For humanities departments that are still struggling with the lingering effects of the 2008 recession, itappears no news is the best news.对于还在与2008年经济萧条的持续性影响做斗争人文学部门来说，似乎没有消息就是最好的消息。

That’s one of the chief conclusions of a report released on Monday by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The report stems from a survey of the state of the humanities across 13 disciplines.这是由美国文理学院周一发表的报告的主要结论之一。这篇报告来自于对于人文部门下的13个分支的现状调查。

Despite continuing debates about the decline of the humanities and heightened interest in STEM education and professional programs, the authors of the report found that some of the oldest academic disciplines had survived and even prospered in the face ofthe difficult recession years, in which many colleges faced budget cuts and calls to revamp their curricula.尽管对于人文学科下降，而科学，技术，工程，数学教育的专业项目日渐热门的讨论从未停歇，但是该报告的作者却认为一些最古老的学科即使在经济萧条，很多大学都面临缩减预算，更改课程的时候也幸存了下来，甚至蓬勃发展。

"We expected there would be more change," said Robert B. Townsend, director of the academy’s office in Washington."That was one of the surprises coming out of this report."“我们期待着更多的改变，”罗伯特·B·汤森，华盛顿学院办公室主任说道，“那是来自这份报告的一大惊喜。”

The new survey results build ona previous one conducted during the 2007-8 academic year. This time around, the academy added five new disciplines to its look at the humanities: classical studies, communication, folklore, musicology, and philosophy.这份新的调查结果建立在之前于2007到2008学年做的一次调查。这一次，学院在人文研究方面增加了五个学科：古典研究，古典研究，传播，民俗，音乐学和哲学。

The report does not incorporate any new departments beyond the programs surveyed in 2007-8: art history,English, foreign languages, history, history of science, linguistics,religion, and combined English and foreign-language programs. Instead, it serves as another snapshot in time, with updated information about the eightoriginal disciplines, collected during the 2012-13 academic year.本报告不包含任何在2007-2008年没有调查的新项目：艺术史，英语，外语，历史，科学，语言学，宗教史，以及英语和外语综合的项目。相反，它作为另一个时间快照，它收集了2012到2013学年的资料，更新了原来的八个学科的信息。

The new data show that the unease of the recession years was not without some consequences.新的数据表明，经济衰退年带来的不安确实带来一些后果。

Foreign Languages Feel the Heat外语项目受到冲击

The economic crunch between the two surveys delivered a sharper blow to some departments than others, with foreign-language programs particularly feeling the heat. By contrast, the number of students majoring in linguistics increased slightly, the report says.在这两次调查之间的经济重创对于一些学科部门明显比别的部门有更大的打击，而外语项目很明显地感受到了这份热度。该报告指出，相比之下，主修语言学的学生数量略有增加。

Colleges and universities cut 12 percent of their foreign-language degree programs from 2007 to 2012 while canceling 21 percent of combined English and foreign-language programs. Eighteen percent of those programs were at public institutions. By contrast, the colleges and universities surveyed cut about 6 percent of degree programs over all by 2013.从2007年到2012年，学院和大学在语言学位项目上削减了百分之十二的预算，与此同时，英语和外语综合的项目被取消了百分之二十一。其中的百分之十八是在公立机构之下的。相比之下，截止2013年，被调查的学院和大学一共削减了百分之六的学位项目。

In the immediate wake of the recession, the future of foreign-language education looked brighter.在衰退的经济即将复苏之际，外语教育的前景还是很光明的。

A 2010 study by the Modern Language Association found that enrollment in foreign-language and combined English and foreign-language programs had increased 6.6 percent from 2006 to 2009, with more than 1.6 million students enrolled in programs across the country.现代语言协会在2012年一个研究发现，外语项目以及英语和外语综合项目的入学率从2006到2009以及上升了百分之6.6，全国超过160万的学生就读于这类项目。

A number of factors could be at the heart of the more recent cuts in foreign-language programs, according to S.Paul Sandrock, director of education at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, which tracks teaching in elementary, secondary, and higher education.根据 S. Paul Sandrock，美国议会对外语教学主任，一些因素可能成为最近外语项目预算削减的核心因素，该外语教学部门对于小学，中学，和高等教育的教学都进行了追踪。

Some programs might have been canceled because of a lack of teaching staff, or consolidated into other programs. But the cuts remain sporadic over all, Mr. Sandrock said.一些项目因为缺乏师资而被取消或被合并到别的项目中去了。他还说，相对于整体来说，这些削减还是很零星的。

Across the eight original disciplines, the humanities appeared to remain relatively stable in terms of the number of departments and faculty members, though the number of students majoring in humanities disciplines declined slightly.跨越最初的八个学科，人文学科就其部门和教师的数量来说都是很稳定的，虽然主修人文学科的学生数量略有下降。

The report had more-hopeful news for faculty members concerned about the availability of stable employment in the humanities: Seventy-one percent of those in the survey were employed in full-time positions, while less than half had non-tenure-track or other part-time positions. In English the number of full-time faculty members increased by 3 to 4 percent, while part-time positions decreased by the same amount.让关注人文学科就业稳定性的教师更可喜的消息是，报告中指出被调查群体中百分之七十一的学生得到了全职工作，只有少于一半的人是非正式员工或者在兼职岗位。在英国，全职的教师员工增加了百分之三到四，然而兼职职位相应降低了同样的数量。

The number of female professors in tenure-track jobs increase across nearly every original discipline, while the number of women receiving tenure in history increased 3 to 4 percent.终生制的女教授数量几乎在每一个原始学科上有所增加，增加了百分之三到四。

Teaching Still a Priority教学水平依然被放在首位

The report also asserts that, in the humanities, teaching remains a priority, in addition to research. Full-time faculty members teach 86 percent of non-introductory courses to undergraduate students, and teaching is considered an"essential" factor in making tenure decisions 78 percent of the time across all the disciplines surveyed, the academy found.该报告还称，在人文学科中除了研究之外，教学依然被放在首位。研究院发现，学院本科生百分之八十六的非导入性课程是由全职教师授课的，而且在所有被调查的百分之七十的课程中的教师聘用考评中，授课水平被认为是非常关键的因素。

In many departments, the use of new technology in teaching and scholarship remains somewhat limited.在许多部门的教学和学术研究中，新技术的应用还是很有限的。

While nearly a third of the departments surveyed by the academy said they had some form of online educationin place during the 2012-13 academic year, there was resistance to the use of digital-humanities technology when it came to publishing and scholarship.尽管在被研究院调查的将近三分之一的部门认为在2012到2013学年，他们恰到好处的使用了一些形式网络授课，但是在出版和学术界，大家对于电子人文技术的使用还是有一些抗拒的。

Nearly a quarter of the colleges surveyed reported having a center on the campus dedicated to digital humanities, but only 15 percent offered a seminar on the use of digital humanities in research and teaching.在被调查大学中的四分之一报告说其致力于建设有电子人文特色的校园，但是只有百分之十五的学校提供能在研究和教书中使用电子人文技术的专题讨论会。

Mr. Townsend, the academy researcher, said he wasn’t surprised.学院的研究人员汤森先生表示他对此并不感到惊讶。

While working on a report on job prospects for historians published by the American Historical Association last spring, he found that many scholars remained skeptical about books and journals published solely in an electronic format.在阅读去年春天发表在美国历史协会的关于历史学家的就业前景的报告时，他发现很多学者对于只出版电子书籍以及只在电子杂志上发表文章的做法仍然持质疑态度。

"It took a lot of handholding to say, Look, these books are legitimate, they’ve been vetted by a blue-ribbon commission," Mr. Townsend said.“我们可是花了很多的努力才能够和读者说，这些书是合法的，它们可是通过了蓝丝带委员会的审查了，”汤森先生说道。

But for now, despitethe cuts in some foreign-language departments, the humanities appear to have survived the initial years of the recession relatively unscathed.但是现在，尽管对于外语部门的预算削减了，但是人文学科似乎已经挺过了最初萧条的几年中，相对来说影响较小。

"In some ways what was moststriking," Mr. Townsend said, "is how little difference there was."汤森先生说，“从某种程度上来说，最引人注目的其实是对于这些学科几乎没有多大变化（即使在经济衰退的背景下）。”

文中生词：

Lingering：adj.拖延的，逗留不去的v.逗留( linger的现在分词 )；缓慢消失；苟延残喘；持续看（或思考）

1)When something such as an idea, feeling, or illness lingers, it continues to exist for a long time,often much longer than expected.

2)If you linger somewhere, you stay there for a longer time than is necessary, for example because you are enjoying yourself.

prosper：If people or businesses prosper, they are successful and do well.繁盛，成功

Tenure :n.占有（职位，不动产等）；占有期；终身职位

1)the legal right to live in a particular building or to use a particular piece of land during a fixed period of time.

2)Tenure is the period of time during which someone holds an important job.

3)If you have tenure in your job, you have the right to keep it until you retire.

Seminar: n.研讨班，讲习会；研讨小组；研讨会；培训会

1)A seminar is a meeting where a group of people discuss a problem or topic.

2)seminar is a class at a college or university in which the teacher and a small group of students discuss a topic.

Unscathed: If you are unscathed after a dangerous experience, you have not been injured or harmed by it.未受损伤的；未受伤害的

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