首页
登录
职称英语
What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early America-b
What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early America-b
游客
2023-11-23
39
管理
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 invention 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. [br] 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
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知识第四段又提到美国人的适应能力和创造性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://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3212916.html
相关试题推荐
WhataccountsforthegreatoutburstofmajorinventionsinearlyAmerica-b
WhataccountsforthegreatoutburstofmajorinventionsinearlyAmerica-b
WhataccountsforthegreatoutburstofmajorinventionsinearlyAmerica-b
Wehavebeenhearing______accountsofyourwork.A、favouredB、favourableC、favo
Wehavebeenhearing______accountsofyourwork.A、favoredB、favourableC、favou
Althoughhemadeseveralinventionswhenhewasveryyoung,______hewasthirty.
随机试题
DeclininganInvitationWriteanoteofabout50-60wordsbasedonthef
(1)Ithaslongbeenbelievedthatthesmartphonesinourpocketsareactual
[originaltext]Somepeoplehaveverygoodmemories,andcaneasilylearnquit
Thecommoncoldistheworld’smostwidespreadillness,whichisplagues(疫病
A. B. C. D.
下列良性病变的外观与癌相似的是:()A.毒性结节性甲状腺肿 B.桥本甲状
下列关于卡托普利不良反应的描述,错误的是A.引起高血钾 B.引起低血压 C.
股权投资基金按资金性质分类分为( )。A.人民币股权投资基金和外币股权投资基金
C公司为一般纳税人,只生产一种产品。预计每个季度所需要的直接材料均以赊购方式采购
去除废水中的重金属汞离子可选用( )。A.活性污泥法 B.化学沉淀法 C.
最新回复
(
0
)