對(duì)于很多準(zhǔn)備考托福的同學(xué)來說，不知道準(zhǔn)備得怎么樣呢？今天就和出國留學(xué)網(wǎng)的小編一起來了解一下托福閱讀素材解析：終生學(xué)習(xí)，知易行難。
Technology and education
Lifelong learning
It is easy to say that people need to keep learning throughout their careers. The practicalities are daunting
科技和教育
終身學(xué)習(xí)
人們需要終身學(xué)習(xí)，這一點(diǎn)知易行難
WHEN education fails to keep pace with technology， the result is inequality. Without the skills to stay useful as innovations arrive， workers suffer—and if enough of them fall behind， society starts to fall apart. That fundamental insight seized reformers in the Industrial revolution， heralding state-funded universal schooling. Later， automation in factories and offices called forth a surge in college graduates. The combination of education and innovation， spread over decades， led to a remarkable flowering of prosperity.
當(dāng)教育跟不上技術(shù)進(jìn)步時(shí)，就會(huì)造成不平等。在創(chuàng)新到來之際，工人如果沒有技能使自己對(duì)雇主仍然“有用”，他們就會(huì)遭殃。而如果落后的工人太多，社會(huì)就開始崩塌。這一根本性的洞見極大影響了工業(yè)革命時(shí)期的改革者，推動(dòng)了國家資助全民教育的普及。后來，工廠和辦公室自動(dòng)化又引發(fā)了大學(xué)生人數(shù)猛增。教育和創(chuàng)新相輔相成，歷經(jīng)數(shù)十年，令繁榮之花耀眼綻放。
Today robotics and artificial intelligence call for another education revolution. This time， however， working lives are so lengthy and so fast-changing that simply cramming more schooling in at the start is not enough. People must also be able to acquire new skills throughout their careers.
今天，機(jī)器人和人工智能呼喚又一場(chǎng)教育革命。而這一次，工作生涯如此漫長(zhǎng)而又變化迅速，只在人生初期強(qiáng)加更多教育已經(jīng)不足以應(yīng)付。人們還必須能在整個(gè)職業(yè)生涯中獲取新技能。
Unfortunately， as our special report in this issue sets out， the lifelong learning that exists today mainly benefits high achievers—and is therefore more likely to exacerbate inequality than diminish it. If 21st-century economies are not to create a massive underclass， policymakers urgently need to work out how to help all their citizens learn while they earn. So far， their ambition has fallen pitifully short.
不幸的是，正如我們本期特別報(bào)道所述，目前的終身學(xué)習(xí)主要是令成功人士受益，因此更可能加劇而非減輕不平等。如果21世紀(jì)的經(jīng)濟(jì)體不想要產(chǎn)生一個(gè)龐大的底層階級(jí)，政策制定者亟需制定措施，幫助國民在謀生的同時(shí)學(xué)習(xí)。而迄今為止，他們的抱負(fù)還小得可憐。
Machines or learning
The classic model of education—a burst at the start and top-ups through company training—is breaking down. One reason is the need for new， and constantly updated， skills. Manufacturing increasingly calls for brain work rather than metal-bashing. The share of the American workforce employed in routine office jobs declined from 25.5% to 21% between 1996 and 2015. The single， stable career has gone the way of the Rolodex.
機(jī)器還是學(xué)習(xí)
在青少年時(shí)強(qiáng)化學(xué)習(xí)，之后通過公司培訓(xùn)加以補(bǔ)充，這種傳統(tǒng)的教育模式正在失效。原因之一是需要新的技能，而且還要不斷更新。制造業(yè)越來越多地需要腦力而非蠻力。從1996年到2015年，常規(guī)辦公職位在美國勞動(dòng)力中所占的比例從25.5%下降到21%。單一穩(wěn)定的職業(yè)生涯已經(jīng)像旋轉(zhuǎn)式名片夾一樣一去不返了。
Pushing people into ever-higher levels of formal education at the start of their lives is not the way to cope. Just 16% of Americans think that a four-year college degree prepares students very well for a good job. Although a vocational education promises that vital first hire， those with specialised training tend to withdraw from the labour force earlier than those with general education—perhaps because they are less adaptable.
在人生初期讓人們接受更高程度的正規(guī)教育并非解決之道。僅有16%的美國人認(rèn)為四年的大學(xué)教育足以讓學(xué)生找到一份好工作。盡管職業(yè)教育能確保找到至關(guān)重要的第一份工作，但接受專門培訓(xùn)的人往往比接受普通教育的人更早退出勞動(dòng)大軍，可能是因?yàn)榍罢哌m應(yīng)性較弱。
At the same time on-the-job training is shrinking. In America and Britain it has fallen by roughly half in the past two decades. Self-employment is spreading， leaving more people to take responsibility for their own skills. Taking time out later in life to pursue a formal qualification is an option， but it costs money and most colleges are geared towards youngsters.
與此同時(shí)，在職培訓(xùn)也在萎縮。在美國和英國，在職培訓(xùn)在過去20年里下降了大概一半。自雇人群正在增多，令更多的人要為自己的技能負(fù)責(zé)。在年紀(jì)較大的時(shí)候抽出時(shí)間獲得一個(gè)正規(guī)的資質(zhì)是一種選擇，但要投入成本，而且大多數(shù)院校是針對(duì)年輕人開設(shè)的。
The market is innovating to enable workers to learn and earn in new ways. Providers from General Assembly to Pluralsight are building businesses on the promise of boosting and rebooting careers. Massive open online courses （MOOCs） have veered away from lectures on Plato or black holes in favour of courses that make their students more employable. At Udacity and Coursera self-improvers pay for cheap， short programmes that bestow “microcredentials” and “nanodegrees” in， say， self-driving cars or the Android operating system. By offering degrees online， universities are making it easier for professionals to burnish their skills. A single master’s programme from Georgia Tech could expand the annual output of computer-science master’s degrees in America by close to 10%.
市場(chǎng)正在創(chuàng)新以讓工人能夠有新的方法學(xué)習(xí)和賺錢。從General Assembly到Pluralsight，各類供應(yīng)商紛紛以推動(dòng)和重啟職業(yè)生涯的承諾開創(chuàng)業(yè)務(wù)。大規(guī)模開放式在線課程（MOOC）不再講授柏拉圖或黑洞，而向幫助學(xué)生就業(yè)的課程傾斜。在優(yōu)達(dá)學(xué)城（Udacity）和Coursera，進(jìn)修者付費(fèi)學(xué)習(xí)低價(jià)的短期課程，獲得如自動(dòng)駕駛汽車或安卓操作系統(tǒng)方面的“微證書”和“納米學(xué)位”。大學(xué)也開始提供在線學(xué)位，幫助專業(yè)人士更方便地提升技能。單是佐治亞理工學(xué)院（Georgia Tech）的碩士課程就能把每年美國計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)碩士的畢業(yè)人數(shù)提高近10%。
Such efforts demonstrate how to interleave careers and learning. But left to its own devices， this nascent market will mainly serve those who already have advantages. It is easier to learn later in life if you enjoyed the classroom first time around： about 80% of the learners on Coursera already have degrees. Online learning requires some IT literacy， yet one in four adults in the OECD has no or limited experience of computers. Skills atrophy unless they are used， but many low-end jobs give workers little chance to practise them.
這些革新顯示了如何交織工作和學(xué)習(xí)。但是，如果任其自行發(fā)展，這一新生市場(chǎng)將會(huì)主要服務(wù)那些已經(jīng)具備優(yōu)勢(shì)的人。如果你在年輕時(shí)就享受課堂學(xué)習(xí)，那么日后學(xué)習(xí)起來也會(huì)更容易：在Coursera，大約80%的學(xué)生已經(jīng)擁有學(xué)位。在線學(xué)習(xí)需要一些IT知識(shí)，而在經(jīng)合組織國家里，四分之一的成年人沒有或只有很少的計(jì)算機(jī)經(jīng)驗(yàn)。技能不用則退，但在很多低端工作中，工人基本沒有機(jī)會(huì)實(shí)踐技能。
Shampoo technician wanted
If new ways of learning are to help those who need them most， policymakers should be aiming for something far more radical. Because education is a public good whose benefits spill over to all of society， governments have a vital role to play—not just by spending more， but also by spending wisely.
招募洗發(fā)師
如果新的學(xué)習(xí)方式是要幫助那些最需要幫助的人，那么政策制定者應(yīng)該尋求遠(yuǎn)為根本性的舉措。因?yàn)榻逃且环N公益事業(yè)，其益處會(huì)延及整個(gè)社會(huì)，各國政府要發(fā)揮重要作用——不僅要增加投入，還得把錢花得明智。
Lifelong learning starts at school. As a rule， education should not be narrowly vocational. The curriculum needs to teach children how to study and think. A focus on “metacognition” will make them better at picking up skills later in life.
終身學(xué)習(xí)始于學(xué)校。一般來說，教育不應(yīng)該有狹隘的職業(yè)性。學(xué)生需要從課程中學(xué)會(huì)如何學(xué)習(xí)和思考。注重“元認(rèn)知”將幫助學(xué)生日后更好地學(xué)習(xí)技能。
But the biggest change is to make adult learning routinely accessible to all. One way is for citizens to receive vouchers that they can use to pay for training. Singapore has such “individual learning accounts”； it has given money to everyone over 25 to spend on any of 500 approved courses. So far each citizen has only a few hundred dollars， but it is early days.
但最大的改變是讓所有人都能常態(tài)化地進(jìn)行成人學(xué)習(xí)。一個(gè)方法是向國民發(fā)放抵用券，可用于支付培訓(xùn)費(fèi)用。新加坡就有這樣的“個(gè)人學(xué)習(xí)賬戶”。該國向所有25歲以上的國民提供資金，可用來選擇學(xué)習(xí)500種經(jīng)認(rèn)可的課程。到目前為止，每個(gè)國民只領(lǐng)取了幾百美元，但這才剛剛開始。
Courses paid for by taxpayers risk being wasteful. But industry can help by steering people towards the skills it wants and by working with MOOCs and colleges to design courses that are relevant. Companies can also encourage their staff to learn. AT&T， a telecoms firm which wants to equip its workforce with digital skills， spends $30m a year on reimbursing employees’ tuition costs. Trade unions can play a useful role as organisers of lifelong learning， particularly for those—workers in small firms or the self-employed—for whom company-provided training is unlikely. A union-run training programme in Britain has support from political parties on the right and left.
由納稅人付費(fèi)的課程有可能被浪費(fèi)。但企業(yè)界可以提供幫助，引導(dǎo)人們學(xué)習(xí)業(yè)界所需的技能，并和MOOC及大學(xué)院校合作設(shè)計(jì)有用的課程。企業(yè)還可以鼓勵(lì)員工學(xué)習(xí)。電信公司AT&T希望員工具備數(shù)字技能，它每年支出3000萬美元報(bào)銷員工的學(xué)費(fèi)。工會(huì)也可以發(fā)揮作用，組織終身學(xué)習(xí)，尤其是幫助那些小公司的員工或自雇人士，因?yàn)檫@些人不大可能有公費(fèi)培訓(xùn)的機(jī)會(huì)。在英國，一個(gè)工會(huì)組織的培訓(xùn)項(xiàng)目同時(shí)得到了左右兩派政黨的支持。
To make all this training worthwhile， governments need to slash the licensing requirements and other barriers that make it hard for newcomers to enter occupations. Rather than asking for 300 hours’ practice to qualify to wash hair， for instance， the state of Tennessee should let hairdressers decide for themselves who is the best person to hire.
要讓所有這些培訓(xùn)有價(jià)值，政府需要大力降低執(zhí)業(yè)資格要求以及其他阻礙新人入行的門檻。例如，與其要求有300小時(shí)的實(shí)習(xí)來獲得做洗發(fā)工的資格，田納西州應(yīng)該讓理發(fā)店自行決定雇誰最好。
Not everyone will successfully navigate the shifting jobs market. Those most at risk of technological disruption are men in blue-collar jobs， many of whom reject taking less “masculine” roles in fast-growing areas such as health care. But to keep the numbers of those left behind to a minimum， all adults must have access to flexible， affordable training. The 19th and 20th centuries saw stunning advances in education. That should be the scale of the ambition today.
并非每個(gè)人都能成功應(yīng)付正在變化的就業(yè)市場(chǎng)。受技術(shù)顛覆威脅最大的是那些藍(lán)領(lǐng)工人，其中很多人拒絕在醫(yī)療護(hù)理等快速發(fā)展的領(lǐng)域里承擔(dān)不那么“男子漢”的工作。但是，若要盡量減少因時(shí)代改變而落伍的人數(shù)，那么所有成年人都必須能夠獲得靈活而又實(shí)惠的培訓(xùn)。在19和20世紀(jì)，教育有了令人震驚的進(jìn)步。今天的抱負(fù)應(yīng)當(dāng)不遜當(dāng)年。