2015考研英語：新題型試題精選(八)

   　　2015考研英語：新題型精選試題(八)

　　In his autobiography, Darwin himself speaks of his intellectual powers with extraordinary modesty. He points out that he always experienced much difficulty in expressing himself clearly and concisely, but (46) he believes that this very difficulty may have had the compensating advantage of forcing him to think long and intently about every sentence, and thus enabling him to detect errors in reasoning and in his own observations. He disclaimed the possession of any great quickness of apprehension or wit, such as distinguished Huxley. (47) He asserted, also, that his power to follow a long and purely abstract train of thought was very limited, for which reason he felt certain that he never could have succeeded with mathematics. His memory, too, he described as extensive, but hazy. So poor in one sense was it that he never could remember for more than a few days a single date or a line of poetry. (48) On the other hand, he did not accept as well founded the charge made by some of his critics that, while he was a good observer, he had no power of reasoning. This, he thought, could not be true, because the "Origin of Species" is one long argument from the beginning to the end, and has convinced many able men. No one, he submits, could have written it without possessing some power of reasoning. He was willing to assert that "I have a fair share of invention, and of common sense or judgment, such as every fairly successful lawyer or doctor must have, but not, I believe, in any higher degree." (49) He adds humbly that perhaps he was "superior to the common run of men in noticing things which easily escape attention, and in observing them carefully."

　　Writing in the last year of his life, he expressed the opinion that in two or three respects his mind had changed during the preceding twenty or thirty years. Up to the age of thirty or beyond it poetry of many kinds gave him great pleasure. Formerly, too, pictures had given him considerable, and music very great, delight. In 1881, however, he said: "Now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry. I have also almost lost my taste for pictures or music." (50) Darwin was convinced that the loss of these tastes was not only a loss of happiness, but might possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character.

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　　在他的自傳里，達(dá)爾文非常謙虛的談到了自己的智力水平。他說他總是很難言簡意賅的表達(dá)自己的想法，但是(46)他相信，正是由于這種困難，他可能會因禍得福。換句話說，他不得不對自己要說的每一句話都深思熟慮，從而發(fā)現(xiàn)自己在推理和觀察過程中的錯誤。他不承認(rèn)自己具有赫胥黎那樣敏捷的思維和超群的智力，他還堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為自己進(jìn)行長時間純抽象思維的能力有限。(47)因此他還認(rèn)定自己在數(shù)學(xué)方面也不可能有較大的作為。他還把自己的記憶能力描述為泛而不精，從某種程度上說是糟糕透頂，因?yàn)樗泜€日期或者背句詩詞什么的過幾天就忘了。(48)另一方面它的批評者指責(zé)說，雖然他的觀察力很強(qiáng)，但是沒有推理能力。達(dá)爾文認(rèn)為這樣的說法是缺乏根據(jù)的。他之所以認(rèn)為這樣的說法不對是因?yàn)椤段锓N起源》從頭到尾是一篇飽受爭議的文章，而現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)被很多人所接受。在他看來，如果沒有推理能力是無法寫出這樣的著作的。他樂意表明：“雖然我有一定的創(chuàng)造力、常識和判斷力，但任何一個還算成功的律師和醫(yī)生都具有這些，我并不比他們高明。”(49)他又自謙的說，或許自己“在關(guān)注容易被他人忽略的事物，并對其加以詳細(xì)觀察方面優(yōu)于常人。”

　　在他晚期的著作中，他說在過去的20-30年里，他的想法有了兩到三個方面的改變。到30歲或更長的時間里，許多類別的詩歌給他帶來極大的樂趣，而在此之前，繪畫和音樂也同樣帶給他樂趣和愉快。然而在1881年，他說：“許多年來，我已無法安然的讀哪怕是一行的詩，也喪失了對繪畫和音樂的興趣。”(50)于是他相信，失去這些方面的興趣不僅意味著失去幸福，而且還可能造成對智力的傷害，甚至是對道德品格的傷害。