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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
這里是美國之音慢速英語教育報道p!7vq0]G|O。

June, July and August are vacation months for most American school children. But some young students pay a high price for that long summer break. They may forget much of what they learned over the past year by the time they start the next grade.
6月、7月和8月是大多數美國學生的假期時間，但有的學生為了這個夏日長假付出了高昂代價|!~mI0pee9;wRh。等到下一年級開始時，他們可能會忘記上一年學的很多東西*Wgyx#6-;IQXr。

This problem is often called the summer learning gap. A growing effort across the country aims to deal with it by offering more interesting summer school programs. Some students already attend summer school, but often because they received poor grades during the regular school year.
這個問題通常被稱作夏日學習間隔，美國正在通過提供更有趣的夏日學校項目來努力改善這個問題ub%Bk=v)c&udS~JN。有的學生已經進了夏日學校，但通常是因為在常規的學年沒有得到好成績才來的[E5apkDIS2MnC2)]。

STUDENT: "People need food, clothes, and other goods …"
學生：“人們需要食物、衣物和其他物品......”

On a recent day, students read out loud about communities in a third-grade social studies class at Bushman Elementary in Dallas, Texas. But the nine- and ten-year-olds were also studying art. Visual arts instructor Ron Oliver works to combine the two subjects.
最近，在德克薩斯州達拉斯布希曼小學三年級的社會學課堂上，學生們大聲讀關于社區的知識0oi3E5iN^wKmw。不過9年級和10年級學生也學藝術，視覺藝術導師努力將這兩門學科結合起來csG6VnR)OJVn。

RON OLIVER: "The kids that never get it -- like the thirty percent that always struggle on testing -- they thrive in this kind of atmosphere. Sometimes they just learn differently."
RON OLIVER：“這些孩子們從來都沒及格過，大約30%的人總是很難通過考試，但他們在這樣的氛圍中學得很好，有時他們只是學習方法和別人不同而已*Ypp0%ya.;f。”

In addition to reading, the students expressed themselves in picture form by drawing community scenes.
除了閱讀，學生們還通過畫社區場景用圖片來表達自己的想法ebj.e84m0.Za。

BOY: "When I was drawing, I was expressing my feelings and showing what was happening."
男孩：“當我畫畫時，我是在表達自己的感受，描述正在發生的事+vh9%L~X8t。”

GIRL: "You only use the pictures, and you use it to tell the people, the pictures telling the words for you. You don’t need words."
女孩：“我們只用圖片來告訴人們自己想說的話，不需要文字tM+=f;57.kfTJQ。”

Their teacher Gloria Pegram has taught elementary school for fifteen years. She says art helps with memory.
他們的老師Gloria Pegram教小學已經15年了，她說藝術可以提高記憶力lCmpaJ7blVwI3yB。

GLORIA PEGRAM: "Even with math, we try to be creative with it -- it helps their retention. They remember. They say, 'Oh, yes, I remember this because ... ' and they’ll go into what we were doing, hands-on, whatever activity we were doing, to help them understand it better, and to retain it."
GLORIA PEGRAM：“甚至對于數學，我們也嘗試用創造性的方法來學習，這樣可以提高學生的記憶力，他們會記住的5#C4bvz7~wr。他們會說，‘哦，我記住了，因為......’他們就會深入研究我們親手做的任何東西，從而幫助他們更好的理解并記住(_@FzN.4;v,]!S#zFN;B。”

Ms. Pegram says students who do not take summer enrichment classes often need to relearn lessons when they return in the fall. This is especially true of low-income students. They are less likely, for example, to live near public libraries offering both books to read and special summer reading programs.
Pegram老師說，那些不參加暑假提高班的學生通常要在夏季開學后復習功課，這對低收入學生尤為如此9WgZ~8smR)。比如，他們不大可能住在能提供圖書和夏季專門閱讀項目的公共圖書館附近qc8UgR8Bzwh5。

Ed Pauly is director of research and evaluation at the Wallace Foundation. The nonprofit group has invested fifty million dollars to study which programs work best to prevent summer learning loss.
Ed Pauly是華里斯基金會研究和評估主任，這家非盈利組織投資了5500萬美元來研究哪些項目在預防夏季學習損失上最有效fOQjxL~t&];r_BNR+P。

ED PAULY: "And for poor kids, the loss can be as much as three months of school learning that just disappears over the course of the summer. That’s a very significant part of the achievement gap that separates kids from low-income communities from kids from more affluent communities."
ED PAULY: “對于窮學生來說，這相當于他們在夏日課程上損失了3個月的學校學習wL(q=O~f**g。這樣很顯著的成績差距將低收入社區孩子和更富裕社區的孩子分開hxZX@q,d)A(5,#@j-。”

He says one promising approach has been to include art.
他說一個很有潛力的方法包括藝術Q!__hubxE45B8。

ED PAULY: "We need kids to master reading and math. Arts gets them excited about being there every day. And the arts use reading and math. The arts are a great way to tie together learning experiences."
ED PAULY: “我們要讓孩子們學習閱讀和數學，藝術可以讓他們天天都開心，藝術還使用了閱讀和數學能力，在連接學習經驗方面，藝術是很棒的方法lrwwnnUyIqXro&d。”