第一篇 回顾与展望 - the Educator Login page!

***Euder Wiggin lay on his bed staring at the ceiling. Since becoming commander, he never slept more than fivehours a night. But the lights went off at 2200 and didn't come on again until 0600. Sometimes he worked at hisdesk, anyway, straining his eyes to use the dim display. Usually, though, he stared at the invisible ceiling andthought.Either the the teachers had heen kind to him after all, or he was a better commander than he thought. Hisragged little group of veterans, utterly without honor in their previous armies, were blossoming into capableleaders. So much so that instead of the usual four toons, he had created five, each with a toon leader and asecond; every veteran had a position. He had the army drill in eight man toon maneuvers and four-man halftoons,so that at a single command, his army could be assigned as many as ten separate maneuvers and carrythem out at once. No army had ever fragmented itself like that before, but Ender was not planning to do anythingthat had been done before, either. Most armies practiced mass maneuvers, preformed strategies. Ender had none.Instead he trained his toon leaders to use their small units effectively in achieving limited goals. Unsupported,alone, on their own initiative. He staged mock wars after the first week, savage affairs in the practice room thatleft everybody exhausted. But he knew, with less than a mouth of training, that his army had the potential ofbeing the best fighting group ever to play the game.How much of this did the teachers plan? Did they know they were giving him obscure but excellent boys? Didthey give him thirty Launchies, many of them underage, because they knew the little boys were quick learners,quick thinkers? Or was this what any similar group could become under a commander who knew what he wantedhis army to do, and knew how to teach them to do it?The question bothered him, because he wasn't sure whether he was confounding or fulfilling their expectations.All he was sure of was that he was eager for battle. Most armies needed three months because they had tomemorize dozens of elaboration formations. We're ready now. Get us into battle.The door opened in darknes. Ender listened. A shuffling step. The door closed.He rolled off his bunk and crawled in the darkness the two meters to the door. There was a slip of paper there.He couldn't read it, of course, but he knew what it was. Battle. How kind of them. I wish, and they deliver.第 186 页 共 340 页http://www.en8848.com.cn/ 原 版 英 语 阅 读 网