新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第二册 unit8a_new

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[00:00.00]喜欢hxen.net，就把hxen.net复制到QQ个人资料中！There's a Lot More to Life than a Job
[00:05.29]It has often been remarked that the saddest thing about youth
[00:11.56]is that it is wasted on the young.
[00:15.91]Reading a survey report on first-year college students,
[00:21.35]I recalled the regret, "If only I knew then what I know now."
[00:29.12]The survey revealed what I had already suspected from informal polls
[00:36.40]of students both in Macon and at the Robins Resident Center:
[00:43.24]if it (whatever it may be) won't compute and you can't drink it,
[00:51.41]smoke it or spend it, then "it" holds little value.
[00:58.36]According to the survey based on responses from over 188,000 students,
[01:08.04]today's college beginners are "more consumeristic and less idealistic"
[01:16.10]than at any time in the seventeen years of the poll.
[01:22.08]Not surprising in these hard times,
[01:27.23]the students' major objective "is to be financially well off.
[01:34.50]Less important than ever is developing a meaningful philosophy of life
[01:41.95]Accordingly, today the most popular course
[01:47.32]is not literature or history but accounting.
[01:52.90]Interest in teaching, social service and the humanities is at a low
[02:00.35]along with ethnic and women's studies
[02:05.10]On the other hand, enrollment in business programs,
[02:11.54]engineering and computer science is way up.
[02:17.92]That's no surprise either.
[02:21.59]A friend of mine (a sales representative for a chemical company)
[02:28.25]was making twice the salary of college instructors
[02:34.12]during her first year on the job
[02:39.48]even before she completed her two-year associate degree
[02:45.56]I'll tell them what they can do with their (music, history, literature, etc.)
[02:54.02]she was fond of saying.
[02:57.48]And that was four years ago;
[03:01.66]I tremble to think what she's earning now
[03:06.52]Frankly, I'm proud of the young lady (not her attitude but her success)
[03:14.80]But why can't we have it both ways?
[03:19.66]Can't we educate people for life as well as for a career?
[03:25.92]I believe we can.
[03:29.59]If we can not, then it is a conviction against our educational system
[03:37.04]kindergarten, elementary, secondary and higher.
[03:42.84]In a time of increasing specialization,
[03:47.99]a time when 90 percent of all the scientists
[03:54.04]who have ever lived are currently alive,
[03:59.18]more than ever, we need to know what is truly important in life
[04:06.02]This is where age and maturity enter.
[04:10.99]Most people, somewhere between the ages of 30 and 50,
[04:18.23]finally arrive at the inevitable conclusion
[04:24.10]that they were meant to do more than serve a corporation,
[04:29.93]a government agency, or whatever.
[04:34.57]Most of us finally have the insight that quality of life
[04:41.70]is not entirely determined by a balance sheet.
[04:47.53]Sure, everyone wants to be financially comfortable,
[04:53.47]but we also want to feel we have a perspective on the world
[05:00.31]beyond the confines of our occupation;
[05:05.46]we want to be able to render service to our fellow man and to our God
[05:12.80]If it is a fact that the meaning of life does not dawn until middle age
[05:20.54]is it then not the duty of educational institutions
[05:26.92]to prepare the way for that revelation?
[05:31.85]Most people, in their youth, resent the Social Security deductions from their pay
[05:40.13]yet a seemingly few short years later
[05:45.17]find themselves standing anxiously by the mailbox.
[05:50.82]While it's true all of us need a career,
[05:55.86]preferably a prosperous one,
[05:59.75]it is equally true
[06:03.49]that our civilization has collected an incredible amount of knowledge
[06:11.05]in fields far removed from our own.
[06:16.09]And we are better for our understanding of these other contributions
[06:22.86]be they scientific or artistic.
[06:27.50]It is equally true that, in studying the diverse wisdom of others
[06:34.34]we learn how to think.
[06:38.30]More importantly, perhaps,