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  3. 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

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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.
It is implied that adaptiveness and inventiveness of the early American mechanics________.
选项 A、benefited a lot from their mathematical knowledge
B、shed light on disciplined school management
C、were brought about by privileged home training
D、owed a lot to the technological development
答案A
解析 本题关键词是adaptiveness and inventiveness和early American mechanics，问题是：文章暗示早期美国技工的适应能力和创新能力是怎样的?定位到第二段。根据第二段第二、三句的内容，因为有了这些学校，早期技工才普遍能够读书识字、精通算术(arithmetic)，并且了解一些几何和三角(geometry and trigonometry)的知识。美国人的适应能力和创新能力与这种教育优势(this educational advantage)是分不开的。这种教育优势就是指第二句中的数学知识，可见，早期美国技工的适应能力与创新能力在很大程度上得益于数学知识，选项A与原文属于相同含义，为正确选项。选项B来自第二段第四句，美国的孩子们在学校接受过全面的训练(thorough school discipline)，所以他们能够迅速成长为技术熟练的工人。这里上下文强调的是学科训练，而不是学校管理，因此选项B偷换概念。选项C曲解文意，第二段第二句中的at home in表示“精通”，而不是在家训练数学(home training)。选项D无中生有，文章中没有技术发展 (technological development)导致早期美国技工的适应能力和创新能力的相关信息。第二段：美国的小学教育有助于培养美国人的适应能力和创新能力。
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