之之

1. Choose a day to dump your boyfriend. Make sure it is a completely insignificant date. Don't add insult to injury by breaking up with him on his birthday, Valentine's Day or the anniversary of the day his dog died.

甩掉男朋友需要挑日子。不要在特殊的日子里把人家甩了，比如他的生日、情人节、交往周年纪念日或者是他的爱犬死掉的纪念日。

2. Keep your distance for at least a week prior to the date you have set. Don't call, message or visit your boyfriend during this time. If he calls you or stops by, tell him you are busy. This gives you time to consider what to say and to be certain you really want to go through with it. Your boyfriend is also likely to sense that something is up, and will (hopefully) start to prepare himself emotionally.

在你选定分手日子之后，这个日期之前至少一个星期，不要跟他太亲密。不要给他打电话、发短信或者是去找他。如果他给你打电话或者来找你，告诉他你很忙。这是给你时间考虑要怎么跟他说以及给你时间确定真的要这么做。这样也会让你男朋友一些暗示，让他有一定的心理准备。

3. Meet at a place where you are both comfortable, but one that is not too crowded with people. You don't want him to feel embarrassed or humiliated if he gets choked up or teary. Make sure it is someplace you will be able to leave quickly and easily, just in case he starts to make a scene or things become heated.

找一个让你们俩都觉得比较舒服的地方见面，但是要注意，这里的人不要太多。你不会希望他哽咽或者哭泣的时候因为旁边人太多而尴尬。另外这个地方需要让你容易快速离开，以防万一他反应过度。

4. Be honest with your boyfriend about your reasons for wanting to break up. Get right to the point. At the same time, be sensitive and choose your words carefully. It's a good idea to rehearse what you are going to say several times before you meet. Have the conversation while looking in a mirror.

诚实地告诉他你想和他分手的原因。直接开门见山就好，同时说话时候的用词要非常注意。在见面前你最好先对着镜子说几遍练习一下。

5. When stating your reasons for breaking up, start your sentences with "I" instead of placing blame. For example, instead of saying "You don't make me happy," you might say, "I'm not happy."

当你再说分手原因的时候，最好用“我怎么怎么样”的句子，而不是责怪。比如说“你让我不开心”就没有“我不开心”的说法要差。

6. Wish him the best. Tell him that you truly hope he finds someone who will love him the way he deserves to be loved—then reiterate that it's just not you. Don't say anything that might give him false hope, such as "I'll still be here if you need someone to talk to."

祝福他。告诉他你真心希望他能找到更好的、更直的他爱的人——而这个人不是你。不要给他任何假的希望，比如“如果想找人聊聊可以找我”之类的话。

之之

Under great academic pressure, a high school student at a famous school in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, killed his mother at home on February 7, Legal Daily reported.

据《法制日报》报道，河南省郑州市某高中名校，一名学生因学习压力大，于2月7日在家中亲手杀死了自己的母亲。

A new term had just started and the student and his mother had an argument about his learning state. Then the boy said: "Mom, I have prepared something for you. Lower your head and close your eyes."

新学期伊始，母子俩因学习状态发生争执。之后，男生说：“妈，我给你准备了一样东西，你把头低下，把眼睛闭上。”

His mother did so, and he took the prepared dumbbell to pound his mother's head. After smashing two times, he cut the mother's throat with a paper knife. Then he tied his mother's neck using a shoelace and knotted it. He went to school after his mother was confirmed dead, with a quilt covering her body.

他的母亲照做后，他举起准备好的哑铃砸向母亲，砸过两下，又用裁纸刀在母亲喉咙割了两下，还用鞋带缠上母亲的脖子并打了结。确定死亡后，他用被子把母亲的尸体盖住，然后去上学。

Being asked by the investigators whether he regretted killing his mother, he casually replied: "I do not regret it. Through doing so I longer need to learn under so much pressure."

办案人员问其是否后悔杀死母亲时，他随口答道：“不后悔。我可以不用学习了，不用压力那么大了。”

之之

Talks between the top nuclear negotiators from the U.S. and North Korea went into "overtime" Thursday after a day of what were described as "substantive and serious" discussions. U.S. negotiator Glyn Davies told reporters in Beijing the sides were in "mid-negotiations" and had decided to have dinner together and then pick up the talks again on Friday. He said the teams had covered a "number of issues" but declined to go into detail about any sticking points such as the issue of nuclear enrichment.

星期四美国和朝鲜高级核谈判代表的会谈进入加时期。此前双方用了一整天时间进行了被形容为“实质性的严肃讨论”。美国谈判代表戴维斯在北京对记者说，双方正在谈判中，已经决定共进晚餐，然后在星期五继续会谈。他说，双方谈判涉及了一些问题，但是他不愿提供有关棘手问题的细节，比如浓缩核材料问题。

This is the third round of meetings between the countries since July, but the first since North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong Un, succeeded his father late last year. Davies and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, met with aides for more than two hours Thursday morning at North Korea's embassy and then resumed the talks in the afternoon at the U.S. Embassy.

这是去年七月以来美、朝间的第三轮谈判。也是金正恩在去年底继承父亲金正日权力以来第一次美、朝会谈。戴维斯跟朝鲜首席谈判代表金桂冠举行了会谈。两人的助手们也出席了会谈。星期四上午会谈持续了两个多小时，会谈地点是朝鲜驻北京使馆。当天下午，双方又在美国使馆继续会谈。

之之

Apple has entered the textbook market. The tech giant introduced iBooks textbooks a couple of weeks ago when it announced its iBooks 2 platform.

几周前，苹果公司在iBooks 2平台的发布会上正式推出iBooks，此举表明这一科技巨头正式进军教科书市场。

They are digital books in a variety of subjects from astronomy to zoology taking in science, maths, history and geography.

电子教科书涵盖了从天文学到动物学等多种主题，包括科学，数学，历史和地理等科目。

Apple developed its iPad-based textbooks in conjunction with major textbook publishers. The company offers a collection of textbooks for high school students.

苹果同一些知名教科书出版商展开合作，研发基于iPad平台的教科书。目前苹果已经推出了一套高中电子教材。

Apple claims it offers a "new textbook experience" and suggests its interactive iBooks textbooks are "the next chapter in learning".

苹果表示将创造一场 “教科书新体验”，并暗示这种互动式的电子教科书将会“开启学习的新篇章”。

It sounds like good news for pupils and students. Think of it. No more carrying heavy backpacks full of textbooks. Every textbook you require can be stored on your iPad.

这听上去对于中小学生来说是个好消息。想想看，不用再背着装满课本的，沉甸甸的书包，因为所有书都可以储存在你的iPad里。

No more having to buy expensive textbooks which you will only use for a year or two and then sell or give away.

也不必再去买那些昂贵的课本，这些课本只能用一两年，之后不是卖掉，就是送人。

Of course there's a catch. You need to own an iPad and as you know, it is not cheap. You also need to buy digital textbooks, mostly priced each at $14.99 (94.74 yuan) or less.

当然凡事有利就有弊。你需要拥有一部iPad，众所周知其价格不菲。此外你还要买电子课本，大多数定价不高于14.99美元（合94.74元人民币）。

Textbook publishing was worth $8.7 billion in the US alone last year. Will digital books take over completely in education?

去年，单是美国的教科书出版业的市值就达到87亿美元。那么电子书将会彻底抢占整个教育市场吗？

Is learning going to evolve into something we do on an electronic tablet computer? You can appreciate the attractions.

我们正步入用平板电脑的学习时代吗？你可以感受到这其中的魅力所在。

Instead of boring old textbooks which are quickly out of date you can have an interactive learning experience.

随着那些无聊又陈旧的课本被迅速淘汰，你便可以体验到互动学习的乐趣。

You can play videos, examine geometrical problems in 3D, listen to music and commentary, make notes and mark passages electronically. You can also share stuff on social networking sites with fellow students.

你可以播放视频，利用3D来解析几何难题，收听音乐以及评论，在电子屏幕上记笔记，做文章注释，还可以与同学在社交网站上分享资料。


The book is dead; long live the tablet computer.

传统课本短命，平板电脑万岁。

But wait a minute. Not so fast. Let's consider the evolution of learning. Thousands of years before books, man was depicting hunting scenes on the walls of caves.

但先等一下，别这么快！我们先回顾一下学习的演变过程。在书籍出现前的数千年里，人类一直都是在洞穴的墙壁上描绘捕猎场景。

As early as 2700 BC Egyptians were converting papyrus into thick forms of paper or parchment ready to receive markings from reed pens.

早在公元前2700年，埃及人便开始把纸莎草纸改进为较厚的纸张或是羊皮纸，以便用芦苇制成的笔记录文字。

In the Middle Ages in Europe monasteries became centers of learning. While some monks ploughed and grew crops, brother monks laboriously copied and illustrated bibles by hand on vellum or parchment.

到了中世纪的欧洲，修道院成为学习中心。当一些僧侣耕种农作物时，另一些同伴卖力地在牛皮纸或羊皮纸上抄写圣经，并手绘插画。

China developed printing, using signs cut into wooden blocks. Books were printed rather than written out by hand. Every candidate for the civil service boned up on Confucius' precepts in printed form.

之后，中国利用篆刻木块制成字体模板发明了印刷术。至此书籍已可印刷出版而并非手工抄写。所有文官的候选人都要用功研读印刷成册的孔子训词。

In 1273 a handbook for Chinese farmers and growers of raw silk was printed, according to Geoffrey Blainey, writer of A Very Short History of the World. Soon 3,000 copies were in circulation, at a time when the same task would have called for a year's labor by a monastery full of Italian monks writing out the books by hand.

《世界简史》的作者杰弗里?布莱尼表示，1273年，一本为中国农民和养蚕者编写的印刷手册问世。不久，便有3000本书流通于世。当时，若是同样一本书，则需要一间修道院里所有意大利僧侣花费一年时间才能抄写完。

The great leap forward in learning came thanks to the printing press. Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz in Germany was perhaps the first European to print a book using not only a printing press but also metallic type.

人类学习历史上的一大飞跃要多亏了印刷机的问世。来自德国美因茨市的约翰内斯?古滕贝格可能是第一位不仅使用机器印刷，还使用金属字块来印刷书本的欧洲人。

His techniques were copied and adapted. Thanks to the printing press, cheap books were possible.

他的技术被广泛采纳应用，因为有了印刷机，书本才会变得这么便宜。

And the rest, as they say, is history. Will Apple revolutionize learning? That remains to be seen.

常言道，剩下的事情地球人都知道了。那么苹果会引领一场学习的变革吗？让我们拭目以待吧！

之之

users must register with their real identities will probably delay the company's revenue-generating plan until the second half of this year.

从那以来，曹国伟已两次推迟了商业化时间表，预计本月他将再次这么做。新浪员工表示，政府要求所有微博用户必须登记真实身份，这很可能将公司的创收计划推迟至今年下半年。

"That will create a lot of negative sentiment with investors," says Alicia Yap, an analyst at Barclays Capital. "The post-New Year rally will not be sustainable."

“这将在投资者当中产生非常大的负面情绪，”巴克莱资本(Barclay Capital)分析师埃利西亚•雅普(Alicia Yap)表示。“新年后新浪股价的涨势将无法持续下去。”

Such concerns were reinforced this week, when government officials said that Weibo users who failed to register under their real names by March 16 would no longer be allowed to post messages. Local media have reported that only 3m new users have registered on Sina Weibo over the past month – down from about 20m in earlier months.

政府官员最近表示，从3月16日起，没有实名注册的用户将不准在微博上发言，这使投资者的担忧进一步加剧。中国媒体报道称，新浪微博过去一个月新增用户仅300万人，低于以往几个月大约新增2000万人的水平。

The company's share price already reflects some of these concerns. Following a series of government moves towards tighter censorship of social media, and falling profitability because of the soaring cost of marketing Weibo, Sina shares have lost 54 per cent since their peak of $142.83 on April 19 last year.

这些担忧已经在新浪的股价中得到了反映。继政府采取一系列措施收紧对社交媒体的审查，同时微博营销成本飙升导致盈利能力下降后，新浪股价已从去年4月19日142.83美元的高位下跌54%。

Sina has not been idle, though. "The company has been working hard to lay the ground for monetisation, and it is moving closer," says Dong Xu, a social media expert at Analysys International, an internet research company in Beijing. That includes hiring engineers to strengthen its skills in developing applications and to adjust its platform to new needs.

不过，新浪未曾懈怠。“新浪一直在努力为微博商业化打基础，现在离目标更近了，”北京互联网调研公司易观国际(Analysys International)的社交媒体专家董旭表示。新浪的努力包括招募工程技术人员来加强应用开发方面的技能，以及调整其平台以满足新的需求。

Unlike Tencent, China's largest internet company by revenues and Sina's main rival in the social space, Sina is essentially a media company. Advertising accounted for 77 per cent of its 2011 revenues of $484m, Morgan Stanley estimates.

与中国营收最高的互联网公司、新浪在社交媒体领域的主要对手腾讯(Tecent)有所不同，新浪在本质上是一家媒体公司。据摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)估计，新浪2011年营业收入为4.84亿美元，其中广告收入占到77%。

Investors hope the company can build a business beyond advertising, similar to Facebook, which last week filed for its long-awaited stock market debut to raise $5bn. Such a model would resemble Tencent, whose broad spread of revenue streams has made it much less vulnerable to cyclical swings when advertising falls.

投资者希望新浪把自己打造成一家类似于Facebook、不仅依赖广告的企业。上周，Facebook提交了期待已久的上市申请，打算融资50亿美元。这种模式将和腾讯很相似，腾讯拥有广泛的收入流，这意味着当广告收入下降时，该公司受到周期波动的影响要小得多。


Sina has taken steps to prepare for that, including the launch of a gaming platform and a virtual currency. But that is all at an experimental stage and there is scepticism about some areas of monetisation.

新浪已采取行动向这个方向努力，包括推出一个游戏平台和一种虚拟货币。但这些都处于试验阶段，而且外界对某些领域的商业化前景表示怀疑。
"So far, most things are free," says Xu Zhiming, founder of Kuaishubao, an online bookstore that uses Sina Weibo for its order management and customer relations.

在线书店快书包(Kuaishubao)的创始人徐智明表示，“大多数东西迄今都是免费的。”目前，快书包使用新浪微博进行订单管理和客户关系管理。

Sina has made its gaming platform free of charge for the first year. Even if it were to start charging, analysts' expectations are very low. This is partly because Sina's user base, which consists largely of white-collar workers in China's largest cities, "are not gamers", says Mr Dong of Analysys.

新浪的游戏平台第一年对用户免收费用。即便开始收费，分析师们的预期也很低。易观国际的董旭表示，部分原因在于，新浪的用户群以中国各大城市的白领为主，他们“不是游戏玩家”。

That would leave Sina with advertising. The two main areas of potential here would be the country's soaring e-commerce market and highly targeted ads similar to those on Facebook. Many Chinese e-commerce sites have already linked up to Weibo, but Sina has yet to demand a revenue share for that.

这使得新浪必须依赖广告。两个具有潜力的主要领域将是中国蒸蒸日上的电子商务市场，以及类似于Facebook的具有高度针对性的广告。许多国内电子商务网站都和新浪建立了链接，但新浪尚未提出收入分成要求。

The biggest disappointment for industry experts has been lack of progress in targeted ads.

最令行业专家失望的一点是，新浪在定向广告上进展甚微。

"In theory, Sina has an incredible asset with all this user data, but they don't appear to know how to analyse those data," says a Beijing advertising agent.

一家北京的广告代理商表示，“在理论上，所有这些用户数据都是新浪的宝贵资产，但他们好像不懂得如何分析这些数据。”

Despite healthy advertising demand in general, that weakness in reading the data impedes progress, especially in the current political climate. "Brands worry that they could be tied to re-tweeted messages that might be sensitive," says Barcap's Ms Yap.

尽管广告需求总体上保持稳健，但解读数据方面的弱点妨碍了新浪的发展，尤其是在当前的政治气候下。“各品牌担心，它们可能受到转发的敏感信息的牵连，”巴克莱资本的雅普表示。

All these things are much less of a problem for Tencent. Although it has a microblog of its own, the Shenzhen-based company sees the service mostly as a tool to wear down Sina and make sure it does not challenge Tencent's lead in social networking in China.

对腾讯而言，所有这些都不算什么问题。尽管腾讯也推出了自己的微博，但这家总部位于深圳的公司主要把微博服务视为拖住新浪的一种工具，确保新浪不会挑战自己在中国社交网站领域的领先地位。

Says a Tencent executive: "We have no plans to monetise our microblog. We don't need to."

一位腾讯高管表示：“我们还没有使微博商业化的计划。我们不需要这么做。”

之之

China's exponential growth over the last decade is admired globally, but could eventually come with a price: social unrest.

过去10年里，中国呈几何级数的经济增长让全世界艳羡不已，但这最终可能也会让中国付出一个代价：社会不稳。

According to the head of Europe's largest aluminum producer Norsk Hydro, China's new and still growing middle class is likely to get increasingly frustrated at the restrictions its ruling class impose.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images欧洲最大的铝业生产商挪威海德鲁公司(Norsk Hydro)首席执行长说，对于规模还在壮大的中国新兴中产阶级来说，统治阶层施加的限制很可能会让他们越来越感觉到失望。

"My concern is the long-term situation in China, when hundreds of millions of people are middle class ─can they accept that the freedom they experience is not of the same degree as in democratic nations in the West?" says Svein Richard Brandtzaeg.

布兰采格(Svein Richard Brandtzaeg)说，我担心的是中国的长期形势；当数亿人迈入中产阶级的行列，他们是否能接受这样的事实，即自己所获得的自由在程度上同西方民主国家有所不同？

"This could increase the temperature of Chinese society, although I'm not saying there will be a revolution. But if the government continues to handle its population in the same way, it'll find that it is faced with a nation demanding democracy."

布兰采格说，这会让中国社会矛盾加剧，不过我并不是说会爆发革命。但是如果政府继续以同样的方式对待它的人民，它就会发现它所面对的是一个要求民主的国家。

China is already struggling with inflation, Mr. Brandtzaeg says, with Norsk Hydro facing salary increases of 20% a year at its operations there, with the concept of these generous wage hikes backed by the government.

中国已经受到通货膨胀的困扰。布兰采格说，海德鲁在中国的工厂面临着每年为其员工加薪20%的压力，而这种大幅提薪的要求也得到了政府的支持。

While keeping its huge population happy is clearly critical for the country, Mr. Brandtzaeg says that at least one other negative consequence of Chinese growth is already being seen.

很显然，让庞大的人口感到满意对中国来说至关重要。然而布兰采格说，除此之外，至少还有一个由中国经济增长带来的消极后果已经开始显现。

"Rising costs will influence the appetite for foreign direct investment into China and this investment could start to reverse the other way as a result," he adds.

成本上升将影响外国直接投资进入中国的动力，结果可能导致这类投资开始向相反的方向流动。

之之

China's exponential growth over the last decade is admired globally, but could eventually come with a price: social unrest.

过去10年里，中国呈几何级数的经济增长让全世界艳羡不已，但这最终可能也会让中国付出一个代价：社会不稳。

According to the head of Europe's largest aluminum producer Norsk Hydro, China's new and still growing middle class is likely to get increasingly frustrated at the restrictions its ruling class impose.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images欧洲最大的铝业生产商挪威海德鲁公司(Norsk Hydro)首席执行长说，对于规模还在壮大的中国新兴中产阶级来说，统治阶层施加的限制很可能会让他们越来越感觉到失望。

"My concern is the long-term situation in China, when hundreds of millions of people are middle class ─can they accept that the freedom they experience is not of the same degree as in democratic nations in the West?" says Svein Richard Brandtzaeg.

布兰采格(Svein Richard Brandtzaeg)说，我担心的是中国的长期形势；当数亿人迈入中产阶级的行列，他们是否能接受这样的事实，即自己所获得的自由在程度上同西方民主国家有所不同？

"This could increase the temperature of Chinese society, although I'm not saying there will be a revolution. But if the government continues to handle its population in the same way, it'll find that it is faced with a nation demanding democracy."

布兰采格说，这会让中国社会矛盾加剧，不过我并不是说会爆发革命。但是如果政府继续以同样的方式对待它的人民，它就会发现它所面对的是一个要求民主的国家。

China is already struggling with inflation, Mr. Brandtzaeg says, with Norsk Hydro facing salary increases of 20% a year at its operations there, with the concept of these generous wage hikes backed by the government.

中国已经受到通货膨胀的困扰。布兰采格说，海德鲁在中国的工厂面临着每年为其员工加薪20%的压力，而这种大幅提薪的要求也得到了政府的支持。

While keeping its huge population happy is clearly critical for the country, Mr. Brandtzaeg says that at least one other negative consequence of Chinese growth is already being seen.

很显然，让庞大的人口感到满意对中国来说至关重要。然而布兰采格说，除此之外，至少还有一个由中国经济增长带来的消极后果已经开始显现。

"Rising costs will influence the appetite for foreign direct investment into China and this investment could start to reverse the other way as a result," he adds.

成本上升将影响外国直接投资进入中国的动力，结果可能导致这类投资开始向相反的方向流动。

之之

China says it has lodged an official complaint with Tokyo, after the mayor of a Japanese city again denied the well-documented pre-World War Two massacre of several hundred thousand Chinese civilians by Japanese troops in 1937. Nanjing officials suspended all contacts late Tuesday with its Japanese sister city, Nagoya. The action came hours after the Chinese consulate in Nagoya protested Mayor Takashi Kawamura's assertion that the so-called Nanjing massacre "probably never happened." Chinese and Western historians estimate that between 200,000 and 300,000 Chinese were killed by Imperial Japanese forces during a six-week period beginning in December 1937. Many Chinese, including war survivors, still voice resentment toward Japan.

中国表示已向日本提出正式交涉。在此之前，日本名古屋市长再次否认第二次世界大战前日本军队于1937年屠杀了成千上万名中国平民，尽管有详实的记录记载这次屠杀。南京官员星期二晚中断了与日本姊妹城市名古屋的一切联系。在南京采取这一行动前几个小时，中国驻名古屋领事馆抗议名古屋市长河村隆之所说的所谓南京屠杀“可能根本没有发生过”。 中国和西方历史学家估计有大约20万到30万中国人在1937年12月开始的六个星期期间被日本帝国军队杀死。 很多中国人，包括一些战争幸存者仍然仇视日本。

Kawamura also raised the ire of China in 2009, when he told the Nagoya city council that the Nanjing death toll cited by Beijing was inflated. In 2005, protests erupted across much of East Asia over Japan's approval of revisionist history textbooks that also minimize the impact of its wartime activities. Protesters also targeted Japanese efforts to gain a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

河村隆之2009年的言论也曾惹恼中国。他当时对名古屋市议会说，南京的死亡人数被北京夸大了。2005年，东亚各地爆发示威，抗议日本通过修改历史教科书。修改的历史教科书把日本在战争时期活动的影响最小化。抗议者还抗议日本争取获得联合国安理会常任理事国地位。

之之

One of the odd stories to come out of the French-speaking province of Quebec last year was the announcement that intensive English courses would be offered to students in state schools. Odd, because in the past half-century, much of the Québécois identity has been built on resisting English. Authorities throw the book at people for doing things that would be normal elsewhere in Canada. Last autumn, the Montreal newspaper La Presse revealed that two real estate executives had made presentations in English to a Montreal-based pension fund, violating the province's language laws, which give workers the right to a French-speaking environment.

去年，以法语为官方语言的加拿大魁北克省传来了一则不同寻常的消息：该省宣布将在公立学校中面向学生开设英语精读课程。之所以说它不同寻常，是因为在过去半个世纪中，魁北克人的民族认同在很大程度上建立在抵制英语这一基础上。在加拿大其他地方被视为正常的事情，在魁北克却会受到当局最严厉的惩罚。去年秋天，蒙特利尔报纸《La Presse》曝光了一件事：两名房地产行业的高管使用英语向一支总部位于蒙特利尔的养老基金做报告。这种行为违反了魁北克省的语言法。在该省，员工有权享有一个讲法语的工作环境。

Now, school authorities in Quebec City are questioning whether the time is ripe for introducing those English classes after all. Their hesitation has left French-speaking parents angry. On one hand, those parents want their children to cherish their own community and its language. On the other hand, English is the international language of business, and their children will have a hard time climbing the social ladder without it.

如今，对于引入此类英语课程的时机到底是不是已经成熟，魁北克市学校当局提出了质疑。他们的犹豫不决令那些讲法语的家长们感到愤怒。一方面，父母希望子女珍视他们自己的社交圈和语言。另一方面，在英语已成为国际商务语言的情况下，如果不会讲英语，他们子女在提高自身社会地位的过程中将遭遇重重障碍。

Self-contradiction besets all governments as they try to work out a role for English in their national culture. Long-time Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was, as a young man, a promoter of Malay. He made it the language of school instruction two decades ago. But in 2003, he came up with a plan to teach mathematics and science in English, reasoning that most technical literature on those subjects was in English. It was a flop. English-language ability, among both teachers and students, had dropped more precipitously since independence than Dr Mahathir cared to admit. But when the government suggested discontinuing the programme in 2009, parents flew into a rage.

那些试图在自身文化中为英语寻找到合适定位的政府，都无法摆脱这种矛盾。长期担任马来西亚总理的马哈蒂尔•穆罕默德(Mahathir Mohamad)年轻时曾是马来语的推动者。20年前，他使马来语成为了学校的教学语言。但2003年时，他又提出一项新计划，也就是用英语来教授数学和科学，原因是这些学科的大部分技术文献都是用英语撰写的。此举彻底受挫。马来西亚教师和学生的英语能力自该国独立以来已急剧下滑，尽管马哈蒂尔博士本人不愿承认下滑得有那么厉害。然而，当2009年马来西亚政府建议中止该计划时，家长们却强烈不满。

Not all cultures have the same historical anguish over English that Malaysians and Québécois do. But almost all are being dragged ineluctably towards giving English a bigger role in their societies. More than a dozen EU countries require that English be taught in schools. In Thailand and China, the government has fostered English-language learning circles. Francophone Rwanda switched over in 2009 to English school instruction. English spreads wherever there is democracy or markets or even the slightest inclination towards them.

在英语这个问题上，并不是所有文化都遭遇了马来西亚人和魁北克人遭遇的那种历史痛苦。但如今，几乎所有的文化都不得不在各自的社会中赋予英语更加重要的角色，这已成为一种不可避免的趋势。已有十余个欧盟(EU)国家要求本国学校教授英语。在泰国和中国，政府对英语学习圈子进行了扶持。法语国家卢旺达2009年时将学校教学语言改为英语。一个地方只要拥有民主或市场、甚至只要具备向民主或市场靠拢的最轻微倾向，英语就会该地蔓延开来。

So now we can all talk, we peoples of the world. The universalisation of English has happy consequences. But like the building of the Tower of Babel, it has negative ones, too. English as a lingua franca offers unfair advantages to the half-billion people who speak English as a native language. We sometimes assume that English is a world standard only for superficial interactions — hotel personnel saying "How was your stay?" or business consultants importing words like "benchmarking" into their own languages. But French and German professors, for instance, often grumble that it is hard to build a career when academic journals are all in English.

于是，现在全世界的人可以彼此交流了。英语的普及产生了积极的影响。但是，就像建造巴别塔(Tower of Babel)一样，它也带来了消极影响。对以英语为母语的5亿人来说，作为通用语言的英语为他们提供了一种有失公平的优势。我们有时只是出于泛泛交流的原因，就将英语视为一种世界标准——比如酒店工作人员说的那句“How was your stay?”（您住得愉快吗？），或是商业顾问们引入到自己母语中的“benchmarking”（标杆管理法）等词汇。但法国和德国的教授却经常抱怨道，在所有学术刊物都以英语为书面语言的情况下，他们的职业发展困难重重。这只是一个例子。

Meanwhile, there can be a diversity-stifling effect to "diversity". When universities, whether in Quebec or Paris or Catalonia, teach classes in global English, they can adorn their student bodies with exotic people from around the world — the most talented ones, the flower of their respective cultures. But the net effect can be to turn these varied young people into extremely unvaried adults. Language shapes mentalities — how deeply is harder to say. But the spread of English may be limiting our ability to think in different ways.

另一方面，英语的普及可能会扼杀“多样性”。当各所大学——不管是魁北克、巴黎还是加泰罗尼亚的大学——都用全球性的英语授课时，它们能够吸引到来自世界各地的留学生，来充实自己的学生队伍。这些留学生极具天赋，是各自文明的奇葩。但这种做法的最终结果却是把这些原本特点各异的年轻人培养成了毫无差异的成年人。语言可以塑造人们的心智。这种塑造力到底有多大，愈发难以说清。但英语的扩张也许正在抑制我们以不同方式思考问题的能力。

In a fascinating piece written for the New York Review of Books last June, the novelist Tim Parks described his suspicion that world authors today write with an eye to the translatability of their work into English. They "had already performed a translation within their own languages", he writes. Mr Parks was grateful for the directness this produced, but worried it came at a price in literary variety. Global English allows writers to go "not quite as far but in half the time", as the old Cure song used to have it.

小说家蒂姆•帕克斯(Tim Parks)去年6月为《纽约书评》(New York Review of Books)撰写了一篇颇有意思的文章，他在文章中谈到了自己的一点怀疑：世界各国的作家如今在写作时都会考虑，自己的作品是否容易译成英语。帕克斯在文中指出，作家们“在成文时实际上是在用母语翻译英语版的内容。”这样做能使文章译成英语后通俗易懂，对此帕克斯予以了肯定，但他担心这会牺牲文学的多样性。就像《The Cure》乐队的那支老歌所唱的，全球性的英语让作家虽然“走得没那么远，但用时却减少了一半”。

The writer Robert McCrum wrote in his recent book Globish that there are 4bn people who understand English, if we're generous about what we mean by English. One can only rub one's eyes. Anyone who is now 38 years old or older was alive at a time when 4bn was more than the whole population of the planet. It reached that level in 1974, just seven years before Fran•ois Mitterrand came to power in France. His culture minister, Jack Lang, waged a fight against the linguistic imperialism of English. A later government would specify that 40 per cent of popular songs on the radio had to be in French. That law gave rise to a lot of laughter in Washington and London. It doesn't seem quite so crazy as it did back then.

作家罗伯特•麦克拉姆(Robert McCrum)在他最近所写的《全球语》(Globish)一书中谈到，如果我们对英语下一种宽泛的定义，那么目前世界上有40亿人懂英语。你或许会对此大感意外。如果你现在的年龄在38岁或以上，那么你的人生中曾经有过这样一段日子：那时，全世界的人口总和还不到40亿。全球人口在1974年时达到40亿，7年后，弗朗索瓦•密特朗(Fran•ois Mitterrand)执掌了法国的政权。密特朗时期的文化部长雅克•朗(Jack Lang)发起了一场反抗英语语言霸权的斗争。那之后的历届法国政府将会规定：电台播放的流行歌曲中，法语歌必须占到40%。这部法律在华盛顿和伦敦一度成为笑料。今天，这个主意似乎并没有当初看上去那样疯狂。

The writer is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard

之之

This report and other recent studies show that online learning, distance learning, and self-learning in general, are not only more convenient, but, in fact, more effective than the classroom, for high school, college and adult learners. In the last decade, the Internet, the MP3 player, the iPhone, and other mobile devices,as well as social networking sites, language exchange communities, online learning systems, university courses online and more, have changed how we deal with knowledge. The walls of academia, and the costs of learning, are crumbling before our eyes and ears.
本篇报道和其他近期研究都显示普遍而言，网络课程、远程教育和自学比起传统高中、大学和成人教育模式等，不仅更加方便、而且效率更高。在过去的十年当中，互联网、mp3随身听、iPhone、其他便携式设备以及网络社区、网上教育课程、高校网络教程等等都改变了我们学习知识的方式。高等教育的围墙、大笔的学费都在我们眼前崩塌。

For those who are conditioned to think that learning only happens in a classroom, the world of self-learning can be a little daunting. How do we best take advantage these new opportunities.
对于那些认为学习只能在教室中进行的人而言，自学可能会吓怕他们。那么我们怎么才能最好的利用自学这种新兴的学习方法呢？下面以自学外语为例，为大家介绍一些小诀窍。

1. Get interested
第一步：对所学之物感兴趣

Make no mistake. Your interest in the subject is the essential driver of success. You can't learn what you do not want to learn. Emotion is an important part of the learning process. If you are even moderately interested in a subject, give yourself a chance. The key is to get started. If you can create some pleasurable routines, you may find that the subject grows on you. “L’appetit vient en mangeant” (the appetite comes with eating) as they say in French.
可别搞错了，兴趣是成功学成某件事的根本要素！你不想学的东西当然学不会。在学习过程中保持热情至关重要。所以如果你对某件事有些兴趣，那就给自己一个学习的机会。关键是要“开始”！如果你能创造一些让自己开心的学习模式，那么就能好好开始学习这门科目。就像他们在法语里说的那样：吃着吃着就有胃口了！

很多同学因为看美剧或动漫而对英语、日语产生了强烈的兴趣，这就是一个很棒的开始。如果你能抓住这个兴趣，把兴趣发展到语言学习中，你就不仅仅能得到看剧的快乐，更能为自己添加一种新的能力。不要担心自己学不下来，总要给自己一个机会开始。

2. Expect problems and you won’t be disappointed.
第二布：降低期望值，这样就不会对自己失望

Don't expect to understand things, much less remember them, the first time you study them. Trust that things will get clearer as your brain comes to grips with new information. It is like a jig-saw puzzle or a cross-word puzzle. As you start to put the pieces together, or string the words together, the full picture becomes clearer. The brain learns all the time, but on its own schedule. Learning does not take place according to a schedule laid down by a curriculum or teacher. Some things are easier to learn than others. Some things just take longer to click in. Keep at it, and you will gradually find that things that seem difficult at first, will become second nature with time.
当一开始学习的时候，别指望能一下就全部理解、更别说记住所有知识点了。要相信，随着你了解越来越多的新知识、你的头脑也会变得清晰起来。这就像是拼图、或者填字游戏那样：当你把图形一个一个拼起来、或是把单词一一填进去，整个大局就会清楚。大脑其实随时都在学习，不过它也有自己的节奏。学习的过程是不会按照一个课程、或是老师给你规定的进行的。有的东西比其他好学，有的东西就是需要花更多时间。坚持下去，你慢慢就会发现那些一开始看上去很难的东西也会随着时间变得简单了。

3. Cover the same ground from different angles.
第三步：从不同的角度学习同一个知识点。

Your brain is struggling to form patterns to cope with new input from your learning activities. Sometimes, no matter how long you focus on one subject, your brain is not going to pick it up. If you are stuck, move on. Then cover the same general information from a different source, a different book, or a podcast, or an online lecture or a video. Try to become a grazing learner, roaming the countryside, rather than a feedlot learner, just standing there in one spot, munching on the same bale of hay. The broader your base, the easier it is to learn. Just as the “rich get richer”, the more you know, the more you can learn.
在新知识的学习过程中，你的大脑会通过固有模式来接受新的知识点。有的时候，不管花多长时间对着一个科目，你就是记不住它。如果卡在这种时候，就略过它。跟着从其他的信息来源：比如不同的书籍、播客、线上课程或视频来重新学习同一个知识点。试着把自己变成一个“放养”的学习者——在知识的草原上四处周游；而不是“圈养”的学习者——只站在一个点上学习，反复咀嚼一个知识点。看地越广、就能学的轻松。就像是“有钱的更有钱”的道理那样，你知道的越多、就能学的越多。

4. Anytime is learning time.
第四步：随时都是学习时间！

Take full advantage of the Internet, iTunes, and various mobile devices, not to mention good old-fashioned books and magazines. Learn during “dead time”. Listen in your car, on the train, or while jogging. Have your learning with you while waiting in the doctor's office, or listen while checking out at the supermarket. Anytime is learning time. Remember, you are learning through exposure, not by nailing things down. It is more like moisture accumulation in a cloud, rather than building a brick wall.
一定要好好利用互联网、iTunes和其他多种移动便携设备，更不用说书籍和杂志这样的传统学习资源啦!把那些“死时间”也都利用起来：开车、坐火车、或者慢跑时都可以听课。在医院排队、或是超市等结账的时候你有没有在听课呢？其实随时都可以是学习时间。记住，你要与学习材料耳鬓厮磨来学习，而不是痛苦地一点一点去啃材料。这个过程更像是一朵云的形成，是水汽的一点点累计；而不像砌一面墙那样，把砖堆上去就好。

网络课程最大的优势就在于“随时随地”！只要有网络，学习时间由你定。有的人适合早起，一清早最有效率；可有的人就是天生的夜猫子，早晨的学习效率无论如何都高不起来。现在都不用担心了，你完全可以按照适合自己的时间点来调节、来学习。

5. Be a multimedia learner.
第五步：做一个多媒体学习者

The more varied your learning content, and the more varied the ways in which you learn, the clearer the puzzle will become. Different learning activities suit different people, at different times of the day. Vary your activities in order to keep your interest level up. Even if listening and reading work best for you, treat yourself to the odd video lecture, or get-together with other learners. This will renew your batteries.
你学习的内容越多、来源越多，你就会对知识点越清楚。不同的人适合不同的学习方法，每天的学习“兴奋点”也不错。所以最好能找到自己的一套学习规律来保持自己的“兴奋度”。即便听和读是你习惯的学习方式，也要让自己试着去听听看视频的演讲、或是跟其他学习者交流。这会让你重新充满精力！

6. Join learning communities.
第六步：加入学习社区

The “loneliness of the distance learner” is a thing of the past. Join a learning community on the web, where members share their knowledge and experience. Search for the communities that suit your interests and learning style. You will find encouragement, advice and stimulus from fellow learners, as well as from tutors, teachers and coaches. In these communities, you can measure your progress against your own goals, or compare your experience with that of other learners. You can even teach and help others, which is a great way to learn.
“远程教育是孤独的”概念已经成为过去。现在你可以加入一个网络学习社区，和大家一起分享知识与经验。找一个符合你兴趣和学习方式的社区。在那里你可以从其他学习者身上找到鼓励、建议和动力，同时也有导师、老师和教练给你提供支持。在这些社区中，你能更好地检验自己的学习进度、也可以和其他学习者竞争。甚至，你还可以教授或帮助其他人，这的确是一个学习的好方法！