Lindsay英文详说美国中学|每周‪谈‬ 燕語晴川

校区专门花一整天时间来进行联系日主题活动，对于打破社交壁垒建设人与人的联系是很花功夫了。另外什么是校区，校区教育的责任系统是什么样的？今天一并说一下。 
Hello Ximalaya, this is Lindsay. Today we’ll talk about a theme event called Connections Day at school. Connections Day was all about making new connections and uniting as a community in our school. It was not a regular school day where we sat in class and learned things. Instead, we had the choices to choose two workshops to attend.Before we went to any of these workshops, though, the Superintendent of the school district made a speech about how we, as a community, are united together. Then we were dismissed to go to our workshops.

Connection,联系连接的意思。这个主题活动日，一听就是为了加强人与人之间的沟通而设计。在这个网络时代，人人埋头手机，青少年从小在各种电子设备里长大，怎么样才能让他们更加关注身边的人，学校和家长都很操心。所以了，校区大 boss Superintendent专门通过广播说了一下彼此联系的意义。

这里顺便讲一下，美国学区school district一般基于一个镇，比如我们镇就有7个小学 elementary schools，两个中学 middle schools，一个高中high school，每个学校的校长叫Principle，他们都要向superintendent学区总监负责。那么Superintendent则是本镇居民选举产生的教育委员会去聘任来的。学区总监向Board OF education 教育委员会负责。教育委员会的委员向选民负责。教育委员会的委员是没有工资的，属于自愿公共服务的一部分。是这样一个系统。好了，回来接着听Lindsay介绍Connection Day都有些什么活动？


These workshops were anything - there was the choice of planting a garden, of talking about sports, playing Harry Potter trivia, learning to fish, and more! I chose, for the first one, to learn about a Japanese jump-rope game called Gomutobi. This was run by the multicultural club. The second one, I chose a Relax and Read workshop where all you did was curl up with a book and read! The teacher who ran that one was an English teacher, and she made popcorn for all of us.They were all really fun to do, and after the workshops were over, we went to eat lunch.

活动是很丰富多彩的。解释一下Workshop这个概念，中文一般翻译做作坊，那么，在这个语境下，指的是，在某个主题下，自己主动参与的部分非常多，组织者也会就此给予指导，并非完全独立完成。

Lunch was organized according to our advisory. Certain advisories were grouped together, and the groups had allotted times to eat lunch together in the cafeteria. Then, we watched a movie that the entire school would watch at different times in different places. The advisory grouping we were in would determine with who, and where, and when we’d watch the movie. The movie was called Remember the Titans and it was about racial differences. We watched this movie so it could teach us about how no matter how different you look, there is something bonding you to the rest of the world.

学生独奏，学生乐团伴奏，毕业季的荣誉演出。

Recently, my school hosted our annual Senior Concerto Showcase. Seniors are twelfth graders and will graduate at the end of the school years. Musicians of this class were allowed to audition for the opportunity to perform a solo piece with the chamber orchestra. This is an event put together and organized by the orchestra teacher.

Senior，指要毕业的学生，高中就是12年级生，现在正是毕业季，学校很多活动都在围绕毕业生展开。concerto，音乐里的专用名词，协奏曲，Showcase，就是展示的意思。要毕业的学生可以有机会做独奏，Solo 就是独奏的意思。学校的弦乐团给伴奏，必须试奏比较后选出最好的演奏者，才能得到这个机会，这是一个荣誉了

Earlier in the school year, various musicians auditioned for this and nine were chosen. This meant the orchestra had to learn nine pieces and be able to accompany a single musician. We had roughly two months to put it all together. This stressed my orchestra teacher out, since we had a very short time to learn a lot of music pieces.

九个学生被选出，弦乐团就要准备九首伴奏曲子，这个量是很大的。老师很紧张，因为排练时间不够，而且独奏伴奏都是不成熟的学生，很容易出差错的。

Since we’re only high schoolers, a lot of people do not play very well and fool around. The night of the concert finally came and we managed to play everything through. Though there were some mistakes here and there, overall, it was not a total failure, and it was kind of a relief to be over and done with it. Some of the soloists were very impressive and I enjoyed listening to them play.

州考有三分之一的学生不参加！还有系统故障。好整以暇对考试。
重返小学校园寻找曾经的足迹，重温过去的友谊。

Hi, ximalaya, this is Lindsay. From 3rd grade, up to 8th grade, students are required to take a New York State exam. It is a standardized test for both ELA and Math, ELA meaning English Language Art. Today we will talk about the ELA test that we just had recently. Different from before, this year the test was done through our chromebooks.

学生都是要被考试的。这个州考呢，其实家长的都不大重视，因为并不计入学年成绩，有几乎1/3家长都决定不让孩子参加。大约学校怕是更重视，看看在纽约州范围内，本校学生水准如何，教学质量如何，可以提供一个可比较的参考。 Chromebooks 是一款便携电脑，谷歌公司的产品，中学之后每个学生都有一个，老师的作业，和学生的交流讨论，以及学校通知等等，都通过它来完成，互联网的使用有严格的限制。这次ELA考试，是第一次采用电脑，考试发生什么了？

The test took 2 days. The first day is all multiple choice based on different passages of writing. The second day was supposed to be short answer questions and eventually an essay at the end. The first day of testing, everything went fine until you tried to submit the test. There was some system error, and it said that test could not be submitted, and to please try again. This happened school-wide and the teachers didn’t know what was happening. We weren’t allowed to close our chromebacks because we’d be signed out completely and lose our progress - we all had to wait for further instructions and sit quietly because, technically since our chromebooks were open, “we were still taking the test.”

考完之后，系统故障，全校范围内，考试结果不能提交！也不能把电脑关上。场面想必很热闹啊。

Of course no one stayed quiet. We whispered to each other and played rock paper scissors to pass the time. Eventually the principal told us to close our chromebooks and for the teacher overseeing the test to collect the chromebooks.

Rock Paper Scissor， 就是谁都会的，剪刀石头布。

Day 2 of the testing was postponed because of this problem, and we eventually took it two days later. I think they want to make sure that the same problem would not happen again.  For the Day 1 test result that can’t be submitted, I guess they figured out how to resolve the problem because we were not asked to redo the test.

一个州考组织成这样也是蛮好笑的。反正对待考试，在高中以前，大家都有点儿好整以暇举重若轻。

Another event I'd like to share is about International night happened in my old elementary school. It’s a little like multicultural expo in middle school but with more food donated by parents. What impressed me was a henna station where volunteers drew on your skin with patterns that you request. Henna is temporary body art using the dyes from a certain plant.

LIndsay 重返小学参加国际夜活动，吃喝之外，还经历了使用海娜粉纹身的印度传统艺术。中学之后还回小学，有什么感受？

I went to International Night along with my friend and we met up with a few friends that I hadn’t talked to in a while since starting middle school. We went to the playground there and played tag, hung out on the swings, and reminisced about our elementary days. It was fun to sit back and relax, refreshing all the memories of my school, and to catch up with some people I hadn’t talked to in quite a bit.

春季运动开始了，Lindsay选择了田径。美国快乐教学是有的，执拗坚毅的培养，所谓“狼性”，在运动队里在教练的严格要求下锻炼。

Hello my ximalaya friends! It has been a long time since the last episode. I had a bad cough and could barely talk for weeks. But now I am okay and here we are again. Together with me is Lindsay!

Hello, Ximalaya, this is Lindsay! Spring is here, and I started running Track. Track is offered as one of the many after school spring sport activities. It has lots of events such as hurdles, long jump ,where you try to jump as far out as you can on a pit of sand, high jump, where you have to jump over a bar onto a mat, shot putt, where you try to throw a heavy ball as far as you can, sprints, and long distance running. I started it to get in shape, and the spring sunshine and exercise regime has me sweating at every practice!

Track，田径运动。春季学校运动项目有很多，Lindsay选择了田径。田径的各项运动，英文是这样说的，Hurdles，跨栏；Long Jump，跳远；High Jump，跳高；Shot Putt, 推铅球，Sprint，短跑，Long Distance，长跑。Lindsay想Get in Shape，就是塑造一副好身材的意思了。How was it like so far?

The coach is very strict - very rarely is there a water break and we must go to the bathroom before practice, and if we have to go during practice, we’re not allowed to leave and go to the bathroom. You must participate in at least ten practices to go to a meet, and you can’t skip Track unless you have a very valid reason. If there’s another club you’re in, you can’t miss more than two days in a week. If you do, you’re off the team. Although he’s strict he’s not unreasonable.

这是一个相当严格的教练。美国中小学老师普遍说来都会偏向一种温和老好人鼓励型的师长形象，那么中国人说的那种狼性，严厉，经常是从体育运动各俱乐部教头身上来体现，选择加入运动，你就要选择Commitment，什么意思，就是一种属于，就是无论怎么样必须达到要求的精神吧。Which event did you choose?

I’m thinking of doing hurdles and sprints. Hurdles are the bars set on the track that you have to leap over. I’ve already started doing hurdles and I’m actually not that bad at them - my form is improving. Training for sprints haven’t started yet. Track normally lasts an hour and half after 3PM when regular school is over. It is so long and tiring in itself that I go home sore and I wake up the next day aching. But I repeat the process every day for five days straight because that’s the commitment it takes to be on a team.

听见了吗，虽然很辛苦，身上又酸又疼，Sore and aching all over，Lindsay很有决心呢， that's the commitment it takes to be on a team. 要在运动队上呆下去，你就得吃这个苦。我们预祝Lindsay训练成功愉快。下次见。

以感性亲历的方式介绍杠杆这个物理概念。

Hello Ximalaya, this is Lindsay from New york! This week, nothing much happened. But, I’d like share with you an interesting science project.

大家好，我是晴川，今天LIndsay要介绍她科学课上的项目。中学生物化学物理都不细分，统一叫科学，明年八年级上的叫Earth Science，今年的科学课算物理项目下的，前一阵我们还介绍过有关摩擦力的碰撞实验。那么这一次是什么呢？

We had to build a catapult. A catapult is a type of lever, balancing on the fulcrum to lift a load. The fulcrum is a point in which the lever is stabilized on. The point of the project was for us to fully grasp the function of the lever, which is a type of simple machine.

Catapult 发射器  Fulcrum支点。Lever，杠杆。我这里配了一张图说明什么是发射器。大家看一下。中学物理实验课的时候会用到。

We were required to build a catapult with partners. Materials given to us were eight popsicle sticks, five rubber bands, a binder clip, and two straws.The goal is to create a catapult that was capable of launching 发射a rubber stopper to the ceiling 天花板.

Material, 这里是实验材料。Popsicle Stick就是冰棍儿的棍子，扁平的那种。Rubber Bands，皮筋儿，Binder Clip就是夹子，Straw吸管。Rubber Stopper是一个小小的橡皮，可以放在门背后，这样开门的时候不会碰坏门背后的墙，这个实验里是作为一个被发射的用具。

Well, my partner and I settled on a simple route. We stacked seven popsicle sticks together and then bound them together with a rubber band. The eighth stick, used as the lever, is propped against the stack, so one end was resting on the ground and the other would be in the air. It balanced on the stack so that it formed a cross if you looked down on it，the crossed point is served as fulcrum.

The rubber stopper would go on the end of the stick that touched the ground, then we’d slam down on the other end. It was simple and effective. We touched the ceiling once, which was pretty impressive. The people who won in every class competed against each other in the last championship. I didn’t win, but I didn’t mind, because I did well anyway.

Gifted，有天赋，被IQ测试认定有天赋的孩子从小学三年级开始就集中一起上独立研究自由讨论文理兼顾的课程。做机器人或者作曲，随你的意！
食物与艺术连接感情，移民国家里的多族裔社区以此增进交流，一年一度多元文化节是怎样的状态。

Hello, ximalaya, this is Lindsay from New York. This week we’ll talk about a new class I’m taking at school and a really fun event called Multicultural Expo.

大家好，我是晴川。春天来了，万物复苏，大家生活里一定会有很多新气象，学校各项活动也如火如荼地展开了，来听听Lindsay寒假回来后的新科目，以及这一周学校有趣的活动。

The new class is called Project Beyond, and it is for the “gifted” 有天赋kids of the middle school. The “gifted” kids are chosen when you take a test in elementary school小学. If you get a certain score, you’re accepted into Project Beyond in elementary school and Project Beyond, or PB as the students call it, continues into middle school.

Beyond是超出，更远，这样一个意思。Project Beyond你可以理解成非常规有难度的项目。Gifted是有天赋的意思，Genius是天才，这是有区别的。美国学校给一些智力上能力上有一定天赋的孩子一些更能匹配他们水准的项目课程。这是由一些权威IQ测试来认可的。Lindsay从小学三年级开始就在这个科目里，今年七年级，也是学校提供这个项目的最后一年了。来听听。

What is Project Beyond, you might be asking. PB basically offers opportunities 机会to explore探索 topics that regular school classes do not touch. It could be deep-thinking topics like the roots of racism种族歧视, or creative things such as composing a music piece作曲. Sometimes we pick our own independent projects独立项目 to research something that interests you and then create a  slideshow 幻灯片 to present to the class. And we discuss and share ideas with each other. This is supposed to help you find something that you’re comfortable with 感觉舒适and explore different parts of your imagination 想象 and skills. It’s really quite enjoyable


Lindsay 这里讲得Project Beyond，是很自由研究自由讨论的一种，既有独立选题表达个人兴趣的项目，也有老师的规定动作便于集体讨论交流，既可以反应科学技术的理工一边，也有人文艺术的这种所谓文科的一边。她这里没有说到而我了解补充说明一下的，是这个项目暗含的要传递的东西，怎样做一个研究项目，它要培养怎样的严谨思维习惯，这一点是从小学就开始培养的了。OK，then，Let's talk about Multi Cultural Expo.

Multicultural Expo was incredibly fun! Multicultural Expo is supposed to celebrate our differences and our different cultures and countries of origin. During lunch, tables are set up in the gymnasium体育馆, stacked with foods from all over the world,n donated 捐赠and served by parent volunteers义工. China was represented, along with Korea韩国, Japan日本, India印度, Italy意大利, Greece希腊, France法国, and more. It’s something everyone looks forward to. In the center of the gym, you have the performance表演 area. People normally do cultural dances and performances. Two people did martial arts武术, two people did a K-pop dance韩国街舞, a whole big group did a traditional Japanese dance, and more!