雅思阅读材料大集合：不仅仅书中才有“黄金屋”

　　In contrast, at the private school I attended for the last two years of high school, my classmates thought about what they wanted to learn in college, not only what they wanted to become. Some knew medical or law school loomed in the future, but they thought about the work in a different way. My privileged classmates enjoyed money, from what I could tell. A few reveled in their cars and clothes, but most appeared to take it for granted. They didn’t talk about it. Instead, a future doctor talked about working at the CDC to fight public health epidemics. A future lawyer envisioned starting a defense firm to provide a service to the hometown community. Most of us wanted to do something special.

　　与此相反，在我高中两年就读的私立学校，我的同学们考虑的是他们想在大学里学到什么，不仅仅只是他们想要从事的职业。有的同学知道将来很可能就读医学院或法学院，但他们以完全不同的方式思考未来。我那些有钱有势的同学很享受金钱带来的快乐，这点我看得出来。有人喜欢汽车，爱买衣服，但大多数人似乎觉得这理所当然。他们不谈论金钱。相反，未来的医生谈论在疾病预防控制中心的工作，治疗影响公众健康的流行病。未来的律师设想开办律师事务所服务家乡的社区。我们当中的绝大多数人想要做一些特别的事。

　　My students’ fantasies of the actual work they’d do in a well-paid professional capacity are vague by comparison—practicing law without knowing the difference between civil and criminal litigation or how to prepare for law school, doing business without an understanding of the nuts and bolts of entrepreneurship. While the vagueness stems from the lack of models in their communities, it also comes from the lack of imagination with which mentors have addressed their professed college plans. Students hear that being a doctor is great because doctors can make money, enjoy respect, and have a great life.They don’t hear that being a doctor is great because doctors possess the expertise to do great things.

　　相比之下，我那些希望从事高薪职业的学生们对工作实质毫无概念——想当律师的不了解民事诉讼和刑事诉讼的差别，也不知道读法学院要如何准备;想经商的不知道创业的各种细节。虽然这种茫然的根源来自他们的生活圈子里没有可以模仿的对象，但也由于缺乏想象力，因为导师们已经一手包办了他们自称的大学规划。这些学生听到的是，当一名医生很棒，可以赚大钱，受人尊敬，能过上富足的生活。他们没听到的是，当一名医生很棒的原因是，医生所具备的专业知识能让他们去做很棒的事。

　　When schools deemphasize the intellectual benefits of higher education, students become less imaginative about their futures.

　　当学校弱化高等教育对智力发展的重要性时，学生们对未来也变得不再富有想象力。

　　The rhetoric echoes the oft-cited work of Jean Anyon, an education researcher who died in September. Studying elementary schools, Anyon looked at how schools can condition kids for positions in life. She saw that schools teaching the children of affluent families prepared those kids to take on leadership roles and nurtured their capacity for confident self-expression and argument.Schools teaching children from low-income families focused on keeping students busy and managing behavior. A middle-class school deemphasized individual expression and in-depth analysis and rewarded the dutiful completion of specified rote tasks. In each case, according to Anyon, a “hidden curriculum” has prepared students for a future role in society. Some students learn to take orders and others learn to chart a course of action and delegate responsibility. School can either perpetuate inequity through social reproduction or have a transformative effect and help students transcend it.

　　这类言论也符合大家经常提及的吉恩?安扬(Jean Anyon)的研究，这位教育研究人员于今年9月去世了。在针对小学的研究过程中，安扬注意到学校是如何限定了孩子们的社会地位。她发现，在富裕家庭孩子就读的学校，老师教这些学生如何承担领导角色并培养他们充满自信地自我表达和演讲辩论。对低收入家庭的儿童，学校教育的重点放在让学生总是忙忙碌碌而且规矩听话。而中产阶级家庭孩子就读的学校弱化个性展示和深入分析，奖励学生尽职地完成指定的机械工作。根据安扬的研究，学校针对不同情况制定的“隐性课程”为学生们量身定制了未来的社会角色。有些学生学会服从命令，其他学生学会规划执行方案并且层层落实责任。学校可以通过社会复制让这种不公平延续下去，或者选择努力变革从而帮助学生超越它。

　　The rhetoric Isabella has heard about the purpose of college has a hidden message as well. When school environments casually yet consistently deemphasize the intellectual benefits of higher education, students become less imaginative about their futures. According to ACT’s College Choice Report from November 2013, 32 percent of students pick a college major that doesn’t really interest them. The same study suggests that students are less likely to graduate when they do this. As high school educators know, good students have less trouble getting into selective schools than they do graduating from them – especially first-generation minority college students like Isabella and her classmates.

　　伊莎贝拉听到的大学目标这类言论还潜藏了一个信息。当学校看似随意但不停弱化高等教育对智力发展的重要性时，学生对未来也变得不再富有想象力。根据2013年11月ACT(美国大学入学考试)的大学选择报告，32%的学生选择了他们并不真正感兴趣的专业。这份研究还表明，做出这种选择的学生顺利毕业的可能也较小。高中老师都知道，好学生考取重点大学不难，但顺利毕业就难说了——尤其是少数民族的代移民大学生，比如伊莎贝拉和她的同学们。

　　College should be “sold” to all students as an opportunity to experience an intellectual awakening. All students should learn that privilege is connected to the pursuit of passions. People are privileged to follow their hearts in life, to spend their time crafting an identity instead of simply surviving. Access to higher education means that your values and interests can govern your choices. It makes sense that privileged 18-year-olds who have already learned that lesson gravitate to liberal-arts colleges. I would prefer not to live in a country in which rhetoric about the purpose of college urges kids from privileged backgrounds to be innovators and creators while the poor kids who do very well in school are taught to be educated, capable employees. Isabella figured it out on her own – much as she’s managed to ace her classes without academic help outside of school. To achieve this goal more broadly, though, we need to proactively teach our most marginalized students that honing an intellectually curious frame of mind is as essential to leading an invigorating working life as ambition and work ethic.

　　大学应该向所有学生“灌输”的是，有机会体验知识带来的觉醒。所有的学生都应该知道，享有特权与追求爱好息息相关。人们有权利按照心灵的指引生活，用生命打造自己独具的特性，而不仅仅是为了生存。接受高等教育意味着你的价值观念和兴趣爱好可以左右你的选择。享有特权的这些18岁孩子们已经得到了被文科学院吸引的教训，这很正常。我不愿生活在这样的国家，夸夸其谈大学的目的就是让有钱有势的孩子成为革新者和创造者，而品学兼优的穷孩子则被教育成有知识的合格打工者。伊莎贝拉靠自己明白了这个道理——就像她没有上过校外辅导班门门功课照样拿优一样。但为了让更多的学生也同样明白，我们需要主动告知我们最被边缘化的学生，想要拥有愉快的职业生涯，培养好奇心和求知欲以及保持进取心和职业道德都是缺一不可的。