新視野大學(xué)英語(yǔ)4unit1TextA

1、Love and logicI had my first date with Polly after I made the trade with my roommate Rob. That year every guy on campus had a leather jacket, and Rob couldn t stand the idea of being the only football player who didn t, so he made a pact that he d give me his girl in exchange for my jacket. He was n

2、 t the brightest guy. Polly wasn t too shrewd, either.But she was pretty, well-off, didn t dye her hair strange colors or wear too much makeup. She had the right background to be the girlfriend of a dogged, brilliant lawyer. If I could show the elite law firms I applied to that I had a radiant, well

3、-spoken counterpart by my side, I just might edge past the competition.“ Radiant” she was already. I could dispense her enough pearls of wisdom to make her “ well-spoken” .After a banner day out, I drove until we were situated under a big old oak tree on a hill off the expressway. What I had in mind

4、 was a little eccentric. I thought the venue with a perfect view of the luminous city would lighten the mood. We stayed in the car, and I turned down the stereo and took my foot off the brake pedal. “ What are we going to talk about?” she asked.“ Logic.”“ Cool,” she said over her gum.“ The doctrine

5、of logic,” I said, “ is a staple of clear thinking. Failures in logic distort the truth, and some of them are well known. First let s look at the fallacy Dicto Simpliciter.”“ Great,” she agreed.“ Dicto Simpliciter means an unqualified generalization. For example: Exercise is good. Therefore, everybo

6、dy should exercise”.She nodded in agreement.I could see she was stumped. “ Polly,” I explained, “ it s too simple a generalization. If you have, say, heart disease or extreme obesity, exercise is bad, not good. Therefore, you must say exercise is good for most people”.“ Next is Hasty Generalization.

7、 Self-explanatory, right? Listen carefully: You cant speak French. Rob can t speak French. Looks like nobody at this school can speak Frenc” h.“ Really?” said Polly, amazed. “ Nobody?”This is also a fallacy”, I said. “ The generalization is reached too hastily. Too few instancessupport such a conclu

8、sion.”She seemed to have a good time. I could safely say my plan was underway. I took her home and set a date for another conversation.Seated under the oak the next evening I said, “ Our first fallacy tonight is called Ad Misericordiam.”She nodded with delight.“ Listen closely”,I said. “ A man appli

9、es for a job. When the boss asks him what hisqualifications are, he says he has six children to feed”.“ Oh, this is awful, awful,” she whispered in a choked voice.“ Yes, it s awful,” I agreed, “ but it s no argument. The man never answered the boss s question. Instead he appealed to the boss s sympa

10、thy - Ad Misericordiam.”She blinked, still trying hard to keep back her tears.“ Next,” I said carefully, “ we will discuss False Analogy. An example, students should be allowed to look at their textbooks during exams, because surgeons have X-rays to guide them during surgery.”“ I like that idea,” sh

11、e said.“ Polly,” I groaned, “ don t derail the discussion. The inference is wrong. Doctors aren t taking a test to see how much they have learned, but students are. The situations are altogether different. You can t make an analogy between them. ”“ I still think it s a good idea,” said Polly.With fi

12、ve nights of diligent work, I actually made a logician out of Polly. She was an analytical thinker at last. The time had come for the conversion of our relationship from academic to romantic.“ Polly,” I said when next we sat under our oak, “ tonight we won t discuss fallacies”.“ Oh?” she said, a lit

13、tle disappointed.Favoring her with a grin, I said, “ We have now spent five evenings together. We get along pretty well. We make a pretty good couple.”“ Hasty Generalization”,said Polly brightly. “ Or as a normal person might say, that s a littlepremature, don t you think?”I laughed with amusement.

14、She d learned her lessons well, far surpassing my expectations.“ Sweetheart,” I said, patting her hand in a tolerant manner, “ five dates is plenty. After all, you don t have to eat a whole cake to know it s good.”“ False Analogy”, said Polly promptly. “ Your premise is that dating is like eating. B

15、ut you re not a cake. You re aboy.”I laughed with somewhat less amusement, hiding my dread that she d learned her lessons too well. A few more false steps would be my doom. I decided to change tactics and try flattery instead.“ Polly, I love you. Please say you ll go out with me. I m nothing without

16、 you. ”“ Ad Misericordiam,” she said.“ You certainly can discern a fallacy when you see i”t, I said, my hopes starting to crumble.“ But don t take them so literally. I mean this is all academic. You know the things you learn in school don t have anything to do with real life. ”“ Dicto Simpliciter,”

17、she said. “ Besides, you really should practice what you preach”.I leaped to my feet, my temper flaring up. “ Will you or will you not go out with me?”“ No to your proposition, ” she replied.“ Why?” I demanded.“I m more interested in a different petitioner - Rob and I are back together.With great effort, I said calmly, “ How could you give me the axe over Rob? Look at me, an ingenious student, a tremendous intellectual, a man with an assured future. Look at Rob, a muscular idiot, a guy who ll never know where his next meal is coming from. Can you give me one good re