高考是什么？
What is the gaokao?
Name: ________________ Date: ________
每年六月初，中国的很多城市都会突然安静下来。考场附近的工地停止施工，汽车经过学校门口不能鸣笛，警察在考场周围维持秩序。考场外面，一些妈妈特意穿上了红色的旗袍，因为“旗袍”的“旗”让人想到一个吉利的成语：旗开得胜。近两年，有的手机软件在考试期间甚至会暂停拍照解题的功能。这一切，都是为了同一场考试：高考。
高考的全名是“普通高等学校招生全国统一考试”，简单地说，它是中国的大学入学考试。它从每年的6月7日开始，根据省份不同，一般考两到四天。语文、数学和外语是每个考生都必须考的科目，其他科目可以按自己的兴趣和特长来选。在大多数地方，总分是750分。大学几乎只看这一次的成绩来录取学生，所以人们常说，高考就像“千军万马过独木桥”。
这座独木桥上的人有多少？2026年，报名参加高考的考生有一千二百九十万，比不少国家的总人口还多。为了公平，考试管理得极其严格。考生不能带手机进考场，有的考场还用无人机检查作弊信号。从2015年起，在高考中组织作弊属于犯罪，最严重的可以被判处七年有期徒刑。
高考也有过中断的历史。1966年，高考被取消，整整十一年没有举行。1977年冬天，高考终于恢复了。那一年，五百七十多万人走进了考场，录取的只有百分之五左右。考生里，有刚毕业的中学生，也有已经在农村劳动了好几年的年轻人；后来考上大学的人当中，年纪最小的只有十五岁，最大的已经三十多岁了。对他们来说，这场考试真正地改变了命运。
今天，批评高考的声音也不少：有人觉得一次考试决定不了一个人的未来，有人心疼孩子们为了分数熬夜刷题。可是对很多普通家庭来说，高考仍然是最公平的一条路。所以每年六月，考场的铃声一响，整个国家都会屏住呼吸。
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 停止 | tíngzhǐ | to stop; to halt; to cease |
| 维持 | wéichí | to maintain; to keep; to preserve |
| 软件 | ruǎnjiàn | software |
| 期间 | qījiān | period; time; during |
| 功能 | gōngnéng | function; feature; capability |
| 同一 | tóngyì | same; identical |
| 统一 | tǒngyì | unified; uniform; to unify; to unite |
| 省份 | shěngfèn | province |
| 语文 | yǔwén | Chinese (as a school subject) |
| 录取 | lùqǔ | to admit (students); to enroll; to recruit |
| 公平 | gōngpíng | fair; impartial; fairness |
| 极其 | jíqí | extremely; exceedingly |
English (for the teacher)
Every year in early June, many Chinese cities suddenly go quiet. Building sites near exam halls stop work, cars passing school gates may not sound their horns, and police keep order around the exam sites. Outside the halls, some mothers make a point of wearing a red qipao, because the 旗 in 旗袍 calls to mind a lucky idiom: 旗开得胜, “victory as soon as the banner is raised”. In the last couple of years some phone apps have even switched off their snap-a-photo homework solvers during the exam. All of this is for one single exam: the gaokao.
The gaokao's full name is the National Unified Examination for Admission to Regular Institutions of Higher Education; put simply, it is China's university entrance exam. It starts on 7 June every year and usually lasts two to four days, depending on the province. Chinese, maths and a foreign language are compulsory for every candidate, and the other subjects can be chosen to suit one's interests and strengths. In most places the total score is 750. Universities admit students almost entirely on the results of this one exam, which is why people often say the gaokao is like “ten thousand horsemen crossing a single-log bridge”.
So how many people are on this bridge? In 2026, 12.9 million candidates registered for the gaokao, more than the whole population of many countries. To keep it fair, the exam is run extremely strictly. Candidates may not take phones into the hall, and some sites even use drones to detect cheating signals. Since 2015, organising cheating in the gaokao has been a crime, punishable in the worst cases by seven years in prison.
The gaokao has also had a break in its history. In 1966 it was cancelled, and for eleven whole years it was not held. In the winter of 1977 the gaokao was finally restored. That year more than 5.7 million people walked into the exam halls, and only about five percent were admitted. Among the candidates were school-leavers fresh out of secondary school and young people who had already spent years working in the countryside; of those who got into university, the youngest was only fifteen and the oldest already in their thirties. For them, this exam truly changed their fate.
Today there is plenty of criticism of the gaokao too: some feel one exam can't decide a person's future, and some feel for the children staying up late drilling practice questions for the sake of a score. But for many ordinary families, the gaokao is still the fairest road there is. So every June, the moment the bell rings in the exam halls, the whole country holds its breath.