大学英语精读听力第二册 2_un08

[00:00.00]Unit Eight  Text:
[00:23.90]Ever thought about cheating on a test?
[00:28.16] Of course not.But some students are not quite so honest...
[00:33.72]HONESTY:IS IT GOING OUT OF STYLE?
[00:37.96]Stacia Robbins According to a recent poll,
[00:43.99]61 percent of American high school students have admitted to cheating on exams at least once.
[00:52.14]It can be argued such a response may not mean much.
[00:57.42] After all, most students have been faced
[01:02.07]with the temptation to peek at a neighbor's test paper.
[01:07.03]And students can be hard on themselves in judging such behavior.
[01:12.59]However,there are other indications that high school cheating may be on the rise.
[01:19.65]More and more states are requiring students to pass competency tests
[01:26.10]in order to receive their high school diplomas.
[01:30.78]And many educators fear that an increase in the use of state exams
[01:36.84]will lead to a corresponding rise in cheating.
[01:41.88]A case in point is students in New York State
[01:46.84]who faced criminal misdemean or charges
[01:51.28]for possessing and selling advance copies of state Regents examinations.
[01:57.84]Cheating is now considered to be a major problem in colleges and universities.
[02:04.29]Several professors say they've dropped the traditional term paper requirement
[02:10.32] because many students buy prewritten term papers,
[02:15.65]and they can't track down all the cheaters anymore.
[02:20.41]Colleges and universities across the nation have decided to do
[02:25.87]more than talk about the rise in student cheating.
[02:30.73]For instance,the Department of Psychology
[02:35.79]at the University of Maryland launched a campaign to stop one form of cheating.
[02:43.24]As 409 students filled out of their exam,they found all but one exit blocked.
[02:51.10]Proctors asked each student to produce an ID card with an attached photo.
[02:57.87]Students who said they'd left theirs in the dorm or at home had a mug shot taken.
[03:04.63]The purpose of the campaign was to catch "ringers,"
[03:09.47]students who take tests for other students.
[03:14.30]The majority of students at the University of Maryland applauded the campaign.
[03:20.75]The campus newspaper editorial said,
[03:25.22]"Like police arresting speeders,the intent is not to catch everyone
[03:31.57]but rather to catch enough to spread the word."
[03:36.01]We frequently hear about "the good old days,"
[03:40.66]when Americans were better,happier, and more honest.
[03:46.01]But were they more honest?
[03:49.56]Maybe yes,a long time ago when life was very different from what it is today.
[03:56.33]School children used to know the story
[04:00.77]of how Abraham Lincoln walked five miles to return a penny he'd overcharged a customer.
[04:07.22]It's the kind of story we think of as myth.
[04:12.19]But in the case of Lincoln,the story is true...
[04:16.86]unlike the story of George Washington and the cherry tree.
[04:22.14]Washington's first biographer invented the tale of little George saying to his father,
[04:29.30]"I cannot tell a lie.
[04:32.82]I did it with my ax." What is important in both stories,however
[04:39.59]is that honesty was seen as an important part of the American character.
[04:45.75]And these are just two stories out of many.
[04:49.91]Students in the last century usually didn't read "fun" stories.
[04:56.15]They read stories that taught moral values.
[05:01.01]Such stories pointed out quite clearly that children who lied,
[05:06.96]cheated,or stole came to bad ends.
[05:12.11]Parents may have further reinforced those values. It's difficult to know.
[05:18.88]We do know that children didn't hear their parents talk of cheating the government on income taxes there weren't any.
[05:27.52]A clue as to why Americans may have been more honest in the past
[05:33.48]lies in the Abe Lincoln story.
[05:37.55]Lincoln knew his customer.They both lived in a small town.
[05:43.80]Would a check-out person at a large supermarket return money to a customer?