Wrinkles of confusion rippled across Holly’s forehead as she opened the gift from her best friend, Susan.
“I...I thought you could use it for something.” Susan’s stammered explanation did nothing to help us understand why a twelve-by-eighteen-inch dark blue carpet remnant(残余物) was being presented as a birthday gift.
Holly, my daughter, tried bravely not to allow her disappointment to show. She laid the carpet on the kitchen counter, and the two girls headed outside to play.
The next morning, I carried a kitchen bag outside. My heart ached as I saw Susan’s carpet lying in the trash can. Hesitating only a moment, I reached in and picked it up. After giving it a light brushing, I brought it into the house and placed it in the hall closet. Occupied with the business of daily living, the carpet was soon forgotten.
Prior to Holly’s birthday, Susan had been a regular visitor in our home. On several occasions, she rode the bus home with Holly and was one of the few friends ever permitted to stay over on a school night. But now I realized it had been nearly three weeks since we’d even heard mention of Susan’s name. I missed her warm smile and eager-to-please ways.
One day, Holly had arrived home from school. “Susan invited me to come over to her house after school tomorrow,” she announced as she took her books down on the kitchen table. Although her voice carried a so-what attitude, I sensed she was pleased by the invitation.
Arrangements were made, and the girls rode home together on the school bus the following day. As I negotiated the winding country road that led to her house, Susan chatted nervously about her foster mom and the seventeen cats she had taken in and cared for. Soon we arrived at Susan’s house.
Paragraph 1:
A woman wearing a shapeless sweater stood in the doorway to greet us as we approached the small shabby farmhouse.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
Hearing my words about everything of Susan, Holly sat silently in the car, with her head stretching forward(前伸) as if willing the car to move faster.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2 . A study of violinists found that merely good players practised as much as better players, leaving other factors such as quality of education, learning skills and perhaps natural talent to account for the difference.
This finding challenges the 10, 000-hour rule promoted in Malcolm Gladwell’s 1993 study of violinists and pianists. Gladwell states that enough practice will make an expert of anyone. “The idea has been popular and entrenched in our culture for years. It’s not an idiom but an overstatement,” said Brooke Macnamara, the lead author. “When it comes to human skill, a complex combination of environmental factors and genetic factors explains the performance differences across people.”
Macnamara and her colleagues set out to repeat part of the 1993 study to see whether they reached the same conclusion. They interviewed three groups of 13 violinists regarded as best, good, or less accomplished about their practice habits, before having them complete daily diaries of their activities over a week. While the less skillful violinists reached an average of about 6,000 hours of practice by the age of 20, there was little to separate the good from the best, with each reaching an average of about 11,000 hours. In all, the number of hours spent practising accounted for about a quarter of the skill difference across the three groups.
Macnamara believes practice is less of a driver. “Once you get to the highly skilled groups, practice stops accounting for the difference. Everyone has practised a lot and other factors are at play in determining who goes on to a higher level,” she said. “The factors depend on the skill being learned: in chess it could be intelligence or working memory; in sport it may be how efficiently a person uses oxygen. To complicate matters further, one factor can drive another. Children who enjoy playing the violin, for example, may be happy to practise because they do not see it as a trouble.”
The authors of the 1993 study are unimpressed. Macnamara said it was important for people to understand the limits of practice, though. “Practice makes you better than you were yesterday, most of the time,” she said. “But it might not make you better than your neighhour or the other kid in your violin class.”
1. What does the underlined word “entrenched” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Rooted. | B．Advanced. | C．Changed. | D．Unconfirmed. |
| A．It convinced Malcolm Gladwell. | B．It involved violinists and pianists. |
| C．Its process was similar to the 1993 study. | D．Its result is consistent with the 1993 study. |
| A．Practicing for 11,000 hours is their main driver. |
| B．They enjoy keeping diaries about their progress. |
| C．Environmental factors have little relation to their success. |
| D．More practice makes little difference to their further progress. |
| A．What makes an expert? | B．Does practice make perfect? |
| C．The early bird catches the worm | D．Enthusiasm is the key to success |
