[双语]为什么美国高校学生抄袭现象愈演愈烈

 

Large-scale cheating has been uncovered over the last year at some of the nation’s most competitive schools, like Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, the Air Force Academy and, most recently, Harvard.

去年，美国一些*具有竞争力的学校陆续发现大规模抄袭现象。这些学校包括曼哈顿的史岱文森*(Stuyvesant High School)、美国空军中心(Air Force Academy)，*近的例子则是哈佛大学(Harvard)。

Studies of student behavior and attitudes show that a majority of students violate standards of academic integrity to some degree, and that high achievers are just as likely to do it as others. Moreover, there is evidence that the problem has worsened over the last few decades.

对学生行为和态度的研究表明，有大量学生在一定程度上违反了*道德标准，优等生违规逾矩的可能性和其他学生并没有差别。此外，有证据表明作弊问题在过去几十年来愈演愈烈。

Experts say the reasons are relatively simple: Cheating has become easier and more widely tolerated, and both schools and parents have failed to give students strong, repetitive messages about what is allowed and what is prohibited.

说原因很简单：作弊越来越容易，人们对作弊越来越包容，而且学校和父母都没有反复向学生着重强调，什么行为可以允许，什么行为应该禁止。

“I don’t think there’s any question that students have become more competitive, under more pressure, and, as a result, tend to excuse more from themselves and other students, and that’s abetted by the adults around them,” said Donald L. McCabe, a professor at the Rutgers University Business School, and a leading researcher on cheating.

“我觉得学生面临的竞争、承受的压力越来越大，这一点是毫无疑问的，因此他们往往会给自己和其他同学找来更多借口，而且他们周围的成年人也支持这种做法，”罗格斯大学商中心(Rutgers University Business School)教授、学生作弊问题研究的先行者唐纳德·L·麦卡贝(Donald L. McCabe)如是说。

“There have always been struggling students who cheat to survive,” he said. “But more and more, there are students at the top who cheat to thrive.”

“总有一些成绩不好的学生通过作弊来蒙混过关，”他说：“但是，有越来越多的尖子生在通过作弊来取得优异成绩。”

Internet access has made cheating easier, enabling students to connect instantly with answers, friends to consult and works to plagiarize. And generations of research has shown that a major factor in unethical behavior is simply how easy or hard it is.

互联网的应用使作弊益发简便，网络能够马上让学生找得答案，联系朋友商量，或者找到别人的成果剽窃。几代人的研究表明，不道德行为的一个关键因素是实现它的难易程度。

A recent study by Jeffrey A. Roberts and David M. Wasieleski at Duquesne University found that the more online tools college students were allowed to use to complete an assignment, the more likely they were to copy the work of others.

迪犹肯大学(Duquesne University)的杰弗里·A·罗伯茨(Jeffrey A. Roberts)和大卫·M·瓦西莱斯基(David M. Wasieleski)*近进行的一项研究发现，大学生在完成作业时允许使用的在线工具越多，抄袭别人成果的可能性就越大。

The Internet has changed attitudes, as a world of instant downloading, searching, cutting and pasting has loosened some ideas of ownership and authorship. An increased emphasis on having students work in teams may also have played a role.

互联网改变了人们的心态，在一个即时下载、搜索、复制和粘贴的*里，人们放宽了对所有权和著作权的理解。学生的小组作业被摆在了一个越来越高的位置上，这可能也起到了一定作用。

“Students are surprisingly unclear about what constitutes plagiarism or cheating,” said Mr. Wasieleski, an associate professor of management.

“学生不明白什么构成了剽窃和抄袭，这真是让人震惊，”管理学副教授瓦西莱斯基先生说。

Howard Gardner, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said that over the 20 years he has studied professional and academic integrity, “the ethical muscles have atrophied,” in part because of a culture that exalts success, however it is attained.

哈佛大学教育研究院(Harvard Graduate School of Education)教授霍华德·加德纳(Howard Gardner)说，在过去20多年里，他一直研究职业和*道德，“道德的影响力在滑坡，”部分原因在于现在人们崇尚成功不论手段的文化。

He said the attitude he has found among students at elite colleges is: “We want to be famous and successful, we think our colleagues are cutting corners, we’ll be damned if we’ll lose out to them, and some day, when we’ve made it, we’ll be role models. But until then, give us a pass.”

他说自己发现高校学生存在着这样的心态：“我们想要功成名就，周围的人都在投机取巧，如果输给他们我们就玩完了。等到成功的那一天，我们就是楷模。但是在那之前，先得把考试这关过了。”

Numerous projects and research studies have shown that frequently reinforcing standards, to both students and teachers, can lessen cheating. But experts say most schools fail to do so.

许多项目和研究表明，经常向学生和老师**道德标准，会减少作弊现象。但是，称大多数的学校都没有做到。
“Institutions do a poor job of making those boundaries clear and consistent, of educating students about them, of enforcing them, and of giving teachers a clear process to follow through on them,” said Laurie L. Hazard, director of the Academic Center for Excellence at Bryant University. In the programs that colleges run to help new students make the transition from high school, students are counseled on everything from food to friendships, but “little or no time is spent on cheating,” she said.

“*在诸多方面都做得很不到位，它们没有明确设定作弊的界限、并*持规定的连续性，没有教育学生了解这些界限并予以实施，也没有给老师们一个明确的指引来贯彻落实，”布莱恩特大学(Bryant University)*卓越中心(Academic Center for Excellence)主任劳丽·L·哈扎德(Laurie L. Hazard)说。高校通常会开展项目帮助*生顺利过渡为大学生，新生可以提出从学校伙食到交朋友的各式各样的问题，但是“几乎没人花时间来谈作弊的问题，”她说。

A 2010 survey of Yale undergraduates by The Yale Daily News showed that most had never read the school’s policy on academic honesty, and most were unsure of the rules on sharing or recycling their work.

2010年《耶鲁每日新闻》(The Yale Daily)对耶鲁本科生做的一次调查表明，大多数学生从来没有读过学校关于*诚信的政策，也没有确切了解一些相关规定，比如是否能共享资料或者将自己的作业改一改继续用。

In surveys of high school students, the Josephson Institute of Ethics, which advises schools on ethics education, has found that about three-fifths admit to having cheated in the previous year — and about four-fifths say their own ethics are above average.

约瑟夫森伦理研究所(Josephson Institute of Ethics) 是一家在德育上给学校*建议的机构，该研究所在对*生的一次调查中发现，五分之三的学生承认他们在前一年抄袭过——但有五分之四的学生说自己的道德水准在平均水平之上。

Few schools “place any meaningful emphasis on integrity, academic or otherwise, and colleges are even more indifferent than high schools,” said Michael Josephson, president of the institute.

只有极少数学校“给予*或者其他诚信合理的重视，大学在这方面比*还漠不关心，”伦理研究所所长迈克尔·约瑟夫森(Michael Josephson)说。

“When you start giving take-home exams and telling kids not to talk about it, or you let them carry smartphones into tests, it’s an invitation to cheating,” he said.

“当你允许*们把考