1998年1月英语四级 - 阅读理解D

Violin prodigies, I learned, have come in distinct waves from distinct regions. Most of the great performers if the late 19th and early 20th centuries were born and brought up in Russia and Eastern Europe. I asked Isaac Stern, one of the world’s greatest violinists the reason for this phenomenon. “It is very clear,” he told me. “They were all Jews and Jews at the time were severely oppressed and ill-treated in that part of the world. They were not allowed into the professional fields, but they were allowed to achieve excellence on a concert stage.” As a result, every Jewish parent’s dream was to have a child in the music school because it was a passport to the West.
我了解到的小提琴神童来自不同地区的不同浪潮。19世纪末和20世纪初的大多数伟大表演者都在俄罗斯和东欧出生和长大。我问世界上最伟大的小提琴家之一艾萨克·斯特恩造成这种现象的原因。“很明显，”他告诉我，“他们都是犹太人，当时的犹太人在世界上那些地区受到严重的压迫和虐待，不允许进入专业领域，但允许他们在音乐会舞台上取得卓越成就。”因此，每个犹太家长的梦想都是让孩子上音乐学校，因为这是通往西方的护照。

Another element in the emergence of prodigies, I found, is a society that values excellence in a certain field to nurture talent. Nowadays, the most nurturing societies seem to be in the Far East. “In Japan, a most competitive society, with stronger discipline than ours,” says Isaac Stem, children are ready to test their limits every day in many fields, including music. When Western music came to Japan after World War II, that music not only became part of their daily lives, but it became a discipline as well. The Koreans and Chinese as we know, are just as highly motivated as the Japanese.
我发现，天才出现的另一个因素是，社会重视培养某一领域的优秀人才。如今，最重视培养的社会似乎在远东。艾萨克·斯特恩说：“日本是个竞争最激烈的社会，纪律比我们强。”孩子们每天都准备在包括音乐在内的许多领域测试自己的极限。第二次世界大战后，当西方音乐来到日本时，这种音乐不仅成为了他们日常生活的一部分，而且也成为了一门学科。正如我们所知，韩国人和中国人的积极性和日本人一样高。

That’s a good thing, because even prodigies must work hard. Next to hard work, biological inheritance plays an important role in the making of a prodigy. J. S. Bach, for example, was the top of several generations of musicians, and four of his sons had significant careers in music.
这是一件好事，因为即使是天才也必须努力工作。除了勤奋工作外，生物遗传在造就神童方面发挥着重要作用。例如，巴赫是几代音乐家中的佼佼者，他的四个儿子在音乐领域都有着璀璨的职业生涯。