never felt like home, anyway.
\Mr. Blevins recalled. \
So he quit college instead, and with that, Andy Blevins joined one of the largest and fastest-growing groups of young adults in America. He became a college dropout, though nongraduate may be the more precise term.
Many people like him plan to return to get their degrees, even if few actually do. Almost one in three Americans in their mid-20's now fall into this group, up from one in five in the late 1960's, when the Census Bureau began keeping such data. Most come from poor and working-class families.
That gap had grown over recent years. \the most serious domestic problem in the United States today is the widening gap between the children of the rich and the children of the poor,\Lawrence H. Summers, the president of Harvard, said last year when announcing that Harvard would give full scholarships to all its lowest-income students. \education is the most powerful weapon we have to address that problem.\
Andy Blevins says that he too knows the importance of a degree. Ten years after trading college for the warehouse, Mr. Blevins, 29, spends his days at the same supermarket company. He has worked his way up to
produce buyer, earning $35,000 a year with health benefits and a 401(k) plan. He is on a path typical for someone who attended college without getting a four-year degree. Men in their early 40's in this category made an average of $42,000 in 2000. Those with a four-year degree made $65,000.
Mr. Blevins says he has many reasons to be happy. He lives with his wife, Karla, and their year-old son, Lucas, in a small blue-and-yellow house in the middle of a stunningly picturesque Appalachian valley. \soft-spoken lilt. \years seemed like a thousand years then. But I wish I would have just put in my four years.\
Why so many low-income students fall from the college ranks is a question without a simple answer. Many high schools do a poor job of preparing teenagers for college. Tuition bills scare some students from even applying and leave others with years of debt. To Mr. Blevins, like many other students of limited means, every week of going to classes seemed like another week of losing money .
\III, the president of the University of Virginia, himself the son of a Virginia shipyard worker.
安迪布莱文思曾做过的最大的、同时也是他现在极少为之后悔的决定之一，
看起来一点也不像个决定。倒像是自然而然做的事。
1995年夏天，他在一家超市的仓库上班，把汤罐头、纸巾和狗粮箱子在地板上搬来搬去，这家超市是弗吉尼亚西南部最大的建筑物之一。天气酷热。他刚
到这开始第一个学年时，希望在暑期挣点外快，这份工作在那时显得不可思议。当时他还是个瘦得皮包骨的十几岁的小伙子，有着沙质金发和瘦削的布满雀斑的脸。
但是，他明白应该把坚苦的工作干好，即使他是他家族的第一个大学生。很快，他挣的钱高达6.75美元一小时，比他父母挣得都多。他有女友和同乡作伴。安迪待他们更友好宽容。芝尔豪伊镇的人注意到了。
这只是个完美的夏天。于是一丝念头闪过他的脑海，兴许这一切不必结束，兴许他可以暂时休学继续工作。他的学业成绩得了一些C和D，无论如何，大学从来不像家里。
“我喜欢努力干活，完成工作，挣一份薪水，”布莱文思回忆说。“我只知道我不想离开。”
于是他反而退了学，随之加入了美国最大和成长最快的年轻人群体之一。他成了辍学生，尽管未毕业也许是更准确的定义。
很多像他那样的人计划重新取得学位，即使实际上很少人那么做。20岁左右的美国人几乎有三分之一成为这个群体中的一员，高于20世纪60年代的五分之一，那时人口调查局开始保存这一数据。其中大部分人出生于穷人和工薪阶层家庭。
最近几年这种差距已扩大。“我们必须意识到，美国今天最严重的国内问题是日益分化的贫富孩子之间的差距，”哈佛校长劳伦斯.H夏默尔在宣称哈佛应给所有收入最低的学生颁发全额奖学金时说。“教训是解决这一问题的最强有力的武器。”
安迪布莱文思说他也知道学位的重要性。在拿大学生涯换仓库工作的十年后，已29岁的布莱文思先生，仍在同一家超市工作。他干到了产品采购，年薪35000美元，有健康保险和一份401（k）计划。他走的路，是那些进入大学却未取得4年学位的人走的一条典型的路。2000年，40多岁的此类人平均年薪为42000万美元。而那些取得了4年学位的人年薪则为65000美元。
布莱文思先生说他有很多理由高兴。他同他的妻子卡拉及周岁的儿子卢卡斯，住在风景如画的阿巴拉契亚山谷中部的一座蓝黄相间的小房子里。 “回想起来，我希望我已经取得了那个学位，”布莱文思先生轻快地说。“那时4年似乎像1000年。但是我希望自己只是投入了4年。”
为什么如此多的低收入学生辍学，这是一个没有简单答案的问题。许多高中在将青少年送进大学的准备工作上没做好。学费吓得学生甚至不敢申请，或让其他入学的人欠下多年的债。布莱文思先生，像其他门路有限的学生一样，每周去上课，就像每周在赔钱。
“教育体制给了学生们一个虚假的承诺，”弗吉尼亚大学校长约翰.T.卡斯廷三世说，他本人是一个弗吉尼亚船厂工人的儿子。
二、汉译英
提起东盟国家，我就想起去年在东盟会议上，马哈蒂尔先生和吴作栋先生曾经形象地把中国比喻成一个友好的大象。他们说，中国的崛起不会对其他们存在任 何威胁。中国有5000年的文明史，有过辉煌的过去，也有过屈辱的往事。中国的崛起是多少代中国人的梦想。中国和平崛起的要义在什么地方？第一，中国和平 崛起就是要充分利用世界和平的大好时机，努力发展和壮大自己。同时又以自己的发展，维护世界和平。第二，中国的崛起应把基点主要放在自己的力量
上，独立自 主、自力更生，艰苦奋斗，依靠广阔的国内市场、充足的劳动力资源和雄厚的资金储备，以及改革带来的机制创新。第三，中国的崛起离不开世界。中国必须坚持开 放的政策，在平等互利的原则上，同世界一切友好国家发展经贸往来。第四，中国的崛起需要很长的时间，恐怕要多少代人的努力奋斗。第五，中国的崛起不会妨碍 任何人，也不会威胁任何人，也不会牺牲任何人。中国现在不称霸，将来即使强大了也永远不会称霸。
2008年5月 一、英译汉
ARDEA, Italy — The previous growing season, this lush coastal field near Rome was filled with rows of delicate durum wheat, used to make high-quality pasta. Today it overflows with rapeseed, a tall, gnarled weedlike plant bursting with coarse yellow flowers that has become a new manna for European farmers: rapeseed can be turned into biofuel. Motivated by generous subsidies to develop alternative energy sources — and a measure of concern about the future of the planet — Europe’s farmers are beginning to grow crops that can be turned into fuels meant to produce fewer emissions than gas or oil. They are chasing their counterparts in the Americas who have been raising crops for biofuel for more than five years.
“This is a much-needed boost to our economy, our farms,” said Marcello Pini, 50, a farmer, standing in front of the rapeseed he planted for the first time. “Of course, we hope it helps the environment, too.”
In March, the European Commission, disappointed by the slow growth of the biofuels industry, approved a directive that included a “binding target” requiring member countries to use 10 percent biofuel for transport by 2020 — the most ambitious and specific goal in the world.
Most European countries are far from achieving the target, and are introducing incentives and subsidies to bolster production.
As a result, bioenergy crops have replaced food as the most profitable crop in several European countries. In this part of Italy, for example, the government guarantees the purchase of biofuel crops at 22 euros for 100 kilograms, or $13.42 for 100 pounds — nearly twice the 11 to 12 euros for 100 kilograms of wheat on the open market in 2006. Better still, farmers can plant biofuel crops on “set aside” fields, land that Europe’s agriculture policy would otherwise require be left fallow.
But an expert panel convened by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization pointed out that the biofuels boom produces benefits as well as trade-offs and risks — including higher and wildly fluctuating food prices. In some markets, grain prices have nearly doubled.
“At a time when agricultural prices are low, in comes biofuel and improves the lot of farmers and injects life into rural areas,” said Gustavo