【课文】 First listen and then answer the following question. 听录音，然后回答以下问题。 Why is education democratic in bookless, tribal societies? Education is one of the key words of our time. A man without an education, many of us believe, is an unfortunate victim of adverse circumstances, deprived of one of the greatest twentieth-century opportunities. Convinced of the importance of education, modern states "invest" in institutions of learning to get back "interest" in the form of a large group of enlightened young men and women who are potential leaders. Education, with its cycles of instruction so carefully worked out, punctuated by textbooks -- those purchasable wells of wisdom-what would civilization be like without its benefits? So much is certain: that we would have doctors and preachers, lawyers and defendants, marriages and births -- but our spiritual outlook would be different. We would lay less stress on "facts and figures" and more on a good memory, on applied psychology, and on the capacity of a man to get along with his fellow-citizens. If our educational system were fashioned after its bookless past we would have the most democratic form of "college" imaginable. Among tribal people all knowledge inherited by tradition is shared by all; it is taught to every member of the tribe so that in this respect everybody is equally equipped for life. It is the ideal condition of the "equal start" which only our most progressive forms of modern education try to regain. In primitive cultures the obligation to seek and to receive the traditional instruction is binding to all. There are no "illiterates" -- if the term can be applied to peoples without a script -- while our own compulsory school attendance became law in Germany in 1642, in France in 1806, and in England in 1876, and is still non-existent in a number of "civilized" nations. This shows how long it was before we deemed it necessary to make sure that all our children could share in the knowledge accumulated by the "happy few" during the past centuries. Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means. All are entitled to an equal start. There is none of the hurry which, in our society, often hampers the full development of a growing personality. There, a child grows up under the ever-present attention of his parent; therefore the jungles and the savannahs know of no "juvenile delinquency". No necessity of making a living away from home results in neglect of children, and no father is confronted with his inability to "buy" an education for his child. JULIUS E. LIPS The Origin of Things 【New words and expressions 生词和短语】 adverse adj. 不利的 purchasable adj.可买到的 preacher n. 传教士 defendant n. 被告 outlook n. 视野 capacity n. 能力 democratic adj. 民主的 tribal n. 部落的 tribe n. 部落 illiterate n. 文盲 compulsory adj. 义务的 deem v. 认为 means n. 方法，手段，财产，资力 hamper v. 妨碍 savannah n. 大草原 juvenile adj. 青少年 delinquency n. 犯罪 【课文注释】 1.adverse adj. 不利的, 逆向的, 有害的 例句： The development was adverse to our interests. 这种发展与我们的利益背道而驰。 【词义辨析】 opposite, contrary, adverse, reverse, converse这些形容词均含“相反的、对立的”之意。 opposite: 指位置、方向、行动或想法等完全相反。 contrary: 一般指与某种主张、看法或行为等正好相反，隐含否定一方并不意味着肯定另一方的意味。 adverse: 通常指违害利益的、无生命的势力或条件等，侧重分歧。 reverse: 指朝相反方向的或反面(背面)的。 converse: 指在方向、行动或意见上相反的。 2.deprive of 剥夺, 使失去 ... (权利) 例句：What will a student do if he were deprived of his books? 一个学生如果没有了书籍，将怎么办? deprive vt v. 剥夺, 失去, 免职 例句： We have no right to deprive their life. 我们没有权利去剥夺它们的生命。 【词义辨析】 rob, steal, plunder, deprive这些动词均含“偷，抢，夺”之意。 rob: 最常用词，指用暴力恐吓或哄骗等非法手段抢夺财物。 steal: 普通用词，指暗中行窃。 plunder: 指大规模或大范围地掠夺。 deprive: 多指夺去或扣留别人拥有或可能拥有的有价值或必需的东西，也可用于指抽象的事物。 3.Education, with its cycles of instruction so carefully worked out, punctuated by textbooks 这句话中的主语Education与punctuated并不是一种主谓关系，因此，这句话在语法上被称作单元句。 punctuate v. ①加标点于 例句：The children have not yet learned to punctuate correctly. 这些小学生尚未学会正确使用标点符号 ②强调 例句：He made gestures to punctuate his speech. 他打手势来强调他的讲话。 ③不时打断 例句：He punctuated his remarks with thumps on the table. 他讲话时不时地捶着桌子。 4.So much is certain[b] 有承上启下的作用，一方面回答了前一段的最后一句的提问，另一方面开始列举没有教育将会给社会文明带来的影响。 5.[b]lay stress on 强调(着重, 重视) 例句：They lay too much stress on money. 他们太看重金钱了。 6.capacity n. ①能力 例句：He has a great capacity for learning languages. 他学语言的能力很强。 ②容量, 容积 例句：What is the capacity of this jug? 这个水壶的容积多大? ③职位, 资格 例句：He participated in an unofficial capacity. 他参与了一个非官方的职位。 She alone was in a capacity to begin the negotiation. 只有她有资格开始谈判。 【词义辨析】 ability, capacity, capability, genius, talent, competence, faculty, gift, aptitude 这些名词均可表示人的“能力，才能”之意。 ability: 普通用词，指人先天的或学来的各种能力。 capacity: 侧重指人的潜在能力，通常不指体力，多指才智，尤指接受与领悟能力。 capability: 多用于人，指胜任某项具体工作的能力，也指本身具有、尚未发挥的潜在能力。常与of或for连用。 genius: 语气最强，指天赋的高度才能与智力。 talent: 着重指人某方面具有可发展和培养的突出天赋才能，但语意比genius弱。 competence: 正式用词，侧重指令人满意的业务能力与水平，达到胜任某项工作等的要求。 faculty: 指特殊的才能或智力。 gift: 着重个人的天赋的才能或在某方面的显著本领，常暗含不能用一般规律作解释的意味。 aptitude: 多指先天或后天习得的运用自如的能力，常暗示接受能力强，能迅速掌握一种学术训练或艺术技巧。 7.be fashioned after 按......做成 例句：Her new dress was fashioned after a latest style. 她的新衣服是根据一种最新款式制作的。 8.bind v. ①约束,强迫 例句：I am bound by my promise. 我必须遵守自己的诺言。 The treaty binds each country to reduce pollution levels. 该条约迫使各国减少污染排放。 ②捆绑 例句：She bound her hair with a handkerchief. 她用手绢把头发扎了起来。 This hint was hard enough to bind my hands. 这个暗示已经够使我束手无策了。 9.without a script 没有文字的 10.deem v. 认为 例句：They were deemed to be illegal immigrants. 他们被认为是不法移民。 They deemed that he was no longer capable of managing the business. 他们认为他没有能力再继续管理这个公司了。 11.be entitled to 有权, 有资格 例句：You are entitled to a free lunch. 你们有资格享用免费午餐一次。 You may be entitled to reclaim some of the tax you paid last year. 你或许有权要求退回去年你交付的部分税金。 12.hamper vt. 妨碍, 阻止 例句：Our progress was hampered by the bad weather. 我们前进时受到了恶劣天气的阻碍。 13.juvenile delinquency 青少年犯罪 【参考译文】 教育是我们这个时代的关键词之一。我们许多人都相信，一个没有受过教育的人，是逆境的牺牲品，被剥夺了20世纪的最优越的机会之一。现代国家深深懂得教育的重要性，对教育机构投资，收回的‘利息’便是培养出大批有知识的男女青年，这些人可能成为未来的栋梁。教育，以其教学周期如此精心地安排，并以教科书 -- 那些可以买到的智慧源泉 -- 予以强化，如果不受其惠，文明将会是个什么样子呢? 至少，这些是可以肯定的：虽然我们还会有医生和牧师、律师和被告、婚姻和生育，但人们的精神面貌将是另一个样子。人们不会重视‘资料和数据’，而靠好记性、实用心理学与同伴相处的能力。如果我们的教育制度仿效没有书籍的古代教育，我们的学院将具有可以想象得出的最民主的形式了。在部落中，通过传统继承的知识为所有人共享，并传授给部落中的每一个成员。从这个意义上讲，人人受到的有关生活本领的教育是相等的。 这就是我们最进步的现代教育试图恢复的“平等起步”的理想状况。在原始文化中，寻求和接受传统教育的义务对全民都有约束力。因而没有“文盲”(如果这个字眼儿可以用于没有文字的民族的话)。而我们的义务教育成为法律在德国是在1642年，在法国是在1806年，在英国是在1876年。今天，在许多“文明”国家里，义务教育迄今尚未实行。这说明，经过了多么漫长的时间之后，我们才认识到，有必要确保我们的孩子享有多少个世纪以来由‘少数幸运者’所积累起来的知识。 荒凉地区的教育不是钱的问题，所有的人都享有平等起步的权利。那里没有我们今天社会中的匆忙生活，而匆忙的生活常常妨碍个性的全面发展。荒凉地区的孩子无时无刻不在父母关怀下成长。因此，丛林和荒凉地区不知道什么叫“青少年犯罪”。人们没有必要离家谋生，所以不会产生孩子无人管的问题，也不存在父亲无力为孩子支付教育费用而犯难的问题。
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