不科学！美国21年后击败中国奥数夺冠_时事

不科学！美国21年后击败中国奥数夺冠

The United States last week ended a 21-year drought when its team took home first place in the annual International Mathematical Olympiad. The U.S. win broke a long stretch dominated by China, which placed lower than second only once during that period (China took second this year). China has been participating since only 1985, which makes its record all the more impressive: It has won almost two-thirds of the Olympiads it has competed in.

上周，美国队终于结束在一年一度的国际数学奥林匹克竞赛上连续21年颗粒无收的惨况——迎来了他们的第一座冠军奖杯。美国队的这次获胜打破了长久以来由中国队占据的主导地位，在此期间中国队仅有一次位于第二名之后(今年中国队为第二名)。直到1985年中国队才首次参与国际数学奥林匹克竞赛，所以创下的记录是令人印象深刻的：中国队几乎赢了三分之二参加过的比赛。

The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a competition for high schoolers around the world. The U.S. ranks 36 of 65 countries and economies on math proficiency among 15-year-olds, according to the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment, but those rankings are based on populationwide statistics; the IMO pits countries’ very top tier against one another. The U.S. picks its six-person team through a series of tests. These aren’t the standardized tests students take at the end of the year. U.S. students take three tests: the AMC (multiple choice), the AIME (all answers are integers between 0 and 999) and the USAMO (six questions, all proof-based). Any student in eighth through 12th grade can choose to take the AMC, but to take any subsequent tests, students must score high on the preceding one. The students who do best on the USAMO are invited to a summer camp for training, and the final squad is chosen from among the attendees.