全新版大学英语综合教程第一册08【荐】.pptVIP

全新版大学英语第一册UNIT8 Unit 8 Coping with an Educational Problem * * Part I Pre-reading Task Listen to the recording two or three times and then think over the following questions: 1. What was the teachers purpose in asking his class the riddle? 2. What can you learn about Little Geoffrey from his answer to the riddle? Was he used to trying to think clearly? Had he formed the habit of making good use of his brain? 3. Is the story related to the theme of the unit — coping with an educational problem? In what way? The following words and expressions in the recording may be new to you: riddle n. 谜语 scratch ones head 挠头（表示迷惑等） knit ones brows 皱眉  Part II Text A Benjamin Stein weaves a tale to bring home to young Americans the need to change the way they think about education. Read it and see whether you think it holds any lessons for us as well. FABLE OF THE LAZY TEENAGER Benjamin Stein One day last fall, I ran out of file folders and went to the drugstore to buy more. I put a handful of folders on the counter and asked a teenage salesgirl how much they cost. I dont know, she answered. But its 12 cents each. I counted the folders. Twenty-three at 12 cents each, that makes $2.76 before tax, I said. You did that in your head? she asked in amazement. How can you do that? Its magic, I said. Really? she asked.  No modestly educated adult can fail to be upset by such an experience. While our children seem better-natured than ever, they are so ignorant — and so ignorant of their ignorance — that they frighten me. In a class of 60 seniors at a private college where I recently taught, not one student could write a short paper without misspellings. Not one. But this is just a tiny slice of the problem. The ability to perform even the simplest calculations is only a memory among many students I see, and their knowledge of world history or geography is nonexistent. Moreover, there is a chilling indifference about all this ignorance. The attitude was summ