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
2010-05-25
84
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 invent, ion 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、was brought about by privileged home training
D、owed a lot to the technological development
答案
A
解析
推断题。短文第三段提到早期的技工大都有文化,且熟悉算术、几何和三角的某些方面的知识第四段又提到美国人的适应能力和创造性无不与这种教育优势相关。由此可知,选项A“从他们的数学知识中大量受益”为正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/so1K777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
Whatistherelationshipbetweenthespeakers?
TherearethosewhopointwithalarmatAmericans’relativelackofinterestintheworld’smostpopulargames,soccer,asport
Whenhetriedtomakea______,hefoundthatthehotelwascompletelyfilledbecauseofaconvention.
He______anothercareerbut,atthetime,hedidn’thaveenoughmoneytoattendgraduateschool.
Crypticcoloringisbyfarthecommonestuseofcolorinthestruggleforexistence.Itisemployedforthepurposeofattack(a
IsContinuingEdforYou?Continuingeducationisimportantforeveryonenow,inallfields.Almostassoonasyou’vecomp
Mostpeoplewhotravelinthecourseoftheirworkaregiventravelling______.
Elizabethantakesagoodrestonholiday,butshelooksnone______better..
WhataccountsforthegreatoutburstofmajorinventionsinearlyAmerica-breakthroughssuchasthetelegraph,thesteamboatand
Allthecommunists______thepeopleinsteadofbeingservedbythepeople.
随机试题
下列哪种酶催化的反应需CytP450参加
乙脑病人早期诊断依据是
男性,38岁。持续性上腹剧痛10h就诊。伴恶心、呕吐,腹痛最初位于上腹偏左,后逐渐波及全腹。体检:体温39℃,血压12/8kPa,腹平坦,上腹肌紧张,压痛明显,有轻度反跳痛,腹透膈下无游离气体,B型超声检查有胆结石,血白细胞16×109/L(16000/m
A.白色泡沫或黏液性痰B.大量脓痰C.脓臭痰D.粉红色浆液泡沫痰E.血痰以上几种痰可见于下列哪些疾病慢性支气管炎
根据《危险化学品安全管理条例》,有关部门派出的工作人员依法进行监督检查时,应当()。
某市为加强消防安全,准备在城市中心选址安排一个标准消防站,目前有A、B、C三个选址方案(如图3所示)。【问题】试对这三个选址方案进行分析,并确定选址方案(不需要考意用地规模的问题)。
加气混凝土砌块墙如无切实有效措施,不得使用的部位有()。
下列出口货物,符合增值税免税并退税政策的是()。
后任注册会计师在接受委托后,与前任注册会计师进行沟通中最有效、最常用的方式是()。
THECONCEPTOFROLETHEORYRolesetAnyindividualinanysituationoccupiesaroleinrelationtootherpeople.Theparticular
最新回复
(
0
)