This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。
Most American schools have boys and girls in the same classroom. But a public high school in the small, rural town of Boonsboro, Maryland, offers a special program. Top students in the ninth and tenth grades can attend single-sex classes for math, science, English and social studies.
大多数美国学校都是男、女生同班上课。但马里兰州乡村小镇布恩斯伯勒的一个公立高中提供一项特别的课程。九年级和十年纪的尖子生可以参加数学、科学、英语和社会学科的男女分开的课程。
The aim is to help teenagers keep their mind on their work by keeping males and females apart.
其目的是通过男女分开帮助青少年专心学习。
Rebecca Brown chooses the students for what Boonsboro High School calls the Academy.
丽贝卡·布朗为布恩斯伯勒高中的学会（the Academy）选拔学生。
REBECCA BROWN: "What we really want to do is take that top group of kids and take them to the very highest level they can achieve here, so that they're prepared for college."
丽贝卡·布朗：“我们的目的是选拔出尖子生，将他们推到他们所能达到的最高水平。为大学做好准备。”
Placement in the Academy is voluntary. Students are invited after middle school.
加入学会是自愿的。学生上完初中后会得到学会邀请。
They need high marks and test scores and strong teacher recommendations. They also need to be involved in activities.
被邀请的学生要求具备很高的成绩和评价，以及教师的强烈推荐，他们还要积极参与各类活动。
Almost three hundred fifty students have taken part in the Academy. It began as an experiment in two thousand four.
近350个学生加入了学会，该项目作为一项实验于2004年开始进行。
Michael Bair has been at Boonsboro High for twenty years and directs the Academy. His ninth-grade English class for boys centers on books that he believes boys find interesting.
迈克·贝尔（Michael Bair）在布恩斯伯勒高中任教20年并执导学会。他的9年级课程围绕一些他认为男生能从中找到兴趣的书籍。
MICHAEL BAIR: "The novels they're reading now, for lack of a better phrase, they're very manly novels. They're novels that deal with the arrogance of man and the pride of man which is ultimately man's downfall."
贝尔：“他们现在读到的小说非常有男子气概，除了这个没有更好的词可以形容了。这些小说涉及造成男人最终堕落的两大元凶：自大和傲慢。”
One of those books, for example, is "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London. This classic story tells of a dog stolen from his home and sold to work as a sled dog in Canada's Klondike Gold Rush.
例如，其中的一本书是杰克·伦敦（Jack London）的《野性的呼唤》。这个经典故事讲述的是，一只狗被从主人家偷出并被卖到加拿大淘金场作为雪橇狗的经历。
On this day, the students are working in small groups. Vincent and Logan explain why they are drawing pictures that relate to the story.
这天，学生们以小组形式学习，文森特（Vincent）和罗根（Logan）解释了他们正在画一些和该故事相关的插图的原因。
VINCENT: "The main character, Buck, he gets abducted and they send him off to the Yukon in a train. So I'm drawing part of the story where he's in the train. It gets you to visualize the setting of the story and gets you to think more about what's going on in the story, the important events of the story."
文森特：“故事主人公巴克（Buck，也就是那只狗）遭到了绑架，并被送上开往育空（Yukon）的火车，所以我画的就是它在火车上的那部分。这能让你对故事场景形象化，并让你去思考故事的后续发展，故事的主要情节。”
LOGAN: "Instead of just doing work sheets about it, this is a lot more fun."
罗根：“相对于只做和故事相关的工作列表，画这个就有意思多了。”
Morgan Van Fleet is a senior at Boonsboro High. She liked being in the Academy. She says boys and girls act differently when they are together in a classroom.
摩根·范·弗利特是布恩斯伯勒高中的高三学生。她喜欢在学会中学习。她称，大家在学会中的表现与男女生同班学习时完全不同。
MORGAN VAN FLEET: "To me, it almost seems like it's hindering your chances at developing yourself because you're more focused on 'Oh, I wish they'd shut up. Oh, what do they think of me?' instead of focusing on what's the homework or what's going on in this class, what's the lesson."
范·弗利特：“对我来说，男女生共处一间教室似乎阻碍了自身发展，因为你更加关注的是'我希望他们闭嘴；他们怎么想我？'而不是作业是什么，或者这堂课接下来是什么，这节课讲的什么。”
There is one activity that girls and boys in the Academy do together. At the end of the day, many of them stay and help tutor students who are having trouble in school.
在学会中有一项活动是男女生共同参与的，那就是每天放学后，他们很多人留下来帮助辅导在学习上有困难的学生。