商務英語中級閱讀材料：成功關鍵智商還是性格
以下是小編帶來的商務英語中級閱讀材料：成功關鍵智商還是性格，歡迎閱讀。
We are living through a particularly anxious moment in the history of American parenting. In the nation"s big cities these days, the competition among affluent parents over slots in favored preschools verges on the gladiatorial. A pair of economists from the University of California recently dubbed this contest for early academic achievement the 'Rug Rat Race,' and each year, the race seems to be starting earlier and growing more intense.
在培養孩子的問題上，美國的家長們正在經歷一個分外焦慮的時期。現如今，在這個國家的各大城市，生活富足的家長之間爭搶心儀幼兒園學位的競爭幾乎到了角斗般的地步。最近，加州大學(University of California)的兩名經濟學家把這種在早期學業成就方面的競爭稱作“幼兒競爭”(Rug Rat Race)。每一年，這種競爭似乎都比前一年開始得更早，程度也越來越激烈。
At the root of this parental anxiety is an idea you might call the cognitive hypothesis. It is the belief, rarely spoken aloud but commonly held nonetheless, that success in the U.S. today depends more than anything else on cognitive skill - the kind of intelligence that gets measured on IQ tests - and that the best way to develop those skills is to practice them as much as possible, beginning as early as possible.
家長的這種焦慮從根本上說源自所謂的認知假設這一觀念。它鮮少被人宣揚，卻是一個人們普遍持有的觀念，那就是：如今要在美國獲得成功，最重要的是取決于認知技能(即智商測試所測驗的那種智力)，而培養這些技能的最佳方式就是盡可能地多練習、盡可能早地開始練習。
There is something undeniably compelling about the cognitive hypothesis. The world it describes is so reassuringly linear, such a clear case of inputs here leading to outputs there. Fewer books in the home means less reading ability; fewer words spoken by your parents means a smaller vocabulary; more math work sheets for your 3-year-old means better math scores in elementary school. But in the past decade, and especially in the past few years, a disparate group of economists, educators, psychologists and neuroscientists has begun to produce evidence that calls into question many of the assumptions behind the cognitive hypothesis.
這種認知假設顯然是有一些勉強之處的。它所描述的世界讓人信以為是線型的，是有投入就有產出的這樣一種明確的情況：家中的書少則表示孩子的閱讀能力差;家長寡言少語，那么孩子的詞匯量就少;你三歲孩子做過的數學作業越多，讀小學時的數學成績就越好。然而，過去十年來，尤其是近幾年來，經濟學家、教育家、心理學家和神經科學家等各個不同領域的專家開始提出了一些證據，對認知假設背后的前提提出了質疑。
What matters most in a child's development, they say, is not how much information we can stuff into her brain in the first few years of life. What matters, instead, is whether we are able to help her develop a very different set of qualities, a list that includes persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit and self-confidence. Economists refer to these as noncognitive skills, psychologists call them personality traits, and the rest of us often think of them as character.
Charles Gullung美國的兒童，特別是那些在比較舒適的生活環境中長大的兒童，在成長的過程中更是比以往任何時候都不用面對失敗。他們認為，在孩子的成長中，最重要的事情并不是我們在孩子人生的早期階段往他們的腦袋中塞進了多少信息，而在于我們是否能夠幫助他們培養一系列截然不同的特質，它們包括毅力、自我控制、好奇心、責任心、勇氣以及自信心。經濟學家們把這些特質稱為非認知技能，心理學家稱其為人格特征，而我們其他普通民眾通常都認為這就是性格。
If there is one person at the hub of this new interdisciplinary network, it is James Heckman, an economist at the University of Chicago who in 2000 won the Nobel Prize in economics. In recent years, Mr. Heckman has been convening regular invitation-only conferences of economists and psychologists, all engaged in one form or another with the same questions: Which skills and traits lead to success? How do they develop in childhood? And what kind of interventions might help children do better?
如果說有人處于這一跨學科新網絡的中心的話，那就是詹姆斯 赫克曼(James Heckman)了。他是芝加哥大學(University of Chicago)的一名經濟學家，曾在2000年摘得諾貝爾經濟學獎的桂冠。近些年，赫克曼一直定期召集僅限受邀者參加的經濟學家與心理學家會議，這些會議以這樣或那樣的形式涉及同樣的問題：哪些技能與特質能夠帶來成功?它們在兒童期是如何形成的?何種干預措施可能有助于兒童做得更好?
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