the nature of genius雅思閱讀真題原文翻譯

the nature of genius雅思閱讀真題原文翻譯

第1段

There has always been an interest in geniuses and prodigies.The word‘genius’,from the Latin gens(=family)and the term‘genius’,meaning‘begetter’,comes from the early Roman cult of a divinity as the head of the family.In its earliest form,genius was concerned with the ability of the head of the family,the paterfamilias,to perpetuate himself.Gradually,genius came to represent a person’s characteristics and thence an individual’s highest attributes derived from his‘genius’or guiding spirit.Today,people still look to stars or genes,astrology or genetics,in the hope of finding the source of exceptional abilities or personal characteristics.

人們一直對(duì)天才和神童感興趣。“genius”一詞來(lái)自拉丁語(yǔ)gens(=family)和“genius”(意為“生子”)。它來(lái)自羅馬人早期對(duì)一家之主神性的崇拜。天才最早的時(shí)候與一家之主使自己永存的能力有關(guān)。逐漸地，天才開(kāi)始代表一個(gè)人的特征。因此一個(gè)人的最高屬性源于他的“天才”或指導(dǎo)精神。如今，人們?nèi)栽趯ふ倚窍蠡蚧?，占星術(shù)或遺傳學(xué)，以期找到卓越能力或個(gè)人特征的來(lái)源。

第2段

The concept of genius and of gifts has become part of our folk culture,and attitudes are ambivalent towards them.We envy the gifted and mistrust them.In the mythology of giftedness,it is popularly believed that if people are talented in one area,they must be defective in another,that intellectuals are impractical,that prodigies burn too brightly too soon and burn out,that gifted people are eccentric,that they are physical weaklings,that there’s a thin line between genius and madness,that genius runs in families,that the gifted are so clever they don’t need special help,that giftedness is the same as having a high IQ,that some races are more intelligent or musical or mathematical than others,that genius goes unrecognised and unrewarded,that adversity makes men wise or that people with gifts have a responsibility to use them.Language has been enriched with such terms as‘highbrow’,‘egghead’,‘blue-stocking’,‘wiseacre’,‘know-all’,‘boffin’and,for many,‘intellectual’is a term of denigration.

天才和天賦的概念已成為我們民間文化的一部分。人們對(duì)它們的態(tài)度也很矛盾。我們羨慕有天賦的人，不信任他們。在天才的神話中，人們普遍認(rèn)為，如果人們?cè)谀硞€(gè)領(lǐng)域有才華，他們必定在另一個(gè)領(lǐng)域有缺陷，知識(shí)分子是不切實(shí)際的，天才們過(guò)早地燃燒并耗盡了精力，有天賦的人是古怪的，身體很虛弱，天才和瘋狂之間的界限很窄，天才在家族中遺傳，有天賦的人是如此聰明，他們不需要特殊的幫助，擁有天賦與擁有很高的智商一樣，有些種族比其他人更聰明，或在音樂(lè)或數(shù)學(xué)更有優(yōu)勢(shì)，天才不被承認(rèn)和很難得到獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)，逆境使人聰明，或者有天賦的人有責(zé)任使用它們。這些語(yǔ)言中充斥著“高傲”，“傻瓜”，“突破常規(guī)”，“自以為是”，“無(wú)所不知”，“書(shū)呆子”等詞。對(duì)于許多人來(lái)說(shuō)，“智力”是貶義詞。

第3段

The nineteenth century saw considerable interest in the nature of genius,and produced not a few studies of famous prodigies.Perhaps for us today,two of the most significant aspects of most of these studies of genius are the frequency with which early encouragement and teaching by parents and tutors had beneficial effects on the intellectual,artistic or musical development of the children but caused great difficulties of adjustment later in their lives,and the frequency with which abilities went unrecognised by teachers and schools.However,this article is from Laokaoya website,the difficulty with the evidence produced by these studies,fascinating as they are in collecting together anecdotes and apparent similarities and exceptions,is that they are not what we would today call norm-referenced.In other words,when,for instance,information is collated about early illnesses,methods of upbringing,schooling,etc.,we must also take into account information from other historical sources about how common or exceptional these were at the time.For instance,infant mortality was high and life expectancy much shorter than today,home tutoring was common in the families of the nobility and wealthy,bullying and corporal punishment were common at the best independent schools and,for the most part,the cases studied were members of the privileged classes.It was only with the growth of paediatrics and psychology in the twentieth century that studies could be carried out on a more objective,if still not always very scientific,basis.

19世紀(jì)，人們對(duì)天才的本質(zhì)產(chǎn)生了濃厚的興趣，并產(chǎn)生了不少有關(guān)著名神童的研究。也許對(duì)今天的我們而言，這些天才研究中最重要的兩個(gè)方面是：父母和家教早期的鼓勵(lì)與教學(xué)對(duì)兒童的智力，藝術(shù)或音樂(lè)發(fā)展產(chǎn)生有益影響，但卻給兒童適應(yīng)日后生活造成了巨大困難的頻率;以及能力不被教師和學(xué)校認(rèn)可的頻率。然而，雖然這些研究在收集軼事、相似性和例外性方面十分引人入勝，但其所給出的證據(jù)的缺陷在于它們并非我們今天所認(rèn)可的規(guī)范參考。換句話說(shuō)，例如，當(dāng)整理有關(guān)早期疾病，養(yǎng)育方法，上學(xué)等的信息時(shí)，我們還必須考慮來(lái)自其他歷史資料的信息來(lái)說(shuō)明它們?cè)诋?dāng)時(shí)是多么普遍或特殊。例如，嬰兒死亡率很高，預(yù)期壽命比今天短得多，在貴族家庭中補(bǔ)習(xí)很普遍，在最好的私立學(xué)校中，欺負(fù)和體罰在十分常見(jiàn)。并且在大多數(shù)情況下，它們所研究的案例來(lái)自于特權(quán)階級(jí)。隨著二十世紀(jì)兒科和心理學(xué)的發(fā)展，研究才能在更客觀的基礎(chǔ)上進(jìn)行，即使仍然不是很科學(xué)。

第4段

Geniuses,however,they are defined,are but the peaks which stand out through the mist of history and are visible to the particular observer from his or her particular vantage point.Change the observers and the vantage points,clear away some of the mist,and a different lot of peaks appear.Genius is a term we apply to those whom we recognise for their outstanding achievements and who stand near the end of the continuum of human abilities which reaches back through the mundane and mediocre to the incapable.There is still much truth in Dr Samuel Johnson’s observation,‘The true genius is a mind of large general powers,accidentally determined to some particular direction’.We may disagree with the‘general’,for we doubt if all musicians of genius could have become scientists of genius or vice versa,but there is no doubting the accidental determination which nurtured or triggered their gifts into those channels into which they have poured their powers so successfully.Along the continuum of abilities are hundreds of thousands of gifted men and women,boys and girls.

天才，無(wú)論它們?nèi)绾味x，都不過(guò)是在歷史的薄霧中脫穎而出的山峰。他們能被特點(diǎn)的觀察者從特點(diǎn)的視角看到。改變觀察者和觀察位置，清除一些薄霧，然后就會(huì)出現(xiàn)許多不同的山峰。天才是一個(gè)術(shù)語(yǔ)，我們用它來(lái)形容那些因其杰出成就而得到認(rèn)可，或者那些站在人類能力范圍極限的人。塞繆爾·約翰遜(Samuel Johnson)博士的觀察仍然有很多道理：“真正的天才具備杰出的普遍能力，無(wú)意中決定了某個(gè)特定方向”。我們可能會(huì)不同意“普遍”，因?yàn)槲覀儜岩墒欠袼械奶觳乓魳?lè)家都可能成為天才科學(xué)家，反之亦然，但毫無(wú)疑問(wèn)，偶然的決定使得他們的天賦進(jìn)入能夠成功發(fā)揮自己能力的渠道。成千上萬(wàn)的有才華的男人和女人，男孩和女孩分布在能力的光譜表上。

第5段

What we appreciate,enjoy or marvel at in the works of genius or the achievements of prodigies are the manifestations of skills or abilities which are similar to,but so much superior to,our own.But that their minds are not different from our own is demonstrated by the fact that the hard-won discoveries of scientists like Kepler or Einstein become the commonplace knowledge of schoolchildren and the once outrageous shapes and colours of an artist like Paul Klee so soon appear on the fabrics we wear.This does not minimise the supremacy of their achievements,which outstrip our own as the sub-four-minute milers outstrip our jogging.

我們所欣賞，喜愛(ài)或驚嘆的天才的作品或神童的成就是他們技能或能力的體現(xiàn)，這些技能與能力與我們自己的能力相似但非常優(yōu)越。但是，開(kāi)普勒或愛(ài)因斯坦這樣的科學(xué)家來(lái)之不易的發(fā)現(xiàn)成為學(xué)生的常識(shí)，而保羅·克利這樣的藝術(shù)家曾經(jīng)令人發(fā)指的形狀和顏色很快在我們所穿的衣服上出現(xiàn)，這一事實(shí)證明了他們的想法與我們的想法沒(méi)有什么不同。但這并不能損害他們成就的至高無(wú)上性。他們超越我們，就像能夠跑進(jìn)4分鐘以內(nèi)的跑步選手超越我們慢跑的速度一樣。

第6段

To think of geniuses and the gifted as having uniquely different brains is only reasonable if we accept that each human brain is uniquely different.The purpose of instruction is to make us even more different from one another,and in the process of being educated we can learn from the achievements of those more gifted than ourselves.But before we try to emulate geniuses or encourage our children to do so we should note that some of the things we learn from them may prove unpalatable.We may envy their achievements and fame,but we should also recognise the price they may have paid in terms of perseverance,single-mindedness,dedication,restrictions on their personal lives,the demands upon their energies and time,and how often they had to display great courage to preserve their integrity or to make their way to the top.

只有當(dāng)我們承認(rèn)每個(gè)人的大腦都具有獨(dú)特的差異時(shí)，將天才視為具有獨(dú)特大腦的人才合理。這一說(shuō)法的目的是使我們彼此之間變得更加不同。在接受教育的過(guò)程中，我們可以從那些比我們更有天賦的人的成就中學(xué)習(xí)。但是，在我們嘗試模仿天才或鼓勵(lì)我們的孩子這樣做之前，我們應(yīng)該注意，我們從他們那里學(xué)到的一些東西可能令人不快。我們可能會(huì)羨慕他們的成就和名聲，但我們也應(yīng)該認(rèn)識(shí)到他們?cè)谝韵路矫嫠冻龅拇鷥r(jià)：毅力，一心一意，奉獻(xiàn)，對(duì)個(gè)人生活的節(jié)制，對(duì)精力和時(shí)間的要求，必須經(jīng)常展現(xiàn)極大的勇氣以保持自己的正直，或登上成功的巔峰。

第7段

Genius and giftedness are relative descriptive terms of no real substance.We may,at best,give them some precision by defining them and placing them in a context but,whatever we do,we should never delude ourselves into believing that gifted children or geniuses are different from the rest of humanity,save in the degree to which they have developed the performance of their abilities.

天才和天賦是沒(méi)有什么實(shí)質(zhì)內(nèi)容的相對(duì)描述性術(shù)語(yǔ)。我們可能最多只能通過(guò)定義它們并將它們放在上下文中來(lái)賦予它們一些精確度，但是，無(wú)論我們做什么，我們都不應(yīng)自欺欺人地相信有天賦的孩子或天才不同于其他人類，除非他們已經(jīng)在某種程度上展現(xiàn)出自己的能力。

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