全浸阅读=Total Immerse Dynamic eReading=TIDE

Closing the world’s schools caused children great harm

They will need help to catch up on lost learning

Governments Must Try Harder

导读：疫情中学校停课对学生造成了很大影响，而在如何补救这个事情上各国政府做得却远远不够，作者在评论中不断让步，可以把这篇文章当成一个大让步的模范文章来读

P1

COVID-19 RARELY makes children very ill. In the year to April the chance of an American aged 5-14 catching and dying from the virus was about one in 500,000—roughly a tenth of a child’s chance of dying in a traffic accident in normal times. Yet schools around the world have been wholly or partly closed for about two-thirds of an academic year because of the pandemic

▷rarely makes children very ill 用rarely 来否定，语气强烈的开头

▷the chance of sb dying from... was about... , roughly a tenth of sb's chance of: 用chance of 来做几率对比的比较级, 非常严谨

P1 is about

Pandemic rarely makes children ill, but school closure makes bad influence.

p2

The immense harm this has done to children’s prospects might be justified if closing classrooms were one of the best ways of preventing lethal infections among adults. But few governments have weighed the costs and risks carefully. Many have kept schools shut even as bars and restaurants open, either to appease teachers’ unions, whose members get paid whether they teach in person or not, or to placate nervous parents.

▷Immense harm: huge great damage

▷be justified if ..were one of the best ways of

高频虚拟表达

▷lethal infection：killing/cause death

▷weigh the costs and risks carefully

consider，reckon，calcualte

▷appease teachers‘ union：pacify/placate

▷placate nervous parents：

satisfied/assuage，calm

P1 is about: Pandemic rarely makes children ill, but school closure makes bad influence.

p2 is about：the decison of colsing school benefited groups other than students

P3

As a result, young brains are being starved of stimulation. Primary-school pupils in England are around three months behind where they normally would be; children in Ethiopia learned 60-70% less than usual during 2020. Even before the pandemic things were bad. More than half of ten-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries could not read a simple paragraph. The World Bank warns this could rise to almost two-thirds. In all countries school closures will widen the gap between better-off pupils (who have iPads and quiet bedrooms for remote learning) and worse-off ones (who often don’t).

▷be starved of stimulation：lack of excitement，or enthusiasm

▷widen the gap：make the difference bigger

▷better-off pupils vs worse-off ones

P1 is about: Pandemic rarely makes children ill, but school closure makes bad influence.

p2 is about：the decison of colsing school benefited groups other than students

p3 is about: school closure-bad to student

P4

However, the disruption caused by covid-19 also creates a chance to make schools better than they were before. So many pupils have so much ground to make up that educators are pondering the most effective ways to help them do so. Some rich countries are offering more tutoring for struggling students, individually or in small groups. Some poor countries are simplifying overstuffed curriculums, allowing teachers to deviate from government textbooks and spend more time teaching basic reading and maths. Such reforms seem to work.

▷disruption：harm，disturbance， problems

▷also create a chance to do sth

everything has its two sides

▷simplify overstuffed curriculums

overstuffed=force to hold too much

▷deviate from

diverge from /digress from /turn away from..

P1 is about: Pandemic rarely makes children ill, but school closure makes bad influence.

p2 is about：the decison of colsing school benefited groups other than students

p3 is about: school closure-bad to student

p4 is about：school closure created chance to make school better

P5

The experience of remote schooling has given teachers a crash course in educational technology. In-person lessons could improve if teachers were properly trained and allowed to experiment. Software can help make classrooms more personalised, so children receive instruction that closely matches their abilities. And if teachers were free from humdrum tasks, including much of their marking, they would have extra time for the pupils who need the most help.

▷a crash course：smash into/collide into

▷humdrum task：mudane dull boring

P1 is about: Pandemic rarely makes children ill, but school closure makes bad influence.

p2 is about：the decison of colsing school benefited groups other than students

p3 is about: school closure-bad to student

p4 is about：school closure created chance to make school better

p5 is about-teacher got chance to improve

P6

The pandemic has underlined how family back ground affects academic success. A full stomach, encouraging parents and a house with lots of books have always been an advantage. Conditions at home matter even more when that is where lessons take place. The past year has shown the need for social workers to help deprived pupils: making sure they get glasses so they can read what’s on the screen, for example, or helping their parents with paperwork so that they are not evicted. Schools can offer mental-health counselling, too, and put pupils in touch with charities or agencies that help solve distracting domestic problems.

▷underline：underscore，emphasize

▷deprived pupils：poor impoverish

▷evict：expel，eject

▷distracting domestic problems：

dosmetic in the family

P1 is about: Pandemic rarely makes children ill, but school closure makes bad influence.

p2 is about：the decison of colsing school benefited groups other than students

p3 is about: school closure-bad to student

p4 is about：school closure created chance to make school better

p5 is about: teacher got chance to improve

p6 is about：family matters in study，works shall be done to help families support not distract

P7

Alas, too few governments are doing even a bare minimum to make up for time lost. Only 2% of the money ploughed into covid-19 relief packages last year went to education. The UN has found that by last autumn only a quarter of children had access to some kind of remedial programme. Children who failed to grasp important lessons during lockdowns may continue to fall behind. By one estimate, a child in a poor country who misses a year of school and does not receive the right help to catch up can eventually trail by almost three years.

▷alas-grief pity and concern语气词

▷too few ...are doing even a bare minimum to make up for

让步的极致语气

▷money plough into

plough=furrow/cultivate 犁田耕种 用在money上也是可以的=invest into

▷has acess to：entry，way to

▷remedial program：

remedial-fix，payback，repair

▷trail：a mark left behind

这里是fall back /lag/ fall behind的意思

P1 is about: Pandemic rarely makes children ill, but school closure makes bad influence.

p2 is about：the decison of colsing school benefited groups other than students

p3 is about: school closure-bad to student

p4 is about：school closure created chance to make school better

p5 is about: teacher got chance to improve

p6 is about：family matters in study，works shall be done to help families support not distract

p7 is about：but governments do too little to remedy

P8

Next year England plans to spend only a bit more to help pupils catch up than it did in a single month last summer subsidising families to eat out in restaurants. Lawmakers in America, where children have missed more in-person schooling than almost anywhere else in the rich world, have been more generous. But only 20% of the extra money they are giving to schools must be spent on catch-up learning. Much will be devoted to pointless “sanitation theatre”—including plastic dividers between desks, which may make it harder to see the blackboard or hear the teacher.

▷subsidise：support financially

▷catch- up learning 中国学生最不陌生的补课

▷sanitation：condition relating to public health

P1 is about: Pandemic rarely makes children ill, but school closure makes bad influence.

p2 is about：the decison of colsing school benefited groups other than students

p3 is about: school closure-bad to student

p4 is about：school closure created chance to make school better

p5 is about: teacher got chance to improve

p6 is about：family matters in study，works shall be done to help families support not distract

p7 is about：but governments do too little to remedy

p8 is about：government did less enough and in a fruitless way

P9

Two-thirds of poor countries have cut education spending. Money is not everything, but even in good times the poorest spend only $48 a year for each schoolchild, which is not enough. (Rich countries spend $8,500.) The UN predicts that foreign aid for education will fall by 12% between 2018 and 2022.

P1 is about: Pandemic rarely makes children ill, but school closure makes bad influence.

p2 is about：the decison of colsing school benefited groups other than students

p3 is about: school closure-bad to student

p4 is about：school closure created chance to make school better

p5 is about: teacher got chance to improve

p6 is about：family matters in study，works shall be done to help families support not distract

p7 is about：but governments do too little to remedy

p8 is about：government did less enough and in a fruitless way

p9 is about: many even cut education spend

P10

Governments are often tempted to neglect education. Improving schools costs money, and may require confronting powerful interest groups, such as teachers’ unions. The benefits may not come until after today’s politicians have left office.

▷tempt：entice，induce

▷confront：face to face with hostile/augument

today‘s politicians have left office, 这才是root cause

P1 is about: Pandemic rarely makes children ill, but school closure makes bad influence.

p2 is about：the decison of colsing school benefited groups other than students

p3 is about: school closure-bad to student

p4 is about：school closure created chance to make school better

p5 is about: teacher got chance to improve

p6 is about：family matters in study，works shall be done to help families support not distract

p7 is about：but governments do too little to remedy

p8 is about：government did less enough and in a fruitless way

p9 is about: many even cut education spend

p10 is about：nelglect for political reason

P11

However, almost nothing matters more for a good life tomorrow than a good education today. At a minimum, governments should step up their efforts to repair the damage caused by school closures during the pandemic. It would be better still if they seized the opportunity to rewrite the rules for schools.

▷nothing matters more for a good life than a good education today高频比较句型

▷at a minimum....it would be a better still if ....

-at a minimum 对比前面p7的最低让步 a bare minimum

▷step up their effort：do more

▷rewrite the rules：change the regulars

P1 is about: Pandemic rarely makes children ill, but school closure makes bad influence.

p2 is about：the decison of colsing school benefited groups other than students

p3 is about: school closure-bad to student

p4 is about：school closure created chance to make school better

p5 is about: teacher got chance to improve

p6 is about：family matters in study，works shall be done to help families support not distract

p7 is about：but governments do too little to remedy

p8 is about：government did less enough and in a fruitless way

p9 is about: many even cut education spend

p10 is about：nelglect for political reason

p11 sum up：remedy is a minimum， better to rewrite the rules

整篇文章就是一个大让步的argument，指出目前做得不够的地方，然后不停地让步，从小让步到大让步，到最后来一个总让步；

真是苦口婆心，忠言逆耳，可以作为让步argument的一个典范。

♔ Take away Today

▷严谨的比较句型

-In the year to April the chance of an American aged 5-14 catching and dying from the virus was about one in 500,000—roughly a tenth of a child’s chance of dying in a traffic accident in normal times.

-However, almost nothing matters more for a good life tomorrow than a good education today.

▷让步的表达

-At a minimum, governments should step up their efforts to repair the damage caused by school closures during the pandemic. It would be better still if they seized the opportunity to rewrite the rules for schools.