德國3萬多名學生網上請願 抱怨高考英語太難

Grappling with the Statue of Liberty and Brexit in one English exam proved too much for more than 30,000 German school students, who are protesting in an online petition.

在一次英語考試中，關於自由女神像和“英國脫歐”的問題讓3萬名德國學生難以應付，以至於他們發起了一場網上抗議。

They say the texts they had to analyse were "unfair" -- stuffed with highly literary and outdated vocabulary.

學生們表示，他們必須進行分析的文章很“不公平” --全是高度的文學性和過時的詞彙。

Baden-Wurttemberg state officials, however, called the texts "appropriate" and defended the exam board.

然而，巴登符騰堡州的官員卻表示，這些文章是“合適的”，併爲考試委員會辯護。

They were part of the teenagers' crucial Abitur school-leaving exams. One task was to comment on two contrasting cartoons about Brexit, titled "Project Fantasy" and "The Realities".

這些文章是青少年關鍵的Abitur考試中的一部分。其中一項任務是就標題爲《項目幻想》和《現實》的兩副關於“英國脫歐”的漫畫進行論述。

That required some current affairs knowledge, besides English comprehension.

除了對英語的理解之外，這還要求考生對一些時事知識的瞭解。

About 31,000 students sat the English exam in the south-west German state but the petition launched last month has collected more than 35,000 signatures.

這一位於德國西南部的聯邦州約有31000名學生參加了此次英語考試，但上個月發佈的請願書收集到了超過35000個簽名。

They ask the region's education authorities to adapt the marking system in light of the "unfair" difficulties posed by the texts -- and give some examples. This year's Abitur "is not comparable with those of previous years", they argue.

他們要求該地區的教育部門根據考試的“不公平”的難度調整評分系統，並給出範例。他們認爲，今年的高考“與往年無法比擬”。