Lesson27 Learning
The attitude toward writing that these students have developed is well illustrated by a story told by the Russian writer Chekhov about a kitten that was given to his uncle. The uncle wanted to make the kitten a champion killer of mice, so while it was still very young, he showed it a live mouse in a cage.
Since the kitten's hunting instinct had not yet developed, it examined the mouse curiously but without any hostility. The uncle wanted to teach it that such fraternizing with the enemy was wrong, so he slapped the kitten, scolded it and sent it away in disgrace.
The next day the same mouse was shown to the kitten again.
This time the kitten regarded it rather fearfully but without any aggressive intent. Again the uncle slapped it, scolded it and sent it away. This treatment went on day after day. After sometimes, as soon as the kitten saw or smelled that mouse, it screamed and tried to climb up the walls. At that point the uncle lost patience and gave the kitten away, saying that it was stupid and would never learn. Of course the kitten had learned perfectly, and had learned exactly what it had been taught, but unfortunately not what the uncle intended to teach. "I can sympathize with that kitten," says Chekhov, "because that same uncle tried to teach me Latin."

fraternize 友善交往
disgrace 耻辱

学习
俄罗斯作家契诃夫所讲述的关于一只送给他叔叔的小猫的故事很好地阐明了这些学生对写作的态度。叔叔想要把这只小猫训练成一只超级老鼠杀手。所以在猫还很小的时候，叔叔就向它展示一只关在笼子里的活老鼠。小猫的捕杀本能还没有发展起来，它只是好奇地打量着这只老鼠，没有一丝敌意。叔叔想要让它知道，对敌人这么友好是错的，于是就打了小猫一巴掌，训了它一顿，打发它灰溜溜地走了。
第二天，叔叔又把这只老鼠拿来展示给小猫。这一次，小猫有点胆怯地注视着老鼠，但是还是没有任何攻击的企图。于是叔叔又打了它一巴掌，骂了它几句，让它到一边去了。这样的情形天天如此，持续了好些天。过了一段时间，小猫一看到这只老鼠或者闻到它的味道，就会尖叫一声，想要朝墙上爬。到这时，叔叔再也忍受不下去了，就把小猫送人了，还说这只猫太笨了，不知道学习。当然，这只猫学得非常好，它学到了叔叔教给它的东西，然而遗憾的是，这不是叔叔想要教的。“我很同情这只猫，”契诃夫说，“因为正是这位叔叔试图要教我学拉丁语。”