VOA慢速英语2010年-Education Report - Women Edge Past Men

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

In the United States, about six out of ten students in graduate schools are women. The same is true of today's young adults who already have a degree beyond college. As a result, the Census¹ Bureau expects that more women than men will hold professions such as doctors, lawyers and professors.

Men had faster growth rates than women in going to graduate school in two thousand nine. Still, women earned sixty percent of the master's degrees. That was the level of about ninety percent of all the graduate degrees awarded.

But a new report says the two thousand eight-two thousand nine academic year marked a change. Women also earned fifty and four-tenths percent of the doctorate² degrees. The Council of Graduate Schools says this was the first year ever that women earned more doctorates³ than men.

Forty-two percent of all doctorates that year -- the largest share -- were in education, engineering, and biological and agricultural sciences. But the report says between nineteen ninety-nine and two thousand nine, graduate enrollment⁴ increased in all subjects. The fastest growth was in health sciences, business and engineering.

In two thousand nine, graduate schools reported strong growth of six percent in first-time students from the United States. But enrollment of new international students decreased by about two percent -- the first drop since two thousand four. The share of foreign new students in graduate schools fell from eighteen percent to sixteen and a half percent.

In other education news, President Obama marked the new school year with a speech Tuesday. He spoke⁵ from a school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

BARACK OBAMA: "You know what’s going on in the news, and you also know what’s going on in some of your own families. You've read about the war in Afghanistan. You hear about the recession⁶ that we’ve been through. And sometimes maybe you’re seeing the worries in your parents’ faces or sense it in their voice. So a lot of you as a consequence, because we’re going through a tough time as a country, are having to act a lot older than you are."

President Obama told students they need to work hard in school "because an education has never been more important than it is today."

BARACK OBAMA: "The farther you go in school, the farther you’re going to go in life. And at a time when other countries are competing with us like never before, when students around the world in Beijing, China, or Bangalore, India, are working harder than ever, and doing better than ever, your success in school is not just going to determine your success, it’s going to determine America’s success in the twenty-first century."

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Avi Arditti. You can find our programs at voaspecialenglish.com and on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and iTunes at VOA Learning English

1 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

2 doctorate   

n.(大学授予的)博士学位

参考例句：

• He hasn't enough credits to get his doctorate.他的学分不够取得博士学位。
• Where did she do her doctorate?她在哪里攻读博士？

3 doctorates   

n.博士学位( doctorate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nearly 1,000 specialized personnel with doctorates have settled in Shenzhen. 现已引进博士学位的专门人才近千名。 来自互联网
• John played the field academically, obtaining doctorates from several universities. 约翰的学术广博，他从几所大学拿到了博士学位。 来自互联网

4 enrollment   

n.注册或登记的人数；登记

参考例句：

• You will be given a reading list at enrollment.注册时你会收到一份阅读书目。
• I just got the enrollment notice from Fudan University.我刚刚接到复旦大学的入学通知书。

5 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。

6 recession   

n.（工商业的）衷退（期），萧条（期）

参考例句：

• Manufacturing fell sharply under the impact of the recession.受到经济萧条的影响，制造业急剧衰退。
• A rise in interest rates plunged Britain deeper into recession.利率的提高导致英国经济更加萧条。