听力训练
Exercise
1. What does the American Enterprise Institute do?
2. What are important to their future success for today's student?
3. What can summer vacation cause for today's families?
4. Can American students to take a summer vacation? In a summer Vacation, millions of kids spend time sending messages, watching TV, playing games and doing shopping in the mall. They will also be putting their futures at risk.
5. They offer no more than seven consective weeks of . Most American school offer up to thirteen weeks. To compete in the marketplace, Americans must be prepared to go up against competitors.
6. Researchers have found that disadvantaged students lose ground in the summertime. A school year does not have to be an to hard boring work. Rather, it should allow time-pressed teachers to conduct and more imaginative lessons.


Words & Phrases
Words：
athletics 运动
boring 枯燥的，令人厌烦的
challenge 挑战
competitor 竞争者
consecutive 连续的，连贯的
disadvantaged 贫穷的；弱势的，处于不利地位的
grand 极妙的，盛大的

household 家庭，家族
imaginative 想象的，虚构的
marketplace 市场，集会场所
nonprofit 非营利的，不以营利为目的的
outdated 过时的，不流行的
significant 重要的，有意义的
stay-at-home 待在家的，不喜欢出门的
summertime 夏季

Phrases：
at risk 在危险中
be prepared to... 准备......
in the past 在过去
make sense 有意义
millions of 数百万的
no more than 不超过

Sentence Patterns 句型
1. For today's students, academic skills are important to students' future success.
对于今天的学生来说，学术技能对学生将来的成功至关重要。
... are important to... ......对......是最重要的
2. The biggest problem may be how summer vacation hurts academic achievement.
最大的问题可能是暑期如何影响了学生的成绩。
The biggest problem may be... 最大的问题是......
听力答案
参考答案
1. Conducting research on many public issues.
2. Academic skills.
3. Challenges.
4. afford, valuable, video,academic
5. vacation, districts, global, international
6. significant, longer, invitation, richer
听力原文
　Frederick M. Hess is the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, which is a nonprofit organization that conducts research on many public issues. He says that a long summer vacation doesn't make sense in today's world．
　　Can American students afford to take a summer vacation? In a summer vacation, millions of kids spend valuable time sending messages, watching TV, playing video games and doing shopping in the mall. They will also be putting their academic futures at risk．
　　Summer vacation once made sense in the past when you didn't need an education to get a good job. But now things have changed. For today's students, academic skills are important to students' future success, but such skills are affected in the summertime．Many nations don't give kids an American-style summer vacation. They offer no more than seven consecutive(连续的) weeks of vacation．Most American school districts offer up to thirteen weeks. To compete in the global marketplace, Americans must be prepared to go up against international competitors．
　　Summer vacation also causes challenges for today's families. In the 1960s, more than 60% of families had a stay-at-home Mom．Now, two-thirds of American children live in households where every adult works. For these families, summer vacation can be more burden than break. Someone must watch the kids．
　　But the biggest problem may be how summer vacation hurts academic achievement. Researchers have found that disadvantaged students lose significant ground in the summertime．
　　A longer school year does not have to be an invitation to hard boring work. Rather, it should allow time-pressed teachers to conduct richer and more imaginative lessons. Schools would have more time to devote to athletics, languages, music and the arts. Summer vacation can be a grand thing. But in the 21st century, it may also be outdated.

参考译文
费雷德里克·M·赫斯是美国企业学院教育方针研究处的主任，这所研究院是一个致力于许多公共课题研究的非营利机构。他说暑期太长对于当今社会来说，没有任何意义。
美国学生能够有效地利用他们的暑假吗？暑假里，数百万孩子把宝贵的时间花在发短信息、看电视、玩电子游戏以及购物上。而同时置他们的学业前途于不顾。
过去，学生不需要靠文凭来找工作，因此暑期是有意义的。但是现在情况发生了变化，对于今天的学生来说，学术技能对学生将来的成功至关重要，暑期恰恰会成为影响孩子学习成绩的因素。很多国家都不给学生提供美国式的暑期。他们的暑期连续不超过7周，而大多数美国学校的暑期有13周之多。为了在全球经济市场中获得竞争力，美国必需去应对全球的竞争者。
暑期对于当今家庭来说也是挑战。20世纪60年代，60%以上的家庭中，妇女都是家庭主妇。现在，三分之二的美国孩子生活在父母都工作的家庭里。对于这些家庭来说，暑期不是休息，而是负担，因为必须有人照看孩子。
但最大的问题可能是暑期如何影响了学生的成绩。研究者发现，对于弱势学生群体来讲，暑期基本上没有什么意义可言。
学期较长并不一定意味着难且枯燥的功课，相反，这样可以保证时间紧迫的老师们能组织丰富多彩并有想象力的课程。学校也可以有更多的时间安排体育、语言、音乐和美术课程。暑期可以是一件很美妙的事，但在21世纪也可以能会过时。