參考譯文

　　In China, primary and secondary education takes 12 years to complete, divided into primary, junior secondary and senior secondary stages. Primary education lasts either five or six years. At junior secondary stage, most have three-year schooling with any part of four-year. Almost 98 percent of students are enrolled in the former schools. The nine-year schooling in primary and junior secondary schools belongs to compulsory education. General senior secondary education lasts for three years. Throughout the whole process of compulsory education, students are required to take final examinations at the end of each semester.

　　難點注釋

　　1.第一句句子結構較為復雜，翻譯時首先理清句子主干，然后補充修飾成分。句子主干為：中小學教育需要花費l2年的時間來完成。“在中國”為地點狀語，“分為小學……階段”為伴隨狀語。“花費……時問”用take…to…表達，“分為”暗含被動含義，故用過去分詞divided into.表被動。

　　2.第二句中的“持續”可譯為last for。“或”可以用固定短語either…or…表示。

　　3.第三句中“極少數”譯為with a tiny part of;為了避免重復，后面的一個分句省略了動詞have，直接用with短語表伴隨。

　　4.第四句中，“入學”可以譯為be enrolled in。

　　5.第五句中，“9年教育”譯為The nine-year schooling;“屬于”可以用固定搭配belong to來表達;“義務教育”譯為compulsory education。