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The Power of Little Hands: Children’s Misuse of Computers 小手遮天：小心孩子滥用电脑

课文朗读

课文讲解

繁體中文譯本  

Terms such as “chat room,” “screen name,” and “downloading” may not exactly go over the heads of older generation, but these terms certainly aren’t as familiar to them as they are to today’s youth. Modern young people might write letters rarely, but they can find friends in a chat room by their screen names, or download music and movies, like there’s no tomorrow.

老一辈的人或许对电脑流行语汇像「聊天室」、「屏幕昵称」、和「下载」不至于完全陌生，但年轻族群对这些语汇还是比老一辈人熟悉多了。现代年轻人或许绝少写信，不过他们能用屏幕昵称在聊天室里找到朋友，或没日没夜地下载音乐和电影。

Responsible parents wouldn’t dream of letting their children use power tools without proper instruction, but the same parents often don’t balk at allowing their kids relatively free Internet access. While these parents probably keep a tight grip on Internet issue such as pornography or stalkers, they often remain unaware of the damage their child could cause with freely available hacker programs or peer-to-peer file sharing software. Look yourself: such destructive programs are only a Google search and a mouse-click away.

有责任感的父母绝不会敢让小孩使用任何电动工具而不加以规范指导的，但同样这些父母却允许自己的小孩上网而几乎不加以约束。也许这些父母对色情网站或网络黑客这类问题管得很严，但却没有察觉免费取得的黑客软件或点对点档案分享软件会让孩子造成伤害。父母们不妨自己瞧瞧：这些杀伤力大的软件在Google网站上，用鼠标即弹指可得。

Most young people charged with Internet crime – like the American teenager who altered the Blaster virus and caused 7,000 computers to attack Microsoft – do not have a criminal record. You can help inculcate proper ethics in your children by discussing e-crime with them. Most importantly, a limited knowledge of computers should not be a barrier to discussing ethics with your child. For more information, consult www.cybercrime.gov.

大多数网络犯罪的年轻人──譬如改写电脑疾风病毒，使得七千台电脑集体攻击微软系统的那位美国年轻人──过去并没有犯罪纪录。父母可以和子女讨论网络犯罪话题，有助于灌输他们适当的道德规范。最重要的是，父母不要以为自己电脑知识有限就不与子女讨论道德观。倘若需要更详细的数据，可上下列网站参考 www.cybercrime.gov。

Vocabulary

单词发音

like there’s no tomorrow  像是沒有明天; 瘋狂地 eagerly; rapidly; without stopping.

balk [bɔk] v. 阻礙，阻止

grip [grɪp] n. 掌握；控制

pornography [pɔrˋnɑgrəfɪ] n. 色情圖片；色情電影

stalker [ˋstɔkɚ] n. 潛行而近者

inculcate [ˋɪnkʌl͵ket] v.【正式】灌輸〔觀念﹑原則等〕﹐教誨

ethics [ˋɛθɪks] n. 倫理觀；道德標準；（某種職業的）規矩

Sentence of the Day

“Teach your children well”

-          Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (1970)

「小孩需要好好教育。」

-          出自C. S.N.Y. 四重唱(克罗斯比、史提尔斯、纳许与尼尔‧扬) 1970年曲目。

课文讲解

Karen is talking to her husband, Steve, about their child’s computer use:  凯伦和她先生史提夫，谈论着有关他们小孩玩电脑的事：

K: There was a conference at Jimmy’s school today about Internet dangers for kids. The moderator emphasized the need to teach kids not to respond to aggressive postings or comments in chat rooms.

吉米学校今天有一场会议，讨论小孩上网的危害。主席强调必须教小孩千万不要在聊天室里响应那些激烈的张贴或言论。

S: Jimmy knows better than to respond to flaming. It’s like my grandma used to say, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

吉米懂得不要回应那些故意煽动的言论。就像我祖母讲的：「说不出好话，宁可不说。」

K: True enough. Jimmy’s a nice kid. But the moderator also pointed out that there’s a disparity between kids’ everyday values and their Internet values.

的确，吉米是个好孩子。不过主席也点明了，现在小孩的日常价值观和网络价值观之间有落差。

S: How so?

此话怎讲？

K: Well, most kids would never even think of stealing an apple, but wouldn’t bat an eye at downloading thousands of dollars of entertainment.

大多数小孩绝不会想去偷一颗苹果，但是眼睛眨都不眨地就从电脑下载数千元价值的娱乐内容。

S: Hey, we paid a buck for each of those songs Jimmy downloaded off the new Napster!

嘿，吉米从新的拿波斯特网站下载来的歌曲我们都有付费啊！

K: But we still have files sharing software on the computer. Even if we paid for those songs, it’s illegal to share them.

不过我们电脑里还是有装分享软件。那些歌曲即使我们都付费了，分享仍然算是违法。

S: You’ve got a point. Now that Internet service providers will be required to turn over the names of clients who upload or download private property ---

妳的话有点道理。既然网络服务供货商被要求以后要交出私自上载下载的客户名单──

K: We don’t want the FBI at our door with a search warrant.

我们不要搞到FBI人员带着搜索令来敲门的地步。

S: Agreed. We’ll talk with Jimmy over dinner, and ask him to delete that software.

我同意。晚餐时我们和吉米谈谈，请他删除那个软件。

－by Monica Moreland

Vocabulary

单词发音

moderator [ˋmɑdə͵retɚ] n. 會議主席；（電視等）節目主持人

posting [ˋpostɪŋ] n.（因特网上的）帖子

flaming [ˋflemɪŋ] n. 煽動

disparity [dɪsˋpærətɪ] n.【正式】〔兩個或兩個以上事物之間的〕不同; 差異; 懸殊

not bat an eye【口】不露聲色; 處之泰然  to not show any reaction

buck [bʌk] n.【美】【俚】元

turn over 把〔所有權〕交給〔某人〕

warrant [ˋwɔrənt] n. 授權令；逮捕狀；搜查令

Sentence of the Day

There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

天下沒有白吃的午餐。