华理高级英语阅读英语作业.doc

读后总结This is waterThe speech begins with the fish story which is not a simple story but asks us a question “what is water?” or “what the water means?” Like the fish, we live in the “water” but dont know what the water is. This is an obvious, ubiquitous reality because everything in our own immediate experience supports our deep belief that we are the absolute center of the universe. So as to it is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. The speech gives us an example that describes an average day of adult life. We work hard, drive cars through traffic jam, shopping in a crowed super market, line up in a long lanes while waiting to checkout and all the way maybe accompany with noisy voice and soul-killing music, etcetera. It same like our life involves boredom, routine, and petty frustration. However, the speaker didnt just describe our daily life and he told us to think in different ways about the situations which exist in our life. Such as the woman who just screamed at her little child may be is courageous and kind-hearted and has been up there nights holding the hand of her husband who is dying of bone cancer. It all depends on us. We could choose to believe in other options which may be possible with awareness instead of just be self-centered. We should make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to. The true life which full of frustration and annoying things day in and day out needs us to be awareness of what is real and essential, and this is water. As for me, before reading this speech, just as many Graduate students, I get lost in abstract arguments inside my head instead of simply paying attention to whats going on right in front of me. And Im busy with searching for a better fellowship, getting petty profits, having a good behavior in front of my teacher while ignoring the true life around me, such as the communicating with my families, the compassion to the pathetic person which suffers from a big explosion or typhoon and the responsibility to help the old people or little children. This passage not only tells me a phenomenon, a good thinking, a truth about our life, but also gives me a question “what is life?” Ill live with simple awareness and conscious about the things I see, I touch, I hear, I experience, and I fell. And I will slow down, care more about love, gratefulness, friendship and sympathy and keep thinking what the life is. Why People Believe in Conspiracy TheoriesThe passage which is written by Sander van der Linden is about a new physical research which helps explain why some see intricate government conspiracies. The author analyzes the reason that people believe in conspiracy theories from many aspects and referring to a lot of studies and papers. At first, the author gives us a lot of example, such as “Did NASA fake the moon landing?”, “Is global warming a hoax？” and refers to a book “The Empire of Conspiracy”, which influenced many scholars who have come to think of conspiracy theories as paranoid and delusional. However, conspiracy theories are not just the implausible visions of a paranoid majority. New research found that many participants believe in contradictory conspiracy theories and that people dont tend to believe in conspiracy theory because the specifics, but rather because of higher-order beliefs, for example, distrust of authority. The belief in multiple conspiracy theories has been linked to the rejection of science and predicted the rejection of important scientific conclusions. The author thinks that this is alarming because conspiracy theory which is usually defined as an attempt to explain the ultimate cause of sows public mistrust and undermines democratic debate. Except this, a number of studies showed that belief in conspiracy theories is associated with feelings of powerlessness, uncertainty and a general lack of agency and control. The author thinks that this bias is to help people restore a sense of control and predictability but the truth is not always convenient. As for me, I always judge conspiracy theories from my common sense and observe the evidence before I believe in them. For example, some people who think that the idea of global warming is a hoax are less willing to reduce their carbon footprint. While from my perspective, I dont think that global warming is a hoax, because the weather really becomes warmer, the ice in The South pole melts than ever before, and the shoreline of ocean is rising in recent years. I dont believe conspiracy theories in this situation and I just believe in my felling and the truth. However, not all the people have a scientific theory, so they believe in conspiracy theories and distrust of authority.The government should take action to change the tendency to describe every event as intentional and planned, especially in the rejection of science, because this ethos is dangerous for our country. When the people believe in conspiracy theories, they are less willing to engage politically and also less willing to implement individual behavioral changes. However, the construct of our country needs every persons endeavor and its important to the government. Except this, the conspiracy theories are easy to blind the common person and are utilized by a secret alliance of powerful individuals and organizations. So, this is an important question and the government should pay enough attention to it.What Isnt for SaleThe passage is adapted from What Money Cant Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, which is written by Michael J. Sandel, who is a political philosopher at Harvard University. The author aware us that market thinking permeates our life while we dont notice it and tries to put forward debating measure to solve this problem.First of all, the author gives us a lot of examples about things we can buy or sell to illustrate that we are living in a society of full of market thinking. The things we can buy or sell is not only about realistic goods, but also about some things like environment, education, or health. And the author thinks that markets have become detached from morals, which is partial because of greed, but mainly because of the reach of markets. The author worry that we are moving into a market society for two reasons, one is about inequality, the other one is about the corrosive tendency of markets. Some examples are applied to this thinking by the author like that we dont allow children to be sold and through those examples, the author expresses that we should resolve the question of markets is detached from morals by debating case by case to find the proper way to value them, even though there are many difficulties but it is worthy.From my perspective, I agree with what the author written. I always study hard and get good grades in order to getting generous scholarships, which implicitly means that I exchange my hard work with money. Maybe, I get rich knowledge by this way, but I lose my interests. Influenced by this market thinking, once I cant get the scholarship, I wont study hard I see. As for the government, I dont aware that the buying of some things such as the right of emissions of carbon or sulfur has any question. On the one hand, the government can raise the financial revenue. on the other hand, it could decrease the emissions of carbon and sulfur, and the companies which buy the right to emission is also satisfied. This policy same proper but ignores the morality and responsibility because both of them just care about the trade. We dont aware that market thinking permeates. on the contrary, we know that as a Chinese saying, Money makes the mare go. However, it could lead to a worship of money and right and lower the standards of morality. As the author suggested, it could makes us aware more about the market thinking through debating case by case, although it could not solve the problem I think. The government should attaches great importance to this question and takes some measures such as strengthen the moral education of citizens I think, because it is a problem of worship.Practice Makes Perfect, True?The passage is about a new study by Macnamara and her colleagues, which indicated that practice doesnt always make perfect. Ericssons reassuring conclusion is that practice hard and youll do well, while the author Valerie Strauss doesnt think so. At least, this is not always true. Ericssons research showed that the difference between the expert and the amateur is one get through thousands of hours of hard work, while the others dont. Three reasons given by the author from his perspective are common sense, protestant work ethic, and nurture over nature. However, common sense is not always true. If we pursue the deep reason, maybe there are more things we need to think about. The author believe that the inborn ability also not the only reason, referring to Macnamaras research report, which gave us an open-ended that means that there are many possible answers, for example, how open you are to learning from others. The author demonstrates that the practice does not always make perfect from many aspects. One is about time. If the time is logged, obviously the impact of practice was diminished on the contrary. The other one is about domain. Different people do well in different domain, not all the people have the same interest. Also, the author think that Ericssons conclusion didnt relevance to education, complicated task, and teachers goal.that means the conclusion that practice makes perfect has many limits and may be dont suit for our work today. The practice may be dont lead to success directly, however, it is also very important form my own experience. My major is chemical engineering and a lot of problems in the engineering are solved by the similar way, therefore if practice more, you will have more experience and you can solve the problem well. This is different from rote recall while the importance of practice is very obvious, this is the point I dont agree with the author. Mostly, I think that the authors viewpoint is correct especially the conclusion that the factors make perfect are overlap. As for the talent, the people who have gift in certain fields, such as drawing, are little. There is also a saying that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Most of us are not talented and the work today is complicated, so that practice or other factors is essential. As we all know that the interest is the best teacher. If we are interested in our work or feel pleasure from what we do, we will do them well in our daily life. We should also engage in our career with perseverance. Many team works cant be finished just by one people, so cooperation is another element to lead to succeed. All in all, practice is important for us but many other factors, such as grit, cooperation, and interest, are essential for us to make perfect or succeed. Literature Beyond and In The ClassroomThe article is published in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal by Mr.Siegel, who is the author of four books, such as “Are You Serious: How to Be True and Get Real in the Age of Silly”. The author not only told us that who ruined the humanities, but also show his opinion of reading the literature works with heart and feeling the masterpieces instead of just acquiring knowledge, learning them in class, or for a competition.As a number of essays and reports expressed their dissatisfied with the decrease of the number of majoring in humanities, Mr.Siegel showed another positive thinking that the destruction of humanities is coming to stop and the advantage of English pour into other fields . The author think that the the humanities is destructed by the humanities itself, because it comes into the class and was permeated in many other things, such as the test, the competition, the useless analysis, the background of the masterpieces while ignoring the true meaning to ourselves. Mr.Siegel also analysis the history of the literature and the teaching mode of professor Lionel Trilling, and eventually concluded that we should not to take the abstract and imaginative literature into the classroom and formal course. He think highly of reading the literature masterpieces and get “profit” in the aspect of emotion and mood, however, he consider that great literature has little use of personal conditions, for example, reading and thinking