Peak Chapter 8 1/2

Chapter8 But about natural talent?

Words

1.give way

Violin strings in those days-two centuries ago-were made from the intestines of sheep and more likely to give way than today's strings.

释义：if something gives way, it breaks or falls down because there is too much weight or pressure on it同义： to collapse or fall
此外还有让行的意思，交通指示牌上经常可以见到
例：The bridge threatened to give way as the flood waters rose.

2.prodigy[ˈprɒdədʒi]

One of the major reasons that people believe in the power of innate talent is the apparent existence of natural prodigies.

释义：a young person who has a great natural ability in a subject or skill ⇨ genius这一章反复出现多次 child/infant prodigy神童
例：Mozart was a musical prodigy.

3.clear

Thomas, wearing his basketball shorts and shoes, cleared it easily.

释义：to go over a fence, wall etc without touching it, or to go past or through something and no longer be in it:
例：The plane barely cleared the fence at the end of the runway.

4.challenged

What makes these abilities particularly noteworthy is that most of these savants are otherwise mentally challenged in one way or another.

visually/physically/mentally etc challenged American English used as a polite expression for describing someone who has difficulty doing things because they are blind etc
残疾的委婉说法。在某方面被挑战了，但是失败了。terms like 'vertically-challenged' — meaning short...

5.breeze

It's natural to assume that those differences will persist-that the same people who did so well in the begining will continue to breeze through later on.

释义：breeze through something phrasal verb
  to achieve something very easily SYN  sail through:
  例：He breezed through the exam.

born with natural endowments
coax the beautifu melody out of just two strings 摆弄

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Thoughts

People do not stop learning and improving because they have reached some innate limits on their performance; they stop learning and improving because, for whatever reasons, they stopped practicing-or never started.

如果有人在某方面特别有成就，比如杰伦，那他一定会被贴上“有天分”的标签。今天的内容作者分析了一系列“天才”，比如人们都认为是神童的莫扎特。但是作者的研究却揭示出，这些神童无非也是因为刻意练习才达到这些成就的。我们总是容易忽视他人的努力，而将这些努力归功于天分。其实这只是我们懒惰的借口而已。实际上没有人能随随便便成功。

记得Dr魏在有关儿童教育的专栏里提到如何表扬孩子。通常情况下，我们听到的表扬都是：“你太棒了，真是聪明！”总之，夸孩子聪明是经常挂在嘴边的。而正确的夸奖应该是：“你做的真好，这都是你一直练习努力的结果。”因为聪明是无法后天改变的，而努力的练习却是可以自己掌控并产生积极影响的。

这也是mindset一书的核心，growth-mind 和fixed-mind的区别。