美语情景对话 第208期:写作 Writing

Todd: OK, John, you were saying that you taught writing in America.

托德：约翰，你说过你在美国教授写作课程。

John: Yeah.

约翰：没错。

Todd: OK, and you said it was a paperless class.

托德：你还说那是无纸化课程。

John: Paperless class.

约翰：对，是无纸化课程。

Todd: OK, what does that mean, a paperless class?

托德：嗯，无纸化课程是什么意思？

John: BasicAlly, it means that we didn't use paper. Right, there was no paper. All of the students' assignments were posted on a web page, so for each of their papers that they had to write, each of their essays, they could just go online and read the description of the assignment and all their requirements, and then they had two options for handing in their essays; they could either type them up and e-mail them to me or they could type them up directly in like a text format screen on the web, so that I could, I would do all of the grading for the papers like online.

约翰：基本来说，意思就是我们不需要纸。没错，我们没有纸。所有的学生作业都会发布在网页上，到目前为止他们完成所有的作业，所有的论文时，只需要上网查看作业说明和要求，之后他们有两种交作业的方式；他们可以选择把作业打出来，用邮件发给我，或是选择直接做成网页上显示的文本格式，这样我就可以在网上为所有作业评分。

Todd: OK, did you like it as a teacher?

托德：好的，作为老师你喜欢这种做法吗？

John: It was a bit difficult cause it takes a lot to get used to reading everything on the screen, and it's, actually as far as like marking papers and grading them, it's easier for you because you can just highlight something and make it red and be like, you know, red needs spelling or whatever, and it's much quicker than like circling it and writing "spelling" once you get in the habit of doing it with the mouse and have your color skeem worked out, it goes very quick, and if you want to do a comment you can just, you know, change the font or the size, and type directly in the text, and they know, "oh well, here's John's comment."

约翰：这有些难，因为要习惯在屏幕上阅读所有东西，实际上，如果像批改试卷评分，那就简单多了，因为你只要画出重点然后用红字拼写就可以了，在你习惯了使用鼠标圈出重点并拼写以及颜色运用的时候，这就比用手批改试卷快多了，如果你想进行评价，你可以改变字体和字号，然后直接在文本上写出来，他们就会知道，“嗯，这是约翰给的评价。”

Todd: Did the student like it?

托德：学生喜欢这种做法吗？

John: Most of the students liked it, but there was a small majority that, you know, usually when they were late, or whenever they wanted to just like slip a paper under my door, and they couldn't do that, because you know they would, I would know if their paper was late because you know, it wasn't, the computer doesn't lie. It was logged in at this time and you know sent to me, so "yes it was late!" They couldn't, you know get around that kind of paper trail.

约翰：大多数学生喜欢，但是有小部分学生，你知道，那些经常迟交作业的学生，在他们想把作业塞进我的门缝里时，他们就不能再这么做了，因为你知道他们会这样做，而我知道他们的作业迟交了，因为电脑是不会撒谎的。你在登录以后把作业发给我，所以我就知道“作业迟交了！”他们不能再避开这种记录了。

Todd: So, you're a writer, do you think it actually helps students to do this stuff on computers or should you go back to the pencil paper method?

托德：那，你是一名作家，你认为在电脑上交作业实际上对学生们有帮助吗？或是你想回到用笔写作的方法？

John: I think it is important to be able to do both. I think that's the most important thing about being a writer is being able to be versatile and go in different directions and write in different forms, but probably as far as tools go these days, it's more important for students to be able to compose on a computer, because most likely that is what they'll be doing most of their writing.

约翰：我认为能使用两种方法很重要。我认为作为作家最重要的一点是要多才多艺，要有不同的方向，用不同的方式进行写作，但是像目前的这些工具，对学生来说在电脑上进行写作非常重要，因为很可能他们以后将在电脑上完成大部分的写作工作。

重点讲解：
1. hand in
上交（作业、拾到的失物等）；提出，递交（辞呈）；
eg. I'm supposed to have handed in a first draft of my dissertation.
我本该把论文的初稿交上去了。
eg. I handed my notice in on Saturday.
我周六递交了辞职信。
2. get in the habit of doing sth.
养成…的习惯；习惯于；
eg. I got in the habit of calling in on Gloria on my way home from work.
我习惯于在下班回家的路上顺便探望格洛丽亚。
eg. Get in the habit of saving regularly.
要养成定期储蓄的习惯。
3. get around
规避，避开（法律或规章）；
eg. Although tobacco ads are prohibited, companies get around the ban by sponsoring music shows.
虽然严禁为烟草做广告，但一些烟草公司却通过赞助音乐会来打擦边球。
eg. It's wrong of you to get around the regulation.
你存心规避规章制度是不对的。