Beyond Feelings-Introduction:
Beyond Feelings is designed to introduce you to the subject of critical thinking. The subject is undubtely to you. Because it is not taught in most elementary and secondary schools. In fact, until fairly recently it was not taught in most colleges. During the 1960s and much of the 1970s the emphasis was more on subjectivity than objectivity, more on feeling than on thought.
Over the past ten years, however, a number of studies of America's schools have criticized the neglect of critical think, and a growing number of educators and leaders in business, industry, and the professions have urged the development of new courses and teaching materials to overcome that neglect.
It is no exaggeration to say that critical thinking is one of the most important subjects you will study in college regardless of your acadamic major. The quality of your schoolwork, your efforts in your career, your contributions to community life, and your conduct of personal affairs will all depend on your ability to solve problems and make decisions.
The book has four main sections. The first, "The Context," will help you to understand such important concepts as individuality, thinking, truth, knowledge, and opinion and to overcome attitudes and ideas that obstruct critical thinking. The second section, "The Problems", will teach you to recognize and avoid nine common errors that often occur, singly or in combination, during the thinking process. The third section, "A Strategy" will help you acquire the various skills used in addressing problems and issues. This section includes tips on identifying and overcoming you personal intellectual weaknesses，as well as techniques for becoming more observant, clarifying issues and conducting inquiry, interpreting evidence, analyzing other people's views, and making sound judgements.
At the end of chapter you will find a number of applications to challenge your critical thinking and provide exercise for your skills. These applications cover problems and issues both timely and timeless. The fourth section of the book, "Some Contemporary Issues," presents additional important issues that continue to occupy the attention of the best thinkers of our time.
In brief, Beyond Feelings is designed to help you acquire the intellectual skills necessary to solve the exciting problems of today and tomorrow.
生词短语：
until fairly recently 直到最近
regardless of 不管；不顾
community life 社区生活
your conduct of personal affairs 你处理个人事务的方式
singly or in combination 单独或组合
identifying and overcoming you personal intellectual weaknesses 发现并克服你个人智力上的弱点
observant 善于观察的；机警的
interpreting evidence 对证据的解释
conducting inquiry 探究
making sound judgement 做出合理的判断
Contemporary 当代的
intellectual skills 知识技能（智慧技能）
Who are you?
Suppose someone asked, "Who are you?" it would be simple enough to response your name. But if the person wanted to know the whole story about who you are, it would be more difficult to answer. You'd obviously have to give the details of your height and age and weight. You'd also have to include all your sentiments and preferences, even the secret ones you'd never shared with anyone - your affection for your parents; your desire to please the crowd you associate with; your dislike of your older sisiter's husband; your allegiance to Budweiser beer, the Ford Motor Company, the Denver Broncos, Calvin Klein jeans, and Bruce Springsteen.
Your attitudes couldn't be overlooked either, the impatience you have when an issue gets complex, your aversion to English courses, your rejection of communism, your fear of high places and dogs and speaking in public. The list would go on. To be complete, it would have to include all your characteristics - not only the physical but the emotional and intellectural as well.
To provide all that information would be quite chore. But suppose the questioner was still curious, and now asked, "How did you get the way you are?" if your patience were not yet exhausted, chances are you'd answer something like this: "I am that way because I choose to be, because I've considered other sentiments and preferences and attitudes and made my selection. The ones I chose fit my style and personality best." That answer is a natural enough one, and in part it's ture. But in a larger sense it's not ture. The impact of the world on all of us is much greater than we usually realize.
INFLUENCES ON IDENTIFY
You are not only a member of a particular species, Homo sapiens, but you exist at a particular moment in the history of the species. Being a young adult today is quite different from being a young adult in 1500 or 10,000 B.C. The world's state of progress differs, and likewise its knowledge and beliefs and values. The opportunities for learning and working and relaxing are not the same. So people's daily thoughts and actions vary.
Variations in place and circumastance also can make a difference. If you are from a large city, the odds are you look at many things differently from someone in the country. A person raised for eighteen years in New York City or Los Angeles who goes to college in a town of 3000 will find the experience difficult. So will a person raised on an isolated farm. But probably for opposite reasons!
If you are an American sports enthusiast, you're probably interested in football, basketball, or baseball. But if you were Chinese, you'd be much more familiar with and excited about ping-pong, and if you were European, soccer. If your father is an automobile machanic, you undoubtedly know more about cars than does the average person. If your mother is a teacher, you'll tend have a somewhat different perspective on school and teachers than do other students.
In much the same way, all the details about your family very likely have some bearing on who you are. Their religion, race, national origin, political affiliation, economic level, attitutes towards one another, all have some contribution to your identity.
生词短语：
sentiment 感情；情绪；情操；观点
the crowd 人群
allegience 效忠；忠诚；忠贞
Budweiser beer 百威啤酒
Denver Broncos 丹弗野马队（美式橄榄球的一个球队）
Bruce Springsteen （男歌手）布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀
overlooked 被忽视的；忽略；不理会；宽恕
aversion 讨厌，反感，讨厌的人
in a larger sense 更广泛的意义
Homo Sapiens 智人（现代人的学名）；人类
the odds 可能性；机会
somewhat 有点；稍微；几分
perspective 观点；视角；透视图；远景
very likely 很有可能
bearing 关系
political affiliation 政治背景；政治立场