VOA慢速英语20060216a

EDUCATION REPORT - Advanced Placement Programs Grow in U.S. High SchoolsBy Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Thursday, February 16, 2006

This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Education Report.

Sixty percent of high schools in the United States now offer college-level work through Advanced Placement courses. Two times as many students take A.P. courses today compared to ten years ago.

The College Board administers¹ the program, along with others including the SAT college entrance test. The non-profit organization has a new report out that marks the fiftieth anniversary² of Advanced Placement.


AP classes

The program now offers thirty-five courses in twenty subjects. These include art, biology, calculus³ and history, as well as language, music, physics and psychology⁴. Classes prepare students to take A.P. exams. Last year, more than one million students worldwide took more than two million A.P. exams.

The results are in the form of a number from number from one to five. Five represents excellent college work. Three is average.

Most American colleges and universities give credit⁵ to students who receive a three or better on their A.P. exams. That means they can start with higher level college classes than students who did not do as well or did not take the tests.

Students can take an A.P. exam even without the coursework. Each test costs about eighty dollars.

Among minority students, Latinos are well-represented in Advanced Placement classes in many states. African-Americans are not. Black students are more than thirteen percent of the student population. But they are only six percent of those who take A.P. exams.

The College Board notes that studies support the value of the Advanced Placement program. These include the most recent Trends in International Math and Science Study. It shows that in two thousand three, the United States was near the bottom among sixteen countries on a calculus test. But the American students who had taken A.P. calculus did as well as the top students on the test.

President Bush wants to increase the number of A.P. math and science students. And he has proposed⁶ training seventy thousand more teachers over five years to teach them.

Three hundred eighty thousand American students currently⁷ take A.P. math and science exams. The goal is to increase that to one and one-half million by two thousand twelve.

Details of the new report can be found on the Web at collegeboard.com.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at www.unsv.com. This is Shep O'Neal.

1 administers   

管理( administer的第三人称单数 )； 治理（国家）； 给予； 执行

参考例句：

• Physical exercise administers to the circulation of the blood. 体育锻炼有助于血液循环。
• Health administers to peace of mind. 健康有助于身心的安宁。

2 anniversary   

n.周年(纪念日)

参考例句：

• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。
• Today is my parents'30th wedding anniversary.今天是我父母结婚30周年纪念日。

3 calculus   

n.微积分；结石

参考例句：

• This is a problem where calculus won't help at all.对于这一题，微积分一点也用不上。
• After studying differential calculus you will be able to solve these mathematical problems.学了微积分之后，你们就能够解这些数学题了。

4 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

5 credit   

n.信用，荣誉，贷款，学分；v.归功于，赞颂，信任

参考例句：

• I credit him with a certain amount of sense.我认为他有一定的见识。
• He got the credit,and we did the dirty work.他得荣誉，我们做不讨好的工作。

6 proposed   

被提议的

参考例句：

• There is widespread discontent among the staff at the proposed changes to pay and conditions. 员工对改变工资和工作环境的建议普遍不满。
• an outcry over the proposed change 对拟议的改革所发出的强烈抗议

7 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。