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  3. Real innovation is a dying art. It’s true that creativity—the business of thinking up new ideas—is far from dead, but it’s getti

Real innovation is a dying art. It’s true that creativity—the business of thinking up new ideas—is far from dead, but it’s getti

admin2017-01-15  53
问题     Real innovation is a dying art. It’s true that creativity—the business of thinking up new ideas—is far from dead, but it’s getting harder and harder to get new concepts applied in design, manufacturing or business. It costs thousands of pounds to get a new idea into the marketplace, and there is very little support for anything from most companies or government. A lot of people don’t want to know.
    I’ve always been interested in new ideas. I was trained as an engineer and went to work for an automotive components company, and almost from the first day I was asking why things were done in this way and not that. I thought up my first invention at 19—then I discovered someone else had got there first. I’ve been inventive all my life. I’ve got 14 patents to my name.
    Invention is what happens when you come across a problem, and look for a solution. It could be at work or at home in the garden—like a better way of mowing the lawn, say. But these days creativity is being stifled because there are so many hoops to go through. You have a brilliant idea for a left-handed widget but you still have to ask yourself; Is it new? Has it already been protected? Is there a market for it? Is the investment worth it?
    Only 4 percent of granted patents reach the market place. Part of the problem is that manufacturing industry and government are obsessed with complex technology like bioengineering. There is no interest in low technology or simple ideas that are equivalent to the invention of the paperclip. Inventors still come up with simple devices, but it’s difficult to get anyone interested.
    But it’s also a very British problem. Inventions from Britain are often taken up overseas, because most British companies tend not to look outside their own factory gates. My own personal theory is that it’s a legacy of the Empire, when Britain had a captive audience and little competition, so industries didn’t need to market their products. Nowadays, companies from other leading economies have to make what the consumer wants in order to ensure their profits, so they are always ready to innovate. And many British manufacturers have never caught up.
    Plus, British schoolchildren aren’t embracing vocational training subjects such as metalwork, woodwork, or design and technology. As a result university engineering departments are closing. Tomorrow’s World used to be on the TV, but where is that now? The whole lack of interest in creativity and invention is a symptom of the class system, too—there’s a kind of snobbishness in Britain about cleverness and originality. The only inventors you see in the media are people like Sir Clive Sinclair and Trevor Bayliss who come across like mad scientists.
What does the phrase "caught up" in Paragraph 5 mean?
选项 A、Come from behind and reach someone in front of you by going faster.
B、Get involved in something.
C、Do what needs to be done because you have not been able to do it until now.
D、Try to take hold of something.
答案A
解析 catch up在文中所在句的句意为：许多英国制造商也从未……，结合上下文可知，catch up的意思是“追上，赶上”，所以[A]为正确答案。
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