2020수능특강 영어 10강 본문

 10강

1

 Yale psychologist Irving Janis showed that just about every group develops an agreed-upon view of things — a consensus reality, the "PC" or politically correct view. Any evidence to the contrary is automatically rejected without consideration, often ridiculed, and may lead to exclusion of the person presenting the un-PC data. So group members are careful not to rock the boat by disagreeing with the consensus — doing so can seriously damage their standing. In his classic book, Groupthink, Janis explained how panels of experts made enormous mistakes. People on the panels, he said, worry about their personal relevance and effectiveness, and feel that if they deviate too far from the consensus, they will not be taken seriously. People compete for stature, and the ideas often just tag along. Groupthink causes groups to get locked into their course of action, unable to explore alternatives, because no one questions the established course. The more cohesive the group, the greater the urge of the group members to avoid creating any discord. 

 

2

 The temperature of 54°F appears to be a magic threshold for several species. For example, at the height of summer, billowing meadows full of grasses and herbs are the habitat for grasshoppers and crickets, which provide an orchestral backdrop with their chirping. However, this soundscape is by no means constant. Because to really make a decent sound, the air temperature must be at least 54°F. If it is cooler, you'll barely hear a squeak from these tiny musicians. As cold-blooded creatures, grasshoppers can't regulate their own body temperature, and only really get going when it's warm enough. Their body movements become faster with rising temperatures, resulting in ever more rapid vibrations of the legs and wings, which produce the chirping sound, depending on the type. 8. This also changes the frequency of the tone produced: the warmer it is, the higher the pitch.

 

3

 In America we have developed the Corporation Man. His life, his family, and his future lie with his corporation. His training, his social life, the kind of car he drives, the clothes he and his wife wear, the neighborhood he lives in, and the kind and cost of his house and furniture are all dictated by his corporate status. His position in the pyramid of management is exactly defined by the size of his salary and bonuses. The pressures toward conformity are subtle but irresistible, for his position and his hopes for promotion are keyed to performance of duties, activities, and even attitudes which make the corporation successful. In the areas of management, sales, and public relations, the position of the corporation man is secure only from one stockholders' meeting to the next; a successful rebellion there may sweep out whole cadres of earnest men and replace them with others.

 

 4

 Unfortunately, there are some social scientists who refuse to admit the limitations of their field of study. They push hard to make social science imitate physical science. This is usually done by the use of all sorts of numbers, tables, charts, and graphs in order to give the impression of a profound quantification of the subject matter. Now, as a matter of fact, some things can be quantified and some things cannot. We cannot really quantify prejudice or love, for instance. When all is said and done, such attempted quantification is in vain. What is often forgotten, even in the physical sciences, is that science is not primarily a matter of quantification. The use of mathematical techniques is not an end in itself but only a means to an end, namely, the discovery of what's true about the material world). The use of numbers is one way to be more precise in our effort to rationally understand causes. 

 

5

 Culture consists of the linked stock of ideas that define a set of commonsense beliefs about what is right, what is natural, what works. These commonsense beliefs are not universal, but are instead typically bounded by time as well as by space. Today's orthodoxy may be the heterodoxy of yesterday and tomorrow. Although cultural change is not usually perceptible from day to day, when we look over a longer time span it becomes apparent that even the most fundamental assumptions about morality and the standards by which quality of life should be evaluated are subject to change. In his 1972 paper, Anthony Downs offers a vivid illustration of the extent of cultural change with his observation that "One hundred years ago, white Americans were eliminating whole Indian tribes without a blink. Today, many serious-minded citizens seek to make important issues out of the potential disappearance of the whooping crane, the timber wolf, and other exotic creatures.“ 

 

6

 There is the question of the innate musicality of humans. We know that all normal humans inherit the ability to learn language — it is somehow "hardwired" in the human brain — but whether the same is true of music, whether all humans are basically musical is not clear, in part because cultures differ so much in their conception of "singing." Yet it seems likely that all humans can learn to sing minimally, to beat rhythms accurately, and to recognize simple pieces. Not all can attain professional proficiency; but then, although all humans can learn to speak, not all can become great orators. The world's societies differ in the degree to which they encourage individuals to participate in music. In some rural societies, most people are considered about equally good at singing, and everyone participates in music-making at public events. In many urban societies, musical participation is largely limited to listening to live music and even more to recordings, whereas performance is left to professionals. 

 

7

 Graham Allison intriguingly laid out his ideas about the Thucydides Trap, tensions between an established power and a rising one, in an essay for The Atlantic. As part of the Thucydides Trap Project, a team under Allison's direction examined sixteen cases where a rising power challenged an established one and determined the outcome of such challenges. The results are disturbing. Fourteen out of sixteen cases resulted in war. The worrying factor, according to Allison, is the fact that normal events or 'standard crises' that can otherwise be resolved, nevertheless trigger war. In the case of Athens and Sparta, it was the actions of smaller allies that drew them closer to war. This can easily happen in East Asia. Both Taiwan and Japan have the potential to draw the US closer to war with China. Arguably, the US's allies might play a bigger role in the Thucydides Trap than fear of a rising power. This results in a situation where a great deal of effort is required to escape the Thucydides Trap. 

 

8

 Mummification in Ancient Egypt was developed in response to a gradual change in the burial preferences of its deceased. The artificial preservation of bodies, both human and animal, was practised in Egypt from about 2686 BC until the beginning of the Christian era. The earliest Egyptians were buried in the sand, typically in the foetal position to reduce the size of the hole that would need to be dug, and the hot, dry climate would dehydrate the body. The physical features of the body would be retained, and this lifelike appearance of the corpse may have supported the belief of an afterlife. As burial practices became more sophisticated, with the construction of elaborate tombs and monuments to the dead, the bodies of the deceased were no longer buried in the desert sand. However, as belief in the afterlife and rebirth was fundamental to Egyptian burial practices, mummification was developed to artificially preserve the body in readiness for the journey to the underworld and to be judged by Osiris.