异类之不一样的成功启示录 第56期:诺贝尔获奖者的出处

 　　Brick. Building things, throwing.

　　砖块：用于建造物体；做投掷物用。

　　Blanket. Keeping warm, smothering¹ fire, tying to tress and sleeping in (as a hammock), improvised² stretcher.

　　毛毯：保暖，隔离空气灭火；绑在树上睡觉（类似于吊床）；做临时担架。

　　Where is Florence's imagination?

　　罗伦斯具有想象力？

　　He identified the most common and most functional³ uses for bricks and blankets and simply stopped.

　　他只不过是对砖块和毛毯的普遍特征、功用进行了分类。

　　The fact that Florence's IQ is higher than Poole's tells us nothing, since both students are above the threshold.

　　佛罗伦斯的思路看起来还比不上普尔那样敏捷和富有创造力。

　　What matters is that Poole's mind can leap from violent imagery to sex to people jumping out of buildings without missing a beat,

　　普尔的思路能够从暴力想象跳跃到性到人们从建筑物跳下来，其中没有一环缺失，

　　and Florence's mind can't.

　　而佛罗伦斯做不到。

　　Now which of those two students do you think is better suited to do the kind of brilliant, imaginative work that wins Nobel Prizes?

　　现在，您觉得他们两个谁更有才气，谁更可能成就一番伟业，谁更可能获得诺贝尔奖？

　　That's the second reason Noble Prize winners come from Holy Cross as well as Harvard,

　　这就是为什么那些诺贝尔获奖者既可以来自圣十字大学，也可以来自哈佛大学的另一个原因，

　　because Harvard isn't selecting its students on the basis of how well they do on the "uses of a brick" test.

　　因为哈佛大学不会依据这种“砖的用途”的测试成绩，来挑选自己需要的学生。

　　It's also the reason Michigan Law School couldn't find a difference between its affirmative action graduates and the rest of its alumni.

　　这也是为什么密歇根法学院接受赞助性行动计划的毕业生和其他学生没有什么区别的另外一个原因。

　　Being a successful lawyer is about more than IQ.cept

　　同样的道理，成为一个成功律师的因素，显然不是智商就能解释清楚的。

　　It involves having a kind of fertile mind that Poole had.

　　它需要普尔那样丰富的想象力，

　　And just because Michigan's minority students have lower scores on convergence tests doesn't mean they don't have that other critical trait in abundance.

　　需要像比尔.乔伊那样刻苦，需要像诺贝尔奖获得者那样雄心勃勃——密歇根少数族裔学生在收敛性测试里面较低的分数，并不意味着他们在其他重要方面也是庸碌无为。

　　This was Terman's error.

　　这便是特曼的错误。

　　He fell in love with the fact that his Termites⁴ were at the absolute pinnacle⁵ of the intellectual scale

　　他过于执拗地相信他的那些“特曼人”绝对处于智力金字塔的顶峰

　　-at the ninety-ninth percentile of the ninety-ninth percentile -without realizing how little that seemingly extraordinary fact meant.

　　他们是1％的佼佼者中挑选出来的1％，但特曼没有意识到这些看起来非同寻常的数据，事实上并不能说明什么。

　　By the time the Termites reached adulthood⁶, Terman's error was plain.

　　这些特曼人长大成人之后，特曼的错误变得更加明显。

　　Some of his child geniuses had grown up to publish books and scholarly articles and thrive in business.

　　一些他眼中的少年天才长大之后成为了书籍、学术文章出版人，有些人在商业上也取得了一定成功。

　　Several ran for public office, and there were two superior court justices,

　　有几个人成为了政府官员，两个人成为了高级法院的法官，

　　one municipal judge, two members of the California state legislature, and one prominence⁷ state official.

　　一个人成为地方法院法官，两个人任职于加利福尼亚立法机关，有一个成为该州政绩优秀的政府官员。

　　But few were nationally known figures.

　　然而，他们当中很少有全国知名的人物。

　　They tended to earn good incomes, but not that good.

　　看起来他们的收入颇丰——但也不是理想。

1 smothering   

（使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的现在分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制

参考例句：

• He laughed triumphantly, and silenced her by manly smothering. 他胜利地微笑着，以男人咄咄逼人的气势使她哑口无言。
• He wrapped the coat around her head, smothering the flames. 他用上衣包住她的头，熄灭了火。

2 improvised   

a.即席而作的,即兴的

参考例句：

• He improvised a song about the football team's victory. 他即席创作了一首足球队胜利之歌。
• We improvised a tent out of two blankets and some long poles. 我们用两条毛毯和几根长竿搭成一个临时帐蓬。

3 functional   

adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的

参考例句：

• The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了，但现在可以用了。
• The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的，只是为了实用。

4 termites   

n.白蚁( termite的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Termites are principally tropical in distribution. 白蚁主要分布在热带地区。 来自辞典例句
• This spray will exterminate the termites. 这种喷剂能消灭白蚁。 来自辞典例句

5 pinnacle   

n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰

参考例句：

• Now he is at the very pinnacle of his career.现在他正值事业中的顶峰时期。
• It represents the pinnacle of intellectual capability.它代表了智能的顶峰。

6 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

7 prominence   

n.突出；显著；杰出；重要

参考例句：

• He came to prominence during the World Cup in Italy.他在意大利的世界杯赛中声名鹊起。
• This young fashion designer is rising to prominence.这位年轻的时装设计师的声望越来越高。