Last summer, Steven Eaton received more than 200 young people on his organic farm. None of them said that they wanted to make money from farming. Some of them described it as a kind of protest against the idea that success means a big paycheck and many took it as a means to protect the environment.
Steven Eaton understands such idealists(理想主义者)and he was one of them about a decade ago. In 2010, he was in a law school in Washington, DC, but not enjoying it much. Then he applied to work on a farm in West Virginia in summer.
“I felt lost when I was in the city. It’s in the field that I found peace and harmony in my life,” recalls Eaton, who now runs an organic farm close to New York City. “So I went back to West Virginia after graduation.”
Farming—the independence and the connection to something as real as soil and food—was the one thing that he wanted to throw himself into. And he’s been doing it ever since.
But it wasn’t always a big happy folk dance.
“I had a lot of failures in the first couple of years and I didn’t really know what I was doing,” he laughs.
Eventually, he learned to be realistic about farming. “It’s good to be an idealist. But if you’re going to stick with it, and expect to make a living at it, you’ve got to be realistic about the business aspects: Money, managing money, borrowing money, and all the things that a business person has to do. You have to learn to like that and be willing to be good at that. That may even mean burning a little more fossil fuel, so you can get your produce to cities, where people pay higher prices.”
That sense of farming as a practical form of idealism is probably the biggest thing the young people have to learn. When you’re farming, you have to put survival first.
8. Why did many of the young people want to become farmers?
A.To make a lot of money. | B.To apply their learning to practice. |
C.To protect the environment. | D.To study the pollution in agriculture. |
9. Which of the following best describes Steven Eaton as a law student?
A.Idealistic. | B.Realistic. | C.Selfless. | D.Successful. |
10. What message does Steven Eaton want to convey to the young people?
A.Put environment before profit. |
B.Be realistic about the business aspects. |
C.Stick to your idealism forever. |
D.Find a much easier job than farming. |
11. What does the author think of Steven Eaton’s advice?
A.Outdated. | B.Useless. | C.Funny. | D.Valuable. |