中国家庭卷入美大学招生弊案：650万美元进斯坦福
中国家庭卷入美大学招生弊案
A Mystery Solved in the College Admissions Scandal
KATE TAYLOR, JENNIFER MEDINA
The New York Times
One of the mysteries of the sweeping college admissions fraud case has been over the families that prosecutors say paid the biggest sums to a college consultant at the center of the schemes but that have not been charged.
这起大规模的大学招生造假案的谜团之一，是那些向该案核心的一名大学顾问支付最高金额的家庭，检方表示他们尚未受到指控。
sweeping
作形容词，表示“影响大的；范围广的；彻底的”，英文解释为“affecting many things, or making an important difference to something”，如：sweeping reforms/changes 全面改革；彻底变化。
「积累」
the sweeping college admissions fraud case
大规模的大学生招生造假案
The 33 parents charged in the scandal are mostly accused of paying the consultant, William Singer, either tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to facilitate cheating on admissions tests or to bribe coaches or other officials so that their children could be admitted to schools as recruited athletes.
丑闻中受到指控的33名家长，大多被控向顾问威廉·辛格(William Singer)支付数万或数十万美元，换取他在大学入学考试中帮助作弊；抑或贿赂教练或其他官员，以便让他们的子女以体育特招生进入学校。
bribe
表示“向（某人）行贿；贿赂”，英文解释为“to give sb money or sth valuable in order to persuade them to help you, especially by doing sth dishonest”举个🌰：
They bribed the guards with cigarettes.
他们用香烟贿赂看守。
注意不要和bride搞混，bride为名词表示“新娘；即将（或刚刚）结婚的女子”（a woman on her wedding day, or just before or just after it）。
But the prosecutors leading the largest-ever college admissions prosecution have also alluded to other families, not named and not charged, who paid far more. One family paid Mr. Singer $6.5 million to get their child into college through the recruitment scheme, the prosecutors have said. Another was described in court documents as having paid Mr. Singer $1.2 million in connection with their daughter's application to Yale.
但是，负责这场有史以来规模最大的大学入学诉讼的检察官还提到其他家庭，他们支付的费用要高得多，这些家庭的姓名没有被透露，也没有受到指控。检方说，有一个家庭向辛格支付了650万美元，让他们的孩子通过运动员征募计划进入大学。法庭文件称，另一个家庭为其女申请耶鲁大学，向辛格支付了120万美元。
allude to
表示“间接提到；暗指；影射”，英文解释为“If you allude to something, you mention it in an indirect way.”举个🌰：
With friends, she sometimes alluded to a feeling that she herself was to blame for her son's predicament.
和朋友们一起时，她有时暗示她感到儿子的困境要怪她自己。
Prosecutors said that the daughter, whom they called Yale Applicant 1 in court documents, was admitted to Yale as a recruit for the women's soccer team, despite not being a competitive soccer player. According to documents charging Rudolph Meredith, the former women's soccer coach at Yale, Mr. Singer had paid Mr. Meredith a bribe to designate the young woman as a recruit for the team. Mr. Singer has pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges, and Mr. Meredith has pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges.
这名女生在法庭文件中被称为“耶鲁申请人1”，检察官说，她以该校女足队员的身份被耶鲁大学录取，尽管她不是有竞争力的足球运动员。指控耶鲁大学前女足教练鲁道夫·梅雷迪思(Rudolph Meredith)的文件显示，辛格曾向梅雷迪思行贿，让这位年轻女子成为球队的征募运动员。辛格对诈骗和其他指控认罪，梅雷迪思对造假和共谋指控认罪。
plead
表示“（在法庭）申辩，认罪，辩护”，英文解释为“to state in court that you are guilty or not guilty of a crime”，如：to plead guilty/not guilty即表示“认罪/不认罪”，举个🌰：
How do you plead? (= said by the judge at the start of the trial)
你有何辩护？
racketeering
表示“诈骗；非法获取钱财”，英文解释为“when someone earns money through crime and illegal activities”举个🌰：
He has been arrested on racketeering charges.
他因被控诈骗而遭逮捕。
conspiracy
表示“合谋，密谋，共谋”，英文解释为“Conspiracy is secret planning by a group of people to do something illegal.”
On Friday, Yale Applicant 1 was finally identified: She is Sherry Guo, a young woman from China who moved to Southern California for high school, and who was a freshman at Yale until last month, according to her lawyer, James Spertus.
上周五，“耶鲁申请人1”的身份终于确定，她的律师詹姆斯·斯珀特斯(James Spertus)表示，这名叫雪莉·郭(Sherry Guo)的年轻女子从中国来到南加州上高中，直到上个月还是耶鲁的一年级新生。
Ms. Guo’s identity was first reported on Friday by The Wall Street Journal.
雪莉·郭的身份由《华尔街日报》于上周五首次报道。
A spokeswoman for the United States attorney's office in Boston, Christina Sterling, declined to comment on Ms. Guo’s case. Asked why Ms. Guo and her parents — as well as the still unidentified family that was said to have paid Mr. Singer $6.5 million — have not been charged in the case, she said, “I cannot comment other than to say it is an ongoing investigation.”
波士顿联邦检察官办公室发言人克里斯蒂娜·斯特林(Christina Sterling)拒绝就雪莉·郭的案件置评。当被问及雪莉·郭和她的父母，以及那个据称向辛格支付了650万美元的身份不明家庭为何没有受到指控时，她说，“我只能说，调查正在进行中。”
LR注：上文提及的身份不明家庭，于近日被媒体曝出，为步长制药公司董事长的女儿，花费650万美元得以进入斯坦福大学。
According to the charges against Mr. Meredith, Ms. Guo and her family were introduced to Mr. Singer in 2017 by a financial adviser based in Los Angeles. An employee of the financial adviser sent Mr. Singer an email “stating that Yale Applicant 1's father wished to make a ‘donation’ to ‘one of those top schools for his daughter's ‘application,’” the charging documents said.
根据对梅雷迪思的指控，雪莉·郭及家人是在2017年由一名洛杉矶财务顾问介绍给辛格的。指控文件称，该财务顾问的一名员工给辛格发了一封电子邮件，“称耶鲁申请人1的父亲希望向一所顶级学校‘捐款’，为女儿的‘申请’作准备”。
Mr. Singer promptly sent Ms. Guo's résumé and personal statement to Mr. Meredith, the soccer coach, according to the charging documents. Her personal statement contained links to her art portfolio; Mr. Singer told Mr. Meredith he would “revise” the materials to “soccer.” A few days later, he sent Mr. Meredith an athletic profile that falsely described Ms. Guo as the co-captain of a prominent club soccer team in Southern California. Mr. Meredith then designated her as a recruit for the soccer team.
起诉书显示，辛格迅速将雪莉·郭的简历和个人陈述发给了足球教练梅雷迪思。她的个人陈述中有她艺术作品集的链接；辛格对梅雷迪思说，他会把这些材料“修改”成“足球”。几天后，他给梅雷迪思发了一份运动员简历，虚假地将雪莉·郭描述为南加州一支知名俱乐部足球队的联合队长。梅雷迪思随后指定她为足球队的招募运动员。
portfolio
portfolio /pɔːtˈfəʊliəʊ/ 这个词又又又出现了，这次又是新的含义，此处表示“（艺术家、摄影师等的）作品选集”（a set of pictures or other pieces of work that an artist, photographer etc has done）。
在约会应用企业Match Group开拓亚洲市场一文中：In particular, several directors for individual brands in Asia will now become general managers across all the Match apps, in a move that will cement the company's portfolio of apps further together, for example.
表示“（公司或机构提供的）系列产品，系列服务”，英文解释为“the range of products or services offered by a particular company or organization”，如：a portfolio of wines 系列葡萄酒。
昨天的88岁股神巴菲特日喝5罐可乐一文中：Even though Apple stock is a major part of Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio, Buffett still uses a flip phone that he showed off on CNN.
表示“（某人或某公司持有的）有价证券组合，投资组合”（a group of stock s owned by a particular person or compan），如：an investment portfolio 投资组合。
此外，portfolio还有多个不同含义：
1) 表示“公事包，文件夹；画夹”（a large flat case used especially for carrying pictures, documents etc）
2) 表示“部长（大臣）的职责”（the work that a particular government official is responsible for），如：the foreign affairs portfolio 外交部长职责。
According to the charging documents, Mr. Singer mailed Mr. Meredith a check for $400,000 in 2018, and later that year, Ms. Guo's relatives paid Mr. Singer $1.2 million in several installments, $900,000 of which was sent to a nonprofit foundation Mr. Singer had set up, and which prosecutors argue was used to hide much of Mr. Singer's and his clients' illicit activity.
根据指控文件，2018年，辛格寄给梅雷迪思一张40万美元的支票，同年晚些时候，雪莉·郭的家人以分期付款向辛格支付120万美元，其中90万美元被送到辛格建立的一个非营利基金，检察官认为该基金是用来隐藏辛格及其客户的大部分非法活动。
instalment/installment
表示“（分期付款中的）一期付款”，英文解释为“one of a series of regular payments that you make until you have paid all the money you owe”举个🌰：
We paid for the car by/in instalments.
我们以分期付款买了这辆车。
Mr. Spertus said that Ms. Guo and her parents did not know that the payment was going toward a bribe. Her parents did not speak English and were not in direct contact with Mr. Singer, he said, while Ms. Guo herself was naïve about how the college admissions process worked in the United States. (Mr. Spertus would not identify Ms. Guo's parents.)
斯珀特斯说，雪莉·郭和她的父母并不知道这笔钱是用于贿赂。他说，她的父母不会说英语，也没有与辛格直接接触，而雪莉·郭本人对美国的大学招生过程也毫无了解。（斯珀图斯不愿透露雪莉·郭父母的身份。）
Ms. Guo wanted to go to Columbia University or Oxford, Mr. Spertus said, but Mr. Singer told her to apply to Yale, and that she would be guaranteed to get in. While that might have seemed strange to a student who grew up in the United States, he said, Ms. Guo did not expect to have much choice about where to go to college.
斯珀特斯说，雪莉·郭本来想上哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)或牛津大学(Oxford)，但辛格让她申请耶鲁大学，并保证她能被录取。他说，对于一个在美国长大的学生来说，这可能听上去很奇怪，但雪莉·郭没想过在去哪所大学的问题上能有多少选择。
“She wasn't working with Singer to find the best school for her,” he said. “She is now devastated because she is no longer in college, period.” Yale has said that it rescinded the admission of one student in connection with the case, but has not identified the student.
“她没有和辛格合作，为自己寻找最好的学校，”他说。“她现在很崩溃，因为她不能上大学了，就这样。”耶鲁表示，已经撤销了与此案有关的一名学生的入学资格，但没有透露其身份。
period.
表示“就这样了，就这样定了！（用于表示已作出决定，不想再讨论某话题）”，英文解释为“used to emphasize that you have made a decision and that you do not want to discuss the subject any more”，举个🌰：
I'm not going, period!
我不去，就这样了！
rescind
表示“废除；取消；撤销”，英文解释为“If a government or a group of people in power rescind a law or agreement, they officially withdraw it and state that it is no longer valid.”
He said that Ms. Guo was not copied on either of the emails that Mr. Singer sent to Mr. Meredith suggesting that her college credentials be falsified to say she played soccer.
他说，辛格给梅雷迪思发的两封电邮都没有抄送雪莉·郭本人，邮件可以看出她的入学申请在她踢足球这件事上作了假。
Mr. Spertus said the large size of the payment suggested that Mr. Singer was exploiting Ms. Guo's family and their lack of knowledge about the college process.
斯珀特斯说，这笔款项数额之巨，表明辛格在利用郭的家人对大学录取过程的无知漫天要价。
exploit
表示“利用；剥削；压榨”，英文解释为“If you say that someone is exploiting you, you think that they are treating you unfairly by using your work or ideas and giving you very little in return.”
“The amount alone shows that he was preying on the Chinese community,” he said. “The donation was made to help underprivileged youth. They were not aware that the money went to Meredith. They did not know that he was going to use that money for a bribe. There is no evidence of that whatsoever.”
“单从这个金额就可以看出，他是在掠夺华人社区，”他说。“这笔捐款本意是为了帮助贫困青年。他们不知道钱被梅雷迪思拿走了。他们不知道他要用这笔钱行贿。总之一切都是没有证据的。”
prey
本义指“捕食”（A creature that preys on other creatures lives by catching and eating them.），此处表示“坑害，试图欺骗/伤害（弱者）”，英文解释为“If someone preys on other people, especially people who are unable to protect themselves, they take advantage of them or harm them in some way.”举个🌰：
He had never learned that there were men who preyed on young runaways.
他从未了解到有些人专门坑害那些年轻的离家出走者。
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