President Obama talked a lot about education in his State of the Union speech last week.
奥巴马总统在上周的《国情咨文》演说中谈到了很多教育问题。

We need to out innovate out educate and out build the rest of the world. 
我们要在创新、教育、基础建设方面超过其他国家。

 This is our generation's Sputnik moment he said. 
他说，这就是我们这一代人的“人造卫星”时刻。

Half a century ago when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik we had no idea how we would beat them to the moon. 
巴拉克·奥巴马说：“半个世纪前，苏联发射了斯普特尼克人造卫星，在太空探索中击败了我们，而对于如何在月球探索上击败他们我们还毫无头绪。

The science wasn't even there yet. 
当时科学研究还没到那个程度。

NASA didn't exist. 
国家航空航天局（NASA）还没成立。

But after investing in better research and education we didn't just surpass the Soviets we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs. 
但是由于我们在先进研究和教育方面的投资，我们不仅仅超越了苏联，我们还激发了一股创新浪潮，建立起新产业，创造了数百万新岗位。

If Americans want to win the future he said then they also have to win the race to educate their children. 
他称，如果美国人想赢得未来，还得在子女教育上胜出。

Over the next ten years nearly half of all new jobs will require education that goes beyond a high school education. 
未来10年中，将近一半的新岗位都要求人们接受过中学以上的教育。

And yet as many as a quarter of our students aren't even finishing high school. 
然而我们有多达1/4的学生甚至中学都没毕业。

The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations. 
我们数学教育和自然科学教育的质量落后于许多国家。

America has fallen to 9th in the proportion of young people with a college degree."
我们拥有大学学位年轻人的比率已经滑落到了世界第九。

Two years ago, Mr. Obama set a goal to regain the world's highest rate of college graduates by 2020. 
奥巴马两年前曾定下目标，到2020年要让美国的大学毕业率重夺世界第一。

He says the responsibility to give every child a chance to succeed begins not in classrooms but in homes and communities. 
他表示，要向每一个孩子提供成功的机会，而这份责任并非始于教室，而是始于家庭和社会。

Only parents can make sure the TV is turned off and homework gets done. 
只有父母才能确保让孩子关掉电视，做完作业。

We need to teach our kids that it's not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated but the winner of the science fair. 
我们要教育他们说，并非只有“超级碗”冠军才值得赞美，科学展上夺冠一样值得颂扬。

President Obama talked about his Race to the Top competition. 
奥巴马谈到了他的“争创一流”竞赛计划该计划。

It offered states money to develop plans to improve teacher quality and student performance. 
向各州提供资金开发提高教师水平和学生成绩的项目计划。

He urged Congress to follow this idea for the next version of the main federal law on elementary and secondary education. 
他极力主张国会在下一次修订有关中小学教育的主要联邦法律时遵循此方针。

Also, he called for preparing 100,000 new teachers in science, technology, engineering and math over the next ten years. 
他还呼吁要为未来10年预备10万名自然科学、技术、工程、数学方面的新教师。

In his message Mr Obama offered to begin debate with Congress on immigration reform and he linked that issue to education. 
在讲话中，奥巴马主动提出要跟国会就移民改革问题进行辩论，他将移民问题跟教育联系在一起。

Today there are hundreds of thousands of students excelling in our schools who are not American citizens.   
今天，我们学校里的许多优秀学生并不是美国公民。

Some are the children of undocumented workers who had nothing to do with the actions of their parents. 
其中一些是无证劳工的子女，但他们跟他们父母的行为无关。

They grew up as Americans and pledge allegiance to our flag and yet they live every day with the threat of deportation.  
他们是按照美国人的方式长大的，也向我们的国旗宣誓效忠，但他们却每天都生活在被驱逐出境的威胁中。

Others come here from abroad to study in our colleges and universities. 
其他人则从国外到我们的高校学习。

But as soon as they obtain advanced degrees we send them back home to compete against us. 
但他们一获得高级学位，我们就让他们回去来跟我们竞争。

The speech came the same day the Education Department released the latest results on student progress in science.
在他演讲的同一天，教育部公布了学生自然科学学习的最新进展。

The goal is for all students to perform at the proficient or advanced level. 
教育部的目标是让所有学生在自然科学方面达到熟练或高级水平。

But only about 1/3 of students in grades four and eight and one fifth of twelfth graders did that in 2009. 
但2009年只有约1/3的四年级和八年级生、以及1/5的十二年级生达标。

Just 1-2% of students performed at the advanced level. 
而达到高级水平的学生只有1%-2%。