super-achieving students revealed that top grades do not always go to the brightest students. According to him, other education experts and top students themselves, it is far more important for a student to know how to make the most of his or her innate abilities.
全优生的秘诀
一位研究教育的老师对成绩优异的学生进行过几项大型调查，发现成绩最优秀的学生不一定是头脑最聪明的学生。根据这位教授、其他教育专家以及全优生们自己的观点，懂得如何充分发挥自己的潜能对于学生来说更为重要。close2RT The students at the top of the class attain academic excellence by mastering a few basic principles that others can easily learn. To begin with, top students know how to set their priorities right. Study time is never compromised for phone calls, television programmes or snacks. In other words, it is always placed above recreation. In addition, top students make a point of study anywhere or everywhere. A top student who is also a top athlete memorises biology terms as he works out every day. Another student learns a new word every morning while brushing his teeth. Among all the students interviewed, every one agreed that study times are strictly a matter of personal preference. Some thrive at night when all is silent. Others prefer to study as soon as they come home from school when the lessons are fresh in their minds. However, all agreed that consistency is a main factor if one is to perform well at all times.
在班上名列前茅的学生之所以学习优秀，是因为他们掌握了几个基本原则，其他学生也可以轻松学会的。首先，全优生知道如何决定轻重缓急。他们从来不会为了打电话、看电视或者吃零食而牺牲学习时间。换言之，学习总是摆在娱乐之前。另外，全优生们总是注意随时随地学习。有位成绩优异的学生同时也是优秀的运动员，每天利用户外训练时间背生物学术语。而另一位学生则利用每天早上刷牙时间记一个新单词。而在所有被采访的学生中，无一例外都认为在什么时间学习完全是个人偏好问题。有些人在夜深人静时学习效果最好，有些人则喜欢趁着自己还能清晰地记得上课所讲的内容，一放学回家就开始学习。尽管如此，所有的全优生都一致认为，如果想任何时候都表现优秀，一个主要的因素就是要持之以恒。close3RT A student must also learn to be organised. For example, a top student who is actively involved in his school band, track and field, rugby association and debate team disclosed that he keeps his things in their proper places because he simply cannot afford time-wasting searches. Another student immediately files the day's notes in colour-coded folders so that they are available for review nearing examination time.Another technique advocated by top students is to read effectively. This includes speed-reading, improving one's memory or retention ability, and actively asking questions that will lead to a full understanding of the author's message.
学生还必须学会有条理。举个例子，有一位全优生在学校乐队、田径队、橄榄球
协会和辩论小组里都很活跃，他透露，他之所以把东西放得井井有条是因为他浪费不起到处找东西的时间。还有一位学生喜欢把当天的笔记马上整理出来并放进用不同颜色标记的文件夹里，以便临近考试时能随时用来复习。全优生们提倡的另一个技巧是有效的阅读，其中包括快速阅读、提高记忆能力以及主动提出问题以便充分理解作者的意思。close4RT It is also important for students to know how to schedule their time. They must know how to pace each assignment or project according to their daily timetable and work ability so that they might not be overwhelmed by the tasks at hand. Being able to set timetables not only allows students more time to review and polish their work, it also prevents them from procrastinating. Top students believe that a secret of their success is the taking down of good notes during lessons and using them for revision. One student revealed that she writes notes from the text on one side of her notebook and those from her teachers' lectures on the other side. This allows her to review both aspects of each lesson at once. The student also revealed that instead of wasting time whispering to friends and getting ready to rush out of the class just before the bell rings, she uses those few minutes to jot down a two or three-sentence summary of the lesson's principal points. She then scans the notes to refresh her memory before the next day's class.
对于学生们来说，合理安排时间也同样重要。他们必须懂得如何根据每天的时间表和学习能力来安排做作业和项目的速度，不至于让手头的工作压得喘不过气。能制定时间表不仅让学生能够腾出更多时间来复习和完善功课，而且还能防止他们拖拖拉拉。成绩优异的学生认为，他们成功的一大秘诀就是上课时做好笔记，供复习时使用。有个学生透露，她把从课文上摘抄的内容记在笔记本的一边，把课堂笔记写在另一边。这样，就可同时复习到两方面的内容。她还透露，她不会浪费下课铃响前的几分钟跟朋友交头接耳，准备随时冲出教室。相反，她会利用这几分钟用两三句话概括那节课的要点，然后在下次上课前浏览这些笔记，借以加深印象。close5RT Another winning formula which teachers promote lies in a student's ability to hand in neat work. According to one professor, the student who turns in neat work is already on the way to scoring an A. In the classroom context, it is equally important for students to speak up and ask questions. This is perhaps the best way for a student to clarify any doubts. Classroom participation also demonstrates a student's intellectual curiosity. As a student concisely puts it, \grades come from better understanding.\
老师们提倡的另一个制胜秘诀是尽力让自己的作业整洁。有位老师说，学生交上整洁作业就已向高分迈进了一步。在课堂上大胆发言和提问也同样重要，这或许是学生澄清疑问的最好办法。课堂参与还能反映一个学生的求知欲。有个学生概括得好，“成绩来自透彻的理解”。close6RT The value of studying together was demonstrated in an experiment conducted at one top university. The study revealed that students who discussed homework and problems together, tried different approaches and explained their solutions to one another scored higher than those who laboured on their own. The experiment also illuminated the value of hypothetical tests conducted among the students and on their own. This means that students frame
tentative test questions based on their notes and give each other or themselves written examinations the day before a test. Experts confirmed that students who devise possible test questions often find many of the same questions during the real examination and thus score higher.
一项在一所世界顶级大学进行的调查证明了小组学习的价值所在。研究表明，学生们如果一起讨论家庭作业和问题，尝试不同的解决办法，并且互相解释各自的方法，分数就会比那些单独用功的学生要高。研究也证明了学生间互相进行模拟测试或自我测试的好处。这就是说，学生们根据笔记设计可能的试题，在考试前一天相互之间进行书面测试或自测。专家们证实，那些能设计模拟试题的学生，往往会在正式考题中发现很多相同的试题，自然能得高分了。close7RT Another technique employed by top students is to do more than the assigned homework. A student revealed that if her teacher gives five problems, she will undertake ten. In the student's words, \learn.\\super-achievers were taught the importance of learning by their parents. The latter set high standards for their children and held them to those standards. They encouraged their children in their studies but did not undertake the work for them. Instead of pressuring their children, these parents were always loving, gentle and took pains to explain and motivate. They impressed the lessons of responsibility on their children, and the children delivered.
全优生使用的另一个技巧是超额完成规定的家庭作业。一位学生透露，老师若是布置五道题，她会做上十道。用她的话说，“练习是学习的一部分。练得越多，学到的也越多。”最后一点同样不容忽视：所有的专家和优秀学生都认为，全优生们之所以成功，父母的功劳至关重要。从孩提时起，父母就给他们灌输学习的重要性，为他们制定高标准，并且引导他们达到这些标准。在学习方面他们给孩子以鼓励，而不是代劳。这些父母从不给孩子施加压力，永远都温柔慈爱，不厌其烦地解释和激励。他们使孩子们铭记肩负的责任，而孩子们则将其付诸实践。 2
College Pressures
William Zinsser This text is excerpted and adapted from The Norton Reader, 11th Edition by Peterson, L.H., & Brereton, J.C. New York & London: W.W. Norton. 2004.
close1RT As master at Branford College , I see four kinds of pressure working on college students today: economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. It is easy to look around for villains (罪犯) — to blame the colleges for charging too much money, the professors for assigning too much work, the parents for pushing their children too far, the students for driving themselves too hard. But there are no villains; only victims.
象牙塔里的压力
威廉·津瑟
身为布兰福德学院的院长，我发觉当今的大学生面临着四种压力：经济压力、来自父母的压力、来自学伴的压力、以及自己给自己的压力。我们往往会去寻找\罪魁祸首\：学校收费太高，老师布置太多作业，父母逼迫孩子太紧，学生对自己要求太严。但在压力问题上，没有恶人，只有受害者。 close2RT Students today live in a brutal (残忍的) economy . Tuition , room, books and various kinds of fees have come to such a great sum that it is not unusual for a student, even if he works part time at college and full time during the summer, to accumulate $5,000 in loans after four years — loans that he must start to repay (偿还) within one year after graduation.
当今的学生生活在一个残酷的经济现实中，学费、住宿费、书本费及这样那样的费用加起来数量不菲，即使一个学生在校期间做兼职，暑期做全职，四年内还是会欠下5,000美元贷款，毕业后一年内就要开始偿还。close3RT For those lucky few who can get financial help from their parents, money may not be a tough problem, but they will suffer from the pressure that comes from their parents.
少数幸运的学生能得到父母的经济援助，钱并不是一个棘手的问题，但是来自父母的压力让他们的日子也不好过。close4RT I see many students taking pre-medical courses with joyless determination . They go off to their labs as if they were going to the dentist . It saddens me because I know them in other corners of their life as cheerful people.
我看到很多学生一门心思修读医学院预科课程，但却毫无快乐可言。他们去实验室就像去看牙医一样痛苦。这让我很伤心，因为我知道在生活的其他方面他们是开朗快乐的。close5RT \
我问他们：“你想学医吗？”close6RT \
他们回答说：“其实并不想。”close7RT \
“那为什么还要进医学院呢？”close8RT \They're paying all this money and ...\
“嗯，因为我爸妈希望我当医生。他们一直在供我读书，而且?。”close9RT Poor students, poor parents. They are caught in one of the oldest webs of love and duty and guilt (罪过). The parents mean well; they are trying to steer their sons and daughters toward a secure future. But the sons and daughters want to major in history or classics or philosophy (哲学) — subjects with no \报偿)
on the humanities (人文学科）? It's not easy to persuade such loving parents that the humanities do indeed pay off. The intellectual faculties developed by studying subjects like history and classics are just the faculties that make creative leaders in business or almost any general field. Still, many parents would rather put their money on courses that point toward a specific profession — courses that are pre-law, pre-medical, pre-business, or, as I sometimes heard it put, \
可怜的学生，可怜的父母啊！他们被困在一张亘古以来由爱、责任和自责交织而成的网中，难以自拔。父母的出发点是好的，他们想引导自己的孩子走向无忧无虑的未来，但孩子们却想攻读历史、古典文学或哲学，这些专业毫无“实用”价值。人文学科的专业有什么回报？要说服这些关爱子女的父母人文学科的专业确有回报并非易事。攻读历史、古典文学等专业而开发出来的智能，正是富有创造力的商界及其他领域的领袖人物所必备的。然而，许多家长还是宁愿出钱供孩子读一个能从事具体职业的专业，比如法律预科、医学预科、商务预科，或者是我有时听到的所谓“财富预科”。close10RT But the pressure on students is severe. They are truly torn. One part of them feels obligated to fulfill their parents' expectations ; after all, their parents are older and presumably (可能，大概) wiser. Another part tells them that the expectations that are right for their parents are not right for them.
可是，学生承受着太大的压力，他们简直无所适从了。一方面，他们觉得有义务不辜负父母对自己的期望，毕竟父母比自己年长，该更有智慧吧。但另一方面，他们又觉得，父母认为合适的期望未必适合自己。close11RT Just like economic pressure and parental pressure, peer pressure and self-induced pressure are also closely intertwined (交织在一起), and they begin almost at the beginning of freshman year.
经济压力和来自父母的压力交织在一起，来自同学间的压力和自己给自己的压力也是如此，而且几乎是从大学一年级刚开学就开始存在了。close12RT \had a freshman student I'll call Linda,%under terrible pressure because her roommate, Barbara, was much brighter and studied all the time. I couldn't tell her that Barbra had come in two hours earlier to say the same thing about Linda.\
有一位系主任告诉我：“我知道这么一个大一的学生，姑且叫她琳达吧，她来向我诉说她正承受着可怕的压力，因为室友芭芭拉比她更聪明，一天到晚在学习。我不好告诉她，就在两小时前芭芭拉也来我这里说了类似的话，说琳达带给她多大的压力。”close13RT The story is almost funny — except that it's not. It's symptomatic (表明[某种]症状的) of all the pressures put together. When every student thinks every other student is working harder and doing better, the only solution is to study harder still. I see students going off to the library every night after dinner and coming back when it closes at midnight. I wish they would sometimes forget about their peers and go to a movie. I hear the clack (哒哒声) of typewriters in the hours before dawn. I see the tension in their eyes when exams are approaching and papers are due: \
这件事看来可笑，但实际上并不可笑，这表明所有压力都汇集在一起了。当每个学生都认为别人更为勤奋、成绩更好时，他唯一能做的就是更加努力地学习。我看到许多学生每天吃完晚饭就去图书馆，直到深更半夜图书馆关门才回来。我真希望他们有时能忘掉他们的学伴，去看场电影。我常常在拂晓时分还听到打字机在噼噼啪啪地响，考试来临或论文限期快到时，我能从学生的眼神中看到他们的紧张心理：“我能把所有的事情做完吗？”close14RT Probably they won't. They will get sick. They will get \
他们很可能完成不了。因为他们会生病，脑袋会\僵硬\，无法正常思维。他们要睡觉，而且会睡过头。close15RT Part of the problem is that they do more than they are expected to do. A professor will assign five-page papers. Several students will start writing ten-page papers, and a few will multiply it to fifteen. Pity the poor student who is still just doing the assignment.
出现这一问题的部分原因是：他们会远远超额完成任务。老师布置一篇5页的论文，一些学生就会写上10页，而少数人甚至会把赌注升到15页。可怜那些仅仅写了5页的学生。close16RT \population deliberately overexerting (努力过度的),\everybody. When a teacher gets more and more effort from his class, the student who is doing normal work can be perceived as not doing well. The tactic (策略) works, psychologically.\
一位系主任指出：“一旦20％或30％的学生刻意地去超量学习，对每个学生来说都不是好事。当一位教师在班上看到越来越多的努力尝试，那些只是正常完成作业的学生就会被看作是表现不够好。就心理上而言，这个策略还是有效的。”close17RT People around, professors, parents, and friends can help, but ultimately it will be the student's own business to break the circles in which they are trapped. They are too young to be prisoners of their parents' dreams and their classmates' fears. They must be jolted （使震动) into believing in themselves as unique men and women who have the power to shape their own future.
要打破这些“怪圈”，周围的人们、老师、父母、朋友都能给予帮助，但归根结底还是要靠学生自己。他们太年轻，不该成为父母的梦想和惧怕同学心理的俘虏。我们必须唤醒他们，使他们相信自己是独一无二的、有能力创造自己未来的人。