Preview
The main idea of this unit is our understanding of life. In the first essay, the writer admits that education should prepare us for life “after” school, but young students and older teachers often don’t agree about what will be most important when all the classes are finished. The second essay talks about what young people expect these days, and provides a quick look at what can happen when expectations do not match reality. Finally, we will read an article from a major U.S. magazine that looks at how one’s understanding of life changes when things are not going well. Perhaps this unit’s examination of our expectations, as well as some of the ups and downs people face, will help you develop a more complete and useful understanding of life.
It has often been remarked that the saddest thing about youth is that it is wasted on the
" Ifonly I knew young. Reading a survey report on first-year college students, I recalled the regret,
then what I know now."
The survey revealed what I had already suspected from informalpolls of students both in Macon and at the RobinsResidentCenter : if it (whatever it may be) won't compute and you can't drink it, smoke it or spend it, then "it" holds little value.
Accordingto the survey based on responses from over 188,000 students,
the poll.
Not surprising in these hard times, the students' major objective "is to be financially
Accordingly , welloff . Less important than ever is developing a meaningful philosophy of life."
today the most popular course is not literature or history but accounting.
Interest in teaching, social service and the humanities is atalow ,
computer science is way up.
That's no surprise either. A friend of mine (a sales representative for a chemical company) was making twice the salary of college instructors during her first year on the job -even before she completed her two-year associate degree.
"I'll tell them what they can do with their (music, history, literature, etc.)," she wasfondof saying. And that was four years ago;
it both ways? I tremble to think what she's earning now. But why can't we have Frankly, I'm proudof the young lady (not her attitude but her success). along with ethnic and women's studies. On the other hand, enrollment in business programs, engineering and today's college beginners are "more consumeristic and less idealistic" than at any time in the seventeen years of Can't we educate people for life as well as for a career? I believe we can.
In a time of increasing specialization , a time when 90 If we can not, then it is a conviction against our educational system -kindergarten , elementary , secondary and higher.
know what is truly important in life.
This is where age and maturity enter. Most people, somewhere between the ages of 30 and 50, finally arriveat the inevitable conclusion that they weremeanttodo more than serve a corporation , a government agency , or whatever.
Most of us finally have the insight that quality of life is not entirely determined by a balance sheet. Sure, everyone wants to be financially comfortable, but we also want to feel we have a percent of all the scientists who have ever lived are currently alive, more than ever, we need to
perspective on the world
If it is a fact that
youth, beyond the confines of our occupation ; we want to be able to is it then not the render service to our fellow man and to our God. the meaning of life does not dawn until middle age, duty of educational institutions to prepare the way for that revelation ?
later find themselves standing anxiously by the mailbox.
While it's true all of us need a career,
own. preferably a prosperous one, it is equally true that our civilization has collected an incredible amount of knowledge in fields far removed from our And we are better for our understanding of these other contributions - be they
More importantly, perhaps, education teaches us to see the connections
as well as to see beyond our immediate needs. scientific or artistic . It is equally true that, in studying the diverse wisdom of others, we learn how to think. between things, Most people, in their resent the Social Security deductions from their pay, yet a seemingly few short years
Weekly we readofunions that wentonstrike for higher wages, only to drive their employer out of business. No company, no job. How shortsighted inthelongrun .
But the most important argument for a broad education is that in studying the accumulated wisdom of the ages, we improve our moral sense. I saw a cartoon recently which depicts a group of businessmen looking puzzled as they sit around a conference table; one of them is talking on the intercom : "Miss Baxter ," he says,
who can distinguish right from wrong?" "could you please send in someone
In the long run that's what education really ought to be about. I think it can be. My college roommate, now head of a large shipping company in New York, not surprisingly was a business major. But he also hosted a classical music show on the college's FM station and listened to
OscarWilde had it right when he said we ought to give our ability Wagner as he studied his accounting. That's the way it should be.
to our work but our genius to our lives.
Let's hope our educators answer students' cries for career education, but a t the same time let's ensure that students are prepared for the day when they realize their shortsightedness. There's a lot more to life than a job.
Words: 821
What Youngsters Expect in Life 内容讲解
Back in thegoodolddays of stable economic expansion -- the 1950s and 1960s -a person could choose to do something new, exciting, and creative in life but could also choose to say, "That's not for me: I am going to playitsafe in life. I am going to stay in my home town and have a nice comfortable career in a salaried job." That second choice no longer exists for the vast majority of Americans. All of us are going to be creators and pioneers over the next 10 years whether we like it ornot , and many of us don't like it.
Just look at what the attitude surveys tell us. In the United States, three-quarters of the adults surveyed by the Harris poll and two-thirds of all high-school seniors surveyed by Scholastic magazine say they believe that the United States will be a worse place 10 years from now than it is today.
disaffected. No wonder Nowonder young people are they are not m otivated to learn. They think the world in
which they are going to spend their lives won't be a very satisfactory place.
Young men, in particular, are not happywith their prospects for the future. When surveyors ask U.S. female high-school students what they are going to do when they graduate, they list all kinds of roles they want to fill, like doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants , civilservants , police and firem en , and fighter pilots. Inshort , they want to do all the things that men have always done. Moreover, less than 10% of female high-school seniors expect to spend their adult lives solely as mothers and domestic managers, while nearly 90% are committed to having both a career and a marriage based on equality .
Bycom parison , nearly half of male high-school students express their preference for a traditional, male-headed, one provider, nuclear family, where the wife stays hom e as mother and housewife . And when male high-school students are asked what kinds of careers they would like to have, the only two job fields that
consistently receive large numbers of responses in open surveys are "professional athlete " and "media personality".
If these people do not
them selves, A large proportion of America's young men - one third or more --simply say they don't know what they're going to do as adults. acquire some constructivevision of purpose for
One recent estimate is that one-sixth
are
These they are likely to be very destructive forces of resistance in society throughout their lives. We already see that. of all fourteen- to twenty-four-year-olds in America --mostly males --currently "disaffected and disconnected". They are not associatedwith any formal role in society, nor are they in any formal relationship with another person.
are the folks who are joining the gangs in innercities and swelling the ranks of the rural military gangs. They see no roles for themselves in an Information Age society, and they are angry about their empty future.
So this is a very pregnant moment, not only for the future of America,
also for all of the mature industrial economies and, ultimately,
atlarge . but for the world
familiar It is an uncertain moment, a scary moment. It is the kind of moment in history when, to summarize in the words of AlfredNorthWhitehead ,
patterns fade, familiar solutions fail, and familiar options disappear. Of course, the books and periodicals that are warning society about the removal of jobs, "the end of work", and wage decreases only serve to increase public anxiety - a slow-m otion variation of shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater.
These alarming forecasts are largely simple projections of the past two or three decades of workplace trends. However,
alternative explanations
and
societies - in the absence of plausible for the gloom y economic news of the past 15 - 20 years might very well take backward steps.
of the economicallydominant
Social and economic progress the gloomier prospects im plicit in the projections of those trends, industrial fearful for the future - These steps will principally serve the interests Nations that take such steps will lose balance.
will grindtoahalt and groups who want to protect their assets and resources from the forces of change. more and more jobs will be eliminated by the negative side of this transformation. The anger and frustration displayed by people who do not understand what is happening to them will be a terrible and dangerous force in all
the major industrial economies.
Words: 750
(Fortunately, Jan Halvorsen was unemployed only four months. She is now
assistant editor of the Twin Cities Courier (《双城信使报》) in St. Paul, Minnesota. The following essay appeared as Newsweek's (《新闻周刊》) "My Turn" article in Septem ber of 1980.)
Being laid off from work, job loss and recession (衰退) have always affected Walter Cronkite's tone of voice and the editor's page. And m aybe they affected a
neighborhood business or a friend's uncle. But these terms have always been just words, affecting someone else's world, like a passing ambulance. At least they were until a few weeks ago, when the ambulance came for me.
Even as I sat staring blankly (茫然地) at my boss, hearing, "I've got bad news: we're going to have to let you go," it still seemed no more related to my daily life than a "60 Minutes" program. I kept waiting for the alternative - "but you can come back after a couple of months," or "you could take a salary cut, a different position," or even, "April fool." But none of these cam e. This was final. There was no mistake and no alternative.
How it all echoes through your evenings and wakes you up in the morning. The mornings are probably the worst - waking up with the shock, for the first two weeks, thinking, "I'm late!" Late for what? The dull ache in your lower stomach reminds you: late for nothing.
Again, you face the term s: "Loss of self-worth and security, fear of the future, stress, depression (抑郁)." You wonder if eating a dozen chocolate-chip (碎片) cookies, wearing a house coat until 4, combing your hair at 5, cleaning behind the stove (twice) and crying in a job-agency parking lot qualify as symptoms of stress or maybe loss of self-worth. Fighting with your spouse / boyfriend? Aha - tension in personal relationships.
The loss of a job is rejection, resulting in the same hurt feelings as if a friend had told you to "bug off". Only this "friend" filled up 40 to 60 (or more) hours of your week. Repeated references (提到) to the staff as "family" only emphasize the feeling of being left alone and having been told a lie. You picture yourself going home to your parents or spouse and being informed, "Your services as our daughter / my wife are no longer required. Pick up your baby pictures as you leave."
Each new act that confirms your job loss starts the pain again: the first trip to the em ployment agency, the first friend you tell, the first interview and, most fearful of all, the first trip to the unemployment (失业) office.
You do eventually become accustomed to being unemployed, in the way you might accept a bad limp. And you eventually quit beating yourself for not having been som ehow indispensable - or for not having become an accountant. You tire of straining (尽力使用) your memory for possible mistakes. You recover some of the confidence that always told you how good you were at your job and accept what the boss said: "This doesn't reflect on your job performance; sales are down 30 per cent this month."
But each time you recover that
valued self-worth, you renew (重新开始) a fight to keep it. Each time you go to a job interview and give them your best and they hire someone else, you go another round with yourself and your self-worth. Your unemployment seems to drag on beyond all reason. You start to see a stranger in your rearview mirror. The stranger suddenly looks like a bum (无业游民). You look at her with clinical curiosity. Hmmm. Obviously into the worst stages. Definitely not possible to be employed.
We unemployed share a social prejudice similar to that of the rape (强奸) victim. Whether consciously or subconsciously (下意识地), much of the public driven by work ethics (伦理) feels that you've somehow "asked for it", secretly wanted to lose your job and "flirted (轻率对待)" with unemployment through your attitude - probably dressed in a way to invite it.
Almost everyone has heard about the need to be a useful member of society. What you didn't know about was the loneliness. You've spent your life almost always surrounded by people, in classes, in residences and at work. Suddenly to find yourself with only your cat to talk to all day alters your sense of reality.
But you always were, and still are, stronger than that. You maintain (保持) balance and perspective, mainly through relying frequently on sarcasm (讽刺) and
irreverence (不敬). Although something going wrong in any aspect (方面) of your life now seems to push you into temporary despair much more easily than before, you have some very important things to hang on to - people who care, your sense of humor, your talents, your cat and your hopes.
And beyond that, you've gained something - a little more knowledge and a lot more understanding. You've learned the value of the routine you hated and the
importance of the job you took for granted. But most of all, you've learned what a "7.6 per cent unemployment rate" really means.
Words: 798
Background information:
Newsweek is a weekly news magazine published in New York City. Founded in 1933, it is one of the highly influential “big three” American newsweeklies. It has a strong reputation for accurate, brisk, and vivid reporting of news events, and for the care it exercises to report objectively. Like Time, it presents all the news in terse
summary form, giving careful attention to the arts and sciences, business, religion, and sports. You can visit http://www.newsweek.com for more information about the magazine.
Preview
The main idea of this unit is our understanding of life. In the first essay, the writer admits that education should prepare us for life “after” school, but young students and older teachers often don’t agree about what will be most important when all the classes are finished. The second essay talks about what young people expect these days, and provides a quick look at what can happen when expectations do not match reality. Finally, we will read an article from a major U.S. magazine that looks at how one’s understanding of life changes when things are not going well. Perhaps this unit’s examination of our expectations, as well as some of the ups and downs people face, will help you develop a more complete and useful understanding of life.
It has often been remarked that the saddest thing about youth is that it is wasted on the
" Ifonly I knew young. Reading a survey report on first-year college students, I recalled the regret,
then what I know now."
The survey revealed what I had already suspected from informalpolls of students both in Macon and at the RobinsResidentCenter : if it (whatever it may be) won't compute and you can't drink it, smoke it or spend it, then "it" holds little value.
Accordingto the survey based on responses from over 188,000 students,
the poll.
Not surprising in these hard times, the students' major objective "is to be financially
Accordingly , welloff . Less important than ever is developing a meaningful philosophy of life."
today the most popular course is not literature or history but accounting.
Interest in teaching, social service and the humanities is atalow ,
computer science is way up.
That's no surprise either. A friend of mine (a sales representative for a chemical company) was making twice the salary of college instructors during her first year on the job -even before she completed her two-year associate degree.
"I'll tell them what they can do with their (music, history, literature, etc.)," she wasfondof saying. And that was four years ago;
it both ways? I tremble to think what she's earning now. But why can't we have Frankly, I'm proudof the young lady (not her attitude but her success). along with ethnic and women's studies. On the other hand, enrollment in business programs, engineering and today's college beginners are "more consumeristic and less idealistic" than at any time in the seventeen years of Can't we educate people for life as well as for a career? I believe we can.
In a time of increasing specialization , a time when 90 If we can not, then it is a conviction against our educational system -kindergarten , elementary , secondary and higher.
know what is truly important in life.
This is where age and maturity enter. Most people, somewhere between the ages of 30 and 50, finally arriveat the inevitable conclusion that they weremeanttodo more than serve a corporation , a government agency , or whatever.
Most of us finally have the insight that quality of life is not entirely determined by a balance sheet. Sure, everyone wants to be financially comfortable, but we also want to feel we have a percent of all the scientists who have ever lived are currently alive, more than ever, we need to
perspective on the world
If it is a fact that
youth, beyond the confines of our occupation ; we want to be able to is it then not the render service to our fellow man and to our God. the meaning of life does not dawn until middle age, duty of educational institutions to prepare the way for that revelation ?
later find themselves standing anxiously by the mailbox.
While it's true all of us need a career,
own. preferably a prosperous one, it is equally true that our civilization has collected an incredible amount of knowledge in fields far removed from our And we are better for our understanding of these other contributions - be they
More importantly, perhaps, education teaches us to see the connections
as well as to see beyond our immediate needs. scientific or artistic . It is equally true that, in studying the diverse wisdom of others, we learn how to think. between things, Most people, in their resent the Social Security deductions from their pay, yet a seemingly few short years
Weekly we readofunions that wentonstrike for higher wages, only to drive their employer out of business. No company, no job. How shortsighted inthelongrun .
But the most important argument for a broad education is that in studying the accumulated wisdom of the ages, we improve our moral sense. I saw a cartoon recently which depicts a group of businessmen looking puzzled as they sit around a conference table; one of them is talking on the intercom : "Miss Baxter ," he says,
who can distinguish right from wrong?" "could you please send in someone
In the long run that's what education really ought to be about. I think it can be. My college roommate, now head of a large shipping company in New York, not surprisingly was a business major. But he also hosted a classical music show on the college's FM station and listened to
OscarWilde had it right when he said we ought to give our ability Wagner as he studied his accounting. That's the way it should be.
to our work but our genius to our lives.
Let's hope our educators answer students' cries for career education, but a t the same time let's ensure that students are prepared for the day when they realize their shortsightedness. There's a lot more to life than a job.
Words: 821
What Youngsters Expect in Life 内容讲解
Back in thegoodolddays of stable economic expansion -- the 1950s and 1960s -a person could choose to do something new, exciting, and creative in life but could also choose to say, "That's not for me: I am going to playitsafe in life. I am going to stay in my home town and have a nice comfortable career in a salaried job." That second choice no longer exists for the vast majority of Americans. All of us are going to be creators and pioneers over the next 10 years whether we like it ornot , and many of us don't like it.
Just look at what the attitude surveys tell us. In the United States, three-quarters of the adults surveyed by the Harris poll and two-thirds of all high-school seniors surveyed by Scholastic magazine say they believe that the United States will be a worse place 10 years from now than it is today.
disaffected. No wonder Nowonder young people are they are not m otivated to learn. They think the world in
which they are going to spend their lives won't be a very satisfactory place.
Young men, in particular, are not happywith their prospects for the future. When surveyors ask U.S. female high-school students what they are going to do when they graduate, they list all kinds of roles they want to fill, like doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants , civilservants , police and firem en , and fighter pilots. Inshort , they want to do all the things that men have always done. Moreover, less than 10% of female high-school seniors expect to spend their adult lives solely as mothers and domestic managers, while nearly 90% are committed to having both a career and a marriage based on equality .
Bycom parison , nearly half of male high-school students express their preference for a traditional, male-headed, one provider, nuclear family, where the wife stays hom e as mother and housewife . And when male high-school students are asked what kinds of careers they would like to have, the only two job fields that
consistently receive large numbers of responses in open surveys are "professional athlete " and "media personality".
If these people do not
them selves, A large proportion of America's young men - one third or more --simply say they don't know what they're going to do as adults. acquire some constructivevision of purpose for
One recent estimate is that one-sixth
are
These they are likely to be very destructive forces of resistance in society throughout their lives. We already see that. of all fourteen- to twenty-four-year-olds in America --mostly males --currently "disaffected and disconnected". They are not associatedwith any formal role in society, nor are they in any formal relationship with another person.
are the folks who are joining the gangs in innercities and swelling the ranks of the rural military gangs. They see no roles for themselves in an Information Age society, and they are angry about their empty future.
So this is a very pregnant moment, not only for the future of America,
also for all of the mature industrial economies and, ultimately,
atlarge . but for the world
familiar It is an uncertain moment, a scary moment. It is the kind of moment in history when, to summarize in the words of AlfredNorthWhitehead ,
patterns fade, familiar solutions fail, and familiar options disappear. Of course, the books and periodicals that are warning society about the removal of jobs, "the end of work", and wage decreases only serve to increase public anxiety - a slow-m otion variation of shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater.
These alarming forecasts are largely simple projections of the past two or three decades of workplace trends. However,
alternative explanations
and
societies - in the absence of plausible for the gloom y economic news of the past 15 - 20 years might very well take backward steps.
of the economicallydominant
Social and economic progress the gloomier prospects im plicit in the projections of those trends, industrial fearful for the future - These steps will principally serve the interests Nations that take such steps will lose balance.
will grindtoahalt and groups who want to protect their assets and resources from the forces of change. more and more jobs will be eliminated by the negative side of this transformation. The anger and frustration displayed by people who do not understand what is happening to them will be a terrible and dangerous force in all
the major industrial economies.
Words: 750
(Fortunately, Jan Halvorsen was unemployed only four months. She is now
assistant editor of the Twin Cities Courier (《双城信使报》) in St. Paul, Minnesota. The following essay appeared as Newsweek's (《新闻周刊》) "My Turn" article in Septem ber of 1980.)
Being laid off from work, job loss and recession (衰退) have always affected Walter Cronkite's tone of voice and the editor's page. And m aybe they affected a
neighborhood business or a friend's uncle. But these terms have always been just words, affecting someone else's world, like a passing ambulance. At least they were until a few weeks ago, when the ambulance came for me.
Even as I sat staring blankly (茫然地) at my boss, hearing, "I've got bad news: we're going to have to let you go," it still seemed no more related to my daily life than a "60 Minutes" program. I kept waiting for the alternative - "but you can come back after a couple of months," or "you could take a salary cut, a different position," or even, "April fool." But none of these cam e. This was final. There was no mistake and no alternative.
How it all echoes through your evenings and wakes you up in the morning. The mornings are probably the worst - waking up with the shock, for the first two weeks, thinking, "I'm late!" Late for what? The dull ache in your lower stomach reminds you: late for nothing.
Again, you face the term s: "Loss of self-worth and security, fear of the future, stress, depression (抑郁)." You wonder if eating a dozen chocolate-chip (碎片) cookies, wearing a house coat until 4, combing your hair at 5, cleaning behind the stove (twice) and crying in a job-agency parking lot qualify as symptoms of stress or maybe loss of self-worth. Fighting with your spouse / boyfriend? Aha - tension in personal relationships.
The loss of a job is rejection, resulting in the same hurt feelings as if a friend had told you to "bug off". Only this "friend" filled up 40 to 60 (or more) hours of your week. Repeated references (提到) to the staff as "family" only emphasize the feeling of being left alone and having been told a lie. You picture yourself going home to your parents or spouse and being informed, "Your services as our daughter / my wife are no longer required. Pick up your baby pictures as you leave."
Each new act that confirms your job loss starts the pain again: the first trip to the em ployment agency, the first friend you tell, the first interview and, most fearful of all, the first trip to the unemployment (失业) office.
You do eventually become accustomed to being unemployed, in the way you might accept a bad limp. And you eventually quit beating yourself for not having been som ehow indispensable - or for not having become an accountant. You tire of straining (尽力使用) your memory for possible mistakes. You recover some of the confidence that always told you how good you were at your job and accept what the boss said: "This doesn't reflect on your job performance; sales are down 30 per cent this month."
But each time you recover that
valued self-worth, you renew (重新开始) a fight to keep it. Each time you go to a job interview and give them your best and they hire someone else, you go another round with yourself and your self-worth. Your unemployment seems to drag on beyond all reason. You start to see a stranger in your rearview mirror. The stranger suddenly looks like a bum (无业游民). You look at her with clinical curiosity. Hmmm. Obviously into the worst stages. Definitely not possible to be employed.
We unemployed share a social prejudice similar to that of the rape (强奸) victim. Whether consciously or subconsciously (下意识地), much of the public driven by work ethics (伦理) feels that you've somehow "asked for it", secretly wanted to lose your job and "flirted (轻率对待)" with unemployment through your attitude - probably dressed in a way to invite it.
Almost everyone has heard about the need to be a useful member of society. What you didn't know about was the loneliness. You've spent your life almost always surrounded by people, in classes, in residences and at work. Suddenly to find yourself with only your cat to talk to all day alters your sense of reality.
But you always were, and still are, stronger than that. You maintain (保持) balance and perspective, mainly through relying frequently on sarcasm (讽刺) and
irreverence (不敬). Although something going wrong in any aspect (方面) of your life now seems to push you into temporary despair much more easily than before, you have some very important things to hang on to - people who care, your sense of humor, your talents, your cat and your hopes.
And beyond that, you've gained something - a little more knowledge and a lot more understanding. You've learned the value of the routine you hated and the
importance of the job you took for granted. But most of all, you've learned what a "7.6 per cent unemployment rate" really means.
Words: 798
Background information:
Newsweek is a weekly news magazine published in New York City. Founded in 1933, it is one of the highly influential “big three” American newsweeklies. It has a strong reputation for accurate, brisk, and vivid reporting of news events, and for the care it exercises to report objectively. Like Time, it presents all the news in terse
summary form, giving careful attention to the arts and sciences, business, religion, and sports. You can visit http://www.newsweek.com for more information about the magazine.