為防作弊，全國(guó)斷網(wǎng)！

The Algerian government has taken a dramatic step to try and curb rampant exam cheating by repeatedly turning off the internet during the exam season.

為了遏制猖獗的考試作弊行為，阿爾及利亞政府采取了頗具魄力的對(duì)策：高考季全國(guó)斷網(wǎng)!

Yes, all of the internet. For everyone. For a period of six days.

是的，所有的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)。所有人。為期六天。

On Wednesday this week the plug was pulled for the first time as students started sitting down to their exam papers. Algerians can't get to their memes or cat videos for blocks of an hour at a time, designed to coincide with the beginning of exams.

上周三，當(dāng)學(xué)生們坐下來(lái)開(kāi)始答題時(shí)，某處開(kāi)關(guān)也被拉了下來(lái)。阿爾及利亞人發(fā)現(xiàn)每過(guò)一段時(shí)間就有一個(gè)小時(shí)無(wú)法上網(wǎng)摸魚(yú)或看貓咪視頻，這種間歇性的斷網(wǎng)是為了與全國(guó)高考各個(gè)科目的時(shí)間相同步。

It is of course a big step to take – but the country has a big problem with cheats. In 2016, some 300,000 students had to retake exams after papers were leaked early on the web and circulated around social media.

這當(dāng)然是教育改革邁出的一大步——這個(gè)國(guó)家存在著嚴(yán)重的學(xué)業(yè)欺詐問(wèn)題。2016年，網(wǎng)絡(luò)上流出了高考真題，在社交媒體推波助瀾之下沸沸揚(yáng)揚(yáng)，大約30萬(wàn)名學(xué)生不得不重新考試。

Last year attempts were made to restrict access to social media platforms, but ultimately those measures weren't effective enough – so this year the authorities are going all in. Both cell networks and broadband are getting switched off during the allotted periods.

去年，人們?cè)噲D在考試期間對(duì)社交平臺(tái)的訪問(wèn)進(jìn)行限制，但最終這些措施效果都不大理想，所以今年有關(guān)部門(mén)祭出殺招：無(wú)線和寬帶在考試時(shí)都會(huì)被關(guān)閉。

Education Minister Nouria Benghabrit said the government wasn't comfortable with the decision, but also added that "we should not passively stand in front of such a possible leak", as reported by the BBC.

教育部長(zhǎng)努里亞·班加布里特表示，政府對(duì)此決定并不滿意，但也補(bǔ)充說(shuō)，“我們不應(yīng)該總是被動(dòng)地亡羊補(bǔ)牢”，應(yīng)該采取主動(dòng)積極的措施。

As this Radio Algeria tweet shows, some days have as much as three hours of downtime, so people are going to have to schedule their Netflix binge watching carefully. Those blocks stretch across the first part of each high school exam period.

有些日子里有三門(mén)考試科目，所以當(dāng)?shù)厝瞬坏貌蛔屑?xì)安排他們的Netflix刷劇日程。

We're not sure exactly what's stopping someone from getting a paper in advance, printing it off and committing it to memory before the internet goes dark, but we're not about to ask – it sounds like the Algerian authorities are not to be messed with.

你看，既然有人神通廣大能提前拿到真題，那我們不確定究竟是什么阻止他在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)靜默開(kāi)始前就將其發(fā)送給買(mǎi)家客戶，但我們也不打算提問(wèn)，畢竟阿爾及利亞教育部門(mén)的決心可嘉，不應(yīng)該向他們潑冷水。

What the web blackouts will do is stop students using devices to look up answers in the exam hall. Phone jammers, surveillance cameras, and metal detectors have also been set up in more than 2,000 exam centres, CNN reports.

斷網(wǎng)至少可以阻止學(xué)生使用手機(jī)在考場(chǎng)中向外求助。美國(guó)有線電視新聞網(wǎng)報(bào)道，在2000多個(gè)考點(diǎn)，還設(shè)置了無(wú)線干擾器，監(jiān)視攝像機(jī)和金屬探測(cè)器。

"Securing the high-school exams is very important," Benghabrit told a news conference, reports the New York Times. "Our commitment to the principle of fairness and the principle of equal opportunity led us to take all kinds of measures and they include cutting off the internet."

班加布里特在新聞發(fā)布會(huì)上說(shuō)，“確保高中畢業(yè)考試的公平性非常重要，我們所珍視的公平原則和平等機(jī)會(huì)原則促使我們采取所有的必要措施，包括切斷互聯(lián)網(wǎng)。”

The baccalaureate exams under scrutiny are hugely important in helping Algerians land a good job after school, and so there's a lot of pressure to perform.

在阿爾及利亞，一份好大學(xué)的學(xué)位文憑，對(duì)畢業(yè)后找到好工作幫助極大，所以鋌而走險(xiǎn)的學(xué)生不少。

And you can partly blame our increasingly high-tech society for the rise in academic unscrupulousness: with so many tiny smart devices now available, getting anything from a leaked paper to a mind-bending audio illusion is easier than it's ever been.

你可以將學(xué)業(yè)上肆無(wú)忌憚的作弊歸咎于技術(shù)的進(jìn)步：隨著微型智能設(shè)備的出現(xiàn)，比起以前夾帶小抄，高科技的作弊手段防不勝防。

As you can imagine, many Algerians aren't best pleased.

你也可以想象，大多數(shù)阿爾及利亞人并不會(huì)覺(jué)得開(kāi)心。

"I have no idea why they need to be so aggressive," Lyès Rekkeb, who works at a web design agency, told Jon Henley at the Guardian.

“我不知道為什么他們需要如此激進(jìn)的手段，”在網(wǎng)頁(yè)設(shè)計(jì)公司工作的Lyès Rekkeb對(duì)衛(wèi)報(bào)說(shuō)。

"For me and lots of people like me, it's a huge inconvenience. I lose half a day's work. Why couldn't they just close down the mobile internet? There must be other solutions."

“對(duì)于我和很多像我這樣的人來(lái)說(shuō)，這也太不方便了，我失去了一半的工作時(shí)間，為什么他們不能只關(guān)閉移動(dòng)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)?肯定有其他更好的方法啊。”

At least it gives Algerians an excuse not to check their phones quite so often during the periods of downtime.

這么說(shuō)來(lái)，斷網(wǎng)也可以把人們從手機(jī)依賴中解救出來(lái)。

We'll have to wait and see whether these extreme measures help curb the cheating this exam season. In the meantime, check out Oracle's Internet Intelligence site, and you can see the spikes where Algeria gets cut off from the web at large.

讓我們拭目以待，看看這些極端措施是否有助于遏制考試的作弊行為。同時(shí)，查看Oracle的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)智能站點(diǎn)，你可以看到阿爾及利亞的斷網(wǎng)峰圖。