qualified
adj. having suitable knowledge or experience for a particular job

rear
v. to care for a person or an animal until they are fully grown

resources
n. possessions in the form of wealth, property, skills, etc. that you have 資源

savage
n. an uncivilized human being

scroll
n. Here: a certificate of an academic degree

semester
n. one of the two periods into which the year is divided in American high schools and universities (=term in BrE)

sensitive
adj. able to understand or appreciate art, music or literature

shudder
v. to shake uncontrollably for a moment

specialize
v. to limit all or most of one's study to particular subjects 專修

species
n. (infml) a type; a sort

specimen
n. Here: a person who is unusual in some way and has a quality of a particular kind

spiritual
adj. related to your spirit rather than to your body or mind

store
v. to keep

suffice
v. to be enough

Proper Names

Aristotle
亞里士多德

Bach
巴赫

Chaucer
喬叟

Dante
但丁

Einstein
愛因斯坦

Hamlet
哈姆雷特
Homer
荷馬

La Rochefoucauld
拉羅什富科

Shakespeare
莎士比亞

Virgil
維吉爾

Text A

Another School Year — What For?

John Ciardi

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

Let me tell you one of the earliest disasters in my career as a teacher. It was January of 1940 and I was fresh out of graduate school starting my first semester at the University of Kansas City. Part of the student body was a beanpole with hair on top who came into my class, sat down, folded his arms, and looked at me as if to say "All right, teach me something." Two weeks later we started Hamlet. Three weeks later he came into my office with his hands on his hips. "Look," he said, "I came here to be a pharmacist. Why do I have to read this stuff?" And not having a book of his own to point to, he pointed to mine which was lying on the desk.
New as I was to the faculty, I could have told this specimen a number of things. I could have pointed out that he had enrolled, not in a drugstore-mechanics school, but in a college and that at the end of his course meant to reach for a scroll that read Bachelor of Science. It would not read: Qualified Pill-Grinding Technician. It would certify that he had specialized in pharmacy, but it would further certify that he had been exposed to some of the ideas mankind has generated within its history. That is to say, he had not entered a technical training school but a university and in universities students enroll for both training and education.
I could have told him all this, but it was fairly obvious he wasn't going to be around long enough for it to matter.
Nevertheless, I was young and I had a high sense of duty and I tried to put it this way: "For the rest of your life," I said, "your days are going to average out to about twenty-four hours. They will be a little shorter when you are in love, and a little longer when you are out of love, but the average will tend to hold. For eight of these hours, more or less, you will be asleep."
"Then for about eight hours of each working day you will, I hope, be usefully employed. Assume you have gone through pharmacy school — or engineering, or law school, or whatever — during those eight hours you will be using your professional skills. You will see to it that the cyanide stays out of the aspirin, that the bull doesn't jump the fence, or that your client doesn't go to the electric chair as a result of your incompetence. These are all useful pursuits. They involve skills every man must respect, and they can all bring you basic satisfactions. Along with everything else, they will probably be what puts food on your table, supports your wife, and rears your children. They will be your income, and may it always suffice."