A professor at the same university said that even after four years on campus, some of thecollege graduates could hardly read or write. And the ramifictions this situation brings to thenation are obvious, and will become even more so in the years to come. Those ramifictions arealready being felt in the cultural marketplace. A first work of fiction, if it has any luck at all, willsell perhaps 3000 copies in its hardback edition. Publishers and authors know not to expectmuch better thn that. And a record album? Well, a new group called Boston recently released analbum of the same name. It is their first record, so far it has sold 3.5 million copies.

Much of the problem is that we live in a passive age. To listen to a record album, to sit through a movie, to watch a television show---all require nothing of the cultural consumer, save hismere presence. To read a book, though, takes an act of will on the part of the consumer. Hemust genuinely want to find out wht is inside. He cannot just sit there; he must do something,even though the something is as simple an action as opening the book, closing the door andbeginning to read.

In generations before amy own, this was taken for granted as an important part of life. But now, in the day of the "information retrieval system," such a reverence is not being placed onthe reding, and then saving, of books. If a young American reads at all, he is far more likely topurchase a paperback that may be flipped through and then thrown away. In a disposableage, the book for keeping and rereading is an anachronism, a ponderous dinosaur in ahighspeed society.

就是这所大学里的一位教授说，即使在学校念下四年书来，有些大学毕业生仍旧不能读和写。这种状况给国家带来的后果是明显的，而且在今后的年月里将会更明显。我们说的后果已经在文化市场上体现了出来。一部一流的小说，如果有运气的话，可能卖出3，000本精装本。出版商和作家都明白，不能企望超过这个数目许多。而一套唱片呢?一个叫做波士顿的新乐队最近发行了以波士顿命名的一套唱片。这是他们制作的第一套唱片，迄今为止已销售了3，500，000份。

问题主要在于我们是生活在一个被动的年代。听一套唱片，看完一场电影，看电视节目--这些不需要文化消费者做任何事，只要他在场就行。而读一本书就要求消费者方面有毅力。他必须真正想知道书里说了什么。他不能仅仅坐在那里;他得做点事，即使这事十分简单，只不过就是动手翻开书本，关上门，然后开始读。

对我前面历代的人们来说，读书天经地义是构成生活的一个重要部分。但是现在，在这个“信息检索系统”的时代，读书和藏书已不能获得这种尊重。如果一位美国青年要读书，他很可能去买一册简装书，这样就可以很快地翻完，然后把它扔掉。在一个讲求把没用物品处理掉的时代里，要保存和重读书简直是与时代格格不入的行为，就像个笨重的恐龙在高速的社会里寸步难行。

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