Lower-stress tests

For years, the College Entrance Examination or gaokao has been criticized by some for being a grueling process in which students focus too much on memorization and suffer too much pressure.
多年来，高考一直受到一些诟病，有人认为竞争激烈的高考会让学生过多地关注死记硬背，压力过大。

In 2017, in order to address these problems, the Ministry of Education announced the determination to build a new reform system for the college entrance examination system, China Youth Online reported.
据《中国青年报》报道，为解决这些问题，2017年，教育部决定对高考进行改革。

Apart from the compulsory subjects of Chinese, mathematics and English, students are now supposed to be able to choose any three of six other subjects: physics, chemistry, biology, politics, history and geography, which is expected to give senior high school students more choices in selection of exam subjects.
除了语文、数学、英语这三门统一科目外，学生需要从物理、化学、生物、思想政治、历史和地理这六门科目中自主选择三门，这为高中生们在考试科目方面提供了更多选择。

Shanghai and Zhejiang provinces trialed a new college entrance exam system for Senior 3 students in September 2017. The same year, Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong and Hainan provinces joined the reform. Eight more provinces and municipals followed afterward.
2017年9月，上海与浙江针对高三学生试行新高考。同年，北京、天津、山东及海南也加入改革，后来又有八省市加入进来。

Zhang Tianlang, 18, from Zhejiang, attended the college entrance examination in 2017. He said he had a more relaxing senior year compared to previous students, choosing physics, chemistry and history as exam subjects – the ones he’s best at. “It’s a huge lift of the stress,” he said.
来自浙江的18岁学生张天朗（音译）于2017年参加了高考。他表示，与往届学生相比，他的高三更为轻松 —— 他选择了自己最擅长的物理、化学和历史作为考试科目。“这大大减轻了压力，”他说道。

In addition to abolishing the division of arts and science, some important changes are about to be made to the English exam.
除了文理不分科之外，英语考试也进行了一些重大调整。

According to the Ministry of Education, the biggest change is to the exam’s content. Twenty points for the oral test and 30 for the listening test will be counted into a total score of 150. This means that the paper test will only count for 100 points of the total. Students will get two chances to take the listening and speaking parts, keeping the better score as their final grade. The long-term goal of the reform is to shift its emphasis and cultivate students’ language abilities instead of their ability to take tests.
据教育部介绍，最大的变化在英语考试的内容方面。口语占20分，听力占30分，满分为150分。这意味着笔试部分仅占满分中的100分。学生将有两次参加听力和口语考试的机会，并取最高分计入最终成绩。此项改革的长期目标在于改变高考考查重点，培养学生的语言能力而非应试能力。

The ongoing reform of the gaokao would ensure students receive a well-rounded high school education but also students would have to fight “a prolonged battle from the first day of high school” as a result, said Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute in Beijing. Despite these challenges, gaokao is still a “fair” way to get admitted to university in China, Xiong said.
正在进行中的高考改革将确保学生们在高中阶段获得全面教育，但学生也因此要“从高中的第一天起打一场持久战”，21世纪教育研究院副院长熊丙奇表示。尽管面临着重重挑战，高考在中国依然是进入大学的“公平”方式，熊丙奇说道。

以上文章内容选自《21世纪学生英文报高中版》，详情请见《21世纪学生英文报高中版》高二778期