外研版选修三册第一单元听力练习

Unit 1 Face values

Today, I'm going to talk to you about the famous “Blue-Eye / Brown-Eye” exercise conducted in 1968 by an elementary-school teacher Jane Elliott in Riceville, Iowa, in the USA. Since Martin Luther King, Jr. had just been killed, Elliott decided to do her part to demonstrate what racial prejudice was to her students.

First, she divided her third-grade class, which were all-white, into two groups based on their eye colour. Then, she told them that the brown-eyed students were better and smarter than the blue-eyed, while the blue-eyed students were lazy and stupid. The brown-eyed students then began treating the blue-eyed students badly. As a result, many of the blue-eyed students lost their self-confidence and did poorly in their school work.

The next day, Elliott explained to her students that she had been wrong – actually, the brown-eyed students were lazy and stupid, while the blue-eyed students were better and smarter. Now with the tables turned, the blue-eyed students treated the brown-eyed students badly, and the brown-eyed students lost their self-confidence.

After that, Elliott told the students that they were all equal, no matter their eye colour. At that point, many students began to cry and hug each other. They had all learned what it meant to face prejudice.

Elliott and the exercise became famous – and controversial – throughout the United States. Yet, Elliott's students learned something quite important: that the colour of our eyes or skin makes no difference. We are all members of the human race.

To sum up, Elliott proved that prejudice is learned – it is something we teach our children. And if it can be learned, then we teach our children something better – how to treat everyone right, without regard to race.