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U7 A
When honesty disappears
当诚实消失时
crowd
our
newspaper
pages
and
TV
news,
it
seems
that
honesty
is
a
rapidly
vanishing value. And
the reports indicate that, around the globe,
corruption and
dishonesty are so
widespread that the health and well-being of
society are at risk.
These reports
include stories such as the students who faced
criminal charges for
selling in advance
copies of a university final exam, a student who
was expelled
when he turned in a term
paper with the purchase receipt for it still
inside the
pages, and a clerk who ran
his own Christmas cards through the office postage
meter and was found out when he sent
one of the cards to the company treasurer!
We have all read or heard accounts such
as these, not to mention the stories of
dishonesty amongst all layers of
society as exemplified by consumers who steal
and politicians who demand bribes.
Travelers ripped off so many towels last year
that it cost a major hotel chain $$3
million to replace them. Especially troubling are
the reports that dishonesty is
increasing amongst student populations around the
world.
“有真正诚实的人吗？”
我们的报纸版面和电视新闻充斥着不计其数的有关欺骗、
说谎和诈
骗的报道，
诚实似乎已经成为正在迅速消失的价值观。
而且
这些报道表明，
全球范围内腐败
和不诚实现象蔓延范围之广已经
危及到了社会的安康。
这些报道中包括诸如此类的故事：
学
生因考试前贩卖大学期末考题而面临犯罪指控；
一名学生因提交买来
的、
还夹着收据的学期
论文而被勒令退学；
一名职员用公司的邮资机来邮寄自己的圣诞贺卡，
他在寄了一张贺卡给
公司的财务主管后被发现！
我们都读过或听过类似的事情，
< br>更别说社会各层面存在的种种不
诚实行为，
如偷窃东西的
顾和索取贿赂的政客。
去年一年，
一家大型连锁酒店的大量毛巾
被
游客偷走，酒店因此花费了
300
万美元来添臵新毛巾。尤其令人担忧的是，世界范围内有
关学生
不诚实行为的报道越来越多。
But are these
reports truly accurate or do they exaggerate the
situation? Should
we be alarmed by
these accounts of falling standards of principles
and morality?
The assumption is that
student dishonesty is more extensive now than it
was 20,
50, 100 years ago. If so,
what's behind it? If this is indeed the case, it's
deeply
troubling as today's students
are tomorrow's leaders! It's possible that the
desire
to cheat is no greater than in
the past. However, the critical importance of
having
a
university
degree
may
have
increased
the
pressure
to
cheat
in
academic
environments.
不过这些报道确实是真实的还是
言过其实了呢？我们该不该因这些关于行为准则和道德水
准下降的报道而感到不安呢？人
们认定现在学生中的不诚实现象比
20
年、
50
年或
100
年前更为广泛。
如果是这样，
其背后的原因是什么呢？如果情
况确实属实，
那就令人十分担
心了，
因
为今天的学生就是未来的领袖！
也许现在学生骗人的欲望并不比从前大。
然而，由
于大学学位至关重要，这可能给学生带来更大的压力，使他们在学术上
造假。
Undoubtedly, modern
technology facilitates the means and opportunities
to cheat.
The demanding task of writing
term papers has always been a source of tense
nerves and frustration, if not the
ultimate homework nightmare. But now, with
Internet access, illegal resources are
just a few links away.
毫无疑问，
现代科技使人更容易获得造假的方法和机会。
写学期论文这一艰巨的任务即便不
是最可怕的作业，
也一直是导致学生神经紧张和沮丧的原因之一。
但是现在，
网络唾手可得，
点击几下鼠标就能
找到非法的资源。
Modern students who
want to fake a term paper don't have to browse
long. They
only have to locate the
appropriate website, purchase or order online
papers, or
even download them for free.
One web service offers
lowest possible
prices
find other
be happy
and successful.
ultimate learning tool,
could become the best aid yet for cheating.
现在的学生如果想要伪造学期论文的话不必在网上浏览太长时间。
他们只需要
找到合适的网
址，然后购买或订购网上论文，或者甚至免费下载论文。一个网络服务站提
供“质量最高、
价格最低的论文”
，每页只需
< br>
5.95
美元。忙碌的、注重节约成本的学生还会找
到其他出售
“低价”论文的网站，这些网站向顾客许诺“你会既开心又成功。
”有些人担心，曾经被奉
为最棒的学习工具的互联网会成为作弊者最得力的
帮手。
To cope with the growing
plague of cheating, universities around the world
now
use anti-plagiarism software and
have very strict cheating and plagiarism policies.
If
students
are
caught
plagiarizing
or
cheating
in
any
way,
they
will
be
immediately expelled from school. Some
college faculty decided to do more than
talk about rising student cheating.
Professors at a major university launched a
campaign to try to eliminate one form
of cheating. As 409 students filed out of
their Introduction to Psychology exam,
they found all but one exit blocked. Test
monitors asked each student to produce
an ID card with an attached photo. If
they provided a satisfactory ID, they
were fine.
为解决作弊泛滥的问题，
世界各地的大
学现在都在使用反抄袭软件，
并且针对作弊和抄袭行
为有严厉的
惩罚政策。如果学生被抓到以任何方式抄袭或作弊，他们就会立刻被勒令退学。
一些大学
的教师不再只是谈论日益增多的学生作弊行为，
他们决定采取行动。
一所重点大学
的教授发起一项运动，努力消除一种作弊行为。当
409
名学生排队离开“心理学入门”考
试的考场时，
他们发现除了一个出口以外，
其他所有
的考场出口都被堵上了。
考官们要求学
生出示带有照片的身份证
件。
If
they
had
left
their
ID
at
home,
the
officials
confronted
them
and
took
their
picture. The purpose of the campaign
was to reveal hired cheaters, students who
take tests for other students. The
majority of students at the university applauded
the new strategy.
如果他们能够提供令人
满意的身份证件，
他们就可以离开。
如果他们把证件落在家里了
，
考
官们就会当面质问他们，
并拍下他
们的照片。
这项运动的目的就是要揭露那些雇来的作弊者，
即替
其他学生考试的学生。这所大学的大部分学生都对这个新举措拍手称快。
With awareness of increasing dishonesty
in today's society, it's sometimes implied
that in
they more honest?
Maybe yes, maybe no. Long ago, all American
schoolchildren
knew the historical
story of how Abraham Lincoln walked five miles to
return a
penny he had overcharged a
customer. It's the kind of story that we think of
as
myth. But in the case of Lincoln,
the story is true.