首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early America-breakthroughs such as the telegraph, the steamboat and
What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early America-breakthroughs such as the telegraph, the steamboat and
admin
2015-12-01
63
问题
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.
According to the author, the great outburst of major inventions in early America was in a large part due to______.
选项
A、elementary schools
B、enthusiastic workers
C、the attractive premium system
D、a special way of thinking
答案
D
解析
本题中,A、B、C三项都只是一般原因,不是主要原因。从文章第2段的内容可知,在许多决定性因素中,作者特别提到美国优秀的初等学校、欢迎新技术的劳动力以及奖励发明者的做法这些因素;最重要的是美国人的天赋——处理技术性事务的非语言的“立体”思维。据此可知,D项与文中的意思相符,因此D项为正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/2zGO777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
Smallbusinessownersmustaccepttheburdensofentrepreneurship.Beinginbusinessforyour-selfrequiresyourfullattention
Inspiteof"endlesstalkofdifference",Americansocietyisanamazingmachineforhomogenizingpeople.Thereis"thedemocrat
Asoneworkswithcolorinapracticalorexperimentalway,oneisimpressedbytwoapparentlyunrelatedfacts.Colorasseenis
Aninvisibleborderdividesthosearguingforcomputersintheclassroomonthebehalfofstudents’careerprospectsandthosea
Eversincethe1750s,whenthewriter,satirist,statesmanandinventorBenjaminFranklinputpoliticalcartooningonthemapby
Eversincethe1750s,whenthewriter,satirist,statesmanandinventorBenjaminFranklinputpoliticalcartooningonthemapby
Alittlemorethanacenturyago,MichaelFaraday,anotedBritishphysicist,managedtogainaudiencewithagroupofhighgove
ThechangesingloballyaveragedtemperaturethathaveoccurredattheEarth’ssurfaceoverthepastcenturyaresimilarinsize
ThechangesingloballyaveragedtemperaturethathaveoccurredattheEarth’ssurfaceoverthepastcenturyaresimilarinsize
随机试题
国际放射学界公认:当照片上的半影模糊值<0.2mm时,人眼观察影像毫无模糊感,当半影模糊值>0.2mm时,开始有模糊感,故0.2mm是模糊阈值。某球管在实验时,发现放大倍数为1.15倍时,开始模糊,则该焦点大小可能为
女,56岁,有房颤病史5年。突发眩晕、恶心呕吐6小时来院。体检:神志清,右侧瞳孔2mm,左侧瞳孔3mm,右侧面瘫,颈软,左侧半身痛温觉减退,血压110/70mmHg。下列诊断首先考虑的是
K线图形态可分为()。Ⅰ.反转形态Ⅱ.整理形态Ⅲ.缺口Ⅳ.趋向线
需求价格弹性()。
旅行社接待过程中可能发生的旅游安全事故,主要包括()和其他原因造成的旅游者意外伤亡和财物损失等。
以下握手要领中,错误的是()。
孔子的教育思想有()。
函数f(x)=Inx—In(1-x)的定义域是()。
结合你的项目管理经验,简要分析产生上述问题的可能原因。针对上述情况,项目经理老赵应该在合同谈判、计划和执行阶段分别进行怎样的范围管理?
80386有4个总线周期定义信号,分别为W/R、D/C、M/IO和LOCK;其中前3个是主要的总线周期定义信号在存储器数据读取周期,各总线周期定义信号为( )。
最新回复
(
0
)