3-4 出国去

Learn English for the 2008 Olympics

——Going Abroad

Foreigner: I know it’s a good thing to go abroad, and you suffered for being a closed society for too long, but now I find this craze for going abroad a bit incomprehensible.Many people with neither need nor the means1 are trying desperately 1 to go abroad. I’ve had many people whom I hardly knew coming to me asking me to help them.

Chinese: It’s only recently that people are free to go abroad either to study or just to travel. In the early days of Liberation, the only foreign country that took in Chinese students was the Soviet 2 Union. In the fifties of the last century, we sent over students by the thousands, and that lasted until around the middle of the sixties.

Foreigner: I know, and then you quarreled with them over the question of their revisionism2. Was that the reason why you stopped sending over students?

Chinese: Not entirely 3. Naturally political differences made any exchange difficult, if not impossible. We still had a few students studying in the Soviet Union, mostly science students, but they were all finally withdrawn 4 during the so-called Great Cultural Revolution.

Foreigner: How were the students selected? Were people free to apply? Competition must have been very keen, and I suppose there must have been very stiff qualifying examinations.

Chinese: At that time only the government had the power to decide who could go abroad. Students were selected by their organizations. They might have to go through some sort of qualifying test before being officially approved, but the main criteria 53 for selection was political.

Foreigner: What exactly was the implication of political criteria? How was a man assessed4 politically?

Chinese: Political criteria varied 6 according to different periods, but generally speaking a man is judged by his loyalty 7 to the Communist Party and his dedication 8 to the communist cause. And his class origin was also a very important factor in his assessment 9, especially during ultra-leftist periods such as the so-called Great Cultural Revolution.

Foreigner: Now I take it there are no more political restrictions 10 on people applying to go abroad. Does the government still send students to study abroad?

Chinese: The government still has a few students exchange programs with other countries and many universities also have their own exchange programs with foreign universities. But ever since we opened up to the outside world, more and more young people are seeking chances to study abroad on their own initiative and through their own efforts, which I think is a good thing.

Foreigner: As I’ve just said, I’m not against young people going abroad and broadening their horizon, but I think there is an over zealous 115 tendency among the young people to leave the country. Many who did succeed in continuing their studies abroad do not come back, no matter whether they can find decent6 jobs or not.

Chinese: Yes, brain drain7 is a problem, but it’ s not as serious as it threatened to be. Our country is developing so fast that the gap between us and the developed countries has narrowed in many ways. Our students studying abroad are finding that coming home sometimes offers them brighter prospects 12 than staying in a developed country.

注释：

1. means [mi:nz] [复] n. 方法，手段；条件

2. revisionism [ri5vIVEniz(E)m] n. 修正主义

3. criteria [krai5tiEriE] n.（criterion的复数）标准，尺度，准则

4. assess [E5ses] vt. 对……进行估价，评价

5. zealous [5zelEs] adj. 积极的；狂热的

6. decent [5di:snt] adj. 合宜的；适当的

7. brain drain〈口〉人才流失，人才外流，智囊枯竭