但是在西方的农作习惯中，情况刚好相反。每隔几年土地就得闲置一下，否则就认为会被透支，所以每个冬天，土地都被空置着。

　　The hard labor of spring planting and fall harvesting is followed, like clockwork, by the slower pace of summer and winter.

　　春天的播种和接下来的秋收是劳动强度最大的时候，人们像是在和时间赛跑，但到了夏天和冬天就可以放慢速度。

　　This is the logic the reformers applied to the cultivation of young minds.

　　这个逻辑被改革家应用于年轻思想的改造。

　　We formulate new ideas by analogy, working from what we know towards where we don't, and what the reformers knew were the reasons of the agricultural seasons.

　　我们用同理可证的方式来阐述新观点，从我们已知的事情推测我们未知的。

　　A mind must be cultivated. But not too much, lest it be exhausted. And what was the remedy for the dangers of exhaustion?

　　改革家们知道可以依照农作季节的节奏来改进，那么补救透支危机的方法又是什么呢？

　　The long summer vacation—a peculiar and distinctive American legacy that has had profound consequences for the learning patterns of the students of the present day.

　　长的暑假——一个与众不同的美国传统，这个传统已经在现代学生的学习模式上得到意义深远的证实。

　　Summer vacation is a topic seldom mentioned in American educational debates.

　　在美国教育界的争论中，暑假很少被提及，

　　It is considered a permanent and inviolate feature of school life, like highschool football or the senior prom.

　　它被认为是学校生活中永不改变的特色，就像高中的足球比赛以及毕业舞会一样。

　　But let's consider a set of elementary school test-score results, and see if our faith in the value of long summer holidays isn't profoundly shaken.

　　但是我们研究一下小学每个年级的考试成绩，之后再看看你对暑期长假的信心是否还在。

　　These test-scores come from research led by the Johns Hopkins University sociologist Karl Alexander.

　　约翰·霍普金斯大学的社会学家卡尔·亚历山大研究得出以下这些数据。

　　Alexander tracked the progress of 650 first graders from the Baltimore public school system, looking at how they scored on a widely used math and reading skills exam called the California Achievement Test.

　　亚历山大对650名首批从巴尔的摩公立学校毕业的学生进行跟踪调查，着重分析他们在数学和阅读技能测试中的成绩，这个测试使用的是加利福尼亚的试卷。

　　The scores we're going to consider are for the first five years of elementary school, broken down by social economic class—lower, middle, and high.

　　如下是小学前5个年级的学生阅读成绩，引用的是社会经济学中的分类方法——低，中，高三个级别。

　　If you look at the test-score results, what you find is that students from all three social economic classes start in first grade with meaningful, but not overwhelming, differences in their knowledge and ability.

　　看第一列学生。学生满腹热情地开始了一年级的学习，但这不足以改变他们在知识和能力上的不同。