subjectmatterUnit 2
Some Quotes on learning
The root of education is bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
—Aristotle
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be tho who cannot read and write, but tho who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
- Alvin Toffler
What I hear, I forget.
outcastWhat I e, I remember.
What I do, I understand.
翻译英文
- Confucius
稀有气体的用途
The test and the u of man’s education is that he finds pleasure in the exerci of his mind. —Jacques Barzun
电算化会计信息系统That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.
–Doris Lessing
Whoever neglects learning in his youth, los the past and is dead for the future.
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–Euripides
I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me.
roi- Dudley Field Malone
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.
- Henry Ford
Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will.
- Vernon Howard
The most uful piece of learning for the us of life is to unlearn what is untrue.
- Antisthenes
Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
- Winston Churchill
We learn by example and by direct experience becau there are real limits to the adequacy of
verbal instruction.
- Malcolm Gladwell
Preview questions
1. What does the writer want to tell readers?
2. Am I plead with my own English study? What makes me successful or unsuccessful in learning? What measures will I take to improve my study?
Text 1
It’s Never Too Late for Success
You and your parents can stop worrying ─Pasture, Edison, Darwin and lots of more were far from being genius in their teens. History books ldom mention it, but the truth is that many of our greatest figures were practically “beatniks” when they were te enagers. They were given to daydreaming, indecision, and they showed no promi of being doctor, lawyer, or Indian chief.
So, young men and women, if you suffer from the same symptoms, don’t despair. The world was built by men and women who parents worried that they would “never amount to a hill of beans”. You don’t hear too much about their early failure becau parents prefer to cite more inspiring examples.
A Man They Don’t Tell You About
If you take piano lessons and your attitude towards practicing is marked by laziness, your parents might justly complain and flaunt before you the famous picture of little Mozart in his ruffled nightshirt, playing the piano at midnight in the attic. But the point is, your parents would not show you a picture
of a certain party who never showed a bit of interest in music during his formative years. In fact he never showed talent in any direction whatever. Finally put to studying law, he barely pasd his final exams. It was not until he was 22 that he suddenly became fired with a great passion for music, and his name was Peter Iluitch Tschaikowsky.
In the science, there have been hundreds of genius who aimed straight at the goal from earliest years, and hundreds who showed no aptitude at all. There were the teen-age Mayo brothers, who actually assisted their father [in his crude country] operating room. On the other hand, Harvey Cushing, one of the world’s greatest brain surgeons, might have become a professional ballplayer if his father hadn’t pleaded that he give medicine a try.
The great Pasteur’s parents were in despair becau teen-age Louis did nothing but draw pictures and go fishing. Pasture was 20 years old before he became even faintly interested in science.
Edison Was “Addled”
So it goes. You have the Wright brothers, who were brilliant at engineering in their early teens, and you have Thomas Alva Edison, who teacher tried to get him out of the class becau his brain was “addled.”You have the Nobel Prize physicist Enrico Fermi, who at 17 had read enough mathema
tics to qualify for a doctor’s degree. And you have the great. Albert Schweitzer,
who hesitated between music and the church until he was 30. Then he started his medical studies.
Darwin Hated School
Charles Darwin’s early life was a mess. He hated school, and his father once shouted: “You care for nothing but shooting dogs and rat-catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourlf and all your family!”He was nt to Glasgow to study medicine, but he couldn't stand the sight of blood. He was nt to divinity school and barely managed to graduate. Whereupon he gave up the whole business and shipped to the South Seas on the famous exploring ship Beagle. On that voyage, one of history’s greatest scientists was born. It was here that he coll ected the material for the book that would revolutionize biological science The Origin of the Species.
Faulkner Failed in English
Politics offers a familiar example of contrast. Herbert Hoover must have learned administration in the cradle. When he was at school he was chon as football manager, though he didn’t know the game, and the glee club manager, though he couldn’t sing a note. Whatever he touched went smoothly, glee club or food for a starving Europe.
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But one of his successors in the White Hou had about as checkered a youth as can be imagined. Turned down by West Point becau of poor vision, Harry Truman tried a dozen jobs, including stretches in a drugstore, a bank, a bottling works, and a railroad yard. But he got there just the same.
Great writers are suppod to be born, not made, but here again there are many fascinating exceptions. William Faulkner quit school in the fifth grade and wandered around the country as a hou painter and a dishwasher.12:04 2009-5-20 ryedu
Once he tried attending college, but failed in freshman English and quit. He got a postmaster’s job in a small Mississippi town, and infuriated the populace by getting the mail all mixed up and closing the office whenever he felt like it.
And just to show that girls can be as confusing as boys, take Pearl Buck, who from early youth made it a point to write at least a few lines every day of her life. Then take Edna Ferber, who sole ambition was to be an actress; she never even thought of writing anything until she was in her 20’s and had to take a $3-a-week job on a newspaper to help her family.em
How about Tho Prodigies?
And added to all the aforementioned paradoxes you have a small army of child prodigies who were graduated from college when they were 15, and are now obscure clerks in accounting departments. And you have a small army of men who were too stupid or lazy to get into or finish college and who are today presidents of the firms that hire the prodigies.
So who’s to say what about youth? Any young boy or girl who knows what he wants to do in life is probably the better off for it. But no teen-ager need despair of the future. He has that one special advantage over the greatest man alive─time! If you don’t think time counts, look at Grandma Mos. She never sold a painting till she was 80.
Words and Expressions
Genius n.天才, 天赋, 天才人物gift, inspiration, intelligence, master, prodigy, talent, wizard;
beatnik n. A person who acts and dress with pointed, often exaggerated disregard for what is generally thought proper and who is given to radical and extravagant social criticism or lf-expression. 披头族一个行为和穿着奇装异服的，通常过分的，不在乎什么是世俗认为适当的人。这种人持激进的和偏激的社会批评主义态度或自我表现
A hill of beans: anything; valueless I haven’t a bean. I have no money.
flaunt [ flo:nt ]:v. To exhibit ostentatiously or shamelessly: If you flaunt your posssions, abilities, or qualities, you display them in an obvious way in order to try to obtain other people’s attention or to shock them. Show off炫耀卖弄地或厚颜无耻地展示：flaunts his knowledge.炫耀他的知识
Ruffle v. To disturb the smoothness or regularity of; ripple. 使…起伏不平，弄皱；使起涟漪To pleat or gather (fabric) into a ruffle. 给（织物）打褶裥，给（织物）饰褶边formative adj 影响形成的；影响发展的a child's formative years 孩子个性形成时期Forming or capable of forming. 能成形的造型的或可塑造的Susceptible to transformation by growth and development. 能随成长而变形的对成长和发展的变化敏感的
addle v. Addled: if something addles someone’s m ind or brain, or if someone is addled, they are confud and unable to think properly. To muddle; confu：使混乱；使糊涂：My brain is a bit addled by whiskey. “威士忌搞得我头晕脑胀的”See: confu addle-brained adj. (=addleheaded, addlepated)思想糊涂的, 昏头昏脑的
checkered: chequered; has had a checkered career or history, they have had a varied past with periods of difficulty or failure as well as times when they have been successful or popular.
glee club n. Music A group of singers who perform usually short pieces of choral music. 合唱队一
组演唱通常较短的合唱队的歌手
paradox n.（名词） A emingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true: 似是而非的评论：看起来自相矛盾但可能正确的说法：the paradox that standing is more tiring than walking. 站着比走路还累这一似非而是的说法One exhibiting inexplicable or contradictory aspects: 有明显矛盾特征的人或事物：表现出让人费解或自相矛盾特点的人或事物：“You have the paradox of a Celt being the smooth Oxonian”(Anthony Burgess) “作为一个圆滑的牛津人，你具有凯尔特人自相矛盾的特点”(安东尼·伯吉斯) An asrtion that is esntially lf-contradictory, though bad on a valid deduction from acceptable premis. 逆说，悖论：一种尽管从可接受的假设中推导出来但其核心是自相矛盾的论断 A statement contrary to received opinion. 逆论，反说：与通常的见解相反的观点
1. Be far from: have a long way to go to
2. A beatnik was a type of young person in the late 1950’s who wore strange clothes and had
unconventional beliefs rather than traditional ones, sometimes ud to show disapproval
3. Be given to sth: have a particular habit or tendency; addicted to
4. Indecision: uncertainty about what you should do, where you should go, how you should behave,
etc.
5. Promi: a sign or indication of something, for example success, that will or may happen in the future. →cf, Show no promi of: show no indication or sign of; Hold little promi; Show considerable promi
6. Never amount to a hill of beans: never become a very important person. become somebody
7. Cite: mention; quote
8. Ruffle: make something uneven → Ruffled: something no longer smooth or neat; crumpled. cf, If someone is ruffled, they are surprid, confud or annoyed
9. Justly: reasonably; justifiably
10. Formative: a formative period of time or influence is one which has important and lasting influence on a person’s character and attitudes E.g. This person may well become the most formative influence on the young child’s developing personality.
11. become fired with a great passion for: become crazy for sth. with great zeal
Stretch: A continuous period of time. 一段连续的时间
Genius n.天才, 天赋, 天才人物
gift, inspiration, intelligence, master, prodigy, talent, wizard;
2013英语四级考试答案beatnik n.
A person who acts and dress with pointed, often exaggerated disregard for what is generally thought proper and who is given to radical and extravagant social criticism or lf-expression. 比特尼克，披头族一个行为和穿着奇装异服的，通常过分的，不在乎什么是世俗认为适当的人。这种人持激进的和偏激的社会批评主义态度或自我表现
flaunt v.
To exhibit ostentatiously or shamelessly: 炫耀卖弄地或厚颜无耻地展示：
flaunts his knowledge.炫耀他的知识
