Gaokao is not the be-all and end-all in life.

人生——不只是高考

the be-all and end-all:第一要義；終極目的 eg：Paper qualification(文憑), though useful, is not a be-all-and-end-all.

The National Higher Education Entrance Examination, or commonly known as Gaokao, is an academic examination held annually in China. This examination is a prerequisite for entrance into almost all higher education institutions at the undergraduate level.

"全國(guó)高等教育入學(xué)考試"，俗稱"高考"。是一場(chǎng)每年都會(huì)在中國(guó)舉行的學(xué)業(yè)考試。對(duì)幾乎所有本科層級(jí)的高等院校而言，這場(chǎng)考試就是"敲門磚"。

prerequisite 前提；首要條件 同義語：prior condition

At June every year, police road blocks are set up around schools and nearby construction sites are ordered to fall silent as the country is plunged into two or three days of "Gaokao fever".

每年六月，隨著整個(gè)中國(guó)進(jìn)入為期兩三天的"高考熱", 學(xué)校周圍會(huì)豎起"路障"，附近的建筑工地會(huì)被要求保持安靜。

be plunged into:（突然）陷入eg：People are afraid they will be plunged into poverty

xx fever : xx"熱" 如：traveling fever 旅行熱 Chinese fever 漢語熱

In fact, almost everyone - students, parents, teachers and policymakers - seems to accept that the system is squeezing creativity out of students.Still,it has some advantages,such as:

實(shí)際上，包括學(xué)生、家長(zhǎng)、老師，以及政府決策者在內(nèi)，幾乎每個(gè)人都承認(rèn)，"高考"這種體制會(huì)逐漸使學(xué)生喪失其創(chuàng)造力。不過，"高考"也有它的優(yōu)點(diǎn)，比如：

"accept"本身是接受的意思，但是在此缺少接受的"對(duì)象"，可依據(jù)句子的意思理解成接受一種現(xiàn)實(shí)，所以可改譯為承認(rèn)了某種結(jié)果。

squeeze out本意為“擠出；榨出 ” 在此也很抽象，不宜直譯為榨干XX。可改譯為使XX喪失，ING時(shí)態(tài)可轉(zhuǎn)化成漢語中的“逐漸”二字。

Fair selection of talents

公正地優(yōu)選人才（注：漢語中習(xí)慣用主動(dòng)的表達(dá)方式，英語中多用被動(dòng)，所以常常可把英語中的名詞和副詞譯成漢語中的動(dòng)詞。如：It must be pointed out that。..必須指出……It must be admitted that。..必須承認(rèn)……It is imagined that。..人們認(rèn)為……）

Improve the level of education

提高教育水平

Provide conditions for rural students to change their economic status.

為農(nóng)村學(xué)生改變其自身的經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況提供條件

Form a good atmosphere of advocating knowledge .

創(chuàng)造一種崇尚知識(shí)的良好氛圍

Though,for the fifth straight year,the number of Gaokao applicants has declined.This year, around 9.12 million Chinese high school students are sitting the notoriously tough university entrance exam,after a year of repeating past papers and in large part, learning by rote(cramming)

盡管參加的高考的報(bào)名人數(shù)已經(jīng)連續(xù)五年下滑。但今年，仍將有近9百12萬中國(guó)高中生，在結(jié)束過去一年不停重復(fù)做往年試題和很大程度上的"死記硬背"后，坐進(jìn)“死大難”的高考戰(zhàn)場(chǎng)。

for the fifth straight year：連續(xù)五年

notoriously 眾所周知地（壞名聲）

past papers 歷屆試題；真題

in large part：在很大程度上 eg：Tornado warnings still depend in large part on human observations

rote：死記硬背（類似于cramming）

補(bǔ)充：英語的一段話中一個(gè)東東經(jīng)常使用多種表達(dá)來避免重復(fù)，如上文中Gaokao、The National Higher Education Entrance Examination、university entrance exam都是表示高考。漢語中重復(fù)有強(qiáng)調(diào)中心詞的作用，所以可以重復(fù)翻譯成同一詞語。