Going to School in America 在美国上学

On August 14, 1999, I, Bobby Huang, moved from China to the United States of America. I was eight years old at that time, and only in the second grade. I'm now in the eighth grade. Next year I will be at high school.

1999年8月14日，我黄博比，从中国来到美国。那时我8岁，刚上二年级。现在我上8年级，明年我将上高中。

The grading system in America is almost the same as the one in China: the best grade you can get is an A, then B, then C, then D, and last F. F stands for failing. A grade of C in America is considered an average grade.

美国的评分系统和中国的几乎一样：你能得到的最好的成绩是A，其次B，再次C，再次D，最后是F。F级代表不及格。在美国C级被认为是平均成绩。

The school year is separated into four quarters in America. We only have to go to school 180 days a year. We don't have to go to school on Saturdays either. There is at least one day break every month, because in America there's at least one holiday every month. For instance, Labor Day, Columbus Day (10/12, the day Columbus discovered the Americas), Halloween (10/31, the day that all the ghosts come back alive again), Thanksgiving Day (11/24), Christmas Day (12/25), New Year's Day (1/1), Valentine's Day (2/14, a day that we all show love to each other) and Mother's Day (a day that we show our appreciation to our mothers).

在美国，一学年被分成4个学期。一年我们只需要上学180天。星期六我们也不用上学。每个月至少有一天的休假，因为在美国每个月至少有一个节日。例如，劳动节，哥伦布节（在10月12日，哥伦布发现美洲的那一天），万圣节（在10月31日，那一天所有的鬼神重回到人间），感恩节（在11月24日），圣诞节（在12月25日），新年（在1月1日），情人节（在2月14日，我们互相表达爱意的一天）和母亲节（向母亲表达感激之情的一天）。

The really long break is the Christmas vacation. It's two weeks. After 180 days of school we have a three-month summer vacation! The best thing about the summer vacation is that we don't have to worry about anything, we don't even have homework.

真正的长假是圣诞节假期，有2个星期之久。经过180天的学习后，我们有一个长达3个月的暑假。关于暑假最好的事情就是，我们不用再为任何事情担心，甚至不再有家庭作业。

One really bad thing about American schools is that you have to walk to the teacher's room instead of our own classroom, so we don't have the same classes with the same students. But in all the schools in America, the students have a lot of fun in school. In my school we have different activities every Friday, such as singing, sports and seeing movies. We also hold a dance every other month. The dance hall is where we play music and students dance with each other. The school also provides cookies and drinks.

美国学校中一个真正不好的方面就是，你必须到老师的办公室，而不是我们自己的教室，因此我们不能和同样的学生拥有相同的教室。但是在美国所有的学校里，学生在校可以享受许多乐趣。在我就读的学校里，每周五有不同的活动，比如唱歌、体育活动和看电影。我们每2个月举办一次舞会。舞会上我们演奏音乐，和每一个人跳舞。学校也提供点心和饮料。

The main courses that I have to take are history, physical education, science, language, reading and math. We get to pick two classes of our choice. I choose "music" and "computer". In music class we listen to all kinds of songs, for example, Jazz, country, R&B, etc. We can talk about any singer that we love. I also enjoy the computer class. The other classes are drama, Spanish, leadership, guitar, band (you can play any instruments you'd like), journalism (learning to write for a newspaper, and you can also write for the school newspaper) and so on.

我们的主要课程有历史、体育、科学、语言、阅读和数学。我们可以选修2门课程。我选择的是音乐和电脑。音乐课上我们听各种各样的歌曲，比如爵士乐，乡村音乐，R&B等。我们可以谈论任何一个我们喜欢的歌手。我也喜欢电脑课。其他选修课有戏剧、西班牙语、领导艺术、吉他、乐队（你可以演奏你喜欢的任何乐器）和新闻（学习为报纸写文章，你也可以向校报投稿）等等。

Bobby Huang

黄博比

【点评】

本文作者黄博比是一位小移民，文章详细地介绍了他在美国的学校生活，从学校的评分系统到节假日，再由学校的活动到学习课程，特别是选修课，让我们看到了和我们同龄的美国孩子多彩多姿的学校生活。