為防作弊，全國斷網(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策：高考季全國斷網(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，當學生們坐下來開始答題時，某處開關(guān)也被拉了下來。阿爾及利亞人發(fā)現(xiàn)每過一段時間就有一個小時無法上網(wǎng)摸魚或看貓咪視頻，這種間歇性的斷網(wǎng)是為了與全國高考各個科目的時間相同步。

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.

這當然是教育改革邁出的一大步——這個國家存在著嚴重的學業(yè)欺詐問題。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揚，大約30萬名學生不得不重新考試。

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，人們試圖在考試期間對社交平臺的訪問進行限制，但最終這些措施效果都不大理想，所以今年有關(guān)部門祭出殺招：無線和寬帶在考試時都會被關(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.

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

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.

有些日子里有三門考試科目，所以當?shù)厝瞬坏貌蛔屑毎才潘麄兊腘etflix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)靜默開始前就將其發(fā)送給買家客戶，但我們也不打算提問，畢竟阿爾及利亞教育部門的決心可嘉，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)至少可以阻止學生使用手機在考場中向外求助。美國有線電視新聞網(wǎng)報道，在2000多個考點，還設(shè)置了無線干擾器，監(jiān)視攝像機和金屬探測器。

"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)布會上說，“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會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，一份好大學的學位文憑，對畢業(yè)后找到好工作幫助極大，所以鋌而走險的學生不少。

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.

你可以將學業(yè)上肆無忌憚的作弊歸咎于技術(shù)的進步：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覺得開心。

"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的手段，”在網(wǎng)頁設(shè)計公司工作的Lyès Rekkeb對衛(wèi)報說。

"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."

“對于我和很多像我這樣的人來說，這也太不方便了，我失去了一半的工作時間，為什么他們不能只關(guān)閉移動互聯(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.

這么說來，斷網(wǎng)也可以把人們從手機依賴中解救出來。

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，查看Oracle的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)智能站點，你可以看到阿爾及利亞的斷網(wǎng)峰圖。