大学英语2 第9课.docVIP

大学英语精读第二册09 大耳朵英语　 　 2005-09-30 00:33:39　 【打印】 Previous Unit | Next Unit | Back 　Unit Nine 　　Click the button to listen to the text　　Asimov explains why there is much more in intel-ligence than just being able to score high on intelligencetests.WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE, ANYWAY?　Isaac AsimovWhat is intelligence, anyway? When I was in the army I received a kind of aptitude test that all soldiers took and, against a normal of 100,scored 160. No one at the base had ever seen a figure like that and for twohours they made a big fuss over me. ( It didnt mean anything. The next day I was still a buck private with KP as my highest duty. ) All my life Ive been registering scores like that, so that I have thecomplacent feeling that Im highly intelligent, and I expect other people tothink so, too. Actually, though, dont such scores simply mean that I am very good at answering the type of academic questions that are consideredworthy of answers by the people who make up the intelligence tests -- peo-ple with intellectual bents similar to mine?For instance, I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not possibly have scored more than 80; by my estimate. I always took it for granted that I was far more intelligent than he was. Yet, whenanything went wrong with my car I hastened to him with it, watched him anxiously as he explored its vitals, and listened to his pronouncements as though they were divine oracles - and he always fixed my car.Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intel-igence test. Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but an academician. By every one of those tests, Id prove myself amoron. And Id be a moron, too. In a world where I could not use my aca-demic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate, orhard, working with my hands, I would do poorly. My intelligence, then,is not absolute. Its worth is determined