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Conversation Two
对话二
Listen to the conversation, and mark each question as A, B, C or D according to your listening.
听对话，根据对话内容选出最佳答案，并将答案的标号A，B，C，D写在答题纸上的相应位置。
Costs at four-year public schools posted the smallest increase in more than 30 years, up 2.9 percent.
四年制公立学校的学费增长了2.9%，为30多年来的最小增幅。
It just got more expensive to go to public college and university in the United States more slowly, right?
在美国，上公立大学的费用越来越高，增长速度越来越慢，对吗？
Exactly. This is the smallest increase we’ve seen in a couple of decades, but that’s on a larger base.
一点儿没错。这是几十年来我们看到的最小增幅，但这是在一个更大的基础上。
We’re still talking about several hundred dollars on the average public college tuition.
我们谈论的公立大学的平均学费仍高达数百美元。
Prices in the economy went up 1.7 percent last year.
去年，经济中的物价上涨了1.7%。
College went up 2.9 percent.
大学学费上涨了2.9%。
What’s been driving the much faster increases in the cost of buying a college education?
是什么推动了大学教育费用的快速增长？
Well, unlike most other pieces of the economy, where technology has reduced the number of people you need, you still need one professor to teach 20 students, just like you did in 1980.
不像其他大多数经济领域，技术减少了你所需要的人数，你仍然需要一个教授教20个学生，就像你在1980年所做的那样。
The high school graduation rates are going up.
高中毕业率正在上升。
This is a pretty big generational cohort.
这是一个相当大的代际群体。
There’re still a lot of kids looking for seats in colleges, aren’t there?
还是有很多孩子在寻找大学的录取机会，不是吗？
There’re still a lot.
还有很多。
But it depends where you live.
但这取决于你住在哪里。
And there’re a lot of colleges in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast where high school graduation rates are actually falling because of demographics.
在大西洋中部和东北部的许多大学，由于人口结构的原因，高中毕业率实际上正在下降。
And there’re not as many colleges in the West and the South, where those rates are increasing.
西部和南部没有那么多大学，那里的高中毕业率正在上升。
Are we opening up a national conversation to look at radically different ways of paying for school, reducing some of the pressure on parents?
我们是否开启了一场全国性的对话，以完全不同的方式支付学费，以减轻家长的一些压力？
Well, I think we definitely are.
我认为我们确实是。
We’re going to look at new ways of delivering college courses through technology and other ways.
我们将研究通过技术等方式提供大学课程的新方法。
On the other side, you’re going to see income-based contingent loans, where students can pay a piece of their income after college toward their loans.
另一方面，你会看到基于收入的依情况而定的贷款，学生可以在大学毕业后用所得收入的一部分来还贷款。
There’re even some suggestions that it not be four years anymore, aren’t there?
甚至有些人建议大学不应该再是四年制了，不是吗？
There are. And there’re ways of doing this.
有。有很多方法可以实现这一点。
We base learning on how much time somebody spends in a seat.
我们根据一个人在座位上花了多少时间来衡量学习。
There’s nothing magical about four years of college and 120 credits for a bachelor’s degree.
四年的大学生活和120个学分的学士学位并没有什么神奇的。
And so there’s a move now towards competency-based education and in some cases, you can finish college in less than four years.
因此，现在出现了以能力为基础的教育，在某些情况下，你可以在不到四年的时间内完成大学学业。
