(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Not enough American students want to be engineers, mathematicians, or scientists. The Obama administration wants to change that. They are spending money to do it. The government will invest three billion dollars in the education of young Americans in science, technology, engineering, and math. The four areas together are known as STEM.
Many jobs in the STEM fields will open in the coming years. The U.S. government's investment aims to increase the number of Americans who can take those jobs.
Yet girls appear far less interested in STEM subjects than boys. Only 25 percent of STEM students are girls.
Camsie McAdams is at the U.S. Education Department. She says girls simply do not feel welcomed in STEM subjects. Ms. McAdams says young women look at industries such as engineering and computer science and see most of the leaders are men.
"We, as women, want to have people that look like us, people that we can relate to. A lot of times what distracts people from entering the field, or, even when they get the degree, keeps them from wanting to work in the field, is because they don't feel welcomed."
Debbie Sterling is an engineer. She invented a construction toy for girls. The name of the toy is "Goldie Blox." Ms. Sterling hopes Goldie Blox will help girls develop spatial skills. Spatial skills help engineers and builders to think about objects in three dimensions.
To interest girls, Sterling created the character "Goldie." Goldie does not care about beauty or clothes. Goldie tells stories, solves difficult problems and creates pretend worlds.
Mia is a seven-year-old girl who likes science. In her room, she has no fashion dolls. Instead, she has a pegboard, wheels, blocks and an inventor's journal to write her observations.
Mia received a set of Goldie Blox from her grandmother. She learned to make a machine with the blocks.
"When my grandmother first sent me the present, a spinning machine, I was really excited. I knew it had to do with engineering, so I grabbed the box and opened it. Then I went for more -- I went to the web site; I went on YouTube to find more videos. My mom asked me why I was just watching videos instead of building. I told her I didn't have enough pieces. She got me the builder survival kit."
Experts say parents should do more than just buy toys to interest their girls in STEM subjects. They should also provide a good education. At school, girls should participate in projects that require teamwork and creative thinking.
Women in scientific and technical jobs are also working to encourage young women to explore STEM. One is Anu Tewary. She studied Applied Physics and worked for technology companies. After she had a daughter, she started Technovation Challenge. The challenge is an international competition for young women from 10 to 18 years old.
Technovation offers girls the opportunity to learn how to start a company and become high-tech entrepreneurs. Since 2009, over 2,500 girls from 28 countries have developed 650 mobile phone applications. They learned to launch start-up companies through Technovation.
There's a good chance that soon, more young women using mobile phones will also be developing programs for them.
I'm Anne Ball.
词汇解释
1.distract vt. 转移；分心
Don't let yourself be distracted by fashionable theories.
别让自己被新潮的理论给分心了。
2.spatial adj. 空间的；存在于空间的；受空间条件限制的
His manual dexterity and fine spatial skills were wasted on routine tasks.
他的手巧和很好的感悟空间的技能被浪费在日常事务中了。
3.spinning n. 纺纱 adj. 纺织的 v. 旋转，纺织（spin的现在分词）
She span on a spinning wheel.
她用纺车纺纱。
内容解析
1.I knew it had to do with engineering, so I grabbed the box and opened it.
have to do with 与…有关；与…有来往，与…有业务关系
What does it have to do with you?
与你何干?
Jack would have nothing to do with such capers.
杰克不愿扯上这种荒唐的事。
参考译文
想成为工程师、数学家或科学家的美国学生并不多，奥巴马政府希望能改变这一现状，并对此投入资金。政府将投资30亿美元用于美国年轻一代在科学、技术、工程和数学方面的教育，这四个领域被称作STEM。
STEM领域的很多就业机会将在未来几年开放，美国政府投资的目标是增加能从事这类岗位的美国人数量。
但女孩们对STEM科目的兴趣远不如男孩，只有25%的STEM学生是女孩。
麦克亚当斯就职于美国教育部，她说女孩们不过是感觉自己在STEM科目中不受欢迎，麦克亚当斯说年轻女性一看工程和计算机科学等行业，发现其领军人物多为男性。
“作为女人，我们希望能接触到同类人，在很多情况下，导致人们离开一个领域，或者即使获得了学位也希望不在这个领域工作的原因，是因为她们感觉自己不受欢迎。”
黛比·斯特林是名工程师，她为女孩子发明了一种构造玩具，名字叫Goldie Blox，斯特林希望这种玩具能帮助女孩们开发空间技能。空间技能帮助工程师和建筑师思考三维中的物体。
为了让女孩们感兴趣，斯特林创造了Goldie这个角色，Goldie不在乎美丽或衣物，她会讲故事，解决难题，并开发虚拟世界。
米亚是个喜欢科学的7岁女孩，在她的房间里，她没有时尚的玩具，相反，她有构图板、轮子、积木，以及一本记录自己观察所得的发明者日记。
米亚从祖母那么得到一套Goldie Blox，她学习用这些积木制造机器。
“祖母给我的第一套玩具是纺纱机，我很开心。我知道它和工程有关，所以我抓住盒子打开了它。然后我上网找更多东西，我上YouTube找更多视频。我妈妈问我为何我会看视频，而不是动手做。我告诉她我没有足够的积木，她给我买了一套建筑师工具套装。”
专家称父母们不应该仅仅给STEM科目中的女孩们买玩具，还应该提供良好的教育。在学校里，女孩们应参加需要团队合作和创造性思维的项目。
从事科学和技术工作的女性也鼓励年轻女性探索STEM学科。Anu Tewary就是其中一个，她攻读了应用物理学后在科技公司就职。有了女儿之后，她创办了“技术创新挑战”。该挑战是一项面向10到18岁女孩的国际竞赛。
“技术创新”挑战为女孩学习开办公司并成为高科技企业家提供了机会，自2009年以来，来自28个国家的2500多名女孩开发了650个移动手机应用。她们通过“技术创新”挑战学会了如何开办创业公司。
也许过不了多久，会有更多使用手机的年轻女性为自己开发程序。
我是安娜·博尔。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
