The former british colony is trying to transform

Its education system

WHATEVER else sustained the British empire for so long, it was not Britain's education system. Its modern one still performs relatively poorly by most international comparisons. And unfortunately it exported the shortcomings of its earlier versions to many of its colonies, with Hong Kong suffering more than most. Kai-ming Cheng, professor of education at the University of Hong Kong, has shown that in 1999,23,000 candidates (18% of the total) sitting the major public examination at the end of secondary education in the former colony obtained no pass grades. They were "not fit for further studies and they are not employable."

The defects in both Britain's and Hong Kong's education systems were disguised by the fact that most people were employed in the low-skill, mass-manufacturing sector that predominated in both countries. They did not seem to need much education. But in the past 20 years, Hong Kong and Britain have lost more jobs in manufacturing than anywhere else apart from South Africa. According to the World Bank, in 1999 only 20% of Hong Kong's workforce was in the manufacturing sector, and this is expected to fall even further to 16% in 2005. As Hong Kong has de-industrialized, its education system has been exposed as inadequate to compete in what educationalists call the "knowledge economy".

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The British woke up to this problem in the 1990s. Tony Blair's rallying cry for his first Labour government was "education, education, education". And it is only since the handover of the colony to China in 1997 that the new Hong Kong government has started to tackle this aspect of the colonial legacy. Education reform is one of the few areas where the government of the special administrative region enjoys widespread support.

In September 2000, Hong Kong's government published its reform proposals for the education system. The emphasis is now very much on a "lifelong learning society", to enable everyone to acquire new skills even after they have left school. Hong Kong is aiming to get away from its old system of learning by rote, in which pupils were endlessly drilled for a few very academic exams. The emphasis now is on encouraging pupils to think for themselves, and to develop flexible learning skills that will enable 60% of 18-30 year olds to be in tertiary education by 2010.

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If Hong Kong is to retain its status as a major economic power in Asia, everyone is agreed that modernizing the archaic British education system is essential. A close observer of the problem, not usually given to exaggeration, said, "Hong Kong's survival is at stake."

The Economist,

February 23, 2003

Note: manufacturing sector of industry - making articles by physical labour or machinery usually in large quantities = mechanical production.

Упражнение VI. Переведите на слух:

частные платные школы, tuition and board payment, tutor, сверка по списку, распорядок дня, единый образовательный стандарт, to learn by rote, гребля, хоккей на траве, unforgiving linoleum floors, министр образования теневого кабинета, кризис бюджета, redundancy, shortcomings, to obtain no pass grades.

Упражнение VII. Запишите под диктовку цифры и прочтите их по-английски:

21, 34, 69, 24, 19, 18, 61, 17, 73, 84, 16, 71, 82, 93, 7, 66, 78, 82, 93, 99, 68, 44, 55, 70, 60, 80, 90, 13, 14, 99, 38, 28, 49, 75, 77, 97, 10, 15, 66, 71, 30, 64, 87, 18, 29, 44,57,61,24,84, 18.

* * *

- How high can you count in English? - One, two, three ... ten, Jack, Queen, and King.

ПЕРЕВОДЧЕСКИЙ КОММЕНТАРИЙ

Толковые одноязычные словари

Наиболее точное представление о смысловой структуре и употреблении иностранных слов переводчик может получить, обратившись к толковым одноязычным словарям конкретного иностранного языка.

Английские одноязычные словари. Переводчик в своей работе должен решать задачу двоякого рода: во-первых, выяснить значение неизвестного ему иностранного слова или второстепенное значение слова известного, а, во-вторых, получить сведения об оттенках значения и сочетаемости слова, чтобы точно его употреблять.

В первом случае переводчику нужен как можно более полный словарь, такой, например, как Webster's 3rd New International Dictionary (600,000 слов), Longman Dictionary of Contempory English (two volumes), American Heritage Dictionary (200,000). Данные словари являются самыми полными из современных словарей. Впрочем, для указанной цели подходят и средние по

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объему словари, такие, например, как Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (150.000) или Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (75,000). Эти словари ориентированы прежде всего на толкование слов, а не на их употребление. При этом в словаре Concise Oxford даются наиболее компактные, универсальные определения слов, что позволяет понять слова в их целостности.

Во втором случае (когда необходимо уяснить сочетаемость слов) предпочтительно пользоваться словарями, ориентированными на употребление слов в тексте. Эти словари снабжены обширным аппаратом помет, которые указывают на синтаксическую функцию слов, включают большое количество примеров.