考研英语真题阅读理解试题及名师解析(22).doc

考研英语真题阅读理解试题及名师解析(22) 英语真题阅读理解试题及名师解析( 22) Americans today don ’t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education-not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren ’t difficult to find. “ Schools have always been ina society where practical is more important than intellectual, ” says education writer Diane Ravitch. “ Schools could bea counterbalance. ” Ravitch ’s latest bock, 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 intellectua l pursuits. But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot full y participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, say s writer Earl Shorris, “ We will e a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society. ”“ Intellect is resented asa 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-intell