雅思阅读
A lottery to lose
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An enlightened scheme to benefit poor children seems to do the opposite
IN THEORY it works perfectly. Rather than oblige parents to send their children to the nearest state-run or –funded school, a scheme give them a voucher to be spent at a private school of their choice.
Louisiana’s scheme added a feature to it: a lottery to assign the vouchers. In 2014 12,000 students from low-income families applied for more than 6,000 vouchers to attend 126 private schools. Lotteries are loved by social scientists because the winners and losers, distinguished by chance alone, are statistically identical. That means differences in outcomes can reasonably be attributed to the programme rather than differences in family circumstances.
But it turned out that this was a lottery to lose. Economists found that those who received vouchers and moved to private schools had worse test scores in maths, reading, science and social studies than those who missed out. Hunting for an explanation, they wondered whether the weakest private schools had mopped up voucher pupils to fill their seats. But this hypothesis did not stand up.
Schools in New Orleans have improved dramatically since Hurricane Katrina: high-school-graduation rates have risen from 55% to 73% and drop-out rates have fallen by half. But this has been a victory for central control rather than the market: bureaucrats at the state’s powerful Recovery School District have closed many schools and presidedover the opening of many more. More parental school choice seems to have had little to do with it.
新词与表达
u oblige force or compel somebody to do something vt. 迫使；强制
u voucher a document that serves as money n. 代金u lottery something that is regarded as a chance event n. 彩票；碰运气的事
u assign give out or allot vt. 分配；指派
u be attributed to put down to 归因于
u hunt for search or seek 寻找
u mop up to wash or wipe with or as if with a mop 擦；用拖把拖u dramatically in a very impressive manner adv. 显著地
u drop-out rate the rate of someone who quits school before graduation 辍学率
u bureaucrat an official of a bureaucracy n. 官僚；官僚主u preside act as president vi. 主持
长句翻译
Lotteries are loved by social scientists because the winners and losers, distinguished by chance alone, are statistically identical.
语法点：省略结构
翻译：彩票很受社会科学家的欢迎，因为赢家输家在统计学上是一致的，全靠机会来区分。
A lottery to lose
————————————
An enlightened scheme to benefit poor children seems to do the opposite
IN THEORY it works perfectly. Rather than oblige parents to send their children to the nearest state-run or –funded school, a scheme give them a voucher to be spent at a private school of their choice.
Louisiana’s scheme added a feature to it: a lottery to assign the vouchers. In 2014 12,000 students from low-income families applied for more than 6,000 vouchers to attend 126 private schools. Lotteries are loved by social scientists because the winners and losers, distinguished by chance alone, are statistically identical. That means differences in outcomes can reasonably be attributed to the programme rather than differences in family circumstances.
But it turned out that this was a lottery to lose. Economists found that those who received vouchers and moved to private schools had worse test scores in maths, reading, science and social studies than those who missed out. Hunting for an explanation, they wondered whether the weakest private schools had mopped up voucher pupils to fill their seats. But this hypothesis did not stand up.
Schools in New Orleans have improved dramatically since Hurricane Katrina: high-school-graduation rates have risen from 55% to 73% and drop-out rates have fallen by half. But this has been a victory for central control rather than the market: bureaucrats at the state’s powerful Recovery School District have closed many schools and presidedover the opening of many more. More parental school choice seems to have had little to do with it.
新词与表达
u oblige force or compel somebody to do something vt. 迫使；强制
u voucher a document that serves as money n. 代金u lottery something that is regarded as a chance event n. 彩票；碰运气的事
u assign give out or allot vt. 分配；指派
u be attributed to put down to 归因于
u hunt for search or seek 寻找
u mop up to wash or wipe with or as if with a mop 擦；用拖把拖u dramatically in a very impressive manner adv. 显著地
u drop-out rate the rate of someone who quits school before graduation 辍学率
u bureaucrat an official of a bureaucracy n. 官僚；官僚主u preside act as president vi. 主持
长句翻译
Lotteries are loved by social scientists because the winners and losers, distinguished by chance alone, are statistically identical.
语法点：省略结构
翻译：彩票很受社会科学家的欢迎，因为赢家输家在统计学上是一致的，全靠机会来区分。
