Passage Nine(Holmes’ Knowledge)
His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar system.
“You appear to be astonished, ” Holmes said, smiling at my expression. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it. You see, I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose: A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has difficulty in laying his hand upon it. It is a mistake to think that the little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it, there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you know before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
“But the Solar System! ” I protested.
“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently.
One morning, I picked up a magazine from the table and attempted to while away the time with it, while my companion munched silently at his toast. One of the articles had a pencil mark at the heading, and I naturally began to run my eye through it.
Its somewhat ambitious title was “The Book of Life, ” and it attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way. It struck me as being a remarkable mixture of shrewdness and of absurdity. The reasoning was close and intense, but the deduction appeared to me to be far-fetched and exaggerated. The writer claimed by a momentary expression, a twitch of a muscle or a glance of an eye, to fathom a man’s inmost thought. Deceit, according to him, was impossibility in the case of one trained to observation and analysis. His conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid. So startling would his results appear to the uninitiated that until they learned the processes by which he had arrived at them they might well consider him as a necromancer.
“From a drop of water, ”said the writer, “a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts, the science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. ”
This smartly written piece of theory I could not accept until a succession of evidences justified it.
1. What is the author’s attitude toward Holmes?
[A]Praising.
[B]Critical.
[C]Ironical.
[D]Distaste.
2. What way did the author take to stick out Holmes’ uniqueness?
[A]By deduction.
[B]By explanation.
[C]By contrast.
[D]By analysis.
3. What was the Holmes’ idea about knowledge-learning?
[A]Learning what every body learned.
[B]Learning what was useful to you.
[C]Learning whatever you came across.
[D]Learning what was different to you.
4. What did the article mentioned in the passage talk about?
[A]One may master the way of reasoning through observation.
[B]One may become rather critical through observation and analysis.
[C]One may become rather sharp through observation and analysis.
[D]One may become practical through observation and analysis.
Vocabulary
1. Thomas Carlyle 托馬斯·卡萊爾 1795-1881美國作家、歷史家、哲學家
2. jumble (up) 搞亂，使混亂
3. lay hand on (upon) sth. 抓住，找到
4. at best 最好的情況下
5. elbow out (off) 用胳膊肘擠出，推出
6. deuce = devil
what the deuce is it to me? 這里表示福爾摩斯的厭惡心理。義：這倒霉的詞兒與我有什么關系？
7. while away the time 消磨/打發(fā)時間
8. shrewdness 機敏，敏銳，犀利
9. far-fetched 牽強附會，不自然
10. fathom 看穿/透，推測，探索
11. infallible 一貫正確
12. uninitiated 對某事無知的
13. Euclid 歐幾里德（古希臘數學家）
14. necromancer 巫師
難句譯注
1.A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has difficulty in laying his hand upon it.
【結構簡析】主從句結構，主句A fool … 后跟lumber的定從that he comes across。從句so that 中有一knowledge的定從which; or鏈接前后兩個分詞crowded out 與jumbled up;但第一個so that 從句 又是后面so that 的主句。
【參考譯文】蠢人把他碰到的每種木材（制家具）都拿進來。這樣，可能對他有用的知識都被擠出去；最好的情況下，也是和其他種種事情混在一起，所以他就很難抓住知識。
2.Its somewhat ambitious title was “The Book of Life, ” and it attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way.
【結構簡析】并列句，連詞and后的句中有賓從how much…。
【參考譯文】這片文章稍有炫耀的標題是“生命之書”。它想證明一個善于觀察的人通過對他經歷到的一切事情都進行真正地系統(tǒng)地考察可以學到多少東西。
3.So startling would his results appear to the uninitiated that until they learned the processes by which he had arrived at them they might well consider him as a necromancer.
【結構簡析】復合主從句，so that句型。So句是倒裝。正常句型應為：His results would appear so startling to the uninitiated that…，that句中又是主從句，從句用until連接，中插by which定語從句修飾 the processes。
【參考譯文】他的結論對無知的人來說是那么驚人，所以他們很可能認為他是個巫師，除非他們學會了他用以得出結論的過程。
4.Like all other arts, the Science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it.
【結構簡析】并列句，nor連接。前一句中有定語從句which修飾one，后一句nor為否定詞。
【參考譯文】像所有的其他藝術一樣，演繹分析科學是一種通過長期默默的研究，可以習得的學問，而我們的生命并不長得足以使任何凡人都能在這一領域取得可能是臻美的成就。
寫作方法與文章大意
這是一篇“傳記”，作者采用以反襯正的對比手法寫出了福爾摩斯之驚人才華。第一句話開明宗旨“他的無知和他的有知一樣卓越驚人”，接著就是種種無知，達到突出其有知的成就。兩方面表達，一是福爾摩斯對無知的解釋：不能照單全收；二是作者的反對見解襯托福之才華超人，能一滴水見大海。
答案詳解
1.A 贊揚。作者以無知烘托人物之有知，以他本人的反對批評觀點來證明人物的正確。否定及所謂機刺旨在鋪墊。正反對比贊揚福之精明強悍，才智超人，洞察力強。
2.C 作者采用對比手法。
3.B 學習對你有用之物。第二段福之表白，他把頭腦比作一個小小的空屋，不能隨意選擇家具（知識）塞滿空間，應選擇“有用之才”，免得填滿了廢物，把有用之才擠出去。
4.C 通過觀察和分析人會變得很敏銳。最后二段都是講福所寫文章的內容。善于觀察和分析的人可以一眼看透人之本質，一點水能知大西洋。這種一葉知秋的本領是通過長期觀察、分析研究而得。也就是說，通過觀察分析，人可以變得敏感聰慧，因為萬物都有聯系。
