Passage 1

　　(題源：紐約時(shí)報(bào) What Role Do Teachers Play in Education?)

　　In 2009, Time magazine hailed an online math program piloted at three New York City public schools, as one of the year’s 50 best innovations. Each day, the software generated individualized math “playlists” for students who then chose the “modality” in which they wished to learn — software, a virtual teacher or a flesh-and-blood one. A different algorithm sorted teachers’ specialties and schedules to match a student’s needs. “It generates the lessons, the tests and it grades the tests,” one veteran instructor marveled.

　　Although the program made only modest improvements in students’ math scores and was adopted by only a handful of New York schools (not the 50 for which it was slated), it serves as a notable example of a pattern that Andrea Gabor charts in “After the Education Wars.” For more than three decades, an unlikely coalition of corporate philanthropists, educational technology entrepreneurs and public education bureaucrats has spearheaded a brand of school reform characterized by the overvaluing of technology and standardized testing and a devaluing of teachers and communities. The trend can be traced back to a hyperbolic 1983 report, “A Nation at Risk,” issued by President Ronald Reagan’s National Commission on Excellence in Education. Against the backdrop of an ascendant Japanese economy and consistent with President Reagan’s disdain for public education (and teachers’ unions), “A Nation at Risk” blamed America’s ineffectual schools for a “rising tide of mediocrity” that was diminishing America’s global role in a new high-tech world.

　　Policymakers turned their focus to public education as a matter of national security, one too important (and potentially too profitable) to entrust to educators. The notion that top-down decisions by politicians, not teachers, should determine what children need was a thread running through the bipartisan 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, the Obama administration’s Race to the Top and state-initiated Common Core standards, and the current charter-driven agenda of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. “Accountability” became synonymous with standardized tests, resulting in a testing juggernaut with large profits going to commercial publishing giants like Pearson.

　　The education wars have been demoralizing for teachers, over 17 percent of whom drop out within their first five years. No one believes that teaching to the test is good pedagogy, but what are the options when students’ future educational choices, teachers’ salaries and retention and, in some states, the fate of entire schools rest on student test scores? In meticulous detail, Gabor documents reform’s institutional failings. She describes the turns in New York City’s testing-obsessed policies, the undermining of Michigan’s once fine public schools and the heartbreaking failure of New Orleans to remake its schools after Hurricane Katrina.

　　【參考譯文】2009年，《時(shí)代》雜志發(fā)文稱贊三所紐約市公立學(xué)校試點(diǎn)推行的在線數(shù)學(xué)課程，稱其是該年度的五十大杰出創(chuàng)新成果之一。該課程軟件每天都會(huì)生成個(gè)性化的數(shù)學(xué)課“播放列表”，學(xué)生可根據(jù)想要學(xué)習(xí)的內(nèi)容選擇具體的“播放模式”。這款課程軟件既是一位虛擬教師，也會(huì)呈現(xiàn)出一種有血有肉的真實(shí)形象。通過一種特別的算法，課程軟件對所有教師的專業(yè)課程與排課時(shí)間進(jìn)行分類，以滿足每位學(xué)生的需求。一位資深講師就曾驚嘆稱，“這款軟件不僅能夠生成課程與測試內(nèi)容，還可對測試結(jié)果進(jìn)行評分”。

　　雖然該課程并未大幅提升學(xué)生的數(shù)學(xué)成績，且僅有少數(shù)紐約學(xué)校采用(并非預(yù)期進(jìn)駐的50所學(xué)校)，但卻是安德烈埃·加博爾(Andrea Gabor)在《教育戰(zhàn)爭》(After the Education Wars)中所提出的教改模式的一個(gè)典型范例。三十多年來，看似不可能達(dá)成統(tǒng)一戰(zhàn)線的眾多企業(yè)慈善家、教育技術(shù)企業(yè)家和公共教育官員率先掀起一股學(xué)校改革風(fēng)潮，其特點(diǎn)就是極度重視技術(shù)及標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化測試，同時(shí)弱化對教師和社會(huì)的關(guān)注。這一風(fēng)潮可以追溯到羅納德·里根政府時(shí)期的“國家教育卓越委員會(huì)(National Commission on Excellence in Education)”于1983年發(fā)布的一份風(fēng)格夸張的報(bào)告——《處于危險(xiǎn)中的國家》(A Nation at Risk)。在日本經(jīng)濟(jì)崛起的背景下，里根總統(tǒng)曾對美國的公共教育(及教師工會(huì))表現(xiàn)出蔑視之情，與此相呼應(yīng)，《處于危險(xiǎn)中的國家》也將美國“平庸之輩越來越多”歸咎于美國學(xué)校的無能，認(rèn)為這些庸才正不斷削弱美國在高新科技領(lǐng)域的全球影響力。

　　政策制定者隨后將關(guān)注點(diǎn)轉(zhuǎn)向公共教育領(lǐng)域。在政策制定者看來，公共教育已上升至國家安全的高度，其重要性(或高盈利性)完全無法讓政策制定者將發(fā)展公共教育的任務(wù)放心交予教育部門。有種觀點(diǎn)認(rèn)為，決定兒童教育需求的應(yīng)當(dāng)是政治人物(而非教師群體)自上而下的政策決策，而從2001年美國兩黨支持通過的“有教無類法案(No Child Left Behind Act)”，到奧巴馬政府的“力爭上游(Race to the Top)”計(jì)劃與州共同核心課程標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，再到現(xiàn)任美國教育部長貝琪·德沃斯(Betsy DeVos)推行的特許學(xué)校議程，這一觀念始終貫穿其中。“責(zé)任制”已成為標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化測試的代名詞，導(dǎo)致培生教育(Pearson)等教育測試領(lǐng)域的大體量、高利潤機(jī)構(gòu)轉(zhuǎn)型成為商業(yè)出版巨頭。

　　教育戰(zhàn)爭削弱了教師隊(duì)伍的斗志，超過17%的教師在入職不到五年內(nèi)離職。沒有人相信應(yīng)試教育是一種有效的教育方法，但當(dāng)學(xué)生的繼續(xù)教育選擇、教師的薪資與留任，乃至美國某些州整所學(xué)校的前途命運(yùn)都取決于學(xué)生的測試成績時(shí)，他們還能有哪些選擇?加博爾在其書中極其詳盡地記述了教育改革的制度缺陷：紐約市教育測試狂熱政策引發(fā)諸多轉(zhuǎn)變;密歇根州公立學(xué)校的昔日優(yōu)勢遭到削弱;卡特里娜颶風(fēng)肆虐過后，新奧爾良市在重建學(xué)校時(shí)也遭遇令人心碎的困境。

Passage 2

　　(吳哥)(題源：whc.unesco.org)

　　Angkor is one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia. For several centuries, Angkor was the centre of the Khmer Kingdom. With impressive monuments, several different ancient urban plans and large water reservoirs, the site is a unique concentration of features testifying to an exceptional civilization. Temples, exemplars of Khmer architecture, are closely linked to their geographical context as well as being imbued with symbolic significance. The architecture and layout of the successive capitals bear witness to a high level of social order and ranking within the Khmer Empire. Angkor is therefore a major site exemplifying cultural, religious and symbolic values, as well as containing high architectural, archaeological and artistic significance.

　　The Angkor complex encompasses all major architectural buildings and hydrological engineering systems from the Khmer period. All the individual aspects illustrate the intactness of the site very much reflecting the splendor of the cities that once were. The site integrity however, is put under dual pressures: endogenous: exerted by more than 100,000 inhabitants distributed over 112 historic settlements scattered over the site, who constantly try to expand their dwelling areas; exogenous: related to the proximity of the town of Siem Reap, the seat of the province and a tourism hub.

　　Angkor is one of the largest archaeological sites in operation in the world. Tourism represents an enormous economic potential but it can also generate irreparable destructions of the tangible as well as intangible cultural heritage. Many research projects have been undertaken, since the international safeguarding program was first launched in 1993. The scientific objectives of the research (e.g. anthropological studies on socio-economic conditions) result in a better knowledge and understanding of the history of the site, and its inhabitants that constitute a rich exceptional legacy of the intangible heritage. The purpose is to associate the “intangible culture” to the enhancement of the monuments in order to sensitize the local population to the importance and necessity of its protection and preservation and assist in the development of the site as Angkor is a living heritage site where Khmer people in general, but especially the local population, are known to be particularly conservative with respect to ancestral traditions and where they adhere to a great number of archaic cultural practices that have disappeared elsewhere.

　　Moreover, the Angkor Archaeological Park is very rich in medicinal plants, used by the local population for treatment of diseases. The Preah Khan temple is considered to have been a university of medicine and the NeakPoan an ancient hospital.

　　【參考譯文】吳哥是東南亞地區(qū)最重要的考古遺址之一。幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以來，吳哥一直是高棉王國的都城。除了令人印象深刻的歷史遺跡之外，當(dāng)?shù)剡�留有眾多古城池與大型水庫的遺址。如此之多的罕見遺跡匯集于一處，這就是當(dāng)?shù)卦��?jīng)存在過高度文明的象征。作為一種典型的高棉建筑，寺廟與當(dāng)?shù)氐牡乩憝h(huán)境密切相關(guān)，具有標(biāo)志性意義。歷代都城的建筑與布局在很大程度上見證了高棉帝國的社會(huì)秩序與等級(jí)。因此，作為一處重要的歷史遺跡，吳哥不僅具有豐富的建筑、考古和藝術(shù)內(nèi)涵，還展現(xiàn)出較高的文化、宗教和象征價(jià)值。

　　吳哥建筑群囊括了高棉時(shí)期的所有重要建筑和水文工程系統(tǒng)，全方位展現(xiàn)了該地遺址的完整性，同時(shí)也反映出歷代城池的輝煌歷史。然而，遺址的完整性目前正面臨著雙重壓力。其一是內(nèi)生性壓力：遺址區(qū)域零星散布著112個(gè)歷史聚居點(diǎn)，居民人數(shù)超過10萬，而他們正在想方設(shè)法擴(kuò)大自身的居住區(qū)域;其二是外生性壓力：當(dāng)?shù)嘏c暹粒鎮(zhèn)相鄰，而暹粒鎮(zhèn)正位于暹粒省首府，是一處旅游業(yè)中心。

　　吳哥是全球最大的經(jīng)營性考古遺址之一。旅游業(yè)代表著巨大的經(jīng)濟(jì)潛力，但同時(shí)也可能對物質(zhì)和非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)造成無法挽回的傷害。吳哥的國際保護(hù)計(jì)劃起步于1993年，多年來已開展眾多研究項(xiàng)目�？茖W(xué)的研究目標(biāo)(如社會(huì)經(jīng)濟(jì)條件的人類學(xué)研究)使得人們得以更好地認(rèn)識(shí)與了解吳哥遺址的歷史，以及作為這些璀璨非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)締造者的吳哥當(dāng)?shù)鼐用�。吳哥堪稱歷史文化的活化石，這里的高棉人(特別是當(dāng)?shù)鼐用?在先祖?zhèn)鹘y(tǒng)方面通常極為守舊，而他們所堅(jiān)守的大量古老文化習(xí)俗在其他地方早已消失殆盡，因此，開展這些研究旨在將“非物質(zhì)文化”與歷史遺跡的保護(hù)聯(lián)系起來，使當(dāng)?shù)鼐用褚庾R(shí)到吳哥遺跡保護(hù)的重要性和必要性，從而為當(dāng)?shù)剡z址的開發(fā)工作提供協(xié)助。

　　此外，吳哥考古公園(Angkor Archaeological Park)內(nèi)還生長著種類豐富的藥用植物，當(dāng)?shù)鼐用裼盟鼈冎委煻喾N疾病。圣劍寺(Preah Khan)據(jù)信過去曾是一所醫(yī)藥學(xué)府，而尼克潘(NeakPoan)則被認(rèn)為是一家古老的醫(yī)院。

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