试题详情

This year some twenty-three hundred teen-agers from all over the world will spend about ten months in U.S. homes. They will attend U.S. schools, meet U.S. teen-agers, and form lifelong impressions of the real America. At the same time, about thirteen hundred American teen-agers will go abroad to learn new languages and gain a new understanding of world problems. On returning home they, like others who have participated in the exchange program, will pass along their fresh impression to the youth groups in which they are active. 　　What have the visiting students discovered? A German boy says, “We often think of America only in terms of skyscrapers. Cadillacs, and gangsters. Americans think of Germany only in terms of Hitler and concentration camps. You can’t realize how wrong you are until you see for yourself.” 　　A Los Angeles girl says, “It’s the leaders of the countries who are unable to get along. The people get along just fine.” 　　Observe a two-way student exchange in action. Fred Herschbach, nineteen, spent last year in Germany at the home of George Pfafflin. In turn, Mr. Pfafflin’s son Michael spent a year in the Herschbach home in Texas. 　　Fred, lanky and lively, knew little German when he arrived, but after two months’ study the language began to come to him. School was totally different from what he had expected—much more formal, much harder. Students rose respectfully when the teacher entered the room. They took fourteen subjects instead of the six that are usual in the United States. There were almost no outside activities. 　　Family life, too, was different. The father’s word was law, and all activities revolved around the closely knit family unit rather than the individual. Fred found the food—mostly starches—monotonous at first. Also, he missed having a car. 　　“At home, you pick up some kids in a car and go out and haven good time. In Germany, you walk, but you soon get used to it.” 　　A warm-natured boy, Fred began to make friends as soon as he had mastered enough German to communicate. “I didn’t feel as if I were with foreigners. I felt as I did at home with my own people.” Eventually he was invited to stay at the homes of friends in many of Germany’s major cities. “One’s viewpoint is broadened,” he says, “by living with people who have different habits and backgrounds. You come to appreciate their points of view and realize that it is possible for all people in the world to come closer together. I wouldn’t trade this year for anything.” 　　Meanwhile, in Texas, Mike Pfafflin, a friendly German boy, was also forming independent opinions. “I suppose I should criticize the schools,” he says. “It was far too easy by our standards. But I have to admit that I liked it enormously In Germany we do nothing but study. I think that maybe your schools are better training for citizenship. There ought to be some middle ground between the two.” He took part in many outside activities, including the dramatic group. 　　Mike picked up a favorite adjective of American youth; southern fried chicken was “fabulous,” When expressing a regional point of view, he used the phrase “we Texans.” Summing up his year, he says with feeling, “America is a second home for me from now on. I will love it the rest of my life.” 　　This exciting exchange program was government sponsored at first; now it is in the hands of private agencies, including the American Field Service and the International Christian Youth Exchange. Screening committees make a careful check on exchange students and host homes. To qualify, students must be intelligent, adaptable, outgoing-potential leaders. Each student is matched, as closely as possible, with a young person in another country whose family has the same economic, cultural, and religious background. 　　After their years abroad, all students gather to discuss who, they observed. For visiting students to accept and approve of all they saw would be a defeat for the exchange program. They are supposed to observe evaluate, and come to fair conclusions. Nearly all who visited the United States agreed that they had gained faith in American ideals and deep respect for the U.S brand of democracy. All had made friendship that they were sure would last a life-time. Almost all were struck by the freedom demitted American youth. Many were critical, though, of the indifference to study in American schools, and of Americans’ lack of knowledge about other countries. 　　The opinions of Americans abroad were just as vigorous. A U.S. girl in Vienna: “At home, all we talk about is dating, movies, and clothes. Here we talk about religion, philosophy, and political problems. I am going to miss that.” 　　A U.S boy in Sweden: “I learned to sit at home, read a good book, and gain some knowledge. It I told them this back home, they would think I was a square.” 　　An American girl in Stuttgart, however, was very critical of the German school. “Over here the teacher is king, and you are somewhere far below. Instead of being friend and counselor, as in America the teacher is regarded as a foe—and behaves like it too!” 　　It costs a sponsoring group about a thousand dollars to give an exchange student a year in the United States. Transportation is the major expense, for bed, board, and pocket money are provided by volunteer families. There is also a small amount of federal support for the program. 　　For some time now, attempts have been made to include students from iron curtain countries. But so far the Communists have not allowed their young people to take part in this program which could open their eyes to a different world. 　　In Europe, however, about ten students apply for every place available, in Japan, the ratio is fifty to one. The student exchange program is helping these eager younger citizens of tomorrow learn a lot about the world today. Exchange students are generally placed in homes that are _____.