(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Chinese Students Top Latest PISA Education Survey
Students from China and Singapore came out on top in an international survey of educational achievement.
Results of the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, were released Tuesday. The test is given every three years to 15-year-olds around the world. It measures their knowledge in reading, science and mathematics.
The best-performing students in all three subjects were in China. They attend schools in and around Beijing and Shanghai, and two provinces: Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Singapore finished in fifth place in the study.
Overall, the test results show American students scoring above average in reading and science, but below average in math.
The test is administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Officials reported that about 600,000 students in 79 nations and educational systems took part in the two-hour computer-based exam last year. They said schools in each country are chosen randomly to make sure that students come from a wide mix of backgrounds and abilities.
PISA is the largest measure of international education performance. The test scores are watched closely by education policy makers.
Here are some of the PISA findings:
The average U.S. scores have not changed in a major way in any of the three subjects since 2015. The U.S. scores are mostly unchanged since when the test was first given in 2000 for reading and, in 2003, for math. American science scores have risen since 2006.
Out of the 79 areas, only seven have seen an improvement in their PISA scores since they started offering the test. The seven are Albania, Colombia, Macau, Moldova, Peru, Portugal and Qatar.
The OECD is a group of 36 mostly industrial countries, including the United States. Financing -- the amount of money spent on education -- is important, but not always necessary for high test scores. Take Estonia, for example. It was one of the top scoring countries, yet education spending there is 30 percent below the OECD average.
With reading being the main focus of the test this year, one of every four students in OECD countries could not complete basic reading tasks.
On average across the OECD countries, one in 10 disadvantaged students was able to score in the top quarter of the reading performance of their country.
The U.S. results showed that the highest performing students were doing better in reading and math, while the lower-performing students did not improve.
This is similar to results from another nationwide test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
"It's another red flag that this is something to think about," said Peggy Carr, the associate commissioner for the National Center for Education Statistics. She noted that the United States is "clearly struggling in math."
What is not clear about the group of Chinese students tested is whether they represent all Chinese students. Carr noted that the four test areas are home to more wealthy people than China as a whole.
The Chinese areas displaced the top school system in the 2015 PISA, the Asian city-state of Singapore.
Tom Loveless, an educational researcher from California, said the Chinese provinces that were tested saw a substantial increase in their scores. He said China is the only country where the national government chooses the provinces that are tested.
"It still makes it very difficult to interpret the Chinese scores," he said.
Loveless describes the overall performance of American students as mediocre.
"The U.S. is basically doing what it's done since PISA started, which is hanging around the middle" of the group," he said.
Andreas Schleicher is Director for the OECD's Directorate of Education and Skills. He said there is hope for countries where there is not much difference in the performance of students from wealthy and poor backgrounds. Education, he says, remains a way for poor children in some countries to be successful.
重点解析
重点讲解：
1. take part in 参与；参加活动；
You can take part in activities from canoeing to bird watching.
你可以参与从划独木舟到观鸟等各种活动。
2. for example 举例；比如；
So, for example, we introduced a set of freshmen seminars.
比如，我们成立了新生研讨班。
3. be able to 能够；有能力做某事；
If only I could get some sleep, I would be able to cope.
要是能睡上一会儿，我就能应付了。
4. be similar to 与…相似；类似；
In some ways, it would be similar to a private equity investment.
在某些方面，这将类似于私人股本投资。
参考译文
中国学生问鼎最新的国际学生评估项目教育调查
来自中国和新加坡的学生在一项国际教育成就调查中名列前茅。
2018年国际学生评估项目（PISA）的结果于本周二公布。每三年会对全世界15岁的青少年进行一次这项测试，用来衡量学生们在阅读、科学和数学方面的知识。
这三门课程中成绩最好的学生都来自中国，他们就读于北京、上海，以及江苏和浙江两个省份的学校。
新加坡学生在这项研究中名列第五。
总的来说，测试结果显示，美国学生在阅读和科学方面的得分高于平均水平，但在数学方面低于平均水平。
该测试由经济合作与发展组织（OECD）实施。
官员们报告说，去年有79个国家和教育系统的大约60万学生，参加了这个为期两小时的计算机测试。他们说，每个国家的学校都是随机选择的，以确保学生是来自各种背景，具有不同能力的混合群体。
国际学生评估项目是衡量国际教育绩效最详细的标准，教育政策制定者密切关注其测试成绩。
以下是国际学生评估项目中的一些发现：
自2015年以来，在这三个科目中的任何一个科目中，美国学生的平均分都没有发生重大变化。自2000年首次进行阅读测试和2003年进行数学测试以来，美国学生的分数基本没有变化。自2006年以来，美国学生的科学分数一直在上升。
在79个地区中，只有七个地区的测试成绩，相对于开始实施测试时有所提高。这七个地区是阿尔巴尼亚、哥伦比亚、澳门、摩尔多瓦、秘鲁、葡萄牙和卡塔尔。
经济合作与发展组织，是由36个主要工业国家组成的集团，其中包括美国。用于教育的资金非常重要，但对于取得测验高分并不总是必要的。以爱沙尼亚为例，它是得分最高的国家之一，但那里的教育支出比经合组织的平均水平低30%。
由于阅读是今年考试的重点，经合组织国家每四个学生中就有一个不能完成基本的阅读任务。
在经合组织国家中，平均每10个处于弱势群体的学生中，就有一个能位于本国阅读成绩排名的前四分之一。
美国的调查结果显示，成绩最好的学生在阅读和数学方面表现得更好，而成绩较差的学生则没有提高。
这与另一项全国性考试，全国教育进展评估的结果相似。
“这是另一个值得思考的问题，”国家教育统计中心副主任佩吉·卡尔说。她指出，美国“显然在数学方面举步维艰。”
目前尚不清楚，这批受测的中国学生是否代表了所有中国学生。卡尔指出，在这四个测验区居住的居民比中国的整体水平要富裕。
在2015年的国际学生评估项目中，中国取代了亚洲城市新加坡成为顶尖的学校体系。
来自加利福尼亚州的教育研究员汤姆·洛弗莱斯表示，接受测试的中国省份，学生们的分数大幅上升。他说，中国是唯一一个由国家政府选择接受测试省份的国家。
他说：“这仍然使解读中国人的测试分数变得非常困难。”
洛弗莱形容美国学生的整体表现平庸。
他说：“美国基本上和刚开始进行国际学生评估项目时一样，位于群体的中间位置。”
安德烈亚斯·施莱彻尔是经合组织教育与技能理事会主任，他说，对于那些来自富有和贫穷家庭的学生，测试成绩无太大差别的国家来说，希望是存在的。他表示上，教育仍然是一些国家贫困儿童获得成功的途径。
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