Nature全球调查：近一半研究生因缺钱想弃学

近日，Nature一项针对全球硕士和博士研究生的调查中，85%的受访者表示，为购买食物、支付房租及其他费用而忧虑。45%的受访者同意，不断上升的生活成本可能会促使他们放弃研究生课程。

🤔️小作业：

无注释原文：

‘Not even enough money for food’: graduate students face cash crunch

From: Nature

31 October 2022

Eighty-five per cent of respondents to Nature’s 2022 survey of graduate students worry about having enough money to buy food and pay rent and other expenses, a testament to one of the most urgent issues worldwide in higher education. This growing financial stress threatens to derail some promising careers. Nearly half (45%) of respondents agree that the rising costs of living could prompt them to quit their graduate programme.

The questionnaire, Nature’s first survey of graduate students to include master’s as well as PhD students, drew more than 3,200 responses from around the world. In answers and free-text comments (See ‘Money is a really big issue’), students told of the struggles of continuing their education while trying to make ends meet. Follow-up interviews with respondents in places including Bengaluru, India, and Boston, Massachusetts, added more details to a global crisis that is unlikely to subside soon. “It looks like it’s only going to get worse,” says Nathan Garland, a mathematician at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, who reviewed the survey responses. “There’s no handbrake on the situation at the moment.”

Financial concerns are especially prevalent in North America, where more than three-quarters (76%) of respondents list ‘overall cost of living’ as one of the most challenging aspects of getting a degree. Respondents in North America are nearly unanimous in their worries: 95% agreed or strongly agreed that the rising cost of living is a concern. (In September 2022, the year-on-year inflation rate in the United States was 8.2%. In the United Kingdom, the consumer price index rose 10.1% in the preceding 12 months.) A biology PhD student in the United States wrote in the comment section: “It’s hard to focus on researching, teaching, mentorship, writing papers, applying for grants, when you don’t even have enough money for food.”

Money woes are weighing on Carly Golden, a second-year PhD student at Boston University in Massachusetts, an institution in one of the most expensive cities in the United States. She receives a stipend of around US$40,000 a year, which she says falls far short of the cost of living. “It’s close to poverty [level] in Boston,” she says of the stipend. (According to the living-wage calculator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, a living wage for a single adult in Boston is nearly $47,000 a year.) “I spend more than 60% of my stipend on rent,” she says. Golden could potentially save money by living with room-mates, but says that she needs space and quiet to be able to study properly. She could save on rent by moving to a less-expensive suburban area, but she already has an hour-long commute to her laboratory. “If I could reapply to a programme, I probably would do so in a state that was more affordable,” she says.

In India, graduate students often end up living in areas where costs are the highest, says Amit Kurien, a social ecologist who took the survey shortly after receiving his PhD at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Bengaluru. “The good universities are in metropolitan areas, right in the hustle and bustle,” he says. He notes that Bengaluru, a hub for information technology, has a burgeoning population of young professionals with decent incomes who live very differently from the graduate students who are simply trying to get by day to day. Kurien says he was making little more than $4,000 per year midway through his PhD. “It was a pittance.” He adds that he was able to get by thanks in part to support from his parents, a luxury that not everyone has.

Small steps

Some institutions are taking steps to help students keep up with rising costs. Amy Dashwood, a second-year PhD student who works at the Babraham Institute, a life-sciences research centre affiliated with the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, saw her pay increase after she took the survey. The institute pledged to ensure that, from 1 October, no student would earn less than £19,000 (US$21,700) per year. In her case, that meant an extra £250 each month on top of her usual funding, which comes from the Medical Research Council, a division of United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI), the nation’s largest research funder. Also on 1 October, the UKRI raised the minimum student stipend to £17,668, an increase of more than £2,000 per year.

Dashwood says that the extra funding will relieve much of the financial stress of graduate courses. “This will take a lot of weight off my shoulders and allow me to concentrate better on my studies,” she says. “This should mean I can comfortably buy my groceries and hopefully won’t have to constantly be checking my bank account.” She adds, however, that she expects to continue a frugal lifestyle that includes sharing a house with two people, getting by with basic groceries and rarely going out. She can’t afford to hang out with friends and go away on holiday, she says, the sorts of activities that would help her to relax and take her mind off her work. “It takes a toll on your mental health.”

In Australia, it would take legislative action, or perhaps an emergency declaration from the education minister, to substantially improve federal support for graduate students, Garland says. He sees such a declaration as unlikely, even though graduate-student finances are clearly an emergency. “Hopefully, at some point it gets better,” he says. “But it won’t get better if we don’t call attention to it.”

- ◆ -

注：中文文本为机器翻译仅供参考，并非一一对应

含注释全文：

‘Not even enough money for food’: graduate students face cash crunch

From: Nature

31 October 2022

Eighty-five per cent of respondents to Nature’s 2022 survey of graduate students worry about having enough money to buy food and pay rent and other expenses, a testament to one of the most urgent issues worldwide in higher education. This growing financial stress threatens to derail some promising careers. Nearly half (45%) of respondents agree that the rising costs of living could prompt them to quit their graduate programme.

在《自然》杂志2022年对研究生的调查中，85%的受访者担心没有足够的钱来购买食物、支付房租及其他费用，这证明了全球高等教育中最紧迫的问题之一。这种日益增长的经济压力有可能破坏一些有前途的职业。近一半（45%）的受访者同意，不断上升的生活成本可能会促使他们放弃研究生课程。

表示“（突发的）不足，短缺；（尤指）缺钱”，英文解释为“a situation in which there is suddenly not enough of sth, especially money”如：a budget/energy/housing crunch 预算金额/能源/住房短缺，

表示“回答者；答复者；应答者”，英文解释为“a person who answers a request for information”举个🌰：

In a recent opinion poll, a majority of respondents were against nuclear weapons. 在最近的一次民意调查中，大多数调查对象表示反对发展核武器。

testament /ˈtes.tə.mənt/ 表示“证明；验证”，英文解释为“proof”举个🌰：

The detail of her wildlife paintings is (a) testament to (= proof of) her powers of observation. 她画野生动物十分细致，这证明她有很强的观察能力。

derail /dɪˈreɪl/ 1）表示“打乱（原定计划）；阻挠”，英文解释为“To derail something such as a plan or a series of negotiations means to prevent it from continuing as planned.”举个🌰：

Renewed fighting threatens to derail the peace talks. 重燃的战火对和谈构成了威胁。

2）表示“脱轨”，英文解释为“If a train is derailed or if it derails, it comes off the track on which it is running.”举个🌰：

At least two people were killed when a train was derailed in an isolated mountain region. 火车在一片偏僻的山区脱轨，导致至少两人死亡。

📺美剧《24小时》（24）第八季中的台词提到：but the allegations alone could derail the peace process. 但光这谣言就能破坏和谈进程。

🎬电影《超级8》（Super 8）第八季中的台词提到：How could a pick-up truck derail a train? That's impossible. 一辆卡车怎么能让整个火车脱轨 不可能啊。

The questionnaire, Nature’s first survey of graduate students to include master’s as well as PhD students, drew more than 3,200 responses from around the world. In answers and free-text comments, students told of the struggles of continuing their education while trying to make ends meet. Follow-up interviews with respondents in places including Bengaluru, India, and Boston, Massachusetts, added more details to a global crisis that is unlikely to subside soon. “It looks like it’s only going to get worse,” says Nathan Garland, a mathematician at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, who reviewed the survey responses. “There’s no handbrake on the situation at the moment.”

这份问卷是《自然》杂志首次对研究生进行的调查，调查对象包括硕士和博士研究生。问卷吸引了来自世界各地的3200多份答复。在回答和任意文字评论中，学生们讲述了他们在深造的同时努力维持生计的艰难。对印度班加罗尔和马萨诸塞州波士顿等地受访者的后续采访，为这场不太可能很快消退的全球危机增添了更多细节。“看起来情况只会变得更糟，”澳大利亚布里斯班格里菲斯大学（Griffith University）的数学家内森·加兰（Nathan Garland）说。“目前的情况停不下来。”他参与了调查问卷答复的审核。

questionnaire /ˌkwes.tʃəˈneər/ 表示“问卷；情况调查表”，英文解释为“a list of questions that several people are asked so that information can be collected about something”

表示“使收支相抵；勉强维持生计”，英文解释为“to have just enough money to pay for the things that you need”

表示“减弱；平息”，英文解释为“If a feeling or noise subsides, it becomes less strong or loud.”举个🌰：

The pain had subsided during the night. 那疼痛在晚间已减轻了。

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述贝佐斯的文章中提到：One question is whether the digital surge will subside. 一个问题是这轮数字化浪潮会否退去。

handbrake /ˈhænd.breɪk/ 表示“手刹车，手制动器”，英文解释为“a device operated by hand that locks into position and prevents a vehicle from moving”举个🌰：

You're supposed to put the handbrake on whenever you stop on a hill. 只要你在山坡上停车都应该把手刹车拉上。

Financial concerns are especially prevalent in North America, where more than three-quarters (76%) of respondents list ‘overall cost of living’ as one of the most challenging aspects of getting a degree. Respondents in North America are nearly unanimous in their worries: 95% agreed or strongly agreed that the rising cost of living is a concern. (In September 2022, the year-on-year inflation rate in the United States was 8.2%. In the United Kingdom, the consumer price index rose 10.1% in the preceding 12 months.) A biology PhD student in the United States wrote in the comment section: “It’s hard to focus on researching, teaching, mentorship, writing papers, applying for grants, when you don’t even have enough money for food.”

财务问题在北美尤为普遍，超过四分之三（76%）的受访者将“总体生活成本”列为获得学位最具挑战性问题之一。北美受访者的担忧几乎一致：95%的人同意或强烈同意生活成本上升是一个问题。（2022年9月，美国的同比通胀率为8.2%。在英国，消费者价格指数在前12个月里上涨了10.1%。）美国一名生物学博士生在评论区写道：“当你连吃饭的钱都不够时，很难专注于研究、教学、指导、写论文、申请资助。”

表示“盛行的；普遍存在的”，英文解释为“A condition, practice, or belief that is prevalent is common.”举个🌰：

This condition is more prevalent in women than in men. 这种情况在女性中比在男性中更为普遍。

🎬电影《感谢你抽烟》（Thank you for smoking）中的台词提到：The health issue's way too prevalent. 健康问题太普遍了。

对比：

📍pervasive表示“到处存在的，到处弥漫着的，遍布的”，英文解释为“Something, especially something bad, that is pervasive is present or felt throughout a place or thing.”如：the pervasive influence of mobile phones in daily life 手机在日常生活中无处不在的影响。

unanimous /juːˈnæn.ɪ.məs/ 表示“（团体）意见一致的；（决定或裁决）一致通过的，获得全体支持的”，英文解释为“When a group of people are unanimous, they all agree about something or all vote for the same thing.”举个🌰：

Editors were unanimous in their condemnation of the proposals. 编辑们一致谴责这些提议。

The board unanimously approved the project last week. 董事会上周一致同意批准了这个项目。

表示“通货膨胀”，英文解释为“a general, continuous increase in prices”如：high/low inflation 高/低通货膨胀。

preceding /prɪˈsiː.dɪŋ/ 表示“在前的，在先的，前面的”，英文解释为“existing or happening before someone or something”举个🌰：

Money woes are weighing on Carly Golden, a second-year PhD student at Boston University in Massachusetts, an institution in one of the most expensive cities in the United States. She receives a stipend of around US$40,000 a year, which she says falls far short of the cost of living. “It’s close to poverty [level] in Boston,” she says of the stipend. (According to the living-wage calculator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, a living wage for a single adult in Boston is nearly $47,000 a year.) “I spend more than 60% of my stipend on rent,” she says. Golden could potentially save money by living with room-mates, but says that she needs space and quiet to be able to study properly. She could save on rent by moving to a less-expensive suburban area, but she already has an hour-long commute to her laboratory. “If I could reapply to a programme, I probably would do so in a state that was more affordable,” she says.

卡莉·戈尔登（Carly Golden）正面临着经济压力，她是马萨诸塞州波士顿大学的一名二年级博士生，该大学位于美国“最昂贵”的城市之一。她每年获得约4万美元的补助，她说这远远不能满足生活成本的需要。“在波士顿，这接近贫困[水平]，”她谈到津贴时说。（根据位于剑桥的麻省理工学院生活费计算器，波士顿单身成年人的生活费每年接近47,000美元。）“我把60%以上的津贴花在房租上，”她说。戈尔登可通过合租来省钱，但她表示，她需要空间和安静才能正常学习。她也可以通过搬到更便宜的郊区来节省房租，但她目前已经要花一个小时的通勤时间才能到实验室了。“如果我能重新申请一个项目，我可能会在一个更负担得起的州申请，”她说。

woe /wəʊ/的复数形式woes，表示“麻烦；问题；困难”，英文解释为“the troubles and problems that sb has”举个🌰：

Thanks for listening to my woes. 谢谢您听我诉说不幸的遭遇。

而woe做不可数名词时，表示“悲伤；悲哀”（extreme sadness），举个🌰：

Her face was lined and full of woe. 她满脸皱纹，一副悲伤的表情。

表示“（问题、责任等）使（某人）焦虑不安，使（某人）担忧”，英文解释为“If a problem or responsibility weighs on you, it makes you worried or unhappy.”举个🌰：

He's under huge pressure at work and it's really weighing on him. 他工作压力很大，内心负担很重。

stipend /ˈstaɪ.pend/ 表示“薪俸，薪金”，英文解释为“a particular amount of money that is paid regularly to someone”如：anannualstipend年薪。

living wage /ˌlɪv.ɪŋ ˈweɪdʒ/ 表示“生活费；仅够维持基本生活的钱”，英文解释为“enough money to buy the things that are necessary in order to live, such as food and clothes”举个🌰：

He does make a living wage but only by working 72 hours a week. 他虽然挣够了生活费，但却要每周工作72小时。

commute /kəˈmjuːt/ 可以作名词，也可以作动词，表示“上下班往返；往返于工作地点与家之间；通勤”，英文解释为“a regular journey between work and home”举个🌰：

It'satleastanhour'scommutetowork.上班路上至少要花1个小时。

In India, graduate students often end up living in areas where costs are the highest, says Amit Kurien, a social ecologist who took the survey shortly after receiving his PhD at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Bengaluru. “The good universities are in metropolitan areas, right in the hustle and bustle,” he says. He notes that Bengaluru, a hub for information technology, has a burgeoning population of young professionals with decent incomes who live very differently from the graduate students who are simply trying to get by day to day. Kurien says he was making little more than $4,000 per year midway through his PhD. “It was a pittance.” He adds that he was able to get by thanks in part to support from his parents, a luxury that not everyone has.

在班加罗尔（Bengaluru）阿育王生态与环境研究信托基金（ATREE）获得博士学位后不久，社会生态学家阿米特·库里安（Amit Kurien）就参与了这项调查。他表示，在印度，研究生往往最终生活在成本最高的地区。“好的大学都在大都市地区，正是熙熙攘攘之地。”他指出，班加罗尔是信息技术的中心，拥有可观收入的年轻专业人士正在迅速增加，他们的生活方式与那些仅仅是为了过好每一天的研究生截然不同。库里安表示，他在读博期间，年收入仅略高于4000美元。“那是微不足道的。”他补充说，他还过得下去，部分归功于父母的支持，而这非每个人都能享有。

metropolitan /ˌmet.rəˈpɒl.ɪ.tən/ 表示“大都市的”，英文解释为“relating to a large city”如：the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York 纽约大都会艺术博物馆，a metropolitan area 大都市区。

表示“喧闹嘈杂”，英文解释为“noise and activity”举个🌰：

I love the hustle and bustle of the marketplace. 我喜欢市场里的熙攘喧闹。

burgeoning /ˈbɝː.dʒən.ɪŋ/ 表示“迅速发展的”，英文解释为“developing quickly”举个🌰：

The company hoped to profit from the burgeoning communications industry. 公司希望能从飞速发展的通讯业中获利。

表示“正派的；体面的，正经的；像样的，相当不错的”，英文解释为“socially acceptable or good”举个🌰：

Everyone should be entitled to a decent wage/standard of living. 人人都应该有权获得像样的工资/过上体面的生活。

表示“勉强过活，勉强对付过去”，英文解释为“to be able to live or deal with a situation with difficulty, usually by having just enough of something you need, such as money”举个🌰：

How can he get by on so little money? 他是怎样靠那么一点儿钱维持生计的？

pittance /ˈpɪt.əns/ 表示“小数额的钱，（尤指）微薄的工资”，英文解释为“a very small amount of money, especially money received as payment, income, or a present”举个🌰：

He works hard but he's paid a pittance. 他工作辛劳，但收入微薄。

Small steps 迈出一小步

Some institutions are taking steps to help students keep up with rising costs. Amy Dashwood, a second-year PhD student who works at the Babraham Institute, a life-sciences research centre affiliated with the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, saw her pay increase after she took the survey. The institute pledged to ensure that, from 1 October, no student would earn less than £19,000 (US$21,700) per year. In her case, that meant an extra £250 each month on top of her usual funding, which comes from the Medical Research Council, a division of United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI), the nation’s largest research funder. Also on 1 October, the UKRI raised the minimum student stipend to £17,668, an increase of more than £2,000 per year.

一些机构正在采取措施帮助学生跟上不断上涨的成本。艾米·达什伍德（Amy Dashwood）是英国剑桥大学附属生命科学研究中心巴布拉罕研究所的一名二年级博士生。参与调查后，她的补助有所增加。该研究所承诺，从10月1日起，任何学生的年收入都不会低于1.9万英镑（合2.17万美元）。就她而言，这意味着在她平时的资助之外，每月额外增加250英镑。她的资助来自医学研究委员会，该委员会是英国最大的研究资助机构英国科研与创新署（UKRI）的一个部门。同样在10月1日，英国科研与创新署将最低学生津贴提高到17,668英镑，每年增加2,000多英镑。

affiliated 1）表示“附属（某组织）的；（与某组织）有关连的”，英文解释为“connected with or controlled by a group or organization”

2）表示“（某人在政治上）支持某党派的”，英文解释为“used to refer to people who state that they support a particular political party when they register to vote”

📍affiliate /əˈfɪliət/  作名词，表示“附属机构；分支机构；分公司；分会”，英文解释为“a company, an organization, etc. that is connected with or controlled by another larger one”，如：an affiliate of the university 大学的隶属机构/分支机构。

affiliate 作动词，表示“使并入，使隶属（较大的团体或组织）；使紧密联系”，英文解释为“to cause a group to become part of or form a close relationship with another, usually larger, group, or organization”，如：a college affiliated to Zhejiang University 浙江大学附属学院；举个🌰：

The hospital is affiliated with the local university. 这家医院附属于当地大学。

顺便看下几个“xx附中”怎么说？

📍北京大学附属中学 The Affiliated High School of Peking University

📍清华大学附属中学 Tsinghua University High School

📍中国人民大学附属中学 The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China

📍浙江大学附属中学 The High School Attached to Zhejiang University

1）作动词，表示“承诺，保证（做某事）；保证给予（某物）”，英文解释为“When someone pledges to do something, they promise in a serious way to do it. When they pledge something, they promise to give it.”举个🌰：

He pledges support and offers to help in any way that he can. 他承诺给予支持并提供力所能及的帮助。

2）表示“抵押”，英文解释为“If you pledge something such as a valuable possession or a sum of money, you leave it with someone as a guarantee that you will repay money that you have borrowed.”举个🌰：

He asked her to pledge the house as security for a loan. 他要她抵押房子作为贷款担保。

3）作名词，表示“誓言；诺言；保证”，英文解释为“When someone makes a pledge, they make a serious promise that they will do something.”举个🌰：

The meeting ended with a pledge to step up cooperation between the states of the region. 会议以加快该地区州之间合作的承诺结束。

Dashwood says that the extra funding will relieve much of the financial stress of graduate courses. “This will take a lot of weight off my shoulders and allow me to concentrate better on my studies,” she says. “This should mean I can comfortably buy my groceries and hopefully won’t have to constantly be checking my bank account.” She adds, however, that she expects to continue a frugal lifestyle that includes sharing a house with two people, getting by with basic groceries and rarely going out. She can’t afford to hang out with friends and go away on holiday, she says, the sorts of activities that would help her to relax and take her mind off her work. “It takes a toll on your mental health.”

达什伍德说，额外的资金将在很大程度上减轻研究生学业的经济压力。“这将减轻我的负担，让我更好地集中精力学习，”她说。“这应该意味着我可以安心地购买生活用品，而不必频繁查看银行账户余额。”然而，她补充说，她希望继续保持节俭的生活方式，包括和两个人合租，靠基本的生活用品过活，很少外出。她说，她没钱和朋友出去玩，也没钱去度假，这些活动可以帮助她放松，让她忘记工作。“这对心理健康会有影响。”

复数，表示“食品杂货；食品；生活用品”，英文解释为“food and other goods sold by a grocer or at a supermarket”。

表示“造成损失（或伤亡、破坏）；产生负面影响”，英文解释为“If something takes its/a toll, it causes suffering, deaths, or damage.”举个🌰：

The problems of the past few months have taken their toll on her health and there are shadows under her eyes. 过去几个月里的问题影响了她的健康，她眼睛出现了黑眼圈。

📍2020年意大利约1万名医学生免除考试 投入抗疫一线文中，路透社（Reuters）报道就提到：The epidemic has so far taken a relatively light toll on Italy's main cities, 到目前为止，新冠疫情对意大利主要城市造成的损失相对较小，

In Australia, it would take legislative action, or perhaps an emergency declaration from the education minister, to substantially improve federal support for graduate students, Garland says. He sees such a declaration as unlikely, even though graduate-student finances are clearly an emergency. “Hopefully, at some point it gets better,” he says. “But it won’t get better if we don’t call attention to it.”

加兰说，在澳大利亚，需要采取立法行动，或者由教育部长发表紧急声明，才能大幅改善联邦对研究生的支持。他认为这样的声明是不可能的，尽管研究生的经济状况显然是一个紧急情况。“希望在某个时候情况会好转，”他说。“但如果我们不呼吁关注它，情况不会好转。”

表示“法律的；立法的”，英文解释为“relating to laws or the making of laws”举个🌰：

The European Parliament will have greater legislative powers (= ability to make laws). 欧洲议会将获得更大的立法权。

substantially /səbˈstæn.ʃəl.i/ 1）表示“大体上；基本上”，英文解释为“generally”举个🌰：

This model has leather seats, but the two cars are substantially the same. 这一型号有几个附加装置，但两款车大体上是一样的。

2）表示“在很大程度上”，英文解释为“to a large degree”举个🌰：

The new rules will substantially change how we do things. 新规则会在很大程度上改变我们的行事方式。

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