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Recommendations for Title IX Law 1)Stir 2)Controversy

时间:2005-05-29 16:00:00

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Broadcast: Jan 11 2003

 

It's a Thursday night at the McDonough Gymnasium on Georgetown University's campus in Washington, D.C. About 200 fans have gathered to see Georgetown's women's basketball team take on their archrivals from George Washington University.

"Three points for Mary Lisicky" the announcer said.

The Georgtown "Hoyas", as they're called, have a record of 7-1 so far this season. They're considered a tough team to beat and all the players bring a good deal of experience to the court. Most learned how to play basketball while they were in high school, but starting player Sarah Jenkins said she might not have ever played the sport seriously, if her high school had offered a broader array of choices to its girls.

"I got into basketball, because I wanted to play soccer," Ms. Jenkins said. "And at the time, there weren't any girls' soccer teams. So I had to pick something else. And I just chose basketball, and I found it was something I liked to do, so I stuck with it."

Title IX was enacted1 more than 30 years ago, but many women athletes who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s will tell you their high schools and colleges didn't offer equal opportunities to boys and girls. Sometimes this was because the schools simply ignored the law. But often, it was because there's been some disagreement about what it means to offer "opportunities" that are "equal." Title IX doesn't say a school has to have a girls' soccer team simply because it has a boys' soccer team.

Instead, "equal opportunity" is defined in three different ways, and a school can adopt any one of them as its definition. The first two ways involve having a "history" of promoting girls' sports and "meeting the interests" of it's female athletes. But these two definitions are 3)vague and not easily quantified, and schools that have adopted them have been sued by girls who feel they've been denied athletic2 opportunities.

So 4)attorneys have begun to advise schools to comply with Title IX by adopting the third definition. It's known as "5)proportionality," and it says a school is providing equal athletic opportunities to its students, if the percentage of male and female athletes mirrors the percentage of male and female students.

"So if 55 percent of the full-time3 6)enrollment4 at a university is women, then 55 percent of the athletes must be women," said Mr. Moyer.

Mike Moyer is executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association. He and his colleagues are suing the U.S. Department of Education, because they say the proportionality component5 of Title IX has led to discrimination against male athletes.

Women make up a majority of the student body at many universities. But Mike Moyer said girls aren't as interested in sports as boys are, and many don't join teams, even when those teams are available. As a result, Mr. Moyer said a number of schools, such as Marquette University in Illinois, have had to reduce the number of male athletes, in order to keep the male to female ratio in line with enrollment.

"Marquette had an inter-collegiate wrestling program that was almost entirely6 self funded for six years. And in the spring of 2001, they were forced to discontinue their wrestling program, because they could not meet the proportionality prong of Title IX" he said. "It did nothing to benefit women on that campus, and those boys were very clearly discriminated8 against, just because they were boys. It flies completely in the face of what Title IX stands for."

The Wrestling Coaches Association wants the Department of Education to get rid of the proportionality component of Title IX. The group's 7)lawsuit9 has provoked a formal review of the law, and the government says at the end of January, a special commission will recommend some changes. One modification10 being considered would allow the ratio of male to female athletes to vary by as much seven percent from the ratio of male to female students. But this proposal is totally unacceptable to Jamie Fastow of the American Association of University Women.

"What is that going to lead to? What's going to be the next civil rights law that's gutted11? Which is basically what we're talking about doing to athletics12 participation," she said. "You know, having a 8)variance on proportionality, which would say it's OK for you to discriminate7 by seven percent."

Jamie Fastow denies Mike Moyer's assertion that girls are less interested in sports than boys, and says whenever a college or high school has fielded a girls team in any sport, there's been no shortage of players. Ms. Fastow says schools wouldn't have to eliminate wrestling programs if they just expanded their athletic programs for women. But that costs money, and Jamie Fastow says many universities simply aren't willing to divert funds from their large men's basketball and football programs to do that. Instead, they eliminate men's programs that are slightly less popular.

"It's important to remember that those are 9)budgetary decisions schools are making. They actually have nothing to do with proportionality. Take Marquette University," Ms. Fastow said, "that's something the wrestlers use a lot. They had a wrestling team cut. They have a huge basketball program, and so it's really unfair to blame the girls for budgetary decisions that schools make."

Jamie Fastow says Title IX is fine the way it is, and she worries that if it's changed, hundreds of women's sports programs could be cut. She says that could have all sorts of unintended consequences, since studies show girls who play sports are far more likely to go to college, and far less likely to do drugs, or become pregnant as teenagers.

Meanwhile, Mike Moyer of the Wrestling Coaches Association says he's encouraged by the Department of Education's review of the law, but says if proportionality isn't eliminated, his group intends to follow through with their lawsuit.

I'm Maura Farrelly.

1)      stir[stE:]vt. 激起, 惹起, 摇动

2)      controversy[5kCntrEvE:si]n. 论争, 辩论, 论战

3)      vague[vei^]adj. 含糊的, 不清楚的, 茫然的, 暧昧的

4)      attorney[E5tE:ni]n. <美>律师, (业务或法律事务上的)代理人

5)      proportionality [prE7pC:FE5nAliti] 比例(性), 均衡(性), 相称

6)      enrollment[in5rEulmEnt]n. 登记, 注册, 入伍, 入会, 入学

7)      lawsuit[5lC:su:t, 5lC:sju:t]n. 诉讼(尤指非刑事案件)

8)      variance[5vZEriEns]n. 不一致, 变化, 变异, 变迁, 分歧, 不和

9)      budgetary[5bQdVitErI]  adj.预算的

 


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 enacted b0a10ad8fca50ba4217bccb35bc0f2a1     
制定(法律),通过(法案)( enact的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • legislation enacted by parliament 由议会通过的法律
  • Outside in the little lobby another scene was begin enacted. 外面的小休息室里又是另一番景象。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
2 athletic sOPy8     
adj.擅长运动的,强健的;活跃的,体格健壮的
参考例句:
  • This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
  • He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。
3 full-time SsBz42     
adj.满工作日的或工作周的,全时间的
参考例句:
  • A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
  • I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作,我不知道她是如何对付的。
4 enrollment itozli     
n.注册或登记的人数;登记
参考例句:
  • You will be given a reading list at enrollment.注册时你会收到一份阅读书目。
  • I just got the enrollment notice from Fudan University.我刚刚接到复旦大学的入学通知书。
5 component epSzv     
n.组成部分,成分,元件;adj.组成的,合成的
参考例句:
  • Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
  • Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。
6 entirely entirely     
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
  • His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。
7 discriminate NuhxX     
v.区别,辨别,区分;有区别地对待
参考例句:
  • You must learn to discriminate between facts and opinions.你必须学会把事实和看法区分出来。
  • They can discriminate hundreds of colours.他们能分辨上百种颜色。
8 discriminated 94ae098f37db4e0c2240e83d29b5005a     
分别,辨别,区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 ); 歧视,有差别地对待
参考例句:
  • His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
  • Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视?
9 lawsuit A14xy     
n.诉讼,控诉
参考例句:
  • They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
  • He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。
10 modification tEZxm     
n.修改,改进,缓和,减轻
参考例句:
  • The law,in its present form,is unjust;it needs modification.现行的法律是不公正的,它需要修改。
  • The design requires considerable modification.这个设计需要作大的修改。
11 gutted c134ad44a9236700645177c1ee9a895f     
adj.容易消化的v.毁坏(建筑物等)的内部( gut的过去式和过去分词 );取出…的内脏
参考例句:
  • Disappointed? I was gutted! 失望?我是伤心透了!
  • The invaders gutted the historic building. 侵略者们将那幢历史上有名的建筑洗劫一空。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
12 athletics rO8y7     
n.运动,体育,田径运动
参考例句:
  • When I was at school I was always hopeless at athletics.我上学的时候体育十分糟糕。
  • Our team tied with theirs in athletics.在田径比赛中,我们队与他们队旗鼓相当。

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