B1 English Listening Practice - American Universities · Listening Time
本视频讲解美国大学相关英语听力内容，适合B1英语学习者练习听力与理解。涵盖美国大学的基本概念、学费差异及贷款等实用信息。
Hey everybody, welcome to this B1 English Listening Practice video.
大家好，欢迎观看这个关于B1级别英语听力练习的视频。
You can use this video to practice your listening and comprehension as I speak.
你可以利用这个视频，在我讲话的过程中练习自己的听力理解能力。
You ready?
你准备好了吗？
So today I'm going to talk about universities in the US.
那么今天，我打算谈谈美国的大学。
This is a subject that I'm sure a lot of you are interested in because maybe you've thought about studying in the US.
我相信很多人都对这个话题很感兴趣，也许你们曾经考虑过去美国留学。
So let's talk about some of the essentials that you need to know about American colleges.
那么，让我们来谈谈一些关于美国大学的基本知识，这些知识是你需要了解的。
So first things first, it's important that you know that in the US we use the word college
那么，首先需要明确的是：在美国，我们使用“college”这个词来指代大学或学院。
interchangeably with the word university.
可以与“university”（大学）一词互换使用。
You can say either of these words and they refer to the same thing most of the time.
你可以使用这两个词中的任何一个，它们在大多数情况下指的是同一件事。
In other countries this is not the case.
在其他国家，情况并非如此。
I'm sure if you go to the UK or Australia you'll hear people use these words very differently.
我敢肯定，如果你去英国或澳大利亚，你会发现人们使用这些词语的方式截然不同。
But since I'm an American I tend to use the word college more frequently than university.
不过因为我是一个美国人，所以我更倾向于使用“college”这个词，而不是“university”。
Let's talk a little bit about the cost of going to a four year university in the US.
让我们来谈谈在美国就读四年制大学的费用问题。
Before we can calculate the average cost we first need to distinguish between in -state and out -of -state tuition.
在我们计算平均成本之前，首先需要区分本州学生和外地学生的学费。
What am I talking about here?
我在这里到底在说什么呢？
Well if you attend a university that is located in the state where you live,
那么，如果你就读的大学位于你所在的州的话……
where you went to high school, it's cheaper.
在你上高中的那所学校，费用更便宜。
If you decide to go to a university in another state, it's more expensive.
如果你决定去另一个州的大学就读，那么学费会更高。
This is what I'm referring to when I talk about in -state and out -of -state tuition.
这就是我在谈论“本州学费”和“外州学费”时所指的内容。
The average in -state tuition for a four year public university in the US at this time is a little more than $25 ,000 per year.
目前，美国各州内四年制公立大学的平均学费为每年25,000美元左右。
I know, that's a lot.
我知道，这确实是个很大的数字（或任务量）。
But it's actually not that bad compared to out -of -state tuition.
不过，与外州的学费相比，实际情况其实并没有那么糟糕。
The average out -of -state tuition for a four year public university in the US at this time is about $41 ,000 per year.
目前，美国四年制公立大学的平均学费（针对非本州学生）约为每年41,000美元。
That's crazy, isn't it?
太疯狂了，对吧？
I wish I could tell you that I were joking, but sadly I'm not.
我真希望自己能告诉你这只是在开玩笑，可惜事实并非如此。
This is the reality of going to college in the US.
这就是在美国上大学的现实情况。
So you definitely need to think about this before you decide to study in an American university.
因此，在决定去美国大学学习之前，你绝对需要仔细考虑这个问题。
I was pretty lucky because my college wasn't quite that expensive.
我相当幸运，因为我的大学学费并不是很高。
You might be wondering how people can afford to pay these astronomical tuition costs.
你可能会想知道，人们究竟是如何负担得起这些高得离谱的学费的。
The answer is student loans.
答案是学生贷款。
A student loan is money that the government lends to somebody to pay for college.
学生贷款是指政府提供给个人用于支付大学学费的资金。
Sounds great, right?
听起来很棒，对吧？
Wrong.
错了。
After you graduate, you have to pay back all the money that the government gave you plus interest.
毕业后，你必须偿还政府提供给你的所有资金，并支付相应的利息。
So after students graduate, they spend many years paying back their student loans.
因此，学生毕业后需要花费很多年的时间来偿还他们的学生贷款。
College is unbelievably expensive in the US.
在美国，上大学的费用高得惊人。
Alright, let's talk about the educational aspect of American universities.
好吧，让我们来谈谈美国大学在教育方面的情况。
In the US, students can choose their major, the subject they want to study, either before or after starting college.
在美国，学生可以在上大学之前或之后，自行选择他们想要学习的专业和学科。
Many students don't know what exactly they want to study, so they don't decide on a major until the end of their second year.
许多学生并不清楚自己到底想学习什么，因此直到大二结束时才最终确定自己的专业方向。
The way this works is that all students have general classes during their first two years.
具体运作方式如下：所有学生在大学的前两年都需要参加通识课程（即面向所有学生的基础课程）。