人必須有自信,這是成功的秘密。今天小編給大家?guī)砹?020下半年翻譯資格考試一級筆譯考試精選習(xí)題,希望能夠幫助到大家,下面小編就和大家分享,來欣賞一下吧。
2020下半年翻譯資格考試一級筆譯考試精選習(xí)題
Love the Way You Walk
迷戀你的步伐
Listen carefully to the footsteps in the family home, especially if it has wooden floors unmuffled by carpets, and you can probably work out who it is that is walking about. The features most commonly used to identify people are faces, voices, finger prints and retinal scans. But their “behavioural biometrics”, such as the way they walk, are also giveaways.
仔細(xì)聽家里的腳步聲,特別是家里鋪的是木地板而又沒有地毯消聲的話,你大概可以辨認(rèn)出是誰在走動(dòng)。最常用于身份識(shí)別的體征是面容、聲音、指紋和視網(wǎng)膜掃描。但步態(tài)等“生物行為特征”也是可循之跡。
Researchers have, for several years, used video cameras and computers to analyse people’s gaits, and are now quite good at it. But translating such knowledge into a practical identification system can be tricky – especially if that system is supposed to be covert. Cameras are often visible, are fiddly to set up, require good lighting and may have their view obscured by other people. So a team led by Krikor Ozanyan of the University of Manchester, in England and Patricia Scully of the National University of Ireland, in Galway have been looking for a better way to recognise gait. Their answer: pressure-sensitive mats.
近年來,研究人員一直在用攝像機(jī)和計(jì)算機(jī)分析人的步態(tài),目前技術(shù)已經(jīng)相當(dāng)成熟。但要將這些知識(shí)轉(zhuǎn)化為實(shí)用的識(shí)別系統(tǒng)并不容易,尤其是還需要實(shí)現(xiàn)隱蔽性。攝像機(jī)往往容易被看到,安裝也較為繁瑣,又需要有足夠的光線,而且鏡頭還可能被他人遮擋。因此,英國曼徹斯特大學(xué)的克里科爾·奧贊揚(yáng)(Krikor Ozanyan)和愛爾蘭國立大學(xué)戈?duì)栱f的帕特麗夏·斯高莉(Patricia Scully)帶領(lǐng)的團(tuán)隊(duì)一直在探索更好的識(shí)別步態(tài)的方法。他們的解決方案是使用壓敏墊。
In themselves, such mats are nothing new. They have been part of security systems for donkeys’ years. But Dr Ozanyan and Dr Scully use a sophisticated version that can record the amount of pressure applied in different places as someone walks across it. These measurements form a pattern unique to the walker. Dr Ozanyan and Dr Scully therefore turned, as is now commonplace for anything to do with pattern recognition, to an artificial-intelligence system that uses machine learning to disentangle and recognise such patterns.
壓敏墊本身并不是什么新發(fā)明,長久以來一直是安保系統(tǒng)的一部分。但奧贊揚(yáng)和斯高莉使用的是更精密的壓敏墊,可以在有人走過時(shí)記錄步伐在不同位置產(chǎn)生的壓力值。這些測量數(shù)據(jù)構(gòu)成了步行者獨(dú)有的步態(tài)模式。于是,兩位研究人員按照如今識(shí)別模式的普遍做法,把數(shù)據(jù)輸入一套人工智能系統(tǒng),運(yùn)用機(jī)器學(xué)習(xí)來梳理并識(shí)別這些模式。
It seems to work. In a study published earlier this year the two researchers tested their system on a database of footsteps trodden by 127 different people. They found that its error rate in identifying who was who was a mere 0.7%. And Dr Scully says that even without a database of footsteps to work with the system can determine someone’s sex (women and men, with wide and narrow pelvises respectively, walk in different ways) and guess, with reasonable accuracy, a subject’s age.
這看來行得通。在今年早前發(fā)表的一項(xiàng)研究中,兩位研究人員運(yùn)用127人的足跡數(shù)據(jù)測試了該系統(tǒng)。他們發(fā)現(xiàn),系統(tǒng)識(shí)別身份的錯(cuò)誤率僅為0.7%。斯高莉說,即使不搭配使用足跡數(shù)據(jù)庫,系統(tǒng)也能確定受試者的性別(女性骨盆寬,男性骨盆窄,因而行走方式不同),并可以還算準(zhǔn)確地估計(jì)出其年齡。
A mat-based gait-recognition system has the advantage that it would work in any lighting conditions – even pitch-darkness. And though it might fail to identify someone if, say, she was wearing stilettos and had been entered into the database while wearing trainers, it would be very hard to fool it by mimicking the gait of an individual who was allowed admission to a particular place.
壓敏墊步態(tài)識(shí)別系統(tǒng)的優(yōu)點(diǎn)是可以在任何光照條件下工作,即使一片漆黑也沒問題。如果數(shù)據(jù)庫之前輸入的是某人穿運(yùn)動(dòng)鞋時(shí)的步態(tài),當(dāng)她換成穿高跟鞋走路時(shí),系統(tǒng)可能就無法識(shí)別了。但是,如果想模仿某人的步態(tài)來欺騙系統(tǒng)以獲準(zhǔn)進(jìn)入特定地點(diǎn)會(huì)非常困難。
The latest phase of Dr Ozanyan’s and Dr Scully’s project is a redesign of the mat. The old mats contained arrays of individual pressure sensors. The new ones contain grids of optical fibres. Light-emitting diodes distributed along two adjoining edges of a mat transmit light into the fibres. Sensors on the opposite edges (and thus the opposite ends of the optical fibres) measure how much of that light is received. Any pressure applied to part of the mat causes a distortion in the fibres and a consequent change in the amount of light transmitted. Both the location and amount of change can be plotted and analysed by the machine-learning system.
奧贊揚(yáng)和斯高莉的研究項(xiàng)目的最新進(jìn)展是經(jīng)過重新設(shè)計(jì)的壓敏墊。原來的墊子包含由單個(gè)壓力傳感器組成的陣列。新的墊子則包含多組光纖網(wǎng)格。分布在墊子相鄰兩條邊上的發(fā)光二極管將光傳輸?shù)焦饫w中。安裝在對面兩條邊上(也就是光纖的另一端)的傳感器測量接收到的光量。施加到墊子上某處的任何壓力都會(huì)引起光纖變形,進(jìn)而導(dǎo)致傳輸光量的變化。機(jī)器學(xué)習(xí)系統(tǒng)可以識(shí)別并分析變化發(fā)生的位置和變化的量。
Dr Ozanyan says that the team have built a demonstration fibre-optic mat, two metres long and a metre wide, using materials that cost £100 ($130). They are now talking to companies about commercialising it. One application might be in health care, particularly for the elderly. A fibre-optic mat installed in a nursing home or an old person’s own residence could monitor changes in an individual’s gait that presage certain illnesses. That would provide early warning of someone being at greater risk of falling over, say, or of their cognition becoming impaired.
奧贊揚(yáng)說,該團(tuán)隊(duì)已制成了一塊兩米長、一米寬的演示用光纖墊,材料成本為100英鎊(130美元)。他們正與多家公司洽談,希望將其商業(yè)化。醫(yī)療保健或許會(huì)是應(yīng)用領(lǐng)域之一,特別是在照護(hù)老年人方面。將光纖墊安裝在養(yǎng)老院或老人自己家中,可以監(jiān)測一個(gè)人步態(tài)的變化,預(yù)測某些疾病。這將提供早期預(yù)警,例如提醒某人較有可能摔倒或出現(xiàn)認(rèn)知受損。
Gait analysis might also be used as a security measure in the workplace, monitoring access to restricted areas, such as parts of military bases, server farms or laboratories dealing with hazardous materials. In these cases, employees would need to agree to their gaits being scanned, just as they would agree to the scanning of their faces or retinas for optical security systems.
步態(tài)分析也可作為工作場所的安保措施,用于監(jiān)控限制區(qū)域的人員進(jìn)出,例如軍事基地、服務(wù)器農(nóng)場,或處理危險(xiǎn)品的實(shí)驗(yàn)室。在這些情況下,員工需要同意系統(tǒng)掃描自己的步態(tài),就像同意光學(xué)安保系統(tǒng)掃描自己的面部或視網(wǎng)膜那樣。
Perhaps the most intriguing use of gait-recognition mats, though, would be in public places, such as airports. For that to work, the footsteps of those to be recognised would need to have been stored in a database, which would be harder to arrange than the collection of mugshots and fingerprints that existing airport security systems rely on. Some people, however, might volunteer for it. Many aircrew or preregistered frequent flyers would welcome anything that speeded up one of the most tiresome parts of modern travel.
不過,步態(tài)識(shí)別墊最吸引人的用途可能在公共場所,例如機(jī)場。要實(shí)現(xiàn)這一點(diǎn),被識(shí)別者的步態(tài)資料需要被提前存儲(chǔ)到數(shù)據(jù)庫中,而這會(huì)比機(jī)場現(xiàn)有安全系統(tǒng)所倚賴的面部照片和指紋更難收集。但有些人可能會(huì)自愿提供。任何革新,若能加速安檢這一現(xiàn)代出行中最煩人的環(huán)節(jié)之一,許多空勤人員或預(yù)先登記的飛行??投紩?huì)歡迎它。
2020下半年翻譯資格考試一級筆譯考試精選習(xí)題
Unprecedented Medical Case Shows How Cancer Spread from Organ Donor to Four Recipients
駭人:癌癥細(xì)胞竟隨器官移植傳播
An extraordinary and terrifying medical case revealed in the July issue of the American Journal of Transplantation proves that organ transplants can pass not only certain infectious diseases to recipients, but in rare cases, also cancer.
《美國移植雜志》七月刊披露的一個(gè)離奇駭人的病例證實(shí),器官移植不但會(huì)把某些傳染性疾病傳給器官接受者,在極少數(shù)情況下還會(huì)把癌癥傳給接受者。
Patients known to have malignant tumors are often not able to donate their organs, but that was not the case of a 53-year-old woman who died of a stroke in 2007. She had no known conditions that could prevent doctors from transplanting her organs, and repeated tests revealed no sign of cancer. The woman’s kidneys, lungs, liver and heart were transplanted into donor recipients, but instead of saving their lives, they infected four of the five recipients with cancer, while the fifth died of unrelated causes shortly after the transplant.
已知患有惡性腫瘤的病人通常不能捐獻(xiàn)自己的器官,但2007年死于中風(fēng)的一名53歲女性并不屬于這種情況。她沒有任何已知的病癥阻止醫(yī)生移植她的器官,而反復(fù)的檢查也沒有顯示出癌癥的跡象。這名女性的腎、肺、肝及心臟被移植給了幾個(gè)器官接受者,結(jié)果非但沒有救這些人的命,反而讓五個(gè)接受者中的四人都染上了癌癥,而第五個(gè)人在接受器官移植后不久就因其他原因去世。
The four organ recipients had recovered well after the transplants, but 16 months later, the woman who had received the donor’s lung fell ill and was subsequently diagnosed with cancer in the lymph nodes in her chest. Unfortunately, we live in an age when someone is diagnosed with cancer every couple of minutes, but what made this case remarkable was that tests showed the cancerous cells were actually breast cancer cells. Further DNA analysis revealed that they had come from the organ donor.
四個(gè)器官接受者在接受移植后一開始都恢復(fù)得不錯(cuò),但16個(gè)月之后,接受肺移植的女性就病倒了,隨后被診斷出胸部的淋巴結(jié)有癌細(xì)胞。不幸的是,我們生活在一個(gè)每幾分鐘就有人被診斷出癌癥的年代,但這個(gè)病例的離奇之處在于,測試結(jié)果顯示,這些癌細(xì)胞實(shí)際上是乳腺癌細(xì)胞。進(jìn)一步的DNA分析揭示,乳腺癌細(xì)胞來自器官捐贈(zèng)者。
The lung recipient’s cancer spread and she died about a year after her disease was discovered. At the time, the remaining three organ recipients were notified that the deceased had become infected with cancer from the organ she had received, and advised to get themselves tested regularly just to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to them. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough…
接受肺移植女性的癌細(xì)胞擴(kuò)散,并在發(fā)現(xiàn)癌癥一年后去世。此時(shí)醫(yī)院告知其余三位器官接受者,逝者的癌癥來自她被移植的器官,并建議他們定期做檢查,確保他們不會(huì)同樣染上癌癥。不幸的是,這樣的防范還不夠……
In 2011, four years after the transplant, the liver recipient was diagnosed with breast cancer cells in her liver. She was given the option of undergoing another transplant, but she refused for fear of potential complications. She opted for radiation treatment, which proved successful at first, but the cancer returned, and she died in 2014.
2011年,在接受器官移植四年后,接受肝移植的人被診斷出肝臟中有乳腺癌細(xì)胞。醫(yī)生給她的選擇是再一次接受肝移植,但她因擔(dān)心出現(xiàn)潛在并發(fā)癥拒絕了。她選擇接受放射療法,一開始還比較成功,但后來癌癥復(fù)發(fā),她于2014年去世。
The person who had received the left kidney in 2007, was diagnosed with cancer in 2013, six years after the transplant. The disease had already spread to several organs when it was discovered, and the patient passed away two months later.
2007年接受左腎移植的人于2013年,也就是移植6年后,被診斷出癌癥。發(fā)現(xiàn)癌癥時(shí)癌細(xì)胞已經(jīng)擴(kuò)散到幾個(gè)器官,病人于兩個(gè)月后離世。
The right kidney was transplanted into a 32-year-old man. In 2011, tests revealed breast cancer cells in his transplanted organ, but he underwent another surgery to have the kidney removed, underwent chemotherapy and stopped taking medicine that suppressed his immune system. He has been cancer free for 10 years.
右腎被移植到一個(gè)32歲的男子身上。2011年,檢查結(jié)果顯示,在他被移植的器官內(nèi)發(fā)現(xiàn)了乳腺癌細(xì)胞,但他做了一個(gè)摘除腎臟的手術(shù),接受了化療,并停服抑制免疫系統(tǒng)的藥物。如今距離他癌癥痊愈已有十年。
“Many reports have shown that cancer transmission can occur in solid organ transplantation,” the authors of the recently published case note wrote. “However, this is the first report describing breast cancer transmission after a multi-organ procedure from one donor to four recipients.”
最近這篇病例解析報(bào)告的作者寫道:“許多報(bào)告顯示,癌癥傳播可能在實(shí)體器官移植中發(fā)生。不過,這是首份描述一對四多器官移植中乳腺癌傳播的病例報(bào)告?!?/p>
It’s worth pointing out that while terrifying, this case is incredibly rare. Dr. Lewis Teperman, director of organ transplantation at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, New York, writes that passing cancer through organ donation is “very uncommon”, with chances varying between 0.01 and 0.05 percent.
值得指出的是,盡管很駭人,這種情況還是十分罕見的。位于紐約新海德公園的諾斯維爾保健集團(tuán)器官移植中心主任路易斯·塔伯曼醫(yī)生寫道,通過器官移植傳播癌癥“很不尋常”,幾率只有0.01%到0.05%之間。
It’s not clear exactly how the breast cancer remained undetected during the screening performed before the transplants, or how it was able to grow in each of the four patients. Researchers believe that the donor may have had “micro metastases”, groups of cells too small to be detected by imaging tests, and that immunosuppressant drugs played a part in helping the cancer spread. Such drugs are taken by organ recipients so that their bodies don’t reject the new organs, but that means that the cancer cells aren’t rejected either.
目前還不清楚為什么器官移植前的篩查沒有檢測出乳腺癌細(xì)胞,以及癌細(xì)胞為什么會(huì)在四個(gè)接受者體內(nèi)生長。研究人員認(rèn)為,捐贈(zèng)者身上的癌細(xì)胞也許有過“微轉(zhuǎn)移”,只是細(xì)胞群太小,影像學(xué)檢查檢測不到。此外,器官接受者服用的免疫抑制劑也有助于癌細(xì)胞擴(kuò)散。接受者服用這種藥物是為了讓身體不排斥新器官,不過這意味著癌細(xì)胞也不受排斥。
“This extraordinary case points out the often fatal consequences of donor-derived breast cancer,” researchers concluded, “and suggests that removal of the donor organ and restoration of immunity can induce complete remission.”
研究人員得出結(jié)論說:“這個(gè)離奇病例說明,源于捐贈(zèng)者的乳腺癌通常是致命的,并指出,摘除捐贈(zèng)移植的器官、恢復(fù)免疫系統(tǒng)的正常運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)可以免受其害。”
2020下半年翻譯資格考試一級筆譯考試精選習(xí)題
How to Make College Cheaper
怎樣才能讓大學(xué)更便宜一些
Better management would allow American universities to do more with less
改善下管理就能讓美國大學(xué)少花錢多辦事
Derek Bok, a former president of Harvard, once observed that “universities share one characteristic with compulsive gamblers and exiled royalty: there is never enough money to satisfy their desires.” This is a bit hard on compulsive gamblers and exiled royals. America’s universities have raised their fees five times as fast as inflation over the past 30 years. Student debt in America exceeds credit-card debt. Yet still the universities keep sending begging letters to alumni and philanthropists.
哈佛前校長德里克·博克曾經(jīng)注意到,“大學(xué)與病態(tài)性賭徒和流亡皇族們有一個(gè)共同特征:永遠(yuǎn)沒有足夠的錢來滿足他們的欲望?!边@對于病態(tài)性賭徒和流亡皇族們未免有些刻薄。在過去30年中,美國大學(xué)提高費(fèi)用的速度是通貨膨脹速度的5倍。在美國的學(xué)生債務(wù)超過信用卡債務(wù)。然而,大學(xué)依然向校友們和慈善家們發(fā)募捐信。
This insatiable appetite for money was bad enough during the boom years. It is truly irritating now that middle-class incomes are stagnant and students are struggling to find good jobs. Hence a flurry of new thinking about higher education. Are universities inevitably expensive? Vance Fried, of Oklahoma State University, recently conducted a fascinating thought experiment, backed up by detailed calculations. Is it possible to provide a first-class undergraduate education for $6,700 a year rather than the $25,900 charged by public research universities or the $51,500 charged by their private peers? He concluded that it is.
在經(jīng)濟(jì)景氣的年份,這種對金錢貪得無厭的胃口讓人厭煩。而在目前中產(chǎn)階級收入縮水、學(xué)生為找一份好工作絞盡腦汁之際,這種胃口簡直是讓人憤怒。因此也就有了一陣對高等教育的重新思考。大學(xué)是不是非要如此昂貴呢?最近,俄克拉荷馬州立大學(xué)的Vance Fried完成了一個(gè)迷人的思維實(shí)驗(yàn)(有詳細(xì)計(jì)算支持)。提供第一流的本科教育僅花費(fèi)6700美元,而非公立研究型大學(xué)收取的25900美元或私立研究型大學(xué)收取的51500美元,這是否可能?Vance Fried認(rèn)為答案是肯定的。
Mr Fried shunned easy solutions. He insisted that students should live in residential colleges, just as they do at Harvard and Yale. He did not suggest getting rid of football stadiums (which usually pay for themselves) or scrimping on bed-and-board.
Vance Fried回避了簡單的解決方案。他認(rèn)為學(xué)生應(yīng)當(dāng)在寄宿制大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)生活——正如哈佛和耶魯現(xiàn)在那樣。他并沒有建議去掉足球場(足球場可以自給自足)或者節(jié)省膳宿費(fèi)用。
His cost-cutting strategies were as follows. First, separate the funding of teaching and research. Research is a public good, he reasoned, but there is no reason why undergraduates should pay for it. Second, increase the student-teacher ratio. Business and law schools achieve good results with big classes. Why not other colleges? Mr Fried thinks that universities will be able to mix some small classes with big ones even if they have fewer teachers. Third, eliminate or consolidate programmes that attract few students. Fourth, puncture administrative bloat. The cost of administration per student soared by 61% in real terms between 1993 and 2007. Private research universities spend $7,000 a year per student on “administrative support”: not only deans and department heads but also psychologists, counsellors, human-resources implementation managers and so on. That is more than the entire cost of educating a student under Mr Fried’s scheme.
他削減開支的策略如下。第一,將教學(xué)和學(xué)術(shù)研究的資金分離開來。他認(rèn)為,學(xué)術(shù)研究是一種公益,不過大學(xué)生就應(yīng)當(dāng)為此買單毫無道理可言。第二,增加學(xué)生與老師人數(shù)的比率。商學(xué)院和法學(xué)院上的是大課,但是收效更佳。其他學(xué)院為什么就不能呢?Vance Fried認(rèn)為,即便學(xué)校的老師再少一些,大學(xué)也能夠?qū)⒃S多小班跟大班混在一起。第三,剔除或者加強(qiáng)那些不能很好吸引學(xué)生的課程。第四,削弱行政膨脹。實(shí)際上,行政管理的費(fèi)用在1993年至2007年之間上漲了61%。私立研究型大學(xué)一年在每位學(xué)生“行政支持”上要花掉7000美元。所謂行政支持,對象不僅有院長、系主任,還有心理學(xué)家、輔導(dǎo)員、人事科的執(zhí)行人員等等。這比Vance Fried方案下培養(yǎng)一位學(xué)生的全部費(fèi)用都要多。
Veteran university-watchers may dismiss Mr Fried’s ideas as pie in the sky. (“The only part of college not mired in tradition is the price,” grumbles Ben Wildavsky, a co-editor of “Reinventing Higher Education”.) Yet some universities are beginning to squeeze costs. The University of Minnesota’s new campus in Rochester has defined teaching as “job one”. The Harrisburg University of Science and Technology has abolished tenure and merged academic departments. Regents at the University of Texas are talking about a $10,000 undergraduate degree.
資深大學(xué)觀察家或許會(huì)對Vance Fried的主意不屑一顧,認(rèn)為那是天方夜譚。(《重塑高等教育》的合著者Ben Wildavsky批評說,大學(xué)價(jià)錢飆升,其余的東西保持傳統(tǒng),改革阻力很大)。不過,一些大學(xué)正在開始擠壓成本。明尼蘇達(dá)州大學(xué)在羅切斯特市的新校區(qū)已經(jīng)將教學(xué)定義為“第一工作”。哈里斯堡科技大學(xué)已經(jīng)廢除了終身職位并合并了學(xué)術(shù)部門。德克薩斯大學(xué)的校董們開始談?wù)?0000美元的本科學(xué)位。
Mr Fried fails to mention an obvious source of savings. Americans could complete their undergraduate degrees in three years (as is normal elsewhere), instead of four. In practice, most American students take even longer than four years, not least because so many work to pay their tuition. Surprisingly, America’s future chainsaw-wielding corporate titans take a leisurely two years to complete their MBAs; most Europeans need only one.
Vance Fried忘了提及一種顯而易見的節(jié)省開支的渠道。美國人可以用3年取得本科學(xué)位,而不是4年。(在其他國家也很正常)。實(shí)際上,許多美國人取得學(xué)位的時(shí)間都要超過4年——尤其是因?yàn)橐鲈S多工作來支付學(xué)費(fèi)。奇怪的是,美國未來的企業(yè)巨頭需兩年,方可從容完成MBA學(xué)位,大多數(shù)歐洲人只需要1年。
Shai Reshef, an educational entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist, is pioneering an even more radical idea. His University of the People offers free higher education (not counting the few hundred dollars it costs to process applications and mark exams), pitching itself to poor people in America and the rest of the world. The university does this by exploiting three resources: the goodwill of academic volunteers who want to help the poor, the availability of free “courseware” on the internet and the power of social networking. Some 2,000 academic volunteers have designed the courses and given the university some credibility. Tutors direct the students, who so far number 1,000 or so and hail from around the world, to the online courses. They also help to organise them into study groups, and then supervise from afar, dropping in on discussions and marking tests. Mr Reshef pays for incidental expenses with $2m of his own money and donations.
一位受過教育的企業(yè)家出身的慈善家Shai Reshef提出了更為激進(jìn)的觀點(diǎn)。他的人民大學(xué)提供免費(fèi)高等教育(過程應(yīng)用和改卷子的數(shù)百美元不算在內(nèi)),向美國和世界其他地方的窮人推銷自己的學(xué)校。這所大學(xué)利用三種資源來運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn):想要幫助窮人的學(xué)術(shù)志愿者的善意、互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上可獲得的免費(fèi)“課件”和社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)。約2000個(gè)學(xué)術(shù)志愿者設(shè)計(jì)了課程,使大學(xué)有了一些信譽(yù)。指導(dǎo)老師們將那些迄今已有1000左右來自世界各地的學(xué)生帶到網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程。老師們同樣幫助學(xué)生組織學(xué)習(xí)小組,在遠(yuǎn)方監(jiān)督他們,不時(shí)加入探討、進(jìn)行考試。Shai Reshef額外支付200萬的花費(fèi),這些錢來自自己的腰包或者募捐。
There are plenty of questions about Mr Reshef’s project. Can you really build a university on volunteerism and goodwill? Can students really be relied upon to do most of the teaching themselves? Will free courseware remain free? (Newspapers that used to give away content online are now putting up pay barriers.)
關(guān)于Shai Reshef的項(xiàng)目有諸多疑問。大學(xué)能真正地建立在志愿者服務(wù)和善意上嗎?學(xué)生們是否真正能夠自己完成那些教學(xué)?免費(fèi)的課件會(huì)一直免費(fèi)嗎?(過去其內(nèi)容在網(wǎng)上免費(fèi)派送的報(bào)紙現(xiàn)在紛紛設(shè)置支付障礙)
Mr Reshef’s university has yet to win accreditation, which could take years. But he can take comfort from Clayton Christensen’s classic book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”. Mr Christensen points out that innovators often start by offering products that are cheaper, but markedly inferior. Quickly, however, they learn how to improve their offerings. Even if Mr Reshef fails, there are plenty of other disruptive innovators around. In America, one tertiary student in ten already studies exclusively online. One in four does so at least some of the time, and a growing number of bodies, including elite universities, think-tanks, governments and international organisations, are putting first-rate material online.
Shai Reshef的大學(xué)目前還在資格鑒定中,這可能會(huì)耗時(shí)數(shù)年。不過,他能夠從克萊頓·克里斯坦森的經(jīng)典大作《創(chuàng)新者的窘境》中獲取慰藉??死锼固股赋觯瑒?chuàng)新者經(jīng)常從提供價(jià)廉物不美的產(chǎn)品起步。不過,很快他們就學(xué)會(huì)改進(jìn)他們的產(chǎn)品。即便Shai Reshef失敗了,依然存在許多有破壞性的創(chuàng)新者。在美國,十分之一的受高等教育學(xué)生已經(jīng)完全通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)學(xué)習(xí)。四分之一的學(xué)生至少在某段時(shí)間通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)學(xué)習(xí)。不斷增加的實(shí)體,如精英大學(xué)、智囊、政府和國際組織將一流的資料放到網(wǎng)上。
The coming campus rumpus
即將到來的大學(xué)爭吵
Sometimes when academics grouse that there is “never enough money”, they are justified – big science costs big bucks. But higher education is nevertheless marred by inefficiencies and skewed incentives. Students pay to be taught, but their professors are rewarded almost entirely for research. Mr Fried’s calculations suggest that one can slash costs without sacrificing much that students value. Mr Reshef’s experiment may fail, but there is no doubt that universities need more experimenters. The cost of tuition cannot forever rise faster than students’ ability to pay. Industries that cease to offer value for money sooner or later get shaken up. American universities are ripe for shaking.
有些時(shí)候,當(dāng)一些學(xué)者抱怨說“錢總是不夠”時(shí),他們是情有可原的——科學(xué)研究耗資巨大。然而,高等教育還是陷入了低效率和刺激不當(dāng)?shù)哪嗄?。學(xué)生們?yōu)槭芙逃脱?,而他們的教授卻幾乎完全從科研中得到回報(bào)。Fried的計(jì)算表明,可以削減成本,同時(shí)不犧牲學(xué)生所珍視的那些東西。Reshef的實(shí)驗(yàn)或許會(huì)失敗,不過大學(xué)毫無疑問需要更多的實(shí)驗(yàn)者。學(xué)費(fèi)的增長不能一直超過學(xué)生的支付能力。不再能為(消費(fèi)者花的)錢提供價(jià)值的行業(yè)一定遲早面臨巨變。美國大學(xué)作出改變的時(shí)機(jī)已經(jīng)成熟。