"I promise." "I swear to you it'll never happen again." "I give you my word." "Honestly. B

elieve me." Sure, I trust. Why not？ I teach English composition at a private college. With a certain excitement and intensity, I read my students' essays, hoping to find the person behind the pen. As each semester progresses, plagiarism (剽窃) appears. Not only is my intelligence insulted as one assumes I won't detect a polished piece of prose from an otherwise-average writer, but I feel a sadness that a student has resorted to buying a paper from a peer. Writers have styles like fingerprints and after several assignments, I can match a student's work with his or her name even if it's missing from the upper left-hand corner.

Why is learning less important than a higher grade-point average (GPA)？ When we're threatened or sick, we make conditional promises. "If you let me pass math I will…" "Lord, if you get me over this before the big homecoming game I'll…" Once the situation is behind us, so are the promises. Human nature？ Perhaps, but we do use that cliché(陈词滥调) to get us out of uncomfortable bargains. Divine interference during distress is asked; gratitude is unpaid. After all, few fulfill the contract, so why should anyone be the exception. Why not？

Six years ago, I took a student before the dean. He had turned in an essay with the vocabulary and sentence structure of a PhD thesis. Up until that time, both his out-of-class and in-class work were borderline passing. I questioned the person regarding his essay and he swore it was his own work. I gave him the identical assignment and told him to write it in class, and that I'd understand this copy would not have the time and attention an out-of-class paper is given, but he had already a finished piece so he understood what was asked. He sat one hour, then turned in part of a page of unskilled writing and faulty logic. I confronted him with both essays. "I promise …, I'm not lying. I swear to you that I wrote the essay. I'm just nervous today."

The head of the English department agreed with my findings, and the meeting with the dean had the boy's parents present. After an hour of discussion, touching on eight of the boy's previous essays and his grade-point average, which indicated he was already on academic probation (留校查看), the dean agreed that the student had plagiarized. His parents protested, "He's only. a child" and we instructors are wiser and should be compassionate. College people are not really children and most times would resent being labeled as such… except in this uncomfortable circumstance.

According to the author, students commit plagiarism mainly for ______.

A．money

B．degree

C．higher GPA

D．reputation