精讀 | Summer camps

 

Title: Summer camps

Subtitle: Mutually assured?distraction

• distraction 指“n.分散注意力的事，娛樂，消遣”

01

IN A classroom at?Imperial College London, students sit?hunched?over laptops, typing lines of code. Just nine years old, they are attending Firetech, a British technology summer camp for children. Courses include “Junior Augmented Reality” and “Creating for YouTube”. Such programmes are?proliferating?in many countries. They?pander to?two common demands from?well-off?parents: to entertain children over the long summer holidays and to give them a leg-up over their peers.

翻譯：在倫敦帝國(guó)理工學(xué)院的一間教室中，學(xué)生們對(duì)著電腦埋頭打著一行行代碼。年僅9歲的他們?cè)趨⒓用麨镕iretech的英國(guó)兒童科技夏令營(yíng)。課程包括“初級(jí)增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)”和“YouTube創(chuàng)作”。類似的項(xiàng)目在各個(gè)國(guó)家日漸增多。它們迎合了富裕父母的兩個(gè)普遍需求：讓孩子們?cè)诼L(zhǎng)的暑假中娛樂和讓孩子領(lǐng)先于同齡人。

段落結(jié)構(gòu)：本段每句層層遞進(jìn)。從描寫學(xué)生在教師敲代碼 -> 引出Firetech夏令營(yíng) -> 夏令營(yíng)的內(nèi)容 -> such銜接表示夏令營(yíng)為普遍趨勢(shì) -> 夏令營(yíng)流行的原因。總體上從個(gè)體現(xiàn)象出發(fā)，吸引讀者。然后轉(zhuǎn)而討論原因，為后文的論述作鋪墊。

• proliferate 指“v.增殖，擴(kuò)散，激增”
• pander 指“v.迎合；勾引；慫恿；拉皮條”，pander to 表示“迎合”，下面還有同義的 cater to
• well-off 指“adj. 富裕的；順利的”，下面也有同義詞 affluent。
• new：site hunched over laptops 表示“學(xué)生埋頭弓坐在筆記本電腦前”，常用于描繪學(xué)生刻苦學(xué)習(xí)的場(chǎng)景，突出其投入和專注。
• the/a proliferation of sth 表示“...的激增，...的層出不窮”，用于描述某個(gè)趨勢(shì)。例：The proliferation of?private cars gives rise to severe traffic congestion.
• give sb a leg-up 表示“助...一臂之力”

02

At most American summer camps children still?commune?with nature and sing around a campfire. But some camps?cater to?more?niche?interests, such as neuroscience, outer space or even?atheism. Tom Rosenberg, chief executive of the American Camp Association, says?a growing number?focus on skills in demand at modern workplaces. The?proportion?offering science, technology, engineering or maths programmes, for instance, rose from less than a quarter in 2014 to almost a third in 2017.

翻譯：在美國(guó)大多數(shù)夏令營(yíng)中，孩子們?nèi)匀辉谟H近大自然或圍著篝火唱歌。但一些夏令營(yíng)迎合了較小眾的興趣，如以神經(jīng)科學(xué)，外太空甚至無神論為主題。美國(guó)夏令營(yíng)協(xié)會(huì)主席湯姆羅森博格(Tom Rosenberg)說越來越多夏令營(yíng)注重于現(xiàn)代職場(chǎng)所需的技能。例如提供科學(xué)、技術(shù)、工程或者數(shù)學(xué)項(xiàng)目的夏令營(yíng)比例從2014年的不到四分之一上升到2017年的近三分之一。

• new: niche 指“針對(duì)特定小群體的”。根據(jù)牛津雙語(yǔ)7版：“the development of niche marketing (= aiming products at particular groups)”針對(duì)某群體的產(chǎn)品營(yíng)銷開發(fā)。例：a niche product?小眾產(chǎn)品。niche market?小眾市場(chǎng)。
• 最后一句為現(xiàn)在分詞短語(yǔ) offering science, technology, engineering or maths programmes 作后置定語(yǔ)修飾 the proportion，相當(dāng)于定語(yǔ)從句：The proportion (of camps) which offer science...，表示“提供科學(xué)等課程的夏令營(yíng)所占的比例”

03

Students often?have an eye on?university. Alexandra Boyt and David Stephenson, who run a?residential Latin camp?in western England, say a lot of students come to prepare for interviews at Oxford and Cambridge. Princeton asks applicants how they spent their past two summers.?Entry to the camps themselves can be competitive. Canada/USA Mathcamp accepts just 15% of applicants.

翻譯：學(xué)生們往往是為了考大學(xué)而上夏令營(yíng)。亞歷山大博伊特(Alexandra Boyt)和大衛(wèi)斯蒂芬斯(David Stephenson)在西倫敦運(yùn)營(yíng)一個(gè)寄宿拉丁語(yǔ)營(yíng)地。他們說很多學(xué)生來到這里是為了準(zhǔn)備牛津和劍橋的面試。普林斯頓大學(xué)會(huì)問道申請(qǐng)者過去的兩個(gè)暑假他們?nèi)绾味冗^的。申請(qǐng)參加夏令營(yíng)本身也是充滿競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的。?美加數(shù)學(xué)營(yíng)僅接受15%的申請(qǐng)者。

• new：have an eye on sth 表示“做另一件事時(shí)悄悄注意”，即以上大學(xué)為目的參加夏令營(yíng)。
• eye的一些用法：
• have an eye for sth 表示“對(duì)...有鑒賞力，能夠鑒賞”。例：I've never had much of an eye for fashion.?我對(duì)時(shí)尚從來都沒多少鑒賞力。
• keep an eye on sb/sth 表示“照看，留意”。例：We've asked the neighbours to keep an eye on the house for us while we are away.
• with one's eyes shut/closed 表示“輕而易舉”

04

In East Asia some parents use the summer to boost their children’s English skills. In a?packed?classroom at SNT Academy, a private language school in an affluent part of Seoul, the South Korean capital, a group of eight- and nine-year-olds practise debating (topic: should?cosmetic surgery?be banned?). Many wealthy Chinese parents go further, sending their children on study tours abroad. Ctrip, a Chinese travel agency, believes that 1m Chinese students will go on such trips this year, spending $4.5bn.

翻譯：在東亞，一些父母利用暑假提高孩子的英語(yǔ)能力。在韓國(guó)首都首爾富人區(qū)的一座私人語(yǔ)言學(xué)校“SNT學(xué)院”的一個(gè)擁擠的教室中，一群八九歲的孩子在練習(xí)辯論（話題是：整容手術(shù)是否該禁止？）。許多富裕的中國(guó)家長(zhǎng)走的更遠(yuǎn)，他們送孩子出國(guó)游學(xué)。中國(guó)旅行社攜程認(rèn)為今年將有100萬(wàn)中國(guó)學(xué)生參加這類旅行，花費(fèi)15億美元。

• packed 指“adj.充滿…的，塞滿了…的, v.包裝”
• cosmetic surgery 表示“整容手術(shù)”。
• 其中cosmetic 指“adj. 美容的，化妝用的，n. 化妝品；裝飾品” 過去式 cosmeticked 過去分詞 cosmeticked 現(xiàn)在分詞 cosmeticking
• new：boost skills 表示“提升技能”，同義表達(dá)還有：sharpen skills, hone skill，當(dāng)然還有improve skills。
• go further 表示“更進(jìn)一步”

The fanciest summer programmes can be expensive. Firetech charges ￡1,300 for week-long residential courses; a week at Space Camp, in Huntsville, Alabama, can cost up to $1,200. Mr Rosenberg says there is a camp for every?budget. But as wealthier parents?splash out?on ever more specialised programmes, it is getting harder for the less?well-to-do?to?keep up?in the summer-camp?arms race.

翻譯：那些最時(shí)髦的夏令營(yíng)可能收費(fèi)不菲。Firetech一周的寄宿課程收費(fèi)1300英鎊；在美國(guó)阿拉巴馬州亨茨維爾(Alabama, Huntsville)，為期一周的太空夏令營(yíng)的費(fèi)用可高達(dá)1200美元。羅森博格表示會(huì)有適合于不同預(yù)算的夏令營(yíng)。但隨著富裕家庭為更加專業(yè)的夏令營(yíng)大筆花錢，家境一般的家庭將更難跟上這場(chǎng)夏令營(yíng)學(xué)術(shù)活動(dòng)。

• budget 指“n.預(yù)算，v.做預(yù)算，adj. 廉價(jià)的”
• Keep up 表示“保持，跟上”
• arms race 原指“軍備學(xué)術(shù)活動(dòng)”，這里單指“競(jìng)爭(zhēng)”（外刊很喜歡用這個(gè)詞）
• new：splash out on/for sth 表示“在...上花大筆錢”。例：He splashed out hundreds of pounds on designer clothes.?他花了幾百英鎊買名牌服裝。