Some students who took the International English Language Testing System exam in August and September have had their results "withheld¹ permanently²", sending a strong signal that the examiners intend to stamp out cheating, some senior language tutors said.

部分在8、9月份参加了雅思考试的考生发现他们的考试成绩“永久不被公布”，一些高级语言教师称，此事传达出一个强烈的信号：考官意在严禁作弊现象。

Yang Yuting, chief language training tutor at Amber³ Education, an overseas studies consulting agency, said there have been a few cases in which candidates' IELTS results were canceled in recent years.

琥珀教育——一所留学咨询机构的首席语言培训教师杨宇廷称，近些年曾有过一些雅思考生成绩被取消的情况。

But this is the first time he has heard that results, including those of some of his students, were "withheld permanently", meaning IELTS will not give the students their results, nor will they give them to others.

但这是他第一次听说考生成绩“永久不被公布”，这些考生中也包括他的一些学生，这意味着雅思官方不会将考试成绩告知考生，也不会将其告知其他人。

"This may reflect the IELTS authorities' resolution to stamp out rule-breaching actions like memorizing questions and reciting essays," Yang said.

“这大概反映了雅思当局禁止违规行为的决心——比如背问题和作文的行为，”杨老师说。

Wang Xin, a senior student at the Communication University of China in Beijing, took an IELTS test on Aug 1 and the results were due within 10 working days. But she was then notified that her results were undergoing routine checks.

中国传媒大学的大四学生王欣于8月1日参加了雅思考试，其成绩本该在10个工作日之内就出来的。但之后她却收到通知，说她的成绩正在被例行检查。

Soon after that, she received an e-mail informing her that "a decision has been made to withhold⁴ this result permanently" and alleging⁵ that Wang had "breached⁶ IELTS test rules and regulations", without elaborating which rules Wang allegedly had violated.

此后不久，她便收到一封电子邮件，通知她“雅思官方决定永久不公布此次考试成绩”，并声称王欣“违反了雅思考试的规章制度”，却没有详细说明她违反了哪条规章制度。

A number of students who took the test during the past two months in cities that include Nanjing, Changsha and Guangzhou, have had the same experience. Many test takers said they were confused because they didn't know how they had breached the rules and regulations.

在过去两个月里参加过考试的许多学生都有相同遭遇，这其中包括南京、长沙、广州等城市的学生。许多学生说他们很是疑惑，因为他们并不知道自己究竟是怎样违反规章制度的。

IELTS authorities said in an e-mail to China Daily that IELTS takes the responsibility of providing test results very seriously. Results are only withheld in cases where there is strong evidence to suggest that the candidates have not complied with IELTS regulations.

雅思官方在其发给《中国日报》的一封电子邮件中称，对于履行提供考试成绩这份职责，雅思十分慎重。只有在一种情况下，考试成绩才不会被公布——有强有力的证据表明考生没有遵守雅思考试的规定。

"In these cases, we are unable to guarantee that their result is a true reflection of their English language skills," they said in the e-mail, although they gave no figures of how many students were involved.

“在这些情况下，我们不能保证考试成绩是考生英语能力的真实反映，”雅思官方在邮件中这样表示，尽管他们并没有给出此次举动所涉及的考生数量。

"We regret any inconvenience this may cause, but these measures are essential to protect the value of the results for more than 2.5 million test takers every year. Hundreds of thousands of people take IELTS in China every year and the number of results which are permanently withheld is a tiny proportion," they said.

“对于此举所造成的不便我们感到十分抱歉，但对保护每年250多万名考生成绩的价值，这些措施至关重要。在中国，每年有成千上万的考生参加雅思考试，成绩永久不被公布的考生只占极小比例，”雅思官方称。

Hu Min, president of New Channel International Education Group, an English-language tutorial agency in China, said a major cause of results being withheld might be an extreme imbalance in performance levels in the four sections of the test.

新航道国际教育集团——中国一家英语辅导机构的董事长胡敏称，成绩不被公布的主要原因，可能是考生在四部分测试内容中所表现出来的水平极度不平衡。

"For example, if a student scores very high in the reading and listening sections while performing poorly in writing and speaking, IELTS authorities may suspect that the test taker has memorized the reading and listening questions－a practice that is very popular among Chinese test takers," he said.

“比如说，如果一个学生在阅读和听力部分得分很高，却在写作和口语部分表现极差的话，雅思官方可能会怀疑考生已经提前背过了阅读和听力的问题——这在中国考生中是极为常见的一种做法，”胡敏称。

"IELTS authorities discourage such a practice and would determine that the scores can't reflect the real English level if test takers do so."

“雅思官方并不鼓励此种做法，并且其坚决认为，若是考生这样做的话，分数是不能够反映其真实英语水平的。”