THE GAP OF INGENUITY 2
A
Ingenuity, as I define it here, consists not only of ideas for new technologies like a computer or drought-resistant crops but, more fundamentally, of ideas for better institutions and social arrangements, like efficient markets and competent governments.
B
How much and what kinds of ingenuity a society requires depends on a range of factors, including the society’s goals and the circumstances within which it must achieve those goals – – whether it has a young population or an aging one, an abundance of natural resources or a scarcity of them, an easy climate or a punishing one, whatever the case may be.
C
How much and what kinds of ingenuity a society supplies also depends on many factors, such as the nature of human inventiveness and understanding, the rewards an economy gives to the producers of useful knowledge, and the strength of political opposition to social and institutional reforms.
D
A good supply of the right kind of ingenuity is essential, but it isn’t, of course, enough by itself. We know that the creation of wealth, for example, depends not only on an adequate supply of useful ideas but also on the availability of other, more conventional factors of production, like capital and labor. Similarly, prosperity, stability and justice usually depend on the resolution, or at least the containment, of major political struggles over wealth and power. Yet within our economies ingenuity often supplants labor, and growth in the stock of physical plant is usually accompanied by growth in the stock of ingenuity. And in our political systems, we need great ingenuity to set up institutions that successfully manage struggles over wealth and power. Clearly, our economic and -political processes are intimately entangled with the production and use of ingenuity.
E
The past century’s countless incremental changes in our societies around the planet, in our technologies and our interactions with our surrounding natural environments, have accumulated to create a qualitatively new world. Because these changes have accumulated slowly, it’s often hard for us to recognize how profound and sweeping they’re. They include far larger and denser populations; much higher per capita consumption of natural resources; and far better and more widely available technologies for the movement of people, materials, and especially information.
F
In combination, these changes have sharply increased the density, intensity, and pace of our interactions with each other; they have greatly increased the burden we place on our natural environment; and they have helped shift power from national and international institutions to individuals and subgroups, such as political special interests and ethnic factions.
G
As a result, people in all walks of life—from our political and business leaders to all of us in our day-to-day— —must cope with much more complex, urgent, and often unpredictable circumstances. The management of our relationship with this new world requires immense and ever-increasing amounts of social and technical ingenuity. As we strive to maintain or increase our prosperity and improve the quality of our lives, we must make far more sophisticated decisions, and in less time, than ever before.
H
When we enhance the performance of any system, from our cars to the planers network of financial institutions, we tend to make it more complex. Many of the natural systems critical to our well-being, like the global climate and the oceans, are extraordinarily complex, to begin with. We often can’t predict or manage the behavior of complex systems with much precision, because they are often very sensitive to the smallest of chang and perturbations, and their behavior can flip from one mode to another suddenly and dramatically. In general, as the human-made and natural systems, we depend upon becoming more complex, and as ouesr demands on them increase, the institutions and technologies we use to manage them must become more complex too, which further boosts our need for ingenuity.
I
The good news, though, is that the last century’s stunning changes in our societies and technologies have not just increased our need for ingenuity; they have also produced a huge increase in its supply. The growth and urbanization of human populations have combined with astonishing new communication and transportation technologies to expand interactions among people and produce larger, more integrated, and more efficient markets. These changes have, in turn, vastly accelerated the generation and delivery of useful ideas.
J
But—and this is the critical “but” we should not jump to the conclusion that the supply of ingenuity always Increases in lockstep with our ingenuity requirement: while it’s true that necessity is often the mother of invention, we can’t always rely on the right kind of ingenuity appearing when and where we need it. In many cases, the complexity and speed of operation of today’s vital economic, social, arid ecological systems exceed the human brain s grasp. Very few of us have more than a rudimentary understanding of how these systems work. They remain fraught with countless “unknown unknowns, which makes it hard to supply the ingenuity we need to solve problems associated with these systems.
K
In this book, explore a wide range of other factors that will limit our ability to supply the ingenuity required in the coming century. For example, many people believe that new communication technologies strengthen democracy and will make it easier to find solutions to our societies, collective problems, but the story is less clear than it seems. The crush of information in our everyday lives is shortening our attention span, limiting the time we have to reflect on critical matters of public policy, and making policy arguments more superficial.
L
Modem markets and science are an important part of the story of how we supply ingenuity. Markets are critically important because they give entrepreneurs an incentive to produce knowledge. As for science, although it seems to face no theoretical limits, at least in the foreseeable future, practical constraints often slow its progress. The cost of scientific research tends to increase as it delves deeper into nature. And science’s rate of advance depends on the characteristic of the natural phenomena it investigates, simply because some phenomena are intrinsically harder to understand than others, so the production of useful new knowledge in these areas can be very slow. Consequently, there is often a critical time lag between the recognition between a problem and the delivery of sufficient ingenuity, in the form of technologies, to solve that problem. Progress in the social sciences is especially slow, for reasons we don’t yet understand; but we desperately need better social scientific knowledge to build the sophisticated institutions today’s world demands.
Questions 27-30
Complete each sentence with the appropriate answer, A, B, C, or D.
Write the correct answer in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.
27 Definition of ingenuity
28 The requirement for ingenuity
29 The creation of social wealth
30 The stability of society
A depends on many factors including climate.
B depends on the management and solution of disputes.
C is not only of technological advance but more of institutional renovation.
D also depends on the availability of some traditional resources.
Questions 31-33
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 31-33 on your answer sheet.
31 What does the author say about the incremental change of the last 100 years?
A It has become a hot scholastic discussion among environmentalists.
B Its significance is often not noticed.
C It has reshaped the natural environments we live in.
D It benefited a much larger population than ever.
32 The combination of changes has made a life:
A easier
B faster
C slower
D less sophisticated
33 What does the author say about natural systems?
A New technologies are being developed to predict change with precision.
B Natural systems are often more sophisticated than other systems.
C Minor alterations may cause natural systems to change dramatically.
D Technological developments have rendered human being more independent of natural systems.
Questions 34-40
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 34 -40 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement is true
NO if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage.
34 The demand for ingenuity has been growing during the past 100 years.
35 The ingenuity we have may be inappropriate for solving problems at hand.
36 There are very few who can understand the complex systems of the present world.
37 More information will help us to make better decisions.
38 The next generation will blame the current government for their conduct.
39 Science tends to develop faster in certain areas than others.
40 Social science develops especially slowly because it is not as important as natural science.
27 Definition of ingenuity định nghĩa của "INGENUITY"
= C is not only of technological advance but more of institutional renovation.
( không chỉ là sự phát triển của công nghệ mà còn hơn nữa là sự đổi mới thể chế )
giải thích:
Ingenuity, as I define it here, consists not only of ideas for new technologies like a computer or drought-resistant crops but, more fundamentally, of ideas for better institutions and social arrangements, like efficient markets and competent governments. ( đoạn A )
Ingenuity, như tôi đã xác định ở đây, nó không chỉ bao gồm ý tưởng cho những công nghệ mới như máy tíng hoặc cây trông chông hạn hán mà cơ bản hơn về accs thể chế và sắp xép xã hội tốt hơn, như thị trường có hiệu quả và chính phủ có thẩm quyền .
28 The requirement for ingenuity yêu cầu đối với ingenuity
= A depends on many factors including climate.
phụ thuộc vào nhiều yếu tố trong đó có nhiệt độ
giải thích:
How much and what kinds of ingenuity a society requires depends on a range of factors, including the society’s goals and the circumstances within which it must achieve those goals – – whether it has a young population or an aging one, an abundance of natural resources or a scarcity of them, an easy climate or a punishing one, whatever the case may be.( đoạn B )
29 The creation of social wealth tạo ra của cải xã hội
= D also depends on the availability of some traditional resources.
cũng phụ thuộc vào sự tồn tại của nguồn truyền thống
giải thích:
We know that the creation of wealth, for example, depends not only on an adequate supply of useful ideas but also on the availability of other, more conventional factors of production, like capital and labor. ( câu 2 đoạn D )
Ví dụ, chúng ta biết việc tạo ra của cải không chỉ phụ thuộc vào nguồn cung cấp ý tưởng độc đáo đầy đủ mà còn vào sự có sẵn của các yếu tố khác, đơn giản hơn như vốn và lao động.
30 The stability of society sự ổn định của xã hội
= B depends on the management and solution of disputes.
phụ thuộc vào việc quản lý và giải quyết các tranh chấp
giải thích:
Similarly, prosperity, stability and justice usually depend on the resolution, or at least the containment, of major political struggles over wealth and power. ( câu 3 đoạn D )
Tương tự, sự thịnh vượng, ổn định và công bằng phụ thuộc vào việc giải quyết, hoặc ít nhất là sự ngăn chặn nền chính trị chính đấu tranh lại sự giàu có và quyền lực.
31 What does the author say about the incremental change of the last 100 years? (Tác giả đã nói gì về sự thay đổi dần dần của 100 năm trước)
= B Its significance is often not noticed. (Tâm quan trọng của nó thường không được chú ý đến )
giải thích:
Because these changes have accumulated slowly, it’s often hard for us to recognize how profound and sweeping they’re. ( câu 2 đoạn E )
Bởi vì những sự thay đổi này được tóm lại một cách chậm rãi, nên rất khó để chúng ta nhận ra chúng ta dao động và thâm thúy đến mức độ nào
32 The combination of changes has made a life: ( sự kết hợp của những thay đổi đã làm cho cuộc sống )
33 What does the author say about natural systems? ( Tác giả nói gì về hệ thống tự nhiên ? )
34 The demand for ingenuity has been growing during the past 100 years.
35 The ingenuity we have may be inappropriate for solving problems at hand.
36 There are very few who can understand the complex systems of the present world.
37 More information will help us to make better decisions.
38 The next generation will blame the current government for their conduct.
39 Science tends to develop faster in certain areas than others.
( Khoa học dường nhu phát triẻn hơn trong môt khu vực nhất định so với các ngành khác )
⇒ True
40 Social science develops especially slowly because it is not as important as natural science.
⇒ False
Progress in the social sciences is especially slow, for reasons we don’t yet understand; but we desperately need better social scientific knowledge to build the sophisticated institutions today’s world demands.
Qúa trình trong khoa học xã hội diễn ra rất chậm, chúng ta chưa biết được lí do, nhưng chúng ta hết hy vọng cần kiên sthức khoa học xã hội tốt hơn để xây đựng nên thể chế ngụy biện mà là nhu cầu thế giới ngày nay
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