新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第三册 te-unit03-c

[by:|http://www.hxen.com|||]
[00:00.00]，就把hxen.com复制到QQ个人资料中！The Pressure to Succeed from an Earlier Age
[00:-1.00]1  Like many Japanes,
[00:-2.00]Naoto Eguchi feels tremendous pressure to get ahead.
[00:-3.00]Rising at dawn,
[00:-4.00]he works a full day with his regular colleagues
[00:-5.00]and another three hours each evening in special study sessions.
[00:-6.00]He then does a couple of hours of work at home before going to bed at midnight.
[00:-7.00]2  It is a heavy load for an 11-year-old.
[00:-8.00]3  Naoto\'s immediate goal is to pass the entrance examinations
[00:-9.00]for a private junior high school,
[00:10.00]a vital step for eventual admission to a prestigious university.
[00:11.00]But he is already thinking about the future.
[00:12.00]"My goal is to get a good job with a good company," he said.
[00:13.00]4  The struggle to succeed in one of the world\'s most competitive societies
[00:14.00]is starting earlier and earlier,
[00:15.00]and is most evident in the growing popularity of special schools
[00:16.00]that train students during evenings and weekends to pass examinations required
[00:17.00]to enter private schools and colleges.
[00:18.00]Once on the edge of the educational system,
[00:19.00]such schools, or jukus, are now so common in Japan that,
[00:20.00]especially for those people at the top level of society,
[00:21.00]they have begun to function as a kind of shadow educational system,
[00:22.00]replacing regular schools in importance for parents and students
[00:23.00]and even reaching down to 2 and 3-year-old children.
[00:24.00]5  The rise of jukus is praised by some
[00:25.00]as one of the secrets of Japanese success,
[00:26.00]a healthy sign of a system where people advance on the basis of merit.
[00:27.00]It is also criticized as a movement forcing a new generation of Japanese
[00:28.00]to sacrifice their childhood
[00:29.00]out of an extreme desire for status and getting ahead.
[00:30.00]"Jukus are harmful to Japanese education and to children,"
[00:31.00]said a professor at the University of Tokyo.
[00:32.00]"It\'s not healthy for kids to have so little free time.
[00:33.00]It is not healthy to become completely caught up in competition
[00:34.00]and status at such a young age."
[00:35.00]6  Recently, one research institute found
[00:36.00]that nearly 4.4 million students
[00:37.00]were enrolled in some 50,000 to 60,000 jukus.
[00:38.00]That represents 18.6 percent of elementary school children
[00:39.00]and 52.2 percent of students in seventh through ninth grades.
[00:40.00]The Japanese spent $10.9 billion for teaching
[00:41.00]outside of regular classes last year,
[00:42.00]according to the institute,
[00:43.00]including $9 billion on jukus for students in the ninth grade or below -
[00:44.00]almost double the figure spent seven years ago.
[00:45.00]7  The people who run teach at jukus
[00:46.00]say the schools are popular only because they work,
[00:47.00]creating a lively and interesting environment
[00:48.00]in which students learn because they are enjoying themselves.
[00:49.00]One of the most prestigious jukus for 2 and 3-year-olds
[00:50.00]sends most of its pre-kindergarten graduates to prestigious elementary schools.
[00:51.00]If these students get good  grades in a prestigious school,
[00:52.00]they can advance all the way to a university
[00:53.00]without having to take examinations.
[00:54.00]8  "We don\'t push knowledge on them,"
[00:55.00]said the head of a branch of this juku in northwest Tokyo.
[00:56.00]"We are interested in teaching them how to play and enjoy learning."
[00:57.00]In a nearby class, eight children, each about 3,
[00:58.00]sat politely in little chairs in a row
[00:59.00]as a teacher held up pictures of a kite and other objects,
[-1:00.00]calling on the students to identify them.
[-1:-1.00]"What is this shape?" she then said,
[-1:-2.00]holding up first a square, a triangle, and then a circle.
[-1:-3.00]9  Several mothers who were waiting to pick up their children
[-1:-4.00]expressed anxiety about subjecting their youngsters to such pressure.

[-1:-5.00]But they reasoned that it would be worth it
[-1:-6.00]if their children got into private schools early
[-1:-7.00]and did not have to worry about passing examinations later on.
[-1:-8.00]"It\'s not an ideal thing to send your kids to such a place,"
[-1:-9.00] said one mother,
[-1:10.00]asking not to be identified for fear of criticism from other parents.
[-1:11.00]She said she thought that her daughter
[-1:12.00]was having a good time in this school,
[-1:13.00]but continued,"If I told you I wasn\'t thinking about entrance examinations,
[-1:14.00]I would be lying."
[-1:15.00]10  Juku teachers and managers say that because their schools
[-1:16.00]are profit-making enter-prises,
[-1:17.00]they have to promise results to succeed.
[-1:18.00]The results are easy to measure,
[-1:19.00]because they depend on how many graduates
[-1:20.00]pass the examinations for private schools.
[-1:21.00]11  The "examination hell"
[-1:22.00]imposed on children is widely crticized in Japan.
[-1:23.00]In a recent survey,
[-1:24.00]two-thirds of parents said competitive examinations
[-1:25.00]were their worst problem in raising children.
[-1:26.00]But parents are also eager to give their children every advantage.
[-1:27.00]"Jukus are playing on the status anxieties of these parents,"
[-1:28.00] said Makoto Oda,
[-1:29.00]an author who taught in jukus in Tokyo for more than 20 years.
[-1:30.00]"All parents are terribly frightened that their children will fall behind."
[-1:31.00]12  Juku defenders say that students are only
[-1:32.00]gaining the discipline and the ability
[-1:33.00]to endure pressure that they will need in life.
[-1:34.00]But the very success of jukus in training youngsters
[-1:35.00]to pass exams has made the competition worse:
[-1:36.00]jukus help more students pass exams,
[-1:37.00]so the exams have to be made more difficult.
[-1:38.00]13  "Jukus are raising a generation of kids
[-1:39.00]who only know how to pass entrance examinations,"
[-1:40.00]said an official of the Japan Teachers Union.
[-1:41.00]"But the most important educational purpose
[-1:42.00]is giving children the ability to live in society.
[-1:43.00]That\'s being left out."
[-1:44.00]The Education Ministry has tried to combat the juku system
[-1:45.00]by improving public schools,
[-1:46.00]reducing class sizes, improving teacher training,
[-1:47.00]and making the curriculum more fiexible.
[-1:48.00]But ministry officials concede that those steps have not worked.

新视野大学英语第三册 新视野大学英语第三版第三册 新视野大学英语第三版第三册答案 新视野大学英语 新视野大学英语2 新视野大学英语1 新视野大学英语3 新视野大