7.Parents and Pressure
7.父母与压力
Students' pressure sometimes comes fromtheir parents. Most parents are well meaning, but some of them aren't veryhelpful with the problems their sons and daughters have in adjusting tocollege,and a few of them seem to go out of their way to add to theirchildren's difficulties.
学生的压力有时来自于父母。大多数的父母都是善意的,但是有些父母面对子女在适应大学生活中所碰到的问题时毫无帮助,少部分父母似乎不遗余力地给他们的子女增添了困难。
For one thing, parents are often not awareof the kinds of problems their children face. They don't realize that thecompetition is keener, that the required standards of work are higher, and thattheir children may not be prepared for the change. Accustomed to seeing A's andB's on high school report cards, they may be upset when their children's firstsemester college grades are below that level. At theire kindest, they maygently inquire/ enquire why John or Mary isn't doing better, whether he or sheis trying as hard as he or she should, and so on. At their worst, they maythreaten to take their children out of college, or cut off funds.
一方面,父母常常意识到他们的孩子所遇到的问题。他们没有料想到竞争越来越激烈,工作的标准越来越高,他们的孩子或许还没有准备好迎接这种改变。家长习惯于看到孩子在高中成绩单上的A或B的分数,所以当孩子在大学第一学期的成绩低于原来的分数时,他们或许会感到不安。最好的情况是,他们或许会温柔地询问为什么约翰或玛丽没有做得更好,他(她)是否足够努力了,等等。最糟的情况是,他们或许会威胁让孩子退学或是切断他们的收入。
Sometimes parents regard their children asextensions of themselves and think it only right and natural that theydetermine what their children do with their children, they forget that everyoneis different and that each person must develop in his or her own way. Theyforget that their children, who are now young adults, must be the onesresponsible for what they do and what they are.
有时父母会把孩子视为自身的延续,认为由他们来决定孩子该如何生活是理所应当和自然而然的事情。他们和孩子紧密联系,视为一体,因而忘了人与人其实各不相同,每个人都应该按照自己的方式发展。他们忘了他们的孩子已经是成年人,应该对自己的所作所为以及他们是谁而负责。