晨讀英語(yǔ)美文100篇四級(jí)No More Heroes?

所屬教程:晨讀英語(yǔ)美文100篇四級(jí)

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No More Heroes?
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Many articles have appeared in recent years,
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claiming that there are no more heroes in the Western world.
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The authors say that,
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particularly in Europe and North America,
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the young now refuse to admire anyone;
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that we are living in a world too well informed,
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too curious and critical for hero worship.
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The press, books, and television
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keep showing us the faults of the public figures
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who could become today’s stars,
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until we lose faith
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and start looking for defects in any person who seems worthy of respect.
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In a neighbor or a statesman,
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we try to discover the weaknesses, failures,
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or ugly motives that are surely hiding behind his noblest actions.
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Is it true that we know too much?
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Were our ancestors lucky to be only partly informed?
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Those who read the first biographies of Charlemagne,
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George Washington, Joan of Arc,
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or other great men and women of the past
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were not told that their hero had bad breath or disliked his mother;
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they only found a description of his great accomplishments
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and their admiration was strengthened.
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In fact, early biographers didn’t hesitate
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to make up an admirable story or two about their hero.
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The man who wrote the first biography of Washington,
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for instance, invented the cherry tree;
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he admitted later that there was no truth in it,
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but he said that it was in character
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and that it would give young men a good example to follow.
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His readers didn’t seem to object;
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the book was reprinted eighty times —
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a tremendous success in those days.
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Modern biographers do not invent such stories,
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they respect the facts,
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as indeed they should.
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But we pay a price for their truthfulness,
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for in their efforts to show “the whole person,”
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they tell us more than we really need to know about private lives,
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family secrets, and human weaknesses.
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The true greatness of a fine man is often forgotten in the display;
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and people lose not only their admiration for him,
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but their willingness to trust any other “star” completely.