热点英语新闻7：央视曝光山寨叶圣陶杯比赛，称万元可保省级奖

phoney
n. 骗子；假货
adj. 假的；伪造的
A fraudulent person or thing. Not genuine; fraudulent.

phoniness n. 虚假

词组
phoney claims 虚假主张
phoney check 假票据

例句
He’s a phoney, a fake.  
他是个伪君子、骗子。

She spoke with a phoney Russian accent.  
她用一种伪装的俄国腔调说话。


cahoot
n. 同伙，合谋
A group of people working together (usually for an illicit purpose)

词组
in cahoots with 与…同伙

例句
Some people believe that the company directors are in cahoots with the government.
有些人认为公司的董事们与政府勾结。


dodgy
adj. 狡猾的；善于骗人的；冒险的
Dishonest or unreliable. Potentially dangerous.

doggy adj. 与狗有关的
dodge n.&v. 闪躲, 躲避

词组
dodgy dealing 狡猾的勾当
dodgy situation 棘手的情况

例句
I don't want to get involved in anything dodgy.
我不想牵连进任何欺骗勾当。

He made a lot of money, using some very dodgy methods.
他采用极其狡诈的手段赚了许多钱。

In a China there is a very well-respected national competition called the “Ye Shengtao Cup”.  It's been running for 18 years and is named after the Chinese intellectual Ye Shengtao. He is famous for founding the Association for Literary Studies in 1921. He later went on to serve as a vice minister of culture.

However, it's only recently come to light that the prize’s Beijing division actually has nothing to do with the real nationwide contest. To put it differently, the prize in the Chinese capital city was not organized by the true Ye Shengtao Cup but just a local company.

And how was the fake YeShengtao getting away with this?

Well, several training schools had introduced students to the phoney competition. And, these kids were made to believe that they were participating in a national middle school composition competition which had been authorized by the Ministry of Education.

In reality, a company called Beijing Shengtao Wenrun Education and Culture Co. Ltd. was running the scam. It seems that this company had to have been in cahoots with the training schools for roughly five years. But it gets worse. The shady competition was also out to make a quick buck.

What do you mean?

Well, an investigation by state broadcaster CCTV found that the parents of participants in the Beijing contest had been given the chance to pay for prizes. For instance, in order to secure the first prize for their offspring, parents had to pay 15,000 yuan or about $2,300. And this serves as an indicator of just how desperate some in the country are to secure resume-enhancing prizes. Meanwhile, the organisers of the real Ye Shengtao Cup say that the real competition has no participation fee, and it also does not conduct paid training classes or marketing activities.

But that’s not the only dodgy dealing of this fake Beijing contest. Parents were also told that if they paid a fee, their kids could then get better scores at the training schools where they were enrolled or registered.

Alright, Nandini, I know this story has been creating quite a stir on social media, so what’s been the online reaction?

Well, a number of Chinese social media users say this all reflects on the high demand for manufactured awards. And as much as the con of the “money prize” was called out, there was also general ridicule of the investigation on China’s twitter-like Weibo platform. In fact, many people online joked that they themselves had won the prize, with one user saying they think their entire class scored an award at the competition.

Another former student used very flowery, some might say prize-winning, writing skills to reveal that quote “The only prize I received in middle school was third prize in the Ye Shengtao Cup, and now they say it’s fake” endquote.