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
2017-07-31
27
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.
The best title for this passage might be______.
选项
A、Inventive Mind
B、Effective Schooling
C、Ways of Thinking
D、Outpouring of Inventions
答案
A
解析
本题中,B项和C项只是文章两个段落的意思,不能代表文章的中心意思。D项“发明的涌现”之意也不能代表文章的意思,本文只是以“早期的美国为何发明涌现”这一问题引出文章,并没有刻意说明发明的涌现。文章询问早期的美国涌现出一些重大发明的主要原因。文章第2段对此作了分析,指出了几个因素,学校教育、劳动者对新技术的热情、奖励制度,最主要的是具有发明创造的思想;在随后的几段中,作者分别探讨了初级学校教育带来的影响、奖励制度带来的影响、美国人特有的立体思维方式所起的作用;最后一段得出结论:这些因素相互影响,形成了创造性意识,因而早期的美国涌现出一些重大发明。据此可知,本文主要讲的就是美国人的创造性意识及其根源。A项与文章的意思相符,因此A项为正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/IqFO777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
TheBritishgovernmenthasdecidedtowipeouttheobesityepidemicthroughanovelstrategy-byofferingfatpeoplecashincenti
NowwhenIhadmasteredthelanguageofthiswater,andhadcometoknoweverytriflingfeaturesthatborderedthegreatrivera
Priortothe20thcentury,manylanguageswithsmallnumbersofspeakerssurvivedforcenturies.Theincreasinglyinterconnected
ThefirstfewmonthsoftheyearIhaddreadedtheringingofthetelephone,becauseIknewitmeantanother____decisiontobema
Inrecentyearsmanycountriesoftheworldhavebeenfacedwiththeproblemofhowtomaketheirworkersmoreproductive.Some
OnesillyquestionIsimplycannottolerateis"Howdoyoufeel?"Usuallythequestionisaskedofamaninaction-amanwalkin
Asstudentsreturntoschoolthisfall,parentswillagainworryaboutnewillnessesaskidscomeintocontactwithflugerms.T
Virtuallyeverythingastronomersknownaboutobjectsoutsidethesolarsystemisbasedonthedetectionofphotons—quantaofele
Virtuallyeverythingastronomersknownaboutobjectsoutsidethesolarsystemisbasedonthedetectionofphotons—quantaofele
TheAmericaneconomicsystemisorganizedaroundabasicallyprivate-enterprise,market-orientedeconomyinwhichconsumerslarg
随机试题
胸外心脏挤压时,应使胸骨下陷
A.川芎茶调散B.羌活胜湿汤C.天麻钩藤饮D.半夏白术天麻汤治疗痰浊头痛病,宜选
A.结核菌抑菌剂B.结核菌全杀菌剂C.结核菌半杀菌剂D.对结核菌无影响E.对末梢神经有损害利福平
患者,男,41岁。十二指肠溃疡史,除有空腹痛进食后缓解外,突然发生呕吐,所吐物为昨天吃的食物。引发原因是
乌梅丸的君药是
患者女,20岁,查体:血红蛋白90g/L,细胞体积小,血清铁明显下降,诊断为缺铁性贫血。下列哪项不符合缺铁性贫血的临床表现
从事货物生产、年应税销售额超50万元的小规模纳税人,不可以被认定为一般纳税人。()
你负责单位的信访接待工作,上班第一周就被群众投诉。领导为此批评了你,你会怎么办?
司马紫衣突然很沮丧地发现,自己并不是一个自信的人。哪种理论最适合解释司马紫衣自我意识的发展?()。
Itisan______whichmaybebrown,greenorblackincolour.
最新回复
(
0
)