上外泛读教材第4册之Unit_5

• 2) Competitiveness for self-grading. Individuals partake of this type of competitiveness for the sake of determining how good they are at some activity. For example, chess players try to win in a chess tournament to see how good they are at chess. There is nothing controversial in this type of competitiveness, but it doesn’t figure prominently in the picture we’re considering.
Fra Baidu bibliotek
pre-reading discussion
How competitive do you think you are? How do you feel about competition? How did you feel about success and failure? Is competition necessary in this world? What negative effects can you think of that competition can bring about?
Distinctions and classifications
• In the course of discussion, we found we had to distinguish among various types of competition and competitiveness: • Competitiveness vs. desire for achievement per se. • An individual can desire to achieve something worthwhile – to produce great art, for example – without being competitive, and insofar as an individual merely strives for achievement, he/she is of no concern to our discussion. Unfortunately, what begins as desire for achievement often veers toward competitiveness.
• The rationale for the discussions was a concern that in some areas of American life, competition is out of control – for example, in the reported attempts by parents to get their children in the best schools from pre-kindergarten on; in frantic attempts by many high school graduates to get into so-called elite colleges; in the belittling of some groups of high school students which, we are told, resulted in the recent rash of school shootings; in the aggressiveness displayed by some parents toward their children’s’ athletic contests – symbolized in the extreme by a father’s killing a hockey referee for making an unfavorable call. • The discussions aimed to answer these questions: Why is there so much competitiveness in American life? When are competition and competitiveness good, and when are they bad? How can we reduce the bad?
Competition in America
• Competition was defined as a system or situation that involves one person or organization (or group or product) being rewarded on the basis of being judged superior to another according to some standard. Competition is distinguished from achievement of excellence, considered by itself, in that it involves unfavorable comparisons. • Competitiveness is the corresponding attitude of individuals, consisting of their striving to win out in competitive situations. This concept, competitiveness, took center stage in the discussions for it was the seemingly excessive attitudes of individuals, rather than the existence of competition itself, that we were most concerned with.
Motivation or Unhealthy Experience (Competition)
Unit 5
Interpretation of Quotations
a. Just as sugar destroys teeth, competition destroys self-esteem. b. Competition is of limited use, but cooperation is what is much needed in today’s world as it can achieve what competition cannot. c. Competition is a double-edged sword; it can be very exciting and beneficial, but it can also be extremely harmful. What makes it harmful is the outside pressure, which may come from a coach, a school, a ski club, or a country.
• As a result, species less suited to compete for the resources must either adapt or die out. According to evolutionary theory, this competition within and between species for resources plays a critical role in natural selection. For example, a smaller tree will receive less sunlight than an adjacent tree which is larger than it in a rainforest. The larger tree is competing with the smaller one for the same sunlight. While competition has been observed between individuals, populations and species, there is little evidence that competition has been the driving force in the evolution of large groups. For example, between amphibians, reptiles, and mammals
• Competition/competitiveness classified according to the type of motivation: • 1) Utilitarian competitiveness. This consists in being competitive for the sake of achieving some pre-existing goal other than simply winning out over the other guy. Competition in business life is the most obvious example. Individuals compete with other individuals to get business from a customer, to get a job, etc. The goal, normally, is to earn money. This is a pre-existing goal which pervades our life and is distinct from merely trying to win out in the contest. There is no difficulty in understanding this form of competitiveness, and within the proper bounds it is desirable.
Competition in Biology and Ecology
• Competition within and between species is an important topic in biology, specifically in the field of ecology. Competition between members of a species ("intraspecific") is the driving force behind evolution and natural selection; the competition for resources such as food, water, territory, and sunlight results in the ultimate survival and dominance of the variant of the species best suited for survival. Competition is also present between species ("interspecific"). A limited amount of resources are available, and several species may depend on these resources. Thus, each of the species competes with the others to gain access to the resources.