-pony
Unit 1
genetics
遗传学
psychiatry
精神病学
persistent
坚持不懈的
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
.
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:
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
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.
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,
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.
put
him
in
the
20th
century
he
would
go
nowhere
as
a
politician
,
Simonton
declared.
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
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.
couldn't
stop
thinking
about
this stuff,
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.
Simonton
added,
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.
Dickinson
was
not
recognized
for
her
poetry
until
after
her
death,
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.
significant difference,
(1 214 words)
New Words
artillery
n.
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）
surveyor
n. 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
unspectacular
a.
ordinary; not exciting or special
不引人注意的；不惊人的
spectacular
a. (attracting
attention because) impressive or extraordinary
引人注目的；出色的；与众不同的
carve
vt. 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）
uncompromising
a. not ready to make any compromise;
firm or unyielding.
不
妥协的，坚定的；不让步的
influential
a.
having a lot of influence on sb./sth.
有影响的；有权势的
genetics
n. the scientific
study of the ways in which different
characteristics are passed from each
generation of living
things to the next
遗传学
psychiatry
n. the study and
treatment of mental illness
精神病学；精神
病治疗
compose
vt.
write (music, opera, poetry, etc.)
创作（音乐、歌剧、诗
等）
symphony
n. a
long complex musical composition for a large
orchestra,
usu. in three or four parts
交响乐
characteristic
n. a typical
feature or quality
特点
unrelenting
a.
not becoming less strong or severe; continuous
不松懈的，
不放慢的；持续的
endow
vt.
provide (sb./sth.) with a good quality, ability,
feature,
etc.
给予，赋予
super-normal
a.
超出一般的；超常的；非凡的
amazing
a. extremely good;
esp. in a surprising and unexpected way
惊
人的，令人吃惊的
cite
vt.
mention
(sb./sth.)
as
an
example
or
to
support
an
argument;
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