Thomas Young The last True Know-It-All
A Thomas Young (1773-1829) contributed 63 articles to the Encyclopedia Britannica, including 46 biographical entries (mostly on scientists and classicists) and substantial essays on "Bridge,” "Chromatics," "Egypt," "Languages" and "Tides". Was someone who could write authoritatively about so many subjects a polymath, a genius or a dilettante? In an ambitious new biography, Andrew Robinson argues that Young is a good contender for the epitaph "the last man who knew everything." Young has competition, however: The phrase, which Robinson takes for his title, also serves as the subtitle of two other recent biographies: Leonard Warren's 1998 life of paleontologist Joseph Leidy (1823-1891) and Paula Findlen's 2004 book on Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), another polymath.
B Young, of course, did more than write encyclopedia entries. He presented his first paper to the Royal Society of London at the age of 20 and was elected a Fellow a week after his 21st birthday. In the paper, Young explained the process of accommodation in the human eye on how the eye focuses properly on objects at varying distances. Young hypothesized that this was achieved by changes in the shape of the lens. Young also theorized that light traveled in waves and he believed that, to account for the ability to see in color, there must be three receptors in the eye corresponding to the three "principal colors" to which the retina could respond: red, green, violet. All these hypothesis were subsequently proved to be correct.
C Later in his life, when he was in his forties, Young was instrumental in cracking the code that unlocked the unknown script on the Rosetta Stone, a tablet that was "found" in Egypt by the Napoleonic army in 1799. The stone contains text in three alphabets: Greek, something unrecognizable and Egyptian hieroglyphs. The unrecognizable script is now known as demotic and, as Young deduced, is related directly to hieroglyphic. His initial work on this appeared in his Britannica entry on Egypt. In another entry, he coined the term Indo-European to describe the family of languages spoken throughout most of Europe and northern India. These are the landmark achievements of a man who was a child prodigy and who, unlike many remarkable children, did not disappear into oblivion as an adult.
D Born in 1773 in Somerset in England, Young lived from an early age with his maternal grandfather, eventually leaving to attend boarding school. He haddevoured books from the age of two, and through his own initiative he excelled at Latin, Greek, mathematics and natural philosophy. After leaving school, he was greatly encouraged by his mother's uncle, Richard Brocklesby, a physician and Fellow of the Royal Society. Following Brocklesby's lead, Young decided to pursue a career in medicine. He studied in London, following the medical circuit, and then moved on to more formal education in Edinburgh, Gottingen and Cambridge. After completing his medical training at the University of Cambridge in 1808, Young set up practice as a physician in London. He soon became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a few years later was appointed physician at St. George's Hospital.
E Young's skill as a physician, however, did not equal his skill as a scholar of natural philosophy or linguistics. Earlier, in 1801, he had been appointed to a professorship of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution, where he delivered as many as 60 lectures in a year. These were published in two volumes in 1807. In 1804 Young had become secretary to the Royal Society, a post he would hold until his death. His opinions were sought on civic and national matters, such as the introduction of gas lighting to London and methods of ship construction. From 1819 he was superintendent of the Nautical Almanac and secretary to the Board of Longitude. From 1824 to 1829 he was physician to and inspector of calculations for the Palladian Insurance Company. Between 1816 and 1825 he contributed his many and various entries to the Encyclopedia Britannica, and throughout his career he authored numerous books, essays and papers.
F Young is a perfect subject for a biography - perfect, but daunting. Few men contributed so much to so many technical fields. Robinson's aim is to introduce non-scientists to Young's work and life. He succeeds, providing clear expositions of the technical material (especially that on optics and Egyptian hieroglyphs). Some readers of this book will, like Robinson, find Young's accomplishments impressive; others will see him as some historians have - as a dilettante. Yet despite the rich material presented in this book, readers will not end up knowing Young personally. We catch glimpses of a playful Young, doodling Greek and Latin phrases in his notes on medical lectures and translating the verses that a young lady had written on the walls of a summerhouse into Greek elegiacs. Young was introduced into elite society, attended the theatre and learned to dance and play the flute. In addition, he was an accomplished horseman. However, his personal life looks pale next to his vibrant career and studies.
G Young married Eliza Maxwell in 1804, and according to Robinson, "their marriage was a happy one and she appreciated his work." Almost all we know about her is that she sustained her husband through some rancorous disputes about optics and that she worried about money when his medical career was slow to take off. Very little evidence survives about the complexities of Young's relationships with his mother and father. Robinson does not credit them, or anyone else, with shaping Young's extraordinary mind. Despite the lack of details concerning Young's relationships, however, anyone interested in what it means to be a genius should read this book.
Questions 1-7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage
1 “The last man who knew everything” has also been claimed to other people.
2 All Young’s articles were published in Encyclopedia Britannica.
3 Like others, Young wasn't so brilliant when grew up.
4 Young's talents as a doctor are surpassing his other skills.
5 Young's advice was sought by people responsible for local and national issues.
6 Young was interested in various social pastimes.
7 Young suffered from a disease in his later years.
Questions 8-13
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
8 How many life stories did Young write for Encyclopedia Britannica?
9 What aspect of scientific research did Young do in his first academic paper?
10 What name did Young introduce to refer to a group of languages?
11 Who inspired Young to start the medical studies?
12 Where did Young get a teaching position?
13 What contribution did Young make to London?
中文翻译：
A 我们该怎样理解托马斯•杨（1773-1829）？他是《大不列颠百科全书》中63篇文章的作者，其中包括46篇传记（大部分都是关于科学家和古典学者），和大量关于“桥” “色彩论” “埃及” “语吉” “潮汐”等的论文。一个能够写出这样多有权威性文章的人应该算是一个博学者？ 一个天才？还是一个业余兴趣广泛的人呢？在一篇关于他的比较激进的传记中，Andrew Robinson 认为托马斯杨是-位强有力的竞争者能够配得这样的墓志铭“是最后一个知道任何事的人”。但是杨也要面对竞争：因为这样的传记标题Robinson不仅给了他，也作为副标题给了有关另两位学者的传记：Lenard Warren 1998年著的《古生物学家Joseph Leipy的一生》（1823-1891）以及Paula Findlen 2004年著的关于另一位博学者Athanasius Kircher(1602-1680)的传记。
B 当然杨的贡献远不止写了很多百科全书上的文章，他在20岁的时候将自己的第一篇论文自荐给伦敦皇家学会,并在他的21岁生日后被评为一周科学人物，杨在该篇论文中解释了人类眼睛的调节机制一一关于眼睛如何通过不同的距离聚焦在物体上。在后面的文章中，他更加全面地探讨了这个问题，类似牛顿，他在自己身上进行了可怕的实验用以获得相关的证据，他还得出这样的理论：光是通过“以太”分子的振动，以波的形式进行传递的，而“以太”是一种假想物质，其存在还存在争议性。他还认为为了能看见颜色，必须要有3个感应器对“三原色”进行感应，而这三种视网膜对其产生感应的颜色就是红，黄，蓝二种颜色。
C 在他人生的晚些时候，也就是40多岁的时候，杨试图破解锁在罗塞塔石碑里的未知文字密码，这个石碑是在1799年在埃及被拿破仑的军队发现的，并且从1802年起就在英国博物馆进行展出。该石碑上包含了 3种不同的字母：希腊语，不可辨识的文字以及埃及的象形文字。这种不可辨识的文字现在被认为是正如杨所推断的是很普通的，是和象形文字直接相关的。他最初有关这方面的工作首次出现在他在《大不列颠百科全书》中编纂的词条。在另一个条目中，他创造了术语“Indo-European”来描述在欧洲大部分地区以及北印度使用的语言。这些都是这是这位从小就展露科学天赋并且不像很多孩子后来江郎才尽的科学家获得的里程碑式的成就。
D 托马斯•杨出生在英国萨默塞特郡一个虔诚的教友会教徒家庭，从小和他的外公一起长大，最后去了寄宿学校。他两岁的时候就博览群书，并且自学熟练掌握了拉丁语，希腊语，数学以及哲学，在很大程度上他受到了舅舅Richard Brocklesby的鼓励，他的舅舅也是英国皇家学会的一位内科医生。在Brocklesby的引导下，杨决定要在医学方而有所建树，他曾先后在伦敦大学、爱丁堡大学和格丁根大学学习医学，多亏了Brocklesby的引荐，杨进入了英国皇家学会，他最后也打破了从小在教友会的教育，他参加戏剧演出，学习跳舞和吹笛子，此外，他还是一位杰出的马术师。在1808年结束在剑桥大学的医学学习后，杨在伦敦开了一家诊所，很快他就成为皇家内科医生学会的一员，并且几年后成为圣乔治医院的一名内科医生。
E 杨作为内科医生的医术却赶不上他作为自然哲学学者或是语言学家取得的成就，早在1801年，他已经被任命为英国皇家学会的教授，他每年要在那里举办60场的讲座。这些讲座在1807年以两本书的形式进行出版。1804年杨就已经成为英国朵家学会的秘书，而他获此殊荣直至去世。他的很多观点关注人民和国家事务，比如说在伦敦引进煤气照明和造船方法。从1819年起，他就是航海天文年历的主要负责人，也是Board of Longitude的秘书。从1824年到1829年，他担任Palladian 保险公司的精算师和内科医生。在1816年和1825年间，他为《大不列颠百科全书》编纂了许多词条，而且穷其一生著作，论文无数。
F 我们通过杨在医学课上胡乱写的希腊字母和拉丁文短语以及他将一位年轻的女士写在避暑山庄墙上的诗句翻译成挽歌可以看出他的幽默，但是他的个人生活也因为自己对工作和研究的全情投入而略显苍白。
G 他在1804年和Eliza Maxwell结婚，据Robinson所述“他们的婚姻是幸福的，因为他的夫人欣赏他的工作”。我们对于他夫人的了解仅限于她在她丈夫备受一些关于眼睛的理论方面争议的时候总是坚定地支持他，并且当他的医学生涯开始慢慢起飞的时候，她开始有些担心钱的问题。值得一提的是，杨没有被保护的人，他都是和自己的导师进行互动一一先是他的外公，后是Brocklesby一一还有先于他过失的一些伟人（其中很多是很著名的如牛顿，杨最早在17岁读了他写的书）。但是关于杨和他母亲以及父亲的关系的记述却鲜力人知，Robinson在说到杨的非凡的头脑时也并没有将其归功于他的父母，或许很难有这样的巧合：过去的天才都是由于卓越的父母教育造就的。
答案：
1. TRUE 2. FALSE 3. FALSE 4. NOT GIVEN
5. TRUE 6. TRUE 7. NOT GIVEN 8. 46
9. Human eye/ human eye accomodation 10. Indo-Europea
11. Richard Brocklesby 12. Royal Institution 13. gas lighting
Passage2：仿生设计
What has fins like a whale, skin like a lizard, and eyes like a moth? The future of engineering. Andrew Parker, an evolutionary biologist, knelt in the baking red sand of the Australian out back just south of Alice Springs and eased the right hind leg of a thorny devil into a dish of water.
A
“Its back is completely drenched!” Sure enough, after 30 seconds, water from the dish had wicked up the lizard’s leg and was glistening all over its prickly hide. In a few seconds more the water reached its mouth, and the lizard began to smack its jaws with evident satisfaction. It was, in essence, drinking through its foot. Given more time, the thorny devil can perform this same conjuring trick on a patch of damp sand—a vital competitive advantage in the desert. Parker had come here to discover precisely how it does this, not from purely biological interest, but with a concrete purpose in mind: to make a thornydevil- inspired device that will help people collect lifesaving water in the desert. “The water’s spreading out incredibly fast!” he said, as drops from his eyedropper fell onto the lizard’s back and vanished, like magic. “Its skin is far more hydrophobic than I thought. There may well be hidden capillaries, channeling the water into the mouth.”
B
Parker’s work is only a small part of an increasingly vigorous, global biomimetics movement. Engineers in Bath, England, and West Chester, Pennsylvania, are pondering the bumps on the leading edges of humpback whale flukes to learn how to make airplane wings for more agile flight. In Berlin, Germany, the fingerlike primary feathers of raptors are inspiring engineers to develop wings that change shape aloft to reduce drag and increase fuel efficiency. Architects in Zimbabwe are studying how termites regulate temperature, humidity, and airflow in their mounds in order to build more comfortable buildings, while Japanese medical researchers are reducing the pain of an injection by using hypodermic needles edged with tiny serrations, like those on a mosquito’s proboscis, minimizing nerve stimulation.
C
Ronald Fearing, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, has taken on one of the biggest challenges of all: to create a miniature robotic fly that is swift, small, and maneuverable enough for use in surveillance or search-and-rescue operations. Fearing made his own, one of which he held up with tweezers for me to see, a gossamer wand some 11 millimeters long and not much thicker than a cat’s whisker. Fearing has been forced to manufacture many of the other minute components of his fly in the same way, using a micromachining laser and a rapid prototyping system that allows him to design his minuscule parts in a computer, automatically cut and cure them overnight, and assemble them by hand the next day under a microscope.
D
With the microlaser he cuts the fly’s wings out of a two-micron polyester sheet so delicate that it crumples if you breathe on it and must be reinforced with carbon-fiber spars. The wings on his current model flap at 275 times per second~faster than the insect’s own wings— and make the blowfly’s signature buzz. “Carbon fiber outperforms fly chitin,” he said, with a trace of selfsatisfaction. He pointed out a protective plastic box on the lab bench, which contained the fly-bot itself, a delicate, origami-like framework of black carbonfiber struts and hairlike wires that, not surprisingly, looks nothing like a real fly. A month later it achieved liftoff in a controlled flight on a boom. Fearing expects the fly-bot to hover in two or three years, and eventually to bank and dive with flylike virtuosity.
E
Stanford University roboticist Mark Cutkosky designed a gecko-inspired climber that he christened Stickybot. In reality, gecko feet aren’t sticky—they’re dry and smooth to the touch—and owe their remarkable adhesion to some two billion spatula-tipped filaments per square centimeter on their toe pads, each filament only a hundred nanometers thick. These filaments are so small, in fact, that they interact at the molecular level with the surface on which the gecko walks, tapping into the low-level van der Waals forces generated by molecules’ fleeting positive and negative charges, which pull any two adjacent objects together. To make the toe pads for Stickybot, Cutkosky and doctoral student Sangbae Kim, the robot’s lead designer, produced a urethane fabric with tiny bristles that end in 30-micrometer points. Though not as flexible or adherent as the gecko itself, they hold the 500-gram robot on a vertical surface.
F
Cutkosky endowed his robot with seven-segmented toes that drag and release just like the lizard’s, and a gecko-like stride that snugs it to the wall. He also crafted Stickybot’s legs and feet with a process he calls shape deposition manufacturing (SDM), which combines a range of metals, polymers, and fabrics to create the same smooth gradation from stiff to flexible that is present in the lizard’s limbs and absent in most man-made materials. SDM also allows him to embed actuators, sensors, and other specialized structures that make Stickybot climb better. Then he noticed in a paper on gecko anatomy that the lizard had branching tendons to distribute its weight evenly across the entire surface of its toes. Eureka. “When I saw that, I thought, Wow, that’s great!” He subsequently embedded a branching polyester cloth “tendon” in his robot’s limbs to distribute its load in the same way.
G
Stickybot now walks up vertical surfaces of glass, plastic, and glazed ceramic tile, though it will be some time before it can keep up with a gecko. For the moment it can walk only on smooth surfaces, at a mere four centimeters per second, a fraction of the speed of its biological role model. The dry adhesive on Stickybot’s toes isn’t self-cleaning like the lizard’s either, so it rapidly
clogs with dirt. “There are a lot of things about the gecko that we simply had to ignore,” Cutkosky says. Still, a number of real-world applications are in the offing. The Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which funds the project, has it in mind for surveillance: an automaton that could slink up a building and perch there for hours or days, monitoring the terrain below. Cutkosky hypothesizes a range of civilian uses. “I’m trying to get robots to go places where they’ve never gone before,” he told me. “I would like to see Stickybot have a real-world function, whether it’s a toy or another application. Sure, it would be great if it eventually has a lifesaving or humanitarian role...”
H
For all the power of the biomimetics paradigm, and the brilliant people who practice it, bio-inspiration has led to surprisingly few mass-produced products and arguably only one household word—Velcro, which was invented in 1948 by Swiss chemist George de Mestral, by copying the way cockleburs clung to his dog’s coat. In addition to Cutkosky’s lab, five other high-powered research teams are currently trying to mimic gecko adhesion, and so far none has come close to matching the lizard’s strong, directional, self-cleaning grip. Likewise, scientists have yet to meaningfully re-create the abalone nanostructure that accounts for the strength of its shell, and several well-funded biotech companies have gone bankrupt trying to make artificial spider silk.
答案待补充
Passage3：性格与交流冲突
Personality and Communicating Conflict
A As far back as Hippocrates’ time (460-370B.C.), people have tried to understand other people bycharacterizing them according to personality type or temperament.Hippocratesbelieved there were four different body fluids that influenced four basic typesof temperament. His work was further developed 500 years later by Galen. Thesedays there are any number of self-assessment tools that relate to the basicdescriptions developed by Galen, although we no longer believe the source to bethe types of body fluid that dominate our systems.
B The values in self-assessments that help determine personality style. Learning styles, communication styles,conflict-handling styles, or other aspects of individuals is that they helpdepersonalize conflict in interpersonal relationships. The depersonalizationoccurs when you realize that others aren’t trying to be difficult, but theyneed different or more information than you do. They’re not intending to berude: they are so focused on the task they forget about greeting people. Theywould like to work faster but not at the risk of damaging the relationshipsneeded to get the job done. They understand there is a job to do. But it canonly be done right with the appropriate information, which takes time to collect. When used appropriately, understanding communication styles can help resolve conflict on teams. Veryrarely are conflicts true personality issues. Usually they are issues of style,information needs, or focus.
C Hippocrates and later Galen determined there were four basic temperaments:sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic (忧郁症) and choleric. These descriptions were developed centuries ago andare still somewhat apt, although you could update the wording. In today’sworld, they translate into the four fairly common communication stylesdescribed below:
D The sanguine (乐 观的 ) person would be the expressiveor spirited style of communication. These people speak in pictures. They investa lot of emotion and energy in their communication and often speak quickly.Putting their whole body into it. They are easily sidetracked onto a story thatmay or may not illustrate the point they are trying to make. Because of theirenthusiasm, they are great team motivators. They are concerned about people and relationships.Their high levels of energy can come on strong at times and their focus isusually on the bigger picture, which means they sometimes miss the details orthe proper order of things. These people find conflict or differences ofopinion invigorating and love to engage in a spirited discussion. They lovechange and are constantly looking for new and exciting adventures.
E Tile phlegmatic person - cool and persevering - translates into the technicalor systematic communication style. This style of communication is focused onfacts and technical details. Phlegmatic people have an orderly methodical wayof approaching tasks, and their focus is very much on the task, not on thepeople, emotions, or concerns that the task may evoke. The focus is also more onthe details necessary to accomplish a task. Sometimes the details overwhelm thebig picture and focus needs to be broughtbackto the context of the task. Peoplewith this style think the facts should speak for themselves, and they are notas comfortable with conflict. They need timeto adapt to change and need to understand both the logic of it and thesteps involved.
F Tile melancholic person who is softhearted and oriented toward doing thingsfor others translates into the considerate or sympathetic communication style.A person with this communication style is focused on people and relationships.Theyare good listeners and do things for other people-sometimes to thedetriment of getting things done for themselves. They want to soliciteveryone’s opinion and make sure everyone is comfortable with whatever isrequired toget the job done. At times this focus on others can distract fromthe task at hand. Because they are so concerned with the needs of others andsmoothing overissues, they do not like conflict. They believe that changethreatens the status quo (现状) and tends to make people feel uneasy, so people withthiscommunication style, like phlegmatic(冷淡的，迟钝的) people need time to consider the changes in order to adaptto them.
G The choleric (暴躁的) temperamenttranslates into the bold or direct style of communication. People with thisstyle are brief in their communication - the fewer words the better. They arebig picture thinkers and love to be involved in many things at once. They arefocused on tasks and outcomes and often forget that the people involved incarrying out the tasks have needs. They don’t do detail work easily and as aresult can often underestimate how much time it takes to achieve the task.Because they are so direct, they often seem forceful and can be veryintimidating to others. They usually would welcome someone challenging them.But most other styles are afraid to do so. They also thrive on change, the morethe better.
H A well-functioning team should have all of these communication styles fortrueeffectiveness. All teams need to focus on the task, and they need totakecare of relationships in order to achieve those tasks. They need the bigpicture perspective or the context of their work, and they need the details tobe identified and taken care of for success. We all have aspects of each style within us. Some of us can easily move from one style to another and adapt ourstyle to the needs of the situation at hand-whether the focus is on tasks orrelationships. For others, a dominant style is very evident, and it is morechallenging to see the situation from the perspective of another style. Thework environment can influence communication styles either by the type of workthat is required or by the predominance of one style reflected in thatenvironment. Some people use one style at work and another at home. The goodnews about communication styles is that we have the ability to developflexibility in our styles. The greater the flexibility we have, the moreskilled we usually are at handling possible and actual conflicts. Usually it has to berelevant to us to do so, either because we think it is important or becausethere are incentives in our environment to encourage it. The key is that wehave to wantto become flexible with our communication style. As Henry Fordsaid, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right!”
Questions 27-34
.............................................................................
Reading Passage 3 has eight sections A-H.
Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number i-x in boxes 27-34 0n your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i Different personality types mentioned
ii Recommendation of combined styles for group
iii Historical explanation of understanding personality
iv Alively and positive attitude person depicted
v A personality likes challenge and direct communication
vi Different characters illustrated
vii Functions of understanding communication styles
viii Cautious and considerable person cited
ix Calm and Factual personality illustrated
x Self-assessment determines one’s temperament
27 Section A
28 Section B
29 Section C
30 SectionD
31 Section E
32 Section F
33 Section G
34 Section H
Questions 35-39
.............................................................................
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage1?
In boxes 35-39 0n your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the sataement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
35 All believed that sanguine people like constant things and peace
36 Melancholic and phlegmatic people both require time to fit it
37 It is the sanguine personality that needed most in the workplace
38 It is feasible for someone to change type of personality
39 Work category of a surrounding can communication styles
Question 40
....................................................................................
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in box 40 0n your answer sheet.
40 The author thinks self-assessment tools can be able to
A develop one’s personality in a certain scenario.
B help to understand colleagues and resolve problems
C improve relationship with boss of company
D change others behaviour and personality
答案：
27. ii 28. vii 29. i 30. iv 31. ix
32. viii 33. v 34.ii 35. FALSE 36. TRUE
37. NOT GIVEN 38. TRUE 39. TRUE 40.B
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