210.The Sad Young Men.doc

10. The Sad Young Men Rod W. Horton and Herbert W. Edwards 目的/重点 课文内容 10. The Sad Young Men Rod W. Horton and Herbert W. Edwards 　　 1 No aspect of life in the Twenties has been more commented upon and sensationally romanticized than the so-called Revolt of the Younger Generation. The slightest mention of the decade brings nostalgic recollections to the middle-aged and curious questionings by the young: memories of the deliciously illicit thrill of the first visit to a speakeasy, of the brave denunciation of Puritan morality, and of the fashionable experimentations in amour in the parked sedan on a country road; questions about the naughty, jazzy parties, the flask-toting sheik, and the moral and stylistic vagaries of the flapper and the drug-store cowboy. Were young people really so wild? present-day students ask their parents and teachers. Was there really a Younger Generation problem? The answers to such inquiries must of necessity be yes and no--Yes because the business of growing up is always accompanied by a Younger Generation Problem; no because what seemed so wild, irresponsible, and immoral in social behavior at the time can now be seen in perspective as being something considerably less sensational than the degenerauon of our jazzmad youth. 　　2 Actually, the revolt of the young people was a logical outcome of conditions in the age: First of all, it must be remembered that the rebellion was not confined to the Unit- ed States, but affected the entire Western world as a result of the aftermath of the first serious war in a century. Second, in the United States it was reluctantly realized by some- subconsciously if not openly -- that our country was no longer isolated in either politics or tradition and that we had reached an international stature that would forever prevent us from retreating behind the artificial walls of a provincial morality or the geographical protection of our two bordering oceans. 　　3 The rejection of Victorian gentility was, in a