导读:你是否也曾幻想过通过参加高考进入梦寐以求的高等学府，北大、清华、浙大、北外……诚然，高考作为国家的选材方式目前有着无可比拟的优越性，可是，作为一种制度，它也有着自身的弊端，比如说，题型僵化、名校名额分配各省不一……
In China, school students have to take the gao kao, with only the best winning the most coveted places.
在中国，在校生们必须得参加高考，只有最优秀的学生才能进入人们梦寐以求的学府。
According to Ye Liu, a lecturer in international development at King’s College London, despite huge regional disparities in access to the most prestigious universities and the strong influence of parental education on gao kao results, students blame themselves if they fail. “They feel like they are not smart enough; they think they are inferior.”
据伦敦国王学院国际发展讲师刘烨（音译）介绍，除了进入顶尖学府的巨大地区差异，以及父母对高考结果的高度重视之外，学生们会因考试失利而自责，“他们觉得自己不够聪明，认为自己低人一等。”
Her book, Higher Education, Meritocracy and Inequality in China, details that a quarter of China’s most prestigious universities are based in Beijing – where disproportionately large quotas of places are reserved for local students – while 13 per cent are in Shanghai. “Elites try to protect their privileges through the quota system,” she argues.
她的新书《中国的高等教育、英才教育以及不平等》详细说明了中国四分之一最顶尖的学府位于北京——这就不成比例地为本地学生保留了大量名额，另有13%的顶尖学府位于上海。她争论道：“精英阶层试图通过配额制度来保护他们的特权。”
Meanwhile, the scores that students need to get into university vary depending on a student’s province. This can work in favour of students from far-flung, poor western provinces such as Tibet, Liu’s analysis shows, but it also benefits those in eastern metropolises like Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin.
同时，学生们进入大学所需的分数也因省份而大相径庭。这对于来自西藏这样的西部偏远、贫穷省份的学生们而言是件好事，但也惠及了东部大城市的学生，如上海、北京和天津。
Nevertheless, the rural students Liu interviewed still believed in China’s gao kao meritocracy, at least they can get to university.
然而，刘烨采访到的农村学生们仍旧相信中国的高考英才教育，至少他们可以上大学。
Lijing, a first-year undergraduate from a poor farming background, told Liu that at secondary school “all I wanted was to pass the gao kao and go to university. I was very ambitious…I was so naive then.”
来自贫穷农村的大一学生李静（音译）向刘烨表示，在初中的时候，“我就想通过高考上大学。那时我雄心勃勃……可是我太幼稚了。”
Arriving on campus, she found herself living alongside students from vastly richer backgrounds, who could afford laptops when Lijing had to queue to use PCs at the university computer centre.
来到学校后，她发现周围的同学都有着十分富裕的背景，他们可以买笔记本电脑，而自己必须得排队使用学校电脑中心的个人电脑。
Another rural student who got into medical school said, “I don’t have real friends here. Friendship in university costs money. You need to hang out with them, drinking and eating out. I cannot afford that. I only eat in the canteens.”
另外一为进入医学院的农村学生表示：“我在大学没有真正的朋友。大学的友谊需要花钱。你需要跟他们出去逛街、喝酒和吃饭。我负担不起。只有吃食堂。”
