2024年5月29日发(作者：)

考研英语历年阅读理解真题精析--1996年part4

Part Four

What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early

America----breakthroughs such as the telegraph , the steamboat and the weaving

machine?

Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the country ' s excellent elementary

schools; a labor force that welcomed the new technology; the practice of giving

premiums to inventors ; and above all the American genius for nonverbal , "spatial

"thinking about things technological .

Why mention the elementary schools? Because thanks to these schools our early

mechanics ,especially in the New England and Middle Atlantic states, were generally

literate and at home in arithmetic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry.

Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this

educational advantage. As a member of a British commission visiting here in 1853

reported, "With a mind prepared by thorough school discipline, the American boy

develops rapidly into the skilled workman. "

A further stimulus to invention came from the "premium" system, which preceded our

patent system and for years ran parallel with it. "this approach, originated abroad,

offered inventors medals, cash prizes and other incentives.

In the United States, multitudes of premiums for new devices were awarded at country

fairs and at the industrial fairs in major cities. Americans flocked to these fairs

to admire the new machines and thus to renew their faith in the beneficence of

technological advance.

Given this optimistic approach to technological innovation, the American worker took

readily to that special kind of nonverbal thinking required in mechanical technology.

As Eugene Ferguson has pointed out , " A technologist thinks about objects that cannot

be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in his mind by

a visual, nonverbal process . . . The designer and the inventor . . . are able to

assemble and manipulate in their minds devices that as yet do not exist. "

This nonverbal "spatial" thinking can be just as creative as painting and writing.

Robert Fulton once wrote, "The mechanic should sit down among levers, screws, wedges,

wheels, etc. , like a poet among the letters of the alphabet , considering them as

an exhibition of his thoughts, in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea. "

When all these shaping forces--schools, open attitudes, the premium system, a genius

for spatial thinking--interacted with one another on the rich U. S. mainland, they

produced that American characteristic , emulation . Today that word implies mere

imitation. But in earlier times it meant a friendly but competitive striving for fame

and excellence.

13. According to the author, the great outburst of major inventions in early America

was in a large part due to__

（A）elementary schools （B）enthusiastic workers

（C）the attractive premium system（D）a special way of thinking

14 .It is implied that adaptiveness and inventiveness of the early American

mechanics__

（A）benefited a lot from their mathematical knowledge

（B）shed light on disciplined school management

（C）was brought about by privileged home training

（D）owed a lot to the technological development

15. A technologist can be compared to an artist because __

（A）they are both winners of awards（B）they are both experts in spatial thinking

（C）they both abandon verbal description（D）they both use various instruments

16. The best title for this passage might be__

（A）Inventive Mind （B）Effective Schooling

（C）Ways of Thinking （D）Outpouring of Inventions

Unit 3（1996）Part 4

重点词汇：

breakthrough ?（n.突破）←break+through。

premium（奖金）看作pre+mi+um，pre-在前，mi拼音"米"即money，-um后缀表物，"在前面

放着的钱"→奖金。

nonverbal（不用语言的）即non+verb+al，non-否定前缀，verb词根"言语"，-al形容词后

缀。Gestures are a nonverbal means of expression.打手势是一种非言语的表达方式。

spatial（空间的）即spacial←spac（e）+ial。

stimulus（n.刺激；刺激物）←stimul刺激+us名词后缀。参stimulant（刺激物；兴奋剂），

1997年Passage 3。

incentive （动机；鼓励a.激励的）←in+cent+ive，in-前缀，cent单词"分币"引申为"钱"，

-tive后缀，"用钱去激励"。incentive - the possibility of getting more money than you

can earn 奖励--得到比你挣的钱更多的可能性。

beneficence（恩惠）←benefic+ence，benefic看作benefit，-ence名词后缀。

emulation （竞争；仿效）

难句解析：

① Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the country's excellent

elementary schools; a labor force that welcomed the new technology; the practice of

giving premiums to inventors; and above all the American genius for nonverbal,

"spatial" thinking about things technological.

句首是介词词组among the many shaping factors作状语，谓语动词would single out后

面用分号隔开的各个部分都是名词性的词组，这些词组都是single out的宾语。a labor force

that welcomed the new technology中that引导定语从句，修饰前面的labor force。最后

的形容词technological是后置定语，修饰前面的things。

single out后面列举的各种因素都属于shaping factors，但是是作者认为比较重要的因素，

其中要注意在最后一个因素前面加的修饰词组above all用来强调American genius for

nonverbal, "spatial" thinking about things technological其实是要比其它因素更重要

的，在阅读中一定要注意这一点。

②Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this

educational advantage.

这句话是比较容易理解的简单句。句子主干结构是observers related A to B。

关键是理解 to的用法：把......和......联系起来。

③ A further stimulus to invention came from the "premium" system, which preceded

our patent system and for years ran parallel with it.