IN THE past few days nearly 10m young Chinese have received their results from the world’s largest and most important academic exam, commonly known as the gaokao. In some places the news has been sent to them by text message—an innovation that has done nothing to compensate for the horrors of what they have endured: years of cramming at the expense of any other activity in the hope of a gaokao score that will qualify them for admission to a leading university. In China even more than elsewhere, achievement in education is judged not by how well you perform at university, but by which one you attend. Everything, therefore, depends on the gaokao.
在过去几天里，接近一千万中国青年在参加了世界上最大、最重要的学术考试后，收到了他们的考试结果，这个考试就是高考。在一些地方，这个结果会通过短信的方式告诉学生——这是一种创新，但这完全不能弥补学生们这些年来所忍受的恐惧：这么多年来放弃其他课外活动，疯狂往脑袋里塞进知识，只为了能考出一个能上一流大学的成绩。在中国，甚至在其他很多地方，学生的学术成就不会用你在大学的表现进行评估，反而由你上哪所大学所决定。因此，一切都取决于高考。
The exam is both cherished and despised. It is praised by many as being a relatively corruption-free method of ensuring advancement for those who study hard. The nation rejoiced when the gaokao was restored in 1977 after the death of Mao, who had scrapped it and filled colleges with ill-educated devotees of his cult. But many people resent the huge stress it imposes on adolescents. In recent years, along with the rapid growth of China’s middle class, the numbers seeking education abroad, mainly in the West, have soared. Last year more than 600,000 did so, four times as many as a decade earlier. Escaping the gaokao ordeal is often cited as a reason.
这个考试是值得珍惜的同时也遭到鄙夷。它相对来说是一种没有腐败的方式，可以给那些学习努力的学生带来该有的回报，因此被许多人称赞。1977年恢复高考制度 after the death of Mao中国举国同欢，因为Mao曾经废弃了这个制度并且在大学里安排了很多缺乏教育的他的追随者们。但是很多人都对这个考试给青年人带来的巨大压力表示厌恶。近几年，随着中国中产阶级的飞速发展，去海外求学的人数（主要是西方）飙升。去年有超过600,000人，是十年前的四倍。逃避高考是大部分海外求学的原因。
The gaokao is flawed, however, not only because so many young people’s lives are so profoundly affected by the results of one exam. Both the test and the schooling that prepares students for it are unfair and ill-suited to the needs of a country that wants its workers to be more innovative. A common complaint about the gaokao is that it requires so much rote-learning, at least for those parts that do not involve solving mathematical puzzles and the like. That is a problem common to many exams, but the supreme importance of the gaokao means that schools usually focus only on cramming students for it during their three years of senior high school. Other skills that are needed for the creation of the “knowledge economy” that President Xi Jinping says he wants to build, such as team work and creativity, are neglected.
然而，高考是有缺陷的，不仅仅是因为一个考试对这么多年轻人的人生造成了深远的影响。考试本身与帮助学生准备考试的学校都是不公平的，并且与国家“人民应该更有创造力”的需求是不相符的。人们对高考抱怨最多的就是对于那些不涉及数学解题及类似的部分，它要求太多需要死记硬背的东西。这是大部分考试的一个问题，但是高考至高无上的重要性意味着在三年高中生活里，学校们经常会只专注于灌输学生们考试内容。习dada想要创造的“知识经济”中，还需要其他技能，例如团队合作、创造力等，这些技能也都被忽视了。
The government accepts that this must change. But parents complain whenever schools encourage students to do things other than learn gaokao-required facts. That is understandable: they want their children to get into one of China’s handful of globally respected colleges. The answer lies in reforming the gaokao and, over time, for the government to focus more on turning China’s many bad universities into better ones.
政府也明白教育需要改革。但是当学校鼓励学生们去做其他事而不是高考需要的技能后，家长们又会怨声连连。这也是可以理解的：他们希望他们的孩子进入中国少数的世界名校中去。解决办法不仅仅是高考改革，更需要政府在以后几年里专注于将中国的烂大学变成更好的学府。
Another worry is that the supposed meritocratic virtues of the gaokao are not what they seem. For sure, those who get into the best universities are chosen for their scores, not their political connections. But those who have the best chance of scoring well are rich city-dwellers. Poorer people in many countries suffer disadvantages in education, but in China such problems are magnified by government spending on schools that is heavily skewed in favour of cities. Free education ends after junior high school. The crucial part that prepares students for gaokao can involve crippling expenses for poorer families. In big cities such as Beijing, the children of rural migrants are often barred from entry to schools as a result of the pernicious hukou system of household registration that gives greater benefits and privileges to long-established urban families.
另一个担忧是高考的“精英道德”并不像表面那样简单。当然，那些去最好的大学的学生是因为他们的分数而不是他们的政治关系。但是那些有机会考高分的都是有钱的城市居民。穷人在教育方面总是处于劣势，但是在中国，政府拨钱严重偏向那些城市的学校，这使得这个问题更严重化。初中毕业后，免费教育就会停止。对于穷人家来说，学生准备高考最关键的问题是带来不少开支。在一些大城市，例如北京，一些农村来的孩子会被禁止上学，因为残酷的户口体制，这回给那些长期居住的城市居民带来非常多好处与特权。
There is also a problem with the exam questions themselves. Students have to tailor their answers to suit the Communist Party’s views. This year candidates were required to write essays about the thoughts of MrXi. Arguing against them was not an option. Sun Chunlan, a deputy prime minister, recently said the gaokao system was “tasked with the important mission to educate and pick talent for the state”. It certainly does a good job of encouraging toadyism.
考试问题本身也存在一个问题。学生必须按照dang的观点来答题。今年学生们被要求写一篇关于习dada的思想的文章。反驳并不是一个选项。副主席孙Chunlan最近说高考是一个“具有教育并挑选为国家所用的人才的重要任务”的考试。它的确在鼓励阿谀奉承方面做得很到位。
The gaokao system badly needs reform. In the West, however, a growing number of universities are admitting Chinese students on the strength of gaokao scores, rather than results from internationally recognised entrance exams (see China section). They should think twice. No institution that purports to uphold free thinking should endorse an exam that forces applicants to conform with political orthodoxy.
高考制度急需改革。然而在西方，越来越多的大学以高考分数为标准来录取中国学生，而不是国际公认的入学考试。他们应该三思。任何声称维护自由思想的学院都不应支持“强制学生遵守政治正确”的考试。
原文链接：http://media.economist.com/news/leaders/21745178-china-needs-find-fairer-and-less-pressured-way-selecting-university-students-worlds
Hey guys, long time no see! 前几个月在准备期末考试，课程很多没有时间进行翻译，今天打开app发现很多人关注了我的专题，非常非常感动，虽然时间不够充裕，但也愿意尽量多翻译文章和大家多交流！
这一篇是讲高考制度的，文章算是经济学人里比较简单的。虽然大家都深谙高考之道，但还是应该了解一下外国对于我们的看法。不过他们的观点也不一定完全是正确的，也要参考我国国情。希望高考刚结束的学生们都能得到自己心仪大学的录取通知书！人生的精彩才刚刚开始！
个人兴趣翻译，欢迎各位交流
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