美國(guó)年輕人中“地理盲”居多(Youth in the United States "
young americans know little about world geography, with the majority unable to locate iraq on a map and three quarters unable to find indonesia, according to a study.
the roper poll conducted the survey on behalf of national geographic and found that most of the young adults questioned between the ages of 18 and 24 also had little knowledge about their own country, with half or fewer unable to identify the states of new york or ohio on a map.
moreover, the study said, many of those questioned were not bothered by their lack of geographic knowledge.
"half think it is 'important but not absolutely necessary' either to know where countries in the news are located or to be able to speak a foreign language," a report on the survey said.
the report said that that nine in ten could not find afghanistan on a map of asia and 70 percent could not find north korea.
when questioned about natural disasters, only 33% correctly chose pakistan from four possible choices as the country hit by a huge earthquake in october 2008.
the survey was conducted between december 2008 and january 2008 and involved 510 interviews.
national geographic released the survey on last tuesday in launching a five-year campaign to improve geographic literacy among young people in the united states.
"geographic illiteracy impacts our economic well-being, our relationships with other nations and the environment, and isolates us from our world," said john fahey, national geographic society president. "without geography, our young people are not ready to face the challenges of the increasingly interconnected and competitive world."
"美國(guó)年輕人中“地理盲”居多"英語作文譯文:
一項(xiàng)調(diào)查顯示，美國(guó)年輕人的世界地理知識(shí)相當(dāng)貧乏，大多數(shù)人在地圖上找不到伊拉克的位置，四分之三的人不知道印度尼西亞在哪里。
洛普民意研究中心代表美國(guó)國(guó)家地理協(xié)會(huì)做了此項(xiàng)調(diào)查，調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)：年齡在18歲至24歲間的多數(shù)受訪青年對(duì)本國(guó)的地理知識(shí)了解得也很少，其中近一半人無法在地圖上指出紐約州或俄亥俄州的具體位置。
調(diào)查還表明，很多受調(diào)查的年輕人對(duì)于缺乏地理知識(shí)并不以為然。
調(diào)查報(bào)告中說：“有一半的人認(rèn)為，雖然知道新聞中提到的國(guó)家的具體位置或會(huì)說一門外語‘很重要，但并不是絕對(duì)必需的’”。
報(bào)告中提到，90%的年輕人在亞洲地圖上找不到阿富汗，70%的人找不到北朝鮮。
當(dāng)問及發(fā)生自然災(zāi)害的國(guó)家時(shí)，僅有33%的人從四個(gè)選項(xiàng)中選出了巴基斯坦;巴基斯坦曾在2008年10月遭受了大地震的重創(chuàng)。
此項(xiàng)調(diào)查在去年12月至今年1月間進(jìn)行，共有510名調(diào)查對(duì)象參與。
美國(guó)國(guó)家地理協(xié)會(huì)于上周二公布了調(diào)查結(jié)果，此協(xié)會(huì)啟動(dòng)了一個(gè)五年計(jì)劃，旨在提高美國(guó)年輕人的地理知識(shí)水平。
國(guó)家地理協(xié)會(huì)主席約翰·費(fèi)伊說：“地理知識(shí)的貧乏對(duì)我們的經(jīng)濟(jì)繁榮、我國(guó)和其他國(guó)家的關(guān)系以及環(huán)境都會(huì)產(chǎn)生不良影響，并會(huì)將我們和外面的世界孤立開來。當(dāng)今世界，各國(guó)間的聯(lián)系日益緊密，競(jìng)爭(zhēng)也越來越激烈，如果沒有地理知識(shí)，美國(guó)的年輕人將無法應(yīng)對(duì)各種挑戰(zhàn)。”
