simplicity
n. the state of being simple

solar
adj. connected with the sun 太阳的

specific
adj. Particular

superficial
adj. on the surface 表面的

supreme
adj. highest in degree

terrain
n. a particular type of land, for example, hilly, rough, etc. 地形；地貌

tribalism
n. behavior and attitudes based on strong loyalty to your tribe

tribe
n. 部落

uniqueness
n. the state of being the only one of its type

varying
adj. different

vegetarian
adj. not in the habit of eating meat or fish
n. a person who does not eat meat or fish

visualize
v. to form a picture of sth. in your mind; to imagine

vital
adj. extremely important and necessary for sth. to succeed or exist

welfare
n. health, comfort, and happiness 福利；幸福；康乐

Text A

Confessions of a Miseducated Man

Norman Cousins

Read the text once for the main idea. Do not refer to the notes, dictionaries or the glossary yet.

These notes are in the nature of a confession. It is the confession of a miseducated man.
I have become most aware of my lack of a proper education whenever I have had the chance to put it to the test. The test is a simple one: am I prepared to live and comprehend a world in which there are 3 billion people? Not the world as it was in 1850 or 1900, for which my education might have been adequate, but the world today. And the best place to apply that test is outside the country — especially Asia or Africa.
Not that my education was a complete failure. It prepared me very well for a bird's-eye view of the world. It taught me how to recognize easily and instantly the things that make one place or one people different from another. Geography had instructed me in differences of terrain, resources, and productivity. Comparative culture had instructed me in the differences of background and group interests. Anthropology had instructed me in the differences of facial bone structure, skin color and general physical aspect. In short, my education protected me against surprise. I was not surprised at the fact that some people lived in mud huts and others in bamboo cottages; or that some used wood for fuel and others dung; or that some enjoyed music with a five-note scale and others with twelve; or that some people were vegetarian by religion and others by preference.
In those respects my education had been more than adequate. But what my education failed to do was to teach me that the principal significance of such differences was that they were largely without significance. The differences were all but wiped out by the similarities. My education had by-passed the similarities. It had failed to grasp and define the fact that beyond the differences are realities scarcely comprehended because of their very simplicity. And the simplest reality of all was that the human community was one — greater than any of its parts, greater than the separateness imposed by the nations, greater than the different faiths and loyalties or the depth and color of varying cultures. This larger unity was the most important central fact of our time — something on which people could build at a time when hope seemed misty, almost unreal.
As I write this, I have the feeling that my words fail to give force to the idea they seek to express. Indeed, the idea itself is a truth which all peoples readily accept even if they do not act on it. Let me put it differently, then. In order to be at home anywhere in the world I had to forget the things I had been taught to remember. It turned out that my ability to get along with other peoples depended not so much upon my comprehension of the uniqueness of their way of life as my comprehension of the things we had in common. It was important to respect these differences, certainly, but to stop there was like clearing the ground without any idea of what was to be built on it. When you got through comparing notes, you discovered that you were both talking about the same neighborhood, i.e., this planet, and the conditions that made it pleasant or hostile to human life.
Only a few years ago an education in differences of references fulfilled a specific if limited need. That was at a time when we thought of other places and peoples largely out of curiosity or in terms of unusual vacations. It was the mark of a rounded man to be well traveled and to know about the amazing variations of human culture and behavior. But it wasn't the type of knowledge you had to live by and build on.
Then overnight came the great compression. Far-flung areas which had been secure in their remoteness suddenly became crowded together in a single arena. And all at once a new type of education became necessary, an education in liberation from tribalism. For tribalism had persisted from earliest times, though it had taken refined forms. The new education had to teach man the most difficult lesson of all: to look at someone anywhere in the world and be able to recognize the image of himself. It had to be an education in self-recognition. The old emphasis upon superficial differences had to give way to education for mutuality and for citizenship in the human community.
In such an education we begin with the fact that the universe itself does not hold life cheaply. Life is a rare occurrence among the millions of galaxies and solar systems that occupy space. And in this particular solar system life occurs on only one planet. And on that one planet life takes millions of forms. Of all these countless forms of life, only one, the human species, possesses certain faculties in combination that give it supreme advantages over all the others. Among those faculties or gifts is a creative intelligence that enables man to reflect and foresee, to take in past experience, and also to visualize future needs. There are endless other wonderful faculties, the workings of which are not yet within our understanding — the faculties of hope, conscience, appreciation of beauty, kinship, love, faith.
Viewed in global perspective, what counts is not that the thoughts of people lead them in different directions but that all men possess the capacity to think; not that they pursue different faiths but that they are capable of spiritual belief; not that they write and read different books but that they are capable of creating print and communicating in it across time and space; not that they enjoy different art and music but that something in them enables them to respond deeply to forms and colors and ordered sounds.
These basic lessons, then, would seek to provide a proper respect for humanity in the universe. Next in order would be instruction in the unity of human needs. However friendly the universe may be, it has left the conditions of human existence precariously balanced. All people need oxygen, water, land, warmth, food. Remove any one of these and the unity of human needs is attacked and the human race with it. The next lesson would concern the human situation itself — how to use self-understanding in the cause of human welfare; how to control the engines we have created that threaten to alter the precarious balance on which life depends; how to create a peaceful society of the whole.
With such an education, it is possible that some nation or people may come forward not only with vital understanding but with the vital inspiration that people need no less than food. Leadership on this higher level does not require mountains of gold or thundering propaganda. It is concerned with human destiny; human destiny is the issue; people will respond.