美国国家公共电台 NPR--What remains of the American University of Afghanistan?

What remains¹ of the American University of Afghanistan?

Transcript²

One year ago this month, the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan. Many people fled into exile and so did the university. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Ian Bickford, the school's president.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

One year ago this month, the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan. Many people fled into exile, and so did an entire university. The American University of Afghanistan was a U.S.-backed institution. Our colleague Steve Inskeep reports on its fate.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We drove past the campus in Kabul but didn't see much. Concrete blast walls surround it. The Taliban attacked that campus in years past and now control it. Faculty³ and students have scattered⁴, yet the university says it remains open and is developing a new campus in Qatar. The university asked us not to meet students who are still in Kabul, saying attention might cause them trouble. But we did reach the university president, who's in Istanbul. Ian Bickford told us how the faculty and students evacuated⁵ one year ago.

IAN BICKFORD: We spent the last two days on campus trying to remove any student records and employee records from the campus, and that included destroying files and hard drives. My colleagues and I and some of the students who remained in the last day stood around a bonfire that was made of our campus records. And, you know, it was - that was the moment of goodbye. There was nothing about it that I can describe in positive terms. But, you know, looking at their faces, looking into their eyes, we knew that we'd done something really important in Afghanistan, and we would continue to do it in whatever way that we can find to do long into the future.

INSKEEP: Do you assume that the university will never return to that campus?

BICKFORD: I cannot and will not assume that.

INSKEEP: Where are your students now?

BICKFORD: They're in roughly 20 countries. More than half of our students who were enrolled⁶ at the time that we closed our campus have left the country. More will leave to join us in Qatar. We anticipate that once the campus in Qatar is operational, all of the women who were enrolled at AUAF last spring will have left Afghanistan and, very hopefully, most or all of the men as well. Others are living and studying independently online in various other countries, and more than 50 of our students now are in the U.S., with the largest number in residence at Bard⁷ College in New York.

INSKEEP: Is it strange to have a university that - like, the campus is gone, that there is no center?

BICKFORD: Is it strange? You know, the experience of the pandemic has not only taught us a lot about the potential of online education but also has led us to ask new and, I think, innovative⁸ and sometimes even exciting questions about how digital technology can keep a community together when you cannot be together physically⁹ and in person.

INSKEEP: What is happening with students in Afghanistan?

BICKFORD: Yeah. The vast majority of young Afghan students who both want and need an education continue to live in Afghanistan, and so it's important for the university to continue to provide that opportunity. So as we're relocating students around the world, we're also continuing to teach online within the borders of Afghanistan. And we anticipate 300 new students, 200 of them women, to join us in the fall to begin their first year of university study online.

INSKEEP: Two-thirds of the in-country students are women, then.

BICKFORD: That's right. That's right.

INSKEEP: What is the current status of the campus? What is the government intending to do with it? And what do you think about their intentions?

BICKFORD: Our best understanding is that what we call our international campus, which is a new, high-tech¹⁰, state-of-the-art campus and the larger of our two campuses, has been well-maintained, carefully maintained and kept secure but that no activities have taken place there. We don't know what the intention for it is. And we still believe that we have the legal right to that campus in Afghanistan under any interpretation¹¹ of prevailing¹² law. All I can say, really, is that the use of either campus should be toward the betterment of Afghan young people and equal opportunity for women. Any use of either campus that betrays either of those principles is a misuse¹³.

INSKEEP: Ian Bickford is president of the American University of Afghanistan, which continues classes this fall, wherever in the world that an enrolled student has access to a screen.

MARTINEZ: Our colleague Steve Inskeep is part of an NPR team reporting on who's included in the Taliban's Afghanistan. For more of our coverage¹⁴, just go to npr.org.

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

4 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

5 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

6 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 bard   

n.吟游诗人

参考例句：

• I'll use my bard song to help you concentrate!我会用我的吟游诗人歌曲帮你集中精神！
• I find him,the wandering grey bard.我发现了正在徘徊的衰老游唱诗人。

8 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

9 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

10 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

11 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

12 prevailing   

adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的

参考例句：

• She wears a fashionable hair style prevailing in the city.她的发型是这个城市流行的款式。
• This reflects attitudes and values prevailing in society.这反映了社会上盛行的态度和价值观。

13 misuse   

n.误用，滥用；vt.误用，滥用

参考例句：

• It disturbs me profoundly that you so misuse your talents.你如此滥用自己的才能，使我深感不安。
• He was sacked for computer misuse.他因滥用计算机而被解雇了。

14 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。