2004年Text 4

Americans today don‘t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education--not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren't difficult to find.

"Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual," says education writer Diane Ravitch. "Schools could be a counterbalance." Razitch‘s latest bock, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits.

But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, "We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society."

"Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege," writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-Intellectualism in American life, a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book.

Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children: "We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing." Mark Twain‘s Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized--going to school and learning to read--so he can preserve his innate goodness.

Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines.

School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country‘s educational system is in the grips of people who "joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise."

56. What do American parents expect their children to acquire in school?
[A] The habit of thinking independently.
[B] Profound knowledge of the world.
[C] Practical abilities for future career.
[D] The confidence in intellectual pursuits.

[答案] C

[解題思路]

本題的對應(yīng)信息為文章第一段第三句話"Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education--not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge"（學(xué)校也只不過是我們把孩子送去獲得實用教育--而不是為了知識而追求知識的地方），因此C選項與此正好吻合，而其他三項看似有道理，卻與文章的內(nèi)容沒有關(guān)系。

[題目譯文]

美國的父母們希望他們的孩子在學(xué)校里學(xué)到什么？
[A] 獨立思考的習(xí)慣
[B] 關(guān)于世界的深入知識
[C] 未來職業(yè)的使用技能
[D] 追求知識的信心

59. Emerson, according to the text, is probably
[A] a pioneer of education reform.
[B] an opponent of intellectualism.
[C] a scholar in favor of intellect.
[D] an advocate of regular schooling.

[答案] B

[解題思路]

第五段第一句話指出"Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children"（愛默生和其他一些超自然主義哲學(xué)家認為學(xué)校教育和高強度的書本學(xué)習(xí)會使孩子受到不自然的限），這說明愛默生反對學(xué)校進行智力和知識教育，因此答案顯然是B。C選項與B選項的意思相反，是錯誤答案。D選項中regular schooling屬無中生有，原文并沒有提及。A選項也與文章無關(guān)。

[題目譯文]

根據(jù)文章，愛默生可能是              。
[A] 教育改革的先驅(qū)
[B] 知識主義的反對者
[C] 熱愛知識的學(xué)者
[D] 常規(guī)教育的倡導(dǎo)者

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