READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 on the following pages.

Persistent bullying is one of the worst experiences a child can face. How can it be prevented? Peter Smith, Professor of Psychology at the University of Sheffield, directed the Sheffield Anti-Bullying Intervention Project, funded by the Department for Education.Here he reports on his findings.

不断受到欺凌是一个孩子所能面对的最糟糕的经历之一。这种情况该如何避免呢？谢菲尔德大学的心理学教授Peter Smith，在教育部资助下组织了谢菲尔德反欺凌干预项目。以下是他报告的发现。

A Bullying can take a variety of forms, from the verbal - being taunted or called hurtful names - to the physical - being kicked or shoved - as well as indirect forms, such as being excluded from social groups. A survey I conducted with Irene Whitney found that in British primary schools up to a quarter of pupils reported experience of bullying, which in about one in ten cases was persistent. There was less bullying in secondary schools, with about one in twenty-five suffering persistent bullying, but these cases may be particularly recalcitrant.

欺凌有很多种形式，从口头欺凌——比如嘲笑或很难听的外号——到挨打或推搡——还有间接的欺凌形式，比如被社交集体孤立在外。我和Irene Whitney做的一个调查显示，英国小学中，有高大四分之一的学生表示收到过欺凌，大约有25分之1的学生收到持续欺凌，但是这些情况可能极其顽固。

B Bullying is clearly unpleasant, and can make the child experiencing it feel unworthy and depressed. In extreme cases it can even lead to suicide, though this is thankfully rare. Victimised pupils are more likely to experience difficulties with interpersonal relationships as adults, while children who persistently bully are more likely to grow up to be physically violent, and convicted of anti-social offences.

很显然，受到欺凌会不开心，而且这会导致经历过欺凌的孩子产生自贬和沮丧的情绪。在极端的例子中，甚至会导致自杀，所幸这种情况比较少见。受害学生更有可能在成年后的人际交往中遇到苦难，而持续欺凌别人孩子长大后会变得身体暴力，而且会犯下反社会的罪行。

C Until recently, not much was known about the topic, and little help was available to teachers to deal with bullying. Perhaps as a consequence, schools would often deny the problem. ‘There is no bullying at this school' has been a common refrain, almost certainly untrue. Fortunately more schools are now saying: ‘There is not much bullying here, but when it occurs we have a clear policy for dealing with it.'

直到最近，关于这个话题人们了解的还是很少，也少有对老师处理欺凌行为上的帮助。这可能导致的结果是，学校经常不承认这种问题。“这所学校里没有欺凌现象”一直是个很常见的说法，大部分时候都是瞎说。幸运的是，如今更多的学校会说：“这里的欺凌现象不多，但是如果发生了，我们有处理这种情况很明确的政策。”

D Three factors are involved in this change. First is an awareness of the severity of the problem. Second, a number of resources to help tackle bullying have become available in Britain. For example, the Scottish Council for Research in Education produced a package of materials, Action Against Bullying, circulated to all schools in England and Wales as well as in Scotland in summer 1992, with a second pack, Supporting Schools Against Bullying, produced the following year. In Ireland, Guidelines on Countering Bullying Behavior in Post-Primary Schools was published in 1993. Third, there is evidence that these materials work, and that schools can achieve something. This comes from carefully conducted ‘before and after' evaluations of interventions in schools, monitored by a research team. In Norway, after an intervention campaign was introduced nationally, an evaluation of forty-two schools suggested that, over a two-year period, bullying was halved. The Sheffield investigation, which involved sixteen primary schools and seven secondary schools, found that most schools succeeded in reducing bullying.

导致这种转变的有三个因素。第一个对这一问题严重性的认识。第二个是在英国， 出现了一些帮助解决欺凌的可用的资源。比方说，苏格兰教育研究局出台了一系列资料：《反欺凌行动》1992年夏天提供给英格兰、威尔士以及苏格兰的所有学校。第二年又接着发行了《支持学校反对欺凌》。在1993年，在爱尔兰发行了《小学生遭遇欺凌行为指南》。第三个是有证据表明，这些材料都起作用了，而且学校也取得了一些成绩。这来自于一个研究组监控的名叫“之前和之后”的评估，，经过研究组认真实施，对学校的干预措施进行评价。

E Evidence suggests that a key step is to develop a policy on bullying, saying clearly what is meant by bullying, and giving explicit guidelines on what will be done if it occurs, what records will be kept, who will be informed, what sanctions will be employed. The policy should be developed through consultation, over a period of time - not just imposed from the head teacher's office! Pupils, parents and staff should feel they have been involved in the policy, which needs to be disseminated and implemented effectively.

有证据表明在制定应对欺凌的措施时，关键的一步是说清楚什么叫做欺凌，并明确欺凌行为意味着什么。一旦发生器灵，会留下什么记录，会通知什么人，会采取什么惩罚。这项政策必须经过一定时间的磋商来制定——而不是在校长办公室里硬性实施！学生、家长和员工都应该感觉到自己参与了这项制度的制定，因为它需要广泛的传播和有效的执行。

Other actions can be taken to back up the policy. There are ways of dealing with the topic through the curriculum, using video, drama and literature. These are useful for raising awareness, and can best be tied in to early phases of development, while the school is starting to discuss the issue of bullying. They are also useful in renewing the policy for new pupils, or revising it in the light of experience. But curriculum work alone may only have short-term effects; it should be an addition to policy work, not a substitute.

可以采取其他措施来支持这个政策。可以使用视频、戏剧和文学，在课堂中解决这个话题。这些都是提高意识的有效方法，而且可以与学校开始讨论欺凌问题时，早期的制度制定紧密结合起来。此外，为新学生更新政策也是很有效的，或者根据经验进行修订。但仅依靠可能吃能带来短期的效果，它应该是对于政策的补充而非替代品。

There are also ways of working with individual pupils, or in small groups. Assertiveness training for pupils who are liable to be victims is worthwhile, and certain approaches to group bullying such as ‘no blame', can be useful in changing the behavior of bullying pupils without confronting them directly, although other sanctions may be needed for those who continue with persistent bullying.

也有一些方法适合于单个学生或者小团体。对于那些容易受成为欺凌对象的学生而言，自信训练是非常有价值的，而且当发生于群体欺凌时，像“不责备”这样的特定方法，也有利于在不直接对抗施期凌的学生的情况下，是他们的行为发生改变。然而对于持续欺凌，还是可能需要一些惩罚措施。

Work in the playground is important, too. One helpful step is to train lunchtime supervisors to distinguish bullying from playful fighting, and help them break up conflicts. Another possibility is to improve the playground environment, so that pupils are less likely to be led into bullying from boredom or frustration. 

在操场采取措施也很重要。一个有效的步骤是培训午餐时间监督员分辨欺凌和打闹，并帮助他们终止冲突。另外，改进操场环境可能也是有效的，这样可以使学生不因感到厌倦或挫败而去实施欺凌。

F With these developments, schools can expect that at least the most serious kinds of bullying can largely be prevented. The more effort put in and the wider the whole school involvement, the more substantial the results are likely to be. The reduction in bullying - and the consequent improvement in pupil happiness - is surely a worthwhile objective.

有了这些进步，我们至少可以期待最严重的欺凌行为得到尽可能大的避免。付出的努力越多，学校干涉的越广，取得的效果就越好。欺凌行为的减少——以及这带来的学生幸福感的增加——无疑是一个值得为之努力的目标。