What will help you get into Harvard? Super-rich parents with a chequebook and pen
什么能帮你上哈佛？富豪爹妈签张支票就行
Want a place at Harvard? Persuade your parents to give the university a nice gift. While it is no secret that offering financial gifts to certain Ivy League universities may compensate for a lack of natural gifts, the extent to which Harvard’s admission process favours relatives of big donors is only now being laid bare.
想要进入哈佛？那就说服你父母送这所学校一件大礼吧。虽然在某些常春藤盟校的申请中，通过赠予金钱来弥补学生的天资不足已经不是什么秘密了，但哈佛的录取程序对大金主亲属的偏袒竟到如此地步，这点才刚刚被揭露得体无完肤。
compensate for
补偿
e.g.
Her hard work will compensate for her lack of experience.
This is thanks to a lawsuit currently under way against Harvard that accuses the university of discriminating against Asian Americans. In seeking to determine how Asian Americans are treated by Harvard, the lawsuit has unearthed a number of internal university documents that give unprecedented insight into its (seemingly money-centric) admissions processes.
这都要归功于目前一起针对哈佛的诉讼，该诉讼控告哈佛歧视亚裔美国人。在查明哈佛是如何对待这些亚裔美国考生的过程中，这项诉讼揭露了许多学校内部文件，这些文件让人们对哈佛大学（貌似以金钱为中心）的录取过程有了前所未有的深刻理解。
give insight into sth.给出对某事的深刻理解
under way
在进行中；开始
e.g.
The next presidential election is already under way.
While the lawsuit has brought attention to the way in which donations and admissions are intertwined at Harvard, this wasn’t its primary motive. The case, brought by a controversial conservative, Edward Blum, is rather more complicated than that. While ostensibly about racial bias against Asian Americans, the lawsuit is widely seen as an attempt to dismantle affirmative action policies that give traditionally underrepresented groups such as African Americans and Latinos a better chance at attending elite universities such as Harvard.
虽然这起诉讼让哈佛大学捐赠和录取之间的紧密联系备受关注，然而这并不是该诉讼的最初目的。这件案子的起诉者是位有争议的保守主义者——爱德华·布鲁，并且案子本身要比“金钱交易”复杂得多。虽然表面上是关于对亚裔美国人的种族偏见，但这项诉讼被广泛认为是一个对废除 平权法案的尝试，而平权法案是一项针对传统上未得到充分代表的群体（比如非洲裔美国人和拉丁美洲人）的政策，给予他们更多进入像哈佛这样精英学校的机会。
intertwine/ˌɪntərˈtwaɪn/
v. 紧密相关
motive /ˈmoʊtɪv/
n. 动机，目的
controversial /ˌkɑːntrəˈvɜːrʃl/
adj. 有争议的
conservative /kənˈsɜːrvətɪv/
n. 保守党党员
ostensibly /ɑːˈstensəbli/
adv. 表面地
racial bias
种族偏见
dismantle /dɪsˈmæntl/
v. 废除
e.g.
The government was in the process of dismantling the state-owned industries.
affirmative action
平权法案
Conservatives love to decry affirmative action as “reverse racism” and condemn the idea of racial quotas. What this lawsuit, perhaps inadvertently, has made abundantly clear, however, is that the most widespread affirmative action programmes at play in elite institutions don’t help minority racial groups—they help rich, predominantly white people. These programmes just aren’t labelled “affirmative action”. They are labelled the status quo.
保守主义者喜欢谴责平权法案是一种“逆向种族主义”，并且指责种族配额的想法。然而，这起诉讼却可能不经意地揭示了，在精英大学里最普遍实行的平权法案计划并没有帮助到少数裔群体，它们帮助的是富有的，占绝大多数的白人。只不过帮助有钱人的这些方案并没被归类为“平权法案”，它们被归为现状。
decry /dɪˈkraɪ/
v. （公开）反对，谴责
reverse racism
[U] / 'reɪsɪz ə m ; ˋresɪzəm /种族主义者
逆向种族主义
condemn /kənˈdem/
v. （通常指出于道义而）指责，谴责
quota/ˈkwoʊtə/
n. 配额
inadvertently /ˌɪnədˈvɜːrtəntli/
adv. 不经意地
at play
生效
predominantly /prɪˈdɑːmɪnətli/
adv. 绝大多数的
status quo
现状
e.g.
Certain people always want to maintain the status quo.
