2012年考研英语二阅读 Text 1 原文翻译及答案解析

Homework has never been terribly popular with students and even many parents, but in recent years it has been particularly scorned. School districts across the country, most recently Los Angeles Unified, are revising their thinking on this educational ritual. Unfortunately, L.A. Unified has produced an inflexible policy which mandates that with the exception of some advanced courses, homework may no longer count for more than 10% of a student's academic grade.

作业从来不受学生甚至许多家长的特别欢迎，但近年来它尤其受到轻视。全国的学区，最近包括洛杉矶联合学区，正在重新审视这一教育惯例。不幸的是，洛杉矶联合学区制定了一项不灵活的政策，规定除了一些高级课程外，作业在学生的学业成绩中所占比例不得超过10%。

This rule is meant to address the difficulty that students from impoverished or chaotic homes might have in completing their homework. But the policy is unclear and contradictory. Certainly, no homework should be assigned that students cannot complete on their own or that they cannot do without expensive equipment. But if the district is essentially giving a pass to students who do not do their homework because of complicated family lives, it is going riskily close to the implication that standards need to be lowered for poor children.

这一规则旨在解决来自贫困或混乱家庭的学生在完成作业时可能遇到的困难。但该政策模糊且矛盾。当然，不应布置学生无法独立完成或需要昂贵设备才能完成的作业。但如果学区本质上是在放纵那些因家庭生活复杂而不做作业的学生，那么这就有危险地接近暗示需要为贫困儿童降低标准。

District administrators say that homework will still be a part of schooling; teachers are allowed to assign as much of it as they want. But with homework counting for no more than 10% of their grades, students can easily skip half their homework and see very little difference on their report cards. Some students might do well on state tests without completing their homework, but what about the students who performed well on the tests and did their homework? It is quite possible that the homework helped. Yet rather than empowering teachers to find what works best for their students, the policy imposes a flat, across-the-board rule.

学区管理人员表示，作业仍将是学校教育的一部分；教师可以布置任意数量的作业。但由于作业在成绩中所占比例不超过10%，学生可以轻松跳过一半作业，在成绩单上几乎看不出差异。一些学生可能不完成作业也能在州考试中取得好成绩，但那些在考试中表现良好且完成了作业的学生呢？很可能作业有所帮助。然而，该政策没有赋予教师寻找最适合学生的方法的权力，而是实施了一刀切的规则。

At the same time, the policy addresses none of the truly thorny questions about homework. If the district finds homework to be unimportant to its students' academic achievement, it should move to reduce or eliminate the assignments, not make them count for almost nothing. Conversely, if homework matters, it should account for a significant portion of the grade. Meanwhile, this policy does nothing to ensure that the homework students receive is meaningful or appropriate to their age and the subject, or that teachers are not assigning more than they are willing to review and correct.

与此同时，该政策没有解决任何关于作业的真正棘手问题。如果学区发现作业对学生学业成就不重要，就应该减少或取消作业，而不是让它们几乎不计分。相反，如果作业重要，它应该在成绩中占很大比例。同时，这一政策没有确保学生收到的作业有意义或适合他们的年龄和学科，也没有确保教师不会布置超出他们愿意批改和纠正的作业。

The homework rules should be put on hold while the school board, which is responsible for setting educational policy, looks into the matter and conducts public hearings. It is not too late for L.A. Unified to do homework right.

在负责制定教育政策的校董会调查此事并举行公开听证会期间，作业规则应暂停实施。洛杉矶联合学区现在正确处理作业还不晚。

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