The essay can be divided into three parts.
Part 1 consists of the first two paragraphs. Paragraph 1 begins with a newspaper story about a little boy who honestly returned lost money to its owner and received a small reward from its owner for that. Paragraph 2 is a continued part of the story about how his teachers were angry because they thought the reward to the boy was too small, and took up a collection for the boy.
Part 2 is composed of Paragraphs 3 — 6, which are about what the story tells from the author’s analysis. Paragraph 3 analyzes the social roots of the decline of morality. In this fast-paced and instant world, people have lost the patience to wait for someone to pay dividends for their good deeds. Therefore, people don’t care about doing the right thing. Paragraph 4 proves with one specific example that erroneous virtues are running out of control in our culture. And Paragraph 5 shows with three examples that we seem to be on the brink of losing our internal control that guides our actions and feelings. In Paragraph 6 the author ascribes the reason for moral declining to a parade of incentives.
Part 3 is Paragraph 7. Paragraph 7 is about the author’s suggestion as to how to address the problem: Rebuilding virtues of honesty, kindness and integrity by setting examples for the young so as to save us from a downward spiral towards becoming morally bankrupt.
