每日英語 #096: Nice Hair, Good Grades

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Nice Hair, Good Grades

Being successful in an American school requires, as in other schools throughout the world, that you do your homework and study. However, that is certainly not the only thing that helps determine how well students perform in school as measured by their GPA. “GPA” stands for “grade point average,” which is the combination of your grades from all of your classes. GPAs go usually from 1.0 to 4.0. “Perfect” grades (all As) would be a 4.0 GPA.

在美國的學校中取得成功，如同世界上其他學校一樣，需要你完成作業並努力學習。然而，這並不是唯一決定學生學業表現的因素，GPA也會衡量學生的表現。“GPA”代表“平均成績點數”，即你所有課程的成績的綜合。GPA通常從1.0到4.0不等。獲得“完美”成績（全部是A）將會有4.0的GPA。

A 2009 research study reported in the New York Times found that there are other things that influence teachers in determining student grades. This isn’t too surprising, but what exactly are those things?

根據《紐約時報》2009年報導的一項研究，還有其他因素會影響老師決定學生的成績。這並不令人感到驚訝，但到底是哪些因素呢？

A U.S. government survey of more than 20,000 high school students asked the survey interviewers “to rate” (give a grade or points) to each student on three factors: their “attractiveness” (whether they are good looking or not), their “grooming habits” (whether they brush their hair, dress neatly, etc.), and their overall “personality” (are they pleasant to be with, positive, easy to talk to, etc.).

美國政府對超過20,000名高中生進行的調查中，要求調查員根據三個因素對每個學生進行“評分”：他們的“吸引力”（是否好看）、他們的“儀容習慣”（是否梳理頭髮、穿著整潔等）以及他們的整體“性格”（是否討人喜歡、積極、容易交談等）。

The research found that these three factors did influence student grades, but the specific factors were different for boys and girls. For a boy, good grooming caused an increase in his grade, while boys who were “slovenly” (messy, not neat with one’s clothing and hair) got significantly lower grades from teachers. For girls, having a pleasant personality was the most important factor influencing grades, while good grooming was less important than it was for boys.

研究發現，這三個因素確實影響了學生的成績，但對男生和女生的影響因素不同。對於男生來說，良好的儀容習慣能提高他們的成績，而那些“邋遢的”（衣著和髮型不整潔的）男生則從老師那裡得到了明顯更低的成績。對女生而言，擁有愉快的性格是影響成績的最重要因素，而良好的儀容習慣則不如對男生那樣重要。

Perhaps most interesting in this study of American schools was the “finding” (a conclusion based upon the data of the study) that very attractive girls actually suffered a “slight” (small) “decrease” (drop) in grades because of their beauty. Perhaps this is due to the fact that teachers think that beautiful girls are somehow not very smart.

在這項對美國學校的研究中，最有趣的“發現”是非常有吸引力的女生反而因她們的美貌而遭受了成績的“輕微”（小）“下降”。也許這是因為老師認為漂亮的女生某種程度上並不聰明。

重點單字

• GPA /ˌdʒiː.piːˈeɪ/ - 平均成績點數
• Attractiveness /əˈtræk.tɪv.nəs/ - 吸引力
• Grooming habits /ˈɡruːmɪŋ ˈhæbɪts/ - 儀容習慣
• Personality /ˌpɜːrsəˈnælɪti/ - 性格
• Slovenly /ˈslʌv.ən.li/ - 邋遢的
• Slight /slaɪt/ - 輕微的
• Decrease /dɪˈkriːs/ - 減少