罗杰斯女儿秀中文

 　　SINGAPORE, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Happy Rogers, the 9-year-old daughter of legend international investor¹ Jim Rogers, showed off her nearly perfect mandarin² Chinese at an event in Singapore on Wednesday.

　　The student of Nanyang Primary School recited a not-so-well- known poem on wind by Li Qiao, a Chinese poet who lived in the 7th and 8th centuries during the ancient Tang dynasty in China.

　　While it is anything but uncommon³ for young Chinese language learners to recite ancient poems, Happy spoke⁴ the language with a fluency⁵ that could even be the envy of many native speakers.

　　She won a big round of applause from her Singaporean audience, most of whom are Chinese descendants.

　　"I actually did not learn it. I just picked it up listening to native speakers since I was born," the little girl said in Chinese in response to a question from her father.

　　Her 5-year-old sister Baby Bee did equally well, singing nursery rhymes in Chinese, with a lovely sigh at the end.

　　Heng Swee Keat, Singapore's education minister, said at the event on Wednesday that it might the best promotion⁶ of the city state's bilingual education when Rogers brought his two little daughters, who have been attending local schools.

　　Rogers said he hired a Chinese-speaking governess for Happy when she was born. The Rogers had moved to Singapore later so that their daughters could be bilingual.

　　"In my view, the best skills that I can give to our children, born in 2003 and 2008, is to speak fluent mandarin -- and I think they qualify so far -- and to know Asia, not just that they will be able to speak mandarin, they have to know Asia as far as I am concerned. They certainly have to know China. We spend as much time as we can in China," he said.

　　"To be honest, it does give me a bit of pressure to sit the exams in Singapore. But isn't there the Chinese saying that 'you don't achieve much without pressure'? I think the tests have been helpful in keeping me moving. My mother is also telling me that I should have a competitive edge at university if I have the strong fundamentals now," Happy said in Chinese.

　　Singapore has adopted a policy of encouraging bilingual education. The students are asked to, apart from English as the official working language, learn their respective tongues as a second language.

　　The inaugural⁷ China-Quotient Teachers' Forum⁸ was jointly⁹ organized by Business China and the Pioneer Junior College to help teachers understand the forces and factors shaping the rise of China and its relevance¹⁰ to Singapore. An educators' resources package on China for teachers and students of upper secondary and pre-university level was also launched Wednesday.

　　Business China is a non-profit organization launched in 2007 by then Minister Mentor¹¹ Lee Kuan Yew¹² and Chinese Premier¹³ Wen Jiabao to nurture¹⁴ bilingual and bicultural talents and develop a cultural and economic bridge linking the world and China.

　　Rogers said he expected Singapore to have a competitive advantage in the future with its population fluent in both English and Chinese.

　　He said that China does, and will have its own problems, but that he is confident that it will continue to make progresses.

　　The legend investor said he first visited China on motorcycle in 1984 and has made numerous visits to the country ever since.

　　"Since 1984, I have realized that, as an American, everything that I had been taught about China was inaccurate," he said.

　　Heng also recounted his personal experience of getting to know China and how he was impressed by China's response to the Southeast Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 and the recent global financial crisis.

　　China has been learning fast from the others, he said, adding that he is confident that China shall be able to overcome its numerous challenges, including environmental degradation¹⁵.

　　Rogers said he saw potentials for Singapore's water sector¹⁶ in China, given that China is facing a water issue while Singapore has been one of the international water research centers.

1 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

2 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

3 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。

4 spoke   

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。

5 fluency   

n.流畅，雄辩，善辩

参考例句：

• More practice will make you speak with greater fluency.多练习就可以使你的口语更流利。
• Some young children achieve great fluency in their reading.一些孩子小小年纪阅读已经非常流畅。

6 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

7 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。

8 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

9 jointly   

ad.联合地，共同地

参考例句：

• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。
• She owns the house jointly with her husband. 她和丈夫共同拥有这所房子。

10 relevance   

n.中肯，适当，关联，相关性

参考例句：

• Politicians' private lives have no relevance to their public roles.政治家的私生活与他们的公众角色不相关。
• Her ideas have lost all relevance to the modern world.她的想法与现代社会完全脱节。

11 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

12 yew   

n.紫杉属树木

参考例句：

• The leaves of yew trees are poisonous to cattle.紫杉树叶会令牛中毒。
• All parts of the yew tree are poisonous,including the berries.紫杉的各个部分都有毒，包括浆果。

13 premier   

adj.首要的；n.总理，首相

参考例句：

• The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

14 nurture   

n.养育，照顾，教育；滋养，营养品；vt.养育，给与营养物，教养，扶持

参考例句：

• The tree grows well in his nurture.在他的培育下这棵树长得很好。
• The two sisters had received very different nurture.这俩个姊妹接受过极不同的教育。

15 degradation   

n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变

参考例句：

• There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。
• Gambling is always coupled with degradation.赌博总是与堕落相联系。

16 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。