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  3. How Geniuses Work In 1905, Albert Einstein developed the theory of special relativity. He also proved that atoms exist and f

How Geniuses Work In 1905, Albert Einstein developed the theory of special relativity. He also proved that atoms exist and f

admin2012-04-09  62
问题                         How Geniuses Work
    In 1905, Albert Einstein developed the theory of special relativity. He also proved that atoms exist and figured out that light behaves as both a particle and a wave. To top it all off, he developed his famous equation E=mc2, which describes the relationship between matter and energy, the same year. He was only 26 years old.
    Without a doubt, Einstein was a genius. So was Isaac Newton — as any fan of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" can tell you, he invented physics. He also played a big role in the development of calculus, which some people have trouble comprehending even after extensive classroom study. Another genius, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, started composing music when he was 5 years old. Mozart wrote hundreds of pieces before his death in 1760 at age 35.
    According to conventional wisdom, geniuses are different from everyone else. They can think faster and better than other people. In addition, many people think that all that extra brainpower leads to eccentric or quirky behavior. And although geniuses are fairly easy to spot, defining exactly what makes one person a genius is a little trickier. Figuring out how that person became a genius is harder still.
    There are two big things that make it difficult to study genius:
    The genius label is subjective. Some people insist that anyone with an intelligence quotient (IQ) higher than a certain value is a genius. Others feel that IQ tests measure only a limited part of a person’s total intelligence. Some believe high test scores have little to do with real genius.
    Genius is a big-picture concept. Most scientific and medical inquiries, on the other hand, examine details. A concept as subjective as genius isn’t easy to quantify, analyze or study.
    So, when exploring how geniuses work, it’s a good idea to start by defining precisely what a genius is. For the purpose of this article, a genius isn’t simply someone with an exceptionally high IQ. Instead, a genius is an extraordinarily intelligent person who breaks new ground with discoveries, inventions or works of art. Usually, a genius’s work changes the way people view the world or the field in which the work took place. In other words, a genius must be both intelligent and able to use that intelligence in a productive or impressive way.
Genius and the Brain
    Your brain regulates your body’s organ systems. When you move around, it sends impulses along your nerves and tells your muscles what to do. Your brain controls your senses of smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing, and you experience and process emotions using your brain. On top of all that, your brain allows you to think, analyze information and solve problems. But how does it make you smart?
    Scientists haven’t figured out exactly how all the gray matter in your brain works, but they do have an idea of which part lets you think. The cerebral cortex (大脑皮层), which is the outermost part of your brain, is where thought and reasoning happen. These are your brain’s higher functions — the lower functions, which relate to basic survival, take place deeper in the brain.
    Your cerebral cortex is the largest part of your brain, and it’s full of wrinkles and folds that allow it to fit in your skull. If you removed and stretched out an adult human’s cerebral cortex, it would be about as large as a few pages of a newspaper. It’s divided into several lobes, and different regions within these lobes handle specific tasks related to how you think.
    In spite of all those challenges to see the brain inside and how it works, researchers have figured out a few things about how the brain affects intelligence. A 2004 study at the University of California, Irvine found that the volume of gray matter in parts of the cerebral cortex had a greater impact on intelligence than the brain’s total volume. The findings suggest that the physical attributes of many parts of the brain — rather than a centralized "intelligence center" — determine how smart a person is.
Genius and Intelligence
    Like genius, intelligence can be difficult to quantify. Psychologists and neuroscientists study intelligence extensively. An entire field of study, known as psychometrics, is devoted to studying and measuring intelligence. But even within that field, experts don’t always agree on exactly what it is or how best to analyze it. And while intelligence is central to genius, not all geniuses score well on intelligence tests or perform well in school.
    Intelligence testing has existed for thousands of years. Chinese emperors used aptitude testing to evaluate civil servants as early as 2200 BC. The tests we know as IQ tests got their start near the end of the 19th century. Today, IQ tests generally measure a person’s memory as well as language, spatial and mathematical abilities. In theoretical terms, these tests measure a concept or factor known as g. You can think of g as a unit of measure or a way of expressing the amount of intelligence a person has.
    IQ tests are also standardized so that most people score between 90 and 110. When placed on a graph, the IQ test scores of a large group of people will generally resemble a bell curve, with most people scoring in the average range. A common perception is that anyone scoring above a certain number — often 140 — is automatically a genius. But in spite of the existence of high-IQ organizations, many scientists caution that there is no such thing as a genius-level IQ.
    Many educators and researchers feel that, in general, standardized IQ tests do a good job of predicting how well a child will perform in school. Schools often use these tests to determine which children to place in gifted or special education classes. Most colleges and universities and some employers also use standardized tests as part of their application processes.
Creativity and Genius
    There’s a big difference between being really smart and being a genius. While geniuses tend to be exceptionally intelligent, they also use imagination and creativity to invent, discover or create something new within their field of interest. They break new ground rather than simply remembering or reciting existing information.
    Geniuses do not usually operate in isolation, either — nearly all of them analyze the work of other great minds and use that information to make new discoveries. Self-taught geniuses, on the other hand, often explore information in unexpected or inventive ways, due in part to their lack of formal training. In either case, the ability to imagine new possibilities is as important as general intelligence.
    Like intelligence, creativity and imagination can be difficult to isolate, quantify or explain. Some researchers believe that creative people have less latent inhibition than other people. Latent inhibition is the unconscious ability to ignore unimportant stimuli. Researchers theorize that creative people either receive more stimuli from the world around them or ignore less of it. This may also explain why creative people seem to be more prone to mental illness. People who are both unable to filter stimuli and emotionally unstable are more prone to psychosis.
    Creativity also seems to have some traits in common with bipolar disorder. During an episode of mania, a person with bipolar disorder experiences increases in energy, the ability to focus and motivation. Bipolar disorder is more common among writers and artists than in the general population, but scientists have not found a cause-and-effect relationship between the two.
    The creativity of geniuses also relates to productivity and hard work. Sometimes, the most dramatic examples of genius involve people who produce their best work at a very young age. However, not every genius produces exceptional work early in life the way Einstein and Mozart did. Some, like Ludwig von Beethoven, do their best work later in life.
A study revealed that the size of_____in the cerebral cortex played an important role in intelligence.
选项 A、nerves
B、cells
C、gray matter
D、lobes
答案C
解析 该句提到，2004年的一项研究发现，大脑皮层中的灰质的体积对智力的影响比整个大脑的体积对智力的影响还要大，故答案为C)。
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