对木马赢家的一些看法

Reaction to the Rocking-Horse Winner

It is universally acknowledged that a good sheet of text should not only teach students language points, but also contain the spiritual values. However, never have I ever read a text better than the Rocking-Horse Winner complying with the two requirements above for it reminds me of the fact that the parents’ understandings toward the perfect life will always affects the development of their children.
In this short story written by B.H. Lawrence, a boy tried to win love from his family members, who concerned more about fortune as well as the social position rather than their relatives, by betting in horse-races with the young gardener of the family. When the boy made a fortune, his uncle, instead of stopping his nephew, took part in the betting group. Once the whole 5000 pounds the boy won was given to his parents by his uncle, the family was ready to lead an extravagant life, hence an even severe shortage of money. In order to improve the situation, the boy took pains to win a horse-race. Sorrowfully in the end, the family got 80000 pounds at the cost of the boy’s life.
I am indignant at the story. The boy, unsophisticated yet unlucky, forfeited his brief life misled by the motto--no money, no good luck, which was firmly believed by his parents. Similarly in the real society, on purpose or unconsciously, parents tend to have higher expectations on their children. Aren’t they ruining the future of their children to a certain extent? For example, nowadays a large amount of children are ordered to take hundreds of so-called advanced development lessons so that they will be more competitive in the future. There is no denying that the training institutions such as the New Oriental and the Crazy English are becoming increasingly welcomed one year after another in spite of the extremely expensive cost, and that the Chopin Piano Competition of the Children is more and more popular partly for the reason that the champion will be admitted to a key art school. However, children seem to be more precocious and even autistic than the past in a way while they ought to enjoy a carefree and cherished childhood. Thus I wonder whether those parents have ever realized that their children are too young to bear so much pressure. I even wonder whether it is worthy of having such lessons which is wearing down their interests. How can you imagine a person struggling to be successful at the sacrifice of his/her delighted childhood?
Unfortunately, in this modern society, nothing seems to be more serious than the lacking in communications between parents and children. Hadn’t the boy’s family paid too much attention to their social position, there wouldn’t be so severe shortage of money. Hadn’t the family pretended to act as a model family, regardless of the real requirement of the children, the boy wouldn’t be dead. There is no doubt that there is a lack of heart-to-heart communication in the family. Nowadays paren

ts spend too much time and energy on their career, ignoring the importance of the spiritual needs of their children. As if in their opinion, the more money, the more care. I’ve seen and read much reports on newspapers and TV’s about the youth’s criminal on account of a scarcity of concerns from the families.
Another problem is that children are frequently directed what should be done and what should not be done. Or it is better to say the future of the majority of the students is arranged or at least interfered by their parents, leading to a striking result that up to 80% of the students haven’t set up a clear goal and even set no goal about their future, according to a survey. In addition, it is likely that the majors the college students choose are no longer mainly based on their interests but whether they are perspective or not. And because of that, some college students are forced to choose the alleged “hot” majors, hoping their future to be brighter. Howbeit, it may also result in some bad influences. On one aspect, those students might not do well in their majors now that they have hardly ever passion as well as interests. On the other aspect, there might be too much pressure from the courses and the families as well. Once they become worn out of strength, some serious situations may take place. For instance, we are quite familiar with the shooting issues in the campuses in the USA. As occurs frequently the suicide incidents in the schools of China. The overwhelming majority of those situations are resulting from the overloaded pressure.
Therefore it is indeed necessary for parents to lower down their position to listen to the voice of their children. After all, children are children. They haven’t been old enough to understand the significance of the fortune as well as the social position. What they want is a praise of the success, an encouragement of the failure, an accompaniment of the happiness, and a comfort of the sorrow. They ought to be cherished to enjoy a carefree childhood with the curiosity of all the things around, instead of accepting things allowed. They should be respected to make their own choices mainly depending on their interests with the advice of the adults. They must be believed to have talents in a particular field, though that talent may not exist in study, in respect that in this constantly changing world, the score is not the only standard of measuring a talented person any more.
All in all, what adults do will always affect the children. Consequently, it is every grown-up’s duty to set a good example to the younger generations, and accompany their growing up.