自考综合英语二课文
全国高等教育自学考试指定教材
综合英语二(上下)
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徐克荣
外语教学与研究出版
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Lesson One
Twelve Things l Wish They Taught at School
Carl Sagan
俗话说:
“活到老,学到老。
”人的一生就是不断学习、不断丰富和充实自己的过程。青
少年阶段,
尤其是中学阶段,
无疑是学习的最佳时期。
中学教育的重点应放在什么地方?美
国著名科学家和科普作家萨根批评中学只抓各个学科具体内容的做法,
他认为中学要注重对
青少年的宏观教育,
使他们建立起唯物的世界观和宇宙观,
使他们能够正确对待自己,
关心
周围的世界——人类生存的环境和自己的地球同胞。
1 I attended junior and senior high school, public institutions in New York and New Jersey,
just after the Second World War. It seems a long time
ago.
The facilities and the skills of the
teachers
were
probably
well
above
average
for
the
United
States
at
that
time.
Since
then,
I've
learned a great deal. One of the most important things I've learned is how much there is to learn,
and how much I don't yet know. Sometimes I think how grateful I would be today if I had learned
more back then about what really matters. In some respects that education was terribly narrow; the
only thing I ever heard in school about Napoleon was that the United States made the Louisiana
Purchase from him. (On a planet where some 95% of the inhabitants are not Americans, the only
history
that
was
thought
worth
teaching
was
American
history.
)
In
spelling,
grammar,
the
fundamentals of math, and other vital subjects, my teachers did a pretty good job. But there's so
much else I wish they'd taught us.
2 Perhaps all the deficiencies have since been rectified. It seems to me there are many things
(often
more
a
matter
of
attitude
and
perception
than
the
simple
memorization
of
facts)
that
the
schools should teach
—
things that truly would be useful in later life, useful in making a stronger
country
and
a
better
world,
but
useful
also
in
making
people
happier.
Human
beings
enjoy
learning. That's one of the few things that we do better than the other species on our planet. Every
student
should
regularly
experience
the
"Aha!"
—
when
something
you
never
understood,
or
something you never knew was a mystery, becomes clear.
3 So here's my list:
Pick a difficult thing and learn it well.
4 The Greek philosopher Socrates said this was one of the greatest of human joys,and it is.
While you learn a little bit about many subjects, make sure you learn a great deal about one or two.
It
hardly
matters
what
the
subject
is,
as
long
as
it
deeply
interests
you,
and
you
place
it
in
its
broader human context. After you teach yourself one subject, you become much more confident