熟悉的陌生人

China’s College Entry Test Is an Obsession

（中国高考是一种狂热）

 

Nervous family members and well-wishers waited Sunday outside in Tianjin, China, as students took the test that will determine whether they will go to college. (中国,天津，周六，当学生参加决定今后是否能上大学的高考时，紧张的家长和陪考人等候在外。)

By SHARON LaFRANIERE TIANJIN, China — For the past year, Liu Qichao has focused on one thing, and only one thing: the gao kao, or the high test.

中国，天津—过去一年中，刘启超（音）生活中一直只有一件事：高考。

Fourteen to 16 hours a day, he studied for the college entrance examination, which this year will determine the fate of more than 10 million Chinese students. He took one day off every three weeks.

今年的高考将会决定超过1000万中国学生的前途；而为了准备高等教育入学考试，刘启超每天学习14到16个小时，每三周才休息一天。

He was still carrying his textbook from room to room last Sunday morning before leaving for the exam site, still reviewing materials during the lunch break, still hard at work Sunday night, preparing for Part 2 of the exam that Monday.

上周日早上去考场之前，刘启超还拿着课本在屋子里走来走去；午休的时候他还在拿着材料复习；周日晚上他还在用功地准备着周一的另外两场考试。

“I want to study until the last minute,” he said. “I really hope to be successful.”

“我想努力到最后一分钟，”他说。“我真的希望能够考好。”

China may be changing at head-twirling speed, but the ritual of the gao kao (pronounced gow kow) remains as immutable as chopsticks. One Chinese saying compares the exam to a stampede of “a thousand soldiers and 10 horses across a single log bridge.”

中国的变化速度也许令人头晕目眩，但高考制度就像中国的筷子一样难以动摇。中国人把高考比作“千军万马过独木桥”。

The Chinese test is in some ways like the American SAT, except that it lasts more than twice as long. The nine-hour test is offered just once a year and is the sole determinant for admission to virtually all Chinese colleges and universities. About three in five students make the cut.

中国的高考在某些方面和美国的SAT(注：学术能力评估考试)相似，只是高考比SAT时间长两倍多。九个小时的中国高考每年只有一次，是中国大学招生的唯一标准。每五个考生中有三个考上大学。

Families pull out all the stops to optimize their children’s scores. In Sichuan Province in southwestern China, students studied in a hospital, hooked up to oxygen containers, in hopes of improving their concentration.

家长为了让孩子考个好分数竭尽所能。中国西南的四川省的考生为了更好地集中注意力,去医院吸氧复习。

Some girls take contraceptives so they will not get their periods during the exam. Some well-off parents dangle the promise of fabulous rewards for offspring whose scores get them into a top-ranked university: parties, 100,000 renminbi in cash, or about $14,600, or better.

为了让经期错开高考,一些女生服用避孕药。一些富裕的家长允诺如果孩子考上顶级大学就给他们丰厚的奖励：庆功聚会，10万人民币现金（大约1.46万美元），或者更多。

“My father even promised me, if I get into a college like Nankai University in Tianjin, ‘I’ll give you a prize, an Audi,’ ” said Chen Qiong, a 17-year-old girl taking the exam in Beijing.

“我爸爸答应我，要是我考上天津南开大学这样的学校，‘就奖励我一辆奥迪’，”17岁的北京女生陈琼（音）说。

Outside the exam sites, parents keep vigil for hours, as anxious as husbands waiting for their wives to give birth. A tardy arrival is disastrous. One student who arrived four minutes late in 2007 was turned away, even though she and her mother knelt before the exam proctor, begging for leniency.

考场外，家长们像等待妻子分娩的丈夫一样焦急地等待几个小时。迟到将是灾难性的。2007年高考中，一位考生迟到了四分钟就被拒绝入场。虽然她和妈妈在监考老师面前下跪哀求，最终也未能进入考场。

Cheating is increasingly sophisticated. One group of parents last year outfitted their children with tiny earpieces, persuaded a teacher to fax them the questions and then transmitted the answers by cellphone. Another father equipped a student with a miniscanner and had nine teachers on standby to provide the answers. In all, 2,645 cheaters were caught last year.

作弊也越来越高级。去年，一些家长给孩子们装备了微型耳机，说服了一个老师把考题传真给他们，然后再用手机把答案告诉考生。还有一个父亲给孩子配置了迷你扫描仪，又雇了9个老师提供答案。去年高考中一共捉住了2645个作弊考生。

Critics complain that the gao kao illustrates the flaws in an education system that stresses memorization over independent thinking and creativity. Educators also say that rural students are at a disadvantage and that the quality of higher education has been sacrificed for quantity.

批评者指出，高考暴露了中国教育体制的弊端——这个体制强调死记硬背，而忽视独立思考和创造力的培养。教育工作者也认为，农村考生在高考中处于劣势，而对数量的强调牺牲了中国教育制度的质量。

But the national obsession with the test also indicates progress. Despite a slight drop in registration this year — the first decline in seven years — five million more students signed up for the test than did so in 2002.

但全国对高考的迷恋也表明了进步。虽然今年报名参加高考的考生数出现了近七年来第一次下降，参加今年高考的考生总数还是比2002年多500万。

China now has more than 1,900 institutions of higher learning, nearly double the number in 2000. Close to 19 million students are enrolled, a sixfold jump in one decade.

中国现在有1900多所高等教育机构，几乎是2000年的两倍。录取学生数达到约1900万，是十年前的六倍。

Liu Qichao, 19, a big-boned student with careful habits, plans to be the first in his family to go to college. “There just were not a lot of universities then,” said his father, Liu Jie, who graduated from high school in 1980 and sells textile machinery. His son harbors hopes of getting into one of China’s top universities.

19岁的刘启超身材魁梧，做事认真。他计划成为家里第一个大学生。“那个时候没有那么多大学，”刘启超的父亲刘杰（音）说。刘杰1980年高中毕业，从事纺织机械生意。他的儿子有希望一所中国的顶尖大学。

But the whole family was shaken by the results of his first try at the gao kao last June.

但刘启超去年六月的第一次高考成绩令全家震惊。

The night before the exam, he lingered at his parents’ bedside, unable to sleep for hours. “I was so nervous during the exam my mind went blank,” he said. He scored 432 points out of a possible 750, too low to be admitted even to a second-tier institution.

考试前一晚，刘启超呆在父母床边，几个小时也睡不着。“我太紧张了，考试时候脑子一片空白，”他说。他最后只考了432分（满分750），连二本也没考上。

Silence reigned in the house for days afterward. “My mother was very angry,” he said. “She said, ‘All these years of raising you and washing your clothes and cooking for you, and you earn such a bad score.’

之后好多天家里人都寡言少语。“我妈妈很生气，”刘启超说。“她说，‘这么多年我把你养大成人，给你洗衣做饭，你就考了这么点儿分儿。’

“I cried for half a month.”

“我哭了半个月。”

Then the family arrived at a new plan: He would enroll in a military-style boarding school in Tianjin, devoting himself exclusively to test preparation, and retake the test this June.

最后刘家有了新计划：刘启超报名去了天津一所军事化管理的寄宿学校，全力以赴准备高考，今年六月再次参加高考。

Despite the annual school fee of 38,500 renminbi (about $5,640) — well above the average annual income for a Chinese family — he had plenty of company.

虽然每年学费高达3.85万人民币（月5640美元）——大大超出了一个中国家庭的平均年收入——还是有很多和刘启超一样报考复读班的学生。

One of his classmates, Li Yiran, a cheerful 18-year-old, estimated that more than one-fourth of the seniors at their secondary school, Yangcun No. 1 Middle School, were “restudy” students.

刘启超的一个同学李怡然（音）今年18岁，是一个开朗的年轻人。他估算，他们所在的杨村一中全部学生中，超过四分之一是所谓的“复读生”。

Ms. Li said she learned the hard way about the school’s strict regimen. When her cellphone rang in class one day, the teacher smashed it against the radiator. Classes continue for three weeks straight, barely interrupted by a one-day break.

李小姐说，她从亲身经历的教训中认识到了这所学校的严格。一天在课上，她的手机响了，老师把她的手机往暖气片上摔。学生常常连着上三周课才能放一天假。

Days after most of their classmates left for home, Mr. Liu and Ms. Li were still holed up last week in their classrooms. Mr. Liu’s wrist was bruised from pressing the edge of his blue metal desk, piled with a foot-high stack of textbooks.

他们的同学都回家很多天之后，刘启超和李怡然直到上周仍然在学校“闭关”复习。由于长时间伏在蓝色铁课桌前看书写字，刘启超的手腕瘀青——他的桌子上的课本足有一尺多高。

Ms. Li’s breakfast was a favorite among test-takers: a bread stick next to two eggs, symbolizing a 100 percent score.

李怡然的早餐是所有高考考生的最爱：一棵油条，两个鸡蛋——象征着满分。

Hours after they finished the test on Monday, both students had collected the answers from the district education bureau and begun the laborious process, with the help of their teachers, of estimating their scores.

周一的考试结束几个小时后，刘启超和李怡然都从区教育局拿到了答案，在老师的帮助下开始了繁杂的估分过程。

Mr. Liu calculated that his score leaped by more than 100 points over last year’s dismal performance. But he was still downcast, uncertain whether he would make the cutoff to apply to top-tier universities. The cutoff mark can vary by an applicant’s place of residence and ethnicity.

刘启超估计他今年比去年多考了100多分。但他还是觉得很沮丧，他不知道自己能不能考上一本。中国大学的招生分数线依考生所在地区和民族而不同。

Ms. Li, on the other hand, was exhilarated by her estimate of 482.5, figuring it was probably high enough for admittance to a college of the second rank.

另一方面，李怡然为自己482.5的估分而兴高采烈，她觉得自己的分数应该可以考上二类本科

By Wednesday evening, both were buoyed by news of the cutoff scores for their district. His estimated mark was well above the one needed to apply to first-tier schools, and hers was a solid five points above the notch for the second tier.

到了星期三晚上，，两人都为他们地区的录取分数线所振奋。他的估计的分数已经远超过了填报一本院校所要求的一个学生的分数；而她的则确定超过二本分数线5分。

Before the test, Ms. Li’s aunt warned her that this was her last chance for a college degree. Even if she knelt before her mother and begged, her aunt said, her mother would refuse to let her take the test again.

考试前，李怡然的阿姨提醒她这是她上大学的最后一次机会了。阿姨说，（如果今年她还考不上大学，）就算她跪在她母亲面前哀求，妈妈也不会再给她一次机会了。

But Ms. Li, a hardened veteran of not one but two gao kao ordeals, had a ready retort: “Come on. Even if my mother kneels down before me, I will refuse to take this test again.”

但之前已经经历两次高考洗礼的李怡然早就想好了如何反击：“拜托。就算我妈跪在我面前求我再考一次，我也不会了。”

Newyork Times (纽约时报)