HONG KONG — Every June, millions of high school seniors in China sit down for a grueling university entrance exam, knowing they may not get into a top school or any school at all. If their results are disappointing, finding another route to university can take a year or more.
香港——每年六月，中国都有数百万高中毕业生参加一场激烈的大学招生考试，即使他们知道自己有可能无法进入顶级高校，或者根本进不了任何院校。如果成绩不理想，另寻一条出路进入大学可能会花上一年或者更多的时间。
Now they may have a faster option.现在，他们可能有了一个更快的选项。The University of New Hampshire says it will start accepting scores from the Chinese exam, making it the first flagship state school in the United States to evaluate Chinese applicants using the results from that test, known as the gaokao.新罕布什尔大学(University of New Hampshire)表示，它将开始接受中国考试的成绩。这使该校成为了美国首个以高考结果来评估中国申请者的州立旗舰大学。There are 377,000 Chinese students in the United States, representing more than one-third of all international students, according to the federal government. Since they often pay full tuition, they are an important source of revenue for American universities, which have been intensifying their efforts to recruit Chinese students.根据联邦政府的统计，美国有37.7万中国学生，占全体国际学生的三分之一以上。他们往往会支付全额学费，因而成了美国大学的一个重要收入来源。美国大学正在加大力度招收中国学生。Erika Mantz, spokeswoman for the University of New Hampshire, said the gaokao program was meant to attract “outstanding Chinese high school graduates” after they get their test results in late June, months after the deadline has passed under the regular admissions process. Most incoming freshmen would have been admitted by the time Chinese students take the gaokao test.
新罕布什尔大学发言人埃丽卡·曼茨(Erika Mantz)表示，高考项目旨在吸引“优秀的中国高中毕业生”，他们会在六月底拿到高考成绩，这个时间超过了常规招生过程最后截止日期好几个月。大多数即将到来的大一新生会在中国学生高考的时候被录取。The university — which had 781 international students last fall, almost half of them from China — has introduced a recruiting website in Chinese and English. Before the program for gaokao students was created, applicants who took the test would have to wait for a new application cycle to start in the fall. The new program allows them to start one semester earlier.该校推出了一个中英双语的招生网站，在它去年秋季录取的781名国际生中，有半数来自中国。在这个为参加高考的学生而设的项目出现前，参加过高考的申请者必须要等到下一轮在秋季开始的招生。新项目能让他们早一个学期开始。The gaokao, which generally lasts about nine hours over two days, determines the fates of almost 10 million students, less than 1 percent of whom gain admission to China’s top universities. Students spend years preparing for it.通常为期两天、时长大约九个小时的高考，决定着将近一千万学生的命运，只有不到1%的考生有资格进入的中国顶级大学。学生们会花费数年时间为考试做准备。While the Chinese education system has been praised for its rigor — a Stanford study found that freshmen at Chinese universities outpaced their American and Russian peers by two or three years in critical thinking skills — critics say the gaokao incentivizes memorization over creativity. There have also been cheating scandals in recent years.虽然中国的教育系统以其严格著称——斯坦佛的一项研究发现，中国高校的大一新生在批判性思维能力方面超过美国和俄罗斯的同年级学生两到三年，但批评人士表示，高考鼓励的是记忆而非创造。近几年也出现过作弊丑闻。About 3 percent of Chinese students bypass the gaokao by paying to attend private “international track” programs that prepare them for standardized testing abroad. But their classmates planning to take the gaokao have little time for anything other than intense cramming in the years leading up to this rite of passage.约有3%的中国学生通过自费参与私立的“国际接轨”项目绕开高考，为他们在海外参加标准化测试做准备。但他们计划参加高考的同班同学，在这个重要日子来临之前的数年时间里，除了紧锣密鼓地恶补做准备，几乎没有时间做其他事情。That single-minded focus isolates students from educational opportunities outside China, said Andrew Chen, the chief learning officer of the WholeRen Group, an education consulting firm based in Pittsburgh. It is rare for students to apply to programs abroad while also preparing for the Chinese exam, which takes place months after the deadline for most American universities.总部位于匹兹堡的教育咨询公司厚仁集团教育总监陈航表示，这样一心一意的投入使学生与中国以外的教育机会绝缘。极少有学生在准备中国考试的同时还会申请国外课程，中国的高考在美国大多数大学的入学申请截止数月以后才会举行。Students unhappy with their gaokao results can wait a year to retake the test, as almost 1.5 million did last year, or take a gap year to prepare for the next cycle of American admissions. The University of New Hampshire program would take a bit of agony out of the wait, with an Oct. 1 deadline to apply for admission in January 2019.对高考成绩不满意的学生可以等待一年重新参加考试，就像去年差不多150万人做的那样，或者利用间隔年来准备下一轮的美国招生录取。而新罕布什尔大学的项目则可以减少一些等待的痛苦，2019年1月入学的申请截止日期给到了10月1日。“From the student’s perspective, it opens a door,” Mr. Chen said in a phone interview.“从学生的角度看，就是打开了一扇门，”陈航在电话采访中说。Like other out-of-state students, students admitted to the University of New Hampshire through the gaokao program would have to pay over $45,000 a year in tuition and housing costs.和其他外州学生一样，通过高考项目入读新罕布什尔大学的学生每年需要支付4.5万美元以上的学费和住宿费。The University of New Hampshire joins dozens of European, Australian and Canadian universities, as well as a handful of private American institutions, that have been screening candidates using cutoff gaokao scores. The university reviews how students perform on the gaokao, and on an assessment of their English language skills, before determining whether they can move forward with the application process.除了新罕布什尔大学外，还有几十个欧洲、澳大利亚和加拿大的大学以及少部分美国私立机构使用高考录取分数线来筛选申请人。决定学生是否能进入申请下一个环节前，该校会评估学生在高考中的表现，以及他们的英语技能。Ms. Mantz, the spokeswoman, said that although admissions criteria were still being finalized, students considered for the University of New Hampshire would most likely have to take the SAT or the ACT, a similar test, after their scores on the gaokao were vetted.该校发言人曼茨表示，虽然招生标准仍在进行最后的确定，但在新罕布什尔大学考虑范围内的学生的高考分数经过审查后，很可能还需要参加SAT或与之类似的ACT考试。But admitted students would still set foot on campus earlier than they would have otherwise.但与其他情况相比，被录取的学生还是能早一些踏入校园。“This streamlined process quickly gives feedback to students who need additional English prep, so that they can start on that path right away,” Ms. Mantz wrote in an email.“这种简化的流程很快为那些需要额外英语准备的学生提供反馈，这样他们就可以立即着手准备了，”曼茨在一封邮件中写道。A similar program at the University of San Francisco allows Chinese students to bypass U.S. standardized testing altogether. A Jesuit institution with about 6,800 undergraduate students, the university has an early admissions program that allows June test takers to enroll as early as the fall semester, based solely on their gaokao score, grades and a one-on-one interview in English. Last spring, more than half of the school’s 1,600 international students were from China.大约有6800位本科生的耶稣会大学——旧金山大学(University of San Francisco)有一个类似项目，允许中国学生绕过美国的标准化测试。该校有一个预录取项目，让六月参加高考的考生凭其高考分数、评分等级和一对一英文面试，最快能秋季入学。去年春季，该校的1600名国际学生有超过半数来自中国。On the program website, Paul J. Fitzgerald, the school’s president, said that although he was aware of criticism of the gaokao, it had the “advantage” of evaluating “whether students are able to master a given body of knowledge, as well as their ability to work hard and consistently.”在该项目课程的网站上，校长保罗·J·菲兹杰拉德(Paul J. Fitzgerald)表示，尽管他意识到了对高考的批评，但它“有优势”评价“学生是否熟练掌握一个特定知识体系，以及他们是否具备刻苦学习并坚持到底的品质”。Mr. Fitzgerald noted that the SAT, which serves as a basis for admission at most four-year colleges and universities in the United States, is also an imperfect predictor of college success.菲兹杰拉德指出，美国许多四年制学院和高校用来当做录取根据的SAT考试，也并不是一个能够预计学生大学成就的完美工具。