2009年高考英语上海卷 - 阅读理解D

The latest research suggests a more prosaic, democratic, even puritanical view of the world. The key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not a divine spark. It’s not I.Q., a generally bad predictor of success, even in realms like chess. Instead, it’s deliberate practice. Top performers spend more hours (many more hours) rigorously practicing their craft. If you wanted to picture how a typical genius might develop, you’d take a girl who possessed a slightly above average verbal ability. It wouldn’t have to be a big talent, just enough so that she might gain some sense of distinction. Then you would want her to meet, say, a novelist, who coincidentally shared some similar biographical traits. Maybe the writer was from the same town, had the same ethnic background, or, shared the same birthday.
最新的研究表明，人们对世界的看法更加平淡、民主，甚至是清教徒式。将天才和只是熟练区分开来的关键因素并不是神的火花。这并不是智商，即使在国际象棋这样的领域，智商也是一个普遍不好的成功预测指标。相反，这是刻意的练习。顶尖的表演者花更多的时间（更多的时间）严格练习他们的技艺。如果你想描绘一个典型的天才是如何发展的，你可以选择一个言语能力略高于平均水平的女孩。这不一定是一个大才子，只要能让她获得一些与众不同的感觉就足够了。然后你会希望她遇到一位小说家，她碰巧有一些相似的传记特征。也许这位作家来自同一个城镇，有着相同的种族背景，或者是同一个生日。

This contact would give the girl a vision of her future self. It would give her some idea of a fascinating circle she might someday join. It would also help if one of her parents died when she was 12, giving her a strong sense of insecurity and fueling a desperate need for success. Armed with this ambition, she would read novels and life stories of writers without end. This would give her a primary knowledge of her field. She’d be able to see new writing in deeper ways and quickly perceive its inner workings.
这种接触会让女孩看到未来的自己。这会让她对自己有朝一日可能加入的一个迷人的圈子有一些想法。如果她的父母之一在她12岁时去世，这也会有所帮助，给她一种强烈的不安全感，并激发她对成功的迫切需求。怀着这种野心，她会没完没了地阅读小说和作家的生平故事。这将使她对自己的领域有初步了解。她将能够以更深入的方式看到新的写作，并快速感知其内部运作。

Then she would practice writing. Her practice would be slow, painstaking and error-focused. By practicing in this way, she delays the automatizing process. Her mind wants to turn conscious, newly learned skills into unconscious, automatically performed skills. By practicing slowly, by breaking skills down into tiny parts and repeating, she forces the brain to internalize a better pattern of performance. Then she would find an adviser who would provide a constant stream of feedback, viewing her performance from the outside, correcting the smallest errors, pushing her to take on tougher challenges. By now she is redoing problems—how do I get characters into a room—dozens and dozens of times. She is establishing habits of thought she can call upon in order to understand or solve future problems.
然后她会练习写作。她的练习将是缓慢的、艰苦的和专注于错误的。通过这种方式练习，她推迟了自动化过程。她的大脑想把有意识的、新学到的技能变成无意识的、自动执行的技能。通过慢慢练习，通过将技能分解成微小的部分并重复，她迫使大脑内化更好的表现模式。然后她会找到一位顾问，他会提供源源不断的反馈，从外部观察她的表现，纠正最小的错误，推动她接受更严峻的挑战。到目前为止，她正在重做我如何让角色进入一个房间的问题。她正在建立自己的思维习惯，以便理解或解决未来的问题。
The primary trait she possesses is not some mysterious genius. It’s the ability to develop a purposeful, laborious and boring practice routine. The latest research takes some of the magic out of great achievement. But it underlines a fact that is often neglected. Public discussion is affected by genetics and what we’re “hard-wired” to do. And it’s true that genes play a role in our capabilities. But the brain is also very plastic. We construct ourselves through behavior.
她所拥有的主要特质并不是什么神秘的天才。这是一种养成有目的、费力且枯燥的练习习惯的能力。最新的研究从巨大的成就中吸取了一些魔力。但这突出了一个经常被忽视的事实。公众的讨论受到遗传学和我们“天生”的影响。基因确实在我们的能力中发挥了作用。但大脑也是可塑性很强的。我们通过行为构建自己。