【甚解小组】【TASK 1】原文抄抄抄

咖啡盐UID：2973669

Reform and the Teachers’ Unions

Jun.30th


Education officials across the country are increasingly focused on the two critical reform tasks:developing more effective teacher evaluation systems and speeding up the glacial pace of disciplinary hearings for teachers charged with misconduct. The American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second-largest teachers’ union, has wisely chosen to work with state legislatures(议会) and local school districts to help shape these new systems rather than try to block them.


Last week the union’s president, Randi Weingarten, released a plan for speeding up disciplinary hearings that is a good starting point for more discussion. Developed by Kenneth Feinberg, the arbitration specialist, the plan calls for strictly limiting the process — from complaint to resolution — to 100 days. Right now a hearing can drag on for months or years, with the attendant stiff(不灵活的) legal fees.


In many districts, teachers can now be investigated for vaguely worded charges like “moral turpitude” or “conduct unbecoming” that are often difficult to define and difficult to prosecute(起诉) or defend against. The plan would give teachers andschool systems more protection by establishing a clear set of charges — such asimproper(不合适的) use of force, sexual abuse or refusal to obey rules — along with astrict set of deadlines for submissions of evidence and arguments.


The unions and state legislatures also need to press forward on developing evaluation systems that take student performance into account and that allow school systems to reward excellent teaching while steering ineffective teachers out of the field. Ms. Weingarten has shown strong leadership in this area, and is well ahead of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union. But many members of her union are resistant to the idea of accountability systems, which they say can be far too easily manipulated(操作).


The states are already charging ahead in this area. If the unions want to have input, they need to quickly come up with a legitimate proposal of their own.

咖啡盐UID：2973669

leg·is·la·ture    n.

Pronunciation:	'le-jəs-ˌlā-chər also ˌle-jəs-', Brit often 'le-jəs-lə-
Function:	noun
Date:	1654

: a body of persons having the power to legislate specifically : an organized body having the authority to make laws for a political unit
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stiff 1  
stiff1 / stɪf / adjective **
1 if you are stiff or a part of your body is stiff, you feel pain in your muscles and cannot move easily:
My leg muscles always feel stiff after a long bike ride.

2 firm and difficult to bend:
The wet towel I had left hanging outside was frozen and stiff as a board.

3 if something that should move easily is stiff, it does not move or operate as easily as you expect:
The hinges of the box were stiff from lack of use.

4 a mixture that is stiff is very thick and keeps its shape when you stop mixing it:
Beat in the sugar to make a stiff paste.

5 formal and controlled in a way that is not friendly or relaxed:
His face was stiff with disapproval.

6 more severe or difficult than usual:
The government forces met with stiff resistance in the north.
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prosecute  
pros·e·cute / `prɑsɪ,kjut / verb *
1 [intransitive or transitive] to officially accuse someone of a crime and ask a court of law to judge them:
No one has yet been prosecuted in connection with the murder.


2 [intransitive or transitive] to try to prove as a lawyer in court that someone is guilty of a crime:
Julius Capon, prosecuting, described the defendant as ruthless.
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improper  
im·prop·er / ɪm`prɑpər / adjective
1 not suitable or right according to accepted standards of social or professional behavior: INAPPROPRIATE:
It would have been highly improper for you to accept the money.

2 not legal or honest: UNLAWFUL:
The Court judged that there had been no improper conduct by the club.
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ma·nip·u·late  

Pronunciation:	mə-'ni-pyə-ˌlāt
Function:	transitive verb
Inflected Form:	-lat·ed ; -lat·ing
Etymology:	back-formation from manipulation, from French, from manipuler to handle an apparatus in chemistry, ultimately from Latin manipulus
Date:	1834

1 : to treat or operate with or as if with the hands or by mechanical means especially in a skillful manner

2 a : to manage or utilize skillfully b : to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one's own advantage

3 : to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one's purpose :

咖啡盐UID：2973669

30. In order to improve the quality of instruction at the college and university level, all faculty should be required to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach. 为了改善大学的教学质量，所有的教员都应该被要求花一定时间到学术领域以外去参加和他们所教科目相关的工作。

咖啡盐UID：2973669

48th Is Not a Good Place

Feb.3rd.
The NationalAcademies, the country’s leading advisory group on science and technology,warned in 2005 that unless the United  States improved the quality of math andscience education, at all levels, it would continue to lose economic ground toforeign competitors.


Thesituation remains grim(残酷的). According to a follow-up report published last month,the academies found that the United  States ranks 27th out of 29 wealthycountries in the proportion of college students with degrees in science orengineering, while the World Economic Forum ranked this country 48th out of 133developed and developing nations in quality of math and science instruction(教育).


More thanhalf the patents awarded here last year were given to companies from outsidethe United States.In American graduate schools, nearly half of students studying the sciences areforeigners; while these students might once have spent their careers here, manyare now opting to return home.


In a 2009survey, nearly a third of this country’s manufacturing companies reportedhaving trouble finding enough skilled workers.


Theacademies call on federal and state governments to improve early childhoodeducation, strengthen the public school math and science curriculum(课程), andimprove teacher training in these crucial subjects. It calls on government andcolleges to provide more financial and campus support to students who excel atscience.


The reportsets a goal of increasing the percentage of people with undergraduate degreesin science from 6 percent to 10 percent. It calls for the country to quicklydouble the number of minority(少数民族，未成年) students who hold science degrees — to 160,000from about 80,000.


Too often,science curriculums are grinding and unimaginative, which may help explain whymore than half of all college science majors quit the discipline before theyearn their degrees. The science establishment has long viewed a highabandonment rate as part of a natural winnowing.


The University of Maryland,Baltimore County — one of the leading producers ofAfrican-American research scientists in the country — rejects that view. It hasshown that science and engineering students thrive(茁壮成长) when they are given mentorsand early exposure to exciting, cutting-edge laboratory science. Other collegesare now trying to emulate(模仿) the program.


Congress hasan important role to play. It can start by embracing the academies’ call toattract as many as 10,000 qualified math and science teachers annually to theprofession. One sound way to do that — while also increasing the number ofminority scientists — is to expand funding for programs that supporthigh-caliber math and science students in college in return for theircommitment to teach in needy districts.

咖啡盐UID：2973669

grim  
grim / grɪm / adjective *
1 grim news, situations, or events are unpleasant and make you feel upset and worried:
The future looks pretty grim.

2 very serious and unfriendly:
His face was set in a grim expression.

3 a grim place is ugly and unpleasant:
The house was lonely and rather grim.

4 MAINLY BRITISH INFORMAL not very enjoyable, usually because it is of bad quality:
The game was a bit grim.
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cur·ric·u·lum    n.

Pronunciation:	-ləm
Function:	noun
Inflected Form:	plural -la \-lə\ also -lums
Etymology:	New Latin, from Latin, running, course
Date:	1824

1 : the courses offered by an educational institution
  
2 : a set of courses constituting an area of specialization
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in·struc·tion 1    n.

Pronunciation:	in-'strək-shən
Function:	noun
Date:	15th century

1 a : PRECEPT <prevailing cultural instructions> b : a direction calling for compliance : ORDER ― usually used in plural <had instructions not to admit strangers> c plural : an outline or manual of technical procedure : DIRECTIONS d : a code that tells a computer to perform a particular operation
  
2 : the action, practice, or profession of teaching
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minority
mi·nor·i·ty1 / maɪ`nɔrəti / noun ***
1 [count] a small number of people or things that are part of a larger group but different in some way from most of the group:
There are not many, a tiny minority, who have misbehaved outrageously.

2 [uncount] LEGAL the period of time before someone is legally an adult
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thrive    v.

Pronunciation:	'thrīv
Function:	intransitive verb
Inflected Form:	thrived or throve \'thrōv\ ; thrived also thriv·en \'thri-vən\ ; thriv·ing \'thrī-viŋ\
Etymology:	Middle English, from Old Norse thrīfask, probably reflexive of thrīfa to grasp
Date:	13th century

1 : to grow vigorously : FLOURISH
2 : to gain in wealth or possessions : PROSPER
3 : to progress toward or realize a goal despite or because of circumstances ― often used with on <thrives on conflict>
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emulate  
em·u·late / `emjə,leɪt / verb [transitive]
1 FORMAL to try to be like someone or something else, usually because you admire them:
a legal system that has been emulated all over the world

2 COMPUTING if one computer system or program emulates another, it behaves in the same way

咖啡盐UID：2973669

36. Governments should focus more on solving the immediate problems of today rather than trying to solve the anticipated problems of the future.
政府应该把更多的注意力放在解决当务之急，而不是试图解决将来预期的问题上。

8. Students should memorize facts only after they have studied the ideas, trends, and concepts that help explain those facts. Students who have learned only facts have learned very little.
学生们在记忆知识时候应该先学习有助于解释那些知识的理念、潮流和概念。仅仅死学知识的学生是学不到什么东西的。

wendychuengUID：2811319

你好强悍，你这是抄的范文+写思路？

咖啡盐UID：2973669

37# wendychueng
This is an opinion from New York Times which is close to AW.

咖啡盐UID：2973669

Online Shopping Made Easier

Consumers who have practically made a national sport out of hunting down the best price for everything from lipstick to laptops online often fail to comparison-shop for mortgages,finding the Web sites unhelpful or difficult to navigate(驾驭).

Some of thenation’s leading mortgage sites have responded by working to become more consumer-friendly. Their revamped sites, they say, will let borrowers not onlybrowse(浏览) lender rates and terms, but learn about market trends and read comments from other shoppers.

AtLending Tree, an online marketplace that connects borrowers to lenders, consumers can browse not just quotes from various lenders but alsoa burgeoning(急速成长的) array of industry articles, research tools, calculators and consumer-generated ratings and reviews of lenders.

In December,according to Nicole Hall, a spokes woman for LendingTree, the company created anonline feature(优点) in which borrowers can post a mortgage-related question to be answered by a Lending Tree loan specialist. “We’ve been doing a lot of development of information resources for consumers over the past year,” she said, citing the company’s growing list of how-to tips for first-time buyers and those wanting to refinance.

Even major banks are making changes. Bank of America said it was taking a “dual path” online, offering one set of articles and tools for first-time buyers, another for the more experienced. For all borrowers, “we shoot for a ninth-gradereading level for everything we put on the Web,” said Arturo Perez, a homeloans marketing executive(执行者；执行的) at the bank. “We want simpler language.”

The added educational resources and customer tools arrive amid indications that buyers aren’t shopping around for loans nearly as much as they should.

A poll ofmore than 1,300 homeowners conducted by Harris Interactive, a market research firm, for Lending Tree, and published in December, found that while 96 percent of Americans comparison-shopped for “anything,” only 61 percent said they did so for mortgages. The remaining 39 percent took out home loans based on just one quote — even though 9 in 10 of those buyers said they knew that rates varied among lenders.

Mr.Gumbinger believes that consumers, particularly first-time home buyers, simply“get freaked out” by the entire process. “There are so many choices, decisions,time pressures, things to sign,” he said. Thomas Martin, president of America’s Watchdog, a consumer advocacy group, agreed. “They are trying to educate the consumer,” he said ofthe online companies, “and there’s a lot of information out there, but a lot oftimes, it’s overkill.”

Bob Walters,the chief economist at Quicken Loans, says online mortgage companies are generally “more uniformly educational” than the bricks-and-mortar lenders. Buthe agrees about consumers’ propensity to feel overwhelmed — a fact acknowledgedon Quicken’s Web site with a hint of levity: during the holidays, it postedinstructions for turning excess paperwork into Origami.

咖啡盐UID：2973669

navigate  
nav·i·gate / `nævɪ,geɪt / verb
1 [intransitive or transitive] to choose a path so that a ship, airplane, or car can go in a particular direction, especially by using maps or instruments:
By law a harbor pilot must be on board to navigate the ship into port.


2 [transitive] FORMAL to deal effectively with a complicated situation:
There's no one I trust more to navigate these tricky political situations.
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browse  
browse / braʊz / verb *
1 [intransitive or transitive] COMPUTING to look for information on a computer, especially on the Internet:
cell phones that can browse the Web

2 [intransitive] to look at things in a store without being sure whether you want to buy anything:
Can I help you, Sir? No thanks, I'm just browsing.

3 [intransitive] TECHNICAL if animals browse, they feed on plants, especially the leaves on trees:
browse on: The system was very effective in stopping deer browsing on the new leaves in spring.
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burgeoning  
bur·geon·ing / `bɜrdʒənɪŋ / adjective
growing or developing quickly:
the nation's burgeoning middle class
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feature
fea·ture1 / `fitʃər / noun [count] ***
1 an important part or aspect of something:
Each room has its own distinctive features.

2 [usually plural] a part of your face such as your eyes, nose, or mouth:
Her large blue eyes were her best feature.

3 a newspaper or magazine article that concentrates on a particular subject:
feature on: a special feature on new children's books

4 OLD-FASHIONED the main movie that you see after a short movie at a movie theater:
We arrived just in time for the main feature.

咖啡盐UID：2973669

68. Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics. 技术不仅仅影响而且实际上是决定了社会传统和道德规范。

146. Over the past century, the most significant contribution of technology has been to make people’s lives more comfortable.
在上个世纪，技术最有意义的贡献就是使得人们的生活越来越舒适了。

176. Technology creates more problems than it solves, and many threaten or damage the quality of life.
技术解决了问题，但是带来了更多的问题，并且可能会威胁或损害生活质量。

周九UID：2769406

亲爱滴coffe同志，task2时代的抄抄开个新帖子吧，方便lazy组长做链接