Passage Nine
His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar system.
You appear to be astonished, Holmes said, smiling at my expression. Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it. You see, I consider that a man s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose: A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has difficulty in laying his hand upon it. It is a mistake to think that the little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it, there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you know before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.
But the Solar System! I protested.
What the deuce is it to me? he interrupted impatiently.
One morning, I picked up a magazine from the table and attempted to while away the time with it, while my companion munched silently at his toast. One of the articles had a pencil mark at the heading, and I naturally began to run my eye through it.
Its somewhat ambitious title was The Book of Life, and it attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way. It struck me as being a remarkable mixture of shrewdness and of absurdity. The reasoning was close and intense, but the deduction appeared to me to be far-fetched and exaggerated. The writer claimed by a momentary expression, a twitch of a muscle or a glance of an eye, to fathom a man s inmost thought. Deceit, according to him, was impossibility in the case of one trained to observation and analysis. His conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid. So startling would his results appear to the uninitiated that until they learned the processes by which he had arrived at them they might well consider him as a necromancer.
From a drop of water, said the writer, a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts, the science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it.
This smartly written piece of theory I could not accept until a succession of evidences justified it.
1.What is the author s attitude toward Holmes?
Praising.
Critical.
Ironical.
Distaste.
2.What way did the author take to stick out Holmes uniqueness?
By deduction.
By explanation.
By contrast.
By analysis.
3.What was the Holmes idea about knowledge-learning?
Learning what every body learned.
Learning what was useful to you.
Learning whatever you came across.
Learning what was different to you.
4.What did the article mentioned in the passage talk about?
One may master the way of reasoning through observation.
One may become rather critical through observation and analysis.
One may become rather sharp through observation and analysis.
One may become practical through observation and analysis.
实用职场口语:面试与实习-面试实战篇之应聘导游 1
实用职场口语:假期与请假-这儿的天气太好了
实用职场口语:同事之间-你听说迈克发生什么事了吗?
实用职场口语:面试与实习-面试实战篇之应聘秘书 2
实用职场口语:面试与实习-面试实战篇之应聘电脑工程师 1
实用职场口语:面试与实习-他们也想到咱们公司来工作
实用职场口语:面试与实习-我通过了一家公司的短期工招聘
实用职场口语:面试与实习-面试单元之介绍教育背景 1
实用职场口语:面试与实习-面试单元之介绍教育背景 3
实用职场口语:面试与实习-工资是与工作的责任紧密相关
实用职场口语:假期与请假-公司太忙了, 现在没时间休假
实用职场口语:面试与实习-面试实战篇之应聘机械工程师 1
实用职场口语:面试与实习-非常感谢你来面试这份工作
实用职场口语:面试与实习-为什么你要应聘这个职位?
实用职场口语:同事之间-希望能够参观一下你新装修的家
实用职场口语:假期与请假-纠缠不休的职业病
实用职场口语:面试与实习-面试单元之介绍教育背景 2
实用职场口语:同事之间-有什么不明白的就要麻烦你了
实用职场口语:面试与实习-面试简单开场白 之二
实用职场口语:假期与请假-北京也很有意思
实用职场口语:面试与实习-面试单元之介绍个人信息 3
实用职场口语:假期与请假-晒太阳让浑身都很放松
实用职场口语:面试与实习-面试简单开场白 之 一
实用职场口语:面试与实习-你对哪方面的工作感兴趣?
实用职场口语:面试与实习-面试单元之谈论性格和爱好 2
实用职场口语:加薪与升职-我被调到财务部去了
实用职场口语:面试与实习-能给我谈谈你的突出业绩吗?
实用职场口语:面试与实习-面试简单开场白 之 三
实用职场口语:面试与实习-去参加招聘会吧
实用职场口语:面试与实习-我要去参加美国公司的招聘会
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