(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report.
Education experts say Africa's growing higher education system is important to its economic development. But African universities face a number of issues, including emigration of top students, poor infrastructure, and high demand combined with a lack of funds.
University leaders from around the African continent met in Johannesburg last week to discuss how to solve these issues and others. The academics who attended the African Universities Summit say the job of educating Africa's students is harder than it has to be.
Engineering professor David Mfinanga is a vice chancellor at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He says the main problem facing universities is the high number of students.
"Most countries are trying to increase the number of university graduates because it is important for economic development. But the resources are limited, so that affects quality as well, and therefore we are struggling to balance the two because you need the quantity, you need more graduates, but you need to maintain the quality, and the resources are limited."
Pinkie Mekgwe is an administrator at the University of Johannesburg. She says schools face another problem: money.
Like many American universities, she says, African universities struggle for funding. But unlike American schools, African schools cannot ask students to pay more tuition.
And, the 2009 global economic crisis reduced African governments' budgets. So, Ms. Mekgwe points out, universities now receive even less funding.
Ousmane Sene is director of the Senegal-based West African Research Center. He says governments also need to look at the result of having many university graduates but few job opportunities.
"What are you going to do with that if they just get out of university and they are out of a job? Because this is a real threat, this is a real conflict-ridden situation in Africa, having these thousands and thousands of graduates, postgraduate students, qualified, with plenty of degrees, expecting everything from society, and spending years milling around without getting a decent job, that's a real problem."
There are no simple answers to the issues that African universities face. But, African educators say the issues are just as serious as many of the continent's other difficult problems, such as war, famine, poverty and quickly changing leaders. And in this case, they say, solving higher education's problems may help solve the others.
I'm Jill Robbins.
词汇解析
1.chancellor n. 总理（德、奥等的）；（英）大臣；校长（美国某些大学的）；（英）大法官；（美）首席法官
The new Chancellor has the guts to push through unpopular tax increases.
新总理有勇气推动不受欢迎的增税方案获得通过。
2.ridden adj. 充斥…的；受虐待的 v. 骑（ride的过去分词）
Too many women are like me, guilt ridden about the kids.
很多女人都像我一样，对孩子充满了内疚。
3.famine n. 饥荒；饥饿，奇缺
War brings death and famine.
战争带来死亡和饥荒。
内容解析
1.Like many American universities, she says, African universities struggle for funding.
struggle for 争夺，为(争夺)…而厮打(或扭打)：
The two dogs struggled for a bone.
两条狗为争一块骨头撕咬了起来。
Anne struggled to help Peter and Zara with their prep.
安妮努力帮助彼得和扎拉完成他们的家庭作业。
2.What are you going to do with that if they just get out of university and they are out of a job?
out of a job 失业
He is out of a job and up to his eyeballs in debt.
他失业了，而且债台高筑。
He had better clean up his act, or he will be out of a job.
他最好发奋图强，否则会失去工作。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。
教育专家称非洲不断发展的高等教育系统对其经济发展很重要，但非洲大学面临多重问题，包括一流学生的移民、糟糕的基础设施、高需求和资金匮乏。
非洲大陆各地的高校领导们上周与会约翰内斯堡，商讨如何解决这些问题和其他问题，出席非洲高校峰会的学者们称，教育非洲学生的任务更艰难。
工程学教授戴维·姆菲南加是坦桑尼亚达累斯萨拉姆大学副校长，他说各高校面临的主要问题是学生人数太多。
“大多数国家都在努力增加大学毕业生数量，因为这对经济发展很重要。但资源是有限的，所以这就影响到质量，因此我们努力在两者之间寻求平衡，因为在要求数量和更多学生的同时，还需要保持质量，但资源是有限的。”
平奇·梅克维是约翰内斯堡大学的管理人员，她说各学校还面临另一个问题：资金。
她说，像很多美国高校那样，非洲高校也在艰难寻找资金。但与美国学校不同的是，非洲学校不能让学生交更多学费。
而且，平奇指出，2009年的全球经济危机让非洲各国政府削减了预算，所以，各高校现在得到的资金更少了。
奥斯曼·塞内是总部在塞内加尔的西非研究中心主任，他说各国政府还需要着眼于大学生数量多但就业就会少的问题。
“如果他们毕了业就失业该怎么办？因为这是真正的问题，是非洲矛盾重重的真实现状，有了成千上万的毕业生、研究生，他们有资质和学位，对社会满怀希望，花了多年时间寻找却无法得到体面的就业，这是个真实的问题。”
非洲高校面临的这些问题没有简单的解决办法，但非洲的教育者们称，这些问题像非洲面临的其他问题一样严重，比如战争、饥荒、贫困和领导人交替频繁。他们说在这种情况下，解决高校的问题可能会有助于其他问题的解决。
我是吉尔·罗宾斯。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
