Theme

 Today, everybody agrees that the world is getting smaller and smaller. As a result of globalization, we are now all living in a global village. This process has of course brought about drastic changes in our life, but in many ways, people still have not had enough time to adapt to these conditions. So what must we do under the present circumstances? How can we learn to live peacefully and in harmony with all our next door neighbors? This is the issue the author attempts to address in this short story. 

What do you think is the theme of the passage?

The overall structure of the article:

I. In what way I was miseducated. (paras. 1-4)

   The education I received concentrated on ________ and ignored ________.

II. Why this education was inadequate. (paras. 5-7)

    An education in________ cannot meet the needs of the age we are living in.

III. What kind of education we need. (paras. 8-10)

    We need an education with emphasis on the _______________________________.

IV. What this new education may bring about. ((para.11)

    A nation may come forward to play a ___________ role in humanity's efforts to solve its problems.

Think about the following questions. We'll discuss them in class.

    Paras. 1-6:

1. What kind of test does the author suggest? 

2. What marks the differences between the world in 1850 and the world now?

3. Why is “Asia and Africa” the best place to apply the test? 

4. What does the author’s education teach him? Give examples.

5. Why does he say that his education “protected me against surprise”?

6. What does the education fail to teach him? Do you agree with him? 

7. What time doe it possibly refer to in “at a time” at the end of para.4?

8. What is “the idea” in the first sentence of para.5? 

9. What are the things “I had to forget” in para.5 ?

10. When was possibly “only a few years ago”?

11. What does “an education in differences of references” possibly mean?

    Para. 7 :

12. What is “the great compression” that “came overnight”?

13. What can we get to know about the evolution of tribalism in intercultural communication in “tribalism had persisted from earliest times, though it had taken refined forms”? What are those “refined forms”?

14. Compared with the education mentioned in Para. 6, what can be expected from “an education in self-recognition”?

    Para. 8 

15. What is the fact exactly in “we begin with the fact that universe itself does not hold life cheaply”?

16. What sort of faculty or gift is “a creative intelligence”? What does it enable man to do in the author’s view? Can you explain “to reflect and foresee, to take in past experience, and also to visualize future needs”

    Para. 10

17. How would you understand “Next in order would be instruction in the unity of human needs”?

18. Why does the author say “However friendly the universe may be, it has left the conditions of human existence precariously balanced”? What are “the conditions of human existence”?

19. How can we use “self-understanding in the cause of human welfare”?

20. What are “the engines we have created that threaten to alter the precarious balance on which life depends”? Can you give some examples? 

    Para. 11

21. What does “some nation or people” possibly refer to in the text?

22. What sort of “leadership” is the author talking about?