互聯(lián)網(wǎng)除了能讓人讀到國外主要報紙之外，其實并不是青少年理想的閱讀材料的來源。網(wǎng)上是有不少有價值、有意思的內(nèi)容，但它們漂蕩在無聊瑣碎、雜七雜八、廢物垃圾的信息海洋中。有啟發(fā)性的書和雜志是孩子所需要的，例如，訂一份美國的《國家地理雜志》；而對于偏愛自然科 學(xué)的孩子則可以訂《科學(xué)美國人》，這樣會使英文讀寫能力正在上升的青少年有大量的擴大視野的文章可讀。
　　遺憾的是，據(jù)我所知，北京還沒有一個可以讓孩子們用來培養(yǎng)英文閱讀興趣的通用型英文圖書館。王府井外文書店三樓提供的書當(dāng)然很有價值，但這座城市的確很缺乏一家像在香港能找到的那種真正的英文書店。因此，父母就必須自己擔(dān)負起責(zé)任，確保孩子從國外回來后還能繼續(xù)讀到好的英文讀物。
    對于中國的父母們，我從來就理解不了的一點是他們對此事忽視的程度。一個成年人出國了，他在國內(nèi)有聰明的兒子或女兒，或侄子（侄女），或?qū)O子（孫女），這個成年人會專程去一家不錯的書店為那個孩子挑三四本引人入勝的英文書嗎？
　　到底為什么不呢？
　　如果一個聰明的中國孩子只在老師要求時讀老師規(guī)定的書，那么他將成長為學(xué)校的奴隸，依賴于控制他的母體。難道這就是教育所應(yīng)有的含義嗎？
　　（未完待續(xù)）
　　Apart from the access it offers to major foreign newspapers, the internet is not an ideal source of reading material for adolescents. There is much of great value and interest on line, but bobbing in a vast ocean of trivia, irrelevancies and garbage. Stimulating books and magazines are what the young person needs. For example, a subscription to the NationalGeographic Magazine or, for the scientifically inclined, the ScientificAmerican, will keep teenagers with a rising level of literacy in English abundantly supplied with horizon-widening articles.
　　Sad to say, Beijing does not, so far as I know, have a general-purpose English library that Chinese kids can use to build a taste for reading in English. The offerings on the third floor of the Foreign Language Bookstore on Wangfujing are certainly valuable, but this city very much lacks a true English bookstore of the sort found in Hongkong. Parents must therefore take it upon themselves to see that children returning from abroad continue to have access to good reading material in English.
　　One thing I have never understood about Chinese parents is the extent to which they will neglect this. A Chinese adult goes abroad; at home there is a bright son or daughter or niece or nephew or grandchild. Does the adult take a swing①through a good bookstore and pick out three or four fascinating books for that child?
　　Why on earth not?
　　If a bright Chinese child reads only what his teachers dictate when his teachers dictate it, then that the child will grow up to be a creature of the school, dependent on a matrix of control. Is that what education should mean?