SO fiddle

Test Fiddle mainly for SO Questions

by Nick Craver

HTML

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.4/themes/overcast/jquery-ui.css">
<select name="operation" id="operation">
 <option value="1">XXXX</option>
 <option value="2">YYY</option>
 <option value="3">ZZZ</option>
</select>

JavaScript

var sel = document.getElementById('operation');
var text = sel.options[sel.selectedIndex].text;
alert(text);