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一种“永不屈服”的态度。
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。
“往往有人认为他们具备一些超常非凡的东西，”他解释道。
“但研究表明，有些伟人并没有惊人的智力有的只是程度上的差异而已。
伟大是建立在大量的学习、实践和献身精神的基础之上的。
”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.他举了二战时期的英国首相温斯顿丘吉尔作为永不放弃敢于冒险的典范。
丘吉尔在全国士气最为低落的时候被推上了台，并出色地领导了英国人民。
在“我们1940 年盟军敦刻尔克大撤退之后的一次演讲中，他的话激励了全国人民，决不会退缩、永不失败。
我们一定要坚持到底......我们永远不会屈服。
He cited Winston Churchill, Britain’s prime minister during World War 2, 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.Unit 2有些人不愿表达感激之情，因为他们觉得这不会受欢迎。
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.。
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新视野大学英语读写教程第四册第一单元A篇原文及翻译unit1AThe Tail of FamePara. 1 An artist who seeks fame is like a dog chasing his own tail who, when he captures it, does not know what else to do but to continue chasing it. The cruelty of success is that it often leads those who seek such success to participate in their own destruction.Para. 2 “Don’t quit your day job!” is advice frequently given by understandably pessimistic family members and friends to a budding artist who is trying hard to succeed. The conquest of fame is difficult at best, and many end up emotionally if not financially bankrupt. Still, impure motives such as the desire for worshipping fans and praise from peers may spur the artist on. The lure of drowning in fame’s imperial glory is not easily resisted.Para. 3a Those who gain fame most often gain it as a result of exploiting their talent for singing, dancing, painting, or writing, etc. They develop a style that agents market aggressively to hasten popularity, and their ride on the express elevator to the top is a blur. Most would behard-pressed to tell you how they even got there. Artists cannot remain idle, though.Para. 3b When the performer, painter or writer becomes bored, their work begins to show a lack of continuity in its appeal and it becomes difficult to sustain the attention of the public. After their enthusiasm has dissolved, the public simply moves on to the next flavor of the month.Para. 3c Artists who do attempt to remain current by making evenminute changes to their style of writing, dancing or singing, run a significant risk of losing the audience’s favor. The public simply discounts styles other than those for which the artist has become famous.Para. 4 Famous authors’ styles—a Tennessee Williams play or a plot by Ernest Hemingway or a poem by Robert Frost or T.S. Eliot—are easily recognizable. The same is true of painters like Monet, Renoir, or Dali and moviemakers like Hitchcock, Fellini, Spielberg, Chen Kaige or Zhang Yimou. Their distinct styles marked a significant change in form from others and gained them fame and fortune. However, they paid for it by giving up the freedom to express themselves with other styles or forms.Para. 5 Fame’s spotlight can be hotter than a tropical jungle—a fraud is quickly exposed, and the pressure of so much attention is too much for most to endure. It takes you out of yourself: You must be what the public thinks you are, not what you really are or could be. The performer, like the politician, must often please his or her audiences by saying things he or she does not mean or fully believe.Para. 6a One drop of fame will likely contaminate the entire well of a man’s soul, and so an artist who remains true to himself or herself is particularly amazing. You would be hard-pressed to underline many names of those who have not compromised and still succeeded in the fame game. An example, the famous Irish writer Oscar Wilde, known for his uncompromising behavior, both social and sexual, to which the public objected, paid heavily for remaining true to himself.Para. 6b The mother of a young man Oscar was intimate with accused him at a banquet in front of his friends and fans ofsexually influencing her son. Extremely angered by her remarks, he sued the young man’s mother, asserting that she had damaged his “good” name. He should have hired a better attorney, though. The judge did not second Wilde’s call to have the woman pay for damaging his name, and instead fined Wilde.Para. 6c He ended up in jail after refusing to pay, and even worse, was permanently expelled from the wider circle of public favor. When things were at their worst, he found that no one was willing to risk his or her name in his defense. His price for remaining true to himself was to be left alone when he needed his fans the most.Para. 7 Curiously enough, it is those who fail that reap the greatest reward: freedom! They enjoy the freedom to express themselves in unique and original ways without fear of losing the support of fans. Failed artists may find comfort in knowing that many great artists never found fame until well after they had passed away or in knowing that they did not sell out. They may justify their failure by convincing themselves their genius is too sophisticated for contemporary audiences.Para. 8a Single-minded artists who continue their quest for fame even after failure might also like to know that failure has motivated some famous people to work even harder to succeed. Thomas Wolfe, the American novelist, had his first novel Look Homeward, Angel rejected 39 times before it was finally published. Beethoven overcame his father, who did not believe that he had any potential as a musician, to become the greatest musician in the world.Para. 8b And Pestalozzi, the famous Swiss educator in the 19th century, failed at every job he ever had until he came upon theidea of teaching children and developing the fundamental theories to produce a new form of education. Thomas Edison was thrown out of school in the fourth grade, because he seemed to his teacher to be quite dull. Unfortunately for most people, however, failure is the end of their struggle, not the beginning.Para. 9 I say to those who desperately seek fame and fortune: good luck. But alas, you may find that it was not what you wanted. The dog who catches his tail discovers that it is only a tail. The person who achieves success often discovers that it does more harm than good. So instead of trying so hard to achieve success, try to be happy with who you are and what you do. Try to do work that you can be proud of. Maybe you won’t be famous in your own lifetime, but you may create better art.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。
名起诉他了第二版新视野大学英语读写教程第四册课文翻译Unit 1 text A名气之尾艺术家追求成名，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形式上的重大变革，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 1If greatachiev ers shareanythi ng, said Simont on, it is an unrele nting driveto succee d. There’s a tenden cy to thinkthat they are endowe d with someth ing super-normal, he explai ned. But what comesout of the resear ch is that thereare greatpeople who have no amazin g intell ectua l proces ses. It’s a differ encein degree. Greatn ess is builtupon tremen dousamount s of study, practi ce and devoti on.He citedWinsto n Church ill, Britai n’s primeminist er during WorldWar 2, as an exampl e of a risk-takerwho wouldnevergive up. Thrust into office when his countr y's morale was at its lowest, Church ill rose brilli antly to lead the Britis h people. In a speech follow ing the Allied evacua tionat Dunkir k in 1940,he inspir ed the nation when he said, We shallnot flag or fail. We shallgo on to the end... We shallneversurren der.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。
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世纪大学生读写教程第四册Reading Aloud汉英+课后翻译Unit 1If great achievers share anything,said Simonton,it is an unrelenting drive to succeed.”There‟s a tendency to think they are endowed with something super-normal,”he explained.”But what comes out of the research i s that ther 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 WarⅡ,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.”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。
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 hewould 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 thework makes a significant difference, "Amabile said.(1 214 words)The Gratitude We NeedA.J. CroninOn a fine afternoon in New York, I got into a taxi. From the driver's expression and the way he slammed in his gears, I could tell that he was upset. I asked him what was the trouble. "I've got good reason to be sore," he growled. "One of my fares left a wallet in my cab this morning. Nearly three hundred bucks in it. I spent more than an hour trying to trace the guy. Finally I found him at his hotel. He took the wallet without a word and glared at me as though I'd meant to steal it." "He didn't give you a reward?" I exclaimed."Not a cent. But it wasn't the dough I wanted..." he fumbled, then exploded, "If the guy had only said something..."Because his helpful, honest act had not been appreciated, that cabdriver's day was poisoned, and I knew he would think twice before rendering a similar service. The need for gratitude is something we all feel, and denial of it can do much to harm the spirit of kindness and cooperation.During World War II a mother in Cincinnati received a letter from her son in the army in which he spoke of a woman in a village in Normandy who had taken him into her home when he was wounded and hungry, and hidden him from the Germans. Later on, unhappily, the boy was killed in the Ardennes offensive. Yet the mother was moved by an irresistible intention. She saved up for two years, crossed the Atlantic and located the village referred to by her son. After many inquiries, she found the woman who had sheltered her son—the wife of an impoverished farmer—and pressed a package into her hand. It was the gold wristwatch her son had received on his graduation, the only object of real value the boy had ever possessed. The mother's act of gratitude so touched people's hearts that it has become something of a legend in and around the village. It has done more than fine speeches to foster good feeling toward Americans.Gratitude is the art of receiving gracefully, of showing appreciation for every kindness, great and small. Most of us do not fail to show our pleasure when we receive hospitality, gifts and obvious benefits, but even here we can perfect our manner of showing gratitude by making it as personal and sincere as possible. Recently, when touring in southern Italy with my wife, I sent to a friend in Connecticut several bottles of a local wine which had taken our fancy. It was a trifling gift, yet to our surprise, instead of the conventional letter of thanks, we receive a phonograph record. When we played it, we heard our friend's voice speaking after dinner, describing how he and his guests had enjoyed the wine and thanking us for our thoughtfulness. It was pleasant to have this unusualproof that our gift had been appreciated.Gratitude is sometimes more than a personal affair. My son, studying medicine at McGill University, told me of a patient brought into hospital in Montreal whose life was saved by a blood transfusion. When he was well again he asked: "Isn't there any way I can discover the name of the donor and thank him?" He was told that names of donors are never revealed. A few weeks after his discharge he came back to give a pint of his own blood. Since then he has returned again and again for the same purpose. When a surgeon commented on this splendid record of anonymous service, he answered simply: "Someone I never knew did it for me. I'm just saying 'thanks'".It is a comforting thought that gratitude can be not merely a passing sentiment but a renewal which can, in some instances, persist for a lifetime. A husband who recalls appreciatively some generous or unselfish act on his wife's part, or a wife who never forgets the gifts her husband has given her, does much to keep the domestic wheels spinning smoothly. W.H. Hudson, British author and naturalist, has written: "One evening I brought home a friend to share our usual evening meal. Afterward he said to me:‘You are fortunate to have a wife who, despite ill health and children to look after, cooks such excellent meals.' That tribute opened my eyes and taught me to show gratitude for my wife's day-to-day heroism, which I had hitherto taken for granted."It is, above all, in the little things that the grace of gratitude should be most employed. The boy who delivers our paper, the milkman, the mailman, the barber, the waitress at a restaurant, the elevator operator—all oblige us in one way or another. By showing our gratitude we make routine relationships human and render monotonous tasks more agreeable.A patient of mine in London who worked as a bus conductor once confided to me, "I get fed up with my job sometimes. People grumble, bother you, haven't got the right change for their tickets. But there's one lady on my bus morning and evening, and she always thanks me in a particularly friendly way when I take her ticket. I like to think she's speaking for all the passengers. It helps me to keep smiling."Arnold Bennett had a publisher who boasted about the extraordinary efficiency of his secretary. One day Bennett said to her, "Your employer claims that you are extremely efficient. What is your secret?" "It's not my secret," the secretary replied. "It's his." Each time she performed a service, no matter how small, he never failed to acknowledge it. Because of that she took infinite pains with her work.Some 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 I imagined 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.(1 069 words)How to Change Your Point of ViewCaroline SeebohmDr. Edward Jenner was busy trying to solve the problem of smallpox. After studying case after case, he still found no possible cure. He had reached an impasse in his thinking. At this point, he changed his tactics. Instead of focusing on people who had smallpox, he switched his attention to people who did not have smallpox. It turned out that dairymaids apparently never got the disease. From the discovery that harmless cowpox gave protection against deadly smallpox came vaccination and the end of smallpox as a scourge in the western world.We often reach an impasse in our thinking. We are looking at a problem and trying to solve it and it seems there is a dead end. It is on these occasions that we become tense, we feel pressured, overwhelmed, in a state of stress. We struggle vainly, fighting to solve the problem.Dr. Jenner, however, did something about this situation. He stopped fighting the problem and simply changed his point of view—from his patients to dairy maids. Picture the process going something like this: Suppose the brain is a computer. This computer has absorbed into its memory bank all your history, your experiences, your training, your information received through life; and it is programmed according to all this data. To change your point of view, you must reprogramme your computer, thus freeing yourself to take in new ideas and develop new ways of looking at things. Dr. Jenner, in effect, by reprogramming his computer, erased the old way of looking at his smallpox problem and was free to receive new alternatives.That's all very well, you may say, but how do we actually do that?Doctor and philosopher Edward de Bono has come up with a technique for changing our point of view, and he calls it Lateral Thinking.The 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 dog had 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, 1 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.'“There is a Japanese parable about a donkey tied to a p ole by a rope. The rope rubs tight against his neck. The more the donkey fights and pulls on the rope, the tighter and tighter it gets around his throat—until he winds up dead. On the other hand, as soon as he stops fighting, he finds that the rope gets slack, he can walk around, maybe find some grass to eat...That's the same principle: The more you fight something the more anxious you become—the more you're involved in a bad pattern, the more difficult it is to escape pain."Lateral thinking," Dr. Bridger goes on, "is simply approaching a problem with what I would call an Eastern flanking maneuver. You know, when a zen archer wants to hit the target with a bow and arrow, he doesn't concentrate on the target, he concentrates rather on what he has in his hands, so when he lets the arrow go, his focus is on the arrow, rather than the target. This is what an Eastern flanking maneuver implies—instead of approaching the target directly, you approach it from a sideways point of view—or laterally instead of vertically.""I think the answer lies in that direction," affirms Dr. Bridger. "Take the situation where someone is in a crisis. The Chinese word for crisis is divided into two characters, one meaning danger and the other meaning opportunity. We in the Western wor ld focus only upon the ‘danger' aspect of crisis. Crisis in Western civilization has come to mean danger, period. And yet the word can also mean opportunity. Let us now suggest to the person in crisis that he cease concentrating so upon the dangers involved and the difficulties, and concentrate instead upon the opportunity—for there is always opportunity in crisis. Looking at a crisis from an opportunity point of view is a lateral thought."(1 100 words)How to Become GiftedJulius and Barbara FastIn a study of educational techniques, a teacher was told r that her newclass were all gifted children. "You should get above-average results from them," she was advised, and by the end of the term she was getting just that, better than average work.The remarkable thing about it all was that in reality the class was not unusual. They were just an average group of students with IQs within the normal range. The teacher had been deceived about their potential.This study uncovered many answers to many questions about teaching and children, but it left even more questions unanswered. One point it did make with unusual clarity is that a child will usually live up to a teacher's expectations when the child believes those expectations are honest. An unanswered question was: In what way did the teacher communicate to the students that they were special and could do superior work? She didn't tell them that in so many words, but obviously something about her attitude convinced the students that they were gifted.Further studies showed that the special "something" in the teacher's attitude was, in part, the type of work she gave the class, and in part how she presented it. But the strongest "something" was the teacher herself and her attitude toward the class and toward their ability.There was an extra amount of confidence and interest in her voice that said, "You're bright children." There was a constant reassuring tone that told them they would do well, very well. The children picked up these signals and reacted positively to them.When 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, a momentary 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.Most of this is transmitted through the voice, but a surprising amount is in the attitude, in touch, and in facial expression.An experiment similar to the one done with "gifted" children was done with "gifted" mice. A scientist was given a group of ordinary mice, but told that they were a special breed, trained to run a maze in record time. Working with these mice, the scientist found that they did learn faster than other mice and did run the maze more quickly.But mice know nothing of our language. How was the scientist able to communicate his expectations to them? An examination of all the variables in the test concluded that the unusually good results were due to the way he had handled the mice, the way he talked to them and the tone, the confidence, the reassurance, and the certainty in his voice. They absorbed all the messages and performed accordingly!In a broader view of both these experiments, the teacher and the scientist used a principle common to all societies at all levels — the principle of labeling. All our expectations are prejudiced, and we have very different expectations for different people, even on a national level. We think of people in terms of national characteristics. We expect Americans to be greedy, after the big buck, and we label them that way in our minds. We label Germans neat and orderly, English cold, distant, and reserved, Italians emotional, Japanese polite——and so it goes. We pin a very narrow label on a very broad, far from homogeneous group. We do it on racial levels too. Blacks are musical, Indians are stoic, Orientals inscrutable. We even label the sexes — men are aggressive, womenpassive.On a family basis, the labels are sometimes attached by the neighbors. "Those Joneses are trash...always on welfare." Or the label may be attached by the family itself. "We Smiths would rather go hungry than ask for government help！" The Smith boy, growing up with this label of awesome independence, lives up to it as readily as the Jones girl lives up to her label. "They all think we're trash? I'll act like trash！"The label may be less inclusive, even sexist. One family might say proudly, "The men in our family are always professionals." When Bill, a son in this family finds that carpentry is the work he loves best, he faces a family conflict — and a conflict with himself. His inner strength may allow him to go through with his own desires and become a carpenter, but then he knows that he hasn't lived up to the family label and he goes through life with a sense of guilt. He may even create his own label. "I'm a failure, really." It doesn't matter that Bill is a success in his field, that in time he owns his own business and makes more money than his brother Bob, who became a lawyer. Bill is still not a professional man, and as a result his inner label still reads failure. Labeling within a family starts very early. Before the baby understands verbal language, he responds to body language and indirect communication. He senses the love in his parents' voice before he understands the words, and he also senses the rejection, indifference, fear, or hostility, and he reacts to those emotions too.If he's treated with love and gentleness, he responds with both emotions. Later, when he understands speech, he accepts his label. Jimmy is the nice one in the family, or Sally, who's been a difficult baby, earns the label of troublemaker. Each child, along with his given name, picks up a label. She's the clever one. He's the pushy one. Norman is always late. Betty is so hard to love. Barbara is cold. Jack is wild. Natalie is sweet, and so on. The labels may reflect reality. Natalie may be sweet, but as often as not the reality has been imposed on the child by the label. If Natalie hears that she is sweet often enough, she begins to act sweet. You tend to live up to your label.In the same way, the students in the teaching experiment were labeled bright, and they managed to be bright, to work beyond their ordinary ability.(1 117 words)Prison StudiesMalcolm XMany who today hear me somewhere in person, or on television, or those who read something I've said, will think I went to school far beyond the eighth grade. This impression is due entirely to my prison studies.It had really begun back in the Charlestown Prison, when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge. Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversation he was in, and I had tried to emulate him. But every book I picked up had few sentences which didn't contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the words that might as well have been in Chinese. When I just skipped those words, of course, I really ended up with little idea of what the book said. So I had come to the Norfolk Prison Colony still going through only book-reading motions. Pretty soon, I would have quit even these motions, unless I had received the motivation that I did.I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary—to study, to learn some words. I was lucky enough to reason also that I should try to improve my penmanship. It was sad. I couldn't even write in a straight line. It was both ideas together that moved me to request a dictionary along with some tablets and pencils from the Norfolk Prison Colony school.I spent two days just thumbing uncertainly through the dictionary's pages. I've never realized so many words existed! I didn't know which words I needed to learn. Finally, to start some kind of action, I began copying.In my slow, painstaking, ragged handwriting, I copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks.I believe it took me a day. Then, aloud, I read back, to myself, everything I've written on the tablet. Over and over, aloud, to myself, I read my own handwriting.I woke up the next morning, thinking about those words—immensely proud to realize that not only had I written so much at one time, but I've written words that I never knew were in the world. Moreover, with a little effort, I also could remember what many of these words meant. I reviewed the words whose meanings I didn't remember. Funny thing, from the dictionary's first page right now, that "aardvark" springs to my mind. The dictionary had a picture of it, a long-tailed, long-eared, burrowing African mammal, which lives off termites caught by sticking out its tongue as an anteater does for ants.I was so fascinated that I went on—I copied the dictionary's next page. And the same experience came when I studied that. With every succeeding page, I also learned of people and places and events from history. Actually the dictionary is like a miniature encyclopedia. Finally the dictionary's A section had filled a whole tablet—and I went on into the B's. That was the way I started copying what eventually became the entire dictionary. I went a lot faster after so much practice helped me to pick up handwriting speed. Between what I wrote in my tablet, and writing letters, during the rest of my time in prison I would guess I wrote a million words.I suppose it was inevitable that as my word-base broadened, I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying. Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened. Let me tell you something; from then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk. You couldn't have got me out of books with a wedge. Between Mr. Muhammad's teachings, my correspondence, my visitors, and my reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life...As you can imagine, especially in a prison where there was heavy emphasis on rehabilitation, an inmate was smiled upon if he demonstrated an unusually intense interest in books. There was a sizable number of well-read inmates, especially the popular debaters. Some were said by many to be practically walking encyclopedias. They were almost celebrities. No university would ask any student to devour literature as I did when this new world opened to me, of being able to read and。
