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Discover the life and achievements of Edith Hamilton, a renowned scholar and author in Greek and Roman culture who revolutionized classical education in America. Explore her journey and impact on students worldwide.
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New words and expressions for Reading One: • animate: Something that is animate has life, in contrast to things like stones and machines which do not. • ...all aspects of the material world, animate and inanimate. • At this age, children are still unable to distinguish between animate and inanimate objects. • = living
Socrates: (?470-399 BC) a Greek philosopher from Athens, who was the teacher of Plato and whose ideas are known from Plato’s writings. He encouraged people to think carefully about ideas before accepting them and developed a method of examining ideas according to a system of questions and answers in order to find out the truth. This is known as the Socratic method or dialectic. The Greek authorities disapproved of his ideas and methods, and said he was a bad influence on young people. They forced him to kill himself by drinking hemlock（毒芹）, a powerful poison.
stuffing: material that is used to fill things such as cushions or toys in order to make them firm or solid • Edith Hamilton:（1867－1963）was an excellent teacher, scholar, and writer. She was a gifted storyteller and had a phenomenal memory. Starting at the age of 63, Hamilton published a number of acclaimed books on Greek and Roman culture, was made an honorary citizen of Athens, and was awarded several honorary doctorates. 翻译的主要作品有《三部希腊剧》（Three Greek Plays，1937）、《被缚的普罗米修斯》（Prometheus，1927－1929）和欧里庇得斯的《特洛亚妇女》（The Trojan Women）等。
kindle: • 1 to cause a fire to start burning • 2 If something kindles a particular emotion in someone, it makes them start to feel it. • The Second World War kindled his enthusiasm for politics... • Meno:《美诺篇》，是柏拉图记载的苏格拉底对话录，以苏格拉底对话体写成。其试图确定德行（virtue）的定义。是德行的本质定义，而非某些特定的美德（如正义与节制等）。目标在于一个普适的定义，适用于一切特定的德行。
axiom: An axiom is a statement or idea which people accept as being true. (FORMAL) • ...the long-held axiom that education leads to higher income. • = principle • futile: If you say that something is futile, you mean there is no point in doing it, usually because it has no chance of succeeding. • He brought his arm up in a futile attempt to ward off the blow... • It would be futile to sustain his life when there is no chance of any improvement. • = pointless
inconclusive: not leading to a clear decision or result • A coalition government was formed after inconclusive elections. • 在选举未果后成立了联合政府。 • The jury found the evidence against the prisoner inconclusive and acquitted him. • 陪审团发现控告囚犯的罪证不确凿, 所以释放了他。 • ≠ conclusive
succinctly: in a way something is clearly expressed in a few words • He succinctly summed up his manifesto as ‘Work hard, train hard and play hard’. • Anderson put the same point more succinctly.
miscellaneous: A miscellaneous group consists of many different kinds of things or people that are difficult to put into a particular category. • They receive a grant of £ 1094 to cover the cost of miscellaneous expenses. • indigestible: If you describe facts or ideas as indigestible, you mean that they are difficult to understand, complicated, and dull. • ...a dense, indigestible and wordy book.
dunce: If you say that someone is a dunce, you think they are rather stupid because they find it difficult or impossible to learn what someone is trying to teach them. • Michael may have been a dunce at mathematics, but he was gifted at languages. • latent: Latent is used to describe something which is hidden and not obvious at the moment, but which may develop further in the future. • The virus remains latent in the body for many years. • ≠ overt
sift: If you sift through something such as evidence, you examine it thoroughly. • Police officers have continued to sift through the wreckage following yesterday’s bomb attack... • Brook has sifted the evidence and summarizes it clearly. • ardor: Ardor is a strong, intense feeling of love or enthusiasm for someone or something. (LITERARY) • ...songs of genuine passion and ardor. • = passion, fervor
persistence: If you have persistence, you continue to do something even though it is difficult or other people are against it. • Skill comes only with practice, patience and persistence... • Her persistence paid off when she was offered the job of manager. • ’Why can’t I come?’ repeated Will with dogged persistence. • = perseverance
Check Your Comprehension Answer the following questions with the information from the text. • What is true education according to the author? According to the author, true education should try its best to “draw out” what a student has within him rather than “pour knowledge” into him.
What does the author mean by the comparison of students to sausages and oysters? When students were treated as oysters, a teacher would help them to open up to reveal the pearl (riches) within. When students were treated like sausages, a teacher would stuff them and then seal them up.
Can an ordinary person without any schooling deal with a geometrical problem? Yes, they can. The author gives a concrete example of how Socrates picks up an ignorant slave boy, who has no school education at all, and proves that the boy really “knows” geometry. • Why does the author think that many discussions about the content of education are useless? The author holds this view because the discussions are about what should “go into” the students rather than what should be “drawn out”. According to the author, true education should try to cultivate what is hidden inside.
Why was the college student mentioned by the author in the article not happy with his study? He has to spend all his time doing what the teacher asks him to do and has no time to use his own resources and mind for analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating what he is doing.
New words and expressions for Reading Two: • angels on a pin: Medieval scholastics were fond of debating such meaningless questions as “How many angels can dance on the point of a pin?” “Did Adam have a navel?” and “Do angels defecate?” Therefore, “Angels on a Pin” is a reference of the debate taking place among medieval scholastics over the question of “How many angels can dance on the point of a pin?”, which is far more meaningless. Direct translation to Chinese is 针尖上的天使, which would conjure up those hollow arguments of scholasticism （经院哲学，亦称烦琐哲学。）.
这是一个典型的中世纪神学的问题。中世纪哲学以托马斯·阿奎那（Thomas Aquinas）哲学为代表，都是试图用希腊哲学尤其是亚里士多德哲学的概念来讨论神学命题。他们笃信“恩典成全自然”，也就是说神既然造了世界，让人类有理性，那么用理性来理解信仰就是完全有可能的。亚里士多德认为，事物都是由形式和质料组成的。形式是一类事物的原则，是使一类事物成为一类事物的东西；而质料在与形式结合之前什么也不是，因为与形式结合才有了区分，才能形成个体事物。
举例来说，人是理性动物，理性就是人的形式，而身体在这里可以说是人的质料（注意这不同于唯物主义精神和物质的二分）。亚里士多德还认为质料是潜在的，而形式是现实的，所以最高的存在上帝因为是最具现实性因而是纯粹形式的。天使也是纯粹形式的，他与上帝的区别在于天使是被造物。而之所以讨论针尖上站几个天使，正是因为天使是纯形式，没有质料，也就是说没有占有空间，所以即使针尖上能站百亿个天使也丝毫不足为奇。举例来说，人是理性动物，理性就是人的形式，而身体在这里可以说是人的质料（注意这不同于唯物主义精神和物质的二分）。亚里士多德还认为质料是潜在的，而形式是现实的，所以最高的存在上帝因为是最具现实性因而是纯粹形式的。天使也是纯粹形式的，他与上帝的区别在于天使是被造物。而之所以讨论针尖上站几个天使，正是因为天使是纯形式，没有质料，也就是说没有占有空间，所以即使针尖上能站百亿个天使也丝毫不足为奇。
referee: someone who is asked to settle a disagreement • impartial: Someone who is impartial is not directly involved in a particular situation, and is therefore able to give a fair opinion or decision about it. • Careers officers offer impartial advice to all pupils. • ≠ partial, biased
arbiter: someone or something that settles an argument between two opposing sides The European Court of Justice will be the final arbiter (=make the final decision) in the dispute. • = judge
barometer: an instrument that measures changes in the air pressure and the weather, or that calculates height above sea level
certify: to state that something is correct or true, especially after some kind of test • The accounts were certified by an auditor. • certify (that) • We need to certify that the repairs have been satisfactorily carried out. • certify somebody dead (=when a doctor says officially that a person is dead) • The driver was certified dead at the scene.
dash off: If you dash off a piece of writing, you write or compose it very quickly, without thinking about it very much. • He dashed off a couple of novels. • She dashed off a quick letter.
pendulum: a long metal stick with a weight at the bottom that swings regularly from side to side to control the working of a clock • superintendent: American English someone who is in charge of an apartment building and is responsible for making repairs in it • = caretaker British English
pedantic:If you think someone is pedantic, you mean that they are too concerned with unimportant details or traditional rules, especially in connection with academic subjects. • His lecture was so pedantic and uninteresting.
revive: When something such as the economy, a business, a trend, or a feeling is revived or when it revives, it becomes active, popular, or successful again. • The economy is beginning to revive. • There is no doubt that grades have improved and interest in education has revived.
scholasticism: The dominant western Christian theological and philosophical school of the Middle Ages, based on the authority of the Latin Fathers and of Aristotle and his commentators. • 经院哲学：一个中世纪占统治地位的西方基督教神学和哲学派别，其权威的基础为罗马天主教神父和亚里士多德及他的评论家
lark:If you say that doing something is a lark, you mean that it is fun, although perhaps naughty or dangerous. • The children thought it was a great lark... • Sputnik: a satellite put into space by the former Soviet Union. There were several Sputniks, but the first of these (Sputnik I in 1957) was the first satellite ever to go around the Earth.
Check Your Vocabulary B Summarize all the ways the student gave to calculate the height of a building with a barometer. • Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower the barometer to the street, and then bring it up and measure the length of the rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building.
Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer and time its fall with a stopwatch. Then, use the formula S=at2 to calculate the height of the building. • Take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer, the length of its shadow, and the length of the shadow of the building. You will get the height of the building with the use of a simple proportion.
4. Take the barometer and walk up the steps. As you climb the stairs, mark off the length of the barometer along the wall. Then count the number of marks, and this will give the height of the building in barometer units. 5. Tie the barometer to the end of a string and swing it as a pendulum and determine the value of “g” at the street level and at the top of the building. The height of the building can, in principle, be calculated from the difference between the two values of “g”.
6. Take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent’s door. Tell him you will give him the barometer as an exchange if he tells you the height of the building.
New words and expressions for Reading Three: • semi-literate: unable to read or write with ease or fluency; poorly educated • A high proportion of the population is still relatively poor and semi-literate.
dropout: A drop-out is someone who has left school or college before they have finished their studies. • ...high-school drop-outs. • equivalency or equivalence: If there is equivalence between two things, they have the same use, function, size, or value. • ...the equivalence of science and rationality.
writer’s block: [uncountable] the problem that a writer sometimes has of not being able to think of new ideas or feeling unable to write • When in the grip of writer’s block I might stand up and walk to the window and look out.
impediment: Something that is an impediment to a person or thing makes their movement, development, or progress difficult. (FORMAL) • He was satisfied there was no legal impediment to the marriage. • War is one of the greatest impediments to human progress. • = obstacle
at hand: If something is at hand, near at hand, or close at hand, it is very near in place or time. • Having the right equipment at hand will be enormously helpful... • trump card: Your trump card is something powerful that you can use or do, which gives you an advantage over someone. • The promise of tax cuts proved, as always, to be the Republican Party’s trump card.
charmer: someone who uses their charm to please or influence people • Even at ten years old, he was a real charmer. • get by: If you can get by with what you have, you can manage to live or do things in a satisfactory way. • I don’t earn a huge salary, but we get by. • Melville managed to get by on a small amount of money. • = survive, manage
steely-eyed: You use steely to emphasize that a person is hard, strong, and determined. When you look at someone steely-eyed, you look at him coldly. • flunk: to give someone low marks on a test so that they fail it • She hadn’t done the work so I flunked her. • = fail
flustered: confused and nervous • Paul was looking flustered and embarrassed. • I always get flustered in interviews. • She was so flustered that she forgot her reply. • composure: the appearance or feeling of calm and the ability to control your feelings • He has lost his composure under the pressure of the situation.
dumb: If you call a person dumb, you mean that they are stupid or foolish. (INFORMAL) • ‘What is it?’ I asked, playing dumb (=pretending to be stupid). • at stake: If something is at stake, it is being risked and might be lost or damaged if you are not successful. • They have to win the contract—thousands of jobs are at stake. • National pride is at stake in next week’s game against England.
sail: to succeed easily at something • Ali sailed through his exams. • testimony: a formal statement saying that something is true, especially one a witness makes in a court of law • In his testimony, he denied that the company had ignored safety procedures.
hang on to: to hold firmly or keep fast • Hang on to your money. • maturity: Someone’s maturity is their quality of being fully developed in their personality and emotional behavior. • Beth shows a maturity way beyond her 16 years. • One day you’ll have the maturity to understand.
conspiracy: a secret plan made by two or more people to do something that is harmful or illegal • He was charged with conspiracy to commit criminal damage. • There were many conspiracy theories (=beliefs that something is the result of a conspiracy) surrounding Princess Diana’s death. • follow through on: 把……继续进行到底
New words and expressions for Reading Four • hang out: If you hang out in a particular place or area, you go and stay there for no particular reason, or spend a lot of time there. (mainly AM INFORMAL) • I often used to hang out in supermarkets... • We can just hang out and have a good time.
makeshift: Makeshift things are temporary and usually of poor quality, but they are used because there is nothing better available. • The refugees slept in makeshift tents at the side of the road. • sacrosanct: If you describe something as sacrosanct, you consider it to be special and are unwilling to see it criticized or changed. • Freedom of the press is sacrosanct. • Weekends are sacrosanct in our family. • = sacred
custodial: If a child’s parents are divorced or separated, the custodial parent is the parent who has custody of the child. (LEGAL) • synchronize: If you synchronize two activities, processes, or movements, or if you synchronize one activity, process, or movement with another, you cause them to happen at the same time and speed as each other. • It was virtually impossible to synchronize our lives so as to take holidays and weekends together...
merit: an advantage or good feature of something • merit of • The film has the merit of being short. • The merit of the report is its realistic assessment of the changes required. • The great merit of the project is its flexibility and low cost. • Each of these approaches to teaching has its merits. • Tonight’s meeting will weigh up the relative merits of the two candidates.
