VOA慢速英语2012 Education Report - IB Program Aims to Form 'Students of the World'

 

Education Report - IB Program Aims to Form 'Students of the World'

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

The International Baccalaureate Organization was founded in nineteen sixty-eight. It works with schools in one hundred forty-three countries to offer programs for students age three to nineteen. These programs, it says, "help develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world."

The organization says IB programs are in more than three thousand schools. The majority of these schools offer IB diploma programs.

High school students have to complete six courses, pass exams and write a twenty-page paper to earn an IB diploma. The courses are in humanities¹, science, arts, math, a second language and their own language.

Students can also attend special events. Recently more than three hundred IB diploma students from thirteen countries attended a conference at the University of British Columbia in Canada. The five-day conference was called "The New Sustainability: Making Things Better, Not Just Less Bad."

The students heard from professors, graduate students, activists² and others. One of the speakers was Drew Deutsch, director of IB Americas. He says the conference was meant as a way for students not only to learn about the environment, but also to develop lasting³ relationships.

DREW DEUTSCH: "We want to send the students back to their schools to highlight issues surrounding protecting the environment, but also make sure these students become more students of the world, and that they form bonds with peers⁴ their own age from around the world. And, obviously, with social networking and the tools that are available to students today, we expect that they will have formed these bonds really for life."

Seventeen-year-old Itzel Chavez is a student at the International School of Beaverton, in the American state of Oregon. She was one of twenty-one IB students who received scholarships to be able to attend the conference.

ITZEL CHAVEZ: "I really wanted to go. So I applied⁵ for a scholarship and I had to write an essay. And in my school they chose one person, and I got chosen for the scholarship. So I got to go."

She says the main speakers would describe a sustainability program or tell how a special project improved the environment in their community. Then the students had to choose a project to present to the conference.

ITZEL CHAVEZ: "We would get into groups of about nineteen or twenty students and we would have to come up with a project for the end of the week that showed what we learned."

Itzel worked on a video. It asked students three questions about sustainability and how they would make it happen in their own communities. After showing it, the members of the group went on stage to tell what they themselves would do to protect the environment.

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. . I'm Jim Tedder⁶.

1 humanities   

n.人文学

参考例句：

• Dalian University offers courses in science and in the humanities. 大连大学开设自然科学和人文科学课程。
• She has a background in humanities and modern languages. 她学过人文学科和现代语言。

2 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

4 peers   

n.同等的人，贵族vi.凝视，窥视vt.与…同等，封为贵族v.凝视( peer的第三人称单数 )；盯着看；同等；比得上

参考例句：

• She enjoys the respect of her peers. 她受到同侪的尊敬。
• She peers into my eyes. 她盯着我的眼睛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

6 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网