19-3-11 【英语美文】未来科幻《他们的乐趣》有温度的学校，面对面的老师，读纸质书

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The Fun They Had

By Isaac Asimov

1.      Margie even wrote about itthat night in her diary. On the page headed May 17, 2157, she wrote,"Today, Tommy found a real book!" It was a very old book. Margie'sgrandfather once said that when he was a little boy his grandfather told himthat there was a time when all stories were printed on paper. They turned thepages, which were yellow and crinkly,and it was awfully funny to read words that stood still instead of moving theway they were supposed to--on a screen you know.

2.      "Gee," said Tommy, "what a waste. When you're through with the book, you just throw it away, I guess. Our television screen must havehad a million books on it and it's good for plenty more. I wouldn't throw itaway." "Same with mine," said Margie. She was eleven and hadn'tseen as many telebooks as Tommy had. He was thirteen. She said: "Where didyou find it?"  "In myhouse." He pointed without looking, because he was busy reading. "Inthe attic." "What's itabout?" "School." Margie was scornful. "School? What's there to write about school? I hateschool."

3.      Margie always hatedschool, but now she hated it more than ever. The mechanical teacher had been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing worseand worse until her mother had shaken her head sorrowfully and sent for the CountyInspector. He was a round little man with a red face and a whole box oftools with dials and wires. Hesmiled at Margie and gave her an apple, then took the teacher apart.

4.      Margie had hoped hewouldn't know how to put it together again, but he knew how all right, and,after an hour or so, there it was again, large and black and ugly, with a bigscreen on which all the lessons were shown and the questions were asked. Thatwasn't so bad. The part Margie hated most was the slot where she had to put homework and test papers. She always hadto write them out in a punch code they made her learn when she wassix years old, and the mechanical teacher calculated the mark in no time. Margie was disappointed. She had been hoping theywould take the teacher away altogether. They had once taken Tommy's teacheraway for nearly a month because the history sector had blanked out completely.

5.      So she said to Tommy,"Why would anyone write about school?" Tommy looked at her with very superior eyes. "Because it's notour kind of school, stupid. This is the old kind of school that they hadhundreds and hundreds of years ago." He added loftily, pronouncing the word carefully, "Centuries ago."Margie was hurt. "Well, I don't know what kind of school they had all thattime ago." She read the book over his shoulder for a while, then said,"Anyway, they had a teacher."

6.      "Sure they had ateacher, but it wasn't a regular teacher. It was a man." "A man? Howcould a man be a teacher?" "Well, he just told the boys and girlsthings and gave them homework and asked them questions." "A man isn'tsmart enough." "Sure he is. My father knows as much as myteacher." "He can't. A man can't know as much as a teacher.""He knows almost as much, I betcha."

7.      Margie wasn't prepared to dispute that. She said, "Iwouldn't want a strange man in my house to teach me." Tommy screamed withlaughter. "You don't know much, Margie. The teachers didn't live in thehouse. They had a special building and all the kids went there." "Andall the kids learned the same thing?" "Sure, if they were the sameage."

8.      "But my mother says ateacher has to be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and girl it teaches andthat each kid has to be taught differently." "Just the same theydidn't do it that way then. If you don't like it, you don't have to read thebook." "I didn't say I didn't like it," Margie said quickly. Shewanted to read about those funny schools. They weren't even half-finished when Margie's mother called,"Margie! School!" Margie looked up. "Not yet, Mamma.""Now!" said Mrs. Jones. "And its probably time for Tommy,too."

9.      Margie said to Tommy,"Can I read the book some more with you after school?""Maybe," he said nonchalantly.He walked away whistling, the dusty old book tucked beneath his arm.

Margie went into the schoolroom. It was right next to herbedroom, and the mechanical teacher was on and waiting for her. It was alwayson at the same time every day except Saturday and Sunday, because her mothersaid little girls learned better if they learned at regular hours. The screenwas lit up, and it said:"Today's arithmetic lesson ison the addition of proper fractions.Please insert yesterday's homeworkin the proper slot."

10.  Margie did so with a sigh.She was thinking about the old schools they had when her grandfather'sgrandfather was a little boy. All the kids from the whole neighbourhood came,laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting together in the schoolroom,going home together at the end of the day. They learned the same things, sothey could help one another on the homework and talk about it.

11.  And the teachers werepeople...The mechanical teacher was flashing on the screen: "When we add the fractions 1/2 and 1/4..." Margie wasthinking about how the kids must have loved it in the old days. She wasthinking about the fun they had.