VOA慢速英语2010年-Education Report - A High School Offer

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Most American schools have boys and girls in the same classroom. But a public high school in the small, rural town of Boonsboro, Maryland, offers a special program. Top students in the ninth and tenth grades can attend single-sex classes for math, science, English and social studies.

The aim is to help teenagers keep their mind on their work by keeping males and females apart.

Rebecca Brown chooses the students for what Boonsboro High School calls the Academy.

REBECCA BROWN: "What we really want to do is take that top group of kids and take them to the very highest level they can achieve here, so that they're prepared for college."

Placement in the Academy is voluntary. Students are invited after middle school.

They need high marks and test scores and strong teacher recommendations. They also need to be involved in activities.

Almost three hundred fifty students have taken part in the Academy. It began as an experiment in two thousand four.

Michael Bair teaches teamwork, reading, writing, computer skills and public speaking in his ninth-grade English class for boys

Michael Bair has been at Boonsboro High for twenty years and directs the Academy. His ninth-grade English class for boys centers on books that he believes boys find interesting.

MICHAEL BAIR: "The novels they're reading now, for lack of a better phrase, they're very manly¹ novels. They're novels that deal with the arrogance² of man and the pride of man which is ultimately man's downfall."

One of those books, for example, is "The Call of the Wild" by Jack³ London. This classic story tells of a dog stolen from his home and sold to work as a sled dog in Canada's Klondike Gold Rush.

On this day, the students are working in small groups. Vincent and Logan explain why they are drawing pictures that relate to the story.

VINCENT: "The main character, Buck⁴, he gets abducted⁵ and they send him off to the Yukon in a train. So I'm drawing part of the story where he's in the train. It gets you to visualize⁶ the setting of the story and gets you to think more about what's going on in the story, the important events of the story."

LOGAN: "Instead of just doing work sheets about it, this is a lot more fun."

Morgan Van Fleet is a senior at Boonsboro High. She liked being in the Academy. She says boys and girls act differently when they are together in a classroom.

MORGAN VAN FLEET: "To me, it almost seems like it's hindering your chances at developing yourself because you're more focused on 'Oh, I wish they'd shut up. Oh, what do they think of me?' instead of focusing on what's the homework or what's going on in this class, what's the lesson."

There is one activity that girls and boys in the Academy do together. At the end of the day, many of them stay and help tutor students who are having trouble in school.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, available online at voaspecialenglish.com and on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube at VOA Learning English. I'm Steve Ember.
 

1 manly   

adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地

参考例句：

• The boy walked with a confident manly stride.这男孩以自信的男人步伐行走。
• He set himself manly tasks and expected others to follow his example.他给自己定下了男子汉的任务，并希望别人效之。

2 arrogance   

n.傲慢，自大

参考例句：

• His arrogance comes out in every speech he makes.他每次讲话都表现得骄傲自大。
• Arrogance arrested his progress.骄傲阻碍了他的进步。

3 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

4 buck   

n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃

参考例句：

• The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
• The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。

5 abducted   

劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展

参考例句：

• Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that she was abducted. 侦探尚未排除她被绑架的可能性。
• The kid was abducted at the gate of kindergarten. 那小孩在幼儿园大门口被绑架走了。

6 visualize   

vt.使看得见，使具体化，想象，设想

参考例句：

• I remember meeting the man before but I can't visualize him.我记得以前见过那个人，但他的样子我想不起来了。
• She couldn't visualize flying through space.她无法想像在太空中飞行的景象。