美國在奧數比賽中擊敗中國獲得冠軍
Team USA won the first place at this year’s International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, reclaiming the crown after 21 years.
美國隊在泰國清邁舉行的本年度國際數學奧林匹克競賽（奧數）上獲得第一名，這是美國隊21年來首次重獲此項殊榮。The six US high school students defeated teams from 103 countries, including its strongest rival, China, which has won 14 times over the past 20 years.
由6名美國高中生組成的隊伍擊敗了來自世界其他103個國家的隊伍，其中還包括美國最大的競爭對手中國隊，中國隊曾在過去的20年中14次包攬冠軍。Po-Shen Loh, head coach of team USA, said technology has done the US its biggest favor.
美國隊領隊Po-Shen Loh稱，科技給美國隊帶來了巨大的幫助。
"Something has changed very much in the last 10 years that may be contributing to the USA ultimately winning this year," said Loh. "Now there is everything you might ever need to learn for free on the Internet."
Loh介紹道：“過去10年間發生了很多變化，也促成了今年美國隊最終奪冠的局面。互聯網可以讓人免費學到任何需要的東西。”?"China and the US are very much ahead of the rest of the countries, which means our performance was not bad," said Chinese team coach Li Qiusheng. "Although four points behind the US, China was 20 points ahead of third-place Korea."
“中國隊和美國隊都遙遙領先於其他國家，這說明我們的表現也不錯，”中國隊教練Li Qiusheng?稱：“雖然落後美國隊4分，但是中國隊卻比第二名朝向對多出20分。”"During recent years, the differences between the strong countries are getting smaller," Li said. "As in international basketball, the American team used to be the winner all the time. But now other countries are catching up, and sometimes beating the US. This doesn’t mean US basketball is declining, rather other countries are getting better. I think we can view math competitions the same way."
“近幾年來，強隊之間的差距正在減小，”Li說：“就像國際籃球比賽，美國隊在過去是奪冠常客，但現在別的國家正在追趕，有時還能擊敗美國隊，這並不能說明美國的籃球在衰敗，而是別的國家正在變得更好。我認爲我們也可以用這個來比喻奧數競賽。”Unlike regular classroom math problems, competition math goes beyond plugging numbers into formulas. Instead, the questions focus on using what’s been learned in school to invent, combine and extend. Creativity is far more important than memorization.
同在課堂上的數學題不同，奧數競賽不僅僅是將數字填入方程式中，而是用學校裏學過的知識來進行創新、聯想和延伸。創新能力遠比記憶力更爲重要。"You never really know what challenge you will face until you open the test," said Zhuoquan "Alex" Song, a member of the Canadian team who was educated in the US and Canada and the only contestant to get a perfect score. It’s the hardest kind of competition to prepare for, he added.
“開始測試之前，你永遠也不知道要接受的挑戰是什麼。”加拿大隊員宋卓羣（Alex）介紹道，他同時接受了美國和加拿大的教育，是所有參賽選手中唯一一個獲得滿分的隊員，還稱這是最難準備的比賽了。Every year, six middle school students are picked from every country through months of exams.
每年，各個國家都會經過數月的考試選拔出6名中學生來參加這項賽事。
