这个五四青年节过得似乎不那么平静。微博上又掀起了一阵关于教育公平的热议。导火索来自一位赵姓姑娘，她的家族斥资650万美元想为她铺平通往斯坦福的道路。
昨天，在微博上看到一位博主这样评论这件事：
很中肯了。
在我漫长的童年里，我的父母也总是拿我和各种同龄人对比，你一定要比他们多考点分，比他们多拿点荣誉，比他们多获得一些表扬……无奈，我只是个普通孩子。大学毕业之后，被拿出去比的就是收入了。那个谁，当年只考了个三流学校，怎么现在赚得比你多多了。诸如此类。无奈，长大了的我，也只是个普通成年人。
好在，我并没有在那种披着“激将法”外衣的攀比中意志消沉，当然，我也没有因此而格外斗志昂扬。只是进入社会之后的这几年，看多了周围的起落沉浮，便觉得吴军说的“你的一生能走多远，取决于见识”还有周金涛说的“人生发财靠康波”，这两句话简直是人间真谛。
见识，很大一部分来自于原生家庭，也有相当一部分来自于后天的努力，努力走出原来的那点圈子层次，获得新的见识；
至于康波，我解释不清楚，大概是时运趋势风口浪潮之类的吧。Anyway，根本不是个人努力就能决定的。
所以啊，如果你总是被父母拿去比较，或者总是不自觉地拿自己和别人比较，并因此而闷闷不乐，放过自己吧。悦纳自己不过是个普通人，然后努力做一个棒棒的普通人。
加油！
ivy
以下黑体加粗部分摘自纽约时报中文网。
One of the mysteries of the sweeping college admissions fraud case has been over the families that prosecutors say paid the biggest sums to a college consultant at the center of the schemes but that have not been charged.
这起大规模的大学招生造假案的谜团之一，是那些向该案核心的一名大学顾问支付最高金额的家庭，检方表示他们尚未受到指控。
如何反映某个事件影响深远？sweeping：adj. affecting many things, or making an important difference to something, 影响大的；范围广的；彻底的，后面经常跟reforms, changes, cuts等词。
大刀阔斧的改革sweeping reforms，翻天覆地的变化sweeping changes, 大幅削减sweeping cuts。
这个句子有点长，帮大家划分一下意群层次：
One of the mysteries of the sweeping college admissions fraud case/ has been over the families/ that ( prosecutors say ) paid the biggest sums to a college consultant at the center of the schemes /but that have not been charged.
句子主干是One has been over the families. 后面两个that定语从句：that paid..., that have not ...都是对families的修饰。而prosecutors say是插入语，对句子大意和结构没有任何影响。
The 33 parents charged in the scandal are mostly accused of paying the consultant, William Singer, either tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to facilitate cheating on admissions tests or to bribe coaches or other officials so that their children could be admitted to schools as recruited athletes.
丑闻中受到指控的33名家长，大多被控向顾问威廉·辛格(William Singer)支付数万或数十万美元，换取他在大学入学考试中帮助作弊；抑或贿赂教练或其他官员，以便让他们的子女以体育特招生进入学校。
简单的词就不说了。上一段最后一句that have not been charged，还有这一段的be accused of paying...，关注charge和accuse这两个动词。
这两个词都可以表示“控告、指控”，唯一的区别在于charge是更加正式的指控，是要把对方告上法庭的，if the police charge someone, they officially tell that person that they are believed to be guilty of a crime and that they must go to court。而accuse并没有那种formally，也可以表示对某种罪行或错误行为的指责：to say that you believe that someone is guilty of a crime or of doing something bad。以下是几个例句：
Two women have been accused of kidnapping a newborn baby. 两名女子被控绑架一名新生婴儿。
Are you accusing me of lying? 你是指责我撒谎吗？
She was charged with murder. 她被指控犯有谋杀罪。
Prosecutors said that the daughter, whom they called Yale Applicant 1 in court documents, was admitted to Yale as a recruit for the women's soccer team, despite not being a competitive soccer player. According to documents charging Rudolph Meredith, the former women's soccer coach at Yale, Mr. Singer had paid Mr. Meredith a bribe to designate the young woman as a recruit for the team. Mr. Singer has pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges, and Mr. Meredith has pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges.
这名女生在法庭文件中被称为“耶鲁申请人1”，检察官说，她以该校女足队员的身份被耶鲁大学录取，尽管她不是有竞争力的足球运动员。指控耶鲁大学前女足教练鲁道夫·梅雷迪思(Rudolph Meredith)的文件显示，辛格曾向梅雷迪思行贿，让这位年轻女子成为球队的征募运动员。辛格对诈骗和其他指控认罪，梅雷迪思对造假和共谋指控认罪。
这段话中出现了好几个recruit，意思是：
recruit: someone who has recently joined an organization, team, group of people etc〔机构、团队、团体等的〕新成员
New recruits are sent to the Atlanta office for training. 新成员被送到亚特兰大办事处接受培训。
一会儿会总结有关“进入某个团体、院校”的表达。
关于这位教练的罪行，报道中用的词是rackteteer:
vi. when someone earns money through crime and illegal activities, 诈骗；非法获取钱财：
He has been arrested on racketeering charges.他因被控诈骗而遭逮捕。
还有其他词也可以表示“诈骗、骗钱”，比如defraud，常见搭配defraud sb. of sth.，这段的最后一句话也可以这样表达：
Mr.Meredith has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and conspiracy to defraud (= a secret plan to cheat someone, made by two or more people ) . 梅雷迪斯对造假和合谋诈骗的指控认罪。
还有swindle，常见搭配swindle sb. out of sth.，比如我们可以这样定义辛格教练：a coach who swindled Zhao out of 6.5 million dollars 一个诈骗了赵先生650万美元的教练。
A spokeswoman for the United States attorney's office in Boston, Christina Sterling, declined to comment on Ms. Guo’s case. Asked why Ms. Guo and her parents — as well as the still unidentified family that was said to have paid Mr. Singer $6.5 million — have not been charged in the case, she said, “I cannot comment other than to say it is an ongoing investigation.”
波士顿联邦检察官办公室发言人克里斯蒂娜·斯特林(Christina Sterling)拒绝就雪莉·郭的案件置评。当被问及雪莉·郭和她的父母，以及那个据称向辛格支付了650万美元的身份不明家庭为何没有受到指控时，她说，“我只能说，调查正在进行中。”
decline可以表示“拒绝”，这个词和refuse, reject的区别在于：
decline是有礼貌的谢绝提议或邀请，refuse是普通的“拒绝做别人要求你做的事”，reject的宾语一般是提议、想法、计划等。以下这几个例句，感受一下：
Offered the position of chairman, Smith declined, preferring to keep his current job. 对担任主席的邀约，史密斯拒绝了，他宁愿留在现在的职位上。
The minister declined to comment about the progress of the peace talks. 部长拒绝就和谈进程发表评论。
When they refused to leave, we had to call the police. 他们拒绝离开，我们只能报警了。
They rejected the idea because it would cost too much money. 他们没有接受这个主意，因为耗资太大。
Mr. Spertus said that Ms. Guo and her parents did not know that the payment was going toward a bribe. Her parents did not speak English and were not in direct contact with Mr. Singer, he said, while Ms. Guo herself was naïve about how the college admissions process worked in the United States. (Mr. Spertus would not identify Ms. Guo's parents.)
斯珀特斯说，雪莉·郭和她的父母并不知道这笔钱是用于贿赂。他说，她的父母不会说英语，也没有与辛格直接接触，而雪莉·郭本人对美国的大学招生过程也毫无了解。（斯珀图斯不愿透露雪莉·郭父母的身份。）
如果要表达“把钱花在哪里”，我们会想到spend, use, invest，这段话提供了一个新的表达：
go towards sth.: if money goes towards something, it is used to pay part of the cost of that thing〔钱〕用于支付…的部分款项
The money will go towards a new hospice. 这笔钱将用于支付新建安养院的部分费用。
go towards doing sth
All money raised will go towards renovating the building.所筹资金都将用于支付修缮大楼的部分款项。
Ms. Guo wanted to go to Columbia University or Oxford, Mr. Spertus said, but Mr. Singer told her to apply to Yale, and that she would be guaranteed to get in. While that might have seemed strange to a student who grew up in the United States, he said, Ms. Guo did not expect to have much choice about where to go to college.
斯珀特斯说，雪莉·郭本来想上哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)或牛津大学(Oxford)，但辛格让她申请耶鲁大学，并保证她能被录取。他说，对于一个在美国长大的学生来说，这可能听上去很奇怪，但雪莉·郭没想过在去哪所大学的问题上能有多少选择。
在关于此次事件的外媒报道中，出现了很多表达“被录取”或“进入某所大学、团体”的动词，我们盘点一下：
recruit，多是进入某个组织或公司，为其效力，在提到赵小姐体育特招生的身份时经常看到这个词， as a recruit for the women's soccer team， a recruited athlete
这段话中的get in，还有前面的get into: One family paid Mr. Singer $6.5 million to get their child into college through the recruitment scheme.都等于enter。
admit的出现频率就更高了：...so that their children could be admitted to schools as recruited athletes. 名词性admission，这篇文章开篇第一句：One of the mysteries of the sweeping college admissions fraud case has been over the families that...
admit: [T] to allow someone to join an organization, club etc允许…加入；接纳
admit sb to/into sth
Drake was admitted into the club in 1997. 1997年德雷克被那家俱乐部接纳为会员。
还有attend:
这篇笔记就写到这里吧。
祝大家青年节奋进，永远年轻，永远激情澎湃！
