内设置的课程包括意大利语和古典英语。许多老师都有博士学位，所以学校里的学术氛围非常棒。除此之外，我们在学校过得很开心。最初的几年我们有校园开放日，因为我们都是开车去学校的，所以在午餐期间我们可以开车回家或开车去朋友家或者去餐厅。我们不用在学校里用午餐。我们拥有完全的自由。学校很开明，所以老师对于学生的学习方式持开放思想，他们希望确保我们用最好的方式学习。这并不意味着他们对我们不严厉。我们做错事还有惹麻烦的时候，他们会对我们很严厉。不过仍有许多老师非常开放，如果我们需要拥抱那他们就会拥抱我们。

Todd: The teachers would give you hugs.
托德：老师会拥抱你们。

Tres: Yes, I know some schools, many teachers would want to keep that professional distance. But I think when you're working with children, always keep in mind that they are young adults. And they need to be taught a good model to fit into society. I think one of those models is reaching out to others when they are in trouble. Sometimes you know, a student may need a hug, be it your friend or be it a teacher. So I really enjoyed getting hugs from my principal, so I always give hugs to everybody.
特雷斯：是的，我知道基于专业上的考虑，有些学校的老师会希望和学生保持距离。不过我认为如果你的工作要和孩子接触，要记住他们是青少年。老师要教导他们成为好榜样并适应社会。我认为这些榜样应该是指在他人遇到困难时出手相助的人。你知道，有时学生需要拥抱，亦师亦友的感觉。我很喜欢校长拥抱我，所以我也会去拥抱他人。

Todd: Wow, that's a lot different from my high school.
托德：哇，这点和我的高中有很大的不同。