21世纪大学英语读写教程第四册textA课文原文
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第四册unit1sectionA艺术家追求成名,如同狗自逐其尾,一旦追到手,除了继续追逐不知还能做些什么。
成功之残酷正在于它常常让那些追逐成功者自寻毁灭。
对一名正努力追求成功并刚刚崭露头角的艺术家,其亲朋常常会建议“正经的饭碗不能丢!”他们的担心不无道理。
追求出人头地,最乐观地说也困难重重,许多人到最后即使不是穷困潦倒,也是几近精神崩溃。
尽管如此,希望赢得追星族追捧和同行赞扬之类的不太纯洁的动机却在激励着他们向前。
享受成功的无上光荣,这种诱惑不是能轻易抵挡的。
成名者之所以成名,大多是因为发挥了自己在歌唱、舞蹈、绘画或写作等方面的特长,并能形成自己的风格。
为了能迅速走红,代理人会极力吹捧他们这种风格。
他们青云直上的过程让人看不清楚。
他们究竟是怎么成功的,大多数人也都说不上来。
尽管如此,艺术家仍然不能闲下来。
若表演者、画家或作家感到无聊,他们的作品就难以继续保持以前的吸引力,也就难以保持公众的注意力。
公众的热情消磨以后,就会去追捧下一个走红的人。
有些艺术家为了不落伍,会对他们的写作、跳舞或唱歌的风格稍加变动,但这将冒极大的失宠的危险。
公众对于他们藉以成名的艺术风格以外的任何形式都将不屑一顾。
知名作家的文风一眼就能看出来,如田纳西·威廉斯的戏剧、欧内斯特·海明威的情节安排、罗伯特·弗罗斯特或T.S.艾略特的诗歌等。
同样,像莫奈、雷诺阿、达利这样的画家,希区柯克、费里尼、斯皮尔伯格、陈凯歌或张艺谋这样的电影制作人也是如此。
他们鲜明独特的艺术风格标志着与别人不同的艺术式上的重大变革,这让他们名利双收,但也让他们付出了代价,那就是失去了用其他风格或形式表现自我的自由。
名气这盏聚光灯可比热带丛林还要炙热。
骗局很快会被揭穿,过多的关注带来的压力会让大多数人难以承受。
它让你失去自我。
你必须是公众认可的那个你,而不是真实的你或是可能的你。
艺人,就像政客一样,必须常常说些违心或连自己都不完全相信的话来取悦听众。
Unit 1A "never surrender" attitude. If great achievers share anything, said Simonton, it is an unrelenting drive to succeed. "There's a tendency to think that they are endowed with something super-normal," he explained. "But what comes out of the research is that there are great people who have no amazing intellectual processes. It's a difference in degree. Greatness is built upon tremendous amounts of study, practice and devotion."He cited Winston Churchill, Britain's prime minister during World War II, as an example of a risk-taker who would never give up. Thrust into office when his country's morale was at its lowest, Churchill rose brilliantly to lead the British people. In a speech following the Allied evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940, he inspired the nation when he said, "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end...We shall never surrender."Can you be born great? In looking at Churchill's role in history—as well as the roles of other political and military leaders—Simonton discovered a striking pattern: "Firstborns and only children tend to make good leaders in time of crisis: They're used to taking charge. But middle-borns are better as peacetime leaders: They listen to different interest groups better and make the necessary compromises. Churchill, an only child, was typical. He was great in a crisis, but in peacetime he was not effective—not even popular."Unit 2Some persons refrain from expressing their gratitude because they feel it will not be welcome. A patient of mine, a few weeks after his discharge from the hospital, came back to thank his nurse. "I didn't come back sooner," he explained, "because Iimagined you must be bored to death with people thanking you.""On the contrary," she replied, "I am delighted you came. Few realize how much we need encouragement and how much we are helped by those who give it."Gratitude is something of which none of us can give too much. For on the smiles, the thanks we give, our little gestures of appreciation, our neighbors build up their philosophy of life.Unit 3The normal Western approach to a problem is to fight it. The saying, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going," is typical of this aggressive attitude toward problem-solving. No matter what the problem is, or the techniques available for solving it, the framework produced by our Western way of thinking is fight. Dr. de Bono calls this vertical thinking; the traditional, sequential, Aristotelian thinking of logic, moving firmly from one step to the next, like toy blocks being built one on top of the other. The flaw is, of course, that if at any point one of the steps is not reached, or one of the toy blocks is incorrectly placed, then the whole structure collapses. Impasse is reached, and frustration, tension, feelings of fight take over.Lateral thinking, Dr. de Bono says, is a new technique of thinking about things—a technique that avoids this fight altogether, and solves the problem in an entirely unexpected fashion.In one of Sherlock Holmes's cases, his assistant, Dr. Watson, pointed out that a certain dog was of no importance to the case because it did not appear to have done anything. Sherlock Holmes took the opposite point of view and maintained that the fact the doghad done nothing was of the utmost significance, for it should have been expected to do something, and on this basic he solved the case.Lateral thinking sounds simple. And it is. Once you have solved a problem laterally, you wonder how you could ever have been hung up on it. The key is making that vital shift in emphasis, that sidestepping of the problem, instead of attacking it head-on.Dr. A. A. Bridger, psychiatrist at Columbia University and in private practice in New York, explains how lateral thinking works with his patients. "Many people come to me wanting to stop smoking, for instance," he says. "Most people fail when they are trying to stop smoking because they wind up telling themselves, 'No, I will not smoke; no, I shall not smoke; no, I will not; no, I cannot...' It's a fight and what happens is you end up smoking more.""So instead of looking at the problem from the old ways of no, and fighting it, I show them a whole new point of view—that you are your body's keeper, and your body is something through which you experience life. If you stop to think about it, there's really something helpless about your body. It can do nothing for itself. It has no choice, it is like a baby's body. You begin then a whole new way of looking at it—‘I am now going to take care of myself, and give myself some respect and protection, by not smoking.'Unit 4When a student's work did not measure up to the teacher's expectations, as often happened, the student was not treated with disappointment, anger, or annoyance. Instead, the teacher assumed that this was an exception, an accident, a bad day, amomentary slip —and the student believed her and felt reassured. The next time around, he tried harder, determined to live up to what the teacher knew he could do. The exact part of communication that tells a child, "I expect the best," is difficult to pinpoint. In part it consists of a level tone showing assurance, a lack of verbal impatience, an absence of negative qualities such as irony, put-downs, and irritation. The teacher who expects the best asks her questions with conviction, knowing the answers she gets will be right, and the child picks up that conviction.Unit 5I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive. I certainly wasn't seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America. Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was, "What's your alma mater?" I told him, "Books." You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I'm not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man...Unit 6EQ is not the opposite of IQ. Some people are blessed with a lot of both, some with littleof either. What researchers have been trying to understand is how they complement each other; how one's ability to handle stress, for instance, affects the ability to concentrate and put intelligence to use. Among the ingredients for success, researchers now generally agree that IQ counts for about 20%; the rest depends on everything from class to luck to the neural pathways that have developed in the brain over millions of years of human evolution.Unit 7As a child, I identified so strongly with my mother that I thought my father was just a long-term house guest with spanking privileges. She and I are bookish, introverted worriers. My father is an optimist who has never had a sleepless night in his life.Like most fathers and sons, we fought. But there was no cooling-off period between rounds. It was a cold war lasting from the onset of my adolescence until I went off to college in 1973.I hated him. He was a former navy fighter pilot, with an Irish temper and a belief that all the problems of the world—including an overprotected son who never saw anything through to completion—could be cured by the application of more discipline.。
21世纪大学英语读写教程(第四册)Unit1课文原文《Who Is Great?》Michal Ryan As a young boy, Albert Einstein did so poorly in school that teachers thought he was slow. The young Napoleon Bonaparte was just one of hundreds of artillery lieutenants in the French Army. And the teenage George Washington, with little formal education, was being trained not as a soldier but as a land surveyor.Despite their unspectacular beginnings, each would go on to carve a place for himself in history. What was it that enabled them to become great? Were they born with something special? Or did their greatness have more to do with timing, devotion and, perhaps, an uncompromising personality?For decades, scientists have been asking such questions. And, in the past few years, they have found evidence to help explain why some people rise above, while others—similarly talented, perhaps—are left behind. Their findings could have implications for us all.Who is great? Defining who is great depends on how one measures success. But there are some criteria. "Someone who has made a lasting contribution to human civilization is great," said Dean Keith Simonton, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis and author of the 1994 book Greatness: Who Makes History and Why. But he added a word of caution: "Sometimes great people don't make it into the history books. A lot of women achieved great things or were influential but went unrecognized."In writing his book, Simonton combined historical knowledge about great figures with recent findings in genetics, psychiatry and the social sciences. The great figures he focused on include men and women who have won Nobel Prizes, led great nations or won wars, composed symphonies that have endured for centuries, or revolutionized science, philosophy, politics or the arts. Though he doesn't have a formula to define how or why certain people rise above (too many factors are involved), he has come up with a few common characteristics.A "never surrender" attitude. If great achievers share anything, said Simonton, it is an unrelenting drive to succeed. "There's a tendency to think that they are endowed with something super-normal," he explained. "But what comes out of the research is that there are great people who have no amazing intellectual processes. It's a difference in degree. Greatness is built upon tremendous amounts of study, practice and devotion."He cited Winston Churchill, Britain's prime minister during World War II, as an example of a risk-taker who would never give up. Thrust into office when his country's morale was at its lowest, Churchill rose brilliantly to lead the British people. In a speech following the Allied evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940, he inspired the nation when he said, "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end...We shall never surrender."Can you be born great? In looking at Churchill's role in history—as well as the roles of other political and military leaders—Simonton discovered a striking pattern: "Firstborns and only children tend to make good leaders in time of crisis: They're used to taking charge. But middle-borns are better as peacetime leaders: They listen to different interest groups better and make the necessary compromises. Churchill, an only child, was typical. He was great in a crisis, but in peacetime he was not effective—not even popular."Timing is another factor. "If you took George Washington and put him in the 20th century he would go nowhere as a politician," Simonton declared. "He was not an effective public speaker, and he didn't like shaking hands with the public. On the other hand, I'm not sure Franklin Roosevelt would have done well in Washington's time. He wouldn't have had the radio to do his fireside chats."Can you be too smart? One surprise among Simonton's findings is that many political and military leaders have been bright but not overly so. Beyond a certain point, he explained, other factors, like the ability to communicate effectively, become more important than innate intelligence as measured by an IQ test. The most intelligent U.S. Presidents, for example—Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson and John F. Kennedy—had a hard time getting elected, Simonton said, while others with IQs closer to the average (such as Warren G. Harding) won by landslides. While political and economic factors also are involved, having a genius IQ is not necessary to be a great leader.In the sciences, those with "genius level" IQs do have a better chance at achieving recognition, added Simonton. Yet evidence also indicates that overcoming traditional ways of thinking may be just as important.He pointed to one recent study where college students were given a set of data and were asked to see if they could come up with a mathematical relation. Almost a third did. What they did not know was that they had just solved one of the most famous scientific equations in history: the Third Law of Planetary Motion, an equation that Johannes Kepler came up with in 1618.Kepler's genius, Simonton said, was not so much in solving a mathematical challenge. It was in thinking about the numbers in a unique way—applying his mathematical knowledge to his observations of planetary motion. It was his boldness that set him apart.Love your work. As a child, Einstein became fascinated with the way magnets are drawn to metal. "He couldn't stop thinking about this stuff," Simonton pointed out. "He became obsessed with problems in physics by the time he was 16, and he never stopped working on them. It's not surprising that he made major contributions by the time he was 26.""For most of us, it's not that we don't have the ability," Simonton added, "it's that we don't devote the time. You have to put in the effort and put up with all the frustrations and obstacles."Like other creative geniuses, Einstein was not motivated by a desire for fame, said Simonton. Instead, his obsession with his work was what set him apart.Where such drive comes from remains a mystery. But it is found in nearly allcreative geniuses—whether or not their genius is acknowledged by contemporaries."Emily Dickinson was not recognized for her poetry until after her death," said Simonton. "But she was not writing for fame. The same can be said of James Joyce, who didn't spend a lot of time worrying about how many people would read Finnegans Wake."Today, researchers have evidence that an intrinsic passion for one's work is a key to rising above. In a 1985 study at Brandeis University conducted by Teresa Amabile, now a professor of business administration at Harvard University, a group of professional writers—none famous—were asked to write a short poem. Each writer was then randomly placed in one of three groups: One group was asked to keep in mind the idea of writing for money; another was told to think about writing just for pleasure; and a third group was given no instruction at all.The poems then were submitted anonymously to a panel of professional writers for evaluation. The poetry written by people who thought about writing for money ranked lowest. Those who thought about writing just for pleasure did the best. "Motivation that comes from enjoying the work makes a significant difference, "Amabile said.。
21世纪大学英语读写教程第四册课后练习答案及翻译(Unit1-Unit6)Unit 1Text AComprehension of text1. He defines greatness as the lasting contribution which a person makes or has made to human civilization.2. The example of Churchill shows the importance of persistence and dedication in achieving greatness.3. Firstborns and only children tend to make good leaders in times of crisis, but middle- born children are better peacetime leaders.4. A 20th century politician should be an effective public speaker and a social person.5. Intelligence seems to be less important than other factors, such as the ability to communicate effectively.6. The ability to overcome traditional ways of thinking is also crucial.7. They simply don‟t devote the amount of time required.8. The study showe d that enjoying one‟s work is the best form of motivation.V ocabulary1 chat 2.acknowledge 3.motivated 4.charcteristic5 despite 6.influential 7.cited 8.obstacle9 intrinsic 10.criteria 11.obsession 12.innate13 contribution(s) 14.contemporary 15.submitted 16.morale1 left behind 2.rise 3.made history 4.were endowed with5 put up with 6.going nowhere 7.ifocuses on 8.be built on9 put in e up with 11.take charge 12.set...apartWord buildingefficiency emergency fluency frequencyproficiency tendency urgency sufficiency1 fluency 2.proficiency 3.emergency4.Efficiency 5 tendency 6.frequencyStructure1. For some students, it's not that they don't put in enough time —it's that they don‟t have good study habits.2. Children perform differently at school. It's not that they have different IQs — it's that they arebrought up in different environments.3. The company is not very productive. It's not that its staff aren't talented — it's that their energy hasn't been channeled effectively.4. I‟m really sorry. It's not that I don't want to go to the cinema with you— it's that I have to finish my paper tonight.5. You have a stomachache. It's not that the food was bad — it's probably that you have too much stress from your work.1. President Wilson didn't try to bring the US back to economic and political isolation. Instead, he believed in international cooperation through an association of nations.puters don't teach students in groups. Instead, they can help them learn effectively according to their different needs.3. We shouldn't focus on minor points. Instead, we should try to solve the problem of the greatest urgency at present.4. He doesn‟t get anybody else to help him. Instead, he likes to attend to everything himself.5. Teaching success shouldn't be measured by the scores the students receive on tests. Instead, it should be measured by whether the students have internalized the ability and desire to learn. Close1-5 BCBAD6-10 DCABA11-15 DABCATransition西蒙顿说,如果事业上取得巨大成就者具有什么共性的话,那就是一种持续不断地追求成功的动力。
21世纪大学英语读写教程第四册课后练习答案及翻译(Unit1-Unit6)Unit 1Text AComprehension of text1. He defines greatness as the lasting contribution which a person makes or has made to human civilization.2. The example of Churchill shows the importance of persistence and dedication in achieving greatness.3. Firstborns and only children tend to make good leaders in times of crisis, but middle- born children are better peacetime leaders.4. A 20th century politician should be an effective public speaker and a social person.5. Intelligence seems to be less important than other factors, such as the ability to communicate effectively.6. The ability to overcome traditional ways of thinking is also crucial.7. They simply don‟t devote the amount of time required.8. The study showe d that enjoying one‟s work is the best form of motivation.V ocabulary1 chat 2.acknowledge 3.motivated 4.charcteristic5 despite 6.influential 7.cited 8.obstacle9 intrinsic 10.criteria 11.obsession 12.innate13 contribution(s) 14.contemporary 15.submitted 16.morale1 left behind 2.rise 3.made history 4.were endowed with5 put up with 6.going nowhere 7.ifocuses on 8.be built on9 put in e up with 11.take charge 12.set...apartWord buildingefficiency emergency fluency frequencyproficiency tendency urgency sufficiency1 fluency 2.proficiency 3.emergency4.Efficiency 5 tendency 6.frequencyStructure1. For some students, it's not that they don't put in enough time —it's that they don‟t have good study habits.2. Children perform differently at school. It's not that they have different IQs — it's that they arebrought up in different environments.3. The company is not very productive. It's not that its staff aren't talented — it's that their energy hasn't been channeled effectively.4. I‟m really sorry. It's not that I don't want to go to the cinema with you— it's that I have to finish my paper tonight.5. You have a stomachache. It's not that the food was bad — it's probably that you have too much stress from your work.1. President Wilson didn't try to bring the US back to economic and political isolation. Instead, he believed in international cooperation through an association of nations.puters don't teach students in groups. Instead, they can help them learn effectively according to their different needs.3. We shouldn't focus on minor points. Instead, we should try to solve the problem of the greatest urgency at present.4. He doesn‟t get anybody else to help him. Instead, he likes to attend to everything himself.5. Teaching success shouldn't be measured by the scores the students receive on tests. Instead, it should be measured by whether the students have internalized the ability and desire to learn. Close1-5 BCBAD6-10 DCABA11-15 DABCATransition西蒙顿说,如果事业上取得巨大成就者具有什么共性的话,那就是一种持续不断地追求成功的动力。
【关键字】大学Unit 1If great achievers share anything, said Simonton, it is an unrelenting drive to succeed. There’s a tendency to think that they are endowed with something super-normal, he explained. But what comes out of the research is that there are great people who have no amazing intellectual processes. It’s a difference in degree. Greatness is built upon tremendous amounts of study, practice and devotion.He cited Winston Churchil l, ’s prime minister during World War 2, as an example of arisk-taker who would never give up. Thrust into office when his country's morale was at its lowest, Churchill rose brilliantly to lead the British people. In a speech following the Allied evacuation at in 1940,he inspired the nation when he said, We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end... We shall never surrender.西蒙顿说,如果成就巨大者具有什么共性的话,那就是一种坚持不懈地追求成功的动力。
Unit2He was born in a poor area of South London. He wore his mother's old red stockings cut down for ankle socks. His mother was temporarily declared mad.Dickens might have created Charlie Chaplin's childhood. But only Charlie Chaplin could have created the great comic character of "the Tramp", the little man in rags who gave his creator permanent fame.Other countries—France, Italy, Spain, even Japan—have provided more applause (and profit) where Chaplin is concerned than the land of his birth.Chaplin quit Britain for good in 1913 when he journeyed to America with a group of performers to do his comedy act on the stage, where talent scouts recruited him to work for Mack Sennett, the king of Hollywood comedy films.Sad to say, many English people in the 1920s and 1930s thought Chaplin's Tramp a bit, well, "crude". Certainly middle-class audiences did; the working-class audiences were more likely to clap for a character who revolted against authority, using his wicked little cane to trip it up, or aiming the heel of his boot for a well-placed kick at its broad rear. All the same, Chaplin's comic beggar didn't seem all that English or even working-class. English tramps didn't sport tiny moustaches, huge pants or tail coats: European leaders and Italian waiters wore things like that. Then again, the Tramp's quick eye for a pretty girl had a coarse way about it that was considered, well, not quite nice by English audiences—that's how foreigners behaved, wasn't it? But for over half of his screen career, Chaplin had no screen voice to confirm his British nationality.Indeed, it was a headache for Chaplin when he could no longer resist the talking movies and had to find "the right voice" for his Tramp. He postponed that day as long as possible: In Modern Times in 1936, the first film in which he was heard as a singing waiter, he made up a nonsense language which sounded like no known nationality. He later said he imagined the Tramp to be a college-educated gentleman who'd come down in the world. But if he'd been able to speak with an educated accent in those early short comedies, it's doubtful if he would have achieved world fame. And the English would have been sure to find it "odd". No one was certain whether Chaplin did it on purpose but this helped to bring about his huge success.He was an immensely talented man, determined to a degree unusual even in the ranks of Hollywood stars. His huge fame gave him the freedom—and, more importantly, the money—to be his own master. He already had the urge to explore and extend a talent he discovered in himself as he went along. "It can't be me. Is that possible? How extraordinary," is how he greeted the first sight of himself as the Tramp on the screen.But that shock roused his imagination. Chaplin didn't have his jokes written into a script in advance; he was the kind of comic who used his physical senses to invent his art as he went along. Lifeless objects especially helped Chaplin make "contact" with himself as an artist. He turned them into other kinds of objects. Thus, a broken alarm clock in the movie The Pawnbroker became a "sick" patient undergoing surgery; boots were boiled in his film The Gold Rush and their soles eaten with salt and pepper like prime cuts of fish (the nails being removed like fish bones). This physical transformation, plus the skill with which he executed it again and again, is surely the secret of Chaplin's great comedy.He also had a deep need to be loved—and a corresponding fear of being betrayed.The two were hard to combine and sometimes—as in his early marriages—the collision between them resulted in disaster. Yet even this painfully-bought self-knowledge found its way into his comic creations. The Tramp never loses his faith in the flower girl who'll be waiting to walk into the sunset with him; while the other side of Chaplin makes Monsieur Verdoux, the French wife killer, into a symbol of hatred for women.It's a relief to know that life eventually gave Charlie Chaplin the stability and happiness it had earlier denied him. In Oona O'Neill Chaplin, he found a partner whose stability and affection spanned the 37 years age difference between them, which had seemed so threatening, that when the official who was marrying them in 1942 turned to the beautiful girl of 17 who'd given notice of their wedding date, he said, "And where is the young man? "—Chaplin, then 54, had cautiously waited outside. As Oona herself was the child of a large family with its own problems, she was well prepared for the battle that Chaplin's life became as many unfounded rumors surrounded them both—and, later on, she was the center of calm in the quarrels that Chaplin sometimes sparked in his own large family of talented children.Chaplin died on Christmas Day 1977.A few months later, a couple of almost comic body thieves stole his body from the family burial chamber and held it for money. The police recovered it with more efficiency than Mack Sennett's clumsy Keystone Cops would have done, but one can't help feeling Chaplin would have regarded this strange incident as a fitting memorial—his way of having the last laugh on a world to which he had given so many.Unit3A welfare client is supposed to cheat.Everybody expects it. Faced with sharinga dinner of raw pet food with the cat, manypeople in wheelchairs I know bleed thesystem for a few extra dollars. They tellthe government that they are getting twohundred dollars less than their realpension so they can get a little extrawelfare money. Or, they tell thecaseworker that the landlord raised therent by a hundred dollars.I have opted to live a life ofcomplete honesty. So instead, I go out anddrum up some business and draw cartoons.I even tell welfare how much I make! Oh,I'm tempted to get paid under the table.But even if I yielded to that temptation,big magazines are not going to getinvolved in some sticky situation. Theykeep my records, and that informationgoes right into the government's computer.Very high-profile.As a welfare client I'm expected tobow before the caseworker. Deep down,caseworkers know that they are being madefools of by many of their clients, andthey feel they are entitled to haveclients bow to them as compensation. I'mnot being bitter. Most caseworkers beginas college-educated liberals with highideals. But after a few years in a systemthat practically requires people to lie,they become like the one I shall call"Suzanne", a detective in shorts.Not long after Christmas last year,Suzanne came to inspect my apartment andsaw some new posters pasted on the wall."Where'd you get the money for those? "she wanted to know."Friends and family.""Well, you'd better have a receiptfor it, by God. You have to report anydonations or gifts."This was my cue to beg. Instead, Italked back. "I got a cigarette fromsomebody on the street the other day. DoI have to report that? ""Well, I'm sorry, but I don't makethe rules, Mr. Callahan."Suzanne tries to lecture me aboutrepairs to my wheelchair, which is alwaysbreaking down because welfare won't spendmoney maintaining it properly."You know,Mr. Callahan, I've heard that you put alot more miles on that wheelchair thanaverage."Of course I do. I'm an active worker,not a vegetable. I live near downtown, soI can get around in a wheelchair. I wonderwhat she'd think if she suddenly broke herhip and had to crawl to work.Government cuts in welfare haveresulted in hunger and suffering for a lotof people, not just me. But people withspinal cord injuries felt the cuts in aunique way: The government stopped takingcare of our chairs. Each time mine brokedown, lost a screw, needed a new rollerbearing, the brake wouldn't work, etc.,and I called Suzanne, I had to endure alittle lecture.Finally, she'd say, "Well,if I can find time today, I'll call themedical worker."She was supposed to notify themedical worker, who would certify thatthere was a problem. Then the medicalworker called the wheelchair repaircompanies to get the cheapest bid. Thenthe medical worker alerted the mainwelfare office at the state capital. Theyconsidered the matter for days while I layin bed, unable to move. Finally, if I waslucky, they called back and approved therepair.When welfare learned I was makingmoney on my cartoons, Suzanne started"visiting" every fortnight instead ofevery two months. She looked into everycorner in search of unreported appliances,or maids, or a roast pig in the oven, ora new helicopter parked out back. Shenever found anything, but there wasalways a thick pile of forms to fill outat the end of each visit, accounting forevery penny.There is no provision in the law fora gradual shift away from welfare. I aman independent businessman, slowlybuilding up my market. It's impossible tojump off welfare and suddenly be makingtwo thousand dollars a month. But I wouldlove to be able to pay for some of myliving and not have to go through anembarrassing situation every time I needa spare part for my wheelchair.There needs to be a lawyer who canact as a champion for the rights ofwelfare clients, because the system soeasily lends itself to abuse by thewelfare givers as well as by the clients.Welfare sent Suzanne to look around in myapartment the other day because thechemist said I was using a larger thanusual amount of medical supplies. I was,indeed: The hole that has been surgicallycut to drain urine had changed size andthe connection to my urine bag wasleaking.While she was taking notes, my phonerang and Suzanne answered it. The callerwas a state senator, which scared Suzannea little. Would I sit on the governor'scommittee and try to do something aboutthe thousands of welfare clients who,like me, could earn part or all of theirown livings if they were allowed to do so,one step at a time?Hell, yes, I would! Someday peoplelike me will thrive under a new systemthat will encourage them, not seek toconvict them of cheating. They will befree to develop their talents withoutguilt or fear—or just hold a good, steadyjob.Unit4A transformation is occurring thatshould greatly boost living standards inthe developing world. Places that untilrecently were deaf and dumb are rapidlyacquiring up-to-date telecommunicationsthat will let them promote both internaland foreign investment. It may take adecade for many countries in Asia, LatinAmerica, and Eastern Europe to improvetransportation, power supplies, andother utilities. But a single opticalfiber with a diameter of less than halfa millimete can carry more informationthan a large cable made of coppe wires.By installing optical fiber, digitalswitches, and the latest wirelesstransmission systems, a parade of urbancenters and industrial zones from Beijingto Budapest are stepping directly intothe Information Age. A spider's web ofdigital and wireless communication linksis already reaching most of Asia and partsof Eastern Europe.All these developing regions seeadvanced communications as a way to leapover whole stages of economic development.Widespread access to informationtechnologies, for example, promises tocondense the time required to change fromlabor-intensive assembly work toindustries that involve engineering,marketing, and design. Moderncommunications "will give countries likeChina and Vietnam a huge advantage overcountries stuck with old technology".How fast these nations should pushahead is a matter of debate. Many expertsthink Vietnam is going too far byrequiring that all mobile phones beexpensive digital models, when it isdesperate for any phones, period. "Thesecountries lack experience in weighingcosts and choosing betweentechnologies," says one expert.Still, there's little dispute thatcommunications will be a key factorseparating the winners from the losers.Consider Russia. Because of its strongeducational system in mathematics andscience, it should thrive in theInformation Age.The problem is itsnational phone system is a rusting antiquthat dates from the l930s. To lick thisproblem, Russia is starting to installoptical fiber and has a strategic plan topump $40 billion into variouscommunications projects.But its economyis stuck in recession and it barely hasthe money to even scratch the surface ofthe problem.Compare that with the mainland ofChina. Over the next decade, it plans topour some $100 billion intotelecommunications equipment. In a way,China's backwardness is an advantage,because the expansion occurs just as newtechnologies are becoming cheaper thancopper wire systems. By the end of 1995,each of China's provincial capitalsexcept for Lhasa will have digitalswitches and high-capacity optical fiberlinks. This means that major cities aregetting the basic infrastructure tobecome major parts of the informationsuperhighway, allowing people to log onto the most advanced services availableTelecommunications is also a key toShanghai's dream of becoming a topfinancial center.To offer peak performance inproviding the electronic data andpaperless trading global investorsexpect, Shanghai planstelecommunications networks as powerfulas those in Manhattan.Meanwhile, Hungary also hopes tojump into the modern world. Currently,700,000 Hungarians are waiting for phones.To partially overcome the problem offunds and to speed the import of Westerntechnology, Hungary sold a 30% stake inits national phone company to two Westerncompanies.To further reduce the waitinglist for phones, Hungary has leasedrights to a Dutch-Scandinavian group ofcompanies to build and operate what itsays will be one of the most advanceddigital mobile phone systems in theworld.In fact, wireless is one of the mostpopularways to get a phone system up fastin developing countries. It's cheaper tobuild radio towers than to string linesacross mountain ridges, and businesseseager for reliable service are willing toaccept a significantly higher price tagfor a wireless call—the fee is typicallytwo to four times as much as for calls madeover fixed lines.Wireless demand and usage have alsoexploded across the entire width andbreadth of Latin America. For wirelessphone service providers, nowhere isbusiness better than in LatinAmerica—having an operation there islike having an endless pile of money atyour disposal. Bellsouth Corporation,with operations in four wireless markets,estimates its annual revenu per averagecustomer at about $2,000 as compared to$860 in the United States. That's partlybecause Latin American customers talk twoto four times as long on the phone aspeople in North America.Thailand is also turning to wireless,as a way to allow Thais to make better useof all the time they spend stuck intraffic. And it isn't that easy to callor fax from the office: The waiting listfor phone lines has from one to twomillion names on it. So mobile phones havebecome the rage among businesspeople whocan remain in contact despite the trafficjams.Vietnam is making one of the boldestleaps. Despite a per person income of just$220 a year, all of the 300,000 linesVietnam plans to add annually will beoptical fiber with digital switching,rather than cheaper systems that sendelectrons over copper wires. By going fornext-generation technology now,Vietnamese telecommunications officialssay they'll be able to keep pace withanyone in Asia for decades.For countries that have lagged behindfor so long, the temptation to move aheadin one jump is hard to resist. And despitethe mistakes they'll make, they'llpersist—so that one day they can cruisealongside Americans and WesternEuropeans on the informationsuperhighway.Unit5Here we are, all by ourselves, all22 million of us by recent count, alonein our rooms, some of us liking it thatway and some of us not. Some of usdivorced, some widowed, some never yetcommitted.Loneliness may be a sort ofnational disease here, and it's moreembarrassing for us to admit than anyother sin. On the other hand, to bealone on purpose, having rejectedcompany rather than been cast out by it,is one characteristic of an Americanhero. The solitary hunter or explorerneeds no one as they venture out amongthe deer and wolves to tame the greatwild areas. Thoreau, alone in his cabinon the pond, his back deliberatelyturned to the town. Now, that'scharacter for you.Inspiration in solitude is a majorcommodity for poets and philosophers.They're all for it. They all speakhighly of themselves for seeking it out,at least for an hour or even two beforethey hurry home for tea.Para4 Consider Dorothy Wordsworth,for instance, helping her brotherWilliam put on his coat, finding hisnotebook and pencil for him, and wavingas he sets forth into the early springsunlight to look at flowers all byhimself. "How graceful, how benign, issolitude," he wrote.No doubt about it, solitude isimproved by being voluntary.Look at Milton's daughtersarranging his cushions and blanketsbefore they silently creep away, so hecan create poetry. Then, rather thantrouble to put it in his own handwriting,he calls the girls to come back andwrite it down while he dictates.You may have noticed that most ofthese artistic types went outdoors tobe alone.The indoors was full of loved oneskeeping the kettle warm till they camehome.The American high priest ofsolitude was Thoreau. We admire him,not for his self-reliance, but becausehe was all by himself out there atWalden Pond, and he wanted to be—allalone in the woods.Actually, he lived a mile, or 20minutes' walk, from his nearestneighbor; half a mile from the railroad;three hundred yards from a busy road.He had company in and out of the hut allday, asking him how he could possiblybe so noble. Apparently the main pointof his nobility was that he had neitherwife nor servants, used his own axe tochop his own wood, and washed his owncups and saucers. don't know who did hislaundry; he doesn't say, but hecertainly doesn't mention doing his own,either. Listen to him: "I never foundthe companion that was so companionableas solitude."Thoreau had his ownself-importance for company. Perhapsthere's a message here: The larger theego, the less the need for other egosaround. The more modest and humble wefeel, the more we suffer from solitude,feeling ourselves inadequate company.If you live with other people,their temporary absence can berefreshing.Solitude will end on Thursday. Iftoday I use a singular personal pronounto refer to myself, next week I will usethe plural form. While the others areabsent you can stretch out your souluntil it fills up the whole room, anduse your freedom, coming and going asyou please without apology, staying uplate to read, soakin in the bath, eatinga whole pint of ice cream at one sitting,moving at your own pace. Those absentwill be back. Their waterproof wintercoats are in the closet and the dogkeeps watching for them at the window.But when you live alone, the temporaryabsence of your friends andacquaintances leaves a vacuum; they maynever come back.The condition of loneliness risesand falls, but the need to talk goes onforever.It's more basic than needing tolisten. Oh, we all have friends we cantell important things to, people we cancall to say we lost our job or fell ona slippery floor and broke our arm.It's the daily succession of smallcomplaints and observations andopinions that backs up and chokes us.We can't really call a friend to say wegot a parcel from our sister, or it'sgetting dark earlier now, or we don'ttrust that new Supreme Court justice.Scientific surveys show that wewho live alone talk at length toourselves and our pets and thetelevision. We ask the cat whether weshould wear the blue suit or the yellowdress.We ask the parrot if we shouldprepare steak, or noodles for, dinner.We argue with ourselves over who is thegreater sportsman: that figure skateror this skier. There's nothing wrongwith this.It's good for us, and a lotless embarrassing than the woman infront of us in line at the market who'stelling the cashier that her nieceMelissa may be coming to visit onSaturday, and Melissa is very fond ofhot chocolate, which is why she boughtthe powdered hot chocolate mix, thoughshe never drinks it herself.It's important to stay rational.It's important to stop waiting andsettle down and make ourselvescomfortable, at least temporarily, andfind some grace and pleasure in ourcondition, not like a self-centeredBritish poet but like a patientprincess sealed up in a tower, waitingfor the happy ending to our fairy tale.After all, here we are. It may notbe where we expected to be, but for thetime being we might as well call it home.Anyway, there is no place like home.Recently the rise in the phenomenon of Internet has cause public concern.With the rapid development of Internet,more and more people is attracted to Internet.How will our life go on without the internet?Of all the questions I have heard,this is the one most frequently voicedInternet is a common occurrence in our daily life,whatever we do, Internet cannot be avoid. Internet make our life become not only wonderful but also convenient.This kind of phenomenon performance in many ways.For one thing,it makes our work become more and more convenient.For another, the Internet gives kids access to information in ways prior generations couldn`t even have imagined.Still another,the Internet can increase our entertainment,such as network games and online chat.We can make friends from all over the world though the Internet.These days we are often told that the Internet is perfect,but is this really the case?Just as a coin has two sides,the Internet brings many benefits and opportunities,however,everything has two aspects.Let`s bring our discussion here to a more present and practical context.In today`s world,more and more people cannot afford the temptation so that a lot of people become addicted to online games,drugs and gambling.Worse still,many people feel stuck without the Internet.In a word,from what has been discussion above,we may safely reach the conclusion that the Internet is not perfect.Worse still,addicts cannot function as normal members of society.They neglect or abuse their families,friends,and eventually strangers.We must call for an immediate method,because the current problem phenomenon of cyber addition,if allowed to procceed,will surely lead to a heavyprice.It is essential that effective measure should be taken to correct tendency.。
21世纪大学英语读写教程第四册Unit1课文讲解21世纪大学英语读写教程第四册Unit1课文讲解导语:作为一个年轻的男孩,爱因斯坦在学校做得很差,老师觉得他很慢。
年轻的拿破仑·波拿巴只是法国陆军数百名火炮中尉之一。
乔治·华盛顿少年,没有受过正规教育,正在接受训练,不是作为士兵,而是作为土地测量师。
谁是伟大的?下面这篇英语课文将详叙这方面的内容,欢迎阅读。
Pre-reading ActivitiesFirst ListeningBefore listening to the tape, have a quick look at the following words.genetics遗传学psychiatry精神病学persistent坚持不懈的Second ListeningListen to the tape again and then answer the following questions.1.What question did professor Simonton's research project seek to answer?2.What three personality traits of great people are mentioned?a) __________________________________________________________.b) __________________________________________________________.c) __________________________________________________________.3.What negative trait of "great" people is mentioned?4. Does professor Simonton believe that great people aremore often mentally ill than other people?Who Is Great?Michael RyanAs a young boy, Albert Einstein did so poorly in school that teachers thought he was slow. The young Napoleon Bonaparte was just one of hundreds of artillery lieutenants in the French Army. And the teenage George Washington, with little formal education, was being trained not as a soldier but as a land surveyor.Despite their unspectacular beginnings, each would go on to carve a place for himself in history. What was it that enabled them to become great? Were they born with something special? Or did their greatness have more to do with timing, devotion and, perhaps, an uncompromising personality?For decades, scientists have been asking such questions. And, in the past few years, they have found evidence to help explain why some people rise above, while others—similarly talented, perhaps—are left behind. Their findings could have implications for us all.Who is great? Defining who is great depends on how one measures success. But there are some criteria. "Someone who has made a lasting contribution to human civilization is great," said Dean Keith Simonton, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis and author of the 1994 book Greatness: Who Makes History and Why. But he added a word of caution: "Sometimes great people don't make it into the history books. A lot of women achieved great things or were influential but went unrecognized."In writing his book, Simonton combined historical knowledge about great figures with recent findings in genetics,psychiatry and the social sciences. The great figures he focused on include men and women who have won Nobel Prizes, led great nations or won wars, composed symphonies that have endured for centuries, or revolutionized science, philosophy, politics or the arts. Though he doesn't have a formula to define how or why certain people rise above (too many factors are involved), he has come up with a few common characteristics.A "never surrender" attitude. If great achievers share anything, said Simonton, it is an unrelenting drive to succeed. "There's a tendency to think that they are endowed with something super-normal," he explained. "But what comes out of the research is that there are great people who have no amazing intellectual processes. It's a difference in degree. Greatness is built upon tremendous amounts of study, practice and devotion."He cited Winston Churchill, Britain's prime minister during World War II, as an example of a risk-taker who would never give up. Thrust into office when his country's morale was at its lowest, Churchill rose brilliantly to lead the British people. In a speech following the Allied evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940, he inspired the nation when he said, "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end...We shall never surrender."Can you be born great? In looking at Churchill's role in history—as well as the roles of other political and military leaders—Simonton discovered a striking pattern: "Firstborns and only children tend to make good leaders in time of crisis: They're used to taking charge. But middle-borns are better as peacetime leaders: They listen to different interest groups better and make the necessary compromises. Churchill, an only child, was typical. He was great in a crisis, but in peacetime he was not effective—not even popular."Timing is another factor. "If you took George Washington and put him in the 20th century he would go nowhere as a politician," Simonton declared. "He was not an effective public speaker, and he didn't like shaking hands with the public. On the other hand, I'm not sure Franklin Roosevelt would have done well in Washington's time. He wouldn't have had the radio to do his fireside chats."Can you be too smart? One surprise among Simonton's findings is that many political and military leaders have been bright but not overly so. Beyond a certain point, he explained, other factors, like the ability to communicate effectively, become more important than innate intelligence as measured by an IQ test. The most intelligent U.S. Presidents, for example—Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson and John F. Kennedy—had a hard time getting elected, Simonton said, while others with IQs closer to the average (such as Warren G. Harding) won by landslides. While political and economic factors also are involved, having a genius IQ is not necessary to be a great leader.In the sciences, those with "genius level" IQs do have a better chance at achieving recognition, added Simonton. Yet evidence also indicates that overcoming traditional ways of thinking may be just as important.He pointed to one recent study where college students were given a set of data and were asked to see if they could come up with a mathematical relation. Almost a third did. What they did not know was that they had just solved one of the most famous scientific equations in history: the Third Law of Planetary Motion, an equation that Johannes Kepler came up with in 1618.Kepler's genius, Simonton said, was not so much in solving a mathematical challenge. It was in thinking about the numbers ina unique way—applying his mathematical knowledge to his observations of planetary motion. It was his boldness that set him apart.Love your work. As a child, Einstein became fascinated with the way magnets are drawn to metal. "He couldn't stop thinking about this stuff," Simonton pointed out. "He became obsessed with problems in physics by the time he was 16, and he never stopped working on them. It's not surprising that he made major contributions by the time he was 26.""For most of us, it's not that we don't have the ability," Simonton added, "it's that we don't devote the time. You have to put in the effort and put up with all the frustrations and obstacles."Like other creative geniuses, Einstein was not motivated by a desire for fame, said Simonton. Instead, his obsession with his work was what set him apart.Where such drive comes from remains a mystery. But it is found in nearly all creative geniuses—whether or not their genius is acknowledged by contemporaries."Emily Dickinson was not recognized for her poetry until after her death," said Simonton. "But she was not writing for fame. The same can be said of James Joyce, who didn't spend a lot of time worrying about how many people would read Finnegans Wake."Today, researchers have evidence that an intrinsic passion for one's work is a key to rising above. In a 1985 study at Brandeis University conducted by Teresa Amabile, now a professor of business administration at Harvard University, a group of professional writers—none famous—were asked to write a short poem. Each writer was then randomly placed in one of threegroups: One group was asked to keep in mind the idea of writing for money; another was told to think about writing just for pleasure; and a third group was given no instruction at all.The poems then were submitted anonymously to a panel of professional writers for evaluation. The poetry written by people who thought about writing for money ranked lowest. Those who thought about writing just for pleasure did the best. "Motivation that comes from enjoying the work makes a significant difference, "Amabile said.New Wordsartilleryn. heavy guns, often mounted on wheels, used in fighting on land, branch of an army that uses these 火炮;大炮;炮兵(部队) surveyorn. a person whose job is to examine and record the area and features of a piece of land by measuring and calculating (土地)测量员;勘测员unspectaculara. ordinary; not exciting or special 不引人注意的;不惊人的spectaculara. (attracting attention because) impressive or extraordinary 引人注目的;出色的;与众不同的carvevt. 1. form (sth.) by cutting away material from wood or stone 雕刻;雕刻成2. build (one's career, reputation, etc.)by hard work 靠勤奋创(业),靠勤奋树(名声)uncompromisinga. not ready to make any compromise; firm or unyielding. 不妥协的.,坚定的;不让步的influentiala. having a lot of influence on sb./sth. 有影响的;有权势的geneticsn. the scientific study of the ways in which different characteristics are passed from each generation of living things to the next 遗传学psychiatryn. the study and treatment of mental illness 精神病学;精神病治疗composevt. write (music, opera, poetry, etc.) 创作(音乐、歌剧、诗等) symphonyn. a long complex musical composition for a large orchestra, usu. in three or four parts 交响乐characteristicn. a typical feature or quality 特点unrelentinga. not becoming less strong or severe; continuous 不松懈的,不放慢的;持续的endowvt. provide (sb./sth.) with a good quality, ability, feature, etc. 给予,赋予super-normala. 超出一般的;超常的;非凡的amazinga. extremely good; esp. in a surprising and unexpected way 惊人的,令人吃惊的citevt. mention (sb./sth.) as an example or to support an argument; refer to 引用,引证;举出risk-takern. a person who dares to take risks 敢于冒险的人thrustvt. push (sth./sb./oneself) suddenly or violently (用力)推;强使moralen. state of confidence, enthusiasm, determination, etc. that a person or group has at a particular time 士气,精神状态brilliantlyad. in an outstanding manner 杰出地;才华横溢地Allieda. of the Allies (a group of countries fighting on the same side in a war, esp. those which fought with Britain in World Wars I and II) (第一次世界大战时期)协约国的;(第二次世界大战时期)同盟国的allyn. person, country, etc. joined with another in order to give help and support 同盟者;同盟国evacuationn. leaving a place of danger for a safer place 撤离;撤退evacuatev. 1. remove (sb.) from a place of danger to a safer place 撤退,撤出2. leave or withdraw from (a place) 撤离(某处)flagvi. become tired or weak; begin to lose enthusiasm or energy 疲乏;变弱;(热情、精力等)衰退,低落strikinga. attracting attention; unusual or interesting enough to be noticed 引人注目的;显著的,突出的firstbornn. a child born before other children 长子(或长女)peacetimen. a period when a country is not at war 和平时期firesiden. part of a room beside the fireplace, esp. considered as a warm comfortable place 壁炉旁chatn. a friendly informal conversation 闲谈,聊天fireside chat炉边亲切闲谈;(政治领袖在无线电或电视广播中)不拘形式的讲话innatea. (of a quality, feeling, etc.) in one's nature; possessed from birth 天生的landsliden. (竞选中)压倒多数的选票;一面倒的胜利equationn. 等式;方程(式)boldnessn. the state or quality of being confident and brave 勇敢,无畏bolda. confident and brave; daring 勇敢的,无畏的;敢作敢为的magnetn. a piece of iron or other material that can attract iron, either naturally or because of an electric current passed through it 磁铁obsessionn. the state of being obsessed 着迷contemporaryn. a person who lives or lived at the same time as another, usu. being roughly the same age 同代人;(几乎)同年龄的人a. belong to the same time; of the present time; modern 属于同一时代的;当代的;现代的poetryn. poems collectively or in general [总称]诗intrinsica. (of a value or quality) belonging naturally to sb./sth.; existing within sb./sth., rather than coming from outside 固有的;本质的;内在的randomlyad. without method or conscious choice 任意地,胡乱地submitvt. give (sth.) to sb./sth. so that it may be formally considered or so that a decision about it may be made 提交,呈递anonymouslyad. without revealing one's name 用匿名的方式evaluationn. the act of assessing or forming an idea of the amount, quality or value of sb./sth. 评价,评估Phrases and Expressionshave (sth., nothing, a lot, etc.) to do with sb./sth.be connected or concerned with sb./sth. to the extent specified 与某人 / 某事有(一些、毫无、很大)关系make historybe or do sth. so important or unusual that it will be recorded in history 创造历史,影响历史的进程;做出值得纪念(或载入史册的)事情rise abovebecome successful or outstanding 取得成功;出类拔萃leave behindcause to lag behind; surpass 把…丢在后面;超过focus onconcentrate on 集中于;着重于be endowed withnaturally have a good quality, ability, feature, etc. 天生具有come out oforiginate in or develop from 从…中获得;从…中发展而来build...uponbase ... on; use (sth.) as a foundation for further progress 把…建立在…上take chargetake control (of sth.); be responsible (for sth.) 掌管;负责go /get nowhereachieve no success or make no progress 不能成功;无进展set ... apartmake (sb./sth.) different from or superior to others 使显得突出,使显得与众不同put up withtolerate or bear (sb./sth.) 忍受,容忍Proper NamesMichael Ryan迈克尔·赖恩Napoleon Bonaparte拿破仑·波拿巴 (1769 — 1821, 法兰西第一帝国和百日王朝皇帝) George Washington乔治·华盛顿 (1732 — 1799, 美国第一任总统)Keith Simonton基思·西蒙顿Dunkirk敦刻尔克(法国北部港市)Franklin Roosevelt富兰克林·罗斯福 (1882 — 1945, 美国第三十二任总统)Thomas Jefferson托马斯·杰斐逊 (1743 — 1826, 美国第三任总统,《独立宣言》主要起草人)Woodrow Wilson伍德罗·威尔逊 (1856 — 1924, 美国第二十八任总统)Warren G. Harding沃伦·G·哈定 (1865 — 1923, 美国第二十九任总统)Johannes Kepler开普勒 (1571 — 1630, 德国天文学家和占星家)Emily Dickinson艾米莉·迪金森 (1830 — 1886, 美国女诗人,美国现代诗先驱者之一)James Joyce詹姆斯·乔伊斯 (1882 — 1941, 爱尔兰小说家,多用“意识流”手法,代表作《尤利西斯》)Finnegans Wake《为芬尼根守灵》(乔伊斯于 1939 年出版的最后一部小说)Brandeis布兰代斯大学 (马萨诸塞州)Teresa Amabile特蕾莎·阿玛贝尔下载全文下载文档。
1 / 1 Who Is Great? Michael Ryan As a young boy, Albert Einstein did so poorly in school that teachers thought he was slow. The young Napoleon Bonaparte was just one of hundreds of artillery lieutenants in the French Army. And the teenage George Washington, with little formal education, was being trained not as a soldier but as a land surveyor. Despite their unspectacular beginnings, each would go on to carve a place for himself in history. What was it that enabled them to become great? Were they born with something special? Or did their greatness have more to do with timing, devotion and, perhaps, an uncompromising personality? For decades, scientists have been asking such questions. And, in the past few years, they have found evidence to help explain why some people rise above, while others—similarly talented, perhaps—are left behind. Their findings could have implications for us all. Who is great? Defining who is great depends on how one measures success. But there are some criteria. "Someone who has made a lasting contribution to human civilization is great," said Dean Keith Simonton, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis and author of the 1994 book Greatness: Who Makes History and Why. But he added a word of caution: "Sometimes great people don't make it into the history books. A lot of women achieved great things or were influential but went unrecognized." In writing his book, Simonton combined historical knowledge about great figures with recent findings in genetics, psychiatry and the social sciences. The great figures he focused on include men and women who have won Nobel Prizes, led great nations or won wars, composed symphonies that have endured for centuries, or revolutionized science, philosophy, politics or the arts. Though he doesn't have a formula to define how or why certain people rise above (too many factors are involved), he has come up with a few common characteristics. A "never surrender" attitude. If great achievers share anything, said Simonton, it is an unrelenting drive to succeed. "There's a tendency to think that they are endowed with something super-normal," he explained. "But what comes out of the research is that there are great people who have no amazing intellectual processes. It's a difference in degree. Greatness is built upon tremendous amounts of study, practice and devotion." He cited Winston Churchill, Britain's prime minister during World War II, as an example of a risk-taker who would never give up. Thrust into office when his country's morale was at its lowest, Churchill rose brilliantly to lead the British people. In a speech following the Allied evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940, he inspired the nation when he said, "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end...We shall never surrender." Can you be born great? In looking at Churchill's role in history—as well as the roles of other political and military leaders—Simonton discovered a striking pattern: "Firstborns and only children tend to make good leaders in time of crisis: They're used to taking charge. But middle-borns are better as peacetime leaders: They listen to different interest groups better and make the necessary compromises. Churchill, an only child, was typical. He was great in a crisis, but in peacetime he was not effective—not even popular." Timing is another factor. "If you took George Washington and put him in the 20th century he 1 / 1
would go nowhere as a politician," Simonton declared. "He was not an effective public speaker, and he didn't like shaking hands with the public. On the other hand, I'm not sure Franklin Roosevelt would have done well in Washington's time. He wouldn't have had the radio to do his fireside chats." Can you be too smart? One surprise among Simonton's findings is that many political and military leaders have been bright but not overly so. Beyond a certain point, he explained, other factors, like the ability to communicate effectively, become more important than innate intelligence as measured by an IQ test. The most intelligent U.S. Presidents, for example—Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson and John F. Kennedy—had a hard time getting elected, Simonton said, while others with IQs closer to the average (such as Warren G. Harding) won by landslides. While political and economic factors also are involved, having a genius IQ is not necessary to be a great leader. In the sciences, those with "genius level" IQs do have a better chance at achieving recognition, added Simonton. Yet evidence also indicates that overcoming traditional ways of thinking may be just as important. He pointed to one recent study where college students were given a set of data and were asked to see if they could come up with a mathematical relation. Almost a third did. What they did not know was that they had just solved one of the most famous scientific equations in history: the Third Law of Planetary Motion, an equation that Johannes Kepler came up with in 1618. Kepler's genius, Simonton said, was not so much in solving a mathematical challenge. It was in thinking about the numbers in a unique way—applying his mathematical knowledge to his observations of planetary motion. It was his boldness that set him apart. Love your work. As a child, Einstein became fascinated with the way magnets are drawn to metal. "He couldn't stop thinking about this stuff," Simonton pointed out. "He became obsessed with problems in physics by the time he was 16, and he never stopped working on them. It's not surprising that he made major contributions by the time he was 26." "For most of us, it's not that we don't have the ability," Simonton added, "it's that we don't devote the time. You have to put in the effort and put up with all the frustrations and obstacles." Like other creative geniuses, Einstein was not motivated by a desire for fame, said Simonton. Instead, his obsession with his work was what set him apart. Where such drive comes from remains a mystery. But it is found in nearly all creative geniuses—whether or not their genius is acknowledged by contemporaries. "Emily Dickinson was not recognized for her poetry until after her death," said Simonton. "But she was not writing for fame. The same can be said of James Joyce, who didn't spend a lot of time worrying about how many people would read Finnegans Wake." Today, researchers have evidence that an intrinsic passion for one's work is a key to rising above. In a 1985 study at Brandeis University conducted by Teresa Amabile, now a professor of business administration at Harvard University, a group of professional writers—none famous—were asked to write a short poem. Each writer was then randomly placed in one of three groups: One group was asked to keep in mind the idea of writing for money; another was told to think about writing just for pleasure; and a third group was given no instruction at all. The poems then were submitted anonymously to a panel of professional writers for evaluation. The poetry written by people who thought about writing for money ranked lowest. Those who thought about writing just for pleasure did the best. "Motivation that comes from enjoying the