2016-06-13

【Aiden in English】

        The seventh grade is over. Obviously, I am very happy. However, it seems as though school has carried on through summer. Course advancement, summer reading… all factors of a stressful environment. Being self-motivated to do easy stuff is boring, no that school isn’t, but at least there is someone to talk to. The seventh grade also was quite simple. There wasn’t much to do in the end. Although Finals were here, they weren’t hard, and even with awards, they weren’t worth anything until the latter years of school. So what was the point of the seventh grade?

        As I progressed through the school year, many things began to change about how I saw things. Understand that Pennbrook is an enormous public school, so your attention to kids is short. The ongoing of the school year has changed me so that I step out to be heard, but not for obnoxious reasons. Speaking up is now a priority to be noticed by teachers, which is always important. Unfortunately, the idea of studying is still a strange and uncharted one to me. What’s the point when I get straight A’s anyway? The seventh grade has taught me how life is … optional. We were presented choices this year, or, in the teacher’s jargon, “privileges”. Unlike the previous years, lunch and clothing weren’t the only options we had. Courses could be selected for next year, as well as course advancement. Looking back at the course advancement choice offered in the NPSD, I realize what a mistake it was. It demands a lot of work, especially when you’re on vacation for half of the available time. I also selected next year’s Latin language and the gifted program. That leads me to my second point. The gifted program used to be fun. Not school fun, but the mess around a type of fun. Solar-powered cars and castles were all in the curriculum, which haves me wondering how in the world we were graded. The gifted program in middle school is simply a replacement of literacy, just much, much harder. Grades were also much more exact.

        Choices require much responsibility. Not that I have much, but it is a cliché phrase to say. Now that I think about it, it seems as I’ve lost a total of three books. I found them all later, mind you, but it applies a certain amount of pressure to your shoulders when you carry around the burden of a lost item. Mad moms are also a pain as well. Luckily, none were overdue to the library. This particularly gave me practice for stress, although it really shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Some other interesting things have occurred, but I believe the seventh grade will be the least interesting of the three grades in middle school. Life was really simple, nothing overly complex, excluding the obvious procrastination.

        I understand that if you’re too good for something, you aren’t doing it correctly, but to be fair, there is no way to learn correctly. My teachers apparently disagree with my thought process at school. Two, after seeing 99% averages, told me that I was “slacking”.

【紅霞譯文】

        初中二年級結束了，無疑我甚感興奮。學校生活雖說告一段落，但好像又貫穿整個夏季，預修課程、暑期閱讀……五花八門的外界壓力，想要主動干點力所能及的事情又覺得沒勁，上學的時候哪有這般乏味，至少有人嘮嘮嗑聊聊天。初中二年級的日子相當好混，而且越到學年末了越少新鮮玩藝，儘管期末考試接踵而來，但其難度不大，因此就算榮膺幾項獎勵，也沒啥好捭闔的，畢竟學生生涯中未來發展才彰顯英雄本色，那麼初二到底有什麼收穫？

        過去一年裡，隨着時間推移，我看待事物的觀點逐步發生了變化，要知道賓溪中學屬於本州範圍內規模巨大的公立學校，每位學生所得到的關心可謂少之又少，因此我得努力抒發自己的心聲，避免採取消極態度。現在看來，第一點就是先要贏得老師的認可，這是放之四海而皆準的真理，遺憾的是，本人缺乏悟性，始終處於學習階段。是否有必要各門功課全優？初二讓我領悟到生活……豐富多彩，擺在我們面前的選擇很多，用老師的話來說即所謂的“特權”。過去低年級的時候，我們除了午餐和穿衣有話語權之外，對其它事情均不能自作主張。如今我們非但親自選擇下學年要學的東西，就連暑假預修課程都由個人說了算。提到暑期班，我認為自己一時疏忽，北賓州學區暑假所開設的課程需要付諸大量精力，假如你有一半時間出外度假，那麼剩下的日子當該自找苦吃。下學年我還要學拉丁語上智優課，恰好引出第二個重點，小學的智優課比較有趣，跟普通教學不同，它側重動手操作, 從銅牆鐵壁到太陽能汽車，古往今來全部納入強化範圍，我心裡禁不住嘀咕這下老師該如何打分。初中的智優課基本上圍繞閱讀寫作，只不過難度加大，成績單打分精確到位。

        多為選擇負責，這不是發自本人肺腑的感受，而是大家公認的至理名言。回首過去一年往事，我前後好像丟過三本書，後來倒是完璧歸趙。咱有言在先，肩上一下子增加這麼大的負荷真有點吃不消，惹得媽媽着急上火，同樣令我抓狂，僥倖沒有一本書過期還給圖書館，期間我的抗壓能力也得到了磨練，當然類似事件本來不該發生。還有其它一些這樣那樣的搞笑，但我堅信初二是初中三年生涯里最為平庸的階段，暫且撇開拖沓不談，生活按部就班，沒有特別複雜的東西。

        我明白，倘若你在某個方面具有特長，那麼反倒缺乏動力追求精益求精，不過公正地說，學習好壞並不能用對與錯來加以區分。老師們似乎並不認同我的觀點，其中有兩位竟然把我平均分數99%歸咎於“偷懶”的結果。