考研英语阅读文章翻译：以2021年6月仔细阅读-Passage One为例

Educators and business leaders have more in common than it may seem. Teachers want to prepare students for a successful future. Technology companies have an interest in developing a workforce with the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills needed to grow the company and advance the industry. How can they work together to achieve these goals? Play may be the answer.

教育家和商界领袖有着比表面上看起来更多的共同点。老师们想让学生为成功的未来做好准备。科技公司有兴趣培养一支具备STEM(科学、技术、工程和数学)技能的员工队伍，这些技能是公司发展和行业进步所需要的。他们如何共同努力实现这些目标?答案也许是游戏。

Focusing on STEM skills is important, but the reality is that STEM skills are enhanced and more relevant when combined with traditional, hands-on creative activities. This combination is proving to be the best way to prepare today’s children to be the makers and builders of tomorrow. That is why technology companies are partnering with educators to bring back good, old-fashioned play.

关注STEM技能很重要，但现实情况是，当STEM技能与传统的动手创造性活动相结合时，STEM技能会得到增强，并且更具相关性。事实证明，这种结合是让今天的孩子成为明天的创造者和建设者的最佳方式。这就是为什么科技公司正与教育工作者合作，带回优秀的、老式的游戏。

In fact many experts argue that the most important 21st-century skills aren’t related to specific technologies or subject matter, but to creativity; skills like imagination, problem-finding and problem-solving, teamwork, optimism, patience and the ability to experiment and take risks. These are skills acquired when kids tinker (鼓捣小玩意). High-tech industries such as NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have found that their best overall problem solvers were master tinkerers in their youth.

事实上，许多专家认为21世纪最重要的技能与特定技术或主题无关，而是与创造力有关;想象力、发现问题和解决问题的能力、团队合作、乐观、耐心以及实验和冒险的能力。这些都是孩子们鼓捣小玩意时获得的技能。美国宇航局喷气推进实验室等高科技行业发现，他们能够最好解决整体问题的人年少时都是精通鼓捣小玩意的人。

There are cognitive (认知的) benefits of doing things the way we did as children—building something, tearing it down, then building it up again. Research shows that given 15 minutes of free play, four- and five-year-olds will spend a third of this time engaged in spatial, mathematical, and architectural activities. This type of play—especially with building blocks—helps children discover and develop key principles in math and geometry.

像我们小时候那样去做事情的方式——先造东西，然后拆掉，然后再造起来——能够带来认知上的益处。研究表明，在15分钟的自由游戏时间内，4岁和5岁的孩子将有三分之一的时间用于空间、数学和建筑活动。这种游戏特别是与积木一起玩有帮助孩子们发现并发展数学和几何的关键原理。

If play and building are critical to 21st-century skill development, that’s really good news for two reasons: Children are born builders, makers and creators, so fostering (培养) 21st-century skills may be as simple as giving kids room to play, tinker and try things out, even as they grow older. Secondly, it doesn’t take 21st-century technology to foster 21st-century skills. This is especially important for under-resourced schools and communities. Taking whatever materials are handy and tinkering with them is a simple way to engage those important “maker” skills. And anyone, anywhere, can do it.

如果游戏和建筑对21世纪的技能发展至关重要，那么这确实是个好消息，原因有两个：孩子天生就是建筑者、制造者和创造者，所以培养起他们21世纪的技能可能很简单，只要给孩子们玩、鼓捣小玩意和尝试的空间，即使他们长大了。其次，培养21世纪的技能并不需要21世纪的技术。这对于资源不足的学校和社区来说尤其重要。随便拿什么材料，鼓捣它们都是一个简单的过程。任何人在任何地方，都能做到这一点。