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
2024-10-23
29
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, specially 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] According to the author, the great outburst of major inventions in early America was in a large part due to ______.
选项
A、a special way of thinking
B、enthusiastic workers
C、the attractive premium system
D、elementary schools
答案
A
解析
细节题。第二段作者分析早期美国产生很多重大发明的原因,提到了excellent elementary schools、a labor force that welcomed the new technology、the practice of giving premium to inventors,最后说明最重要的还是美国人在处理技术时所具有的非语言的空间思维天赋,选项A正是对此意的同义改写。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3813937.html
相关试题推荐
WhataccountsforthegreatoutburstofmajorinventionsinearlyAmerica-b
WhataccountsforthegreatoutburstofmajorinventionsinearlyAmerica-b
WhataccountsforthegreatoutburstofmajorinventionsinearlyAmerica-b
WhataccountsforthegreatoutburstofmajorinventionsinearlyAmerica-
WhataccountsforthegreatoutburstofmajorinventionsinearlyAmerica-
WhataccountsforthegreatoutburstofmajorinventionsinearlyAmerica-
Manygreatinventionsaregreetedwithridiculeanddisbelief.Theinvention
Manygreatinventionsaregreetedwithridiculeanddisbelief.Theinvention
Manygreatinventionsaregreetedwithridiculeanddisbelief.Theinvention
Thissumofmoneyaccounts______only10%ofthetotalbudget.A、toB、outC、upD、f
随机试题
[originaltext]Moderator:Hello,ladiesandgentlemen.Itgivesmegreatp
图示为对称结构,则a杆的轴力为()。 A.受压 B.受拉 C.0 D.
动态主机配置协议(DHCP)的作用是();DHCP客户机如果收不到服务器分配
在软件开发过程中,系统测试阶段的测试目标来自于()阶段。A.需求分析 B.概
利用凝胶层析法进行分级分离时大多采用的层析柱长度是A:10~20cmB:20~
退休期的理财需求分析包括()。A.保障财务安全 B.储蓄和投资 C.建立信
从所给的四个选项中,选择最合适的一个填入问号处,使之呈现一定规律性: A.如上
课程实施作为一个动态的序列化的实践过程,具有一定的运行结构。其运行结构有哪些?
孙某居住在某市桥西区朝阳派出所辖区,2019年1月5日因在桥东区销赃被桥东公安分
关于股份和股票的以下表述,不正确的是()。 A.股票可以流通并可以设置质押
最新回复
(
0
)