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My several worlds






by P.S. Buck

I cannot remember at all when I learnt to read. I know I read quite comfortably at four, because on my fifth birthday I received a small book as a gift, entitled " Little Susie's Seven Birthdays" and I envied Susie for having seven instead of five. Yet my American children learned reading with strange difficulty and I am shocked at the number of our people, both men and women, but especially men, who read slowly, word by word, and are never comfortable in reading and do not enjoy it; although the purpose of education should be to make reading as simple and easy as listening to a voice, for only when a person can really read will he surely continue his own education.

Upon education one can write many books. Examinations, tests, grades, compositions – these are all obstacles to true learning. Were I young again – how many things I would do if I were young again. I would create a school where children could drink in knowledge as they drink in fresh milk. They drink because they are thirsty, and children are always thirsty for learning, but they do not know it. And in schools sources of learning are fouled with tensions, anxieties, competitive sports, and the shame and fear of low marks and it is no wonder that we are not a book-loving people. We have been made to hate books and therefore to scorn, with private regret mixed in, the educated man because he is an intellectual. Compulsory education? I doubt the wisdom of it, and certainly the use of the word ‘compulsion’ is not wise. Education, yes, but not this sausage mill, this hopper, into which our children are all tossed at the age of 6, and from which they emerge, too many of them, in dazed confusion, somewhere along the way, as rejects or a mass products.

Never shall I forget the first morning I took our little sons to school. They went trustingly and with enthusiasm, believing, alas, that they.were about to comprehend immediately the wonders. Thus, one the fair-headed, said joyfully, " I am going to learn how to make an airplane". My heart ached, I confess, when he began to understand how long the road, how weary the hours would be until that day could arrive. But my heart has often ached for such little scholars, their sweet enthusiasm dying in the daily grind. I will not criticize our schools, for I do not know how to make compulsory education pleasant. Yet to me learning, learning anything, but especially something I want to know, is the most joyful occupation in life. I do not know when it is that the joy fades out of school for most children, so that they end not only hating school but even worse, by hating books, and this is grave indeed, for in books alone is the accumulated wisdom of the whole human race, and to read no books is to deprive the self of ready access to wisdom. Even in China such wisdom was relayed generation to generation, through centuries, until the people were permeated with the sayings of poets and philosophers. But in our mixed ancestry there are no such clean streams, and it is only in books that we can discover what we are, and why we are that and thus self-knowledge, as well as knowledge of others, is achieved.

VOCABULARY

access, n 1. way (in)to a place

e.g. The only access to the farm-house is across the fields.

2. (to) right, opportunity or means of reaching, using or approaching

e.g. Students must have access to good books.

accessible, adj able to be reached, used, visited, influenced, etc.

e.g. a collection of painting not accessible to the general public.

accessibility, n

alas, int. cry of sorrow or regret

comprehend, v (fml) 1. understand fully

2. include; consist of

comprehension, n 1. the mind's act or power of understanding

e.g. The problem is above/beyond my comprehension

2. exercise aimed at improving or testing one's understanding

3. (fml) power of including

e.g. a term of wide comprehension (= that has many meanings, uses, etc.)

Opp.: incomprehension, n failure to understand

comprehensible, adj that can be understood fully

e.g. a book that is comprehensible only to specialists.

Opp.: incomprehensible, adj (fml) that cannot be understood

comprehensibility, n

Opp.: incomprehensibility, n

comprehensive, adj that comprehends (2)

e.g. a comprehensive description

comprehensive, n comprehensive school (= that provides all types of secondary education)

comprehensiveness, n

comprehensively, adv.

confess, v 1. say or admit (that one has done wrong)

e.g. He confessed that he had stolen the money. I confess to having a fear of spiders.

2. make known one's sins to a priest; (of a priest) listen to a person doing this

confession, n 1. confessing; instance of this

e.g. The accused man made a full confession. She is a good Catholic and goes to confession regularly.

2. declaration (of religious beliefs, or of principles of conduct, etc.)

e.g. a confession of faith

confessional, n private place in church where a priest sits to hear confessions

confessor, n priest who has authority to hear confessions.

daze, v make (a person) feel stupid or unable to think clearly

e.g. He looked dazed with drugs/was in a dazed state.

ç in a daze in a bewildered condition

deprive, v take away from; prevent from having, using or enjoying

e.g. trees that deprive the house of light

deprived, adj underprivileged, i.e. not having had the educational and social advantages enjoyed by more fortunate people, social classes, nations, etc.

fade out, v (cause to) become gradually weaker until it ceases

e.g. music faded out. This custom is slowly fading out. Memories of the homeland slowly faded out. The idea seemed to fade out.

Syn.: fade away, v; die away, v

grave, adj serious; requiring careful consideration

e.g. grave news

gravity, n quality of being serious or solemn

gravely, adv

grind, n (infml) long, monotonous task

e.g. Do you find learning English a grind?

Cf.: drudgery, n hard, unpleasant, uninteresting work

intellect, n 1. power of the mind to reason (contrasted with feeling and instinct)

e.g. Intellect distinguishes man from other animals.

2. (coll. sing, or pl) person of good understanding, reasoning power, etc.

e.g. the intellect(s) of the age.

intellectual, adj 1. of the intellect

e.g. intellectual pursuits

2. having or showing good reasoning power

e.g. intellectual people/interests

intellectual, n intellectual person

intellectually, adv

obstacle, n sth that stops progress or makes it difficult

e.g. obstacles to world peace.

regret, v 1. be sorry for the loss of; wish to have again

e.g. regret lost opportunities

2. feel sorry for; be sorry (to say, etc. that...)

e.g.. I regret that I cannot help.

regret, n 1. feeling of being sorry or sad at the loss of sth, or of annoyance or disappointment because sth has or has not or cannot be done

e.g. hear with regret that a friend is ill. Much to my regret I cannot accept your kind invitation.

2. (pl) (in polite expressions of refusal, etc.)

e.g. I have no regrets.

regretful, adj sad; sorry.

regretfully, adv

regrettable, adj to be regretted

e.g. regrettable failures

regrettably, adv

relay (generation to generation) v pass down; hand down (to sb), i.e. pass by tradition, inheritance, etc.

scorn, n 1. feeling that a person or thing deserves no respect

e.g. be filled with scorn for her; dismiss a suggestion with scorn

2. object of scorn

e.g. He was the scorn of the village.

scorn, v feel or show scorn for; refuse (to do sth because it is unworthy)

e.g. He scorned my advice. She scorns lying/to tell a lie.

scornful, adj showing or feeling scorn

e.g. scornful smile

scornfully, adv

thirst, n 1. feeling caused by a desire or need to drink; suffering caused by this

e.g. They died of thirst in the desert.

2. (fig) strong desire (for)

e.g. a thirst for knowledge

thirst, v 1. have thirst

2. be eager (for)

e.g. thirst for revenge.

thirsty, adj having or causing thirst

e.g. be/feel thirsty

 

NOTES

grade, n (Am E) a mark for the standard of a piece of schoolwork

e.g. She got good grades last semester.

Cf.: mark, n (Br E) a figure, letter, or sign which represents a judgment of the quality of someone's work, behaviour, performance in a competition, etc.

e.g. The highest mark in the test was 9 out of 10.

ç (fig) I'll give him full marks for trying. (= I think he tried very hard).


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