Unit 3     

   Which of your senses do you enjoy the most? Which do you use the least? Sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch are at once survival tools, channels of information, sources of pleasure and pain -- and a fascinating subject to read and think about. The three texts in this unit encourage us to pay a bit more attention to the senses we usually take for granted -- to appreciate the way they work, the tricks they play, and the great joy they bring to our lives. Texts A and B concentrate on how children and adults can learn to experience the world with a never-ending freshness, while Text C contemplates the interesting things that can happen when we apply our sense of wonder to the world of work.

Text A    The Sense of Wonder

Rachel Carson

        A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that, for most of us, that clear-eyed vision -- that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring -- is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the angels who are supposed to preside over all children, I would ask that their gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life.

        If children are to keep alive their natural sense of wonder without any such gift from the angels, they need the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with the child the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in. Parents often feel inadequate when confronted on the one hand with the eager, sensitive mind of a child and on the other with a world of complex physical nature. In a mood of self-defeat, they exclaim, “How can I possibly teach my child about nature -- why, I don't even know one bird from another!”

       I sincerely believe that for children, and for parents seeking to guide them, it is not half so important to know as it is to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused -- a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love -- then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Once found, such knowledge has far more lasting meaning than mere information. It is more important to pave the way for children's desire to know than to put them on a diet of facts they are not ready to assimilate.

   Even if you feel you have little knowledge of nature at your disposal, there is still much you can do for your child. Wherever you are and whatever your resources, you can still look up at the sky -- its dawn and evening beauties, its moving clouds, its stars by night. You can listen to the wind, whether it blows with majestic voice through a forest or sings a many-voiced chorus around the corners of your apartment building, and in the listening, you can gain magical release for your thoughts. You can still feel the rain on your face and think of its long journey from sea to air to earth, and wonder at the mysteries of natural selection embodied in the perfume and flavor of a fruit. Even if you are a city dweller, you can find some place, perhaps a park or a golf course, where you can observe the mysterious migrations of the birds and the changing seasons. And with your child you can ponder the mystery of a growing seed, even if it's just one planted in a pot of earth in the kitchen window.

 What is the value of preserving and strengthening this sense of awe and wonder, this recognition of something beyond the boundaries of human existence? Is the exploration of the natural world just a pleasant way to pass the golden hours of childhood or is there something deeper?

  I am sure there is something much deeper, something lasting and significant. Those who dwell, as scientists or laypeople, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. Whatever the problems or concerns of their personal lives, their thoughts can find paths that lead to inner satisfaction and to renewed excitement in living. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.

   I like to remember the distinguished Swedish oceanographer, Otto Pettersson, who died a few years ago at the age of ninety-three, in full possession of his keen mental powers. His son has related in a recent book how intensely his father enjoyed every new experience, every new discovery concerning the world about him.

    "He was an incurable romantic," the son wrote, "intensely in love with life and with the mysteries of the universe." When he realized he had not much longer to enjoy the earthly scene, Otto Pettersson said to his son: "What will sustain me in my last moments is an infinite curiosity as to what is to follow."

新奇之感

雷切尔· 卡森

  孩子的世界是清新的，美丽的，充满了惊喜与激动的。不幸的是，对于我们大多数人来说，那种清纯视野中的世界----那种对美的和令人敬畏的东西的真正感悟----在我们成年之前就已淡化甚至消失殆尽了。倘若我能影响那些据认为能主宰所有孩童命运的天使们，我会请求他们赠予给世界上每个孩子一个礼物，这个礼物就是永不磨灭、持续终生的新奇之感。

  如果孩子们没有从天使们那里得到这样的礼物，而又要保持他们与生俱来的新奇之感的话，他们至少需要有一个能分享这种新奇感的成人陪伴他们，同他们一起重新发现这个世界的欢乐、激动和神秘。父母们一方面面对着孩子热切敏锐的头脑，另一方面面对着一个错综复杂的物质的自然界，所以经常会感到力不从心。他们自暴自弃地感叹道，“我怎么可能教我的孩子有关大自然的知识呢----嗨，我连两种不同的鸟都分不清楚！”

  我真诚地相信，对于孩子们和想要指导孩子的父母们来说，知道没有感受的一半重要。如果事实是以后能长出知识与智慧的种子，那么情感和感官印象则是种子必须赖以生长的沃土。幼儿时期就是培育土壤的时候。一旦情感被激起----一种对美的感受，对新的和未知事物的激动，一种同情、怜悯、敬慕或爱恋的感觉----我们就会渴望了解那些激起我们情感反应的事物。一旦找到，这种知识就比纯粹的信息具有持久得多的意义。为孩子们的求知欲铺平道路比向他们灌输一堆他们不准备吸收的事实更为重要。

  即使你觉得你掌握的自然知识甚为寥寥，你仍可以为你的孩子做许多事情。无论你身在何处，不管你智谋高低，你都依旧可以仰望天空----看它的拂晓与黄昏之美，看它的游云，看它夜晚时的星光。你可以倾听风的歌声，无论它是用威严的歌喉呼啸着穿过森林，还是在你的公寓大楼拐角处唱着多声部的合唱。而在倾听中，你可以让你的思想神奇地奔放。你仍然能感觉到打在你脸上的雨点，想着它从大海到天空到地面的漫长旅程，对水果的芳香所体现的自然选择的神奇惊叹不已。即使你是一个城市居民，你也能够找到某个地方，也许是一个公园或是一个高尔夫球场，在那儿能观察鸟类神奇莫测的迁徙和四季的交替。你可以和你的孩子一起思索种子生长之谜，即使它只是种在厨房窗台上的一盆泥土之中。

  同你的孩子一起探索大自然主要是一个乐意接受周围一切的问题。这是再一次学会用你的眼睛、耳朵、鼻子和指尖，打开你废弃不用的感觉通道。对于我们大多数人来说，有关我们这个世界的知识主要来自于视觉，然而我们正用如此视而不见的眼睛环顾四周，结果成了半盲之人。要想看见被你忽视的美，方法之一是问自己，“如果以前我从未见过这个会怎样？如果我知道我将永远再也见不到它会怎样？”

    保持并增强这种敬畏新奇的感觉，这种对于超越人类生存界限的事物的认识，有什么价值呢？对自然世界的探索仅仅是度过童年黄金时光的一种愉快的方式呢，还是其中蕴含着更深的东西？
  我确信有某种深刻得多的东西，某种持久而有意义的东西。那些生活在地球上美与神奇的东西之间的人们，不管是科学家还是普通人，永远不会孤单或对生活感到厌倦。无论他们的个人生活有什么问题或忧虑，他们的思想都能找到通往内心满足并对生活重燃激情的途径。那些凝视地球之美的人能找到终生受用的力量储备。在鸟类的迁徙中，在潮水的涨落中，在含苞待放的花蕾中，既有具体的美也有象征性的美。在大自然反反复复的循环中，有一种具有无限的治愈力的东西----那就是黑夜过后是黎明，冬天过后是春天的保证。

   我想提一下几年前以９３岁高龄去世时仍完全拥有其敏锐才智的杰出的瑞典海洋学家奥托· 彼得森。他儿子在最近出版的一本书中描述了他是多么喜欢每一次新的经历，每一次对其周围世界的新发现。

    “他是一个不可救药的浪漫主义者，”那位儿子写道，“他极其热爱生命和宇宙的奥秘。”当奥托· 彼得森意识到已经没有多少时间欣赏地球上的景象时，他对儿子说：“在我生命的最后时刻，仍然支撑着我的是对未来将要发生的情况的一种极大好奇。”