(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
With No Students, Small College Town Worries over Future
Many colleges and universities in the United States are in small towns around America. When the coronavirus struck in March, students went home, leaving the towns empty.
So, what will happen to those communities in the near future? The New York town of Ithaca is about to find out.
In Ithaca, most of the 24,000 students at Cornell University and 6,200 from Ithaca College have left. Now, locals who run businesses that depend on students' money are wondering if things will ever return to normal.
"It's going to be hard. I mean, normally we have about seven months that the colleges are here," said Gregar Brous. He runs several restaurants in Ithaca. He has brought about 100 of his usual 330 employees back to work.
Brous added that one of the biggest problems for small businesses is that there are "so many unknowns."
Ithaca College says its students will return to the school in the autumn. But they will do so in October, several weeks later than usual. Cornell – one of America's so-called Ivy League Schools –says it plans to bring students back this fall. But they also will arrive weeks later than usual.
Many people expect that even if students do return, they will mostly stay on campus and not go out to restaurants and bars.
Locals also worry that returning students will bring COVID-19 into their community.
Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick said it is possible international travel restrictions could affect Cornell, since almost 25 percent of the university's students are from other countries.
"If people don't feel comfortable sending their children across the country or across the world back to our campuses, then we'll start to shed jobs," Myrick said.
Cornell students spend an estimated $225 million each year in Ithaca. There are many stores and restaurants on the Ithaca Commons, a shopping area near the campus.
Before coronavirus, "it was so easy to get a job. You couldn't avoid it, they were everywhere," said Matt Stupak. He was a cook, but lost his job when restaurants closed.
Ithaca is still doing well compared to other places in the U.S. The area's April unemployment rate increased to 10 percent, but that is lower than other parts of New York. Cornell University is the area's largest employer, with 10,000 workers. So far, it has not had any job cuts. The university also gave $100,000 to help local businesses.
But in many college towns, the local economy collapsed when the students went home.
"Our entire economy left," said Gabrielle Gould. She is executive director of the Amherst Business Improvement District.
Amherst, a college town in Massachusetts, had to deal with the sudden loss of 35,000 students from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and four other colleges in the area. By May, Amherst had a 32.6 percent unemployment rate, a study by the Pioneer Institute in Massachusetts found.
Even if schools permit students to come back in the fall, no one knows how many will actually choose to return. Some students -- and their parents -- may not want to pay the high cost of tuition for a less social college experience.
"How worried am I for Ithaca if the future of higher education changes?" Myrick said. "I am worried. I am extremely worried."
I'm Pete Musto.
重点解析
重点讲解：
1. happen to 发生于；发生在……身上；
What if anything should happen to the child?
万一这孩子出了差错怎么办？
2. return to 回到；返回；
I solemnly vowed that someday I would return to live in Europe.
我郑重发誓，总有一天我将回到欧洲生活。
3. compare to 与……相比；比较；
I knew that I could never compare to her.
我早就知道我永远无法和她相比。
4. deal with 处理；应付；
He's a hard man to deal with.
要跟他这个人做生意很难。
参考译文
由于没有学生，小型大学城为未来感到担忧
美国的许多院校都位于美国各地的小城镇里。三月份新冠病毒爆发时，学生们回家了，剩下一座座空无一人的城镇。
那么，这些社区在不久的将来，情况会如何？纽约小镇伊萨卡即将知道结果。
在伊萨卡，康奈尔大学24000名学生和伊萨卡学院6200名学生中的大多数人已经离开。现在，那些依靠赚取学生的钱经营生意的当地人，在想情况是否会恢复正常。
“这会很困难，我的意思是，通常我们有七个月的时间来大学，” 格雷格·布鲁斯说。他在伊萨卡开了几家餐馆，他让330名老员工中的大约100人重返工作岗位。
布鲁斯补充说，小企业面临的最大问题之一是“存在着太多的未知因素”。
伊萨卡学院说，他们的学生将在秋季返校。但他们将在10月份返回，比平时晚几周。康奈尔大学是美国所谓的常春藤盟校之一，该校表示，计划在今年秋天让学生返校。但是，他们也会比平时晚到几周。
很多人预计，即使学生们真的回来，他们大部分时间还是呆在校园里，而不会去餐馆和酒吧。
当地人还担心，返校的学生会把新冠疫情带到他们的社区。
伊萨卡市长斯万特·米里克说，国际旅行限制可能会影响康奈尔大学，因为该校近25%的学生来自其他国家。
米里克说：“如果人们不愿意让孩子跨越全国各地或世界各地，返回校园，那么我们就会开始裁员。”。
康奈尔大学的学生每年在伊萨卡花费2.25亿美元。在校园附近的购物区伊萨卡公共小区中有许多商店和餐馆。
在新冠疫情爆发前，“找工作非常容易，躲都躲不开，到处都是工作机会。”马特·史塔帕克说，他曾是位厨师，但餐馆关门后就失业了。
与美国其他地区相比，伊萨卡仍然情况良好。该地区四月份的失业率上升到10%，但低于纽约其他地区。康奈尔大学是该地区最大的雇主，有10000名员工。到目前为止，它还没有裁员，该大学还捐出10万美元帮助当地企业。
但在许多大学城，学生们回家时，当地的经济都崩溃了。
“我们整个经济都走了，”加布里埃·古尔德说，她是阿默斯特商业改善区的执行董事。
阿默斯特是马萨诸塞州的一个大学城，该地区不得不处理马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校和该地区其他四所学院的35000名学生的突然流失问题。马萨诸塞州先锋研究所的一项研究发现，到五月份，阿默斯特的失业率为32.6%。
即使学校允许学生秋季返校，也没人知道会有多少学生真正选择返校。一些学生和他们的父母，可能不想为社交机会减少的大学经历支付高昂的学费。
“如果高等教育的未来发生变化，我对伊萨卡有多担忧？”米里克说。“我很担忧，非常担忧。”
皮特·穆斯托报道。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
