双语 | 外媒如何评价中国高考？
距离高考还有0天
高考是决定一个人事业发展的一个重要方面，每一年的高考几乎都是家长和学生最紧张的时候。
高考第一天，我们来看看外媒是如何描写中国高考的。
本篇笔记由知新共学外刊群笔记担当Zoe（CATTI 2级、TEM 8）整理制作。
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The gaokao is emblematic of the Chinese education system as a whole. In the west, it is often seen as monolithic and rote; in China as tough but fair.
这几句话选自卫报。
emblematic象征性的，标志性的，比如经济学人的一个例句：This blend of history and modernity is emblematic of the outdoor-advertising business itself, which, despite being one of the world’s oldest forms of marketing is embracing digital technologies. 尽管这种广告是世界上最古老的营销形式之一，但它正在拥抱数字技术。
卫报将高考视作中国整个教育制度的标志，还用了两个词形容了西方人眼中对中国高考的印象：
monolithic, 形容组织、政治制度等庞大而难以改变，好像铁板一样，比如a monolithic movie company 铁板一块的电影公司
rote，不可数名词，死记硬背，比如In old-fashioned schools, much learning was by rote . 在旧式学校里，很多学习都是靠死记硬背。
说到死记硬背，大家一定还能想到其他类似的表达。比如cramming，外媒在描述中国高考时，cramming用得也是溜溜的，比如经济学人：
For many, the exam comes as the culmination of months of cramming, years of tutoring and abnegated personal lives.对于许多人而言，高考意味着，数月的死记硬背、多年的补习辅导、对个人生活的舍弃都结束了。
除了卫报，还有很多外媒也用tough一词形容中国高考，通常在前面还加了个副词notoriously，比如经济学人：
The number sitting China's notoriously tough university-entrance exam each year is falling.
句子主干是the number is falling.
sitting后置定语，sit有一个词义是参加考试，参加某个考试，sit+考试名称。
除了tough，还有其他词可以形容高考，比如gruelling：
Results are in from China’s notoriously gruelling university entrance exams, the gaokao.
gruelling一词表示非常累人的，比如学生在繁重的课业中忙里偷闲，休息了一会，the students took a break from their gruelling study.
尽管高考tough and gruelling，但卫报仍然认为这对于中国而言是公平的：
Given the intense competition for finite higher education resources, the argument goes, there has to be some way to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to give hardworking students from poorer backgrounds a chance to rise to the top.
高等教育资源很有限（finite），那么竞争必然激烈（intense competition）。因此就需要有一种筛选方式，让优秀者脱颖而出（separate the wheat from the chaff），同时给勤奋的穷孩子翻盘的机会。
separate the wheat from the chaff，从字面来看，意思是把小麦从谷壳中分离出来，就引申为识别优劣，分清好坏，去芜存菁。separate也可以用sort out替换。
再看南华早报早年的一篇文章，开头这样介绍中国高考：
The gaokao – China’s make-or-break college entrance exams – start on Thursday and will take place across the mainland through Saturday.
make-or-break形容词，决定成败的，不成则毁的，比如：This could be a make-or-break speech for the prime minister. 这可能是决定首相成败的一次演讲。
BBC则用了这个词：
Every year, more than nine million students in China sit a high-stakes examination - the gaokao.
high-stakes高筹码的，高风险的，跟前面的make-or-break有异曲同工之妙，都颇有点不成功便成仁的感觉，high-stakes相关例句：
...a high-stakes poker game. ...一种高风险的扑克牌游戏。
...the high-stakes political battle over the New Jersey Senate campaign. ...牵涉新泽西参议院竞选活动的高风险政治战役。
卫报的另一篇文章则认为：
The idea of someone's entire future resting on one exam is hard to stomach.一考定终身的想法令人难以接受。
rest on依靠，依赖。stomach这里是及物动词，容忍、承受住，宾语一般是令人不快的想法或景象，比如A 26% water rate increase is more than most residents can stomach . 水费涨 26% 让大多数居民无法接受。
类似的观点也出现在其他许多外媒文章中，比如：
In a recent article in The Guardian called "Is China's gaokao the world's toughest school exam?" Alec Ash details the exam all Chinese high school students must take, the outcome of which determines the entire future of their lives.
And while thousands of students will cope with the most important exam in their life – an assessment that can set the course for their future – by studying, studying and studying some more, there always seem to be others who will try to get better scores by cheating.
determine the entire future of one's lives, set the course for one's future，都体现了高考对整个人生轨迹的影响，不可谓不重要。
你还记得当年高考你考了多少分吗？
高考那几天有什么难忘的回忆呢？
如果时光能倒流，你会如何备战高考？
欢迎下方留言区告诉我们。
