2006年VOA标准英语-Teacher Who Videotaped Cheating Gets Award and

By Matt Steinglass
Hanoi
16 July 2006

Vietnam   
  
A high school mathematics teacher in Vietnam has provoked a furor¹ with videotapes of flagrant, school-sponsored cheating on high school graduation exams. The government has congratulated the teacher, but only after he went public with the evidence. And some students are angry. 

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Last week, Vietnam's new minister of education, Nguyen Tien Nhan, paid a visit to Do Viet Khoa, a high school math teacher in a small town just south of Hanoi. The minister congratulated Khoa for blowing the whistle on massive cheating on high school graduation exams.

During the nationwide exams held between May 31 and June 2, Khoa says he and other teachers were given gifts in exchange for looking the other way while school employees gave students the answers.

Khoa said parents and school officials gave monitors about $25 each, expecting them to say nothing.

In an interview, he said he and the other monitors in his school kept the $25 bribes² as evidence. He secretly videotaped the cheating, and sent the tape to the Ministry³ of Education. When the ministry failed to follow up, he says, he went to the press.

Clips of Khoa's videotape were aired on national TV. Thousands of parents and students responded in newspapers and on Web sites. The Education Ministry, prodded⁴ into action, declared a new initiative to combat exam cheating.

The ministry's vice⁵ administrator-in-chief, Van Dinh Ung, says exam cheating is systemic in Vietnam.

Ung says the problem stems partly from so-called "target disease." Targets are set, and schools are punished if students fail final exams. The easiest way to make sure they pass, Ung says, is to give them the answers.

The system suits many parents and students - everyone, it seems, except students who have studied hard.

Nguyen Van Dung, a student in the school Khoa videotaped, says Khoa was right, and that schools should let students show what they know.

But others are angry, and Khoa says he has received many threatening e-mails. He read one aloud for VOA.

Khoa says e-mailer warns him to fear for his life.

Khoa's home also houses an Internet café, which he runs with his wife. In the three weeks since he went public, he has become a local celebrity⁶, and everyone knows where he lives. But Khoa says he is not scared.

Khoa says people often ask him why he has such a "big liver" - Vietnamese slang for being brave. He says it is because of the Internet, which has allowed him to build links with students, parents and teachers around the country.

Perhaps the clearest sign of Do Viet Khoa's courage is the Web site he and a friend have set up to criticize shortcomings in the educational system. In the first three weeks, he says, they have received more than a thousand comments.

1 furor   

n.狂热；大骚动

参考例句：

• His choice of words created quite a furor.他的措辞引起了相当大的轰动。
• The half hour lecture caused an enormous furor.那半小时的演讲引起了极大的轰动。

2 bribes   

n.贿赂( bribe的名词复数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂v.贿赂( bribe的第三人称单数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• corrupt officials accepting bribes 接受贿赂的贪官污吏

3 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

4 prodded   

v.刺，戳( prod的过去式和过去分词 )；刺激；促使；（用手指或尖物）戳

参考例句：

• She prodded him in the ribs to wake him up. 她用手指杵他的肋部把他叫醒。
• He prodded at the plate of fish with his fork. 他拿叉子戳弄着那盘鱼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。