【今日阅读推荐】本篇阅读材料年龄与智慧:姜真的是老的辣吗?选自《经济学人》(原文标题:Age and wisdom: Older and wiser? 2012.4.7)。如果大家觉得比较简单,就当作泛读材料了解了解,认识几个新单词或新表达方式也不错。如果大家觉得这些材料理解上有难度,不妨当做挑战自己的拔高训练,希望大家都有进步^^
Americans get wiser with age. Japanese are wise from the start.
ONE stereotype of wisdom is a wizened Zen-master smiling benevolently at the antics of his pupils, while referring to them as little grasshoppers or some such affectation, safe in the knowledge that one day they, too, will have been set on the path that leads to wizened masterhood. But is it true that age brings wisdom? A study two years ago in North America, by Igor Grossmann of the University of Waterloo, in Canada, suggested that it is. In as much as it is possible to quantify wisdom, Dr Grossmann found that elderly Americans had more of it than youngsters. He has, however, now extended his investigation to Asiathe land of the wizened Zen-masterand, in particular, to Japan. There, he found, in contrast to the West, that the grasshoppers are their masters equals almost from the beginning.
stereotype n. 刻板印象;老套
benevolent adj. 仁慈的;亲切的;仁爱的
quantify v. 量化;为定量
Dr Grossmanns study, just published in Psychological Science, recruited 186 Japanese from various walks of life and compared them with 225 Americans. Participants were asked to read a series of pretend newspaper articles. Half described conflict between groups, such as a debate between residents of an impoverished Pacific island over whether to allow foreign oil companies to operate there following the discovery of petroleum. The other half took the form of advice columns that dealt with conflicts between individuals: siblings, friends and spouses. After reading each article, participants were asked What do you think will happen after that? and Why do you think it will happen this way? Their responses were recorded and transcribed.
walks of life 各界;各行各业
impoverished adj. 穷困的;用尽了的,无创造性的
in favor 赞同;偏向
disruption n. 破坏;毁坏
sibling n. 兄弟姐妹
spouse n. 配偶
transcribe v. 转录;抄写
Dr Grossmann and his colleagues removed age-related information from the transcripts, and also any clues to participants nationalities, and then passed the edited versions to a group of assessors. These assessors were trained to rate transcribed responses consistently, and had been tested to show that their ratings were statistically comparable with one another.
The assessors scored participants responses on a scale of one to three. This attempted to capture the degree to which they discussed what psychologists consider five crucial aspects of wise reasoning: willingness to seek opportunities to resolve conflict; willingness to search for compromise; recognition of the limits of personal knowledge; awareness that more than one perspective on a problem can exist; and appreciation of the fact that things may get worse before they get better.
compromise n. 妥协
perspective n. 观点
A score of one on any aspect indicated a participant gave no consideration to it. A score of two indicated some consideration. A score of three indicated a great deal of consideration. Each participants scores were then added up and mathematically transformed to create an overall value within a range of zero to 100 for both interpersonal and intergroup wisdom.
The upshot was that, as Dr Grossmann had found before, Americans do get wiser with age. Their intergroup wisdom score averaged 45 at the age of 25 and 55 at 75. Their interpersonal score similarly climbed from 46 to 50. Japanese scores, by contrast, hardly varied with age. Both 25-year-olds and 75-year-olds had an average intergroup wisdom of 51. For interpersonal wisdom, it was 53 and 52.
Taken at face value, these results suggest Japanese learn wisdom faster than Americans. One up, then, to the wizened Zen-masters. But they also suggest a paradox. Generally, America is seen as an individualistic society, whereas Japan is quite collectivist. Yet Japanese have higher scores than Americans for the sort of interpersonal wisdom you might think would be useful in an individualistic society. Americans, by contrastat least in the maturity of old agehave more intergroup wisdom than the purportedly collectivist Japanese. Perhaps, then, you need individual skills when society is collective, and social ones when it is individualistic. All of which goes to show that the real root of wisdom is this: do not assume, little grasshopper, that your prejudices are correct.
paradox n. 悖论;似是而非的观点
Question time:
1. Whats the finding of Dr Grossmanns research?
2. What are the crucial aspects of wise reasoning?
1. Americans get wiser with age. Japanese are wise from the start.
2. willingness to seek opportunities to resolve conflict; willingness to search for compromise; recognition of the limits of personal knowledge; awareness that more than one perspective on a problem can exist; and appreciation of the fact that things may get worse before they get better.
娱乐英语资讯:Britney Spears enjoys romance holiday with mystery man
娱乐英语资讯:Madonna returns to Michigan roots to show her film
娱乐英语资讯:Crouching tigress, hidden reasons
娱乐英语资讯:Britney Spears wins more time with sons
娱乐英语资讯:Britneys dad quits full-time job to look after her
娱乐英语资讯:Angelina Jolie leaves hospital
娱乐英语资讯: 24 City screened for a city reborn
娱乐英语资讯:Harrison Fords summer wedding
娱乐英语资讯:Emmy Awards nominations announced
娱乐英语资讯:Miss Venezuela crowned Miss Universe 2008
娱乐英语资讯:Frances first lady also first in record sales
娱乐英语资讯:Dark Knight Bale denies assault
娱乐英语资讯:Britney Spears to appear in new Pussycat Dolls
娱乐英语资讯:Brad Pitt manager denies Jolie birth report
娱乐英语资讯:Bruce Willis girlfriend strips off for lingerie campaign
娱乐英语资讯:Cannes film festival kicks off with mix of serious films and antic
娱乐英语资讯:Coldplay sets dates for extensive Viva La Vida tour
娱乐英语资讯:Who is the greenest celebrity?
娱乐英语资讯:Hollywood studios to resume contract talks with major actors union
娱乐英语资讯:The Chronicles of Narnia: Out of the wardrobe again
娱乐英语资讯:Were Brangelinas twins the result of IVF?
娱乐英语资讯:Report: Mariah Carey marries Nick Cannon
娱乐英语资讯:NBC TV host Tim Russert dies of heart attack
娱乐英语资讯:Magnolias bloom in televisions big night
娱乐英语资讯:Jessica Simpsons boyfriend boost
娱乐英语资讯:TV viewership still down in wake of 100-day writers strike
娱乐英语资讯:Javier Baderm to propose to Penelope Cruz
Stars swing into action to help out China quake victims
娱乐英语资讯:American country music superstar Eddy Arnold dies at 89
娱乐英语资讯:Paris Hiltons marry hurry
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |