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Students Return to Campus, HBCU Gains, New TOEFL and More

时间:2021-12-30 01:05:45

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As 2021 started, many American university students were still taking classes by video link because of restrictions1 related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the availability of vaccines2 meant that students at most of the nation's colleges were back by the start of the 2021-2022 school year.

Sue Lorenson, the Vice3 Dean for Undergraduate Education in the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgetown University, said the goal at her school was to get students "as many in-person experiences as possible."

Back to the Robotics Lab

And for the first part of the school year, most schools were back to normal. For example, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, students got back to work in the school's robotics lab.

It was a welcome change for Professor Zac Manchester, who remembered the first part of 2021 as a time where he worked with a student by video call so he could build small satellites for use on a SpaceX rocket launch.

By September 2021, Manchester and his students at Carnegie Mellon were working in person. Their main goal? Test the guesses they made in computer code for their robots. He called it the "sim-to-real gap." Sim is short for simulation.

He added, "there's always little extra ‘gotchas' when you try to do something in the real world." The plan was to fix the problems by testing in the laboratory instead of on computers.

Bart Duisterhof is a student working on an additional degree. He came from The Netherlands. He said if scientists create things that only work in the laboratory, they might have a problem in the future.

The "Other Freshman4 Class"

Other students got the chance to go to campus for the first time in the autumn of 2021, even though they already completed one year of college. Those students became known as "the other freshman class."

One of those students was Jheannelle Johnson from Florida. She arrived in Washington, D.C. to study at Howard University. Howard is one of the most famous Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the U.S. They are known as HBCUs. Many famous people, including U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, attended Howard.

Johnson had the chance to meet schoolmates she had only seen on video or spoken with on the phone. She went to campus events like the homecoming pep rally.

But she was worried about taking tests after working from home for one year. She also got to see a student protest at the Howard campus for a number of weeks.

Mallika Gore6 is from India. She is a second-year student at Syracuse University in New York state. Gore said it was good to get a chance to meet professors in person and ask questions this year.

The excitement of the in-person learning faded as 2021 came to a close, however. A few universities in the U.S. sent students home for winter break early. It is unclear whether students will be back taking classes in-person to start 2022 because of restrictions related to the Omicron version of the new coronavirus.

VOA spoke5 with Gore, the student from India again. She said she was worried about the next part of the school year when she returns to New York from India.

"For me, it's the worry that if I come, what will be changed? I hope I don't have to, mid-semester, go back to my country. So, I think that's the worry."

Howard University, Other HBCUs Gain Notice

However, the year in higher education was not only centered on the COVID-19 pandemic. There were other notable news stories.

For example, Howard University and other HBCUs received increased attention, especially after Kamala Harris was sworn in as Vice President.

At about the same time, Raphael Warnock from Georgia became a U.S. Senator. Warnock went to Morehouse College in Atlanta. In 2020, MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon's Jeff Bezos, donated about $4 billion to educational organizations. That included many HBCUs.

But along with the money, Black students at HBCUs told VOA that they are more at ease attending classes at schools where they are not minorities.

Jabari Johnson is a student from Maryland. He attends North Carolina A&T. He said he feels "at home" there.

"Going around, seeing people who have the same background as me, and seeing people like me that want to do well in their life and want to strive for greatness at this school, really makes me feel at home."

In addition, two of the nation's top Black writers decided7 to join Howard. Nikole Hannah-Jones, a writer for the New York Times, decided to say no to a job at the University of North Carolina, Chapel8 Hill. She won a Pulitzer Prize for creating The 1619 Project for the New York Times magazine.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, a well-known writer whose 2015 book Between the World and Me won a National Book Award, is also joining Howard.

A New TOEFL From ETS

For students outside of the U.S., there was an important new development in the way they can prove their English ability. The American organization ETS released TOEFL Essentials. It is a shorter and less-costly version of the organization's traditional English language test. Some schools are now using this test for international students.

Srikant Gopal of ETS called the new test "innovative9" because of the way it bases the difficulty of its questions on how a student has answered earlier questions. That is what an "adaptive" test does. However, one expert said the move by ETS is a reaction to the growing popularity of the Duolingo English Test. Duolingo is a company that makes online language teaching tools.

Gabriel Guillen of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies said the new TOEFL is "good news," but it is also "pretty obvious that they are responding to the competition of Duolingo."

College Athletes Earn Money, Give it Away

Finally, how is this for some good news to end the year? College athletes in the U.S. for years were not permitted to make money from their fame. Athletes scored points in football games at large universities like Ohio State and Alabama in front of thousands of fans, but could not use their name or picture to make money. In fact, they were punished if they took money, cars or free food from others because of college rules.

However, that changed in 2021.

Some students did gain some money in 2021. However, some students gave away money.

In recent weeks there were stories about football players from the Ohio State University, the University of Nebraska and the University of Iowa who each gave many thousands of dollars they earned this year to charities.

Tyler Linderbaum from Iowa gave $30,000 to a children's hospital.

Words in This Story

code –n. a set of instructions for a computer

simulation – n. something that is made to look, feel, or behave like something else especially so that it can be studied or used to train people

gotcha – n. an unexpected problem or usually unpleasant surprise

campus –n. the area and buildings around a university, college, school or similar organization

pep rally – n. an event before a school sports event that is meant to get students and fans excited and to encourage the team to win

semester – n. one of two usually 18-week periods that make up an academic year at a school or college

background – n. the experiences, knowledge, education, etc., in a person's past

strive – v. to try very hard to do or achieve something

innovative –adj. introducing or using new ideas or methods

obvious – adj. easy to see or notice

charity – n. an organization that helps people who are poor, sick


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 restrictions 81e12dac658cfd4c590486dd6f7523cf     
约束( restriction的名词复数 ); 管制; 制约因素; 带限制性的条件(或规则)
参考例句:
  • I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
  • a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制
2 vaccines c9bb57973a82c1e95c7cd0f4988a1ded     
疫苗,痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
  • The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。
3 vice NU0zQ     
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的
参考例句:
  • He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
  • They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。
4 freshman 1siz9r     
n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)
参考例句:
  • Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
  • He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。
5 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
6 gore gevzd     
n.凝血,血污;v.(动物)用角撞伤,用牙刺破;缝以补裆;顶
参考例句:
  • The fox lay dying in a pool of gore.狐狸倒在血泊中奄奄一息。
  • Carruthers had been gored by a rhinoceros.卡拉瑟斯被犀牛顶伤了。
7 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
8 chapel UXNzg     
n.小教堂,殡仪馆
参考例句:
  • The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
  • She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午,她在小教堂的演出,可以说是登峰造极。
9 innovative D6Vxq     
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。

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