School closures

Mid-term break

How the covid–19 pandemic is interrupting children's education

注释

closure      名词    关闭，停业

    the problem of school closures                学校关闭的问题

    也可以指事情的了结，解脱

pandemic        名词    流行病，瘟疫

covid-19          新冠肺炎的简称

covid-19 pandemic      新冠肺炎传染病

参考翻译

关停学校

期中休假

新冠肺炎全球大流行如何扰乱儿童教育

正文

CHILDREN USUALLY rejoice in a  break from school, assuming it will be a chance  to slack off Not Ryu, a nine-year-old in Tokyo. As the new coronavirus spread across Japan, schools throughout the country closed on March 2nd. His parents have enforced a strict schedule every day. It  includes Japanese, science and  physical education. He does mathematics on his abacus every morning. On  weekdays he is allowed to play in a park for 90  minutes. “I wish I could take him  to the park more, but we have limited time as we  work from home, ” frets his mother,  Fujimaki Natsuko.

注释

rejoice        动词    喜悦，欣喜

    rejoice in sth

    We rejoiced in our good fortune

    我们庆祝自己的好运。

slack off      放松 松懈

coronavirus      冠状病毒

enforce        动词    执行（法律），强迫实行

    The rules are strictly/rigorously/rigidly    enforced.        规则被严格执行。

    enforce sth on sb    强迫某人做某事

abacus        名词  算盘

fret        动词  烦恼，发愁

    fret about    对…烦恼

参考翻译

孩子们通常都喜欢学校放假，心想又可以玩儿了。但在东京，九岁的小龙不开心。因为新冠病毒在日本传播，全国的学校都在 3 月 2 日关闭了。父母每天对他执行严格的学习时间表，包括日语、科学和体育。每天早上他在算盘上做算术。工作日他可以到公园里玩一个半小时。“我希望能多带他去公园，但我们在家工作，没那么多时间。”妈妈藤卷夏子也犯愁。

Ryu is one of almost 1bn students around the world whose schooling has been interrupted as a result of covid-19 (see map). As The Economist  went to press, just over 100 countries including China, Italy and South Korea had closed  their schools, as had 43 states in America, as part of efforts to contain covid-19. Britain will close all schools on March 20th. Schools,  where sticky-fingered children gather everyday, sharing toys and sucking on pencils, are an obvious place for diseases to flourish. In 2013 Britain’s Health Protection Agency looked at flu outbreaks that coincided with school closures. It found that shutting them slowed the transmission of the virus, even if it also slowed the transmission ofknowledge.

注释

interrupt        动词  打断（讲话或行动）  （过程或活动）停止

同义词cut sb off/cut sb short , butt in      chip in , disturb , bother

    Sorry to interrupt.  不好意思打断您一下。

as a result of    因此，由于；作为…的结果

    相近用法:due to  ,  because of  ,  owing to ,  thanks to  ,  as a result of

press        名词    新闻界  新闻报道；舆论

                动词  按，压 ；极力劝说 ；紧贴

    The protest campaign has used mass        strikes and demonstrations to press its                  demands...

  抗议活动通过大规模罢工和示威游行来向    当局提出诉求

  原文中 Economist went to press on  意思 是本刊付印时

sticky fingers  黏糊糊的手指

suck        动词  吸，吮      抽吸，抽取

    suck sb 'into sth  逐渐把某人卷入﹙某事﹚

    suck on sth  吸吮…

    the child sucked on her thumb.

    孩子吮吸着她的大拇指。

flourish        动词  兴旺 繁荣

    Most plants will flourish in the rich    deep soils here.大多数植物在这里的肥厚土壤中都会茁壮成长。

Britain’s Health Protection Agency  英国卫生防护局

outbreaks      名词  爆发

coincide        动词  同时发生 想法观点等一致

    A coincided with B      A和B同时发生

transmission    名词  传送 传播

    the transmission of knowledge and skills.

  知识与技能的传播

    transmission through/by…    通过…传播

翻译

小龙是世界各地因为新冠肺炎而不能去上学的近 10 亿名学生之一（见地图）。

在本刊于上周四付印之时，包括中国、意大利和韩国在内的 100 多个国家以及美

国的 43 个州都为了防控疫情关停了学校。英国在 20 日也关闭了所有学校。在校

园里，手指黏糊糊的孩子们每天聚在一起，分享玩具，咬铅笔头，这显然是个疾

病容易肆虐的地方。2013 年，英国健康防护局（Health Protection Agency）研究

了与学校停课同时发生的流感爆发，结果发现关闭学校减慢了流感病毒传播，虽

然它也减慢了知识的传播。