通过阅读学词汇CET-6（14）
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UNIT FOURTEEN 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 the people whom we like to call savages 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 Francein 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 parents, 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. adverse a.不利的,有害的 deprive vt. 剥夺,使丧失 enlighten vt.启发,开导 preach vt. 1.宣讲,布道 2.竭力鼓吹,宣传 vi.布道,说教 defendant n.被告 savage a. 1.残暴的,凶狠的,粗鲁的 2.未开化的,野蛮的 n.野蛮人 vt. 1.乱咬 2.激烈抨击 inherit vt.继承 tribe n. 1.部落 2.族 compulsory a.必须做的,强制性的,必修的 attendance n. 1.出席人数 2.出席,参加,出席次数 3.护理,照料 deem vt.认为,视为 monetary a.钱的,货币的,金融的 hamper vt.妨碍,束缚,限制 savannah n.热带草原 juvenile a.1.少年的 2.幼稚的,不成熟的 n.未成年人,少年 delinquency n. 1.少年犯罪,违法行为 2.失职,懈怠 |
