劉文勇GRE寫作百日題庫(kù) Day 41

Day 41 The greatness of individuals can bedecided only by those who live after them,not by their contemporaries

The greatness of individuals can be decided only by those who live after them, not by their contemporaries.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

五問(wèn)：

（1）由同一時(shí)代的人來(lái)評(píng)判有什么優(yōu)勢(shì)嗎？例如：同一時(shí)代的人因身處相同的時(shí)代，對(duì)當(dāng)時(shí)的背景和趨勢(shì)更為了解。

（2）由同一時(shí)代的人來(lái)評(píng)判有什么劣勢(shì)嗎？例如：同一時(shí)代人的評(píng)價(jià)可能會(huì)有局限性，因?yàn)闊o(wú)法預(yù)知未來(lái)的發(fā)展。是否能舉出一個(gè)人物作為例子——同時(shí)代的人認(rèn)為他特別好，但后人認(rèn)為不過(guò)如此；或者當(dāng)時(shí)人們認(rèn)為不過(guò)如此，但后人認(rèn)為特別優(yōu)秀。例如，凡·高創(chuàng)造了印象派畫法，但在當(dāng)時(shí)卻得不到人們的欣賞和理解，直到他死后多年才被認(rèn)可。

（3）由后人來(lái)評(píng)價(jià)有什么優(yōu)勢(shì)嗎？例如：后人能夠根據(jù)事物發(fā)展的規(guī)律來(lái)做評(píng)價(jià)。

（4）由后人來(lái)評(píng)價(jià)又有什么弊端？例如：可能會(huì)忽視當(dāng)時(shí)的影響。如“地心說(shuō)”，盡管它把地球當(dāng)作宇宙中心是錯(cuò)誤的，然而它承認(rèn)地球是“圓形”的，并把行星從恒星中區(qū)別出來(lái)，著眼于探索和揭示行星的運(yùn)動(dòng)規(guī)律，這標(biāo)志著人類對(duì)宇宙認(rèn)識(shí)的一大進(jìn)步。

（5）一對(duì)著名的師生——哲學(xué)家維特根斯坦和哲學(xué)家圖靈，長(zhǎng)期就各種問(wèn)題進(jìn)行爭(zhēng)論。當(dāng)時(shí)的人們對(duì)前者更為尊重，認(rèn)為維特根斯坦是繼黑格爾之后又一位偉大的哲學(xué)家。但到 20世紀(jì)末期，人們往往認(rèn)為后者也就是圖靈對(duì)人類的貢獻(xiàn)更大。當(dāng)時(shí)有一句著名的評(píng)語(yǔ)是這樣的：“無(wú)論如何，圖靈給后人留下了計(jì)算機(jī)智能。而維特根斯坦，他給后人留下了……維特根斯坦?！庇腥さ氖?，在最近的十幾年中，對(duì)于維特根斯坦的研究日益活躍，人們傾向于認(rèn)為，維特根斯坦留下了一筆前人未曾發(fā)現(xiàn)的財(cái)富——他的思想寶庫(kù)。你對(duì)以上的這個(gè)小故事作何感想？人們對(duì)一個(gè)人或事物的評(píng)價(jià)是固定的嗎？在不同的時(shí)代是一樣的嗎？

翻譯練習(xí)：

人們的評(píng)價(jià)會(huì)隨著時(shí)間的流逝而改變，這從人們對(duì)維特根斯坦和圖靈的爭(zhēng)論中可以看出。與他們同時(shí)代的人普遍把前者視作自黑格爾之后最偉大的哲學(xué)家，與此相反， 20世紀(jì)末期的人們認(rèn)為后者對(duì)人類發(fā)展做出了更大的貢獻(xiàn)。但是，近些年，人們的評(píng)價(jià)又開始偏向前者。

參考答案：

People's judgment may change over time, as is demonstrated in the debate over Wittgenstein and Alan Turing. Their contemporaries generally viewed the former as the greatest philosopher after Hegel; people in the late 20th century, by contrast, believed that the latter had contributed more to the development of human being. In recent years, however, people begin to lean towards the former again.

翻譯練習(xí)：

考慮到人們關(guān)于“偉大”的觀念會(huì)隨著時(shí)間而改變，評(píng)判一個(gè)人更加合適的方法是認(rèn)識(shí)到他（她）對(duì)同時(shí)代人以及對(duì)后代人的影響，并且從貢獻(xiàn)和局限性兩個(gè)方面（ in terms of）來(lái)作出評(píng)價(jià)。

參考答案：

Considering that people's conception about“greatness”may change over time, a more proper way to evaluate an individual is to recognize both his/her influence upon people of the same time period and upon those after that, and in terms of both contributions and limitations.