A group of students at Woodside Community School in Queens peered up at their teacher one morning this month, as she used an overhead projector to display a shape.

It looked like a basic geometry lesson one might find in any grade school, except for the audience: They were preschoolers, seated cross-legged on a comfy rug.

這個月的一個早晨，在皇后區的林邊社區學校，一群學生凝視著他們的老師，她正使用頭頂上的投影機打出一個形狀。

它看來像是你可能在任何小學看見的基本幾何課程，只不過聽眾有所不同：他們全是學齡前兒童，盤腿坐在舒適的地毯上。

“What attributes would tell me this is a square?” asked the teacher, Ashley Rzonca.

A boy named Mohammed raised his hand, having remembered these concepts from a previous lesson. “A square has four angles and four equal sides,” he said.

老師艾希莉．隆薩問道：「哪些特徵告訴我這是個正方形？」

名叫穆罕默德的男孩舉手，他上次上課時，記住了這些概念。他說：「正方形有四個角和四個等長的邊。」

As school reformers nationwide push to expand publicly funded prekindergarten and enact more stringent standards, more students are being exposed at ever younger ages to formal math and phonics lessons like this one. That has worried some education experts and frightened those parents who believe that children of that age should be playing with blocks, not sitting still as a teacher explains a shape’s geometric characteristics.

But now a new national study suggests that preschools that do not mix enough fiber into their curriculum may be doing their young charges a disservice.

隨著全美的學校改革人士推動擴大公費學前幼兒園，並且制定更嚴格的標準，已有更多學生在越來越小的年紀即接受類似這個課程的正式數學和拼音課程。這讓一些教育專家憂心忡忡，也讓一些家長嚇壞了，那些家長認為這個年齡的孩童應該玩積木，不是安靜坐著聽老師解釋某個形狀的幾何特徵。

不過，現在一項新的全國性研究指出，學前幼兒園若不將足夠的實質內容加入課程，可能是在傷害他們所照料的孩子。

The study found that by the end of kindergarten, children who had attended one year of “academic-oriented preschool” outperformed peers who had attended less academic-focused preschools by, on average, the equivalent of 2 1/2 months of learning in literacy and math.

“Simply dressing up like a firefighter or building an exquisite Lego edifice may not be enough,” said Bruce Fuller, the lead author of the study, conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. “If you can combine creative play with rich language, formal conversations and math concepts, that’s more likely to yield the cognitive gains we observed.”

研究發現，上完幼稚園後，那些曾上過一年「學術導向學前幼兒園」的兒童，表現優於上過較不以學術為焦點的學前幼兒園的兒童，平均而言，識字和數學學習成果前者領先差距相當於兩個半月。

研究由柏克萊加州大學研究人員完成，領銜作者布魯斯．富勒說：「只是裝扮成消防員，或堆砌一座精緻的樂高積木大建築也許已不足夠。若能將富有創造性的遊戲，與豐富的語言、正式的對話和數學概念相結合，那就更有可能產生我們觀察到的認知增長。」

The new wave of preschools provide playtime, but their major goal is academic “kindergarten readiness,” and the study could provide ammunition for policymakers who want to keep on that course. It could also help officials like de Blasio make the case for even more public spending on prekindergarten programs.

Whether they will win over all parents is another question.

新一波的學前幼兒園有玩耍時間，不過主要的目標是成為學術上的「幼稚園的預備班」，而這項研究可為想要繼續這種作法的決策者提供彈藥。它還能幫助白思豪這樣的官員找到理由，為學齡前教育計畫提供甚至更多的公共支出。

至於他們能否贏得所有父母的支持，另當別論。

On the outskirts of Berlin, Michael Barillere-Scholz is testing a driverless vehicle that is neither sleek nor futuristic. The machine is boxy and painted white. Its top speed barely reaches 20 mph.

The self-driving vehicle is a shuttle with room for 12 passengers. Barillere-Scholz, who leads the driverless research team at Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s largest train and bus operator, and his team have been testing the vehicle around a local office park. Later this year, the partly state-owned public transit company will also begin separate trials of a similar autonomous bus on public roads in southern Germany, connecting a local train station with stops along a predetermined route.

巴瑞雷爾—休茲正在德國首都柏林市郊，測試一款外形既不時髦也不具未來感的無人駕駛車，這款車四四方方且漆成白色，時速勉強達32公里。

這種自動駕駛車是可容納12人的接駁車。巴瑞雷爾—休茲在德國最大的鐵路與公車營運公司「德國鐵路」領導無人駕駛研究團隊，他和他的團隊已在當地一個辦公園區周圍測試這款車。今年稍晚，這家部分國有的公共運輸公司將在德國南部的公路上，展開類似巴士的另一項試驗，把當地一個火車站與一條預定路線上的公車站連接起來。

“We want to show that autonomous cars don’t have to be limited to luxury consumer vehicles, they also have a role in public transport,” Barillere-Scholz said. “The market in Germany for this type of vehicle is huge.”

The coming age of driverless cars has typically centered on Silicon Valley highfliers like Tesla, Uber and Google, which have showcased their autonomous driving technology in luxury sedans and SUVs costing $100,000 or more. But across Europe, fledgling driverless projects like those by Deutsche Bahn are instead focused on utilitarian self-driving vehicles for mass transit that barely exceed walking pace.

巴瑞雷爾—休茲說：「我們想要展現的是，自駕車未必非得是豪華消費者車輛不可，它也能承擔大眾運輸任務，德國這種車的市場非常大。」

正在來臨的無人駕駛車時代通常以矽谷那些雄心萬丈的公司為中心，如特斯拉、Uber與谷歌，這些公司已在要價10萬美元起跳的豪華房車和運動休旅車上充分展現自駕科技，不過在歐洲各地，像德鐵這類剛起步的自駕車測試專案，卻是著力於為最大多數人謀福利的公共運輸自駕車，車速幾乎和步行一樣。

Forgoing the latest automotive trends of aerodynamics and style, European transportation groups and city planners are instead aiming to connect these unglamorous driverless vehicles to existing public transportation networks of subways and buses. The goal is to eventually offer on-demand driverless services to those who cannot afford the latest expensive offerings from Tesla and others.

“When it comes to public transportation, we’re really close on making this technology work,” said Harri Santamala, who coordinates several projects involving autonomous public transport in Finland and directs a “smart mobility” program at Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

歐洲的運輸團體和都市規劃者並不跟隨最新的汽車空氣動力學和風格潮流，而是打算把這些外形單調的自駕車和既有的地鐵和公車大眾運輸網絡連接起來，希望最終能提供隨傳隨到的自駕車，讓負擔不起特斯拉等公司最新昂貴自駕車的人使用。

桑塔馬拉在芬蘭負責協調幾個有關自駕大眾運輸的測試專案，並在赫爾辛基城市應用科技大學主持「智慧移動」計畫，他說：「在公共運輸，我們真的快要讓自駕科技行得通了。」

While U.S. cities — including Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Las Vegas — have tested some of these mass transit driverless vehicles, Europe is a particular hotbed of this activity. That is because of the region’s densely packed urban areas and decades-old and widely used public transit systems, which often include subways, trains and buses.

In total, more than 20 pilot or existing public transport programs have taken place in Europe involving autonomous vehicles, according to a review by The New York Times.

雖然美國一些城市，如密西根州安娜堡與內華達州拉斯維加斯，已測試過大眾運輸自駕車，但歐洲才是這類活動的熱門地，因為歐洲有人口稠密的都會區，以及存在數十年且使用率高的公共運輸系統，通常包含地鐵、火車和公車。

根據紐約時報一篇評論，歐洲總共有超過20個先導或正式的大眾運輸測試計畫與自駕車有關。

說文解字看新聞

自駕車（或稱無人駕駛車，自動駕駛車）之發展堪稱當今顯學，英文可用driverless, self-driving, autonomous, automated等字。

辦公園區（office park或business park）是辦公大樓聚集處，通常設在郊區，因為土地和建築成本較低。科學園區（science park）常蓋在大學附近，以便產學合作、研究和開發新技術。

utilitarian是utilitarianism（功利主義）的形容詞。功利主義是一種道德理論，主張行為的對錯標準是「行為是否能增進最大多數人的最大幸福，或為最大多數人減少苦痛」，主要倡導者是18到19世紀英國哲學家邊沁（Jeremy Bentham）。utilitarian另一個意思是「實用的」，但與本文不合。

先導計畫（pilot program）又稱可行性研究（feasibility study），是小規模且短期的實驗，能讓研究者知道大規模進行時的情況會如何。先導計畫通常須列出目標、執行方法、執行時程表與決定計畫成功與否的指標。