- 引領公眾輿論的那些美文（環(huán)球時代美文讀本）
- 吳中東 宮玉波
- 2783字
- 2020-08-20 09:56:26
05 Success When You Were Born?成功與生俱來？
導讀
這是一篇典型的現(xiàn)象—解釋性語篇。文章第一段先指出一個有趣的現(xiàn)象，即足球明星們似乎都正好出生在年初幾個月（即人們似乎覺得超強足球能力是天生的）。第二段介紹了人們對這個有趣現(xiàn)象的四種猜測性解釋。第三、四段介紹了佛羅里達州立大學心理學教授安德斯·埃里克森的看法，他首先研究了人的記憶力，認為記憶力的強弱不是天生的，而是后天訓練所得。第五段中，埃里克森則推而廣之地認為（亦即全文結論），記憶力、計算機能力以及足球能力都是經(jīng)過后天努力而形成的，不是天生的（也就是說，人們關注足球運動員的出生月份是沒有意義的）。
If you were to examine the birth certificates of every soccer player in 2006's World Cup tournament, you would most likely find a noteworthy quirk
: elite soccer players are more likely to have been born in the earlier months of the year than in the later months. If you then examined the European national youth teams that feed the World Cup and professional ranks, you would find this strange phenomenon to be ever more pronounced.
What might account for this strange phenomenon? Here are a few guesses:a) certain astrological signs confer superior soccer skills; b) winter-born babies tend to have higher oxygen capacity, which increases soccer stamina; c) soccer-mad parents are more likely to conceive children in springtime, at the annual peak of soccer mania; d) none of the above.
Anders Ericsson, a 58-year-old psychology professor at Florida State University, says he believes strongly in “none of the above.”Ericsson grew up in Sweden, and studied nuclear engineering until he realized he would have more opportunity to conduct his own research if he switched to psychology. His first experiment, nearly 30 years ago, involved memory: training a person to hear and then repeat a random series of numbers. “With the first subject, after about 20 hours of training, his digit span had risen from 7 to 20, ” Ericsson recalls. “He kept improving, and after about 200 hours of training he had risen to over 80 numbers.”
This success, coupled with later research showing that memory itself is not genetically determined, led Ericsson to conclude that the act of memorizing is more of a cognitive exercise than an intuitive one. In other words, whatever inborn differences two people may exhibit in their abilities to memorize, those differences are swamped by how well each person “encodes” the information. And the best way to learn how to encode information meaningfully, Ericsson determined, was a process known as deliberate practice. Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task. Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.
Ericsson and his colleagues have thus taken to studying expert performers in a wide range of pursuits, including soccer. They gather all the data they can, not just performance statistics and biographical details but also the results of their own laboratory experiments with high achievers. Their work makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers—whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming—are nearly always made, not born.
如果你查看2006年世界杯錦標賽上所有足球運動員的出生證明，你可能發(fā)現(xiàn)一個值得注意的現(xiàn)象：優(yōu)秀足球運動員更可能出生在上半年，而不是下半年。如果你查看進入世界杯和職業(yè)比賽的歐洲國家青年隊的話，那么你會發(fā)現(xiàn)這種奇怪的現(xiàn)象甚至更明顯。
該怎么解釋這種奇怪的現(xiàn)象呢？以下是幾種猜測：a）某種星座的人具備更具有足球天賦；b）冬季出生的嬰兒往往具有更高的供氧能力，這提高了他們踢足球的耐力；c）熱愛足球的父母更可能在春季（每年足球狂熱的鼎盛時期）懷孕；d）以上各項假設都不成立。
58歲的安德斯·埃里克森是佛羅里達州立大學的一位心理學教授，他堅信“以上各項都不成立”。埃里克森在瑞典長大，他一直在研究核工程直到后來他認識到，如果他轉(zhuǎn)向心理學領域，他會有更多機會從事自己的研究。約30年前，他進行了第一個與記憶有關的實驗——訓練一個人先聽一組任意挑選的數(shù)字，然后復述這些數(shù)字。“在接受大約20個小時的訓練后，第一個試驗對象（復述）的數(shù)字組合從7個上升到20個，”埃里克森回憶說。“他的記憶力不斷提高，在接受約200個小時的訓練后，他復述的數(shù)字已經(jīng)達到80多個。”
這次實驗的成功，連同后來證明“記憶本身并非由遺傳決定”的研究，使得埃里克森得出結論——記憶過程是一種認知練習，而不是一種本能練習。換句話說，無論兩個人在記憶力方面可能有什么樣的天生差異，這些差異都會被每個人如何恰當?shù)亍敖庾x”所記的信息所掩蓋。埃里克森確信，了解如何有目的地解讀信息的最佳方法就是一個為人所知的有意練習過程。有意練習需要的不只是簡單地重復一個任務。相反，它涉及確定明確的目標、獲得即時反饋以及注重方法與結果。
因此，埃里克森和他的同事開始研究包括足球運動員在內(nèi)的各行各業(yè)的優(yōu)秀人才。他們收集了能夠收集到的所有資料，不只是表現(xiàn)方面的統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)和傳記詳細資料，還包括他們自己對取得很高成就的人員進行實驗室實驗的結果。他們的研究得出了一個非常令人驚奇的結論——我們通常稱為才能的特征被高估了。或者，換句話說，成就優(yōu)秀者（無論在記憶還是手術方面，在芭蕾還是計算機編程方面）幾乎都是培養(yǎng)的，而不是天生的。
Cloze
完形填空
This success, coupled 1 later research showing that memory itself is not genetically determined, led Ericsson to conclude that the act of memorizing is more 2 a cognitive exercise than an intuitive one. In 3 words, whatever inborn differences two people may exhibit in their abilities to memorize, those differences are swamped 4 how well each person “encodes” the information. And the best way to learn how to encode information meaningfully, Ericsson determined, was a process known as deliberate practice. Deliberate practice entails more than 5 repeating a task. Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.
Key
1. with 2. of 3. other 4. by 5. simply
Translation Practices
翻譯練習
（1）Textual Translation（篇章翻譯）
In these strange old times, when fantastic dreams and madmen's reveries were realized among the actual circumstances of life, two persons met together at an appointed hour and place. One was a lady, graceful in form and fair of features, though pale and troubled, and smitten with an untimely blight in what should have been the fullest bloom of her years; the other was an ancient and meanly dressed woman, of ill-favored aspect and so withered, shrunken and decrepit, that even the space since she began to decay must have exceeded the ordinary term of human existence. In the spot where they encountered, no mortal could observe them. Three little hills stood by each other, and down in the midst of them sunk a hollow basin, almost mathematically circular, two or three hundred feet in breadth, and of such depth that a stately cedar might just be visible above the sides.
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（2）Sentence Translation（句子翻譯）
①子曰：“道千乘之國，敬事而信，節(jié)用而愛人，使民以時。”
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②子夏曰：“賢賢易色；事父母，能竭其力；事君，能致其身；與朋友交，言而有信。雖曰未學，吾必謂之學矣。”
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參考譯文
(1)在古怪的舊日時光里，當狂想和瘋子的白日夢在現(xiàn)實生活中實現(xiàn)時，有兩個人在約定的時間地點碰面了。其中一位女士儀態(tài)優(yōu)雅，面容姣好，盡管她面色發(fā)白，在盛年過早地受到病痛的折磨；另外一位老婦人穿著寒酸，面色難看，她是如此的瘦小、干巴，以至于她看上去好像活了好幾個世紀。在她們碰面的地方，凡人是看不到她們的。三座小山緊挨在一起，中間是一塊下陷得看上去呈圓形的盆地。寬度約為兩三百英尺。盆地的深度也與寬度差不多，從旁邊看上去，一棵高大的雪松也僅是隱約可見。
(2) ①Confucius said, “When administering a country in possession of a thousand military chariots, you should strictly and cautiously handle the major national affairs, keep your promises, cut down expenses and value talented people, and remind farmers not to miss the farming season.”
②Zi Xia said, “If a person pays much attention to his morality but not to feminine charms, does his best to show filial devotion and obedience to his parents, serves his lord sparing no sacrifice, keeps honest and reliable with friends, I should definitely say that he has once studied the historical documents even if he himself denies.”
Emulation
美文自己寫得出——學生仿寫
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仿寫范例
My View on Honesty
As an old saying goes, “Honesty is the best policy.” Honesty is laureated as a virtue by most, if not all, of the world's cultures. Honesty will be given high priority provided that we are asked what the most significant quality is in our friends or partners. As a matter of fact, the public seem to think that being honest is for others rather than for themselves. Concerning the adverse consequences of deception, I harbor the view that practicing honesty is in our own best interest.
To begin with, one negative impact of dishonesty turns out to be a waste of time and energy. Fabricating falsehood consumes plenty of efforts. Those who concoct lies spare no effort to guarantee the fact that others conceive them as trustworthy. Under such circumstances, the first lie one fabricates is not the last on the grounds that lying seems to act as marijuana with the result that the more you lie, the more addictive you will be. Those who are confided to falsehoods are engaged in weaving a web of lies to the point that they have little time to do anything.
In addition to a huge drain on one's time and energy, deception has serious repercussions on one's mental health. Frequent lies give rise to a sense of guilt and shame in one's heart. Most liars still have a conscience deep down inside in that it is an immortal behavior to tell lies. Additionally, those who fall into a sea of falsehood are apt to be in a dilemma. For example, those who falsify resumes with the aim of gaining employment are likely to be in an anxious emotion about the possibility of losing jobs given that the boss discovers their lies.
Finally, one will be bound to pay for his dishonest conduct. Lying seems to be equivalence to taking a gamble in that one must undertake the risk of failure. Generally speaking, those who tell lies are too conceited to hold that they outwit those who are very honest. Unfortunately, when deception is exposed to the public, what floods them entails great loss, or even spells their downfall. What's worse, having one's falsehood concealed perhaps equates to losing one's job, being deserted by friends and family, or even spending time in jail.
All in all, the fact that we must be confronted with is dishonesty seems to exist around us. However, we must come to realize the matter that it is unlikely to eliminate the deceit. What we can do is to decide what we will be like, such as whether to practice truthfulness or to what extent. Depending on what is mentioned above, including a waste of time and energy, damaging our mental health and bringing about great losses, we can boil down to one conclusion that honesty turns into our only alternative.