难句译注

　　1. Educators are seriously concerned about the high rate of dropouts among the doctor of philosophy candidates and the consequent loss of talent to a nation in need of Ph. D. s.

　　【参考译文】教育工作者严重关注博士生辍学的高比率;这对迫切需要博士生的国家是一个人才方面的严重损失。

　　2. It was base on 22,000questionnaires sent to former graduate students who were enrolled in 24 universities and it seemed to show many past fears to be groundless.

　　【结构分析】sent过去分词，修饰questionnaires。Who定语从句修饰students。

　　【参考译文】这份全面调查报告是以22000份调查表分送给以前在24所大学就读的博士生为基础的。这份全面调查报告似乎说明过去许多担心害怕是没有根据的。

　　3. Attrition at the Ph. D. lever is also thought to be a waste of precious faculty time and a drain on university resources already being used to capacity.

　　【结构分析】被动句。To capacity满额，全力。

　　【参考译文】博士水平的人员的缩减被认为是宝贵的教授时间的浪费和已经被使用到极限的大学资源的枯竭。

　　4. This may also be an indication of the fact that top salaries in the academic fields, where Ph. D. ‘s tend to rise to the highest salaries, are still lagging behind other fields.

　　【结构分析】the fact的同位语that从句中的where是定语从句，修饰academic fields。

　　【参考译文】这也可能表明这样一个事实：在博士能挣到最高工资的学术领域中，高工资仍然落后于其它领域。

　　写作方法与文章大意

　　这是一篇论及“博士生辍学”的文章。采用对比和因果手法。文章一开始就提出教育工作者严重关注博士生辍学达50%的问题。而调查报告证明，只有31%。辍学造成不良后果，有人建议中途退学者回炉再念博士学位学业。研究表明不行。列出理由并加以分析。