托福閱讀里的終極人生智慧
從1732年起，本杰明，富蘭克林（Benjamin Franklin）每年出版一冊年歷，為使《歷書》實用、趣味并兼，他在其中每處可利用的空白處都填之以各時代各民族的俗諺、格言，并大量引用培根等人的妙語，技癢難耐的時候，他也自我創(chuàng)造或潤色現(xiàn)有，最后編成了大名鼎鼎的《窮理查智慧書》。也成為了我的必備廁所讀物。
所以，這位美國的偉人總是以“格言販子”的身份滋養(yǎng)著我的生命，如：
Most of human happiness comes not from the rare good fortune, but from the little gain every day.
人類的幸福，大多不是來自罕見的鴻運，而是來自每天的一點點所得。
—Benjamin?Franklin
2021年就要結(jié)束，在年尾的日子，我遍覽托福閱讀的文章，斗膽學(xué)一學(xué)富蘭克林《窮理查歷書》，絞盡腦汁，在其中找到了一些隱藏著的“人生智慧”，博諸君一樂，也對近三百年前的智者致敬。
The?early morning?is not a particularly good time?for gathering food,?because? it is dark, so visibility?is lower?and it is also cold, so many insects are still inactive.?
———真題Bird Songs and Calls
早起的鳥兒沒蟲吃，早起的蟲兒被鳥吃
Know yourself before you do
An individual with longer horns had a better chance of circumventing its opponents' horns and fatally wounding them than one with shorter horns,?and females probably preferred to mate with winners of these contests rather than with losers, either because they liked what they saw in the male or because they liked the territory that the male could defend from competitors.
———真題Bisons and Humans
愛情制勝寶典：顏值 + 有房
Beauty and House?makes?love
In later years,Eli Whitney cultivated social and political connections through his status as a Yale alumnus and through his marriage.?Although he had never made a gun in his life,?through those connections he won a contract from the War Department in 1798?to make and deliver 10,000 muskets (firearms used by soldiers before the invention of the ri?e) for the army in 1800?.
———真題Cotton Ginning and Interchangeable Parts
財富密碼：娶對媳婦兒嫁對郎，上對學(xué)校選對行
A?winner?goes?to the right bed?and school
Indeed, the only theory with a proven track record of extending the life span of animals is the caloric restriction theory,?which states that animals which consume calories just above starvation levels live significantly longer than the average.?
———TPO：Research into Aging and Extending Life Span
要長壽，少吃肉
Be fatter，Die?faster
?
To reduce potential tension between in-laws, he suggested, societies do one of two things.?They may develop strict rules forbidding the persons involved ever to interact face to face?(as do the Navajos, for example,?in requiring a man to avoid his mother-in-law), or they may allow mutual disrespect and teasing between the in-laws.
———TPO：Functionalism
要想婚姻長，少見丈母娘
?Stay away from COVID-19?and?her mother
Of the many drones assembled, only 10 to 15 will actually mate with a queen during one of her mating flights.?Each drone that is successful dies in the process, however, and a similar fate awaits drones that aren't successful; once mating is done, they will be expelled from their hives or killed.?
———真題：Honeybee Society
色字頭上一把刀
Love to death，out of breath
Foresters reasoned that dense stands of young trees would lead to intense?competition for light and water, and that?competition in the forest economy, just as in the?industrial economy, would create vigorous individuals.?Without competition, weaklings?would result-or so the foresters reasoned.?The opposite turned out to be true, unfortunately.?Western conifers-trees with cones and needlelike leaves-do not thin themselves; without?fires to thinto thin ?them,?what resulted were not a few big trees but thickets of stunted trees all?the same age.
———真題：Forest Managment in Bule Mountains
卷到深處自然平
Embrace?rat race，enjoy?running in place
In general, diversity, by itself, does not ensure stability. Mathematical models of ecosystems likewise suggest that diversity does not guarantee ecosystem stability—just the opposite, in fact.?A more complicated system is, in general, more likely than a simple system to break down. A fifteen-speed racing bicycle is more likely to break down than a child’s tricycle.
———TPO：The Longterm Stability of Ecosysytems
抱樸守拙，行穩(wěn)致遠(yuǎn)
Be simple，or crumble
When a group is relatively small and group evaluation is important, some members will even expend extra effort if they know that some of their coworkers are unwilling, unreliable, or incompetent to perform well.
———真題：Individual performance and ?the presence of others
人少事急，正好摸魚
?a free-rider?knows the?time
Almost all animals learn novel tasks more easily if they can observe a knowledgeable demonstrator,?Biologist Tom Langen trained individual magpie jays to pry open a door on a box that contained food. Subsequently.?birds whose social groups included a demonstrator learned how to open doors much more rapidly than birds whose groups did not.?Indeed. birds in groups that lacked a demonstrator did not even realize that there was food in the boxes.?
———真題：Imitation in Monkeys and Apes
要想學(xué)得好，老師不可少
?A good teacher is a real shortcut
??
猝不及防但很良心的小廣告來啦：
如果你在自學(xué)托福不得其法，沒有好老師的指導(dǎo)，歡迎了解我們的托福線上訓(xùn)練營！
