双语·有声| 抱歉老师，我觉得睡觉比做作业重要苦逼的不只是你。"

啊，高中。

谁没有个苦逼的高中。

写不完的作业，做不完的习题。

不过，美国孩子的高中也这么苦逼吗？

请看下面这位美国学生的吐槽。

点击听音频：

Junior year: a time of studying, stress and anxiety about our futures. For many of us, the college process begins the August or September of our junior year. We wake up very early to go to school, maybe even earlier to meet with a teacher, complete our extracurricular activities, come home to have a quick dinner, talk for eight minutes with our parents and do homework until we fall asleep. But then we remember. We have to look at the ACT packet1) one more time. Half asleep, we run downstairs to get the ACT book, and start studying. Section 1, section 2, section 3. Fifteen to 30 minutes a day is what they say keeps low ACT scores away. We spend hours going over where to put a comma in a sentence, or how to apply the Pythagorean theorem2). After this, we finally get to turn off the lights and drift away to sleep. And then six hours later, we do it all over again.

1. packet [?p?k?t] n. 小包裹，这里是复习资料包。

2. Pythagorean theorem: 毕达哥拉斯定理，即勾股定理。毕达哥拉斯是古希腊数学家，人们认为他是有记载的第一个证明勾股定理的人，因此以他的名字命名。

高二，一段充满压力、对未来感到焦虑的学习时光。对我们许多人而言，大学升学的过程从高二的八九月就开始了。我们早早起床去学校，若要跟老师见面、完成课外活动，甚至还可能起得更早；我们回到家匆匆吃完晚饭，与父母说八分钟话，然后便开始做作业，一直做到自己睡着了。但后来我们想起来，我们还得再看一遍ACT (编注：美国大学入学考试，相当于美国高考)的资料。于是半睡半醒间，我们跑下楼去拿ACT的书，又开始学习。第一部分，第二部分，第三部分。他们说每天看15~30分钟就能告别ACT低分。我们会花上数小时温习要在句子的哪个地方加逗号，或者勾股定理该如何应用。此后，我们终于能关掉灯昏昏沉沉入睡了。接着六小时之后，我们又要把所有这些再重来一遍。

This is a snapshot3) of the daily routine of many high school juniors. For those of you juniors who are reading this, I sympathize with you. Just know that in a few months, it will all be over. For readers who were once juniors, congratulations on making it through. And for the readers who are soon to be juniors ... well... good luck.

3. snapshot [?sn?p??t] n. 大致印象；简况

这就是许多高二学生的日常生活概况。对于那些正读这篇文章的高二学生，我对你们深表同情。要知道几个月后，这一切都会结束的。对于那些走过高二的读者，祝贺你们挺了过来。而对那些即将步入高二的读者们……嗯……祝你们好运。

In my freshmen health class, my teacher told us that teenagers need at least eight to nine hours of sleep each night. In a Utopian society, this would be possible. The sad truth is, with extracurricular activities, ACT test preparation, after school sports and music, excessive homework and pressure to do well, high school juniors cannot maintain this sleep schedule. As much as our growing minds and bodies crave4) nine hours of sleep each night, there is no time.

4. crave [kre?v] vt. 渴望，渴求

在高一的新生健康课上，老师告诉我们青少年每晚至少需要8~9小时的睡眠。在乌托邦社会中，这是有可能的。可悲的是，面对课外活动、ACT备考、课后运动和音乐、过多的家庭作业，以及要表现优秀的压力，高二的学生们不可能保持这一睡眠作息。尽管我们正在成长的身心渴望着每晚九小时的睡眠，可我们却没有时间。

Let me ask you all a question: Doesn"t it seem more humane to assign a teenager perhaps two hours of homework each night? This would allow us a tiny bit of down time5) after a long day of school, 6:00 AM tennis practice, music lessons, ACT preparation, Robotics club or sports. Two hours of homework would enable us to have that coveted6) eight to nine hours of much needed sleep. Or does it seem better to pile juniors with five hours of work a night, leaving very little time to relax, therefore decreasing7) the amount of time that they can sleep? If you are sane, then you should choose the former. Teenagers need more sleep. The future success of our society depends on changing the bad habits of burying our youth with work and depriving8) us of sleep.

5. down time: 不工作的时间，即休息时间。

6. coveted [?k?v?t?d] adj. 人人向往的

7. decrease [d??kri?s] vt. 使减少

8. deprive [d??pra?v] vt. 剥夺；使丧失

我来问你们一个问题：给青少年每晚布置大概两小时的作业，不是更加人性化吗？这样在除了学校的漫长一天、早晨6点的网球练习、音乐课程、ACT备考、机器人俱乐部或者运动之外，我们还能拥有一点点的休息时间。两小时的家庭作业就可以让我们得到那梦寐以求并且急需的8~9个小时的睡眠。让高二学生每晚做五小时作业，几乎不给他们留休息时间，致使他们的睡眠时间缩短，难道这样更好吗？一个人只要神志清醒，就该选择前者。青少年需要更多睡眠。社会未来的成功取决于改变让我们的青少年埋头苦学并剥夺其睡眠的这些坏习惯。

In my opinion, junior year of high school is a time for growth. By junior year many students have the ability to think critically, and solve challenging problems. Separation from peers and parents may begin as we start to prepare for college. The current structure of the junior year is troubling and inefficient. Students should not lumber9) into class half asleep or doze off10) in their early morning physics class. I do think that flipping the classroom11) literally means flipping your schedule, so that way we sleep at home, and learn at school. I think that we need to prioritize sleep over homework. Yes, homework is crucial for a student"s growth. But do we really need to spend countless hours a night doing it? Let"s make a change. Change junior year.

9. lumber [?l?mb?(r)] vi. (缓慢而笨拙地)挪动，移动

10. doze off: (尤指在白天)打瞌睡，打盹儿

11. flip [fl?p] vt. 翻转

在我看来，高中的第二年是段成长的时期。到了高二，很多学生已经有能力去进行批判性地思考，并解决具有挑战性的问题。与同伴和父母的分离可能在我们准备上大学时就开始了。高二目前的安排令人不安且效率低下。学生们不该疲惫地拖着脚步地走进教室，或者在清晨的物理课上打盹。我确实认为翻转课堂实际上意味着要翻转时间表，这样我们便能在家睡觉，在校学习。我觉得我们需要把睡眠置于作业之上。没错，作业对学生的发展至关重要。不过我们真的需要每晚花费无数个小时来做作业吗？让我们改变一下，改变高二吧。

(本文选自《新东方英语·中学生》杂志2017年11月号，原文标题为：Sorry Teachers, But My Sleep Is More Important Than Homework By Matthew Friend 译 / 冯慧。未经授权，不得转载。)

小贴士

flip the classroom: 翻转课堂。翻转课堂(flipped classroom)是一种教学模式，指重新调整课堂内外的时间，将学习的决定权从教师转移给学生。在这种教学模式下，学生能够利用课堂内的宝贵时间，主动进行基于项目的学习，共同研究解决本地化或全球化的挑战以及现实世界面临的其他问题。教师不再占用课堂时间来讲授信息，这些信息需要学生在课前完成自主学习，他们可以看视频讲座、听播客、阅读功能增强的电子书，还能在网络上与别的同学讨论，能在任何时候去查阅需要的材料。在课后，学生自主规划学习内容、学习节奏，而教师则采用讲授法和协作法来满足学生的需要、促成他们的个性化学习，帮助他们通过实践掌握知识。