Summary

The chapter begins from another well-known story of success. Joy Bill is a technologist. He set up the operating system on which millions of computers around the world run, wrote much of the software that allows people to access the Internet, confounded Sun Microsystems which was one of the most critical players in the computer revolution. Bill's prowess as a computer programmer establishes his guru status in the Valley and wins him many oft-told anecdotes. Though he denies some of the assertions, he is still regarded as Jesus in computer algorithm. His story seems a best example of how talent people stands out by themselves.

But Gladwell does not satisfy to the usual interpretations and tries to bring up another perspective by introducing a theory called 1,000-hour rule. A study done in the early 1990s by the psychologist K. Anders Ericsson and two colleagues at Berlin's elite Academy of Music shows the essence of making a world-class professional performers is the practicing time. In the early stage, the future professional performers works much harder than others in the academy. This distinguish gap of the practicing time increases when the two groups grow up. Eventually, the most hard-working group becomes professionals while other groups turns out to be music teachers or etc.

The study concludes a rule of thumb that is without 10,000-hour of deliberately working, no professionals can achieve their world-class status. A related study written by psychologist Michael Howe in his book Genius Explained indicates the rule is applicable to somebody eve as gifted as Mozart is. Gladwell thus argues since extra practice plays such an important role, a supported environment is necessary for the young prodigy. He said, You can't be poor, because if you have to hold down a part-time job on the side to help make ends meet,there won't be time left in the day to practice enough.

Accordingly, I guess, he implies Bill should have come from a wealthy or a supported family that gives him the freedom to be his own man. 

Writing notes

1 可以用bring up嗎?

我的原句是

But the author does not satisfy to the usual interpretation and tried to bring up another perspective by introducing a theory called 1,000-hour rule.

字典中bring up有put forward for consideration or discussion的意思，例如："bring up an unpleasant topic"。可以當作raise, mention來了解，所以這個用法應該沒問題。

2 可以用Through his total devotion嗎?

我的原句是

Through his total devotion in computer programming, he invented the Java language, a tool for web design.

原文中有些好的表達可以記憶：

○ But late in his freshman year, he stumbled acrossthe Computer Center-and he washooked.

○ There, he buried himself even deeper in the world of computer software.

3 過去完成式

過去完成式不可以單獨使用，需要有參照時點。例如The plane had taken off by the time I arrived at the airport.或是She tried to call my office, but there was no answer. I had got off work.

我或許可以寫，Joy Bill had shown talent in his early days.

4 可以用applies to嗎?

我的原句是

A further study indicates the rule applies to somebody as gifted as Mozart is.

字典定義 

apply to

This is the idiom to use when you are putting yourself forward as a candidate for something such as a course of study, or a job. You apply to graduate school. You apply to a company for employment. You apply to a bank’s loan department for a loan.

apply for

This is the expression to use if your intention is to obtain something. You apply for scholarship money. You apply for admission. You apply for a job.

建議用applicable，例如

○ This part of the law applicable to companies employing more than five people.

○The new qualifications are applicable to all European countries.

5 Be his own man

我的原句是

Bill should have come from a wealthy or a supported family that gives him the freedom tobe his own man.

to be in control of your life and not allow other people to tell you what to do: Nobody tells me how to live my life - I'm my own man.

進步要點

1. 排版上要學習，如何用反底色、項目符號，還讓版面更清晰。也可以考慮加圖片，讓文章更有趣。

2.今天採取的是先寫summary，在過程中反覆積累好的表達、確認文法及表達可用、補充背景知識。可以發現，我科技類知識不熟，所以summary中Bill的功績基本上是原文複製貼上。此外，我覺得還可以再想想，從總結中獲得更多。