美式发音 适合泛听
When you read about outsourcing, you might think about tech support or a call center. Well, how about term papers? Paying a 1)ringer to do your homework may be nothing new, but web-based essay mills are globalizing the business of cheating, sending student requests for customized academic essays to the Philippines, India and Nigeria. These are originals so they can bypass most 2)plagiarism detectors, and the middlemen are almost impossible to find.
当你看到“外包”这个字眼时,你可能会想到技术支持或者呼叫中心。嗯,你想过论文外包吗?花钱找个“枪手”帮你做作业也许不是什么新鲜事儿,可通过互联网建立的论文工厂正在把作弊这门生意全球化,这些工厂会把学生要订做学术论文的要求发到菲律宾、印度和尼日利亚。这些论文都是原创的,所以它们可以通过大多数剽窃检测,而这门生意的中介几乎无迹可寻。
The Business 生意兴隆
Host: In the old days, you might find an essay mill in the backroom of the college bookstore or somewhere downtown, but this is a little different.
Tom Bartlett (Reporter): Exactly. So, this is all…this is all online. I mean, you were right. These aren’t anything new. But what’s new about them is how sophisticated they are and how global they have become, really.
Host: And you, in fact, went on one of these websites and looked at the inner workings. Tell us what you saw.
Tom: Well, I…I took a look at one particular essay mill. There are a bunch of them out there. And this particular company is…claims to be based in Virginia. It’s actually based in the Philippines. It’s run by people in the Ukraine, and most of its writers are in India and Pakistan. So, it’s a very global business. And each semester, they have thousands of students who put in orders for, as you said, custom essays. These are essays written…original essays, not essays from a database. These papers, in theory, are original ones. And so, there’s no sort of easy technological way to figure out the students are cheating.
Host: And one of the examples you gave was a student who wanted a 3)dissertation for a course on aerospace engineering at MIT.
Tom: Exactly. When people think of essay mills, I think they just think of, you know, freshmen who are struggling to write that paper on Emily Dickinson or whatever…and so, I mean, that’s cheating too. But I mean, I also saw lots of graduate students, students who are, you know, would be aerospace engineers, students who are going to be nurses, and law students. I mean, really, kind of across the board. And, that was a little…a little surprising and, I think, concerning.
Host: And the cost of these?
Tom: It ranges. You can pay $10 or $15 a page, or $50 or $60 a page. If you pay at that top level, you’re going to get a better paper, as you might expect. So, I mean, there are students out there willing to shell out hundreds of dollars for papers.
主持人:过去,你可能会在大学书店后面的小房间里,或者在市中心的某个角落找到论文工厂,可现在情况就大不相同了。
汤姆·巴特利特(记者):对。这些都是在线服务。我的意思是说,你说得没错,这种现象并不是什么新鲜事,但与过去不同的是,现在这种做法的运作已经变得很成熟,而且非常全球化,真的。
主持人:实际上,你上过这些网站的其中一个,研究了它们的内部运作。告诉我们你都发现了些什么。
汤姆:呃,我……我研究了其中的一个论文工厂网站。其实网上有很多类似的网站。这个公司呢……它声称总部在美国的弗吉尼亚州,实际上它在菲律宾,而它的运作则由乌克兰人操纵,公司的大部分写手则来自印度和巴基斯坦。所以说这是一个非常全球化的公司。每一个学期,他们会收到数以千计的学生发来的订单,就像你说的那样,要订做论文。这些都是原创论文,而不是从论文数据库里拿来的。这些论文从理论上说都是原创论文。因此,没有什么技术手段可以轻易地查出学生是在作弊。
主持人:你举的其中一个例子是一名麻省理工学院的学生想要一篇关于航空和航天工程方面的博士学位论文。
汤姆:没错。当人们提起论文工厂时,我想他们可能只会想到,你也知道,就是为写一篇关于埃米莉·迪更生或者其他内容的论文而苦思冥想的一年级新生……当然,那也是作弊。但我想说的是,我还看到很多研究生,你知道吧,那些将成为航天航空工程师、成为护士和律师的研究生也在这样做。真的,购买论文的学生涉及各个学科和年级,我觉得这真有点让人吃惊,同时也让人担忧。
主持人:这些论文的价格如何?
汤姆:价格并不固定。每一页你可能需要支付10或15美元,也可能是50或60美元。如果你付那么高的价钱,那你也能估计到你会收到一篇不错的论文。也就是说,有些学生愿意花数百元来买论文。
The Buyers and the Sellers 买卖双方
Host: And the question of conscience, you raise that not only with the people who write these for a living and they all seem to say uniformly, “Well, I did it because I needed the money.” And also, with the people who bought them who said, “Well, you know, it’s just for some initial ideas, for some initial research. I didn’t actually turn these in.”
Tom: That’s right. The students I talked to, some said that they regretted using the service. They felt bad about it. They said this was the only time. Others were…weren’t sure that they’d really done anything…anything wrong.
Host: And let’s go now to Bob. Bob’s with us from Wilmington, Delaware.
Bob: Yeah, I was a writer, about mid to late ’80s in high school—this was before the, you know, the current 4)entrepreneurial set up was going. And I just sort of did it freelance on my own.
Host: And how much did you make?
Bob: I would charge about 10 bucks an hour. And I would only write if somebody had something they needed to write about—if it was of interest to me, I would write about it. If it was something boring, I wouldn’t bother to take the money. And I always…I guaranteed an A and always got it, too.
Host: And always got an A.
Bob: Yeah. I mean, there were other kids around there were other kids, you know, selling drugs or something, you know, nastier. And I was just selling parts of my brain, I guess.
Host: Well, some might call it selling intellectual corruption.
Bob: That’s...that’s true, too.
Tom: Do you feel at all guilty about it, Bob?
Bob: No. Not necessarily. I wasn’t helping anybody to become an airline pilot or a doctor or anything. This was high school. So I guess I rationalize it that way. I don’t say it was the right or good thing to do, but…
Host: It’s not on your resume, let’s put it that way.
Bob: No.
Host: (To Tom) It should be pointed out that you interviewed some people who’s…some people who monitor these sites who say, look, some students order their copy of the paper or their assignment on the day they get the assignment. It’s not like they’re just struggling with this.
Tom: Yeah. I think that’s true. I mean, there are some people who are repeat customers, who are going time and again. I’ve certainly seen notes on these websites from people saying, I want a writer throughout my entire degree program.
Host: Tom, thanks very much.
Tom: Thank you.
主持人:至于良心问题嘛,你提到不仅是那些写论文赚钱的人,他们似乎都异口同声地说:“嗯,因为我需要钱,所以我才会那么做。”而且那些掏钱买论文的人,他们会说:“你也知道,我只不过找一些初步的想法,找人做一些开始阶段的研究,我不会真的把这篇论文交上去的。”
汤姆:没错。我采访的那些学生,有些说他们对购买论文的事很后悔,觉得不安。他们都说只干过这回。另外一些学生还不太肯定自己这么做是不是错的。
主持人:我们现在把时间交给鲍勃,他是从特拉华州的威尔明顿通过电话参与我们的节目的。
鲍勃:对,我在上世纪80年代中后期上中学的时候是一名写手,你也知道,这是在目前把论文买卖当成一个大生意之前的事。当时我只不过是自己做。
主持人:你从中赚多少钱呢?
鲍勃:我的价格是一小时大约十美元。如果有人想写的内容是我感兴趣的,我就会写。如果内容是很闷的,我就不会为赚这个钱费心。我总是……我保证我写的论文能得“A”,而且每次都做到了。
主持人:你的论文总能得“A”。
鲍勃:是。我是说,我身边有其他学生,你也知道,其他人从事贩卖毒品等其他更见不得人的事。我嘛,只不过是出卖我的脑力而已。我觉得可以这么说吧。
主持人:嗯,有人称之为贩卖学术腐败。
鲍勃:那也对。
汤姆:鲍勃,你对这事有丝毫的愧疚感吗?
鲍勃:没有。这没有必要。我并不是在帮某人成为飞行员,或者医生等诸如此类的职业。这只不过是中学而已。我想我可以这样自我辩解。我不会说这事儿是该做的或者是好事,但……
主持人:那我们这么说吧,你不会把它放到你的履历上。
鲍勃:不会。
主持人:(对汤姆)有必要指出的是,你采访了一些密切关注这些网站的人。他们说,你瞧,有些学生在老师布置作业的当天就下了订单。这表明他们并没有真的碰到什么难处。
汤姆:对。我觉得这种说法是对的。我是说,有些学生是回头客,他们买论文不是一两回了。我确实从这些网站上看到有人说:我要找一个写手,帮我做整个学位课程的作业。
主持人:非常感谢你,汤姆。
汤姆:谢谢。
翻译:丁一
