Shanghai's primary school students will have thinner textbooks from this semester as part of the effort to reduce their academic burden.
The revised Chinese textbooks for first-graders have deleted all eight classical Chinese poems that were in the previous version. The vocabulary requirement has also been lowered.
Shanghai education authorities said the move will give students more time to consolidate other knowledge and let them study and learn subjects that interest them.
为努力减轻学生学业负担，从这个新学期开始，上海小学生拿到的课本变薄了。
经修订的一年级《语文》课本删去了前一版中所有的8首古诗;对词汇量的要求也已降低。
上海市教育部门表示，此举将使学生拥有更多时间来巩固其他知识，让他们研究和学习自己感兴趣的科目。
【讲解】
文中的classical Chinese poems就是“古诗”的意思，其中poem是一个名词，解释为“诗”。“作诗”可以译成compose a poem或write a poem。从poem这个词可以派生出名词poet(诗人)、名词poetry(诗集)和形容词poetic(诗歌的)。poem是可数名词，指一首诗;而poetry是对诗的总称，是不可数名词。
樱花落雨
