2004年考研英语阅读理解PartAText4Text4.PDFVIP

新东方《考研英语历年真题详解及复习指南》 2004 年考研英语阅读理解 Part A Text 4 Text 4 ①Americans today don’t place a very high value on intellect. ②Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. ③Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education—not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. ④Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren’t difficult to find. ①“Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual, ” says education writer Diane Ravitch. ② “Schools could be a counterbalance.” ③Ravitch’s latest book, 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. ①But they could and should be. ② Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. ③Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. ④Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, “We will become a second-rate country. ⑤We will have a less civil society.” ①“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. ②From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. ③Practicality, common sense, a