经济学人：停课不停学，网课怎么上效率更高？|外刊精读

由于疫情形势严峻，在教育部门提出停课不停学的计划后，各地的学校、机构纷纷 行动，一场在线教育的风暴席卷全国，成为了学生、老师和家长关心的热点话题。 我们这周的精读文章便聚焦于"在线教育"。文章 选自《经济学人》2017年1月12日Special Report专栏的报道。该期特别报道刊登了一系列关于终身学习(lifelong learning)的文章，内容深刻，语言精炼，推荐大家阅读。

我们今天来读其中一篇关于在线教育的文章。 原文比较长，我选择了其中4段带大家一起阅读

建议大家先跟着音频独立阅读原文，有读不懂的地方不要紧，后面会有详细的讲解。

These are still early days. Coursera does not give outfigures on its paying learners; Udacity says it has 13,000 people doing its nanodegrees. Whatever the arithmetic, the reinvented MOOCs matter because they are solving two problems they sharewith every provider of later-life education.

The first of these is the cost of learning, not just in money but also in time. Formal education rests on the idea of qualifications that take a set period to complete. In America the entrenched notion of “seat time”, the amount of time that students spend with school teachers or university professors, dates back to Andrew Carnegie. It was originallyintended as an eligibility requirement for teachers to draw a pensionfrom the industrialist’s nascent pension schemefor college faculty. Students in their early 20s can more easily afford a lengthytime commitment because they are less likely to have other responsibilities. Although millions of people do manage part-time or distance learning in later life—one-third of all working students currently enrolled in America are 30-54 years old, according to the Georgetown University Centre on Education and the Workforce—balancing learning, working and family life can cause enormous pressures.

Moreover, the world of work increasingly demands a quick response from the education system to provide people with the desiredqualifications. To take one example from Burning Glass, in 2014 just under 50,000 American job-vacancyads asked for a CISSP cyber-security certificate. Since only 65,000 people in America hold such a certificate and it takes five years of experience to earn one, that requirement will be hard to meet. Less demandingprofessions also put up huge barriers to entry. If you want to become a licensed cosmetologist in New Hampshire, you will need to have racked up 1,500 hours of training.

In response, the MOOCs have tried to make their content as digestible and flexible as possible. Degrees are broken into modules; modules into courses; courses into short segments. The MOOCs test for optimal length to ensure people complete the course; six minutes is thought to be the sweet spot for online video and four weeks for a course.

📒 语篇分析：本段开始阐述问题一：学习成本。 ① 句为中心句，提出观点：问题之一是学习成本，尤其是时间成本。 ② 句指出正规教育的基石：需要一段固定的时间达成资质。 ③ ④ 句解释 ② 句的历史渊源。 ⑤ ⑥ 句从学生的现实状况出发分析原因。⑤从正面着笔，说明二十出头的学生时间成本更低。 ⑥ 句从反面展开论述，分析成年后再进行学习的困难，并引用数据进行论证。

• rest on sth 表示“基于，以…为基础”，相当于我们熟悉的be based on sth，比如 ◇The whole argument rests on a false assumption. 整 个论点都是基于一个错误的假设。

• rest on sth 表示“依赖，依靠” (to depend or rely on sb / sth) ，是外刊的高频表达。

• set 作形容词表示“安排好的，固定的” (planned or fixed) ，比如 ◇Each person was given set jobs to do. 分配给每个人的工作都是预先确定好的。 [熟词僻义]

• entrench 义为“ 使…更加巩固，使…根深蒂固 ” (to establish sth very firmly so that it is very difficult to change) ， 一般跟某种观念、习俗、权力，含有贬义。 比如 ◇Sexism is deeply entrenched in our society. 性别歧视在我们这个社会根深蒂固。再比如 ◇Mobile phones had become entrenched in young people’s lives, and many did not have their use restricted.

• date back to sth / date from sth 表示“追溯到，始于” (to have existed since a particular time in the past or for the length of time mentioned) 。

• be intended as sth 指“准备，预留”作某种用途或给某人用，比如我们在精读社学过一篇关于大兴机场的文章，里面有这样一句话： The airport is also intended as a gift for the relatively underdeveloped region south of the capital where it is located (67km from Capital airport in the north-east). 该机场还将作为礼物送给首都北京南部相对欠发达地区（它距离东北部的首都国际机场67公里）。

• eligibility [,elidʒə'biləti] 指“适合性，适任性” (If you're qualified for something or allowed to take part in it, you have eligibility) 。

• 形容词 eligible [ˈelɪdʒəbl] 义为“合格的;具备条件的” (having the necessary qualities or satisfying the necessary conditions) 。 be eligible for sth / be eligible to do sth 指“合格的，有资格的”，比如 ◇ You could be eligible for a university scholarship . 你也许有资格获得大学奖学金

• eligible 还有“合适的，中意的”的意思 (An eligible man or woman is not yet married and is thought by many people to be a suitable partner) ，比如《经济学人》一篇关于婚姻市场的文章有这样一句话: Jane Austen 's characters took it for granted that men with money made more eligible mates. 简 · 奥斯丁笔下的人物想当然地认为越是有钱的男人越适合做伴侣。

• draw 指“提取，领取” (to take money or payments from a bank account or post office) ，比如 ◇She went to the post office to draw her pension. 她到邮局去领取她的养老金。 [熟词僻义]

• nascent [ˈnæsənt] 指“新生的，萌芽，未成熟的” (beginning to exist; not yet fully developed) 。近义表达还有budding, embryonic, incipient, fledgling。

• scheme 作名词指“计划，方案，体系” (a plan or system for doing or organizing sth)

• scheme 作动词表示“密谋，图谋” (to make secret plans to do sth that will help yourself and possibly harm others) ，比如 ◇His colleagues, meanwhile, were busily scheming to get rid of him. 与此同时，他的同事在加紧谋划除掉他。

• lengthy 义为“冗长的，详尽的” (a speech, piece of writing etc that is lengthy is long and often contains too many details) ，比如一篇冗长的报告： a lengthy report

• at length 义为“长时间；详尽地” (for a long time and in detail) 。比如考研英语一2010 Text 1中的一句话： In those far-off days, it was taken for granted that the critics of major papers would write in detail and at length about the events they covered. 在那个遥远的年代，各大报刊的评论家们都会详尽细致地􏰁述他们所报道的事件，这在当时是理所当然的。

• commitment 表示“花费，使用” 资金、时间、人力 (agreeing to use money, time or people in order to achieve sth) ，比如 ◇Achieving success at this level requires a commitment of time and energy. 取得这种水平的成就需要花费时间和精力。

• 动词短语 commit sth into sth 指“投入”，比如 ◇A lot of money has been committed to this project. 这个项目已经投入了很多钱。

• millions of people 指“数百万人”，类似的表达还有tens of millions of sb 指“上千万人.” 我们可以用这类相对具体的数字代替many people, a great/large number of people, numerous/countless people，形容有许多人。比如《经济学人》一篇关于新冠肺炎的文章提到： Moreover, tens of millions of migrant workers, back in their hometowns for the holiday, may wait for the epidemic to recede before crowding onto trains and buses to return to their jobs. [写作推荐]
• distance learning/education 表示“远程教育，在线教育”。我 们 还可以用online education/learning, internet-based learning/education 表示“在线教育”。 传统的实体中教育可称为classroom-based education 以及实体教室称作 bricks-and- mortar classrooms。 大家可以把这些表达积累下来，以后在以在线教育为主题的文章里进行同义替换，避免重复使用。 [写作推荐]

📒 语篇分析： 本段进一步从职场角度阐述时间成本。 ① 句指出职场要求教育系统反应迅速。逻辑连接词moreover实现段间衔接。 ② ③ 句以Burning Glass提供的例子为例，说明拿一个高级的职业资质需要大量的时间成本。 ④ ⑤ 句指出要求不高的专业职位也有准入门槛，并以美容师为例论证观点。

• desired 指“想要的” (Anything desired is sought after) ，比如 ◇His remarks had the desired effect. 他的话达到了想要的效果。近义表达还有wished-for, sought-after, coveted，大家可以一起打包记忆。

• vacancy 这里是名词，义为“空缺” (a job or position which has not been filled) ， 比如我们在精读社学过一篇关于中国毕业即失业现象的文章，文中有这样一句话： A report in May by the China Institute for Employment Research, a think-tank, found that there were 1.4 entry-level vacancies (excluding unskilled work) for each graduating student. 今年 5 月，智库中国就业研究所发布了的一份报告，报告显示每名毕业班学生对应 1.4 个入门级职位空缺（不包括非技术工作）。形容词形式为 vacant 。

• certificate [ɪgˌzæmɪˈneɪʃən] 指“文凭，合格证书” (an official paper stating that you have completed a course of study or passed an examination) 。

• demanding 形容物表示“要求高的，需要高技能的” (needing a lot of skill, patience, effort, etc) ，我们可以用demanding来替换difficult，形容任务的难度，比如《经济学人》一篇关于大学学位的文章有这样一句话： Employers demand degrees for jobs that never required them in the past and have not become more demanding since. 对于那些过去并没有学位要求的工作职位，雇主现在提出了要求，而这些工作并没有变得更难。类似的表达还有 challenging ，也可用于替换difficult。 [写作推荐]

• barriers to entry 指“准入门槛”，是外刊的高频词，比如我们在2018年的精读社学过一篇关于电子商务巨头的文章，里面有这样一句话： Through one lens, this is a boon for competition. The e-commerce sites of Amazon and Alibaba lower barriers to entry by providing a simpler, cheaper way for small manufacturers to distribute goods and find potential buyers. 从某个角度看，这对竞争是一大福音。亚马逊和阿里巴巴的电子商务网站降低了准入门槛，为小型制造商提供了一种更简单、更廉价的方式来分销商品、寻找潜在买家。

• licensed 指“得到正式许可的” (having official permission to do sth) ，比如 ◇a licensed private investigator 有执照的私人侦探

• rack up sth 表示“累积，聚集” (to collect sth, such as profits or losses in a business, or points in a competition) ，比如 ◇The company racked up $200 million in losses in two years. 公司两年内损失累计达2 亿元。 ◇In ten years of boxing he racked up a record 176 wins. 在十年的拳击生涯中，他累计获胜 176 次，创下纪录。类似的表达还有notch up sth, chalk up sth, secure sth。