unit8 A 课文FABLE OF THE LAZY TEENAGER.doc

FABLE OF THE LAZY TEENAGER Benjamin Stein One day last fall, I ran out of file folders and went to the drugstore to buy more. I put a handful of folders on the counter and asked a teenage salesgirl how much they cost. “I dont know,” she answered. “But its 12 cents each. ” ???????I counted the folders. Twenty-three at 12 cents each, that makes $ 2.76 before tax,” I said. ???????“You did that in your head? she asked in amazement. “How can you do that?” ???????“ Its magic,” I said. ???????“Really? she asked. ???????No modestly educated adult can fail to be upset by such an experience. While our children seem better-natured than ever, they are so ignorant—and so ignorant of their ignorance—that they frighten me. In a class of 60 seniors at a private college where I recently taught, not one student could write a short paper without misspellings. Not one. ???????But this is just a tiny slice of the problem. The ability to perform even the simplest calculations is only a memory among many students I see, and their knowledge of world history or geography is nonexistent. ???????Moreover, there is a chilling indifference about all this ignorance. The attitude was summed up by a friend s bright, lazy 16-year-old son, who explained why he preferred not to go to U.C.L.A. I dont want to have to compete with Asians,” he said. “They work hard and know everything. ” ???????In fact, this young man will have to compete with Asians whether he wants to or not. He cannot live forever on the financial, material and human capital accumulated by his ancestors. At some point soon, his intellectual laziness will seriously affect his way of life. It will also affect the rest of us. A modern industrial state cannot function with an idle, ignorant labor force. Planes will crash. Computers will jam. Cars will break down. ???????To drive this message home to such young Americans, I have a humble suggestion: a movie, or TV series, dramatizing just how difficult it was for this country to g